What Are We Reading? 4 January 2021

[Cabbie]

Happy New Year to all! My year has got off to a great start with 3 reading suggestions thanks to Justine's summary of posts. I'm currently reading Elif Shafak's 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - so far so good. At the weekend I finished David Mitchell's Black Swan Green. Its teenage angst made me very glad that my own teenage years are long gone.

[Paul]

Gladarvor wrote: "@Paul Comment 23"

Ah I hadn't realized that the comment had disappeared. We have some Bouquinistes here in Milano as well, but they are nowhere near as well-stocked or charming.

[Gpfr]

I had a sad ending to the year, made worse by not being able to travel due to covid, so haven't posted for a while. However, best wishes to everyone for a better year in 2021.
I followed some of the recommendations from the Christmas Crime article in The Guardian. I'd never read any Nicholas Blake books before and enjoyed Thou Shell of Death and The Case of the Abominable Snowman .

I wrote about Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald a while ago and last week very much enjoyed listening to the Backlisted podcast. Thanks to Alby who I think was the person who got me to listen to Backlisted.
Happy reading everybody!

[Paul]

My first read of the year was a welcome favorite voice. The wry wickedness of Lorrie Moore with Self-Help. Her Birds Of America might be my favorite modern day short story collection. Her voice is tiredly humorous, she has the talent of eliciting awkward snorts of shameful laughter. She pushes you towards that border of uncomfortableness and makes you teeter precariously there, laughing with an introspection that few other stolid, serious authors manage to elicit. She tickles the same area of uneasiness that so many others might poke, but she does it in a slowly building gentle progression whereas so many lesser authors would be forced to resort to horror or vulgarity.

Self-Help, I found less engaging than Birds Of America, perhaps because it circles around a singular theme: the undoing. Of family, love, the mother and child bond, home and it's a subject that cuts icily close to the bone for the progeny of divorce.
The parent who slips into depression and insanity as their anchor disintegrates, the parent that wants to know what the other is doing, the competition and oneupmanship, the jealousy towards the child who moves away, the child that can't forgive the imperfection of their parents, the impossibility of ever trully recovering from the Infallibility Scales falling from your child's eyes. The disappointment of found humanity in the place of our heroes.
It's bracing and distancing, while still being involving and relatable. I get the sense that Moore is someone that I'd like to know, but not be. At the same time, she sure seems like a cigarette-flicking amalgamation of the best and worst of my parents.

Fantastic, despite being second place in the two books of her's that I've read.

Now, I've moved to something different, seemingly in every sense of the word: Angela Carter's The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman.

[Justine]

Gpfr (53) wrote: "I had a sad ending to the year, made worse by not being able to travel due to covid, so haven't posted for a while. However, best wishes to everyone for a better year in 2021.
I followed some of th..."

Sorry to hear that your end of year was darkened by sadness. I have often wondered about Nicholas Blake, and may give him a try soon, and I may just have to trust Royal Mail and get the library to post one or two, as they won't be open now before mid-February.

[giveusaclue]

Magrat wrote: "Lljones (36) wrote: "FranHunny wrote: " I don't even know, what Americans mean by Half and half. ..."

Half cream, half milk."

What we call evaporated milk (not condensed milk, which is sweet).

B..."

I always thought the UK equivalent of half and half was single cream as opposed to double. British evaporated milk is very sweet

Condensed milk makes great ice cream:

Ingredients:
400g tin condensed milk
600ml double cream
Half a 500g jar of raspberry jam

Method:
Whisk the cream until soft and billowing.
Add the condensed milk and whisk again until the mixture is thick and holding its shape.
Scrape the mixture into a plastic freezer box or serving dish.
Heat the jam gently until runny but not too hot, then dollop over the cream mixture.
Run a large spoon swiftly through the mixture to ripple it - two or three swoops is generally plenty.
Cover and freeze overnight. Serve in scoops.
Alternatively, you can also freeze the mixture in a cake tin lined with cling film, then turn it out and slice it as an ice cream torte.

[giveusaclue]

Re the ice cream, you can miss out the jam and add a couple of tablespoons of booze if you are so inclined!!

[SydneyH]

Paul wrote: "Life and FateLife and Fate by Vassily Grossman"

Thanks for the review Paul, fascinating. Good luck with the Angela Carter :)

[Andy]

CCCubbon wrote: "Andy wrote: "And, Magnus by George Mackay Brown
This is the story of based on the life of Magnus Erlendson, Earl of Orkney from 1106 to (about) 1115.
Magnu..."

Magical indeed.
We have many around here. Fortunately too fast for my dog to catch, unlike the rabbits..

[Max (Outrage)]

giveusaclue wrote [56]: "Magrat wrote: "Lljones (36) wrote: "FranHunny wrote: " I don't even know, what Americans mean by Half and half. ..."

Half cream, half milk."

What we call evaporated milk (not condensed milk, whic..."

I agree with you. The British equivalent is 'single cream', whereas the US 'cream' we call 'double cream' which is of course not only heavier, but far less inclined to split. Single cream or it's equivalent can be made simply by mixing some double cream with milk.

Whenever I roast a chicken I use half the meat to make 5 or 6 portions of pasta sauce to freeze using fried bacon, onions, garlic white wine, leftover gravy, chicken stock, mushrooms, bay and thyme, lemon juice to taste.
That is of course an easy, cheap, standard, classic.

What brings it to life is a little double cream (and Parmesan) added while I warm it up. If I used single cream it would probably split.

[Bill]

Trying to decide whether Sartor Resartus should be by next book, I took the unusual (for me) step of starting to read the introduction to see if that swayed me one way or the other. I only read the first section, at the end of which editors Kerry McSweeney and Peter Sabor listed ways in which the book is comparable to Wuthering Heights, Moby-Dick, Notes from the Underground, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It sounds like just the sort of lightweight entertainment I’m looking for.

[SydneyH]

Bill wrote: "Trying to decide whether Sartor Resartus should be by next book,."

If you are interested, I posted on it back in 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...

[scarletnoir]

Magrat wrote: "...asking for coffee with milk would get you black coffee with a glass of milk, the usual thing was a little container of haf 'n haf."

Cultural differences, eh? For my money, dairy produce in the USA is pretty disgusting (milk and 'butter' - what do they do to it?) and the Americano style coffee is weak and usually nasty.

In France, they do a decent coffee, but if you ask for milk with it, more often than not you'll get the revolting UHT long-life variety, unless you specify lait frais - UHT is just as bad in its own way as the cloying evaporated milk!

[Paul]

scarletnoir wrote: " For my money, dairy produce in the USA is pretty disgusting"


Yeah, having moved to Europe, I would agree that milk in the USA is much weaker and far less thick and flavorful. Then again, try getting a decent Europe-grown steak....

[giveusaclue]

Paul wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: " For my money, dairy produce in the USA is pretty disgusting"


Yeah, having moved to Europe, I would agree that milk in the USA is much weaker and far less thick and flavorful..."

Try Florence for steak.

[scarletnoir]

Paul wrote: ...try getting a decent Europe-grown steak...

As a veggie, I wouldn't know! The thought of any steak is pretty disgusting to me.

My wife and daughters, though, assure me that the steak bought in the local butchers (local cows, no hormones or air miles involved) is excellent.

But I'm still not going to eat the stuff.

[Paul]

Try Florence for steak.

Yeah the Fiorentina is that one big exception, they are something else and you sure pay for it. An Irish or Scottish Angus isn't too bad either. Otherwise, it's a steak but it's not a steak.

[Gpfr]

1st visit to the library of 2021!

Among the books I borrowed are:
The Red Notebook Paul Auster
Out of this world Graham Swift

Hokusai en 15 questions Nelly Delay, Dominique Ruspoli

La marche de Mina Yoko Ogawa

There are a lot of books by Ogawa in the library - has anyone read anything other than The Housekeeper and the Professor?

[Justine]

Gpfr (68) wrote: "1st visit to the library of 2021!

Among the books I borrowed are:
The Red Notebook Paul Auster
Out of this world..."

You can visit a library? I'm jealous!

[Bill]

SydneyH wrote: "Bill wrote: "Trying to decide whether Sartor Resartus should be by next book,."

If you are interested, I posted on it back in 2018:."

Thanks, I will check that out after I finish the book to compare notes. I read thorough Book 1 yesterday and started on Book 2 this morning.

[Gpfr]

I've just finished A Late Beginner by Priscilla Napier, one of the lovely Slightly Foxed paperbacks.

She writes about her childhood in the years before and during the first world war, when her father was an advisor to the Egyptian government under the British Protectorate.

One of the day nursery windows faced south-west across the Nile, over fields of sugar-cane and berseem stretching to the line of the desert hills upon which, an enormous triangle, stood the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Her memoir is a very vivid account of their life in Egypt, interspersed with trips back to England in the summer, from the point of view of a child.

[AB76]

Happy New year to you all, my festive and new years nephew and neice time is over and i'm settling back to read again, even if 2020, looks just like 2021, another lockdown!

Unknown Soldiers by Vaino Linna, written in 1954, describes a unit of soldiers preparing to head towards the Russian border, its summer 1941 and the Germans are about to invade the communist lands.

The Finns are confident after holding their own with the communists in the Winter War(1940) but the soldiery is still a mix of professional soldiers, reserves and new recruits. Linna writes in a realistic manner of the constant hunger of the armed forces even before the invasion begins and the common distrust of the common soldiers for the powers that be

I'm glad i found this novel and i finished my reading for today as the soldiers trucks start heading for the border with the USSR, the evil empire.... Its very sad to think that border was actually one imposed by the Soviets, it was Finnish land they had taken...Karelia..

[Gpfr]

Justine wrote (69): "You can visit a library? I'm jealous!"

Yes, they allowed libraries to open here in France. No sitting down allowed, follow the arrows to enter, circulate and exit - but we can browse and borrow books 😄.
As you can see from my list, we are lucky enough to have quite a few books in English, as well as some in German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: "I've just finished
A Late Beginner
by Priscilla Napier, one of the lovely Slightly Foxed paperbacks.

She writes about her childhood in the years before and during the first world war, when he..."

#71 - For more Egyptian history during the British occupation (or whatever one wants to call it) and on the lighter side, there is a mystery series by Michael Pearce. The main character is the Mamur Zapt - British Intelligence . By default the reader gets a taste of the convoluted politics of the country like the fact that foreigners living there could avoid Egyptian law by using the fact that they are exempt. A historical mystery read that is most often found in used bookshops. Michael Pearce link for book list.

[Gpfr]

MK wrote (74): "For more Egyptian history during the British occupation (or whatever one wants to call it) and on the lighter side, there is a mystery series by Michael Pearce...."

That looks intriguing - I'll check them out, thanks.

[AB76]

Over Xmas i did manage to read some of Charles Moore's final volume on Thatcher (my father recieved it as a present), it was strange to read back to my mid teens and all the Tory ghouls who plague the UK today emerging from under their rocks, so many who never go away like the awful anti-BBC grumbler John Whittingdale

it wasnt a focused read as it was usually interrupted by my 2 yo nephew offering me "imaginary" tea or my 5 yo neice jumping all over me and leading me away to play some games...

[Justine]

Gpfr wrote: "MK wrote (74): "For more Egyptian history during the British occupation (or whatever one wants to call it) and on the lighter side, there is a mystery series by Michael Pearce...."

That looks intr..."

I agree, that looks interesting. I also highly recommend Palace Walk, by Naguib Mahfouz, giving an Egyptian view of the period.

[Justine]

AB76 wrote: "Over Xmas i did manage to read some of Charles Moore's final volume on Thatcher (my father recieved it as a present), it was strange to read back to my mid teens and all the Tory ghouls who plague ..."

I suppose Charles Moore provides a favourable view of Thatcher, her project and her era. I've not yet built myself up to take that on quite yet.

[Justine]

The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910): A charming coming-of-age story from fin-de-siècle Australia. At her boarding school, teenager Laura Rambotham’s path is dotted with all the usual banana skins, and she slips on every one: the gaucheries, crushes, snobberies, snubs, fibs, passing phases of jealousy, despair and religious fervour, exam disasters. There are moments of exhilaration as well as of humiliation; for this flawed and vulnerable heroine, an Everygirl all too recognizable even today, life is a rollercoaster ride.

The novel also seduces the reader back into a long-lost era. Here is a scene from the school:

At eight, the boarders assembled in the dining-hall for prayers and breakfast. After this meal it was Mrs Gurley’s custom to drink a glass of hot water. While she sipped, she gave audience, meting out rebukes and crushing complaints – were any bold enough to offer them – standing erect behind her chair at the head of the table, supported by one or more of the staff. To suit the season she was dressed in a shawl of crimson wool, which reached to the flounce of her skirt, and was borne by her portly shoulders with the grace of a past day. Beneath the shawl, her dresses were built, year in, year out, on the same plan: cut in one piece, buttoning right down the front, they fitted her like an eelskin, rigidly outlining her majestic proportions, and always short enough to show a pair of small, well-shod feet.

They don’t make headteachers like that today.

But despite the portrait of Laura as the ordinary daughter of a widow who pays for her education by taking in sewing and embroidery commissions, we also have a sense that there is something special in her, a strong spark that might someday blaze. Whereas for the other girls the one and only goal is a respectable marriage, for Laura

it was impossible to limit your hopes to one single event, which, though it saved you from derision, would put an end, for ever, to all possible, exciting contingencies.

The tension between desires – to fit in, to be free of convention – explored with sensitivity and humour, makes this a novel to savour.

[SydneyH]

Justine wrote: "The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910)."

I'm really glad you liked this. For me, Henry Handel Richardson was Australia's major writer before Patrick White. The Fortunes of Richard Mahony is also magnificent, though much longer. I read Maurice Guest in 2020, which is solid, though I think not quite as strong as those two. Comedian Paul McDermott had a column called "The Forgetting of Wisdom".

[CCCubbon]

Reading chapters from The little history of Poetry and reaching the seventeenth century It has struck home that the only woman poet so far recorded is, of course, Sappho who was living in Greece around 5/600 BC and most of her work is lost.
No other woman is mentioned. Seventeen hundred years, what a waste of talent simply because it was not considered seemly for a woman to write, distracting her from household duties.
Almost makes tears fall. How about other countries? I must investigate.

[Magrat]

Justine wrote: "The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910): A charming coming-of-age story from fin-de-siècle Australia. At her boarding school, teenager Laura Rambotham’s path is dotted..."

The film is worth watching if you can get hold of it.

[Robert]

I was given The Last Bow for Christmas. It had been years since I read this collection of late Sherlock Holmes stories. Having finished all but the title story, I bought a collection of the early stories, which includes two Holmes novels as well as the first two collections of short stories. Still a delight.

[Magrat]

Justine (79) wrote: "The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910): A charming coming-of-age story from fin-de-siècle Australia. At her boarding school, teenager Laura Rambotham’s path is dotted..."

Forgot to mention that the film was directed by Bruce Beresford and the cast featured among others Barry Humphries, John Waters and a very young Sigrid Thornton.

[Bill]

Magrat wrote: "Forgot to mention that the film was directed by Bruce Beresford and the cast featured among others Barry Humphries, John Waters and a very young Sigrid Thornton."

Calm down, non-Aussies: not that John Waters.

[Magrat]

Bill wrote: "Magrat wrote: "Forgot to mention that the film was directed by Bruce Beresford and the cast featured among others Barry Humphries, John Waters and a very young Sigrid Thornton."

Calm down, non-Aus..."

Never heard of that one. No, no, it was the actor, in his gorgeous sexy prime!

[Justine]

SydneyH (80) wrote: "Justine wrote: "The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910)."

I'm really glad you liked this. For me, Henry Handel Richardson was Australia's major writer before Patrick ..."

Also Magrat: I'm eager to follow up with other HHR works. And films. Thanks for the recommendations.

[Justine]

CCCubbon (81) wrote: "Reading chapters from The little history of Poetry and reaching the seventeenth century It has struck home that the only woman poet so far recorded is, of course, Sappho who was living in Greece ar..."

You might some time be interested in investigating Anne Carson's translation: If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

[Lljones]

Hey everybody.

I was starting to feel a little stronger. Even had some books to tell you about.

Then today happened.

Back to you later.

[Magrat]

Lljones wrote: "Hey everybody.

I was starting to feel a little stronger. Even had some books to tell you about.

Then today happened.

Back to you later."

If by 'today' you mean the insurrection at the Capitol, it's totally distracting. I take back everything I said about all mouth and no trousers. Presumably order will be restored, but it could be years before anybody in the civilised world is able to take the US seriously.

[Magrat]

Robert wrote: "I was given The Last Bow for Christmas. It had been years since I read this collection of late Sherlock Holmes stories. Having finished all but the title story, I bought a collection of the early s..."


Being Sherlock: A Sherlockian's Stroll Through the Best Sherlock Holmes Stories

As a longstanding enthusiast, I have had a lot of enjoyment from this. Have a look at it.

[SydneyH]

Robert wrote: "I was given The Last Bow for Christmas..."

I haven't got to that one just yet, but I've really enjoyed all the Sherlock I've read in the past year. Glad you are a fan.

[AB76]

Justine wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Over Xmas i did manage to read some of Charles Moore's final volume on Thatcher (my father recieved it as a present), it was strange to read back to my mid teens and all the Tory ghoul..."

sadly yes, while Moore's series of huge books are well researched and well written, Moore is right winger who appears on Question Time to spout the same old rubbish as many of his decaying old Thatcherrite buddies.

I did find the last 15 or so years of Thatchers life was covered with sensitivity as she became frail, battled dementia and lost her husband

[AB76]

Shameful scenes on Capitol Hill, i was stunned to see so little security presence in a nation that treated the much more peaceful summer BLM protests as if it was insurrection. Mobs of cops, national guard, barriers etc

Everyone knew the Loser in Chief was briefing a large crowd close to the Capitol building today and that facts would be limited, fiction would be unlimited.

Quite a selection of american citizens assembled i have to say, lots of under educated, over-fed, conspiracy theorists who now face jail time....as for their exhalted leader....just be GONE

[Justine]

I wasn't at all surprised at what happened in DC, and can only laugh disgustedly at the shocked responses of powerful Trump enablers like McConnell and various White House aides: are they pretending they haven't known all along their man is a deranged and dangerous fantasist? All the more reason to persist with my reading of Rick Perlstein and other analysts of postwar American political history. How did we get to the place where someone like Trump could prevail?

[Paul]

Justine wrote: "I wasn't at all surprised at what happened in DC,

Neither was I. Frankly, I was surprised that it didn't happen during Obama's presidency because this tidal surge of faddish ignorance has been on the rise for a real long time. I expected the waves to break sooner, ans with more vehenemence. Trump was the cyclic reaction to Obama, hallmark of American politics. The counter-reaction to Trump's cultish following is I think going to be enormous and horrible.

[Hushpuppy]

Paul wrote (#96): "Justine wrote: "I wasn't at all surprised at what happened in DC,

Neither was I."

Same here. This was laughably predictable. Yet what I had failed to anticipate was, exactly as Ab76 said, how little protection there would be for the Capitol (I had even yesterday morning told my husband that one of the things that bothered me with The Handmaid's Tale was how improbable it was to be able to storm the Congress so easily). Absolutely shocking and sickening when comparing with the OTT display - and use! - of force against the peaceful and legitimate BLM protests.

The next few months are going to be really tricky to negotiate. Part of me thinks that something, some clear political gesture should be done towards the unprecedented 70M of people who voted for Trump. On the other hand, the kind of 'reconciliation' talks such as that of Comey that say that Trump should not be prosecuted already infuriated me before yesterday. Lock him up.

Edit: A few hundreds of deranged people led by a narcissistic, morally and financially bankrupt reality TV person and his handful of enablers should not make us forget the fantastic news coming from Georgia though!

[Justine]

A seasoned politician like Biden won't want to be seen to humiliate Trump voters; if anything he's likely to go overboard on the reconciliation side, which tends to be the liberal response. I'm not claiming to know what's the best next move, what will genuinely inspire voters to consider facts, evidence, the real consequences beyond the slogans. The challenge to Biden will be to prove, now that he has a Congress on his side, if and how he can make life better for all citizens.

[Tam]

My horse was called Sappho, named such, as in my ignorance at the time (it seems to me, now, that she had both female and male lovers!), she really did not like men at all, and alway tried to bite of kick them. Then one day I had to get her treated for lung worm.

A very handsome (my imaginative projection of Heathcliff I think!) vet turned up (an expert in yaks!.. in Wales... very handy, I thought...) He pulled out an enormous set of nose pincers, and clamped her frothing nostrils, and twisted her head almost upside down to pour the lotion down her throat. Well afterwards she was all over him, nuzzling and canoodling like there was no tomorrow. I found myself both incredibly let down in my naming of her, and quite jealous of her ability to shamelessly flirt with the 'vet'!...

"My horse wants to sit in his lap, nuzzle his breast, and toothily pick at his scrumbled pully, and whisper sweet horsy nothings into his ears"...

as I, apparently, said at the time...

[Bill]

Tam wrote: "He pulled out an enormous set of nose pincers, and clamped her frothing nostrils, and twisted her head almost upside down to pour the lotion down her throat. Well afterwards she was all over him, nuzzling and canoodling like there was no tomorrow."

Coming where it does in the sequence of posts, I can't help but read this as a metaphoric response as to how Biden should deal with Trump supporters ...