What are we reading? 29 May 2023

[AB76]

A nasty spate of un-painkillable headaches has curbed my reading in last 4 days but not by much, i refuse to surrender. i have a suspicion my migraines could be sneaking back after a good 8 years without them and my migraine meds are all out of date( a visit to the GP in the UK right now involves long waits, so i hope its not that)

Reading about the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu is a sobering tale of bravery and defiance by elite troops caught in a vice and almost abandoned by their commanders. Whats worse is the treatment of the French as POW's is reminiscent of the Japanese in WW2. The stories are appalling(not covered in this book) and do no credit for the Viet Minh and their status in my mind.

In The Mandlebaum Gate deception and surface impressions seem to be the name of the gamer, Spark uses time shifts and subtle repetitions to increase the tension, in an area where the Israeli-Palestinian issue was on the slow burn. The Eichmann Trial has now entered the plot, dating the setting to 1960-61

A Prison Diary Vol 2 by Jeffrey Archer fascinates me when i feel it shouldnt. I read volume one a few years ago and it is an interesting period study of the British penal system, 22 years ago. It has suprised me how Archer's tone in the diaries is likeable and without the pompousness he exhibited as a public figure up till 2001

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: "Robert L. Stephenson's... "The Body Snatchers" come to mind."

This may have ended as a ghost story of sorts (I have not read it) but the factual background is that Edinburgh did indeed have its 'body snatchers' who would disinter cadavers for scientific research or dissection, or in some cases 'source' their own cadavers by murder to speed things up:

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

I first became aware of this story via an adaptation of the Dylan Thomas screenplay 'The Doctor and the Devils', which had been converted into a stage dramatisation at the Edinburgh Festival in 1962 - I enjoyed it very much:

https://www.rookebooks.com/1953-the-d...
https://www.biblio.com/book/edinburgh...

The screenplay was later adapted by Ronald Harwood into what by all accounts was a so-so film directed by Freddie Francis:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089034/

(I have not seen the film.)

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "HG despises the English landed classes, and has little sympathy either for the world of business and finance, which in his book might as well be called swindling. "

I don't think that I have read anything by Wells, though it seems that his instincts as regards the landed gentry and the (merchant) bankers were spot on, and continue to be proved by contemporary events.

As for his writings - SF is a genre which dates quickly (IMO) because if it's 'right' it is often overtaken by events, and if it's 'wrong' it simply looks silly.

He sounds like another of those controversial individuals whose personal behaviour sounds 'less than perfect', though the extent to which it should be criticised depends on how damaged the women in his life felt. (I know little about him so have no opinion.)

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "The Silence of the Wave by Gianrico Carafiglio...has impressed me far more than other Carafiglio novels..."

Interesting - I like Carofiglio a lot (except for 'The Past is a Foreign Country'), but have not read this one. Have you read others apart from "The Cold Summer" - which I liked but you didn't? I am thinking especially of the (for me) excellent Guido Guerrieri series, which features an insomniac bibliophile defence lawyer and is usually concerned with modern issues of corruption, immigration etc.

[scarletnoir]

Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Piñeiro (trans. Miranda France).

Another mightily entertaining tale (for me) by this Argentinian writer - however, it won't be for everyone. Very early on, we come across three 'mysterious deaths'. Afterwards, most of the story is told in flashback, as we discover all about the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the gated community 'Cascade Heights' which is situated some distance outside Buenos Aires.

What it is not: a whodunnit where plot is everything and events move at a fast pace. If plot development is crucial to you, you won't enjoy it much.

What it is: a detailed study of a community - and the characters who inhabit it - at a particular moment in time. The bulk of the book concerns itself with explaining the social structures and atmosphere within the community, at a time when the economic shit hit the fan. This leads to the final disastrous outcome - though that is not 'inevitable'; it arises from the characters of some of the protagonists.

You could almost regard this book as a fictionalised sociological or anthropological study, though of course it reads much more easily than would a text-book. Piñeiro shows exceptional ability at pinning down (or just 'pinning') the society in which she lives.

[scarletnoir]

by Anne Tyler

OK - Tyler is probably my favourite living author. She is a born storyteller, with no pretensions. No use of absurdly fancy language to tell a story of subtle interactions. No delving into some thesaurus or other. Just an ability (I hesitate to call it a 'gift') to immediately draw in the reader. This book (in the edition I have) runs to 342 pages; I read it in two days.

As usual, the tale dals with a family - the Garretts - and at the start we make the acquaintance of Serena Drew (in 2010) - one of the grandkids of the 'origin family"... We then go back to 1959 (the Garrett's first - and only - summer vacation); then to 1970, 1982 and so on... Each chapter/section is devoted to a particular period and focuses on different family members.

It seems to me that some think it's easy to do this stuff; IMO, Tyler not only has talent but works very hard to maintain an incredible standard. She has written (I think) 24 novels, only one of which I found even slightly disappointing. Many authors either improve gradually (and maybe fall off later) or start brilliantly (then go off a cliff)... To maintain a consistent standard of excellence over so many years is exceptionally rare (IMO). A must-read, for admirers.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The Silence of the Wave by Gianrico Carafiglio...has impressed me far more than other Carafiglio novels..."

Interesting - I like Carofiglio a lot (except for 'The Past is a Foreign Co..."

i read some on the endless commutes pre covid but dont remember the titles, the cold summer was a disappointment as it seemed so well set up for me and generally a book that hits all the right buttons is rarely dropped halfway. i should say though that the cold summer was a well crafted and intelligent novel, i always think one should try and be objective with books that didnt work out and see the quality of the writer and his intent.

[Berkley]

scarletnoir wrote: " by Anne Tyler

OK - Tyler is probably my favourite living author. She is a born storyteller, with no pretensions. No use of absurdly fancy language to tell a story..."

I was thinking of trying one of her 1990s books since I've been going through some of the things I missed during that decade - any recommendations from around then? I was looking at, for example, A Patchwork Planet (1998). Otherwise I'll probably start at the beginning, with If Morning Ever Comes (1964).

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "A nasty spate of un-painkillable headaches has curbed my reading in last 4 days but not by much, i refuse to surrender. i have a suspicion my migraines could be sneaking back after a good 8 years w..."

Sorry to hear that AB, migraines are evil. Would it help to ring the surgery and ask for a telephone appointment or just ask for them to refer back to your medical history and prescribe the meds again. Alternatively, the pharmacist may be able to help. Good luck.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "A nasty spate of un-painkillable headaches has curbed my reading in last 4 days but not by much, i refuse to surrender. i have a suspicion my migraines could be sneaking back after a g..."

i think its NOT migraines thankfully and only 1 in 5 i suffered were that bad but i do need to get a prescription sorted, after a very quiet almost decade without migraines

[Andy]

CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the visit. It seems it’s been on the list for a while. I did visit, many years ago, a boat dropping me off from Iceland and the Faroes, but I hurried south..

The rest of the Scottish islands are much busier in the summer. The cooler weather will hopefully put many off, as well as the Culicoides Impuntatus…

I’m trying to squeeze 50 days up there, and slowly heading from south to north, as in Walking on the Orkney and Shetland Isles: 80 Walks in the Northern Isles, which is written by an old neighbour of mine.

[Andy]

Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins

Jenkins has an elegance to her writing that would suit a gentle story of Victorian England’s country gardens and village life in which nothing much happens. But here, in the relating of a chilling tale, the attention to every domestic detail gives it a particularly disturbing feel.

With pitiless precision Jenkins describes the process of deception by which four people, for the most common of motives, bring themselves to murder. The climatic and mesmeric ending is that much better for the protracted scenes that have played their part in escalating the tension.

Based on an actual case, the characters in Jenkins’s book share their first names with their real-life counterparts, just their last names were changed.

Harriet Woodhouse, the heiress to a fortune, is called a "natural" (a Victorian euphemism for someone who is intellectually disabled) by her mother and those close to her, though she is called much worse by those who treat her with coldness, jealousy or pure cruelty. She is courted, and very much against her family’s will, marries Lewis Oman, who we know from the outset is no good; he gets a kick out of using women and ridiculing Harriet comes easy to him. He is honest about his motives in the marriage, and clever in his exploitation of her weakness. But Lewis doesn’t act alone, within the household also are his brother Patrick and his wife, Elizabeth, and her young sister, Alice.

Soon Harriet is part of the family, installed in Elizabeth and Patrick’s spare room. The conniving foursome see her as a tiresome relative, an encumbrance to their daily lives, a burden anyone could understand them resenting - they have other priorities.

Steadily, within weeks, Harriet’s appearance and behaviour worsen, and she is forcibly confined to her room more and more; out of sight - out of mind.

Jenkins is careful to avoid any form of sensationalism. Her skill, the terror she creates in the reader’s mind, is in normalising human cruelty, and mulling the contradictions of life.

[Bill]

Andy wrote: "Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins

Jenkins has an elegance to her writing that would suit a gentle story of Victorian England’s country gardens..."

A book that impressed me very much in the way it normalized, for me not so much cruelty as you said, but evil, not just in Lewis, but also in the easily persuaded accomplices he finds near at hand.

[Greenfairy]

Scarletnoir: Burke was hanged, he was dissected and his skeleton is still on display in the Anatomists Hall.
Many graves in the Edinburgh area are covered in enormous stone slabs that were put in place to deter "the resurrectionists".

[Greenfairy]

AB, I do hope you managed to get rid of the headaches

[AB76]

Greenfairy wrote: "AB, I do hope you managed to get rid of the headaches"

some progress but i've never had 3 days of them. its not severe pain, its livable but fustrating. usually i pop some paractemol and its all ok, this time it keeps coming back, though milder today

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the visit. It seems it’s been on..."

worst midge experience was a round of golf on skye. i'm not a golfer, so it was a one off but geez...every shrub had a midge cloud and i was nibbled to death

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the visit. It seems..."

Make a note to stay away from Maine during black fly season which used to be mostly late spring, but google tells me that with global warming that it now goes into summer. They are the nastiest little things. Get between your eyes and glasses - even. Then there are the ring of bites where the T-shirt neckband ends. Not something I miss. Itch!

[[deleted user]]

scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "HG despises the English landed classes..." He sounds like another of those controversial individuals whose personal behaviour sounds 'less than perfect', though the extent to which it should be criticised depends on how damaged the women in his life felt."

Yes, and without having gone deep into the detail it’s difficult to form a decided view. Reading Heffer you rather lose count of the amours and passades, and that is just the years up to 1914. Certain of the young women do seem to have thrown themselves at the famous author. On the other hand he took advantage (despite being married himself) and then kept his distance when there was a pregnancy to deal with. As far as I can tell, he wasn’t a predator of the Weinstein variety.

His writing, btw, is not all SF. If you’re tempted to try a shortish one, I don’t think you’d be disappointed by The History of Mr Polly which is the best of the ones I've read so far.

[[deleted user]]

An Incomplete Revenge – Jacqueline Winspear (2008)

After the discussion of Maisie Dobbs here a while ago, I was interested to pick one up on spec. This turned out to be the fifth in the series. I liked the story, and I very much liked the style, simple and subtle at the same time.

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "Greenfairy wrote: "AB, I do hope you managed to get rid of the headaches"

some progress but i've never had 3 days of them. its not severe pain, its livable but fustrating. usually i pop some paractemol and its all ok, this time it keeps coming back, though milder today."

It still sounds very unpleasant. Hope you get better.

[Bill]

Russell wrote: "Moving on to Ann Veronica, strongly recommended elsewhere by @lorantffy."

Ann Veronica was one of the few books by a male author reprinted by Virago Press; The Odd Women was another.

[Robert]

giveusaclue wrote: "Robert wrote: "There are a number of good Scots ghost stories: Sir Walter Scott's "Wandering Willie's Tale""

Didn't know he wrote porn! 😀"

Wandering Willie is a fiddler, gone blind, led from one rural event to event by a sighted companion. The fog lies heavy over the moor. Willie and the girl have found a sheltered spot, where they've joined a young gentleman. Willie begins telling a story about a haunting by a rough old knight, Redgauntlet. As the story is about Willie's grandfather, and the young man is a Redgauntlet himself, the tale concerns both men.

[scarletnoir]

Berkley wrote: "I was thinking of trying one of her 1990s books since I've been going through some of the things I missed during that decade - any recommendations from around then? I was looking at, for example, A Patchwork Planet (1998). Otherwise I'll probably start at the beginning, with If Morning Ever Comes (1964)."

Anything by Tyler is good in my opinion, including those two - though I don't recall the details. It seems from scanning the titles that the 1980s included a very good run - Morgan's Passing, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist and Breathing Lessons.

The only one that didn't quite work (for me) was The Amateur Marriage.

[CCCubbon]

Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the visit. It seems it’s been on..."

You have probably guessed that its the archaeology that interests me, that and the sea birds.

Maybe hold off buying The Last Passenger I keep hoping it will improve in the last half but the whole concept of the plot irritates but perhaps it is just me. Maybe younger people would enjoy it more - not find it as ridiculous as I do.

[scarletnoir]

Greenfairy wrote: "Scarletnoir: Burke was hanged, he was dissected and his skeleton is still on display in the Anatomists Hall.
Many graves in the Edinburgh area are covered in enormous stone slabs that were put in p..."

Interesting - maybe I'll try to see it if I ever revisit Edinburgh, which is one of my favourite cities.

The stone slabs - a wise precaution!

[CCCubbon]

Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of Twenty Lost Buildings from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers

This book is rather a treat. I have learned much about the ziggurat that was The Tower of Babel ( maybe should say the succession of ziggurats) , the Processional Way and the Ishtar Gate. Also much about Knossos and how the archaeologist, Evans, let his imagination take over and that the palace is mostly his reconstruction. The palace had an enormous number of rooms some blind passages that could have given rise to the myth of the labyrinth.
Now I am learning about Troy and Mycenae…..

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "(Wells') writing, btw, is not all SF. If you’re tempted to try a shortish one, I don’t think you’d be disappointed by The History of Mr Polly which is the best of the ones I've read so far.


Thanks.

I'm intrigued to see that Wells wrote a novel with the improbable title The Bulpington of Blup! Presumably, not one of the better ones?

[AB76]

CCCubbon wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the visit. It seems..."

what irritates you about it CCC?

[CCCubbon]

I cannot say much without spoiling but it is the situation in which protagonist finds herself that seems so impossible and the ensuing complications make it more incredible.
She goes to sleep in a cabin on a huge cruise ship with her partner but wakes to find not only him gone but also a thousand other passengers and crew……. I think that I find the happenings in the story so illogical - that’s my irritation.
The only reason I haven’t stopped reading is because I have yet to read the explanation

[Andy]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the vi..."

Those occasions really stick in your mind.
I recall cycling in Prince Edward Island. Looking through the fly sheet of the tent in the morning and it was indeed, just a cloud of black flies.
I dreaded Scandinavia last summer, but I think these days I am better prepared. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. But let your guard down for a few seconds, and you’re scoffed - not changing out of shorts after a heavy evening rain shower..
I’m in the process of converting a French window nylon screen to do the job on the side door of the van. I have high hopes..

[Andy]

CCCubbon wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, hence the visit. It seems..."

Thanks CC. I read between the lines of your last post re Dean.
I have much less patience with thriller-type mysteries these days.

[Andy]

Bill wrote: "Andy wrote: "Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins

Jenkins has an elegance to her writing that would suit a gentle story of Victorian England’s co..."

Indeed. I read and enjoyed your review here on GR..

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks CC. Me also, h..."

if you remember the photos that WF Hermans took on the artic circle trip that inspired "beyond sleep", the midges lined the tents in their thousands. Oddly when i was above the arctic circle i didnt find any issues, though it was coastal chilly with low cloud, it seemed Hermans was further inland where it was warmer

when are you off north, going via ferry or what?

[MK]

Wouldn't you know as I'm setting off for a few days in Portland that it is going to be 90° there today. Why did no one check with me first?

I am already planning to buy a book from https://crippen-and-landru.myshopify.... when I return.

If you like short (and usually vintage) mystery stories, you might take a look at their website. Beforehand though, realize that they are a small publisher, so if prices and probably something for shipping are an issue, it's best to NOT look.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay there."

Thanks C..."

I think the worst thing about Maine's black flies is - they are so darned small that unlike when a mosquito lands on your arm and you can swat that sucker!, you cannot help but getting bitten. It's almost better to stay inside as much as possible during the season.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "Robert L. Stephenson's... "The Body Snatchers" come to mind."

This may have ended as a ghost story of sorts (I have not read it) but the factual background is that Edinburgh did ind..."

I've read the play. While both Stevenson and Dylan Thomas drew on the Dr. Knox/ Burke/ Hare case, their stories are very different.

[Robert]

Burke and Hare were remembered in a popular poem:

"Up the close and down the stair
Been the hoose wi' Burke and Hare
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief
And Knox the boy who buys the beef."

[Fuzzywuzz]

I've found a new series of crime/thrillers to read - the Peter Robinson books featuring DCI Banks. I've read the first two, namely Gallows View and the second being A Dedicated Man.

DCI Banks seems to be more of a 'thinking detective' in that his character is given more depth than just a man behind a badge. Most cops in books (and films) almost always have to give the proverbial two fingers to the establishment and to those in higher positions. Banks sticks to to the rules in his investigations, but it his inner thoughts about people and politics in a very no nonsense way makes me laugh out loud at times.

Another common theme across the crime genre is authors being able to make the places as characters themselves. Edinburgh for Ian Rankin, LA for Michael Connolly and Yorkshire for this series.

A new work colleague is also a bookworm and has given me a copy of Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, an author I have yet to read, so is next on my tbr pile.

I also recently finished Emotional Ignorance by Dean Burnett, a rather poignant book about how and why our emotions occur. Indeed the driver for the writer (a neuroscientist from Wales) was to derive insights into his own emotional state following his father's death from Covid.

Another highlight would be Ring by Koji Suzuki which would be IMHO a bit of a horror masterpiece. There are both Japanese and American film versions of this book, but the book surpasses the films (I saw the American one, at my home, alone one night. Mr Fuzzywuzz had been out, but returned home on stealth mode and scare the bejeezus out of me).

The books imagery was certainly haunting, very errie and created a sense of doom which stayed with me long after I finished it. The Ring is the first of three books and I will have to get the next one, at least because the left me wondering what happens next.

[Gpfr]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've found a new series of crime/thrillers to read - the Peter Robinson books featuring DCI Banks. I've read the first two, namely Gallows View and the second being A Dedicated Man..."

I like these a lot — waiting to read his last book.

I didn't like the TV series, Stephen Tompkinson was absolutely not Banks and I felt Annie was really badly portrayed, too.

[Fuzzywuzz]

Gpfr wrote: I didn't like the TV series, Stephen Tompkinson was absolutely not Banks and I felt Annie was really badly portrayed, too.

Oh dear, that's a shame. I haven't seen the TV version. At the very least, Mr Tomkinson is too tall!

[giveusaclue]

Gpfr wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've found a new series of crime/thrillers to read - the Peter Robinson books featuring DCI Banks. I've read the first two, namely Gallows View and the second being A Dedicated Ma..."

Totally agree, Tomkinson's casting was as bad as casting John Hannah as Rebus in one series!

@Fuzzywuzz, I am a bit surprised you haven't come across the series before. Have you seen Stephen Booth's series set in Derbyshire. Or the late Stuart Pawson's set in Yorkshire? And if you know the Lake District at all you may like the Bruce Beckham series.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/st...

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/st...

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/br...

[CCCubbon]

I crawled through 47% of The Last Passenger but even my patience has evaporated - binned. I don’t like giving up but cannot face any more at bedtime.
You reminded me that I have the last DCI Banks book Standing innthe Shadows waiting to be read.

[scarletnoir]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've found a new series of crime/thrillers to read - the Peter Robinson books featuring DCI Banks...Banks sticks to to the rules in his investigations, but it his inner thoughts about people and politics in a very no nonsense way makes me laugh out loud at times..."

Interesting. I've seen the TV series, which is sombre and gloomy, but not read the books. Others seem convinced that Tompkinson is miscast as Banks, and it may well be so.

(As for Rebus - I preferred Hannah to Ken Stott as Rebus. I always saw John as a wiry individual, not plump-ish as is Stott. Both are very good actors - IMO. Maybe they'll reinterpret the books in a new series sometime with 'someone' who will give a definitive interpretation.)

[scarletnoir]

by Mercedes Rosende (trans. Tim Gutteridge, published by Bitter Lemon Press.)

This is a follow-up to the excellent 'Crocodile Tears', both brilliantly translated by Tim Gutteridge. My edition carries the strapline 'Murder and Mayhem in Montevideo' - which accurately summarises the first book which ends with an armed robbery. Those events are skilfully introduced in the early chapters here, with the bulk of this story concerning the criminal lawyer (!) Antonucci's attempts to recover the loot from the intrepid anti-hero Ursula Lopez.

In common with many books in the crime genre, the plot is an important feature - here it it twisty and contains unexpected outcomes - but what sets the book apart is the author's skill at both presenting the psychology of our protagonist Ursula and her ability to use several narrative styles with equal conviction. For example: the first chapter is written in the first person from Ursula's POV... some other chapters are also in the first person of other characters; we get straightforward chapters in the authorial voice; and most intriguingly, we get the writer's equivalent of 'breaking the fourth wall', where the reader is directly addressed:

The door clicks, and the hand pushes it open and enters the building.
Let us follow...

and later (both examples from Chapter IV):

So let us move to the third floor...

I suspect this sort of thing may put off some readers; in this case, I found Rosende's insouciance carries it off brilliantly: I was amused and charmed, rather than ejected from the flow of the narrative. The interjections frequently made me smile, but it may not be to everyone's taste.

It was also interesting to read a novel set in a new location - I knew little about Montevideo; you learn a fair amount here and I was impressed by online pictures of the Palacio Salvo, where some of the action takes place:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio...
I would like to read more books by this author, but atm it seems only these two have been translated into English. The first has (I think) been translated into French (the title is different, so not sure) but it's badly rated on Amazon, which makes me suspect that the translator messed things up, and may prevent any follow ups.

(If Georg is reading this - at least one has been translated into German, though for obvious reasons I can't comment on how well that has been done.)

[Robert]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "@Andy
Shetland is one place that I really wish that I could have visited so will be very interested in your stay ther..."

There is a fly called a "no-see-um" up in Alaska. The victim doesn't see it so much as inhale it.

[AB76]

Occasional Oxfam browses reveal series of books from somebodys bookshelf on topics that have been donated, i found a fascinating collection of 80s Russian lit, some australian thrillers and last year a collection of The Pelican Latin American Library from 1960-1970

Of the three books i picked up, i have just started the second, focused on the Nordeste region of Brazil, entitled Cambao-The Joke by Francisco Juliao(1968). It is a sudy of the region and his work for the Peasent League, before he was forced into exile by the military junta in the 1960s.

Having some census data of Brazil to hand for the 1950s, i was astonished at how recorded literacy in the Nordeste region was barely 40%, shocking for a developing state in that era. The Nordeste was poor and exploited by the 1950s, suffering from decline in its traditional colonial style economy and facing emigration to Southern Brazil and the bigger cities. I was also suprised that around 48% of the Nordeste population in 1950 was white, i would have imagined it to be far lower.

[Georg]

scarletnoir wrote: " by Mercedes Rosende (trans. Tim Gutteridge, published by Bitter Lemon Press.)

This is a follow-up to the excellent 'Crocodile Tears', both brilliantly ..."


Thanks for the review scarlet. I did a sweep at GR comments, sounds also very good to me.
Both are translated. And published by the Unionsverlag in Zurich. They started with working-class literature and soon concentrated on translating books by unknown, or little known writers, many of them non-European. Still flourishing after 48 years as an independent with the original founder at the helm. As for translations: there is almost a guarantee that it will be good. They treat translators as "authors" in their own right. Which got them an award from the German Association of Translators.

[Lass]

Re Anne Tyler. They’re all worth reading, and in my case, re-reading.

[Gpfr]

Lass wrote: "Re Anne Tyler. They’re all worth reading, and in my case, re-reading."

Agreed 100%!