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What are we reading? 8th June 2022
Tam wrote: "I sent the update on Dave's treatment again to you yesterday, (Thursday) but it does not seem to have got to you, can you check?"Hi, Tam - no message received - I have sent you a PM.
AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: " And the library of course...Well, if we're into libraries, of course that is where I started a lot of my reading - my mother used to go every week, and therefore so did I, to borrow countless books by Enid Blyton, Capt. WE Johns, Richmal Crompton, Anthony Buckeridge, Eric Leyland etc. At that time - the 1950s - our local library was housed in a lovely old building funded (In part or whole? not clear) by the Carnegie Foundation:
https://carnegielegacyinengland.wordp...
Aberystwyth town library has by now moved into the old town hall building, and is very modern on the inside... this article contains photos of several of the town's libraries, including the National Library of Wales (which is the nearest to our house) - of course, it is way bigger than the others!
https://www.aberystwyth.gov.uk/en/lei...
Mod
https://www.allinlondon.co.uk/images/...
When, a bit older, allowed to go into central London, our train line arrived at Charing Cross, started going to Foyles etc. ...
I have a memory of when I was 9 years old and I had broken my arm I went to Dymocks bookshop, which at the time was a massive complex with a music collection and a café to go with the book department, and I had a milkshake there. It was a marvellous place, and I really regret that I don't see these magical stores any more.
Some great answers to the first bookshop questions, i found an old you tube promotional about Hammicks which swept me back to the experience of shopping there, child friendly focus is something i had forgotten
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MK, too bad we didn't get to see this online yesterday - still, we'll be able to watch the recording for free.
Almost finshed The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
wow....its impressive in its nightmare like qualities of VR and its implications, so well constructed and paced, never a word wasted and and within the VR nightmare is the steel teeth and cold eyes of Palmer Eldritch.
Reflections of a Non Political Man by Thomas Mann (1918), is a very thought provoking read, i have been reading it every day since i started it almost and it has suprised me in how less heavy than i expected it is.I wouldnt say its a masterpiece, its quite an angry and confused diatribe at times, though impeccably constructed. The views swing between some intellectual theories and outright pro-german nationalism. I am suprised that Mann ever wrote something like this, when the post 1933 version of the author is far more prominent in western opinions of him.
I was a huge fan of his 1900-1914 phase of writing but loathed The Magic Mountain and gave up on his fiction after that , these thoughts and discussions pre-date that monster of a novel and seem to capture insecurity and doubt.....
scarletnoir wrote: "Tam wrote: "I sent the update on Dave's treatment again to you yesterday, (Thursday) but it does not seem to have got to you, can you check?"Hi, Tam - no message received - I have sent you a PM."
Think, I hope, that I have solved it, I need to send it twice, by logging back in again, as it logs me out when I am in the middle of replying. tell me if you see it..
Tam wrote: "tell me if you see it..."Message received safely, and I have replied - I hope and assume you get it! This is just in case...
Last night I finished Super-Infinite; The transformation of John Donne by K Rundall having learned much about this charismatic man.One may argue that his accolade as the greatest British love poet is well deserved, his poetry brims with life as it is not the flowery language of his time. But he was so much more, a lawyer, a preacher, a prisoner, a father of twelve children, a poor man and a rich one; a realist.
I was surprised to learn that his poetry was not published during his lifetime. Donne was a frequent letter writer to his friends and these were written in verse and were saved and copied by the recipients , only collected together after his death by his son.
Despite his reputation as a rake and lover he was loyal and devoted to his wife, Anne, who died shortly after the birth of their twelfth child aged thirty three; Donne never remarried.
I was left with the feeling that I would, like the hundreds who flocked to hear him speak, I, too, would have wanted to listen. A very remarkable man, the man who gave us;
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
Donne believed that humans are unique in their capacity to harm themselves
Nothing but man of all envenomed things
Doth work upon itself with inborn sting.
Something to think about?
Good article here by Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist who was being sued by brexit goon Arron Bankshttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/c...
This poor woman has been hounded by the right wing press for years and still hasnt appeared on BBC shows for that period, as the right wing and pro-brexit media framed her as mad conspiracist. This is how the UK media works nowadays....from a right wing perspective(xcept for the guardian)
CCCubbon wrote: "Last night I finished Super-Infinite; The transformation of John Donne by K Rundall having learned much about this charismatic man...."I know nothing about Donne apart from the name... but of course, that poem includes some easily recognisable lines, almost Shakespearean in their influence. Although Donne intended the metaphor to work from the geographical to the human, in these post-Brexit and Rwandan adventure days these lines could work in the reverse sense (I'm not sure how clear that thought is):
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
AB76 wrote: "Good article here by Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist who was being sued by brexit goon Arron Bankshttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/c......"
Quite right, my friend... to be prosecuted for pointing out, entirely correctly, that some of the pro-Brexit movements were financed by Russians ( hence, Putin), and to be silenced by the absurd British libel laws was a disgrace. As any fule kno, weakening the EU was entirely part of Putin's plan - and Trump's too, come to that.
(Private Eye also kept up the flame for Cadwalladr, though not a daily of course. It does have a significant circulation.)
CCCubbon wrote: "Despite his reputation as a rake and lover he was loyal and devoted to his wife, Anne, who died shortly after the birth of their twelfth child aged thirty three; Donne never remarried..."From the NYRB review of The Letters of Thom Gunn:
the plangent but witty response of the Renaissance poet John Donne to the professional ostracism that he suffered after his clandestine marriage to his boss’s daughter. “John Donne, Anne Donne, undone,” wrote the disgraced courtier in a letter to his wife shortly after they wed.Knowing nothing of Donne's life, this was totally enigmatic to me. Who was Donne's "boss" and why was he ostracized after his marriage?
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "and Portrait of an Unknown Lady by María Gainza translated from the Argentinian Spanish by Thomas Bunstead. [bookcover:Portrait of an Unknown Lady|585..."I remember the Morse. Must watch it again sometime.
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "David Park’s new novel Spies in Canaan . Spies in Canaan by David Park... With age for Miller comes change. Once a naive idealist with romantic and patriotic notions of honour, his eye..."That point was also mentioned by one of the reviewers on The Papers on BBC News this last week.
Whenever the heat is on for Johnson now he disappears to Ukraine..
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Good article here by Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist who was being sued by brexit goon Arron Bankshttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/c...-..."
yes i noticed that PE was doing that, good for them. Apalling sexism at play too, she was trolled by the odious Andrew Neill, the sinister Guido Fawkes(Paul Staines) and made almost invisible by broadcast and tv media. I mentioned BBC Politics, a show that had potential but brexit destroyed, cos it has had a hatful of dodgy, lying pro-brexit hacks riding unchallenged accross our screens since 2016 but unless i missed it, never featured Cadwalladr once, a strong voice for the other side, i think she made Question Time only once too. The last time i saw her on the BBC was maybe 2016, with the awful isabel oakeshott reviewing the papers on The Marr Show.
a talented woman, ostracised by an esbtablishment too scared to tell the truth about brexit, the biggest mistake in my lifetime for the UK
Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book on the Cosa Nostra about 15 years ago but am surprised how Robb is rejigging my memory(which is usually very good). The framework of the Cosa Nostra wars i remembered well, the Allies using the mob help to create a willing Sicily for american invasion in 1943(Mussolini had almost destroyed the Cosa Nostra from 1920-1943) and then the violent Corleone wing of the mafia taking control over the island and beyond from the 1950s and 60s.
Honourable rules were abandoned, the killing was indiscriminate, the head man Toto Riina was killing with impunity, linked to Andreotti, P2, the Christian Democrats and the violence that swept Italy in the "Years of Lead"
What i had forgotten was that Aldo Moro, Falcone and Borselleni were only a few of the leading names in Italian society killed by Riina and his henchman between 1970 and 1992, sometimes with shadowy links, sometimes with full admission. In the end Riina returned to we he had done in Corloene, killing top mafioso with impunity, until he was finally arrested and convicted. Mafia informants were numerous and helped bring him down as the vicious Corleone mob had destroyed all their lives
Andreotti, seven times Prime Minister of Italy,remained a survivor as people died all around, the bespectacled, hunchbacked Don Andreotti, never paying for his quiet, tacit involvement in the Mafia situation.
Bill wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Despite his reputation as a rake and lover he was loyal and devoted to his wife, Anne, who died shortly after the birth of their twelfth child aged thirty three; Donne never remarr..."Hi Bill
His boss wa Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal . While working for him as a kind of legal secretary he met his young niece Anne More and they fell in love. Later they married without the permission of Egerton or Anne’s father Sir George More. Subsequently, Donne was thrown into Fleet Prison as was his friend who had married the pair and the two witnesses. It took some time before the marriage was proved legal and they were release and several years before he was reconciled with his father-in-law.
The couple existed more of less on the charity of friends for years.
Six of their children survived.
It wasn’t until he became Dean of St Paul’s that money problems eased.
CCCubbon wrote: "His boss was Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal . While working for him as a kind of legal secretary he met his young niece Anne More and they fell in love. Later they married without the permission of Egerton or Anne’s father Sir George More. Subsequently, Donne was thrown into Fleet Prison as was his friend who had married the pair and the two witnesses."Thanks for the information, CC. Reminds me of Brabantio looking to arrest Othello for marrying Desdemona.
AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book on the Cosa Nostra about 15 years ago bu..."
Wasn't Aldo Moro kidnapped and killed by the Red Brigades?
Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book on the Cosa Nostra about 15..."
Yes, although the Italian justice system is so utterly useless that they've variously blamed it on satanists, Russians, the CIA, the mafia, aliens.... The inefficacy of the criminal justice system is designed to favor the mafia
Paul wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book on the Cosa ..."
makes you wonder how Falcone and Borsellino managed to get so far with their work, when probably 25% of the local police and politicians were in mafia pay down south, less so in Rome of course
Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book on the Cosa Nostra about 15..."
Robb is making things seem very murky indeed, i always thought it was the Brigade Rossi who killed Moro but he suggests generally that a variety of criminal groups were all in the same game of de-stabilising the state, though not maybe actually getting their hands dirty.
His suggestion of a mafia hand in the "Years of Lead" is something i am looking foward to reading more about it,his book darts around a bit but is very readable
AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book on the Cosa ..."
I've avoided Robb's book precisely because of that reason. The Italian habit of finding international conspiracy behind everything is all encompassing. Italy has a very serious issue with being able to accept responsibility, they love to blame the CIA or the Soviet communists for everything that ever happened to them. When the real reason is that the Mafia is entwined and openly accepted in every walk of life. It may very well be that the Mafia contributed in some way to the Anni di Piombo, but it's just a further reflection on Italy's incapacity to realize that 1) the fascists retained power post-war and 2) they are the Mafia. In my interactions with the Italian criminal justice system , it's quite clear that it's a medieval system grown out of torture-based methods to create a tyranny of the state in which feudal lords/mafiosi skate on by. Simple things like non-automatic appeals on criminal prosecutions, the ability to make anonymous tips to the police, double-jeopardy protection, rights of unreasonable search. It's all still a dark age relic. This paragraph is criminally liable in Italy, for example.
Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book..."
thanks paul and thats a very good point or points you make.
I just read the Moro section and Robb is firmly in the belief it was the BR(Brigate Rosse) that killed Moro with a general lack of support from the Christian Democrats, in their efforts to free him. Berlinguers PCI were of course on the threshold of a coalition govt and keen to distance themselves from the BR nutters, imploring the govt not to do any deal with the BR. Though the Cosa Nostra it seems were in dispute over their response, the old hands favoured trying to free Moro, the young guns were opposed to this as the DC inaction was evident
The Anni di Piombo have always fascinated me,murder, bombings and terror in a country with the largest communist party in western europe which was modernising and turning to the right under Berlinguer. Compromise and pragmatism fascinate me in politics and Berlinguer managed so much in the mid to late 1970s, while the Kissinger and post-Kissinger tools fed money into any form of anti-communism they could manage to, without scruples
Conspiracies are a bore in many ways and i'm glad you mentioned it becomes a national thing in Italy, as i wasnt so aware of that, when i probably should have been. What is overwhelmingly clear from the book is that whoever was killed, Andreotti remained untouched, thats a clear pointer to his status within the "other state"(ie Mafia), though i just remember him as an illustration of the fact Italy had so many post war PM's he was the only one anyone can remember as he held the job 7 times!
As i am fascinated by Italian history and culture, Robb offers a lot of both, alongside the murk...its a good read
The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard.Not one of Leonard's better efforts, IMO - rather disappointing.
Drifter and small-time crook Jack Ryan loses his job as a cucumber picker, but gets work at a local motel; he meets the young and beautiful thrill seeker Nancy Hayes - a 'kept woman' from choice, who likes to do crazy things. The plot concerns what happens when the two start to run together...
In truth, the plot is rather thin - far too much of the book is taken up with the daydreams and back-stories of the characters, which fatally slows progress through events in the 'present'. The characters are not really engaging, either.
I'd give this one a miss: Leonard has written many far better tales.
scarletnoir wrote: "The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard.Not one of Leonard's better efforts, IMO - rather disappointing.
Drifter and small-time crook Jack Ryan loses his job as a cucumber picker, but get..."
Didn't you recommend Cat Chaser
?I just listened to the audio version (Frank Muller, a favorite, reading) and enjoyed it. Thanks. Always great dialogue.
Ages ago Elmore Leonard spoke at a Seattle literary event. He was like a bantam rooster who unfortunately was much taken with his sobriety. Of course this is - if memory serves.
It’s the announcement of the Longlists for the Wainwright Prizes on Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see what make it. There’s usually some really good stuff. There are three categories, UK Nature Writing, Writing on Global Conservation and Children’s Writing on Nature & Conservation.
For the first category keep an eye out for Wild Fell: Fighting For Nature On A Lake District Hill Farm by Lee Schofield which takes place very close to me, near HawesWater.
And, I hope, Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Cities and Vanished Villages by Matthew Green, perhaps in the second category.
I’ve just finished it, and it was every bit as good as you promised CCC..
Andy wrote: "It’s the announcement of the Longlists for the Wainwright Prizes on Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see what make it. There’s usually some really good stuff. There are three categories, U..."
Have just ordered Shadowlands from Abebooks. I downloaded the book from the library but decided over 2000 pages in 3 weeks was a bit ambitious.
Did you have to pay postage from the ABE seller? You may also know about bookdepository.com, but I am so thrifty that I check them when buying UK books because they ship free. And since both are owned by the dreaded Amazon . . .
MK wrote: "Did you have to pay postage from the ABE seller? You may also know about bookdepository.com, but I am so thrifty that I check them when buying UK books because they ship free. And since both are ow..."thrift is good MK!
MK wrote: "Did you have to pay postage from the ABE seller? You may also know about bookdepository.com, but I am so thrifty that I check them when buying UK books because they ship free. And since both are ow..."No I didn't. The book is costing £15.05 but is a brand new one. Others sites selling for similar. Should have gone with Blackwells! Not that it makes much difference
MK wrote: "Didn't you recommend Cat Chaser Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard ?"Indeed I did.
'Cat Chaser' is Leonard near the top of his game... 'The Big Bounce' is one of his weaker efforts. An off day.
Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomer which i liked for his spare way of writing
Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomerwhich i liked for his spare way of writing [bookcover:Newcomer
Hope all well with you. They are scheduling a minor op on my bad eye and I am really hoping to get back to reading proper books again. Well that was my excuse for ordering An Immense World by Ed Yong
as a proper book so I can see the pictures!
CCCubbon wrote: "Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomerwhich i liked for his spare way of writing [bookcover:Newcomer
Hope all well with y..."
Fingers crossed that the op goes well for you CC.
CCCubbon wrote: "Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomerwhich i liked for his spare way of writing [bookcover:Newcomer
Hope all well with y..."
hope the op goes well CCC
i delivered meals on wheels for an almost blind lady today and we got chatting about my parents who are both 77 and she smiled and said she had a "few years on them". She was 92 and in such good spirits, not a sign of doom or gloom, it was lovely to chat with her
CCCubbon wrote: "Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomerwhich i liked for his spare way of writing [bookcover:Newcomer
Hope all well with y..."
snap... I have a cataract operation tomorrow in what turns out to be a mobile unit in Stoke Mandeville stadium car park, which is next to the hospital, but a way away from the building that Dave had his done in a couple of years or so ago. They must have set up the mobile unit to clear up the back-log, as I had been told that nearer Christmas was a more likely date for me to have it. It all feels a bit 'MASH'-like to me...still tally ho and all that... Hope your op goes well CC and that you get your ability to see the pictures more clearly back...
Tam wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomerwhich i liked for his spare way of writing [bookcover:Newcomer
Hop..."
Fingers crossed for you too Tam.
Tam wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Hello Andy. Glad you enjoyed Shadowlands by Matthew Green as much as I did.Just finished Newcomerwhich i liked for his spare way of writing [bookcover:Newcomer
Hop..."
I hope yours is as successful as mine was. I particularly liked being able to drive after dark once again.
TamBe thinking of you and hoping all well.
I have to have another injection before it can be done, maybe in Aug/Sept. Losing the sight in bad eye means fewer rushes of double vision and distortions which are so difficult to manage. Guess I will be back to people with no heads, odd shaped buildings, two people for one and bent lampposts again but am thinking that I should be able to read books .
Thanks all for your good wishes
CCCubbon wrote: "TamBe thinking of you and hoping all well.
I have to have another injection before it can be done, maybe in Aug/Sept. Losing the sight in bad eye means fewer rushes of double vision and distortion..."
All sorts of odds and ends of my body are wearing out, but I've chosen resistance. My inspiration came from my late mother. She treated her cancer like an intruder that had invaded her house, and fought for every scrap of normal life. Dad, who came down with the same form of cancer, held onto life with a stubborn anger.
Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a very good book..."
What surprised me about the Gucci trial was that two defendants sat in a cage at the side of the courtroom throughout. It felt like something from a long ago royal court.
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Hope all goes well for both.
I'll be thinking of you today, Tam.
Robert wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Midnight in Sicily by John Robb(1996) is re-opening the horror of the Cosa Nostra grip on Italian society from the 1940s to 1990s.I read a v..."
i think the same, the grand trials of post-war italy do almost seems like sets from another time. british trials always seem rather poky and austere in comparison, gloomy rooms with lots of old wood and crusty judges, french trials always seem grander too
Another Italian trial that rather baffled me was the prosecution of Mehmet Ali Aga for the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II. A shadowy Turkish gunman attacking the Pope? A story out of Chesterton. Then came the trial. It seemed like not only the Italian media but the prosecution was looking for co-conspirators everywhere in sight-- and out of it. Yet in the end only Aga was convicted.
Robert wrote: "Another Italian trial that rather baffled me was the prosecution of Mehmet Ali Aga for the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II. A shadowy Turkish gunman attacking the Pope? A story out of Ches..."Italian justice is so nefariously inefficient that the police don't even bother issuing tickets 9 times out of 10 because they know it will go nowhere. There are serious issues with the process, 3 levels of almost automatic appeals, a fundamental lack of the presumption of innocence, the capacity for the state to appeal a finding of innocence... that all boil down to a state-driven tyranny that is kept inefficient to keep it from becoming overtly fascistic.
It leads to a society of criminality and/or criminal acceptance. If you know that the magistrates won't be able to deliver you justice, you're better off just not seeing the mafiosi. Bars that don't issue receipts (and hence don't collect sales tax), dentists that offer you lower prices if you want a receipt. Professors who hire their nephews.
From an Anglo point of view, it's very much the dark ages here. State-sanctioned banditry at levels only modestly lower than in Russia
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Entry for 15 October, 1917:
This morning I heard that Reggie was leaving Charing Cross by the seven o' clock train, so ..."
Neither. It's old hardcover, located on the internet.