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What are we reading? 26 June 2023
AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "I see that Milan Kundera has died aged 92... I enjoyed many of his novels, as did madame who also saw him lecture during his time in France. His intelligence is clear from this ..."That was too quick! I got the age wrong in my post (now edited) - he was 94, not 92. Sorry!
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https://www.theguardian.com/music/202...
The poster says that 50% of the cost of music lessons at home will be paid by the state. It's taken off people's income tax, or, if it's more than they would pay in tax or if they don't pay tax, they are given the money.
Of course, people have to be able to pay out the money to start with which would be a barrier for those who are hard up and I've no idea of the cost of these lessons. But it seemed to me a positive thing.
What would I do without Google? Yesterday I was looking at recipes which involved either red or white wine, so I was not all that surprised when I woke up in the night with 'a bottle of red, a bottle of white' in my head, and thanks to Google for - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxx8I...
I have just returned The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow to the library.It focuses on Mary, the middle Bennett sister, the one who played the piano and sang badly at the ball and embarrassed the family.I was persuaded to read the overlong turgid tome by enthusiastic reviews and I should have known better.
It is little more than dull fan fiction written I suspect, for an audience who have only seen the pretty TV. and film adaptations of Austen's work.
I say this because the author shows little knowledge of the the manners and mores of the period and her book has none off the wit, humour or verve of Austen.
The first half is a very plodding going over of the events of Pride and Prejudice and then when the oh-so predictable romance occurs Hadlow seems to have forgotten that her source material is Pride and Prejudice and not Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion. I am pleased that I borrowed this poor effort rather than paying good money for it.
Greenfairy wrote: "I have just returned The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow to the library.It focuses on Mary, the middle Bennett sister, the one who played the piano and sang badly at the ball and embarrassed ..."I asked Google about the author and up comes tictoc. Wow.
AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "I see that Milan Kundera has died aged 92... I enjoyed many of his novels, as did madame who also saw him lecture during his time in France. His intelligence is clear from this ..."Kundera was a witty, sensual writer, the antidote to Brezhnev-era imperialism. France was the ideal place for him.
Still in World War II mode. I returned the recent De Gaulle bio-- it's in the local library, and I'll be back for it later-- but, wouldn't you know it, the same local library had a donated copy of Prange's At Dawn We Slept, for one dollar. Everyone over a certain age has an idea of the Pearl Harbor attack, but Prange, whose short chapters follow an array of Japanese and American characters, military and civilian, as they make decisions-- not least, how to interpret information, and what to pass on-- keeps me turning pages. I've been hopping from incident to incident, and the planes are finally in the air....
scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "Even pro-Confederates who weren't at Lawrence had qualms about the place. The only comment Rooster makes comes when he's alone with Mattie, but seems to be speaking not to her but th..."I'm not that big an expert. I should skim the book again.
Robert wrote: "Still in World War II mode. I returned the recent De Gaulle bio-- it's in the local library, and I'll be back for it later-- but, wouldn't you know it, the same local library had a donated copy of ..."one WW2 era non-fiction book i have on the pile is Czapski's Inhuman Land, it looks very interesting focusing on his time in the Anders Polish Army and trying to investigate the Katyn massacre. The Soviets played a savage cruel part in Polish history in WW2, only to the subject the nation to 40 odd years of misery after 1945
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I've started reading Colin Thubron's The Amur River.The river runs between Russia and China.
There are wildly different estimates of its length ... Its China shore is almost untravelled, while razor wire and watchtowers shadow its Russian bank from end to end in the most densely fortified frontier on earth.Thubron is 80 years old, travelling on horseback. The journey starts in Mongolia.
...
suddenly the notion of following a river of 2, 826 miles (the favoured estimate) ... seems little more than a fantasy
I've been looking for some photographs (there are none in the book). This is an extract from the book with some photos:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/20...
Nice to have a cooler July so far, temps 20-22c, plenty of rain and nothing like June, though that weather has made the countryside look like August last year, not much green and low river levelsAbout to start The Promise by Damon Galgut, not expecting much from it but i want to give it a go
Enjoying Hartley's The Go Between(1953) and a Yale Uni Press study of Irish cities in the 18c The First Irish Cities by David Dickson(2021), plus the eastern themed essays of the late great Indian author Raja Rao
I have finished 'The Midnight Library' by Matt Haig. I enjoyed the read very much. And it is very much a sort of 'life-coaching' novel written by someone who has been at the sharp end of having had a mental break-down themselves. But then I thought perhaps all novels are sort of 'life-coaching' books in a way, and that the enjoyment that is got out of the book is how much a person identifies, or sympathises/empathises with the characters or the situation that is set up in the novel. Of course there are books that are enjoyed for just the quality of the language, but I still believe that there are elements of connection, either visually, historically, spiritually that to some extent have to chime with the reader, in order to appreciate even a highly 'literary' book. What do others think?..It's not to my surprise that when I looked up its due by date on my library account I found that there were 36 reserves on this book!... The most I have ever seen I think... I don't want to say anything about the plot as I think its a book that should be taken as it is read. Still it is recommended by me, and had a curious concord to my own history, as to why I took up writing my 'Book of Hours', still alas unfinished. At least my final chapter, 'The Thirteenth Hour'...
Next up is 'The Transit of Venus' by Shirley Hazzard, which I am hoping will be right up my street, and due to it having one other reader having reserved it I have put it ahead of reading what was going to be my initial next choice on the book pile, 'The Cartographers' by Peng Shepherd which seems ideal for me, being about maps... "There are some maps you can get lost in"... You can equally substitute 'maps' for 'books' I think...
I see Fran is somewhat heroically trying to resurrect the idea of the 'Guardian' bookclub, in the 'other place' with 'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont'. I don't have a copy alas, and it would take me a while to order it through the library, but I did read it many years ago, and enjoyed it. I think it would be easier to run a bookclub where there was at least a month or so's notice as to what the choice is going to be... I do wonder if it is fair to chip in views on books that have not been read for a long time. The memory is a somewhat unreliable thing, at least it appears to be, sometimes, to me... Still I'm interested to see how it fairs as a subset of WWAR. I wish it well...
AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Still in World War II mode. I returned the recent De Gaulle bio-- it's in the local library, and I'll be back for it later-- but, wouldn't you know it, the same local library had a d..."I think I stopped reading Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther - A Man Without Breath because I just couldn't handle that massacre. It is beyond me that some group could do that.
A friend of mine spent lots on Prime Day and doesn't know where he is going to stash all the TP he bought!Amazon's annual, global Prime Day has become a tide that lifts all boats in retail. Shoppers spent $6.4 billion across U.S. e-commerce platforms on Tuesday, the first day of Amazon's two-day Prime Day deal. (Axios)
I did my bit at Better World Books instead.
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TP?
Tam wrote: "I have finished 'The Midnight Library' by Matt Haig. I enjoyed the read very much. And it is very much a sort of 'life-coaching' novel written by someone who has been at the sharp end of having had..."I think there’s a bit of a problem with trying to do a ‘bookclub’ in the middle of WWR because as the month goes on the thread sinks further down.
I tried to help by posting a comment but the total thread is still 10 - it hasn’t changed for a couple of days. I have trouble finding it now.
I suppose fran could start a new thread withMrs Palfrey in bold at the top or perhaps a new book club posting everyday but then it might make the whole thing rather disjointed.
Maybe signal ‘to be discussed on ( date ) would help.
I still have my Mrs Palfrey ebook so was able to refresh my memory. Found the book sad, didn’t really like her depiction of the elderly.
Some may find, like me, that many younger people treat the old as if
a child which is infuriating but I have learned to smile sweetly!
MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Still in World War II mode. I returned the recent De Gaulle bio-- it's in the local library, and I'll be back for it later-- but, wouldn't you know it, the same local li..."it was the coldest expression of stalinist terror, possibly the most organised elimination of an intellgensia in WW2 and its hard to stomach MK, i agree. I am not remotely squeamish but it was one of the most clinical mass murders in history.
any reading about what Stalin did to eastern poland in 1939-40 reminds you what he was capable of, it was far more clinical and murderous on the Soviet side. than the Nazis in Western Poland in that period. Plus the Soviets targeted anyone, nobody was off their radar the Nazi's seemed less organised, at least initially, they soon became very very efficient sadly
I was so impressed by the translation of The Harz Journey by Ritchie Robertson, which seemed to capture what one imagines to be the true poetic style of Heine’s original, that my attention was caught when I came across a very different volume by RR. He used to be Professor of German Language and Literature at Oxford. His 1,000 page volume on The Enlightenment seems to be the summation of a lifetime’s enthusiasms. I dipped in, the writing looked easy and digestible, and I’ve now got my own copy. I don’t suppose at all that I shall be diligent and read it from start to finish. I’m much more likely to use it as a pleasurable work of reference. For example, in amongst the many sections on the Scientific Revolution, and Practical Enlightenment (medicine, education, the Encyclopédie, and Philosophical History (Hume, Gibbon, etc), there’s a passage discussing Julie, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and the magnificent Clarissa, as the originating works of Sensibility. It’s rather obvious when you think about it, but I never saw them treated together like that before.
CCCubbon wrote: "Tam wrote: "I have finished 'The Midnight Library' by Matt Haig. I enjoyed the read very much. And it is very much a sort of 'life-coaching' novel written by someone who has been at the sharp end o..."I can see your point, from my memory of the book, but to me it is very much a 'period piece' and in keeping with those 'times', as to how many elderly people were thought of, and treated in England, at the time. It was interesting that she formed a close relationship with such a young person, who was also a bit of an outsider, which to my mind also happened quite often as well, if there was the opportunity that is...
I think we can all benefit from having access to perspectives on how things used to be, as to enlightening us as to how our society has progressed, or not... It is still a well written novel though... and worth the consideration of younger people who may not be that much aware of how 'the times have been a-changing'...
CCCubbon wrote: "Tam wrote: "I have finished 'The Midnight Library' by Matt Haig. I enjoyed the read very much. And it is very much a sort of 'life-coaching' novel written by someone who has been at the sharp end o..."i have to say from my volunteering that people who are genuine with the older generation is the minority, there is a lot of childish feedback and codding. I treat the clients at the day centre as old friends, focus on their interests and memories, with lots of good humour. the saddest thing is that many feel they are a burden and a bother, ages range from 72 to 99, i have never met a more polite and kind group, an example to middle aged folk like me especially
i tried to read BS Johnsons HouseMotherNormal in the winter but didnt get far, i must revisit it but was wary as its a novel about the older generation by a writer was then in middle age. I'd rather read an account by an 80yo. (I though the last series of Picard on tv., star trek spin off, dealt with age well, in-jokes about infirmity but between older folk, not about them and of course Patrick Stewart is now 83 or 84)
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I'd been thinking that earlier. After reading your comment, I just went back and looked for it, it took a while to get to it. I don't see that it's really going to work. Are people going to rather forget about it because it isn't immediately visible/accessible? No comments since the 10th.
Also, lacking a Sam to get people started ...
I've got Mrs Palfrey, had it for a while, but don't feel too much like reading it just now.
I‘ve been rereading it and am sorry the thread is more or less lost.
Just heard from Ollie, the sprog, that he has got his Irish citizenship through, in time for the mini-sprog (due 2nd Oct.) to become Irish too. So Yay!, at least for me. Both are back in the EU. The Irish civil service were very helpful with the paperwork, it seems. He applied a bit less than 18 months ago, and was told that he would have a 2 year wait (as a qualifying grandchild) for citizenship, so they have pulled the stops out so that the mini-sprog will qualify when he is born.
It feels like a weird thing to me, for a country to actually welcome its new (qualifying) citizens... I guess I'm, a bit jaded by Britain at the moment. He is signed up for a Catalan speaking nursery so he will be brought up multi-lingual. Russian, Spanish, Catalan and English, and Ol says he will be encouraged to speak Irish Gaelic as well. I don't think that they are planning on Disney murals on the nursery wall though. Have promised him that we will all do a 'mothú muintir' trip to Ireland when the time seems right....
MK wrote: "A friend of mine spent lots on Prime Day and doesn't know where he is going to stash all the TP he bought!Amazon's annual, global Prime Day has become a tide that lifts all boats in retail. Shopp..."
I suppose that it's a sign of isolation in old age... but I have no idea what Prime Day is.
Let's not find out!
AB wrotei have to say from my volunteering that people who are genuine with the older generation is the minority, there is a lot of childish feedback and codding.
Yes, that is exactly what I am talking about. I suppose if one grumbled that would also be a sign to them of ‘the age’ and so we say nothing. It is a delight when someone speaks to you normally.
That’s why Mrs Palfrey likes speaking with Ludo.
(Must confess that sometimes I switch into math lecturer mode !!)
AB76 wrote: "Memory is a funny thing as one ages and The Go Between by LP Hartley is tweaking memories and also reminding me of things i have forgotten.
One is the nature of english summers and their impact on..."
Thank you for the write up on The Go Between, AB. I also hated Hardy novels at school. Tess at A Level was possibly the lowest point of my school life, but we had to do some of his poetry for O Level and I loved that.
One is the nature of english summers and their impact on..."
Thank you for the write up on The Go Between, AB. I also hated Hardy novels at school. Tess at A Level was possibly the lowest point of my school life, but we had to do some of his poetry for O Level and I loved that.
Greenfairy wrote: "I have just returned The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow to the library.It focuses on Mary, the middle Bennett sister, the one who played the piano and sang badly at the ball and embarrassed ..."
Love this review.
Love this review.
CCCubbon wrote: "AB wrotei have to say from my volunteering that people who are genuine with the older generation is the minority, there is a lot of childish feedback and codding.
Yes, that is exactly what I am..."
i think many people selfishly try and avoid interaction with older people as it reminds them of what may be in store, i get an impression that is the case all too often..
with clients at the centre i am fine with being told something 5 times in an hour, i show no suprise or try and correct them.
i think Tove Jansson in The Summer Book captures a grandchild-grandmother dynamic in a touching but also sad way. The fatigue of the grandmother, the realisation of age, though also the indomitable spirit (like my own mother, who is 78 ,...oh that spirit!)
Anne wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Memory is a funny thing as one ages and The Go Between by LP Hartley is tweaking memories and also reminding me of things i have forgotten.One is the nature of english summers and th..."
FFMC was the one i hated, until i re-read at 25 and loved it!
have you read or studied The Go Between?
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AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "AB wrotei have to say from my volunteering that people who are genuine with the older generation is the minority, there is a lot of childish feedback and codding.
Yes, that is ..."
Was trying to explain this to a friend y'day. It is easy to get frustrated but those with dementia don't know they are repeating themselves and you have to accept it and go along with it. I remember driving my mum to hospital 10 miles away and every 100 yards or so "where are we going?" then "why are we going?"
That was the easiest part of her dementia to cope with to be honest.
The Meaning of India a collection of non fiction writing by the Indian author Raja Rao, possible with RK Naryan the best South Indian writer in English has started brilliantly. Rao crosses the french border into Germany, mid 1930s, to meet with Pandit Nehru at a resort where Kamala Nehru is recieving medial treatment. He steps into Nazi Germany and into the mountains where Nehru and Rao have a lively discussion on many matters. Nehru is suprised that Rao, as a South Indian, speaks Urdu, Rao replies it is "Deccan Urdu" and he learnt it at Aligarh Uni and a madrasa in Hyderabad where he was the only Hindu in his class. Nehru comments that as a Kashmiri he is a meat eater and they quietly disagree on religion and Indian cultural religion. Nehru remarks that where has 3,000 years of this got India, mired in poverty, while Rao is more idealistic. All under the Nazi shadow.
Rao is a real character, which comes accross in his lively writing style. A small man with vivid blue eyes, he died in his 90s a few decades ago and he is possibly less known than other Indian writers in English, such as RK Narayan and MR Anand but possibly the most interesting of the three
The tiresome G are moderating this post now, gosh what has offended the censors this time?
AB wrotei think many people selfishly try and avoid interaction with older people as it reminds them of what may be in store, i get an impression that is the case all too often..
That’s an interesting observation - one I had not thought about.
Of course I wasn’t thinking about people suffering with dementia - that’s something different. It seems to me that younger people equate old age with dementia but not all old people suffer - we may forget names and not be so fast on our feet.
In truth I find nurses and doctors are the worst offenders.
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The tiresome G are moderating this post now..."
Maybe you're too impatient, AB 😃. I've just seen this in The G.
CCCubbon wrote: "AB wrotei think many people selfishly try and avoid interaction with older people as it reminds them of what may be in store, i get an impression that is the case all too often..
That’s an intere..."
i agree that dementia gets bandied about when its very different to occasional forgetfulness. 60% of ppl at the centre i volunteer at are dementia sufferers and its sad to see the daily toll on their lives and their families.
Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The Meaning of India a collection of non fiction writing by the Indian author Raja Rao, possible with RK Naryan the best South Indian writer in English has started brilliantly. The t..."
phew, its annoying when i write a longish post and then remember it has to pass through the gates of hades!
AB76 wrote: "...i agree that dementia gets bandied about when its very different to occasional forgetfulness.My mother doesn't have dementia despite her considerable age (101) but she does repeat her 'stories' a lot - not surprisingly as nothing really new happens to her any more. It doesn't bother me, as I grew up learning to 'zone out' on adult conversation if it wasn't interesting; madame finds it harder! (The stories are interesting first time around, not so much the 20th time!) We still discuss new everyday issues (what stocks need replenishing etc.), the news, sports etc. She keeps in touch with all that.
As for me - despite being older than AB's youngest codger, I must still retain a degree of menace, as people are more likely to give me a wide berth than to condescend to me! ;-)
MK wrote: "I think I stopped reading Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther - A Man Without Breath because I just couldn't handle that massacre. It is beyond me that some group could do that."Kerr was very good indeed at incorporating some of the Nazis' atrocities and also everyday 'behaviours' into his Gunther crime novels. I read them all, as I prefer to gain insights into historical events that way than in an academic retelling of what supposedly happened in a history book.
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I'd been thinking thatl..."
Paulthe Exile has read the book and just added quite a long post to the thread, so a few people are trying.
Gpfr wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "I think there’s a bit of a problem with trying to do a ‘bookclub’ in the middle of WWR because as the month goes on the thread sinks further down. ..."I'd been think..."
It was your reminder here that jogged my memory in order to get the discussion going once more. Although I do agree that it's not the most amenable format to discussing a book, it's a nobel effort. It's a fantastic book and ought to be discussed in depth
AB76 wrote: "The tiresome G are moderating this post now, gosh what has offended the censors this time?"Count yourself lucky, I've been banned for good on the G! 🤣
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I..."
You and CCC have stirred me to finally get around to reading it. I've been focusing more on her short stories over recent months.
I wonder how people feel about authors who, with or without consent from somewhere, appropriate well-known characters? In general, I'm not keen on the idea if the purpose is simply to 'continue' with the character in some way - such as books on Sherlock Holmes or James Bond (possibly, those which deal with Bond as a youngster may have some validity - I have not read them.) The only exception I'm familiar with is 'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys, which takes a completely different focus to 'Jane Eyre'. So it was with some disquiet that I read today that one Denise Mina is continuing the Philip Marlowe series... according to the Guardian:
Mina, who is a considerably more efficient plotter than Chandler, remains true to his tone and to Marlowe’s character, while cleaning up his attitude to render him more palatable to modern readers: highly recommended.
Somehow, I think I'll give this a miss - I rather like the convoluted plotting, and as for cleaning up Marlowe - I prefer imperfect protagonists.
scarletnoir wrote: "I wonder how people feel about authors who, with or without consent from somewhere, appropriate well-known characters?..."
I did a search on Amazon to get the correct name of a ghastly continuation of Pride and Prejudice. To my amazement they had pages and pages of continuations and variations. I stopped counting at 30. The best title was Shades of Pemberley.
I did a search on Amazon to get the correct name of a ghastly continuation of Pride and Prejudice. To my amazement they had pages and pages of continuations and variations. I stopped counting at 30. The best title was Shades of Pemberley.
scarletnoir wrote: "So it was with some disquiet that I read today that one Denise Mina is continuing the Philip Marlowe series... "I'm not inclined to read such continuations any more (I did read a number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches at one point, a period which I have likened to taking up residence in a crack house). But even if I were, the promise of "cleaning up his attitude to render him more palatable to modern readers" would set off alarm bells.
AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "AB wrotei have to say from my volunteering that people who are genuine with the older generation is the minority, there is a lot of childish feedback and codding.
Yes, that is ..."
As a fogey myself, I receive more moments of consideration from younger folk than I'd expect. It's selfish to appreciate it-- but I do.
AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Still in World War II mode. I returned the recent De Gaulle bio-- it's in the local library, and I'll be back for it later-- but, wouldn't you know it, the sa..."I don't know if the Nazis were less organized than the Soviets in their war on the Polish intelligentsia. Heydrich and his gang crossed the Polish border with a list of thousands of Poles that they wanted to eliminate or imprison.
However, the Soviets had whole tiers of people they wanted to ship to the East. "The Dark Side of the Moon," a collection of survivor accounts from people Stalin shipped from the former eastern Poland to Siberia, lists the categories of people to be removed-- people who were on the wrong side in the Russian civil war, members of non-Communist left-wing parties, Communists who didn't fit in well with Stalin, Polish landowners, etc. It became gospel that there was no distinct Polish language-- it was a corrupt dialect of Ukrainian or Byelorussian. (Irony here.) One Polish woman describes the Russian "apaches" she met in camp-- the same sort of "honest thieves" (that is, they followed their own law and did as little work as possible) we meet in The Gulag Archipelago.
Still the killings of the Polish officers on Stalin's orders was so cold-blooded that it astounds me. The lone gunman in the butcher's apron was like nothing I'd expect.
I am pleased for Fran that there are some more posts about Mre Palfrey.Why were you banned, give?
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
It's only a movie, Ingrid: Encounters on and off the screen (other topics)A Year in the Dark: Journal of a Film Critic 1968-1969 (other topics)
The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (other topics)
The Best and the Brightest (other topics)
Murder on the Farm (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
David Rosenfelt (other topics)Philip Kerr (other topics)
Richard Taruskin (other topics)
Richard Taruskin (other topics)
Matthew Dallek (other topics)
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(in 1980) K..."
i loathed his novels after the 1970s but loved his 1960s tales and short stories, sad to see him leave us, an important writer bridging the cold war and then the capitalist plunder of the E Europe after 1990