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"I read a book once - Green it was"
I think, Suzy, that you have to be prepared to consider the recipes in conjunction with the instructions - you really only get the depth and flavour once you've anticipated the pleasure of a microwaved rice pudding or a ready meal!
Ahhh? - I haven't got around to reading through that Chapter yet?! ;o>
val - about 1/3 thru' 'shuggie bain', and i would tell you to go for it. the dismal subject matters are beautifully outlined and the prose is quite delicate (out of kilter with the contents, but very suitably so!). it doesn't, however, have the rawness of a kelman - i'm thinking of the comparable 'kieron smith, boy' (also centred on a child growing up in povertyville, scotland), and would have to say kelman's is a better book, but this is pretty aspirational in the right direction. yeah, knock y'sel oot!
'shuggie bain' tanned. can i see why it won the booker? yes, it's very well written, an accurate picture of the times, but, no, it's no kelman! to my mind, the book should have been titled 'agnes bain', because the mother and her drink issues are the central issues, i don't think the book quite gets under shuggie's skin, could have done with more of what he was thinking. but hey - good book, especially considering it's a debut.
Thanks for the review Tech. Given that the most recent Booker winner I've read is The Blind Assassin (2000), though, it might be 20 years before I get around to Shuggie Bain.And autocorrect keeps changing it to snuggle gain.
"snuggle gain"a mark on the bedpost of a serial philanderer?
Tech - you might like 'The Young Team' by Graeme Armstrong. I got it as a xmas present, and I'm just about to start it. Sounds promising from this review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/202....
i've had a look (in a shop!!!!!), and, you know me, i'm on the hunt for a cheap copy.a short decent read was Poe: Stories and Poems: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, but it brought up a reminder (that i'm sure i had forgotten) that edgar allan poe received about a year's schooling in kilmarnock, when a boy - there is a blue heritage plaque in grange street (near where the buroo is now, marking the site of the house he lived in at the time.
I didn't know that about Edgar Allan Poe - what on earth was he doing in Kilmarnock?
the ones i looked up were far too dull to post, so thanks for finding the interesting piece.anyhoo, it's obviously where he got the inspiration for his grimmest, darkest tales.
there is a poor image of the plaque on the images page for 'edgar allan poe kilmarnock'
Tech XXIII wrote: "val - about 1/3 thru' 'shuggie bain', and i would tell you to go for it. the dismal subject matters are beautifully outlined and the prose is quite delicate (out of kilter with the contents, but ve..."Thanks for the update Tech. I've bumped Shuggie up to next-in-line. Maybe this will break my drought with liking or even attempting Booker winners , although my current book is from the 2013 Short List (see below). I've recently been reading some books about southern Africa, both historic and present day. I've mentioned before that I grew up in what was Southern Rhodesia, then Rhodesia and now Zimbabwe - very contentious because of its white minority government that fought against any participation by the indigenous population. I thought I would like to revisit that period to see how my experience compared with that of with that of others so I started with three books by Alexandra Fuller:
- Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood which I enjoyed very much because she was able to revive her 6 - 14 year old self and really show us what the child's viewpoint was. The writing was excellent - so vivid - and even though she is twenty years younger than me and her experience was dramatically different to mine, I still recognised the people (of all races), the country and the atmosphere. The book's title also led me to buy She-Shanties, a collection of poems by A.P. Herbert, a man I've admired since falling in love with The Water Gipsies forty-five years ago.
- Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness was also interesting because it filled in the back story of Fuller’s mother’s life growing up in Britain, Kenya, Rhodesia and Zambia.
- Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier – at this point I lost all interest in her. For a start, the "African Soldier" was an old-school white Rhodesian, a born-again Christian living in Zambia. He and Fuller travelled back to Mocambique to try and understand what the war against "terrorism" meant to a government soldier. What should have been an interesting premise revealed little except a few old Rhodies living in the past and crying into their beer every night. The trip never even got started till more than halfway through the book. And given the amount of alcohol consumed and cigarettes smoked by all parties, I didn’t know who I disliked more by the end of it. It read like a thin idea of a story that Fuller had got an advance for and now she had to pad the story out. And the excess of hyphenated descriptors! The sun was "rain-washed", the scrub was "goat-dusted" and I’m not sure how days become "brandy-and-coke smelling". I think my writing in Form 4 was equally florid – I hope I’ve improved. I much prefer this description of Africa’s heat – ".. the sun keeps ironing us and ironing us and ironing us" from my current book (see below).
I then took a break from Africa (though I will come back to it with two books by Peter Godwin waiting in my pile – When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa and Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa). I turned to Swedish writer Fredrik Backman’s latest – Anxious People - for some light relief. I have read all his books and he is someone I will always be open to reading even if I find his appeal rises and falls from title to title. A Man Called Ove was a sweet delight (and the film is a terrific adaptation). I loved Beartown. I read it as a book about parenting – fathers and daughters, mothers and sons. Accordingly, I bought copies for each of my three children who all now have children of their own. All three found it a bit "meh". I think they saw it as a book about ice-hockey. Anyway, "Anxious People" is supposed to be a bit lighter, more comedic – at least I think that’s the intention. I found it irritating. At the start, the characters have no names – they are the agent, the psychologist, the bank robber, etc. The two police officers, Jim & Jack, are the exceptions to the rule. Gradually, names are introduced. Then, halfway through, there is a major reveal which had me questioning all the assumptions I had made to that point. A smarter reader than myself might have picked up on this quicker but I had to go back over the first 200 pages to re-assess the characters and their actions. In typical Backman style, all the threads come together for a very neat ending but I could only recommend it for a beach read at best.
So now to my current title. The best book I read in 2019 was The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell – a debut novel by a Zambian writer. I loved it because it was totally unlike anything I had read before. Part colonial history, part multi-generational family saga, part fantasy, part comedy, part sci-fi, part fairy story, part allegory – it encompassed all these genres, with an intriguing Greek chorus. So that sent me searching for some recent fiction out of Africa and I found We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. I am only a quarter of the way through it, but so far, so good. It is well written and the urban Zimbabwean setting is convincing. I will report back when finished and then it’s on to the 430 page, mini doorstop, "Shuggie Bain". I am heartened by your assessment.
nae bother, val, i think you'll appreciate the book, and the 'histories' and procedures of the times described.now, for a change of pace - Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing: Life, Death and the Thrill of the Catch - very gentle, and considering the authors, at times very funny , and equally sad at others - two long-time friends after life threatening heart issues.............go fishing - as smashy would say, 'nice'. the technical advice drags a bit, but then, i've no intention of ever going fishing!
Crash: The Collector’s Edition - a real 'fender bender', actually, a group of fender benders chasing the orgasm of the crash. slick, stylish and written to shock.jnr sent over There's Only One Danny Garvey, which he thought i'd go for, and it looks like i would.
The latter looks like another to add to my pile.
In preparation for watching the new adaptation of "The Stand", I finally got around to reading Stephen King's classic for the first time. At 1300+ pages, it was a long slog but well worth it. What a fantastic set of characters. I was so impressed, I wrote a detailed review on my blog:-https://monkeyarkwright.wordpress.com...
you did so, nice piece.my mum was such a fan of stephen king (must be 40-50 mostly hardcover volumes sitting unloved up the road), and tho' delighted when i bought her the unabridged version of the above, she could hardly lift the bloody thing!
Cheers, Tech. Your Mum has good taste. Are you not SK fan?I’ve only read a handful of his books, but they are all pretty good IMO
'The Stand' is my favourite, though I've nowhere near read them all. Do you know his Richard Bachman books? They're really good, specially 'The Running Man', also a good film.
I know he wrote a few books under the name Richard Bachman."The Running Man" is a good film, haven't seen it for years. It'd probably fit quite nicely on ITV2 or E4 as a reality show these days.
"Are you not SK fan?"no really, read 'firestarter' about 40 years ago. kinda liked it, never went back!
Ahem... Obligatory McCammon fan boy interjection. Stand sucks!
There's Only One Danny Garveyyup, i'd say stick it on your list, val - coming without the fanfare of 'shuggie bain', this is a quite superb book about the management of a fictional ayrshire junior team and the surrounding human issues that brought danny garvey to return to the village of barshaw to lead the team (he was responsible in the past for the highest point in their history, and one of the lowest - the lowest of all took place at the end of the season before he took over, and is hysterically funny, ridiculous, but entirely believable), whilst dealing with dark elements of his past. a knowledge of the mechanics of junior football is not at all necessary to enjoy this.
also mentions the night the pogues played killie grand hall - the very same night i met elvis costello in the bogs - have i ever mentioned this before?
Thanks Tech. I ordered a copy from ABE about a week ago so it will wend its way to me eventually. I finished We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (shortlisted in 2013 for the Booker) and enjoyed it very much. The first half is set in Zimbabwe under Mugabe (although neither he nor the country are named) in the 1990s and the second half is the migrant experience (in particular, illegal migrants) in America. Excellent writing and some very moving passages; much of it could apply to any person or people fleeing their homeland and trying to make a life in a foreign, often unwelcoming, environment. The end was a bit undetermined but it fit the bill. I hope she writes more.I'm only 20 pages into Shuggie but all good so far.
Anyone read Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan?
finished '...danny garvey'. nothing short of magnificent!the ending will kill you - it killed me!
i enjoyed 'shuggie bain', it's a very good book, but this is better!
The Unburied Dead: DS Hutton Book 1the first 'douglas lindsay' that i've read that isn't a 'barney thompson', and found it's a good murder/police thriller - he has written a fair amount of them - this is the first in a series of (soon to be) 6 books featuring d.s. hutton and his colleagues - the kindle versions retail at an average of £1,99, so i think i'll read further.
now onto a biography on the gang of four,
Gang Of Four - Damaged Gods
came across by chance, rapidly delivered (not damaged goods), looking forward to an account filled with friction and in-fighting, reformations and duff albums, as well as the goings on behind the first three, virtually perfect, records.
.....and that's virtually what it was. engaging but fairly heavy on the in-fighting/bitching elements, kinda light on anecdotal content. falls short of 'what we all want'!my heavy conscience has led me to,
Simply Devine: The Sydney Devine Story, which, to my surprise, has no ratings/reviews at all on here. will probably remedy that........it's the least i can do!
well, i can also over-compensate (guilt will make you desperate to).did you know that in 1975 sydney was the first u.k. artist to be awarded a gold cassette for sales?
how many of your fancy dan proggies got one a' them?
Tech XXIII wrote: "well, i can also over-compensate (guilt will make you desperate to).did you know that in 1975 sydney was the first u.k. artist to be awarded a gold cassette for sales?
how many of your fancy dan..."
I'm so glad you're belatedly coming to appreciate the genius of Sydney Devine!
I'm well over halfway through Shuggie Bain but I can feel myself getting somewhat bogged down in Pithead. I can see why it won the Booker because it is written so effortlessly and, in that way, it is an easy read. But.... it is also a hard read, because you know things aren't necessarily going to get any better. I think the characters are very deftly drawn, even the ones who are supporting players - Lizzie, Catherine, Leek. I just want to get out of Pithead and see Shuggie making his own way. (Be careful what you wish for!)
Danny Garvey is here but I think I'll need something light after Shuggie. I've been lent six very different books which will need to be returned to their owners so it might be "Me, Elton" up next. I'm not over keen on autobiographies; I did enjoy Philip Norman's biography of Elton some years back.
Has anyone here read ... The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein ... ? I was drawn to it a couple of years ago now for several reasons ... one of them being that it is a quite remarkable yet also a truthful autobiographical account of growing up right here on the narrow cobble-stoned Streets of Stockport in the early 1900's ... and another being that one of the Sisters of my Dad's Dad also risked the terrible wrath of her own abusive alcoholic Father by falling in love with and then running away to marry a Jewish boy who lived in a House on the opposite side of their Street in Stockport ;o>
Val, in particular, might possibly also be quite interested in Harry's second Book ... The Dream: A Memoir ... which goes on to detail his family’s move to the United States when he was 12 years old ;o>
Ooh, thanks Suzy. Those sound very much up my street. I do like personal memoirs of long-gone eras. I shall go do a bit of detecting.....
Bought a brand new paperback off Zon for under 5 quid! Now to find an equally cheap copy of the sequel. Heaven knows when I'll get to read them - my pile is mountainous!
Ahhh, so I'd better not tell you that there is a third Book then ... The Golden Willow: The Story of a Lifetime of Love ... Ooops!!! ;o>There was supposed to be a fourth Book ... 'What Happened To Rose' ... that was going to be published posthumously in 2012 - but I've been on the lookout for over two years now and still haven't managed to find any English copies of it anywhere yet.
Well the third book is too dear for me and, as you say, the fourth book almost seems to be a myth as it can't be found anywhere. Zon tells me "The Invisible Wall" will be delivered tomorrow!
The fourth Book was published in Italy ... in Italian ;o> ... in around 2012 but it doesn't seem to have ever been published in English? I'm not sure why but it's a shame being as it was the last Book that he only just managed to get finished with the help of another Writer before he died. It was retitled in Italy as ... La sognatrice bugiarda
If I was any good at all at learning any other Languages then I just might have considered it, Tim ;o>
a halfway report on the sydney book reveals a cracking read - sex and drugs and booze and rock 'n' roll and the sensational alex harvey - all tales related honestly and with a great measure of humour.
it kinda petered out toward the end, but decent altogether.now started on Squeeze Me. had been waiting for kindle edition to drop from a tenner - now at £2.39. hiaasen has a go at trumpy, via ecological crime and the return (again) of perhaps his most famous character, skink.
and, yay! a new murakami on 6th april - a collection of 8 short pieces - does short and epic equally well.amazon.co.uk/First-Person-Singular-Ha...
I finished Shuggie Bain and very good it was too. Once we got out of Pithead, the story fairly rattled on to its conclusion. Talk about lives of quiet desperation! I don't know much about the author's background but I'm assuming from a few clues that it is very much based on personal experience. So it will be interesting to see where he goes next. He can definitely write.I'm now onto Me by Elton John and so far, so good. I'm assuming he has written it all himself(?) and if so, he has a good memory and a winning way with an anecdote. I hope it continues in the same vein and doesn't go the way of many other rock autobiographies where the interesting part is the pre-fame years, and after that, it's all downhill.
Wiki says the Elton John was ghost-written by a journalist.
Released on the 18th of March ... Many Different Kinds of Love: A story of Life, Death and the NHSI am not sure if I am ready, at this point in time, to be up for reading this yet? - but I've just added it to my List of Books To Read as I'm a huge fan of Michael Rosen and I am sure that this Book is going to be something beautiful - remarkable and profound.
Add me to the list of Michael Rosen fans. Have you read Michael Rosen's Sad Book? - have the tissues ready. Or his poem about the lost dog, Reuben Ranzo?
Read and loved his Sad Book - but I can't recall ever reading the lost dog Poem, Val so I shall have to go and see if I can look that one up ;o>
It took me ages to track it down online but I've kept a copy in my "Quotes" file:Today Was Not by Michael Rosen
Today was not
very warm
not very cold
not very dry
not very wet.
No one round here
went to the moon
or launched a ship
or danced in the street,
No one won a great race
or a big fight.
The crowds weren't out
the bands didn't play.
There were no flags no songs
no cakes no drums.
I didn't see any processions.
No one gave a speech.
Everyone thought today was ordinary,
busy busy
in out in
hum drummer day
dinner hurry
grind away day.
Nobody knows that today
was the most special day
that has ever ever been.
Ranzo, Reuben Ranzo,
who a week and a year ago was gone
lost
straying starving
under a bus? in the canal?
(the fireman didn't know)
was here, back,
sitting on the step
with his old tongue lolling,
his old eyes blinking.
I tell you--
I was so happy
So happy I tell you
I could have grown a tail--
and wagged it.
Awww, I love it, Val - thank you so much for looking it up for me as I couldn't find it when I was trying to using Google earlier."I tell you --
I was so happy
So happy I tell you
I could have grown a tail --
and wagged it"
Fantastic! ... ;o>
Glad you liked it Suzy.I have finished Me by Elton John and enjoyed it very much. It's a real romp, nice and gossipy without being nasty. Elton's two years older than me so we fit in the same timeline. I enjoyed his stories about Long John Baldry, and his friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga and more. He's fallen out with everybody - but he mostly manages to make up. He doesn't try to excuse himself.
Now on to another memoir. It's over 20 years old but I did tell you my "to read" pile is huge. I get there eventually. It's Bad Blood by Lorna Sage which comes with glowing reviews from Claire Tomalin, Margaret Drabble, Clive James, Doris Lessing, Margaret Forster, Hilary Mantel, etc. It's an unsentimental account of her 1950s upbringing in rural Wales (Flintshire) which sounds as though not much had changed since the 1920s. Only four chapters in but I think it's my kind of book.
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I have learnt how to set up the Clock on the new Microwave now? ... so I'm feeling in quite a generous Mood about it and would even go so far as to consider giving it a 3 out 5 Star Review ... if it was ever listed on Goodreads ;o>