What are we reading? 26th July 2021

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "Nicholas Royle, White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector

Given the nature of this book, it’s perhaps fitting that the only book of Royle’s that I’ve previously read was picked..."

great photo Mach. I have quite a few white Picadors but not on that scale!! I have never purchased a book solely for its cover and not read it though.

[SydneyH]

Bill wrote: "Booker Prize Longlist."

On further inspection, you might be interested in the first novel by Francis Spufford, Golden Hill, given your interest in Mason & Dixon - it is written in an eighteenth century style that looks quite pleasing.

[Robert]

CCCubbon wrote: "Greetings VV. I hope all is well with you.

By coincidence I thought of posting a Yeats poems to go with your summer one but Robert did so first with the Clock Tower.
Oh, I will post it anyway

Th..."
When my younger sister and her family visited Northern Italy, they stayed on a working farm, a favorite spot chosen by her in-laws. My sister sat outside reading. Every five minutes, a little girl in a sun dress came up to give her mother a bulletin on what the chickens were doing.

[AlbyBeliever]

Bill wrote: "Booker Prize Longlist..."

Quick reflections:

1. Yay, the Booker! I love the Booker, even when it annoys me.

2. Delighted to see Nadifa Mohamed on the longlist. 'The Orchard of Lost Souls' was a brilliant novel and I was amazed how little attention it received; hopefully it'll be a different story for her new one. 'The Orchard...' was also the first book I ever posted about on TLS (as was), which I imagine must have factored into the judges' thinking.

3. Also delighted to see Richard Powers on there - I loved 'The Overstory' so much that I sent him a gushing email; he sent a very gracious and kind reply.

4. The only one I've read is 'China Room', which I really enjoyed without thinking it'd be my Book of the Year. It's very good, though; my main complaint was that it wasn't longer.

5. Mary Lawson is an interesting one; has anyone read her?

[AlbyBeliever]

SydneyH wrote: "Bill wrote: "Booker Prize Longlist."

On further inspection, you might be interested in the first novel by Francis Spufford, Golden Hill, given your interest in Mason & Dixon - it is written in an ..."

I really enjoyed 'Golden Hill' - the style works well and I found it an engrossing, charming read.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Greetings VV. I hope all is well with you.

By coincidence I thought of posting a Yeats poems to go with your summer one but Robert did so first with the Clock Tower.
Oh, I will po..."

my father has a modest flock of about 30 Portland sheep and my oldest neice(6) is a delight to watch feeding them. She trots out with the sheep feed and talks to the boldest duo(Portlands are usually skittish and impossible to entice). She is less enticed by my mothers dozen or so chickens but is still very good at collecting eggs in her little hands...

[Robert]

Lljones wrote: "Robert wrote: "Lljones wrote: ""

Delightful. The absence of nap space will break this one up.
May I share this?"

Yes, of course."

Thanks.

[SydneyH]

AlbyBeliever wrote: "I really enjoyed 'Golden Hill'."

Sir, you are two steps ahead of me - with both Spufford and Mohamed. Thanks for the endorsements.

[AlbyBeliever]

AB76 wrote: "Good reading to comment on:
The Red Collar by Jean Rufin
Holiday by Stanley Middleton"

I'd be really interested in your views on these two, as they've been on my radar for a while. Particularly interested in 'The Red Collar'.

[Lass]

Excellent Booker longlist. Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill left a strong impression a few summers ago, so looking forward to seeing him at the Ed Bookfest in August. Sorry not to get a ticket for Kazuo Ishiguro, not quick enough off the mark, but thrilled to have seen him previously. Nadifa Mohammad too, her Black Mamba Boy may still be on my shelves. The Maggie Shipstead also looks interesting. I feel a trip to Waterstone’s nudging me.

@AB76, let me know how you get on with Anne Sebba’s Les Parisiennes.

[Georg]

CCCubbon wrote: Chickens are fascinating to keep, there is a hierarchy strictly observed but that's a tale for another day


You might like this book, plenty of chicken (and duck) stories


1941, after two years in exile, spent in LA and NYC, Carl and Alice Zuckmayer moved to a remote farm in Vermont. An actress/medical student and a playwright, used to a gregarious life among a large circle of illustrious friends, who had never done any manual labour, started to run a farm, with the help of USDA information leaflets, and later some advice from kindly neighbours.
AH-Zs memoir is based on the letters she wrote home. A lovely book. And very funny.

[SydneyH]

Machenbach wrote: "The cat puke story is the standard tale of being very drunk, not quite making it to the nominated chunder receptacle and the cat having been stationed en route in an unfortunate spot.."

Yes - 'a gentleman, after excessive alcoholic consumption, tends to spew in unlikely places' - I think Austen might have said that, but it's a while since I read Pride and Prejudice. Definitely read A Gentleman in Moscow, it's gorgeous.

[Hushpuppy]

Machenbach wrote: "As a pale-skinned hayfever sufferer, Summer has never held much appeal to me and I often find myself reading books about, or set in, colder climes as if to compensate.

Then I'd definitely recommend Snow Country by Kawabata. It's short, it's good, and you can feel the chill, and hear the muffled sound of the snow under your feet all way through. (I was trying to think of other books with 'snow' in the title, such as Snow by Mishima or Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson, but I can't remember them featuring that much snow actually.)

Almost all the great writing about Summer that I can think of involves cricket - just about the only good thing about the wretched season as far as I'm concerned."

If it involves cricket/cicadas, then they probably have some nice food too!

As for your friend, to whom you lent Bukowski and puked on her poor cat, she definitely had good reasons to take minor revenge upon you. On that Bukowski subject, there is a twitter thread that was quite entertaining recently: https://twitter.com/Leftovers_Movie/s... And through the miracle of the internet, she was found: https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/stat...

[CCCubbon]

Machenbach wrote: "SydneyH wrote: "Those orange ones look like old penguins - I bet they smell magnificent. You threw up on someone's cat? Go on, you can't leave us with that. I only vomit in sensible places, eg. on ..."

My daughter’s then boyfriend came to visit, sat at the dining table under which my very ancient mongrel lay who was not always in control of her bowels then and covered his feet in shit , oh dear, so embarrassing but my daughter couldn’t stop laughing and I never saw him again.

[CCCubbon]

Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: Chickens are fascinating to keep, there is a hierarchy strictly observed but that's a tale for another day


You might like this book, plenty of chicken (and duck) stories[bookcover..."
Thank you. I shall look it up

[Hushpuppy]

Machenbach wrote: "a book that I once loved so much I now can't bear to re-read it to discover just how devastatingly wrong I was."

Ah, so you do get the no re-read instinct I have. Not so much to discover I was wrong, but how much I have changed. Also, emotions simply cannot be the same upon re-reading, they are a bit more blunted of course, and I don't want to dim the intense memories I have of some novels.

It does sound like an interesting summer read actually, reviews are really wide ranging. If your sense of finding refuge in the cold climate during the summer is something that applies to films too, then have a look at Wind River, which that Danish book reminded me of. It is a lot about snow, and tracking in the snow, in an Native American reserve.

[Hushpuppy]

Veufveuve wrote: ""Summer Morning," Jonathan Richman."

Good to see you Vv!

Not a poem, and not the first sentence of the novel either:

"It was a hot summer’s day, the carp ponds so still the dragonflies seemed mesmerized by their own reflections on the water."

Set in Malaya - The Gift of Rain (Tan Twan Eng)

[Lljones]

Machenbach wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Shopping for bookshelves, dreaming of organizing them. I don't have any white Picadors."

Good for you. Sounds fun.

I have quite a lot of Picadors - a quick glance around me reveal..."

Just checked my Book Catalog (which so far only includes the books I brought from my brother's library and a box or two of books I acquired while I was in Seattle) -- found one Picador:

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker

Can't tell from this image - should I assume the spine is white?

[Georg]

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: I will savour (I hope) a collection of Stefan Zweig's novellas. This will make a change, as I remember his biographical studies of historical figures best. These studies are brilliant writing, if with niggles for historians

Hm, I am no historian, but I was gobsmacked when I read the Dostojevski part of Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoeffsky "Niggles"? His rendering of D's childhood was a complete fabrication (abandoned by his family, lived in the workhouse with his brother...)
Crikey! (thats one of the words on my bucket list to use once before I die taken care off)

[AlbyBeliever]

Hushpuppy wrote: "I was trying to think of other books with 'snow' in the title"

It doesn't have snow in the title, but 'Travelling in a Strange Land' by David Park is full of the stuff. It's beautifully written, kind and has such a wondrous, hushed atmosphere. Highly recommended.

There's also 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk, but I thought that was pish (apologies to any fans).

[AlbyBeliever]

SydneyH wrote: "Sir, you are two steps ahead of me - with both Spufford and Mohamed. Thanks for the endorsements."

Hope that you enjoy them both!

[Bill]

SydneyH wrote: "On further inspection, you might be interested in the first novel by Francis Spufford, Golden Hill, given your interest in Mason & Dixon"

I've had a copy of Golden Hill for some time now, among the library's worth of books I have acquired and not yet read, along with The Sot-Weed Factor, picked up while I was still reading Mason & Dixon (Pynchon alludes to the Barth in his novel).

Spufford has also written a sequel to C. S. Lewis' Narnia books, a work which is currently unpublishable due to copyright. He was exceptionally reticent about it in a recent NY Times podcast, like the Harry Potter characters when the subject of Voldemort comes up.

[AB76]

AlbyBeliever wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Good reading to comment on:
The Red Collar by Jean Rufin
Holiday by Stanley Middleton"

I'd be really interested in your views on these two, as they've been on my radar for a while. Pa..."

so far Alby, The Red Collar is brilliant, a slow paced novel set around a disgraceful event, a faithful dog and the military investigator digging into the situation. Its a really top notch modern literary novel from Europa Editions.

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "Hey, scarletnoir, did you read

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...

Don’t think I fancy the lett..."

Haha!

No, I saw the headline but thought: "None of those things will work for me."

In fact (as I may have written before) I have no problem whatsoever with going to sleep - indeed, at times I nod off really early (say, even before 9pm) and am very rarely abed after 10pm. My problem is a failure to stay asleep... not helped by the 'old man issue' of a swollen prostate.

So, you've been asleep for 3-4h, say - you need a wee - you go, take quite a while to complete the job and - you're awake! Go back to bed, lie down - sleep doesn't come. You go downstairs, and maybe watch an episode of some TV series unappreciated by Madame ('Justified', based on Elmore Leonard's character Raylan Givens is the current excellent choice, because it has loads of episodes - enough for a few months of insomnia - and they are fairly short which means you can have a shot at going back to sleep after one of them.)

About halfway through, you take a couple of paracetamol (back pain is another reason why getting back to sleep is a problem); when the programme is finished, read for 10-15 min until the concentration starts to waver - go back to bed, and usually get back to sleep after around 2h of wakefulness, give or take.

The thing is - most 'cures' are for people who can't get to sleep in the first place, but that isn't my problem at all!

[scarletnoir]

Tam wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I finished yesterday. This was a gripping read that left me emotionally mangled by the end. Set in Dublin in 1918 during the Influenza p..."

Those spoons must have been extremely sharp in the good old days!

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "Nicholas Royle, White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector

Given the nature of this book, it’s perhaps fitting that the only book of Royle’s that I’ve previously read was picked..."

Haha! A lovely finish to your review...

I'm not obsessive about 'collecting' books (I buy them to read) or about covers, though I'm pretty sure that a very few have been bought just for the cover. The titles are more likely to tempt me into some sort of promiscuous purchase, such as Jonathan Coe's The Dwarves of Death - who could resist a book with that title? Not me, that's for sure! Or my current slow read - .

It also strikes me that if your author had been French, he would have been able to fill multiple bookcases with the cream-coloured and picture-free editions published by Gallimard, for example .

Back in my day, the covers had black (Penguin Classics) or grey spines (Penguin Modern Classics)!

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Hey, scarletnoir, did you read

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...

Don’t think..."

I guess you have been to the doctor's already to have those two symptons checked out?

[scarletnoir]

I'm a little bit surprised by how organised some people are with their reading. A 'summer reading list', eh? I just used to chuck a few books in my bag (or more recently, a couple of books and a few downloaded onto the Kindle). No organisation - just a few titles I thought I'd enjoy.

As for summer itself - I'm with Mach. Too much heat doesn't agree with me, and apart from the joys of swimming in the sea (not experienced since this COVID crap kicked off), I also have to be very wary of the Sun, to avoid a recurrence of the dreaded skin cancer. (3 ops under general anaesthetic to create a new nose, since you don't ask.)

Give me spring or autumn any day!

[Andy]

Best reading of my week to report on..

Things that Fall from the Sky by Selja Ahava, translated from Finnish by Fleur Jeremiah.
That the premise of the opening of the book is unlikely to say the least, is the point of this fascinating novel, rather than should it be any sort of criticism. The young girl, Saara, who narrates tells us soon into the piece that her mother has been killed by a falling block of ice. Not only this, but her aunt, Annu, has won the lottery, twice.
The second of the novels three parts moves away from Saara's grieving to focus on Annu coming to terms with her lottery wins, and an exchange of letters between her and a Scottish fisherman who has been struck by lightning four times.
In effect, this is about how people deal with the freak occurence, and how a wider perspective, both geographical and historical, can help in coming to terms with it. Inevitably perhaps, there is a surreal quality to the writing, but aspects also verge towards fairy-tale territory. It is a quite unique novel that is surprisingly affecting.

The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino, translated by Archibald Colquhoun.
It is Calvino's first novel, and the story of the Resistance’s arduous path to victory made even more remarkable because it is seen through the eyes of a young boy named Pin. The boy is seemingly no innocent, he sings bawdy songs, often fights and effectively pimps for his older sister's prostitution. But in the ways of politics, and the coming of the war he is quite naïve. Initially when the Germans arrive he cannot decide who to support, he likes the uniforms of the Nazis, but decides on the Resistance as they are more friendly.

And the lowlights of the week..
A Shock by Keith Ridgway.
It has been almost a ten year wait since Ridgway's memorable earlier novel, Hawthorn & Child, and its excellent accompaniment, the novella or short story, The Spectacular. Having just finished this though, it may have been better if he had kept us waiting longer. These are nine vaguely interlinked stories, which, like many collections of short stories, vary in quality considerably. I expected something in the quirky manner of Hawthorn, but this is much more rooted in reality.
In the first, and best of the stories, The Party, a recently widowed elderly lady is lavished with wine and chocolates by the gay couple next door who are about to host a raucous party. The woman spies through a hole in the wall, awakening in her a repressed desire for another woman, and what might have been. This is more pllot-driven than the rest of the stories, but despite that, none of them generate anywhere near the interest that this does. It was, as a stand-alone, published in The New Yorker, and whereas I cannot recomment the rest of the book, I certainly do with this.

And a very disappointing Come Closer by Sara Gran, which I read because of the (usually reliable) review in The G..

[Slawkenbergius]

Machenbach wrote: "I think Flinty was more sympathetic"

Indeed I was, and thoroughly enjoyed that one (e.g. this here [et passim]).

[CCCubbon]

giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Hey, scarletnoir, did you read

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst......"
I avoid doctors unless …….seen too many of them. I couldn’t think what good a cup of lettuce water would do except make one sick.
Thought the article might amuse you.

[[deleted user]]

Hushpuppy wrote: "Ugh, 15/100. But 5 from the top 10 (it would have been 3 out of 10 only a year ago). Maybe if the list was a bit less anglo-centric I'd have a few more ..."

I tried to find a list with more translated fiction on it, but to no avail. And I don't know any obviously summery European language books myself. The only one I could think of was The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, which I haven't read.

[scarletnoir]

Hushpuppy wrote: "I was trying to think of other books with 'snow' in the title"...

Apart from Mach's 'Mis Smilla' - which IMO was brilliant most of the way through, but tailed off alarmingly at the end - I could think of a few more:

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - this book had its moment in the sun, but I remained unconvinced and uncharmed...

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo - one of the weaker entries into Nesbo's harry Hole thriller series

Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson - I enjoyed this, as much for the setting in a remote village in northern Iceland as anything. I suppose that if you read quite a few of the series, there is a slightly diminishing return WRT the descriptions of the settings. An unpretentious cop story, basically.

(Books set in Iceland generally make good summer reading!)

[[deleted user]]

Veufveuve wrote: ""Summer Morning," Jonathan Richman

I was walking around on Sunday morning
A summer breeze was in the dawnin'
And those smells--summer smelled great to me
Those are the kind of smells that I wait a..."

Very nice to see you here, Veufveuve. I hope all is well with you and your family.

[giveusaclue]

CCCubbon wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Hey, scarletnoir, did you read

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst......"


The link isn't working, but I can't fancy lettuce water. Mind you some of the soups I was served in China might well have been lettuce soup.!

[scarletnoir]

Hushpuppy wrote: "On that Bukowski subject, there is a twitter thread that was quite entertaining recently: https://twitter.com/Leftovers_Movie/s... And through the miracle of the internet, she was found: https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/stat..."

Those comments were pretty funny - FWIW, I never even knew that Bukowski wrote poetry (I rarely read poems, except when someone like CCC flings one across my path and traps my attention)... his novels Post Office and Ham on Rye are decent reads, though. Not one of my favourites by any means, but not bad.

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "I was trying to think of other books with 'snow' in the title"...."

or, alternatively,

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "I'm a little bit surprised by how organised some people are with their reading. A 'summer reading list', eh? I just used to chuck a few books in my bag (or more recently, a couple of books and a fe..."

i've had a broadly "summer based reading in summer" approach for the last four summers but am aware that the pool of books may become limited with that approach. I cant remember how it started unless it was a fascination with summer narratives, beaches and resorts. i love reading about warm, sun drenched landscapes and descriptions of the sea and the flora and fauna, its very evocative of summers spent in the past. Clearly summer 2020 and 2021 have not been spent outside the shires due to covid!

After i finish Middleton i have Janssons The Summer Book , the last major novel Paul Bowles wrote and then its the end of seasonal summer reads, with Bowen and Lemelin lined up

I dont mind summer if its 22-24c with a good breeze and fresh evenings but am not a fan of wall to wall heat 24/7 like last week

[[deleted user]]

Bill wrote: "Booker Prize Long List ..."

I might read The Promise by Damon Galgut. I really liked his The Good Doctor.

[[deleted user]]

AlbyBeliever wrote: " The only one I've read is 'China Room', which I really enjoyed without thinking it'd be my Book of the Year. It's very good, though ..."

I loved The Year of the Runaways, but I tend to choose books by subject and China Room isn't quite exciting my imagination in the same way.

[Georg]

Thought about summer books by German writers. Looks like we "don't do" them. We do doom and gloom.
The only exception I could think of (there may be more) is Tucholsky's Castle Gripsholm.

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "Thought about summer books by German writers. Looks like we "don't do" them. We do doom and gloom.
The only exception I could think of (there may be more) is Tucholsky's [book:Castle Gripsholm|1679..."

Waves by Von Keyserling is a summer book

[CCCubbon]

giveusaclue wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Hey, scarletnoir, did you read

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst......"

It was an article yesterday about eleven ways to treat insomnia, lettuce water one of them

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...

[Lljones]

I thought I was braced for watching the Jan 6th Committee hearings, but I was wrong. Three hours in, everyone is crying - witnesses, Congress members, me.

[Bill]

Just in time for @Anne's reading of The Iliad, Oxford World's Classics features a reading list of Ancient Greek classics.

[Hushpuppy]

Anne wrote: "And I don't know any obviously summery European language books myself. "

Well, again, it depends what you mean by summery. Their own definition was very loose. But I've indeed read the Metamorphosis, which I think is on the list, on summer holidays. Duras' L'Amant and Tove Jansson are also on the list.

Lighter reading could include anything by Pennac (hilarious to me back then), Foenkinos, or van Cauwelaert, or you could go for Fred Vargas for crime novels, or Romain Gary or St-Ex for beautiful storytelling.

But then you could also read some classics (such as what you're doing with the Iliad!), such as Le rouge et le noir, or Le comte de Monte-Cristo, which I've indeed read over the holidays myself. Or, just like MarGar, Notre-Dame de Paris (haven't read any prose by Hugo). Also Umberto Eco, etc. And then of course, there are always comic books and plays! Most of the Camus (and Sartre and Giraudoux) I've read, I've read over my summer holidays in Brittany (ditto Shakespeare).

[AB76]

Lljones wrote: "I thought I was braced for watching the Jan 6th Committee hearings, but I was wrong. Three hours in, everyone is crying - witnesses, Congress members, me."

i watched 45 mins and its hard to relive some of that madness from the winter..

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "Anne wrote: "The only one I could think of was The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, which I haven't read."

That's the only thing of hers I have read and was probably selected for a winter holiday some..."

its been on my pile for while, i was a massive childhood Moomin fan and keen to read her books for adults

[AB76]

Nice literary story from the Old Folks day centre...

One of the clients, in her 80s is a craft genius, she can make almost anything with her hands, confesses to have never been good at school or having read much but we discussed her love for Enid Blyton books in her childhood today.

I suggested that why dont i get her a Blyton book and she can re-read the stories (as i did at 43 with Moomin Midwinter, my childhood fave. So i will pick up a Blyton, probably Famous Five and give it to her next week.

The convo started as she was doing a "books" crossword and she asked about Anna karenina, we both decided that maybe Tolstoy wasnt the best way to start reading again but i did suggest she not dismiss that thought entirely!

[AB76]

Anne wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "Ugh, 15/100. But 5 from the top 10 (it would have been 3 out of 10 only a year ago). Maybe if the list was a bit less anglo-centric I'd have a few more ..."

I tried to find a lis..."

Some summer books by non-english writers(european)

Garden by the Sea (Rodoreda)
Mysteries (Hamsun)
Waves (Von Keyserling)
Three Summers (Liberaki)
Agostino(Moravia)
Nakedness(Skujins)
The Sea (Bonet)