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What Are We Reading? 1 February 2021
Bill wrote: A story I've told before: well over 30 years ago I read Flaubert's Parrot and then went out and bought all of Flaubert's work then available in Penguin editions. I still haven't read a word of Flaubert......but you have read all of Julian Barnes, right? ;-) - as I have.
Lljones wrote: I mentioned Percival Everett's Telephone a few weeks ago; also mentioned the publishing 'twist' to this particular title - three slightly-varying versions were published simultaneously.I'm not sure if this is the first time this has been done with novels - it would surprise me if it was, though. Certainly, in film Swedish director Vilgot Sjöman released two versions of I am curious - the 'Yellow' version in 1967, and the 'Blue' version in 1968. Despite interviews with some impressive individuals (Martin Luther King and Olof Palme), I don't remember much about the version I saw (Yellow) except that it was supposedly a soft porn epic which seemed a bit of a mess and not very interesting.
As for novels - English experimental novelist B S Johnson published a formless book: The Unfortunates (1969) was published in a box with no binding (readers could assemble the book any way they liked, apart from the chapters marked 'First' and 'Last' which did indicate preferred terminal points). I'm not sure how enjoyable an experience that was for the reader...
Do our tastes change? Certainly so. Most people will not have started reading Kafka, Proust or poetry. And for some it does take some time to venture into "classic canon" territory. Some will never lose the taste for predictable romance but others will eventually despair over the predictability (others will keep on not reading romances, I know), So yes, tastes might change. Will everyones taste, once established in adulthood, change? Of course not. We are very singular personalities, some will find new reading worlds, styles, authors, others are quite happy with what they read. So change can happen but it isn't a must.
The Real Cool Killers by Chester HimesWhat to say? This book isn't perfect, but I enjoyed it - a lot.
It starts at a cracking pace, with mayhem breaking our in a Harlem bar, then spilling out onto the street. Soon, there are a number of casualties... that's probably all I want to say plot-wise, to avoid spoilers.
What we get are periods of violence and police interventions interspersed with dialogues... these are all well handled and ring true for the most part. I would assume that the level of brutality used by the police is slightly exaggerated, but who knows? This is Harlem, NYC in the 1950s, where it's clear that white lives are more valued than black ones. The two main detectives - Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson - are both black, tough and ruthless... too much so to be 'heroes', but you can see where they're coming from. The language used, too, is of its time.
Apart from one or two passages which could have been profitably shortened - in particular, a piece where some young gangsters try to make fools of a couple of white cops - supposed to be funny (I think) but wasn't, really - I found the book to be well written overall, and hugely entertaining.
I have already bought the next in the series, All Shot Up, and will report in due course!
FranHunny wrote: "Do our tastes change? Certainly so. Most people will not have started reading Kafka, Proust or poetry. And for some it does take some time to venture into "classic canon" territory. Some will never..."my reading has definetely evolved since 2000, when as a 24yo i started to read a lot more than i had before, evolved in the sense of a wider variety of authors, more women writers and reading novels that as a 24yo i would have avoided like the plague
i started on a diet of Mann, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Hamsun and Dostoyevsky but i havent read anything by these authors for a good 5-6 years (Sartre diaries were an exception but non-fiction)
what has never changed is an apathy for modern literature(post 1990), especially anything from USA or UK. A small number of good books have crept through but i generally start a modern novel with trepidation and i am very cautious of believing the blanket hype modern novels get in the literary press
scarletnoir wrote: "AlbyBeliever wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Is The Blue Flower the only of PF's you've read? If so, I hope you'll try a few others..."It is. And I was so convinced I'd like Fitzgerald that I bought seve..."
i loved Offshore, read it last year
CCCubbon wrote: "Paul (142) wrote; definitely think that that's a taste that has grown as I've gotten older (not more mature, let's not make that mistake).This sentence sparked my interest. Do our tastes really ch..."
I think my reading has changed quite a bit, by virtue of me changing quite a bit. Moving across the ocean, starting a family, being in a relationship... all challenged me in different ways and broke through different psychological barriers gthat caused me to seek more types of experience and more viewpoints in my reading.
As a younger man, I was very much stuck in a rut reading-wise which reflected a set mindset in my head. I read almost only male authors. Lots of escapism (Bradbury, Stephen King, Star Wars, Dumas, Walter Scott) and lots of male-centric literature (Pahlaniuk, Bret Easton Ellis, Edgar Rice Burroughs) and didn't really challenge myself very often outside of my comfort-zone.
I don't look back on that time with regret, merely as a stepping stone in the pathway onwards, but I have kept marching onwards. So that most of my favorite works now are written by female authors, in which maybe very little happens, lasers are not fired, princesses are not saved. I still return to those past obsessions occasioanlly. I'll still happily read Stephen King or his son, Dumas is always good for a not too brief escape, but my tastes have moved around a bit.
Interestingly, my father has moved in the opposite direction in his reading. When he was younger you could always find Pynchon lying about, or John Barth maybe, but now it's all Scott Turow, John Grisham and Ed McBain. Which is fine, he walks his own path in whichever direction it takes him.
I wonder how the last 12 months has changed some of our reading? Maybe more escapism, maybe less reading?with my reading, it hasnt changed at all, with volume or variety, although i did read more in 2020 than ever before, hitting 70+ books and that must have tied in with more time in situ, less travel and other social occasions
Your replies, fran, Tam AB and Paul have interested me much for I don’t think my reading habits have changed other that to wander through different authors from when I was a young woman. The detective stories of Ellery Queen, Rex Stout , Dorothy Sayers and the like May give way to Scandi noir, the novels of Hardy, Cronin, Powell and Galsworthy were joined by Murdoch, Drabble, Tolstoy, Mitchell and Ishiguro to name a few but fundamentally my choices change little. Different non fiction subjects can fascinate temporarily, all mixed in with the fiction.The greatest change is really that now I do not smother my delights in poetry and writing, I own them.
It always seemed sad that one was forced to choose between science or the arts when at school. I chose science and my love of logic led me into a mathematical career but now the arts are paramount and the itchy writing fingers can dance at last. We cannot do everything at the same time but with fortune opportunities beckon.
CCCubbon wrote: "Your replies, fran, Tam AB and Paul have interested me much for I don’t think my reading habits have changed other that to wander through different authors from when I was a young woman. The detect..."my late grandfather always impressed me with his open mind for new topics and books, he read avidly from his youth to his last days aged 93. he was a scientist, devoted to chemistry and chemical engineering but was as well read and as brilliant on topics of art and poetry as any humanities lecturer, a devotee of the Hardy society and a huge lover of Trollope
'The Wolves of Savernake' by Edward Marston -I live in Bedwyn on the edge of Savernake forest which is the setting for this great who-dun-it murder mystery set in the year 1086. It is part of the 'Domesday' series and one of over a hundred books that this author has written.
Savernake is a beautiful forest and Bedwyn is now a village but was originally an important town, with it's own mint. The area is steeped in history and the author includes many of the interesting details in this book.
The story opens with the savage murder of the town's miller in the forest along with the arrival of royal commissioners making a second visit to Bedwyn to try and clarify details of land ownership. This second visit is unwelcome as some powerful people could make substantial losses and all the residents feared that they will have to pay more taxes as a result of the commissioners findings.
The story centres around the monks secretive activities in the Benedictine abbey, the land owners set to lose out, along with the mystery of the appearance of forged coins in the town and the death of the miller.
The folk of Bedwyn believe the herbalist that lives peacefully in the woods with her dog is a witch and that her dog is her 'familiar' who changes into a wolf at her request and so are hell bent on sending out a team to kill her.
But the tale is much more tangled than that and as such takes the reader on a more complicated journey before finally pulling all the threads together to reveal who rightfully owns the lands in question and who is the murderer. I was fascinated by the 'who' and 'why' of it all.
A few quotes to set the scene -
'The monks nodded in unison with easy satisfaction. The superior still wore his mask of sorrow, but it was lit round the edges like a dark cloud with a silver trim.'
(young novice) 'Luke was entranced by the heart shaped face with it's silken complexion, it's dark eyes, it's long black eyelashes, and it's full red lips. A feeling which had no place whatsoever on consecrated ground brushed against him like a cobweb.'
'Thaddeus grinned, the knife slashed and he gathered up a handful of the harsh rough twigs. He took a great swipe at the trunk itself and left it scarred with the power of his arm. Brother Thaddeus was happy. When he got back to the abbey, he would be fully equipped to administer correction to any wrongdoers. It was a pleasing way to serve God.'
A fascinating 'jigsaw' of a read and I look forward to getting swept away by more of Edward Marston's books.
message 97 (AB76) -Wonderful. That's so uplifting.
Thank you for sharing!
Reen wrote (#153): "have taken up Hungry by the brilliant Grace Dent, which is a gloriously easy, funny and poignant read at bedtime"I missed your post here last night and thus commented on your updated reading status instead. I do like her writing and personality very much too. For those who'd be interested in reading some very moving excerpts, there were some in an article in the G a few months ago.
Screenwise, I am still savouring The West Wing (just watched the brilliant The Indians in the Lobby, s3e8), and catching up on some Wong Kar-Wai (Happy Together last weekend, Chungking Express lined up next) after being inspired by the always interesting Streaming column of the G by Guy Lodge.
AB76 wrote:i started on a diet of Mann, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Hamsun and Dostoyevsky but i havent read anything by these authors for a good 5-6 years (Sartre diaries were an exception but non-fiction)what has never changed is an apathy for modern literature(post 1990), especially anything from USA or UK. A small number of good books have crept through but i generally start a modern novel with trepidation and i am very cautious of believing the blanket hype modern novels get in the literary press
Although I'm a good bit older than you, your choices as a young man are almost identical - I read Nietzsche, but never Mann (as far as I remember). Other authors swallowed more or less whole at that time included Hesse and Graham Greene... a bit of a youthful search for 'the meaning of life', if you will. It's impossible to say if I'd enjoy those books as much now - probably not, if only because of the repetition (I did re-read quite a few during that period, though), but to a certain extent - quite a large one, probably - those books, for better or worse, have made me who I am today, and I would never disown them.
I'm not sure how many contributors here have a tendency to read whole series, or an author's whole œvre (unless absurdly stocked), but when I come across someone who either entertains or whose ideas align with my own - or provoke an internal debate - then I'll often read the whole lot - from some Enid Blyton series through Biggles to Greene to Camus etc. Recent such authors include the more reputable (Anne Tyler, Julian Barnes etc.) and the somewhat dubious (from a literary POV, if not from an entertainment one) such as Jo Nesbo or Lee Child.
So, I'm not at all sure that my tastes have changed or evolved that much- I always mixed the low-brow thriller with more ambitious writers - perhaps especially those who considered moral or philosophical issues. On the other hand, some genres have remained of minimal or zero interest - fantasy (never read Tolkien or Peake, even in the 1960s), SF (not read any after 15yo), certain 'literary' schools who don't appeal, etc.
The only specific change I can think of relates to increased sensitivity (weakness?), in that I find it very hard nowadays to contemplate reading (again) about atrocities such as the Holocaust... despite its many plaudits, I'm not sure I still have the strength to tackle Apeirogon, for example. These are difficult times, and depressing or hurtful material may be something I'd do better to avoid...
(Oh, and I meant to also agree with AB76 on the dubious hype levels accorded to far too many mediocre modern novels. You may like to check out Anne Tyler, though - especially if you have a sense of humour!)
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote:i started on a diet of Mann, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Hamsun and Dostoyevsky but i havent read anything by these authors for a good 5-6 years (Sartre diaries were an exception but non-ficti..."the idea of reading an authors entire oeuvre for a year or a few months is a challenge i might try at some point, it could be an immersive trip to another world, with various biographies and studies to compliment
i try to read only one book by the same author a year and it might be thats easy to do being 20 odd years into my reading life but harder if you have been reading for 40 or 50 years.
i'm a non re-reader so far, i have only read one book twice since 2000(L'Etranger-Camus),. before that i did it a lot more but my "reading" was magpie like and undisciplined between say 13-18(when i was also a sulky, rebellious teen)
i studied history at uni, so was reading more non-fiction text books from 18-22ish
Clare de la lune wrote: "'The Wolves of Savernake' by Edward Marston -I live in Bedwyn on the edge of Savernake forest which is the setting for this great who-dun-it murder mystery set in the year 1086. It is part of th..."
Glad you are enjoying it. I have read all of the series I think. If you enjoy them try this series:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/k/be...
For readers of the Slough House series the good new is that is is going to become a tv series. The bad new is that it will be shown on Apple TV which I haven't got.
scarletnoir wrote(169): "AB76 wrote:i started on a diet of Mann, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Hamsun and Dostoyevsky but i havent read anything by these authors for a good 5-6 years (Sartre diaries were an exception but non-ficti..."When I was 16 or 17 half of my classmates started to speak middle-earthish, so I felt compelled to read LotRs. I did finish it, just. My first and last foray into fantasy fiction territory.
Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote(169): "AB76 wrote:i started on a diet of Mann, Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Hamsun and Dostoyevsky but i havent read anything by these authors for a good 5-6 years (Sartre diaries were a..."you have reminded me Georg, of all the fantasy books i read aged 10-14, it was never sci-fi more of the Tolkein novels and the animal based fantasies of the UK "Watership Down", "Duncton Wood " and the"Animals of Farthing Wood"
i had forgotten it but i also read badger novel "Cold Moons"
Poor choices from me in the last couple of days, giving me a downer on modern fiction. (Told you so.. I can hear MB saying..)
Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan
The devil's daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin, to work as maid for the Minister of Culture, and secretly to bear him and his barren wife a child.
Sounds great, bit wait a minute.... this summary is a con.
This 'novel' is made up of short stories, very loosely connected to each other in that they take place in the same nine floored tenement building in Edinburgh.
The story used to promote the book is a decent one, but hardly horror.
I'd give it a new genre, populist fiction, a book that ticks all the politically correct boxes, and tries its best not to offend anyone.
I prefer my horror, and this sort of fiction, a lot darker. Such books need dislikeable, and often evil characters who may exhibit traits we deplore, the may be racist, or homphobic for example.
I'm left with the overriding feeling that I've been conned.
And, Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Insipid, predictable and highly contrived. A ludicrous mishmash.
An overly-hyped and unwelcome jump onto the climate fiction bandwagon.
So now for something completely different..
Alistair Moffat's The Hidden Ways: Scotland's Forgotten Roads
I'm reading a chapter of this afternoon. His choices of road are rural and wild, except this one; Edinburgh, as he traces Dere Street through the Old Town, and dips into its history.
I just do a chapter a day of this sort of non-fiction at the moment. He's a historian, and often goes deeper than I personally need him to, and likes to include some relgious aspects (overwhich I skim), but its good writing, and certainly makes me want to go there and see it for myself.
In the first chapter he follows the River Tay as it flows east from the heart of Perthshire. At Fortingall he encounters a graveyard with a Yew Tree aged between 2,000 and 3,000 years old. Recently it bore berries, apparently for the first time, making locals wonder if it has undergone a sex change. More than 500 graveyard Yew Trees in Britain are older than their churches.
The most desirable graves were those next to the tree. One such tree in Sussex in recent years was felled by a huge storm. Upended, its now visible roots had grabbed skeletal remains and pulled them closer and closer to the tree over the years.
Wonderful stuff.
AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Just right for a winter's afternoon has been Malicroix by Henri Bosco, translated by Joyce Zonana.
I've had this on my tbr..."
I enjoyed Lullaby. I have The Centurions on my tbr list.
On finishing the Bosco I too found myself looking through the extensive NYRB list, added another 3 or 4 to that long tbr list..
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Just right for a winter's afternoon has been Malicroix by Henri Bosco, translated by Joyce Zonana.I've had t..."
you will like the centurions, its a brilliant novel and i am looking foward to "The Praetorians". the first novel in the rough triology is still out of print but good on penguin for re-issuing the two later novels. Larteguy also wrote an interesting non-fcition book on the israeli army
Animal fantasy reading memories from my childhood has been sparked by Georg and CS Lewis remembering his love of Beatrix Potterhere are three classics childrens animal fantasies from the 1979-87 period, Watership Down was from earlier
Cold Moons (Aeron Clements) 1987
The Animals of Farthing Wood (Colin Dann) 1979
no image for Duncton Wood! Awww
I have been reading away and have a review to post that I am still thinking about. Things have been very busy, too, crazy in fact. I also noticed that some books bring out my best writing and others do not. I am not sure why. Perhaps it is merely that the ones I write passionately about are those I have read and reread and thought a lot about. I am thinking a bit further before posting my next review. Going flying today to escape US politics at 2,500'.....
scarletnoir wrote: "..but you have read all of Julian Barnes, right? ;-) - as I have."Actually, the only other Barnes I've read, many years after Flaubert's Parrot, was The Noise of Time which I liked pretty well.
message 171 (giveusaclue) -It's good to hear that enjoyed the rest of the series. Your suggestions for similar books are appreciated. Thank you!
Has anyone here any experience of launching blogs on Wordpress? I have set one up to put up my own historic eclectic collection of musings, including the full set of 'Doors of the Day', in case anyone might be interested, but I am having trouble understanding how it works, in terms of how and where to load up pictures for the introduction. Its sort of OK with PDFs but the size is too small to be easily readable. If you use the zoom button it just reduces your ability to see the whole page, which is annoying to say the least.We have used it for years (the free one), which I admit is just the basic design one, for sending out a free, shorter version, of our newsletter on renewable energy developments to anyone who is interested. But this version was downloaded 10 years ago, and he says that even so some of his stuff has been updated on his machine quite recently. The one I have on my computer now is recent, and alas, my partner is having difficulty understanding it as well.
If you imagined a couple of monkeys, in front of typewriters, hoping to write a Shakespearean play you wouldn't be far wrong!... I am thinking of abandoning it, as I can't use it to the standard that I think it should be used. There are minimal instructions, to some degree, on the site, but not comprehensive enough for us. Its not designed really for the likes of us, as they want people to pay for a much more comprehensive service, as part of making a business living, so it's design is gamed for logos and branding etc. for a business site.
But that isn't us, or particularly me. In retirement. I just want to remain entertained and engaged with the world!... and be able to comment on some of my favourite writings and pictures...
QAndyLuckenbooth by Jenni Fagan
Oh, how I agree, not that I have got very far, loosely connected ,trying too hard, where’s the connection apart from living in the same house at different times, doubt I will get much further for its’s not worth the effort it takes me to read.
Clare de la lune wrote: "message 171 (giveusaclue) -It's good to hear that enjoyed the rest of the series. Your suggestions for similar books are appreciated. Thank you!"
You're welcome. If you look at my list of books read here you might find a few more.
AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Your replies, fran, Tam AB and Paul have interested me much for I don’t think my reading habits have changed other that to wander through different authors from when I was a young ..."A book series from an earlier time - first of the Savernake Novels is Belvoir's Promise (1191) - by Susanna M Newstead. It's on my nightstand but not at the top of the pile as yet.
Note - she has a FB page where she provides historical data.
Tam wrote: "Has anyone here any experience of launching blogs on Wordpress? I have set one up to put up my own historic eclectic collection of musings, including the full set of 'Doors of the Day',."Nothing to do with books Tam but I have a bit of experience with Wordpress and blogs. If I were you wanting to maintain a blog I would try Weebly or maybe Wix. I maintain two non-blog websites which were designed in WP and I cannot believe how complicated WP is. My own website is with Weebly (all free) and is a doddle to maintain.
I can't imagine we would get modded if we exchanged a few views on blogging websites here??!!
Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "waterstones staff not being paid minimum wage on furllough:https://www.theguardian.com/books/202..."
I..."
hahahaha
Machenbach wrote: "... in about ten months' time I'm going to be in a book shop standing in front of Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy thinking to myself "Oh, I've heard of that. Someone must have said great things about it else why would I remember the title? So I'll take this AND Normal People. Happy days. Thank you brain. Thank you TLS.""In 10 months, you'll probably have the option of picking up Beautiful World, Where Are You as well.
FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Tam wrote: "Has anyone here any experience of launching blogs on Wordpress? I have set one up to put up my own historic eclectic collection of musings, including the full set of 'Doors of the Day',..."Thanks for the reply. I will take a look at them. I have never heard of either of them before. We made a bit of progress today, so at least it is possible to enlarge the pages without the text dropping off the page. I now have to find out how to put a picture in at the front of the articles, and whether it is possible to put my own picture up to represent the site, rather than their stock photo. And how to reorder them, as at the moment they seem to be in a rather random order.
Our son has said he would have a look at it this weekend, to see if he can help a bit, though he does not know Wordpress, and is quite a way a way in Barcelona, he does have to teach on-line these days, and you have to be a bit adept to make that go well it seems. I will get back to you next week, if no progress... on the many fronts... (might even turn out to be an apeirogan perhaps?)
A bit of me just thinks I am a bit too old for this!.... sigh.... (65 and counting!..) I think I will have to start looking for a suitable illustration of an old dog, negotiating doing some new tricks!.. (a medieval one would suit at the moment!) and keep the odd sausage, or two, up my sleeve, for some illusionary hocus pocus!... as needed...
Tam wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Tam wrote: " I now have to find out how to put a picture in at the front of the articles, and whether it is possible to put my own picture up to represent the site, rather than their stock photo. ..."Putting pictures into WP and hoping they stay where you want them and look like you want them to is a nightmare. Have a look especially at Weebly where you can change the look of the site at will and where blog pages are just an 'insert'. And pictures generally look the way you thought they would.
But yes, if you know where to look you can definitely put your own picture in place of the stock photo in WP.
Having said that, have you tried changing the 'theme' in WP? And are all your versions of plugins etc up to date?
To be honest, I think you could set up a complete new site in Weebly in half the time it takes to try to update a WP site. The only reason I prefer Weebly to Wix is that if you go with Wix you have to decide on a layout and can't change it. Weebly is a bit like WP in that you can keep your content and change the theme and have a completely different look and feel until you're really happy with it.
Machenbach wrote(188: )It's really tough to buy books ethically these days, which is why I steal themHa! That is what I did in my youth (steal books). And I did it ethically, from the one bookshop in our town whose owner was a reknowned arsehole. Never ever from one of the two others.
I have date on Tuesday morning for my initial dose of vaccine. Light at the end of the tunnel
Allright, just finished The Body by Bill Bryson. Will post more on the weekend.
Just been doing a little shop for female novelists of the dominions (Canada-Australia-NZ-S Africa), finally purchased "Swamp Angel" about British Columbia, which means i've now covered every canadian state or territory, most via the NCL(MCllelland and Stewart)I also was tempted by Christina Stead but despite being an aussie most of her novels are set in the USA. the problem with Ruth Park, another aussie/kiwi is i get bored of the irish eimigrant tales very quickly nowadays...
As i browsed some interesting obscure british/irish female authors like Kate O'Brien,Laverty and Macauley came up.
AB76 wrote: "Just been doing a little shop for female novelists of the dominions (Canada-Australia-NZ-S Africa), finally purchased "Swamp Angel" about British Columbia, which means i've now covered every canadi..."Kate O'Brien's Land of Spices is a good read if you are tempted to dip in.
Hushpuppy wrote: "Reen wrote (#153): "have taken up Hungry by the brilliant Grace Dent, which is a gloriously easy, funny and poignant read at bedtime"I missed your post here last night and thus commented on your ..."
I've been a fan of hers for a long time. She writes with real heart and just the right amount of caustic (which I am using here as noun). I also heartily approve of her panache.
AB76 wrote: "Just been doing a little shop for female novelists of the dominions (Canada-Australia-NZ-S Africa), finally purchased "Swamp Angel" about British Columbia, which means i've now covered every canadi..."Might I suggest Elizabeth Harrower, born in Sydney in 1928.
AB76 wrote: "female novelists of the dominions."My suggestions for Australian classics by women would be Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (under 200 pages) and perhaps The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (under three hundred pages).
Since I finished Bryson I started another non-fiction aboutchemistry in our everyday life, Komisch, alles chemisch, by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim.Have I mentioned I hate to navigate goodreads? It took me ages to find the book to add it to my Reading-shelf.
I have no intention of re-igniting flames that have been tamped down, but I do want to thank MachenBach for his really excellent posts earlier this week. Anyway, I finished "Losing the Thread" on Liverpool, cotton and the US civil war a couple of days ago: excellent, trenchant writing but probably of niche appeal (regardless of the price). Last night I began Elena Ferrante's "The Lying Life of Adults" - mainly because it was within reach of where I was sitting. Far too early to tell, but I did enjoy the first 30-40 pages
Magrat wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Just been doing a little shop for female novelists of the dominions (Canada-Australia-NZ-S Africa), finally purchased "Swamp Angel" about British Columbia, which means i've now covered..."have heard of her, thanks, will have a search
SydneyH wrote: "AB76 wrote: "female novelists of the dominions."My suggestions for Australian classics by women would be Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (under 200 pages) and perhaps The Getting of Wisdom..."
the hanging rock story has always fascinated and i liked the book, as for HHR, will look that one up, thanks
Oh, English translation for the title:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_Thi...
Weird, all chemical
And she is of Vietnamese parentage, hence the name, but she is German! She was born in Germany, finished her school here.
"She studied at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.She worked on her doctorate at RWTH Aachen University, Harvard University, and the University of Potsdam; completing it in 2017.
She rejected a job offer from BASF to focus on science communication.
Let's all be glad about that - in the wrong "hands" she could have done a lot of damage, as she is communicating quite convincingly ...
Instead she made a career on German TV and on youtube (where I first came across her) - and wrote this book.
Her latest big achievement - she got a Federal Cross of Merits (Bundesverdienstkreuz) - and a daughter last year (no, the little one was not part of her career).
I have seen her book listed in Dutch, Spanish, and French.
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It is. And I was so convinced I'd like Fitzgerald that I bought several of her novels fro..."
FWIW, of the 3 or 4 novels by Fitzgerald that I've read, I found Offshore to be the most interesting, by some distance. (I didn't enjoy The Blue Flower nearly as much as I'd hoped.)