Reading the 20th Century discussion
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What books are you reading now? (2024)
Judy wrote: "I'm currently reading Lette[book:South Ridingrs to a Friend|21841740] by Winifred Holtby, a collection of letters she wrote to her friend Jean McWilliam, who was working in South Africa. They ar..."That sounds promising Judy, I built up a vivid picture of her from reading Testament of Youth but apart from South Riding haven't read anything else of hers, and know very little about her life other than with Vera.
Ben wrote: "Roman Clodia wrote: "I don't think Boris etc. got prosecuted for breaking covid regulations..."Didn't he avoid trial by admitting guilt and paying a fine? I consider this equivalent to a prosecut..."
Thanks Ben, will definitely read that. I heard about the Supreme Court decision in an extended World Service report and was completely gobsmacked. Very, very disturbing.
Kit wrote: "Roman Clodia wrote: "I've finished Keir Starmer: The Biography - my review is here:www.goodreads.com/review/show/6631645655"
Read your review. I haven’t read it myself. Starmer ..."
I can see 'wishy washy' on one level, but on another he's a decent, grown-up with an excellent track record in his legal work. Just having someone mature and sensible who believes in social justice has to be a vast, vast improvement on what we have right now. As for predictions I just hope they don't make voters complacent and affect actual turnout.
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Nigeyb wrote: "Agree. A grown up with a track record of public service is all I want after 14 years of self serving grifters"Too right Nigey! If they got in again then heaven help us all...
I know you weren't that keen R. C. but I really responded to the debut novel from art critic and queer cultural commentator Hanna Johansson AntiquityLink to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wholeheartedly agree, decency, public service and stability it what we need. No way of knowing how much momentum is really in the Reform vote.
Stephen wrote: "Wholeheartedly agree, decency, public service and stability it what we need. No way of knowing how much momentum is really in the Reform vote."I live in Clacton-on-Sea so it will be a 'media circus' here on Thursday.
Can anyone comment on the difference between Labour and the LibDems in this election? Putting aside the question of tactical voting against the Tories, for a centre-left voter without a historic connection to any British party, why choose one or the other?
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Glad this worked so well for you. I rounded down from 3.5 as there was much I liked but I think the writing style didn't completely do it for me. I liked the provocation though.
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Gosh! I think Clacton is supposed to be a late declaration, about 4.00 am if I recall correctly.
I usually try to stay up but currently have Covid. Not sure how long I will be able to keep my eyes from resting.
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Lib-Dems are centrist, Labour still has left-wing members.
The Lib-Dems also tainted their reputation for some of us by propping up the 2010 Tory government by going into coalition with them: they were thus enablers of the ideologically-driven austerity from which we're still suffering.
But tactical voting is the most important thing, I'd say, in this election.
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Sorry to hear that, hope it's not too horrible.
I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. I was too young in 1997 to appreciate it... but am still nervous it could all go wrong!
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Ben wrote: "Yes, there is some other important reading for Americans this week. First, the dismantling of the power of regulatory agencies. And now the dismantling of legal responsibility for persons holding t..."Yesterday was a tough day. Our rights disappear one by one and the felon gets a permanent get out of jail free card. We can only hope that the New York verdict stands. He could get up to 4 years for the 34 counts he was convicted on. Right now he has a motion that some of that should be disallowed because some of it was done while he was president. All that was done while he was president was to sign the checks. Any other president would not have signed them in the oval office, but in the residence.
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You might like Vera Brittain's book about Holtby, Testament of Friendship, Alwynne - it's a few years ago now that I read it, but I remember finding it fascinating and moving. Interesting to read a biography by someone who was such a close friend of Holtby and who was such a great writer herself.
Holtby does write beautifully - I think South Riding is her best, but I also liked The Land of Green Ginger (Virago Modern Classics, Anderby Wold and The Crowded Street. They are all novels set in the north although not as long and multi-layered as South Riding.
I had to laugh at a bit in one of Holtby's letters in the collection I'm reading, where she quotes a newspaper review of her first novel, Anderby Wold. "It wound up: 'I found nothing remarkable in Anderby Wold, the picture wrapper of a hay-cart by C. Leighton is excellent; the novel not so'."
Kit wrote: "Frightening stuff on the American front, yes. Second the recommendation for … And What Do You Do?: What The Royal Family Don't Want You To Know. The king is above the law. Needs t..."
I have also found Robert Reich's comments in his substack to be thought provoking. He's doing a series -- in between responding to the crises of the last couple of weeks -- debunking a number of the economic myths that the far right trot out regularly. He launched the series to educate his readers, so that we in turn can educate the people we know who still believe them. I've found the couple that I've paid attention to really helpful. Also, a couple of months ago Richardson mentioned Mississippi Free Press as a worthy news site, and so I started following it. Who would have thought that the state with the country's oldest public university for women would also produce such a gem? Quite a lot of their coverage is specific to Mississippi, but they are all out reporting on the anti-democratic activities of the right. Very worth checking in on, or subscribing to their newsletter summary, then reading the handful of stories that you may find interesting.
Judy wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Judy wrote: "I'm currently reading Letters to a Friend by Winifred Holtby, a collection of letters she wrote to her friend Jean McWilliam, ... That so..."I've been wondering about 'Testament of Friendship' thanks for the recs, think I'll bite the bullet and track down a copy, and prioritise those novels. I loved 'South Riding' too.
I have not read Thomas Mann since college, and the only thing of his I remember from then is Der Tod in Venedig. But I just stumbled upon New Selected Stories translated by Damion Searls while searching for something else on the digital platform Hoopla. And so I am listening to it in between passages from Nightwood. The first story ("Unordnung und frühes Leid," tr. as "Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow" is filled with humor, which is not something I've ever said about Mann before, to be honest. The introduction contains a good bit of really important, relatively new biographical information. Well, it's new since I was in college, which means it could be old enough to have grandchildren getting ready for college. I missed some of the connecting sentences because I was preparing supper and tending to a Chihuahua I am sitting, not wholly by choice (if you are familiar with Chihuahuas, you know), but I had the impression the biographical information was relatively newly discovered.
Alwynne wrote: "Judy wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Judy wrote: "I'm currently reading Letters to a Friend by Winifred Holtby, a collection of letters she wrote to her friend Jean McWilliam..."I read it +/- 40 years ago and really liked it. At that point I had no idea who Holtby was, and of course I've forgotten almost everything by now, but I do remember how much I enjoyed the account. It was in an omnibus edition with Testament of Youth and Testament of Experience, which is how I stumbled on it.
I'm familiar with, and admire, Yasmin Cordery Khan's work as a historian and pleased to find I also enjoyed her novel Overland which recreates the hippy trail in the early 1970s through the experiences of three travellers. But the deceptively simple story masks a more sophisticated probing of questions around Britishness, nationhood and the legacy of empire.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
There is an excellent article on American today by Marilyn Robinson in the current issue of The New York Review of Books. I don't know whether it's paywalled on the website, but I read it through the Libby App via the London Libraries. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024...
Wonderful episode of New Yorker Fiction reading Alice Munro’s “Before the Change”. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...Also, an article about Munro’s daughter’s revelation that her stepfather abused her, and after, as an adult she told her mother, Munro stayed with him. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/bo...
Ben wrote: "Wonderful episode of New Yorker Fiction reading Alice Munro’s “Before the Change”. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...Also, an article about M..."
I'm steering clear of the 'abuse' debate, since Munro not around to give her side of the story.
I enjoyed Nanako Hanada's bestselling memoir The Bookshop Woman an unchallenging, episodic read but lots of insights into Japanese book culture and women's lives. As well as packed with interesting book recommendations, quite slight but nicely upbeat, good holiday read for bookaholics.
Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sorry Ben that sounded a bit pompous, I'm just a bit wary of trial by media situations.
I finished a beautifully-observed representation of everyday life in Shetland from award-winning poet and artist Jen Hadfield Storm Pegs: A Life Made in ShetlandLink to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I had mixed reactions to the debut novel from cultural critic/translator Lauren Elkin Scaffolding It's highly readable but I wasn't entirely convinced by it or sure that the various strands really came together. It's highly influenced by the work of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan which probably didn't help as I'm not a fan. But it's also clever and often forms an interesting portrait both of Paris and of one woman attempting to deal with trauma and desire. It's just that sometimes the ideas seemed superimposed on what's essentially a fairly bourgeois relationship narrative.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I raced through Table for One: Stories a short-story collection from award-winning Korean author Yun Ko-eun, striking and inventive, likely to appeal to fans of writers like Suyaka Murata, Bora Chung and/or Shirley Jackson.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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What a cover
Just finished Troubles by J G Farrell. Late to the group read, but I thought a great novel that though dragged a little in places was a very well written satire and at times laugh out loud funny.
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www.goodreads.com/review/show/6652271874
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I thought this sagged a bit in the middle, too, but still pointed and funny.
Nigeyb wrote: "Thanks AlwynneWhat a cover
"
It's great, they actually reused the original Korean design.
Stephen wrote: "Just finished Troubles by J G Farrell. Late to the group read, but I thought a great novel that though dragged a little in places was a very well written satire an..."I think The Siege of Krishnapur is undoubtedly the most accomplished of the trilogy but problematic in other ways!
Roman Clodia wrote: "I finished an ARC of the latest Mariana Enríquez stories, A Sunny Place for Shady People. More gothic-y body horror as vehicles to carry political and social comme..."I have that one awaiting so glad you liked it R. C. and thanks for the review of the Plath book think will try to read that one soon-ish.
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Oh, and I have the new Rachel Kushner ARC, Creation Lake which I'm so excited about.
I just finished The Complete Mapp & Lucia: Volume One. It has been a superb antidote to the steady beat of horrendous news. On to volume 2!Here's my review of v. 1
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Roman Clodia wrote: "There are some stand-out pieces in the Enriquez - I think my favourite collection of hers, to date. And I grabbed the Plath off the new arrivals shelf in the Library before they'd even registered i..."I've requested the Kushner too, I like her in interviews and loved her debut, wasn't as sure about her last novel. But this one sounds promising.
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Definitely up there with Wodehouse when it comes to solace for the soul 😄
I finished a German novel by Yoko Tawada Spontaneous Acts published in the US with the title Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel. Tawada builds on her longstanding interest in the life and work of Jewish Romanian poet Paul Celan. Here represented via an academic researcher invested in exploring Celan's work. She uses her narrator to present an overview of Celan but also to reformulate aspects of Celan's concepts and experience to comment on Gemany during the Covid pandemic - and to tease out links to/overlaps with her own interest in issues around language, borders, embodiment. I had some familiarity with Celan before picking this up and enjoyed tracing his influence on the text, as an intro to Celan it's great. But as a novel it felt artificial, overly contrived - as with other books by Tawada I found the concept intriguing but the execution frustrating and undercooked.
Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914Surprisingly not dry, interesting, but a looong account of the construction of the Panama Canal. For those who hesitate at the 700- pages hardcover, there an abridged audiobook that's less than 9 hours.
My Review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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www.goodreads.com/review/show/6433265024
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Next I'm reading an ARC of the new Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake.
Reading the 20th Century
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Second the recommendation for … And What Do You Do?: What The Royal Family Don't Want You To Know. The king is above the law. Needs to end.
Thanks Ben and G for the substack recommendations. I have been resorting to substack for takes on stuff too. Have you got anymore for staying informed on current events? Or the news? Or anyone else got any? I have been losing a bit of faith in legacy media recently.