What books are you reading now? (2024)

[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

[Sonia]

Roman Clodia wrote: "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 Int..."

Sounds my sort of book. Think it might be good for a summer WIT month pick.

[Roman Clodia]

I've read Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck: a toxic love affair set in East Germany in the decade leading up to the collapse of the wall. I'm puzzled as to how to make sense of it... Another from the International Booker longlist.

My confused review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/5627109550

I've also started a collection of short stories by Zora Neale Hurston: Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance - she has the extraordinary ability to create a whole world in each story with such lightness of hand.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I've read Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck: a toxic love affair set in East Germany in the decade leading up to the collapse of the wall. I'm puzzled as to how to make sens..."

I haven't read the Erpenbeck yet so can't comment, not sure if these shed any light:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0f...

https://www.full-stop.net/2023/05/29/...

[Roman Clodia]

Alwynne wrote:"I haven't read the Erpenbeck yet so can't comment, not sure if these shed any light."

I'd love to hear what you think. Maybe I'm over-thinking it as these suggest the political and personal mirroring each other - only I didn't really think they did, so the reflection kind of fell apart.

[Lady Clementina]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote:"I haven't read the Erpenbeck yet so can't comment, not sure if these shed any light."

I'd love to hear what you think. Maybe I'm over-thinking it as these suggest the political and ..."

Here's a blogging friend's review of it: https://alifeinbooks.co.uk/2023/06/ka...

[Roman Clodia]

Thanks Lady C: that's how I wanted to feel about this book but the allegory just didn't work for me.

[Jan C]

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 ..."

I recently started Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer and some of this was dictated by the censors in the US. Actually, I recall reading that Selznick was forcing Hitchcock to stick fairly closely to the book. I think this was when he learned that he had to film his movies in such a way that they would be virtually uncuttable without beaucoup refilming.

[Alwynne]

I was completely absorbed in Yoko Ogawa's Mina's Matchbox a richly referential story about transience, the ending of a way of life, growing up and the dynamics of a deeply eccentric wealthy family,

Link to my review:

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

[Roman Clodia]

I read an ARC of Julia Armfield's Private Rites, another accomplished and eerie book that I found engrossing:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/6356297055

[Roman Clodia]

We were chatting recently about Zora Neale Hurston on one of our threads which reminded me to read her collection of stories, Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5444033928

[Alwynne]

I finished a new edition from NYRB Classics of Siegfried Kracauer's novel Ginster first published in the 1920s amid a Weimar era wave of enthusiasm for books reflecting on the earlier war. It could be dense and challenging but it could also be superb, so many memorable scenes/lines/commentary on Germany and on German militarism.

Link to my review:

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

[Roman Clodia]

I've finished a hugely entertaining audio of The Ministry of Time: outstanding characters, one of whom is Commander Graham Gore from the ill-fated Franklin polar expedition brought to 21st century London, and genuinely funny though the time travel plot got a bit head spinning for me:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/6365379800

[Stephen]

I struggle with time travel. I have just watched the Netflix series Dark and that was wild

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I've finished a hugely entertaining audio of The Ministry of Time: outstanding characters, one of whom is Commander Graham Gore from the ill-fated Franklin polar expedition brought..."

I've got an ARC of this one too, so that's very reassuring!

I liked but didn't always love Julia Armfield's Private Rites probably because the marketing led me to expect something closer to horror whereas much of the novel centred on the relationship dynamics of the three sisters at its heart. But I was impressed by the prose style, the vision of the future and a number of other elements so overall mixed feelings about this one.

Link to my review:

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

[Alwynne]

I finished a semi-autobiographical debut novel Brothers and Ghosts by Vietnamese German writer Khuê Pham. Slightly unbalanced overall but fascinating as an exploration of diaspora and the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Link to my review:

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

[Alwynne]

I finished David Garnett's fantasy novella Lady into Fox which won both the James Tait Black and Hawthornden literary prizes when it was published in the 1920s. Much more restrained than the lurid Dope-Darling: A Story of Cocaine which I read fairly recently, this is an intriguing examination of marriage which manages to be both progressive and misogynistic.

Link to my review:

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

[Nigeyb]

In addition to The Tin Men, I've also just started my latest real world book group read....


Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022)

by

Katherine Rundell


I notice that both RC and Susan found plenty to appreciate

I know next to nothing about John Donne so looking forward to learning about his life



From a standout scholar, a sparkling and very modern biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death.

John Donne lived myriad lives.

Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral - and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. He converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a high-born girl without her father's consent, struggled to feed a family of ten children and was often ill and in pain. He was a man who suffered from black surges of sadness, yet expressed in his verse electric joy and love.

[Jan C]

I just started reading Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945. So far am still on the first (actually the second) introduction. Apparently each edition - 1955 and 1994 - have their own introductions. So I am on the latter intro.

[SueLucie]

I am just starting Notes from the Henhouse: From the author of O CALEDONIA, a delightful springtime read full of pigs, ponds and fresh air by Elspeth Barker. A collection of essays chosen by her daughter.
So pleased to see the pig reference!

[Lady Clementina]

SueLucie wrote: "I am just starting Notes from the Henhouse: From the author of O CALEDONIA, a delightful springtime read full of pigs, ponds and fresh air by Elspeth Barker. A coll..."

This looks delightful!

[Alwynne]

I finished a reissue by Penguin Classics of a 1950s novel by Austrian author Alexander Lernet-Holenia Count Luna an unusual blend of existential thriller and gothic haunting. It explores Austrian society during and after WW2 through the nightmarish experiences of an industrialist - delving into the failure to confront the morality/consequences of choices made during wartime.

Link to my review:

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

[Alwynne]

In an attempt to branch out and discover new-to-me contemporary writers I read critic and author Holly Williams's The Start of Something I liked the concept driving it, a present-day version of Schnitzler's La Ronde set in the north of England. It's a well-crafted piece but often felt contrived and a bit tokenistic in terms of characters, it's likely to be turned into a TV series. Decent writing but not for me.

Link to my review:

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

[Roman Clodia]

I've read Mater 2-10, an unusual book about worker activism and labour politics in Korea over the last 100 or so years - I know that doesn't sound exciting but it sort of merges a four-generation family saga with a history of 2Oth century Korea.
Probably the one I'm rooting for to win the International Booker prize from the shortlist:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5595031132

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I've read Mater 2-10, an unusual book about worker activism and labour politics in Korea over the last 100 or so years - I know that doesn't sound exciting but it sort of merges a f..."

I haven't read the others but I liked this a great deal, it's has a substance and a commitment I found hard not to applaud.

[Alwynne]

Maggie Nye's debut novel The Curators completely captured my attention. Mixing historical events with magical realism it's an exploration of the aftermath of the notorious Leo Frank case, the Jewish man wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of teenager Mary Phagan, then slaughtered by a lynch mob in Atlanta in 1915. Nye reframes the Frank case by presenting it from the perspective of a group of young Jewish girls, the same age as Phagan when she died, connecting their experiences to wider questions of truth versus myth and the Jewish legend of the golem.

Link to my review:

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

[Nigeyb]

I like Hari Kunzru so requested his latest Blue Ruin (2024) when I saw it on Netgalley


I'm about 20% through it and loving it so far



More about Blue Ruin (2024).....


From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty, power, and capital’s influence on art and those who devote their lives to creating it.

Once, Jay was an artist. Shortly after graduating from his London art school, he was tipped for greatness, a promising career already taking shape before him. Now, undocumented in the United States, he lives out of his car and makes a living as an essential worker, delivering groceries in a wealthy area of upstate New York. The pandemic is still at its height—the greater public panicked in quarantine—and though he has returned to work, Jay hasn’t recovered from the effects of a recent Covid case.

When Jay arrives at a house set in an enormous acreage of woodland, he finds the last person he ever expected to see Alice, a former lover from his art school days. Their relationship was tumultuous and destructive, ultimately ending when she ghosted him and left for America with his best friend and fellow artist, Rob. In the twenty years since, their fortunes could not be more as Jay teeters on the edge of collapse, Alice and Rob have found prosperity in a life surrounded by beauty. Ashamed, Jay hopes she won’t recognize him behind his dirty surgical mask; when she does, she invites him to recover on the property—where an erratic gallery owner and his girlfriend are isolating as well—setting a reckoning decades in the making into motion.

Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time to deliver an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.

[Roman Clodia]

Nigeyb wrote: "I like Hari Kunzru so requested his latest Blue Ruin (2024) when I saw it on Netgalley

I'm about 20% through it and loving it so far"

I have this on my radar so good to hear you're enjoying it - it's the third in what might loosely be called a trilogy and I liked 'white' and 'red', its predecessors.

[Roman Clodia]

Alwynne wrote: "Maggie Nye's debut novel The Curators completely captured my attention. Mixing historical events with magical realism it's an exploration of the aftermath of the notorious Leo Fran..."

Thanks - that appealed to me on NetGalley but I'm a bit wary of debuts and don't want to have too many negative reviews in my profile!

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Maggie Nye's debut novel The Curators completely captured my attention. Mixing historical events with magical realism it's an exploration of the aftermath of the no..."

I read a really interesting history And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank of the Frank case a while ago and that was the initial draw plus the mention of golems.

[Roman Clodia]

I read an ARC of Antiquity, a book billed rather sensationally as 'queer Lolita':

www.goodreads.com/review/show/6423556776

I'm currently listening to Prostitute Laundry as my commute audio and it is wild in its raw openness and honesty.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I read an ARC of Antiquity, a book billed rather sensationally as 'queer Lolita':

www.goodreads.com/review/show/6423556776

I'm currently listening to [book:Prostitute Laundry|62..."

I've got an ARC of that too, hard to resist the billing as a 'queer Lolita'!

[Roman Clodia]

I shall be very interested in your verdict, Alwynne.

[Nigeyb]

I’ve just finished The Duke's Children (1880) so, in addition to Hari Kunzru’s Blue Ruin (2024), which continues to delight, I have just embarked upon a journey into the gut. Yep, I’m now also enjoying….




Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Under-Rated Organ (2014)

by

Giulia Enders




I am passionate about health and nutrition so am fascinated to discover what insights Giulia Enders has to impart



The key to living a happier, healthier life is inside us.

Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain or our heart, yet we know very little about how it works. In Gut, Giulia Enders shows that rather than the utilitarian and — let’s be honest — somewhat embarrassing body part we imagine it to be, it is one of the most complex, important, and even miraculous parts of our anatomy. And scientists are only just discovering quite how much it has to offer; new research shows that gut bacteria can play a role in everything from obesity and allergies to Alzheimer’s.


Beginning with the personal experience of illness that inspired her research, and going on to explain everything from the basics of nutrient absorption to the latest science linking bowel bacteria with depression, Enders has written an entertaining, informative health handbook. Gut definitely shows that we can all benefit from getting to know the wondrous world of our inner workings.

In this charming book, young scientist Giulia Enders takes us on a fascinating tour of our insides. Her message is simple — if we treat our gut well, it will treat us well in return. But how do we do that? And why do we need to? Find out in this surprising, and surprisingly funny, exploration of the least understood of our organs

[Susan]

That sounds interesting, Nigeyb. My daughter has IBS, so I will probably give this a read, thanks.

[Nigeyb]

I'll let you know how I get on with it Susan

[Susan]

Thanks. We have endured a whole raft of tests - well, she has, poor thing. Cutting certain things from her diet and buying Biomel drinks has meant she has had no attacks for over 2 months now, so I have my fingers firmly crossed!

[Nigeyb]

Have you tried fermented foods? Kimchi, Kombucha, Sauerkraut etc


Might not be appropriate but it’s generally considered to be very helpful for ensuring good gut health.


Otherwise it tends to be all the usual advice…eg fresh fruit, vegetables, beans, dried peas and lentils, bran (oat and wheat), dried fruits like dates prunes and raisins, whole grains etc

And avoid/minimise the usual suspects eg processed foods, additives, preservatives, unhealthy fats, refined sugar, gluten, dairy products, fried foods, red meat, artificial sweeteners, alcohol etc

[Susan]

She has a fairly good diet. I think it has been carbonated drinks which have been her weakness. Biomel are drinks/powders/cereal bars which have lots of live cultures and, so far, they seem to have worked.

[Nigeyb]

Fizzy pop definitely not advisable


I'm glad she's found something that offers relief

Gut health is a fascinating emerging area for researchers. It's remarkable how much happens there that we were unaware of until recently

[Susan]

Yes, well I don't think we realised anything was going on. It was just, she was ill for a day and then those days got closer and closer together until it was happening pretty much every month and usually when she was on holiday or at home (so not stress, so exam time). It took me a while to realise there was a long term issue.

[Roman Clodia]

I'm pretty addicted to kimchi and kombucha - especially now they're becoming more normal and so reducing in price.

[SueLucie]

We had a couple of Ukrainian ladies to stay with us for a few months and they introduced us to their version of sauerkraut and borscht. I now like to eat these all the time and buy from shops catering for the Polish community here. I think the Eastern European diet is so much healthier than ours and meals always cooked from scratch.

[Nigeyb]

Yes, me too - and Miso soup and soy yogurt


Susan, there's a very interesting section on Gut Health and the Brain which explores IBS. It's hard to summarise but worth a read/listen. That said, overall I'm finding this a bit too scientific and bit less practical than I was expecting but overall definitely worth a read. I suspect more recent books might contain more definitive insights

[Hester]

I think the paradigm shift in this new world of biomes and bowel health is that bacteria aren't all bad . The poor old alimentary tract with it's billion passenger population has long been viewed as our own literal hole in the middle , a sort of void that we throw stuff down like a sort of municipal rubbish tip in the expectation that we don't have to think about it again but all will be sorted . At last our silent masses, our poor labouring gut is having its day . Instead of mob rule and chaos , its a bacteral welfare state for the large intestine . Hurrah !

[Susan]

I am feeling my way around these issues at the moment but she does seem to be improving with fairly simple steps. The scary bit was being tested for the more dangerous possibilities out there. However, yes, keen to read any useful information.

[Nigeyb]

Thanks both


Hester, also, apparently, it effects our mood and emotions. Quite extraordinary what's beginning to come to light

[Alwynne]

I finished a selection of short fiction from award-winning Japanese author Natsuko Imamura Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks the matter-of-fact delivery along with the oddly whimsical cover/title might be a bit misleading. Although the blend of fantasy and realism gives these a fairy tale quality they combine to form a fairly serious indictment of the treatment of marginalised women in Japanese society.

Link to my review:

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

[Nigeyb]

I've now finished Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Under-Rated Organ (2014)



Definitely worth a read



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


3/5

[Nigeyb]

I've also just finished Hari Kunzru's Blue Ruin (2024) which I loved....



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


5/5