What are we reading? 28/08/2023

[Paul]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Robert wrote: "Some Do Not, Ford Madox Ford's set before the onset of the World War, is quite good.."

Not sure if you know that Some Do Not is actually the first of the Parade's End books Robert (..."

I agree, the inclusion of The Last Post is essential and really sets the whole tetralogy in a just light

[[deleted user]]

Robert wrote: "If an American firm had been involved, they might have invoked the federal Arbitration Act, which swallows up all in its path, including appeal of anything except fraud in the inducement."

Yes, I’m sure. My story was already too long to go into the fact that the parties had deliberately opted to stay out of any US law or jurisdiction. In those days England had a good reputation as somewhere neutral for commercial disputes. I don’t know if that still applies, though it does seem to be the place where Russian oligarchs like to fight their battles.

[AB76]

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a very slim volume but i am deliberately reading it slowly to immerse myself in slave-era Maryland and the world he knew.

He has yet to escape but it has been a superbly constructed work of mid 19thc autobiography. Douglass was self taught as he describes in the narrative, learning on the hoof amid his life in the inhuman world of organised slavery

I am aiming to read Olmsteads The Slave States after this and to remember Douglass in my mind, reading Olmstead before Douglas was a mistake as the real world was partially hidden by the benign and sometimes cynical squire-ocracy of the south representing itself to outsiders like Olmstead. All these southern gents and their southern ways, soaked in blood(in 1850s )

[[deleted user]]

Apropos Ford Madox Ford I’ve just got to the bit in Simon Heffer’s The Age of Decadence where he is discussing new departures in English literature. Apparently it was FMF who discovered DH Lawrence and put him in touch with Edward Garnett, who in turn advised DHL on Sons and Lovers, editing out a tenth of the manuscript, and some of the sexual references, and to whom it is dedicated. The restraint in sexual matters was very necessary. I had forgotten that Vizetelly was convicted of obscene libel for publishing a translation of Zola’s La Terre.

In quite a different vein, I was also pleased to be reminded by Heffer of a marvellous metaphor used by Wilde in De Profundis. Wilde talks of the risks he knew he was taking by so publicly showing his attachment to Lord Alfred Douglas: “… from the point of view through which I, as an artist in life, approached them, [they] were delightfully suggestive and stimulating. It was like feasting with panthers. The danger was half the excitement.”

[Robert]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Robert wrote: "Some Do Not, Ford Madox Ford's set before the onset of the World War, is quite good.."

Not sure if you know that Some Do Not is actually the first of the Parade's End books Robert (..."

I simply didn't care for the second book in the series, and stopped, but I thought that the character draughtsmanship in Some Do Not was first-rate.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "Apropos Ford Madox Ford I’ve just got to the bit in Simon Heffer’s The Age of Decadence where he is discussing new departures in English literature. Apparently it was FMF who discovered DH Lawrence..."

That Heffer book is on my list and gets better every time i read a reference to it. If you want another book on the edwardians Russ, i recommend the british politicians Roy Hatterselys The Edwardians

i must get round to reading some of more edwardians authors, i have read quite a few , must read Galsworthy, soon, its an era i am fascinated by and i found the first Forysthe volume in Oxfam, so its on the pile. I also have a earlier novel of his called The Dark Flower on the pile

[Gpfr]

I'm advancing slowly through Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year, savouring it.
One reason for being rather slow is my trying to waken my more than dormant Old English knowledge. Some of the excerpts quoted have the original text as well as the translation, but for longer ones she just has the translation. For some of these, like the poems The Wanderer and The Ruin, I've got the original and am painstakingly working my way through them. Identifying the correct passage sometimes takes time, especially if I turn over 2 pages at once in the Old English anthology and spend several minutes on the wrong poem, mystified by the total absence of any connection ... For some of the prose passages, too, the references in the 2 books aren't sufficiently precise for me to see immediately if I've got e.g. the right text by Ælfric or not. But it's all fun 😀

[Gpfr]

On a less studious note, I'm reading Barbara Nadel's latest Istanbul-set Çetin İkmen novel, Double Illusion.

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "...That Heffer book is on my list ..."

I’ll do a fuller comment on it when I get to the end. On the basis of the first 500 pages I’d say you would definitely enjoy it. The Hattersley does sound good.

[MK]

I am back cooking with gas (or fiber) once again. Tech came by yesterday and ended up at some local box where an animal (rodent named squirrel?) had chewed through fiberglass. Who knew that progress meant . . .

I've just finished listening to The Mistress of Bhatia House which was a depressing listen. And, I think, not that much has changed in India in the ensuing years.

[MK]

A note from an oversharer - clipped from FB - Can we have a drumroll please? Because we have our official final sign-up total for the Summer Reading Challenge 2023! Across all Norfolk Libraries (and factoring in over 700 digital sign-ups) we reached 11,188 children signed up to the challenge! You read that right. ELEVEN THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT. I mean, that's just ridiculous.
To celebrate, here are some of our favourite facts about this years challenge!
📖 One child borrowed 189 books over the summer holidays. Yep, that's right. 189.
📖 28 children borrowed over 100 books.
📖 Almost 9000 children read all 6 books to complete the challenge.

[AB76]

While i'm fortunate not to have had any reading doldrums like many in here and on the G have mentioned i do get indecisive phases where books bounce back and forth on the imaginary "TBR list" and sometimes this can spoil a short period, when really starting any of the proposed books would probably result in a fairly good read.

I try and mix genres, focus on womens writing, colonial writing as much as i can. The translation question means i tend to be awaiting some novels a lot and recently German translation has focused a lot more on 1933-45 than say 1880-1914.

One strong trend in my reading since lockdown has been more english language reading, a lot less translated material. Its been rewarding but in some areas like australian and canadian fiction, the variety can start to dry up once you start digging deeper, the quality is high but not the quantity. When you see authors with maybe 10 novels in their bibliography, but only 2 are in print, despite being written in english, you do wonder what is the problem with the supply of books sometimes

[MK]

Here's an FT link that might be of interest - David Pilling enjoys turbot and Sancerre with Nobel Prize-winning novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah https://on.ft.com/48m9Ofl

PS-if I'm reading it right, they really enjoyed the Sancerre.

[scarletnoir]

"must read Galsworthy, soon."

We had to study his play 'Strife' for O level.

It was terrible!

(You may like it! ;-)

[scarletnoir]

MK wrote: "I've just finished listening to The Mistress of Bhatia House which was a depressing listen. And, I think, not that much has changed in India in the ensuing years."

From the POV of the way women are undervalued and treated? I know what you mean, but I've felt rather cheered by the only book in the series I've read to date ('The Bombay Prince - I intend to read at least one more.) In spite of the many obstacles, lawyer Perveen Mistry does make a difference - as does female 'tec Persis Wadia in Vaseem Khan's 'Malabar House' series.

I suppose one's reaction depends on whether it's viewed from a 'progress ie being made - slowly' or a 'there is a hell of a long way to go' perspective - unless it is more 'depressing' than the one I read.

(I was amused to see this comment on Amazon about one of the Malabar House books:
Enjoyable, a bit too wrapped up in the history and politics of India.

Well, d'oh! For some of us, at least, that is the whole point of reading books like this.

[scarletnoir]

MK wrote: "One child borrowed 189 books over the summer holidays. Yep, that's right. 189."

And did they read all 189? I do hope there wasn't a prize for "borrowing" the most books! I also hope the young person in question managed to get out in the fresh air for a bit!

However, let's celebrate anything that can get kids reading. Daughter no. 1 and partner have joined us for a week in France, and I was surprised and delighted to see them both spending most of their first two days to date just... reading. Our daughter read a lot as a kid (naturally, with the encouragement and examples she had) but seemed to lose the habit at university.

Great to see her start again.

[MK]

scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "One child borrowed 189 books over the summer holidays. Yep, that's right. 189."

And did they read all 189? I do hope there wasn't a prize for "borrowing" the most books! I also hope the..."

I agree 189 is a lot of books - perhaps they were picture books? Anyway, I like it that kids are reading - they will help keep libraries open.

[MK]

Laura Lippman still has IT. I've just finished listening to her latest standalone, . I never saw her twist at the end. Certainly at least a 4-star if I were a star giver.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: ""must read Galsworthy, soon."

We had to study his play 'Strife' for O level.

It was terrible!

(You may like it! ;-)"

i dont remember if i read any of his plays...