What are we reading? 11th May 2022

[Berkley]

Andy wrote: "Maybe I should do that also.. get back to a Christie.

Like you AB, I had a Christie-crush at 15-17 and read pretty much everything of hers. But nothing since."

Much the same experience here. I do intend to re-read at least my favourites one of these days, and probably all of them if I can, but first I plan to try a few of the many well-known classic British detective writers that came between Conan Doyle and Christie, as well as her contemporaries. I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example.

[AB76]

Veufveuve wrote: "Andy wrote: "A couple of very pleasant days in the company of The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.

To find humour in t..."

I loved "Hangover Square" and forgot to add, that i also loved The Slaves of Solitude, an under rated WW2 novel

[AB76]

Mountaineering books were a constant source of joy in my early 20s, reading about the conquest of the Alps by british climbers, Meissner and Krakauer books too but the best chance discovery back then was Heinrich Harrers "The White Spider followed by his Tibet story

Almost 20 years later i have just found, via a search for books about Milan(???), an Italian memoir of scaling Mount Kenya by an Italian POW. The link with Milan seems tenuous but am looking foward to getting No Picnic On Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi in the post. I think you would enjoy this Andy

[Veufveuve]

Have you read either Eric Shipton or Bill Tilman AB? I think you'd enjoy them. I've read all seven of Tilman's mountain travel books (Diadem used to do a collected edition), but none of those on his sailing career. Likewise, only read a little Shipton. If you don't want to go straight to the source, Jim Perrin's joint biography is well worthwhile.

I have read a lot of climbing/mountaineering literature and with a little dredging could come up with many recommendatins.

[Gpfr]

Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

In my opinion, you should read Sayers and Marsh and Tey. Though I know not everyone here agrees about Tey.

[Andy]

Veufveuve wrote: "Andy wrote: "A couple of very pleasant days in the company of The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.

To find humour in t..."
Yes to Square, and thanks VV.

[AB76]

Veufveuve wrote: "Have you read either Eric Shipton or Bill Tilman AB? I think you'd enjoy them. I've read all seven of Tilman's mountain travel books (Diadem used to do a collected edition), but none of those on hi..."

those are new to me...thanks Veuf....

[AB76]

As discussed here before, i like to have a quality artistic book on the go 2-3 times a year, they cost me more but are a lovely visual presence in the room where i generally read during the year

Predominantly photographic collections, mixed with art books and right now i'm going to be perusing this collection of pioneering infographics by WE Du Bois about Black America, compiled in the 1890s....it will be a slow digest, image by image taking me into the summer months

[[deleted user]]

Herodotus – Book Seven. Darius dies before he can exact revenge on the Athenians. He is succeeded by Xerxes. After years of preparation, Xerxes’ mighty host crosses the Hellespont on a bridge of boats and bears down on the Greek heartlands. Long speeches by the Persian King, his commanders and advisers, various envoys and supplicants, are used to dramatize the strategic issues and are rendered in fine style by Tom Holland. Oracles continue delphic. This book culminates with the great set-piece of Thermopylae. No one reading this tremendous account could regard Herodotus as a teller of tales rather than a true historian.

[AB76]

A slow digestion project for me has been reading the Library of America's large volume on the "Pamphlet Debates" from the 1764-1772. The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate: Vol. 1, 1764–1772

As the British conquests of French Canada led to more taxation for the 13 Colonies of the USA, mainly due to huge british debts from the Seven Years War), a succession of trans-atlantic debates occurred, as works of polemical discussion moved back and forth, with anger rising at British imperial policy towards the almost two million colonists in the 13 colonies.

Today i am reading the first half of a pamphlet by a British MP, Thomas Whately, which is full of details various british colonies in North America in 1765. His quote below is one of histories "doh!" moments, he was totally wrong on this:

“we have not a better pledge for the dependance of the colonies upon the mother country than that which arises from their being so many distant provinces, unconnected with each other but by their relation to Great Britain, different in their manners, opposites in their principals and frequently clashing in their interests, so that they can never form an alliance that will be dangerous to the mother country”

[Georg]

AB76 wrote: "Mountaineering books were a constant source of joy in my early 20s, reading about the conquest of the Alps by british climbers, Meissner and Krakauer books too but the best chance discovery back th..."

AB76 wrote: "Mountaineering books were a constant source of joy in my early 20s, reading about the conquest of the Alps by british climbers, Meissner and Krakauer books too but the best chance discovery back th..."

Heinrich Harrers writing style is a bit clumsy at times. But I found "The White Spider" to be a gripping read indeed. I'll never forget the story of poor Toni Kurz who was so close to being rescued.

[Georg]

Classical crime writers:

I was pleasantly surprised that Tilman Spengler included three in his TV series "The Classics of World Literature": Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith and Raymond Chandler.
About time, I'd say.

@berkeley: less famous but well worth considering, imo, is Edmund Crispin (1940s). His protagonist, Gervase Fen, is an Oxford don (literature). Crime writing garnished with literary references, eccentricity and wry humour.

[AB76]

Saw the G article on Abdulrazak Gurnah at Hay and decided its time to return to his novels, i have chosen By The Sea and hope to read it sometime this year

I have been attempting to read a lot more novels in english than before in last 4-5 years, the commonwealth diaspora of great writers offers novels in english influenced by non-european writers and thinkers. I didnt think much of Gurnah 15 odd years ago but i feel he is worth re-exploring

[MK]

For those here who like the British Library Crime Classics the Library will be celebrating its 100th book in June with this event - https://www.bl.uk/events/crime-classi... which I will attend online (5£).

I just checked and found that the author of my current 'old timey' mystery read -Michael Gilbert was too late to make the classics time cut, but his Fear to Tread is so worth a read. London, post WW2, when food is still in short supply, a mailed food package disappears which leaves the extremely obstinate (it was his food package) headmaster down a rabbit-hole where filching and murder are rampant.

[CCCubbon]

I read the latest book in the series

by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir in the Freyja and Huldar called
TheFallout , another good one with many twists and turns. I really like these books.
Now I am readingThe Girl who died which is set in the remotest part of Iceland, a creepy tale, so creepy that I must have been dreaming about it last night , waking with a startled cry when MrC turned over!

[Gpfr]

CCCubbon wrote: "The Girl who died, a creepy tale,.."

I read this recently too and also found it creepy!

[Gpfr]

MK wrote: "For those here who like the British Library Crime Classics the Library will be celebrating its 100th book in June with this event - https://www.bl.uk/events/crime-classi... wh..."

Thanks for the heads-up & link, MK.

[Robert]

Gpfr wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

In my opinion, you should read Sayers and Marsh and Tey. Though I know not everyone here agrees about Tey."

Tey's The Franchise Affair is good.

[MK]

I don't know why I picked up The Appeal by Janice Hallett yesterday evening - other than it was a paperback and on the top of one of my many book piles. It has really got me going and also glad that I am on the ''loner" side of the 'people in my life' spectrum. Now about 100 pages of email printouts, and since we seem to be having another grey day here, I may just crawl into that still unmade bed instead of doing anything on my To Do list.

[AB76]

The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla (1966)

I am reading this sumptuous literary diary of post WW1 Catalan society and life in two parts, i finished the section "1918" last year and am now reading the "1919" section.

Pla was a giant of Catalan language writing in his lifetime, from the 1930s to the 1980s, the diaries of 1918 and 1919 were updated and revised many times, so are probably more "literary" than the young Pla's original notes and observations.

The tone of the two sections is very different over 200-300 pages long:

1918 is a rural homage to his seaside hometown of Palafrugell in the Emporda(NE Catalonia). Having to postpone his law studies due to the flu pandemic, he lives with his family and records day to day events in the small coastal fishing town, exploring family history and observing the local characters at rest and play. The commentary on nature and the seasons is sublime, in this corner of Southern Europe.

1919(i'm half way through), is more sombre and angry in stages. Pla is back in Barcelona studying, the pandemic is still killing people and causing problems but so is the social unrest in the Catalan capital, there are strikes and fights in the streets. His father falls on hard times and Pla moves into a student digs with disgusting food and cramped rooms. He studies hard, lusting after the swaying buttocks of young catalan women on the Rambla but aware he useless in pursuit. Barcelona is described in wonderful detail, the vast capital by the sea, the darkness during the strikes and the ever present Montjuic, the Rambla and the Paseo.

I recommend this to Ersatz TLS, it won the 2014 Ramon Llul Literary Prize for Translation

[AB76]

Relevant to my reading of "Tsars Foreign Faiths" and the modern situation of Ukraine is the Valuev Circular of 1863. Valuev was a reforming minister in the Tsarist cabinet, looking at religious toleration but regarding the Ukrainian language, he sounds more like Putin, or Putin was maybe influenced by him:

"a separate Little Russian language never existed, does not exist, and shall not exist, and their [Little Russians] tongue used by commoners is nothing but Russian corrupted by the influence of Poland".

[CCCubbon]

John Donne

He was often hopeless, often despairing, and yet still he insisted at the very end: it is an astonishment to be alive, and it behoves you to be astonished.

Arguably our greatest ever love poet but so much more……..marvellous book. What a life, what a man.

[Georg]

CCCubbon wrote: "

John Donne

He was often hopeless, often despairing, and yet still he insisted at the very end: it is an astonishment to be a..."

"No man is an island..." was probably the first English poem I read. It was the introduction to a book that took its title from it. I was about 13 or 14. It has always been in my heart ever since.

[AB76]

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie(1951) is really going well.

I tend to make sure i sprinkle thrillers among more literary reads as i can find the plotting and cliffhanger endings to chapters bore me quite quickly and the denouement generally dissapoints but about half way through, i;'m still gripped.

This is as robust as a Le Carre,Forsyth or an Ambler, danger lurks everywhere, surfaces can decieve and Christie has a great device to use in the plot, that of the cockney stenographer who has headed to Iraq to find a young man she quite likes...

[Berkley]

Robert wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

In my opinion, you should read Sayers and Marsh and Tey. Though I know not everyone here agrees about Tey."

Tey's The Franchise Affair is good. "

Thanks Gpfr, Robert, also Georg and everyone else for their suggestions for classic British/Commonwealth crime fiction.

My most recent reading in the general British crime thriller genre has been more on the spy thriller side - Eric Ambler and, more recently Desmond Cory, whose Johnny Fedora series apparently used to be considered a strong rival to Fleming's Bond in terms of quality but seems to have been largely forgotten - a state of affairs reflected in the difficulty I've had in finding cheap copies of the books.

But I hope to start getting back into more of the murder mystery tradition in the coming months. First the later Holmes period, then onwards from there.

[CCCubbon]

https://www.lenpicktrust.org.uk/owl-p...


There are four chicks now

[Robert]

Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

In my opinion, you should read Sayers and Marsh and Tey. Though I know not everyone here agre..."

Household's Rogue Male is a classic spy thriller. An assassin has a dictator for a target. Very difficult getting in; worse getting out, hit or miss.

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "I posted this in Films & Series, but some who don't go there might be amused ...
Roger Michell's documentary about the queen will be shown in Parisian cinemas on the evening of 2nd June. Never thin..."

The interest shown in the Royal family by (many) French people has always baffled me. On occasion, I have been asked an opinion about some event or scandal... usually, I have no idea what they are talking about!

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "Tam wrote: "Georg wrote: "Tam wrote(245): "Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: torturers have individual responsibility, and should not be allowed to fall back on the "I was only obeying orders" excus..."

Sorry, Tam - but I'm not a Christian and don't believe that forgiveness is something which either can, or should, be 'given' to absolutely anyone no matter what they have done. Neither do I believe that everyone is capable of being rehabilitated, though I'm happy to allow those who genuinely reform to be granted that second chance - except for those in the first category.

I'm firmly with Georg on this one as far as general principles go - individual cases are infinitely complex and harder to determine.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

In my opinion, you should read Sayers and Marsh and Tey. Though I know not ev..."

i got Rogue Male for my dads birthday a decade ago and he loved it, i must get round to reading it myself!
Day of the Jackal is worth a mention too and the film version

[Andy]

More dystopian reading for me, both really well done..

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams.

There’s a plethora of dystopian fiction around at the moment, much of it linked to climate change. For it to stand out it needs to do something special.
This is a throughly unpleasant book, and it succeeds at least in standing out in its genre. Though in what else, I am not so sure.
After a world changing cataclysmic event a family clings to survival.
The reader is left to only guess at the event. It is set in what seems like the Czech Republic, from the place names used, though the family seem British. It’s higher ground I guess, and flooding may account for that.
That’s beside the point though, as the story is concerned with the horrific conditions the family exist in. Incest across generations has resulted in deformities to most of the large amount of children. Only the Matriarch, a fearsome witchlike dictator and mother of all, has any sort of aid for physical disability; she travels by electric wheelchair. Internal bitter fighting between siblings is rife, they in effect strive to destroy each other mentally if not physically.
19 year old Dolores, legless, is abandoned in the forest and left to die, but she miraculously survives, and her reappearance marks a sort of revolution.
It’s a novel about resilience and survival, and coping with the misfortune of being born.
This is humanity starting all over again.
It’s very clever, but frequently disgusting, savage and desperate.

[Andy]

and, The Semplica-Girl Diaries , a short story, by George Saunders .

Saunders’s novelette, which was published in the New Yorker in 2014, deals with immigration and women’s rights. It’s very cleverly done.
As with much dystopian fiction it begins with the puzzle of trying to find out exactly what is going on; when is it set? what has gone before? and indeed, what is an SG?
The suburban family of three in question, the father of whom is writing his diary, are struggling financially to keep pace with the neighbours and their new technology.
After a scratch card windfall he invests in ‘employing’ some destitute girls to surprise his surly teenage daughter. How wonderful for them to have the chance to work and send money home from ‘the greatest country in the world’.
But as to the nature of the ‘employment’, too much information would spoil. A quote will suffice..

SGs up now ... three feet off ground, smiling, swaying in slight breeze. ... Effect amazing. Having so often seen similar configuration in yards of others more affluent, makes own yard seem suddenly affluent, you feel different about self, as if at last you are in step with peers and time in which living.

It’s a comedy of sorts, though not laugh out loud, and a 40 minutes or so very well spent.

It’s available free online at The New Yorker, or as part of his collection Tenth of December.

[Georg]

@giveusaclue: thought you might 'love' what I just read (on tripadvisor):

"used English bookshops"

[giveusaclue]

Georg wrote: "@giveusaclue: thought you might 'love' what I just read (on tripadvisor):

"used English bookshops""

Can you give me a link please Georg

[Georg]

giveusaclue wrote: "Georg wrote: "@giveusaclue: thought you might 'love' what I just read (on tripadvisor):

"used English bookshops""

Can you give me a link please Georg"

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...

[scarletnoir]

Berkley wrote: "Andy wrote: "Maybe I should do that also.. get back to a Christie.

Like you AB, I had a Christie-crush at 15-17 and read pretty much everything of hers. But nothing since."

Much the same experien..."

Yes, I also read most of Christie - as well as Sayers and Marsh, but only one or two by Tey (did she write many? I'm not sure that she was prolific). By and large I haven't re-read them, apart from one or two when stuck in a holiday home or hotel without anything 'new' available.

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "Classical crime writers:

I was pleasantly surprised that Tilman Spengler included three in his TV series "The Classics of World Literature": Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith and Raymond Chandle..."

Highsmith and Chandler are excellent in their best works.

[MK]

Georg wrote: "@giveusaclue: thought you might 'love' what I just read (on tripadvisor):

"used English bookshops""

Love it. 😎 Nothing like a chuckle caused by a misplaced adjective.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "Classical crime writers:

I was pleasantly surprised that Tilman Spengler included three in his TV series "The Classics of World Literature": Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith and R..."

Chandler is very good indeed and cant forget Hammett.

I found the Chandler novel i read in January "The Long Goodbye" was superb in the way it embraced so much in its range, hard boiled noir but also something higher and visionary. A kind of complicated peaen to an already damaged Los Angeles

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote: "only one or two by Tey ..."

She wasn't prolific compared with Christie, Marsh etc. There are 8. She wrote plays as Gordon Daviot.

Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

We didn't mention Margery Allingham or Michael Innes. Plus all the treats available in the British Library Crime Classics series.
On an American note, I like the Kate Fansler books by Amanda Cross - more recent, the first ones were publshed in the 60s (mind you, the last Ngaio Marsh books were early 80s), but a similar tone.

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "Georg wrote: "@giveusaclue: thought you might 'love' what I just read (on tripadvisor):

"used English bookshops""

Love it. 😎 Nothing like a chuckle caused by a misplaced adjective."
😀

[Anastasia]

Hello from Madrid, where heat is unbearable and book clubs are rare :) I've managed to find one, which selected Karel Čapek for their first month, so slowly trying to get back into reading. Both War with the Newts and R.U.R. turned out to be just interesting enough to put me into the reading mode and light enough to keep me going. Both are considered the classics of Czech literature and early works of sci fi (so early that there's hardly any sci fi in them, but oh well...), but each is a little gem of its own with numerous literary references and just the right bit of po-mo.

Stay safe and keep well

[Paul]

Anastasia wrote: "Hello from Madrid, where heat is unbearable and book clubs are rare :) I've managed to find one, which selected Karel Čapek for their first month, so slowly trying to get back into reading. Both Wa..."


Yay! Fantastic to hear from you!

[Anastasia]

Paul wrote: "Anastasia wrote: "Hello from Madrid, where heat is unbearable and book clubs are rare :) I've managed to find one, which selected Karel Čapek for their first month, so slowly trying to get back int..."

Big hug! When are you starting that Bolaño? ;)

[AB76]

Anastasia wrote: "Hello from Madrid, where heat is unbearable and book clubs are rare :) I've managed to find one, which selected Karel Čapek for their first month, so slowly trying to get back into reading. Both Wa..."

Great to hear you are ok and you made it out Anastasia!

I loved "War with the Newts"

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "only one or two by Tey ..."

She wasn't prolific compared with Christie, Marsh etc. There are 8. She wrote plays as Gordon Daviot.

Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or ..."

a mention for Freeman Wills Crofts, i thought his "Mystery In the Channel" was superbly plotted and well crafted

[AB76]

Very cool in SE England, max temp 15c today, was 14c yesterday and heavy torrential rain in intense spells over last 72 hrs

Starting another Phillip K Dick The Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldritch, which continues my love of his real world dilemmas, transported into a world of possibilities or nightmares.

Christie is going well, a tightly plotted 1951 Iraqi set thriller and the Pla diaries make me long for Barcelona and spring in that city, before the heat

[SydneyH]

Anastasia wrote: "Hello from Madrid, where heat is unbearable and book clubs are rare :)"

Marvellous news :) War with the Newts and Madrid sounds like a winning combination.

[Tam]

scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "Tam wrote: "Georg wrote: "Tam wrote(245): "Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: torturers have individual responsibility, and should not be allowed to fall back on the "I was only obeying..."

You have lured me out in to commenting. I am not a Christian, or anything other than me, and so I refer to myself as an agnostic. But I still find values, beliefs, principles a fascinating area of debate, and a necessary way to formulate what we are, as we need some ground rules as to what is acceptable, or not, for communities of people, to survive, or even, hopefully, to thrive, together, and learn how to live with peoples who are different from ourselves.

I found this article, this week in the LRB, by James Meek, very interesting, and somehow pertinent to the question, about forgiving stuff that was done by others, in the name of righting historic injustice, https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n...

Food for thought... maybe...?

Would welcome any others thoughts on this

[Robert]

Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I haven't read any Sayers or Marsh or Tey, for example..."

In my opinion, you should read Sayers and Marsh and Tey. Though I know not everyone here agre..."

There was a little book of good late Victorian and Edwardian short mystery stories called "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes."