What books are you reading now? (2024)

[Blaine]

I'm looking forward to reading The Accursed later this year.

[Roman Clodia]

Susan_MG wrote: "I am finally getting back to The Accursed. The characters are amazing. jCO is splendid in her descriptions. I’m a bit puzzled as to the references to Calvin Coolidge as an ex President in this time..."

I'm glad you're enjoying this as it's pretty 'out there' in lots of ways.

[Roman Clodia]

Alwynne wrote: "I finished a debut novel by Korean Canadian writer Yeji Y. Ham The Invisible Hotel it's billed as horror but I'm not sure why, it's more realist with surrealist elements, "

Sounds intriguing!

[Roman Clodia]

I've just started The Paris Trilogy: A Life in Three Stories from NetGalley - I'd been meaning to read Dix-sept ans, the first book, for some time and here it is in translation. Dedicated to Annie Ernaux and with cover puff from Deborah Levy, I hope this lives up to my expectations.

[Susan_MG]

RC, yes I’m enjoying The Accursed but I confused Grover Cleveland with Calvin Coolidge…embarrassing! I just listened to the section where JCO applies sarcasm to let her real feelings about Princeton and certain people be known. It was very entertaining.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "I finished a debut novel by Korean Canadian writer Yeji Y. Ham The Invisible Hotel it's billed as horror but I'm not sure why, it's more realist with surrealist ele..."

It was and it wasn't, not quite what I'd hoped for.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I've just started The Paris Trilogy: A Life in Three Stories from NetGalley - I'd been meaning to read Dix-sept ans, the first book, for some time and here it is in..."

I was wondering about that but have a backlog to get through so trying not to request too much.

I raced through Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s YA crime novel Where Sleeping Girls Lie it could do with a trim and a tidy-up but still a relatable, accessible approach to the sensitive topic of rape culture in British public schools - that made me think of the recent scandal set off by Soma Sara's website and its exploration of similar issues in real life.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I devoured Calla Henkel's latest thriller Scrap partly set in the New York art world. Inventive and highly referential it draws on a range of influences from vintage lesbian/feminist crime fiction to Gillian Flynn to Highsmith's Ripley books.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Roman Clodia]

I did a quick reread of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and got a better sense this time of how stylised and powerful his prose can be. It would be very easy, though, to parody his material!

www.goodreads.com/review/show/3173187465

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I did a quick reread of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and got a better sense this time of how stylised and powerful his prose can be. It would be very easy, though, to parody his material..."

Faulkner's one of those authors I feel I ought to be more familiar with but then avoid. Although I remember being impressed by aspects of The Sound and the Fury, I did try As I Lay Dying when the film version came out but failed! Are you working through his fiction or just dipping in and out? I've never been clear how his fictional world plays out across his novels.

[Blaine]

I've tried and failed three times to read Absalom, Absalom.

I've surrendered

[Roman Clodia]

This is my first Faulkner novel and I'd previously only read a couple of his short stories so he's new ground for me. I think his writing is magnificent on the prose level but his material may not stand up in a modern world. I don't know if he was an influence on Cormac McCarthy but there's a similar feel - another writer who it is easy to parody.

I like the idea of that whole fictional world in Faulkner (characters reappear in the short stories too) and would certainly like to read more but am more interested in prioritising and exploring Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers at the moment - as I've mentioned before, I'm not 'well-read' in American fiction.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "This is my first Faulkner novel and I'd previously only read a couple of his short stories so he's new ground for me. I think his writing is magnificent on the prose level but his material may not ..."

McCullers would definitely be my preference, the writing in The Member of the Wedding is incredibly impressive. I've mainly read women and/or Harlem Renaissance writers as far as American classics go. I did do a short intro to American lit once and covered books like Gatsby but also Look Homeward, Angel - hated it - and John Dos Passos's U.S.A. (Penguin Modern Classics) by John Dos Passos (30-Aug-2001) Paperback - never actually made it through. I did like aspects of Bellow and Roth though, Bellow also had a very singular prose style.

[Blaine]

I also have never warmed to Look Homeward Angel or dos Passos, but I enjoyed Herzog and loved many of Roth's books, especially American Pastoral and The Human Stain. Welty and McCullers are writers I want to read.

[Roman Clodia]

I haven't read McCullers at all so thanks for that, and only one story by Welty which I adored. I've liked the Roth I've read but it felt so masculine, almost macho.

It's odd that university curricula still tend to keep American lit separate from European and even global lit courses. I got siphoned off to European lit as an undergraduate hence this huge gap. Oddly, though, I've taught those introduction to poetry courses and we always include American poetry on those so it's US novels and drama that are ring-fenced separately with their own dedicated staff.

[Roman Clodia]

Ben wrote: "I also have never warmed to Look Homeward Angel or dos Passos, but I enjoyed Herzog and loved many of Roth's books, especially American Pastoral and The Human Stain. Welty and McCullers are writers..."

Have you read Flannery O'Connor, Ben? Hard no from me, but she's often spoken of in a triptych with Welty and McCullers.

[Blaine]

No I haven’t, but she is also on my list.

[Hester]

I really like Flannery O'Connor . I can recommend Wise Blood , a fabulous short novel , very dark. Hazel Motes is a monumental and memorable creation . The mix of religion , depravation and chaos in the South is palpable , like Faulkner but with more bite somehow .... I do like Faulkner but have not got along with some of his work although As I Lay Dying is brilliant . I think , Wise Blood is in conversation with it , and strangely , with Don Quixote too. As for McCullers she is one of my favourite writers and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter never looses it's impact for me .

[Brian E]

Funny, but I was on Goodreads where I saw I had Kindle points expiring, so I just ordered a Kindle edition of Snopes: The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion.
I have read Faulkner's 4 big classics The Sound and the Fury As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom! and Light in August the short story The Bear in high school and also Intruder in the Dust after being impressed with the movie version some years ago.

I read Sound and Fury in high school where I had a teacher guiding us through it so that helped me enjoy it more than if I read it alone. I read As I Lay Dying in one day, a Friday while in law school, right before seeing a student produced play version of it that same evening. This likely helped make the whole experience more enjoyable and left me with fonder memories of the book than if it hadn't been such an 'experience.' I found reading A Light In August was tedious, so I was surprised when I later read Absalom/Absalom and thought it was probably the best at overall story-telling.

I plan to read The Hamlet, the first in the Snopes Trilogy as part of a read of monthly authors in a GR group called Never Too Late to Read Classics. After the group selected the authors, I assigned the months and arranged for a "Long Hot Summer" of Southern Gothic of Zora Neale Hurston in June, William Faulkner in July, and Flannery O'Connor in August.

I have read two story collections by O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories and Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories along with her novella Wise Blood. I have purchased The Violent Bear It Away to read in August. She fascinates me but is best in brief doses. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a very interesting and bizarre example of Southern gothic at it's best, if that's the right word.

I have read these 4 novellas by Eudora Welty: Complete Novels: The Robber Bridegroom / Delta Wedding / The Ponder Heart / The Optimist's Daughter and the short story collection Why I Live at the P.O. and Other Stories . They were fine but not great. I would recommend either 'Ponder" or 'Optimist."

I've read 4 books by Carson McCullers: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Complete Novels: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter / Reflections in a Golden Eye / The Ballad of the Sad Cafe / The Member of the Wedding / While they were generally fine, I thought the first one I read, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was a truly great novel. Several months ago, I re-watched the movie version when it was shown on Turner Classic Movies, a movie that greatly affected me when I saw it in the movie theaters as a young teenager. It still is a moving story to me.

[Roman Clodia]

Thanks Brian, that's helpful - do report back on the Snopes trilogy - I've heard that's less innovative stylistically than the 'big' novels. Jewel's horse in As I Lay Dying comes from the Snopes.

Which Zora Neale Hurston are you reading? I've loved everything of hers I've tried, need to read more.

[Roman Clodia]

I'm starting a re-read of Rebecca after a recent book set partly on the set of Hitchcock's film. Such a classic of wonderful misdirection.

[Blaine]

Thanks so much Brian for this summary of your Southern Lit reading. A good place for me to start!

[Brian E]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Which Zora Neale Hurston are you reading? I've loved everything of hers I've tried, need to read more...."

I hadn't planned on participating in every month's author and have no plans to read June's Zora Neale Hurston having not enjoyed Their Eyes Were Watching God that much. I will reevaluate when the end of May rolls around.

It I change my mind RC, do you have a recommendation of a Hurston? I do welcome input even if I end up ignoring it. While I also felt meh about Wide Sargasso Sea by April's author Jean Rhys some of the positive comments by RTTC members such as yourself and Nigeyb convinced me to give her another try. The plots/subjects of some of her earlier works actually did look interesting and I ultimately purchased Voyage in the Dark to read in April.

[Roman Clodia]

I liked Their Eyes Were Watching God a lot and have read various of her short stories: I like her lyrical writing, attention to the vernacular and formidable female characters.

I recently bought her Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance and Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" but haven't got to them yet.

[Alwynne]

I finished a new edition of The Children's Bach a 1980s novella by acclaimed but controversial Australian writer Helen Garner. Her work is undergoing a revival in the US, partly because of support from authors like Ben Lerner and Rumaan Alam and now it's being reissued in the UK. It's a complicated elliptical piece that Lerner has compared to Virginia Woolf, not unreasonably at times, although it reminded me of aspects of Elizabeth Taylor. I found the social and cultural attitudes hard to stomach at times but found a great deal of the writing arresting.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Brian E]

Alwynne wrote: "...controversial Australian writer Helen Garner..."

I try to read one slow-read non-fiction at a time. It's usually a history, but Helen Garner's This House of Grief looks like an interesting change of pace that I should try some day.

When I saw the cover of Garner's I was reminded of by Ms. Pym.

Helen Garner does sound like an author to check out.

[Nigeyb]

In addition to the short story collection Blandings Castle ... and Elsewhere, I am also reading...


Titanium Noir (2023)

by

Nick Harkaway



I've previously read one of Nick's books and it was excellent (Tigerman - review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)

Titanium Noir has started very promisingly. It's a sci-fi/hardboiled noir mashup. Think Raymond Chandler meets Philip K. Dick. Not my usual fare but so far I am enjoying it very much.


Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he’s called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he is surprised at first to see that the victim appears to be a rather typical, milquetoast techie. But on closer inspection, he finds the victim is over seven feet tall. And even though he doesn’t look a day over thirty, he is actually ninety years old. Clearly, he is a Titan—one of this dystopian, near-future society’s genetically-altered elites. There are only a few thousand Titans worldwide, all thanks to Stefan Tonfamecasca’s discovery of the controversial T7 genetic therapy, which elevated his family to near godlike status. A dead Titan is big news... a murdered Titan is unimaginable.

But Titans are Cal’s specialty. In fact, his ex-girlfriend, Athena, is a Titan. And not just any Titan—she’s Stefan’s daughter, heir to the Tonfamecasca empire. As Cal digs deeper into the murder investigation, he begins to unweave the complicated threads of what should have been a straightforward case, and it soon becomes clear he’s on the trail of a crime whose roots run deep into the dark heart of the world.

[Roman Clodia]

Is Nick Harkaway John le Carre's son, or am I getting him confused with someone else?

[Brian E]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Is Nick Harkaway John le Carre's son, or am I getting him confused with someone else?"

Clarity rather than confusion reigns in your brain today, RC. While the Goodreads link Nick Harkaway makes no reference to his father, he apparently is, as you thought, John le Carré's son, at least according to Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Ha...

[Roman Clodia]

Brian E wrote: "Clarity rather than confusion reigns in your brain today, RC."

Phew! I think he's writing a Smiley book to extend his father's franchise. What do you think, Nigey and anyone else who's read Harkaway - does he have the subtlety, moral weight and gravitas to do this well?

[Nigeyb]

He’s a very different writer but, like his Dad, very accomplished


I’m confident he can write a suitably JLC-esque Smiley novel. Hope so 🤞🏻

[Roman Clodia]

Nigeyb wrote: "He’s a very different writer but, like his Dad, very accomplished


I’m confident he can write a suitably JLC-esque Smiley novel. Hope so 🤞🏻"

Good to know, thanks.

[Woman Reading]

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China

An inside look at the personality cults of two major figures in China's history, glamor, glitz, war profiteering, political machinations -- this book was not what I had expected.

My Review -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nigeyb]

Looks good WR

[Kathleen]

I just finished a great 20th century novel by an author I'd never heard of until a buzz started amongst some GR friends:

My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

It's about a Hasidic Jewish family in New York, and the boy that grows up having to find a way to balance the beliefs of his family with his drive to create art. The voice of the novel is so warm and there are not pat answers to the obstacles. Wonderful insights into this religion and into the artistic drive.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Blaine]

When I was growing up in New York, his novel The Chosen was a must read and taught me about a side of Judaism that was wholly foreign to my suburban, assimilated life. I have no idea how I would react to it now, but it was a great reading experience at the time.

[Alwynne]

I finished Wendy Moore's Jack and Eve: Two Women In Love and At War a blend of biography and history that tells the story of two lesbians and their relationship. They worked together in Serbia during WW1 and it was fascinating to find out about what was happening in this part of Europe at the time - so many books about the war focus on France or Belgium. It's often more effective as a general history of women's experiences in wartime than it is as an account of lesbian existence/experiences at the time.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

There were some less than smooth elements but overall I really enjoyed Hugo Award-winner Hao Jingfang's Jumpnauts the first in a series, her SF novel draws extensively on Chinese mythology, history and philosophy - although Ken Liu's translation and his footnotes ensure no prior knowledge is needed. It's a bit unbalanced but I liked its optimistic spirit.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Roman Clodia]

I finished a re-read of the classic, Rebecca: I loved the way it's so doubled-faced with a subversive story hiding under what seems on the surface like romantic suspense:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/1645983968

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I finished a re-read of the classic, Rebecca: I loved the way it's so doubled-faced with a subversive story hiding under what seems on the surface like romantic suspense:

www.goodre..."

It's an incredibly fertile narrative, I was really struck by the imagery when I reread it, loved the passages you highighted.

[Roman Clodia]

Alwynne wrote: "It's an incredibly fertile narrative, I was really struck by the imagery when I reread it, loved the passages you highighted."

Me too, especially the imagery from the garden which sets the atmosphere so well: 'the beeches with white, naked limbs leaned close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace'.

I'm sure you know this but apparently Hitchcock toned down the scene in the cottage so that Rebecca has an accident as he didn't want to follow the book!

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "It's an incredibly fertile narrative, I was really struck by the imagery when I reread it, loved the passages you highighted."

Me too, especially the imagery from the garden which ..."

Yes I think that's why my perspective on the book was so skewed, I'd seen the film so many times. I'm struggling to understand how I ever viewed this as a romance, when it totally undermines the conventions of the genre - and as you rightly point out is ultimately devastatingly bleak. I thought your review really captured the ways how subversive the novel actually is. I think I might try Anna Biller's Bluebeard's Castle which apparently critiques Bluebeard gothic and romance narratives.

[Alwynne]

I'd like to try Dragonwyck at some point too, I get the impression that Seton's take on Rebecca plus Jane Eyre is a more conservative reinstatement of hetero romance.

[Roman Clodia]

Those both look interesting - I somehow thought Seton only wrote one book, the famous Katherine. I can imagine her book being more conservative.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Those both look interesting - I somehow thought Seton only wrote one book, the famous Katherine. I can imagine her book being more conservative."

I think, I'm not certain, that Dragonwyck was a blatant attempt to cash in on the popularity of novels like Rebecca, it was also made into a dodgy and very melodramatic film which made for surprisingly compulsive viewing.

[Alwynne]

R.C. not sure if you're still reading the Raimo but I came across a Virago podcast that features an interview with her, not sure if it's illuminating or not but it's here if you want to take a look

https://shows.acast.com/viragobooks/e...

[Hester]

I tried Dragonwyck recently but couldn't get along with it .Too melodramatic and clichëd for me . Agree with you Alwynne that the film was better , the sort of thing I used to watch on wet afternoons with my mum .

[Roman Clodia]

Alwynne wrote: "R.C. not sure if you're still reading the Raimo but I came across a Virago podcast that features an interview with her, not sure if it's illuminating or not but it's here if you want to take a look..."

Thanks! I'm looking forward to focusing on this now that I've finished Rebecca. I liked Raimo's The Girl at the Door even if it didn't totally work for me.

[Alwynne]

Hester wrote: "I tried Dragonwyck recently but couldn't get along with it .Too melodramatic and clichëd for me . Agree with you Alwynne that the film was better , the sort of thing I used to watch on wet afternoo..."

Maybe I'll skip the novel in that case, although I'm fascinated by reworkings.

I finished a collection of shorter fiction by Maggie Nelson Like Love: Essays and Conversations I've been following her work since The Argonauts so I was pleased to come across this one. The entries can tip towards the academic but can also be quite intimate and personal - sometimes both. The topics are ones Nelson returns to over and over again from queer identity and culture to feminist art to literature and poetry.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also read a short but sweet, semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Jen Wang Stargazing centred on the friendship between two Chinese American girls

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Roman Clodia]

I've just finished Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo which I loved quite unreservedly for its quirky humour alongside more serious concerns. It's longlisted for the International Booker this year:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5790608509