What are you reading in 2016?

[Paul]

Having read Lois on the Loose: One Woman, One Motorcycle, 20,000 Miles Across the Americas a week or so ago about a lady on a motorbike traveling from Anchorage to Ushuaia in Argentina, i am now reading The Man Who Cycled the Americas where Mark Beaumont cycles the same route.

[Sophie]

I've just started Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Let the Right One In was brilliant so I'm hoping this follows suit

[Jackie]

I'm starting A Game for All the Family by Sophie Hannah today.

[Paul]

Just starting The Backpacker by John Harris and hoping to get to The Travelers later today too.

[Marina]

Paul wrote: "Just starting The Backpacker by John Harris and hoping to get to The Travelers later today too."

Paul, you'll have to tell me how you like The Travelers. I read Chris Pavone's The Expats some years ago as a group read in a real-life book club, just because we were based in Luxembourg and the book is set there. But I didn't like it at all, so I'm curious to know if this other book is any better.

[Paul]

This is the first of his I have read Marina

[Paul]

Starting Bill Oddie Unplucked: Columns, Blogs and Musings and The Hills Of Adonis by Colin Thubron today.

[Wendy]

Just started Tigers In Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann enjoying it so far

[Jackie]

I liked that book, Wendy.

I've started Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little. Yet another book with a Gone Girl comparison sticker on the cover! I'm enjoying the book so far.

[Kirsty]

I've just started Watership Down for the very first time, another book that I passed over as a child.

[Paul]

Just starting Knowledge Is Beautiful: A Visual Miscellaneum of Compelling Information and Invisible: The History of the Unseen from Plato to Particle Physics

[Joy]

I'm reading Cocaine Nights, but finding it a bit tedious,so not sure whether to continue.

[Jackie]

I'm going to, finally, start reading A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson today. She's one of my favourite authors so am looking forward to it!

[Paul]

People seem to be making a lot of positive noises about it Meredith

[Paul]

This weekends reading will include The Hunt by Alastair Fothergill and A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor

[Pamela]

Am about halfway through A Year in Marrakesh. The author lived there in the 1950s and it's mainly about the people he meets and his experiences, often quite funny.

[Toyah]

Currently reading Animal Farm. Also The Quiet American which I have nearly finished. And I keep going back to Around the World in 80 Days for occasional light relief

[Ruby]

Toyah wrote: "Currently reading Animal Farm. Also The Quiet American which I have nearly finished. And I keep going back to Around the World in 80 Days for occasional light relief"

I read Animal Farm earlier this year. How are you finding it?

[Tytti]

I read Animal Farm last year and thought it was pretty good but because it followed history relatively closely, I sort of knew what was going to happen. It probably would have felt better if I didn't. It was less "shocking" than real history.

[Paul]

Just starting The Weather Experiment: The Pioneers who Sought to see the Future today.

[Kirsty]

Toyah, Tytti - have you read any other Orwell books? I ask because I find his non-fiction to be more compelling than his fiction (although I really like both!) and Down and Out in Paris and London is one of my all-time favourite books. His essays are well worth looking out for as well.

[Jan]

Just starting "My Ántonia" by Willa Cather on a recommendation by someone in this group. Really enjoying it so far. Her prose kind of makes me think of Nebraska: a kind of stark beauty. Also reading "Trauma and Recovery" by Judith Lewis Hermann.
Thanks, Kristy for the suggestion of Orwell's non-fiction

[Paul]

Down and Out in Paris and London is well worth reading Jan

[Tytti]

Kirsty wrote: "Toyah, Tytti - have you read any other Orwell books?"

No, I am not really even aware of his nonfiction. I have to admit that I don't quite agree with his politics, at that time we had already fought one war against the bolsheviks/communists/whatever (which they had started by overthrowing the legal government and executing innocent people)...

[Kirsty]

Tytti wrote: "Kirsty wrote: "Toyah, Tytti - have you read any other Orwell books?"

No, I am not really even aware of his nonfiction. I have to admit that I don't quite agree with his politics, at that time we h..."

Hmm. I'd say that Orwell was a socialist, not a communist (but aware that the word has v different connotations depending where you are in the world). To me Animal Farm was always about how power breeds corruption. And you can't doubt Orwell's patriotism given his actions in WW2 where he wholeheartedly supported the war effort, but remained critical of Stalinism even when USSR was allied to UK/US.

I'd definitely recommend 'Down and Out', regardless of where you stand politically!

[Jan]

I'm with Tytti. Socialism is to Communism as Lite Beer is to Beer. Socialism requires central control and, as Freidrich Hayek pointed out, central control is incompatible with individual liberty. It's like being only "a little bit pregnant."

[Tytti]

Kirsty wrote: "I'd say that Orwell was a socialist, not a communist..."

I'm not quite sure what is the difference and how they were seen at the time. They were called bolsheviks (or Reds) in 1918, during our war (in a country where all men and women over 24 had had the right to vote since 1906).

Kirsty wrote: "And you can't doubt Orwell's patriotism given his actions in WW2 where he wholeheartedly supported the war effort, but remained critical of Stalinism even when USSR was allied to UK/US."

Well, speaking as a Finn we were at war against both the Soviet Union AND UK (Churchill had declared war), because we were not really interested in becoming a part of a socialist country. We had seen what had happened to ethnic Finns in the USSR in the 1930's and later for example to Estonians after the Baltic countries had been annexed in 1940, so... Remember this is a country where also Jewish soldiers and officers fought against the Allies. They even had a field synagogue at the front, close to the German troops stationed in the same area. So our view of WWII is slightly different than most of the world's because we were the first country that the USSR wanted to "liberate" from "fascists" in 1939. Even our working class disagreed.

[Paul]

It all sounds horrendous Tytti.

Just started For the Love of Radio 4 An Unofficial Companion about that national institution that is Radio 4.

[Tytti]

Paul wrote: "It all sounds horrendous Tytti."

Yeah, it's not really an ideal situation if your only choice is to have either the Soviets or Germans in your country. Granted the actual choice was easy because the Soviets were out of the question. But not being occupied also gave some leverage when dealing with the Germans, even if we relied on them for pretty much everything, starting with food and materiel. In March 1942 Finland was three weeks from famine, there was no more food left in the whole country. But there had already been a famine (more or less) in Ingria (the Finnish speaking area around Leningrad) after the forced collectivisation had started in 1928, so socialism wasn't really popular, either.

But I do recommend Unknown Soldiers. It's a... well, it's a good book, realistic but with humour.

[Jackie]

Going to start reading Tag by Stephen May later today.

[Sophie]

I've just started Gone Girl. Thought it was about time I saw what all the fuss was about...

[Paul]

Good luck!

[Tracey]

I'm reading Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami a foreshadowing of what was to come from this literary master. :)

[Paul]

Aiming to read:
Cold Blood: Adventures with Reptiles and Amphibians
No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life
Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
in the next week.

[Sandy]

Wow!

[Jan]

What Sandy said.

[Paul]

Two of them are fairly short, which helps.

[Tracey]

Starting Me before you by Jojo Moyes eeekk ! Chick lit !

[Jackie]

Starting Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbes today. Haven't heard of her before, let alone read anything by her. Fingers x'd.

[Kirsty]

I've just started on Margaret Atwood's 'Robber Bride' - love her prose and enjoying the sharp-witted characterisation so far.

[Wendy]

I started Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom a few days ago. I'm about 100 pages in and already resent having to put it down to do anything. Think this is going to be a good one for me and I can't believe that I have let it gather dust for 5 years...well if the receipt I found inside is anything to go by!

[Tytti]

I won "Winter in Madrid" in a library quiz some years ago. My copy has thin pages so it looks shorter than it is! And it does have 650 pages, so I will think about starting it a bit more carefully.

[Joy]

Wendy wrote: "I started Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom a few days ago. I'm about 100 pages in and already resent having to put it down to do anything. Think this is going to be a go..."

Looks good. I'll look out for it at the library.

[Noorilhuda]

just finished End of the Past and just started A Widow for One Year

[Ruby]

Just picked up "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"
Two reasons I picked it: my dad enjoys the story (I don't know if he has read the book though) and this edition is physically smaller so I am taking it traveling this weekend.

[Patricia]

I'm currently reading A Heart Like His and The Viper of Milan for the Book Hunters challenge. I seem to be getting my hands on more books for that challenge and the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge that my daughter got me into. I'm on waiting lists for my Book Viper books. I also joined a one-a-month, in-person Book-to-Movie book club in my home town! And I just discovered the Kindle First thing for a free book each month! No shortage of books to read!

[Jackie]

I'm about to start reading The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley. Apparently it won a Costa award last year, not sure what for though!

[Paul]

Change of plan. Managed two of the four I had started, and now have a publication deadline to review a few books for; starting with The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District

[Chantal]

Just started In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. :)

[Paul]

Just starting
Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide by Charles Foster
The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy by Michael McCarthy