What are we reading? 21 November 2022

[MK]

scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "These tremors translate to the cricks in the back, or for me most recently, a heel bone spur."

Well, you are certainly in good company... presumably, you are chickening out of any risk ..."

🐓🐓🐓 But at least mine is real!

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Scarlet and Andy

I haven’t been reading WWR and only picked up a reference to Venn diagrams this morning here.
Intrigued I tried to find your comments and failed. Can be tricky t..."

WWR is like a tumbleweed zone at times, so little interesting stuff gets picked up or commented on, while some duller stuff ends up being mulled over in long threads.

the lack of response is bizarre, considering the sam-edited pre-covid G book pages were brilliant

i am not sure why good contributors we had, like Mach and Glad, have gone back fully to a trigger happy censored tumbleweed zone

[AB76]

MK wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "It was a reply to a book about explosions and had mentioned the IWO collision in Halifax, Nova Scotia."

I wasn't sure which post you were replying to, so I looked th..."

i think its a superb novel of the great port city and the way it was in the Great War..well worth a read

Halifax Harbour must be up there with Mahon, Milford Haven and Sydney, for significant large natural harbours

[Berkley]

scarletnoir wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I should make it clear that I'm no great linguist, and have yet to master even French to the level of fluency, still requiring sub-titles to follow French-language tv shows or films."

I do, too - sometimes because my hearing isn't great, sometimes because they talk a lot and very fast - it depends on the film or programme... but a third reason: language moves incredibly quickly, and if slang terms are used I often have no idea so ask my French wife - "What does that mean?"

Half the time, she doesn't know either! (We've been in the UK since 1989.)

I'd like to find more French shows and movies with French sub-titles, as I can usually (though not always) follow along with those pretty well. I have come across a few, but not as many as I'd like.

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: my detailed reviews on the Guardian's WWR receive zero responses"

"the lack of response is bizarre, considering the sam-edited pre-covid G book pages were brilliant ..."

Sam is missed, but not all comments got a response at that time either.
You did get an uptick, scarletnoir 😃. It's true one always feels, oh, nobody's interested, but I'm not sure that's necessarily true — I think people can read something quite happily but not necessarily find anything to say in response.

[CCCubbon]

@Andy, Scarlet

Thanks for the replies. No wonder I couldn’t fond any more on Venn diagrams. You may remember that I like Group Theory even though much forgotten now. There is a loose link with Venn diagrams - sorting into different categories. I like the logic of it all.
I did go back to WWR for a while and look in occasionally but somehow do not feel comfortable posting there.

Incidentally started The Buried which is the sequel to The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton. Definitely best to read in order.

[AB76]

CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy, Scarlet

Thanks for the replies. No wonder I couldn’t fond any more on Venn diagrams. You may remember that I like Group Theory even though much forgotten now. There is a loose link with Ven..."

not comfortable posting due to the censorship?

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "You may remember that I like Group Theory .."

No, I either never knew or had forgotten (like so much else)... I know my father used group theory in his uni research work, but that's actually all I know about it!

[scarletnoir]

Berkley wrote: "I'd like to find more French shows and movies with French sub-titles, as I can usually (though not always) follow along with those pretty well. I have come across a few, but not as many as I'd like."

I suppose it would be possible to instal a VPN and 'pretend' you are in France - so long as the VPN would allow you to switch on the subtitles as well as watch the TV programmes - I don't know if this is possible, but it may be.

(We have a satellite and a set-top box tuned to French transmissions; annoyingly, the box needs a new paid-for card every few years...)

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "@Clue - in case you haven't seen these -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rOPA...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMyO5..."

Thanks MK, I do hope it comes to mainstream or I may have to cheat.

[CCCubbon]

AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy, Scarlet

Thanks for the replies. No wonder I couldn’t fond any more on Venn diagrams. You may remember that I like Group Theory even though much forgotten now. There is a lo..."

Can’t say that the censorship has bothered me but it feels rather disjointed but I haven’t really beennthere much.

[CCCubbon]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "You may remember that I like Group Theory .."

No, I either never knew or had forgotten (like so much else)... I know my father used group theory in his uni research work, but that..."

Ooh it’s fascinating,like a giant puzzle sorting things out into different groups according to certain axioms. Silly thing I remember when learning about them. Sitting at a table in a cafe when it dawned on me that differential equations could qualify as a group and getting very excited about it…..

[Fuzzywuzz]

CCCubbon wrote: "@Fuzzywuzz
My, I think it’s Will Dean’s best book but yes, chilling. Many books get forgotten but not that one. It’s frightening."

I totally agree, Will Dean is very good at encapsulating creepiness in his stories, but this one will stay with me for a long time. It's a contender for book of the year, from my own pile of read stuff.

I think it was you who mentioned this book in a previous thread, if so, thanks for the tip!

[Fuzzywuzz]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: my detailed reviews on the Guardian's WWR receive zero responses"

"the lack of response is bizarre, considering the sam-edited pre-covid G book pages were brilliant..."

I read most of the comments here and on WWR and have a response to quite a few of those in my mind....I'd end up as a skeleton if I sat here typing them all out!

[[deleted user]]

Stuck for a Christmas present to give? I’ve been listening to a four-CD set called One Hundred Favourite Poems, as voted on by listeners to Classic FM, many familiar, some new to me. They’re read by a stellar cast, and the whole thing is a treat.

[CCCubbon]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Fuzzywuzz
My, I think it’s Will Dean’s best book but yes, chilling. Many books get forgotten but not that one. It’s frightening."

I totally agree, Will Dean is very good at encap..."

Yes, such a powerful book. Well over a year since I read it but still sticks in my mind. Surprised it is not better known

[Lljones]

Paul wrote: "That Roth novel is magnificent, criminally underappreciated. ..."

Indeed. Man, it had a powerful effect on me when I first read it, decades ago. Time to revisit, me thinks.

[Lljones]

Bill wrote: "I enjoyed The Yiddish Policemen's Union, a novel whose prose is a kind of Yiddish-inflected hardboiled..."

Gevaldig book. Chabon must be due for a new novel, wouldn't you think?

[CCCubbon]

A question:

There’s a common weed which grows in my garden which I regularly pull up but other specimens soon show themselves.
To my surprise I learned that it is (perhaps) the most ancient of all plants dating back further than the ginkgo tree by many millions of years.
Can you guess which weed and what is unique about the method of reproduction?

[AB76]

My books of 2022

Might change if i read anything awesome in the next 3 weeks but as it stands:

Best classic novel:
Either Southern Steel by Dymphna Cusack or Bird Alone by Sean O'Faoalin. (If i decide on O :Foalain it will be the third successive Irish book of the year)

Best modern novel:
18 by Paul Bankovskis, though Mantel's Eight Months on Ghazzah Street is running it close right now

Non fiction:
Iran Iraq War (Cambridge Uni Press), though the Falkands book is running it close right now

Best Diary-Journal:
Orwell: Letters Essays 1936-40
Seelig: Walks with Walser
Pla: The Gray Notebook 1919

(seems quite busy over on the G but as usual replies to postings are very poor in general, some posts just seem to sit there unanswered, which is why this is always my first port of call)

[Georg]

CCCubbon wrote: "A question:

There’s a common weed which grows in my garden which I regularly pull up but other specimens soon show themselves.
To my surprise I learned that it is (perhaps) the most ancient of all..."


CCC, I really love your quizes.

For once I knew the answer. Where I grew up there were small patches of the dainty wild form. Beloved by children for obvious reasons ( a right pest for gardeners, we had a taller species in our garden in Manchester...)

I knew it was a prehistoric plant, but not that it is almost twice as old as the gingko. Nor how it reproduces (had to look that up).

[Bill]

Lljones wrote: "Chabon must be due for a new novel, wouldn't you think?"

I don't follow him closely, though I've liked what I've read by him, both in fiction and essays. Now that you mention it, he doesn't seem to have published anything in book form since 2020 (and then as a contributor to an anthology) and no fiction since 2016.

There's a book on fatherhood in between those, but that's something I'd consciously avoid, thinking of it, no doubt uncharitably, as an example of late-Boomer navel-gazing.

[MK]

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "NellyBells wrote: "Paul wrote: "NellyBells wrote: "AB76 wrote: "NellyBells wrote: "AB76 wrote: "NellyBells wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Learning a language is a great idea and ..."

I worked in the King County Library HQ after moving to the Seattle area. One of the staff was Sephardi. I remember one time talking with her and having her mention that she had a mixed marriage because her husband was Ashkenazi.

Seattle has one of the largest populations of Sephardi in the States. One of the many who have settled here was Sam Israel who went from shoemaker to landlord of multiple buildings in Pioneer Square, a historic neighborhood.

I'm into very minor trivia!

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Strange to be having two conversations with you in two different places.. but I’ll keep them where they are, just in case others are taking ..."

Neither local library has it, but I did find a copy online. It now resides in my basket there - waiting for more friends to congregate and for the next sale!

I may have read it in the past but have long since forgotten. I do remember seeing photos of the awful devastation of the west hill of the city after the blast. Surely, that alone merits a good story.

[MK]

CCCubbon wrote: "A question:

There’s a common weed which grows in my garden which I regularly pull up but other specimens soon show themselves.
To my surprise I learned that it is (perhaps) the most ancient of all..."

I haven't a clue, but I will gladly send you one from here. I just looked up its name (for Google purposes - shotweed). It appears early in spring, is prolific, and has to be weeded early because its seeds shoot out if I am too late. Like most weeds, it is much too hardy.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "My books of 2022

Might change if i read anything awesome in the next 3 weeks but as it stands:

Best classic novel:
Either Southern Steel by Dymphna Cusack or Bird Alone by Sean O'Faoalin. (If i d..."

RE - Iran/Iraq War, I am in the middle of and am finding it very interesting. I marvel how little I knew (and still have yet to learn) about the Middle East. Before Saddam Hussein started to make headlines, I had no idea that there was a serious split in Islam. Shia? Who knew - not me.

Also books like these tend to be insidious as I have to learn more. I've had to put 'find a biography of Iraq' on my list.

[MK]

HA! Success! I have uploaded a fantastic photo of a YELLOW car for all to see. (It surfaced this a.m. in an email promoting a trip to Havana for a jazz festival.)

I'm finding that I see 1 or 2 most times I am driving any distance (out of the neighborhood). I'm fastinated that something as simple as a mention in a mystery can turn into my saying out loud (I am alone in the car) YELLOW CAR when I see one.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Strange to be having two conversations with you in two different places.. but I’ll keep them where they are, just in case other..."

is this the Mclennan novel?

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "My books of 2022

Might change if i read anything awesome in the next 3 weeks but as it stands:

Best classic novel:
Either Southern Steel by Dymphna Cusack or Bird Alone by Sean O'Fao..."

The Shia in Iraq are a complex group, as despite the proximity to Iran and the shared faith, there is a complex tribal system in South Iraq which is fairly insular, plus the fact the Shia's are Arab and not Persian. But it gets messier on the other side of the border in Iran Khuzestan region, where about 12 % are Shia Arabs with no modern link to the Iraqi Shia but speak Arabic, though loyal to the Iranians.

Saddam tried in the Iran-Iraq War to arm and stir up the Iranian Arabs in the province but it failed and he ended up killing more of them as the main border cities were majority Arab.

Every time i revisit the Iraqi Shia, i find a new nuance. Saddam incorrectly labelled them as Iranian sympathizers and deported and killed many but he was not well informed on the matter, as they were loyal to kith and kin first, not the state and certainly not Iran

I see the Shia-Sunni split as similar to Protestants and Catholics, for simplicities sake but ofc much more nuanced. The Shia are more into shrines and symbolism and have an organised clergy, with the Sunni's they are very anti-imagery and icons and have no official clerical hierarchy. Hence in Iran the Mullahs are so prominent as part of judicial-clerical system

[CCCubbon]

Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A question:

There’s a common weed which grows in my garden which I regularly pull up but other specimens soon show themselves.
To my surprise I learned that it is (perhaps) the mo..."

I was surprised how old the species is, quite amazed. We curse it in the garden. It grows around the patio coming up through the bricks and in the rose bed next to it. Forever pulling it up through summer.

Some years ago I bought a ginkgo treefor a friend who has some land and was surprised to learn that dates back around 200 million years but this little weed is a true survivor.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Strange to be having two conversations with you in two different places.. but I’ll keep them where they are, just in..."

Yes - Should have made that clear.

[Lljones]

Bill wrote: "There's a book on fatherhood in between those, but that's something I'd consciously avoid, thinking of it, no doubt uncharitably, as an example of late-Boomer navel-gazing.
..."

I read some (most? all?) of Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces. I see I gave it 3 stars here (my rating/reviewing habits are very haphazard). I don't remember any sense of navel-gazing; more a sense that Chabon's a steady, committed guy to a somewhat complicated family. Also remember his wit shining through this book like it does in so many of his novels.

Did you read Moonglow? I read it at the same time a bunch of my favorite authors were writing WWII-era novels. It's the one of all those books that still haunts me a bit. Some powerful stuff.

[AB76]

Finished Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel (1988) and i loved it

With the world cup currently casting light on another charmless, repressive desert petro-state, Mantel re-creates the atmosphere of mid 80s Jeddah, its appalling weather, repressive state and greed based morals and values. Qatar and Saudi Arabia represent the worst of the Arab world but sadly have influence via their deep pockets.

Events slowly develop, the narrator, a 30 something englishwoman comes up against the "omerta" of society and ex-pats, the hypocritical male world of privelege and loses her spirit in the process.

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "Finished Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel (1988) and i loved it..."

I also thought it very good.

[Gpfr]

This sounds intriguing:

Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names unravels the tangled threads of history and etymology to uncover the strange, intriguing and enlightening stories that have shaped the names of countries and places around the world...
Structured by continent, with chapters focusing on different countries. It contains feature boxes with quirky facts and anecdotes and includes black and white illustrated maps for each continent.
This book is a travelogue, history book and etymological reference and would make an ideal gift for anyone with an interest in travel, history, geography, language and culture - or simply those with a curious mind to learn something new and fun.

https://www.stanfords.co.uk/Found-in-...

[[deleted user]]

Freud’s Wizard – Brenda Maddox (2006)

Another fine biography from BM, the story of Ernest Jones, a brilliant Welsh doctor from humble beginnings who was a pioneer of Freud’s methods in England, and became his principal promoter and advocate in the English-speaking world in the years before and after WWI. He bravely went to Vienna after the Anschluss to persuade the old man to leave for England. According to BM, though only 5’4” he was irresistibly attractive to women, including she says herself.

He had a dark side, though, two ugly-looking incidents in his mid-20s, in which he was accused of indecent exposure to young girls. The evidence featured a table-cloth with a stain. He was acquitted in the magistrates’ court, the accusations almost laughed off. Today his career would be dead.

Freud, while finding him useful, wasn’t initially too sure of his truthfulness. The two became close in the end. Jones also had a cutting way of speaking to colleagues. Word got around. Early on he found he was rejected for one hospital appointment after another. Jones’ assessment of himself was, “Opinionated, tactless, conceited.” So, no illusions there.

He had to build a practice privately, which he did with extraordinary energy, taking on small neurological roles all over London, and publishing a prodigious number of papers, including a long essay on how Freud’s Oedipal theory explained every aspect of Hamlet.

During the 1914-18 war he found a large clientele seeking relief from all manner of neurasthenic troubles, especially shell shock. Whatever one may think of the underlying psycho-analytic theory, the novel practice of extended talk-therapy, with its free association and uninhibited disclosure, seems to have helped many. Interestingly, Jones did not hold back from telling clients what he thought they should do, and their gratitude overflowed, to the point where the risk of transference became acute.

There is much else that might be said of Jones and his achievements, not least his tireless efforts, as President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, to assist Jewish practitioners fleeing Germany, and later his three-volume biography of Freud, a worldwide best-seller. He found time, amid an intense professional and family life, to pursue his passion for figure-skating, at which he was adept and sensual. He was a keen player and writer of chess.

BM’s account is totally readable for the non-specialist, and full of pep. It is instructive on the central personalities in the movement – among them Jung of course, Ferenczi, Melanie Klein, Anna Freud. Other figures flit through the pages – Lawrence, Joyce, Olivier, the Woolfs, Bertrand Russell, WHR Rivers, and many more. I hugely enjoyed her biographies of Lawrence and Yeats, and this was just as good, even if the subject is now unknown to the wider public. I’ll soon be starting her study of Rosalind Franklin, and will probably try the one on Nora Joyce.

[CCCubbon]

Were you wondering about that ancient weed?

It’s the Horsetail sometimes called the Mare’s tail.
There are fifteen species and it has been around for more than 300 million years so before the dinosaurs lumbered around.
It grows mostly in the Northern hemisphere but all over the worls except for Antarctica and Australia.
It is poisonous to animals but humans use it in herbal medicine for osteoporosis because it contains silicon, it is used in cosmetics as well.
Horsetails have a unique method of reproduction in that they use spores rather than seeds and have very deep roots, that’s why they are so difficult to get rid of from the garden.
I will put a photo on photos in case you are not sure what they look like.

[[deleted user]]

CCCubbon wrote: "Were you wondering about that ancient weed?

It’s the Horsetail sometimes called the Mare’s tail...."

Very interesting, CC. I didn’t think we had any around us here in Vermont, but my wife has just told me that some years ago she deliberately planted it in her herb garden, for its medicinal properties. She didn’t know about it being impossible to get rid of. My kitchen vegetable plot is only 30 feet away. Aargh.

[Bill]

Lljones wrote: "Did you read Moonglow? I read it at the same time a bunch of my favorite authors were writing WWII-era novels. It's the one of all those books that still haunts me a bit. Some powerful stuff."

I've only read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Finished Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel (1988) and i loved it..."

I also thought it very good."

some of my friends families spent time in Saudi and all loathed it, especially the mothers, who found their independent western 1980s lives turned into a world of dependence and restrictions. Mantel portrays well how women become invisible in strict islamic nations, simply part of the home and without a voice

[AB76]

The splendid Luftwaffe Diaries a history of that heroic fighting force is reminding me daily how dangerous the Germans could have been with less reliance on Ady H and more on the experts and military officers.

It retells superbly the genesis of the Me 262 jet fighter, clearly the most brilliiant plane of the war and ready to be mass produced to defend the mighty homeland..until Ady H decides that it would be perfect as a fighter bomber and turns an effective plane into an inferior object and causes the whole potential of this plane to nosedive.

Hitlers constant interference in the Wehrmacht is legendary but i imagined he kept his blood soaked paws off the Luftwaffe, after reading the diaries and we are now in late 1943, i can see how he hobbled his air force with his lack of comprehension concerning the art of attack and defence at every chance, when the Germans were winning AND when they were not

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "The splendid Luftwaffe Diaries a history of that heroic fighting force is reminding me daily how dangerous the Germans could have been with less reliance on Ady H and more on the experts and milit..."

Is this the book - . If so, I've put it in my basket at Powells. However, I am trying mightily not to buy any books until at least 5 January when my credit card will be a clean slate for the new year.

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: " This sounds intriguing:Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names unravels the tangled threads of h..."

I saw that, too. Yet another book on my wish list at Book Depository as I reach for the moon there.

[MK]

If anyone here is interested in where all of Trump's investigations are at this time, I suggest you google - Letters from an American - and click on the 3 December issue.

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "1980s: some of my friends families spent time in Saudi and all loathed it, especially the mothers ..."

Around the same time, I taught an engineer who was going to work in Riyadh and I asked what his wife would do all the time while he was working. His answer was, "Oh, she'll be fine, she can go to the supermarket."!! (European supermarket chains had stores there.)

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "My books of 2022

Might change if i read anything awesome in the next 3 weeks but as it stands:

Best classic novel:
Either Southern Steel by Dymphna Cusack or Bird Alone by..."

I appreciate the Sunni/Shia details. I'm thinking there is a comparison with the Balkans since both came under the Ottoman Empire umbrella for so long. I'm sure I have 1 or 2 Ottoman Empire histories on the shelf. Perhaps I can wish some time for them.

[MK]

@gpfr - Thanks for the photo Like. I did a caption, but I don't see it. (I may be obtuse). The photo was taken in Havana and is, no doubt, still current. These old cars are held together with baling wire.

I was lucky enough to be on a group trip shortly after Obama was there. I also got a ride in one of these cars in Havana, but the best part of the trip was that we were on a small bus which traveled, east to west, from Santiago de Cuba to Havana. We sure saw how destructive US policy has been.

If anyone is interested in Cuba and Cuba/US policy, let me know as I have a couple of books I would recommend.

PS - Also got to spend an afternoon at Hemingway's Cuba home during that trip.

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "A question:

There’s a common weed which grows in my garden which I regularly pull up but other specimens soon show themselves.
To my surprise I learned that it is (perhaps) the most ancient of all..."

I'm not sure what answer you want here... it seems to depend on what definition of plant you are using. I thought 'ferns', others may have plumped for 'mosses', but it appears that both derive from a common ancestor - a form of green algae:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryop...

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A question:a common weed ..."

I'm not sure what answer you want here"

CC gave the answer in #293 and posted a photo. A plant I don't know at all.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "The splendid Luftwaffe Diaries a history of that heroic fighting force is reminding me daily how dangerous the Germans could have been with less reliance on Ady H and more on the experts and milit..."

Many years ago, I read a couple of popular histories about the war in the air - and , both by Len Deighton.

I enjoyed both very much; I seem to recall that 'professional historians' were a bit sniffy, and may have pointed out errors in these accounts (possibly of the envious, nit-picking variety), but I'm not sure... anyway, they are readable and no doubt at least broadly correct in what they say. Better than the other way 'round, probably.