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What are we reading? 6/01/2024
Gpfr wrote: "2 books I've just read have annoyed me a bit by leaving the story or a sub-plot unresolved — making sure people get the next book in the series! The Ghost Orchid and The Grey Wolf.."I read one book by each of those authors and decided to go no further. (I am sticking with the Gereon Rath series, though!)
Have I got you to thank for the collection of French short stories by various authors Les chemins intimes? I bought it mainly for the Désérable and have yet to read it, but madame was suitably impressed, so I'm sure I will be too in due course!
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I remember when I went up to high school, when we had assemblies, which included hymns then, there were a few students who came in after those who were, presumably, Jewish or Muslim. I never gave it much thought, such innocence."
Same for me.
At grammar school, I assumed that those girls who didn't come to Assembly or to RI lessons were Roman Catholic, though probably some were Jews.
The first time I knowingly met anybody Jewish was at university. One evening at dinner, there was an announcement that those who were going to some Jewish society event had to leave and several girls got up.
It wasn't something I'd ever thought about before.
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Yes, that was me. I'm glad madame liked it :). Russell enjoyed it, too.
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Yes, that was me. I'm glad madame liked it :). Russell enjoyed it, too."
Russell did enjoy it, and the Désérable was one of the best.
After a year as Logger 24 I’ve decided to re-emerge in my own name. I only made the change back then because, weirdly, I was notified that someone had compromised my account. Who would bother with a contributor to a book group?
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Interesting, thanks. It does seem the memoirs are the way to go.
I suspect her high reputation has receded even in France. There was a mention of her in Annie Ernaux’s Les années, which is fairly recent. After Sartre’s death, and now looking aged, SDB had agreed to give a TV interview, which Sartre never did. Ernaux thought she cut a sadly diminished figure.
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Despite the awful prospect of Mondays inauguration of a convicted criminal as US President..."Can anyone explain why the BBC is devoting 2 1/2 hours of afternoon coverage to this, an..."
i am avoiding the entire thing and it is brown nosing of the nauseating kind from BBC-Sky-ITV and even Al Jazeera yesterday was praising Trump
i think normally there is a lot of coverage but news depts need to think carefully the quality of the event they are covering and a MAGA infested, fact free three hours is not newsworthy, though the actual inagugaration ceromony is
Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: " Coming from a small town in west Wales, I had no idea how one was supposed to identify 'Jews' ..."I remember when I went up to high school, when we had as..."
my father recalled that at his Grammar School, the jewish pupils did not attend assembly, though the catholic ones did
Looks like Trump is ending diversity schemes in federal institutions, declaring transgender as a non-thing (only two sexes, male and female) etcthe danger for me here is that he is possibly the outlier in the western states to do these things, i wonder if slowly and quietly other nations in the EU/West will start do the same. I hope not, but one feels within four years, many nations will hoping to be on the good side of Trump and may reduce the liberties many have now
Diversity and inclusion seems like an obvious way foward in the USA...no longer it seems
AB76 wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: " Coming from a small town in west Wales, I had no idea how one was supposed to identify 'Jews' ..."I remember when I went up to high school, w..."
Must have been the case for me too AB as there were only a few who came in late, whilst there must have been a good number of catholics.
AB76 wrote: "Looks like Trump is ending diversity schemes in federal institutions, declaring transgender as a non-thing (only two sexes, male and female) etcthe danger for me here is that he is possibly the o..."
There is diversity and inclusion AB and cancelling people who you may disagree with. That is the problem. And when you get 6'4" people built that the proverbial ****house, who ranked 554th in the college swimming league, suddenly wandering naked round a changing room full of young women, and winning there race, it has perhaps gone a little too far?
giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Looks like Trump is ending diversity schemes in federal institutions, declaring transgender as a non-thing (only two sexes, male and female) etcthe danger for me here is that he is p..."
i never agreed with the transgender stuff but its sad to see affirmitive action on race taking a back seat, along with disabilites and other areas in federal employment
Chicago novels have fascinated me ever since reading Sister Carrie and my interest was further piqued by reading Dangling Man before Xmas in 2023I have just come accross Studs Turkel's 1967 oral history Division Street filled with commentary by people living on a street in Chicago and i will be putting this up at the top of the non-fiction pile for 2025
Bellow in Dangling Man references the L or elevated railway in his short novel and i found a great photo by a young Kubrick of the "L" in late 1940s last year.
giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Some of us can actually remember the 6 day war!"Indeed. Coming from a small town in west Wales, I had no idea how one was supposed to identify 'Jews' back ..."
I remember when we had a Christmas assembly in December 1962. We were on stage singing carols. I assume that we sounded like any other chorus of small children. But our parents were looking at the stage and catching each other's eyes. The Cuban Missile Crisis had ended. An everyday school event was going on. And Dad, who had volunteered to go back into the Army months earlier, was in the audience, next to my mother.
Robert wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Some of us can actually remember the 6 day war!"Indeed. Coming from a small town in west Wales, I had no idea how one was supposed to i..."
Thirteen Days comes to mind (the film) I was 14 at the time so remember it rather better Worrying times.
Recently, certainly in last 5 years, i love novels, short or long, where there is a long chapter focused in one short space of time,In the Anselme novel On Leave, today i read a 25 page chapter, focused on a meal, on a winters evening. the focus and the style built up this wonderful mental picture of characters, the food, the conversation and the drama. It was unexpected, in a novel of quick moving shorter chapters, to stop and breathe in this great set piece of prose drama.
Another such section i remember was from Bird Alone by O'Faolain, where a fast moving novel slowed down to a 20 page or so chapter, set in Youghal, south of Cork, on the seafront, in raw weather, a blend of dialogue and pathos, that kept building and i became immersed in one time and place
AB76 wrote: "i am avoiding the entire thing..."I was disappointed to see that the French also showed it on TV - I thought they were less keen to hang on the Americans' coat-tails than the British.
RussellinVT wrote: "Ernaux thought she (SDB) cut a sadly diminished figure.."We probably all do beyond a certain age! :-(
AB76 wrote: "my father recalled that at his Grammar School, the jewish pupils did not attend assembly, though the catholic ones did.."We had people who didn't come in to assembly either - I assumed they were Catholics and (maybe) Jehovah's Witnesses... I suppose there may have been Jewish pupils, too, but I was never aware of any or thought about the possibility.
A few years later, I flew to Paris on a cheap student charter flight and got chatting to a guy on the plane. As he had already arranged to stay at a student hostel, I asked if I could come along. It turned out to be a Jewish hostel where I spent a few days. The guy at one point got out a little box* and tied it to his arm... I asked what he was doing. It was part of his prayer routine, something I knew nothing about. Another example of my ignorance about the culture.
*Sorry - I have forgotten what this is called.
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It was just the same at both the primary school and the grammar school that I went to. There were several Roman Catholics and one Jehovah’s Witness and two boys from a Jewish family, though no Muslims then. I don’t recall it making the slightest bit of difference outside assembly. We were all mates. The Jehovah’s Witness boy and I walked home together every day, and got up to mischief. One of the Jewish boys and I joined a tennis club together, and I was a regular visitor to his home. I still think of him quite often.
It was all due to the section in the Education Act 1944 requiring schools to hold a daily assembly with religious observance. I don’t know that the law specified that it had to be C of E in content, but that’s how it was: the Lord’s Prayer, one other prayer or reading, and one hymn, generally with a good tune that you enjoyed singing, and carols in December. Did that law get repealed, or is it just universally ignored? Impossible to enforce anyway, and just as well in a multicultural society. I should ask my sister how it changed. She grew up in the same system, and was a teacher for decades.
RussellinVT wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "We had people who didn't come in to assembly either - I assumed they were Catholics and (maybe) Jehovah's Witnesses... ..."It was just the same at both the primary school and ..."
my education was almost 99% secular but at my first school we did have assembly and prayers which was 1980-83, Nobody was excused though, so maybe the inclusivity had increased? We had one jewish boy, a Buddhist and a few catholics in my class and they attended every day
it seems my neices and nephews have almost zero religious involvement in their schools
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i am avoiding the entire thing..."I was disappointed to see that the French also showed it on TV - I thought they were less keen to hang on the Americans' coat-tails than the British."
its scary how trump becomes normalised by these things, people start talking about his vision, his deal with Hamas. the guy is an incoherent braggart with no vision and should be in jail
RussellinVT wrote: "It was all due to the section in the Education Act 1944 requiring schools to hold a daily assembly with religious observance. I don’t know that the law specified that it had to be C of E in content, but that’s how it was: the Lord’s Prayer, one other prayer or reading, and one hymn, generally with a good tune that you enjoyed singing, and carols in December. Did that law get repealed, or is it just universally ignored?.."That law has never been repealed... I think that how carefully it is observed (or not) depends on the school, the catchment area etc. In Wales - where it seems to me a disproportionate number of teachers are religious - it still tends to be taken quite seriously. After a certain age, our daughter (an atheist) asked to be left out of the religious part of assembly. It was quite a battle to get that agreed with the school - and then she (and a friend who took the same stance) were kept in the corridor to be stared at by the rest of the school as they filtered into the hall. Nasty bullying.
I also know that during school inspections, comments are sometimes made criticising lack of observance. This may depend on the individual team leader, or the group inspecting - not sure about that.
It was a bit better in my day as there was a small room next to the hall where the refuseniks were gathered. I don't recall anyone who didn't go in being treated differently as a result.
I also don't think that the religious part in Wales was specifically 'Church in Wales' (our offshoot of the C of E) but as my knowledge of the differences between Church and Nonconformist ceremonies is minimal I can't be sure!
scarletnoir wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "It was all due to the section in the Education Act 1944 requiring schools to hold a daily assembly with religious observance. I don’t know that the law specified that it had to ..."in wales its highly likely to have been non-comformist services, Calvinistic Methodist, Baptist or Methodist. Church of Wales is strong in the border areas like Monmouthshire and Cardiff but not much elsewhere
In War Without Hate, Rommel has exited the African stage, after a 2,000 mile retreat from El Alamein to Tunisia and a successful last hurrah defeating the invading Americans but also failing to dislodge his old foe Monty on the east of his flankThe war is turning fast now, the key to Rommel reaching his limits from autumn 1942- early spring 1943 was the lack of fuel and materiel reaching his Afrika Korps. Faced with superior allied numbers at El Alamein and after losing the battle, he wisely chose total retreat in an attempt to save his forces. Mussolini by now wanted Rommel out, his former favourite had lost Italian Libya..
Churchill and Gen Alexander shed tears at the parades as the allies entered Tripoli, capital of Italian Libya, after so many defeats, the tide was turning. Tunisia, to the west of Tripoli was a harder nut to crack than the Allies expected but the victories on the Axis side were scarce
For Rommel, the next stage of his life was leading the defence of Normandy in 1944 but he was seriously injured in a strafing attack and went home to Ulm to convalesce Incorrectly drawn into the Stauffenberg anti-Hitler plot reprisals he was offered suicide or a trial, he killed himself and was given a full state funeral
Its interesting to note that the great Desert Fox was absent at two of Germanys most crucial defeats.On leave when El Alamein broke out, he was also on leave when D Day started in 1944....i wonder if he had present...well, we will never know...
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Interesting stuff, scarlet. I did wonder about school inspections. My sister was in the leadership team at a large comprehensive in the Home Counties, with a Muslim headmistress, so I’ll be intrigued to find out how they addressed the issue.
After finishing the wonderful War Without Hate about the Desert War, my non-fiction reading now shifts to the same decade but South America.The Ruins of the New Argentina: Peronism and the Remaking of San Juan after the 1944 Earthquake, is another journey for me into the world of Juan Peron, a populist leader in Argentina who seemed to be neither of the left or the right, with policies that attracted both extremes
AB76 wrote: "After finishing the wonderful War Without Hate about the Desert War, my non-fiction reading now shifts to the same decade but South America.[book:The Ruins of the New Argentina: Peronism and the ..."
The Peronist movement contained hardliners of left and right. The political violence between the rival Peronists was underway before the old man finally returned from exile. When he died and his wife tried to hold onto power, it became much worse, with the Peronist right allied with the Argentine military. The Two Popes tells the story from the viewpoint of Cardinal Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis.
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Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "After finishing the wonderful War Without Hate about the Desert War, my non-fiction reading now shifts to the same decade but South America.[book:The Ruins of the New Argentina: Pero..."
yes the 1969-1973 period, with Peron back from exile, saw a raw explosion of the Peronist divisions and its a period that led to the military dictatorship. This book covers the youthful Colonel Peron and his work on the aftermath of the San Juan earthquake of 1944. at a charity event for the relief work, young Juan met a certain Eva Duarte for the first time..
Doubled my knowledge of Welsh from two words, Cymru and heddlu to four - Bora Da to all the Welsh folks here! I wrote to Llangollen Tourist information and got this greeting backJust finished reading the latest Sophie Allen book, set in and imaginary Wessex police department:
Enjoyable enough, although you have to overlook the convenient coincidents. A local Eco company is working on a project for an estuary in an imaginary South American country. Employees are targeted, who are the two people on a photo of a reception at the country's embassy in London, and where does the local Mr Big come into things?
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I'm reading and enjoying Diana Quick's family memoir, "From the British Raj to the British stage" as it says on the cover.
Her father was brought up in India, coming to England to study dentistry, but she didn't know much about the family background, investigating it after his death.
There seem some contradictions — she gives the impression of not having known they were Anglo-Indian, although referring to the accent and appearance of her father and grandfather ...
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I'm reading and enjoying Diana Quick's family memoir, "From the British Raj to the British stage" as it says on the cover.
Her father was brought up in India..."
Interesting about her Anglo-Indian background. I don’t remember seeing this before. As we all know, she was famous in her twenties (that Time cover), and then all of a sudden she disappeared from view. I read long afterwards that she was out with friends one evening, walking home from the cinema, and just blacked out, which had never happened to her before. She fell face-first flat on the pavement and smashed her front teeth. There was a long period of recuperation, and not just physical. I don’t think her career ever really recovered, though it’s a pleasure to see her in character parts from time to time.
giveusaclue wrote: "Doubled my knowledge of Welsh from two words, Cymru and heddlu to four - Bora Da to all the Welsh folks here! I wrote to Llangollen Tourist information and got this greeting backJust finished rea..."
Bore da to you, too!
For anyone Welsh and feeling a bit romantic, today (25 January) is 'Dydd Santes Dwynwen' - St. Dwynwen's day - our equivalent of St. Valentine's day.
TBH, I don't recall this being mentioned when I was a youngster... it is no doubt a piece of 'reclaimed heritage', which someone knew about and decided to publicise more recently. Nothing wrong with that, though I rarely remember any of these 'special days' or pay them much attention. As for Easter - who knows when that is from year to year, given the obscure and convoluted calculations involved!
Edit: A look at the Wikipedia entry for Dwynwen confirms that observance of 'Dydd Santes Dwynwen' was first revived in the 1960s and was well established by around 2000:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwynwen
RussellinVT wrote: "School assemblies. My sister says traditional assemblies of the kind I remember did not exist at all in state schools by the time she retired, but some form of assembly of a multi-faith nature, per..."You are right to point out that the daily act of worship as originally conceived (or implied) in the 1944 Act is a practical impossibility in most schools for reasons of space. Even back when I was in grammar school, the 'full assembly' posed problems and were held at most once a week - on other days, either the lower or upper half would attend.
On those rare occasions when a full assembly was held, we'd be packed like sardines in the hall - far too small for around 750 pupils. As a result, children sometimes were overcome... I still remember an occasion when a friend standing in front of me and a few others suddenly bent over and puked, then collapsed backwards... rather than catch him, I think we were all too disgusted by the possibility of getting vomit on ourselves, so we parted like the Red Sea and he crashed to the floor flat on his back!
He survived, and later became a well-known TV presenter in Wales.
RussellinVT wrote: " I don’t think her career ever really recovered, though it’s a pleasure to see her in character parts from time to time..."Are you sure? Does she have anything to say about this in her book? She seems to have done a lot of stage work, as well as appearing regularly in much loved TV series such as Morse, Lewis (until Fox went bonkers, anyway), Midsomer Murders and Dr Who... pretty good going by most standards! ;-)
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I'm reading and enjoying Diana Quick's family memoir, "From the British Raj to the British stage" as it says on the cover.
Her father was brought up ..."
Interesting about her Anglo-Indian background. I don’t remember seeing this before."
Her great-grandmother, Margaret, was Anglo-Indian and as a small child was caught up with her mother in the Sepoys (Indian troops working for the East India Company) revolt in 1857. Margaret was married twice, to British soldiers, the second being Christopher Quick, Diana's great-grandfather. After he left the army, they stayed in India. All Margaret's sons went into medecine in some form, but because of their birth, couldn't rise very high.
She writes about how the life of ordinary soldiers' wives differed from those of officers' wives, much harder, they didn't have all the servants. This must have been the case for my grandmother. My grandfather was in the army in India and although I don't know what rank he reached, he wasn't an officer. Sadly I know very little about their experiences or those of my mother, although she was left in England with grandmother and aunts much of the time. I know that as is mentioned in this book, my grandmother didn't get to escape the heat by going to places like Simla.
As far as her accident and the effect on her career goes, scarlet, nothing so far, I'll tell you if it's referred to later.
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Archeology and archeologists play a large part in Torquil MacLeod's latest book. We mainly think of the Vikings going westward, to Britain, even America, but don't hear so much of their eastward travels to Constantinople. These were more concerned with trade than raids and conquest. Vikings also served as guard for a Byzantine emperor.
scarletnoir wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "School assemblies. My sister says traditional assemblies of the kind I remember did not exist at all in state schools by the time she retired, but some form of assembly of a mul..."my main memory of school assemblies was secular from about 7 to 18 but my first school was a religious assembly, in the old 18c school building, with uneven floors and the headmistress would say prayers and we would sing a hymn, as far as i remember we all attended, nobody was exempt.
This was 1980-83, after that, no religious assemblies in my next two schools.
Interesting review/article in the NYRB on a book about "the crisis of democratic capitalism", where the reviewer makes the point that democracy and capitalism have very different goals and values.In my view, Populism could possibly be seen as the democratic ability to elect somebody to change the capitalist reality, in its most basic, emotional form, though sadly the character of most populists is shady and clearly opposed to democracy when it doesnt serve their aims..
Gpfr wrote: " Archeology and archeologists play a large part in Torquil MacLeod's latest book. We mainly think of the Vikings goin..."And aren't there some similarities between the Finnish and Turkish languages.
scarletnoir wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "School assemblies. My sister says traditional assemblies of the kind I remember did not exist at all in state schools by the time she retired, but some form of assembly of a mul..."When I was in infants school I, and a lad in my class, had to sit down in assembly if it was cold. Coming into a much warmer room from cold outside and bam! we could faint for England. Has happened since I have grown up too. But rarely fortunately.
scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Doubled my knowledge of Welsh from two words, Cymru and heddlu to four - Bora Da to all the Welsh folks here! I wrote to Llangollen Tourist information and got this greeting bac..."https://www.gonorthwales.co.uk/ideas-...
giveusaclue wrote: "Gpfr wrote: " Archeology and archeologists play a large part in Torquil MacLeod's latest book. We mainly think of the..."The most similar language to Finnish is actually Hungarian, both sit way outside the comprehension of most european language speakers, under the Finno-Ugric banner, though i think Estonian is the closest to Finnish. (While Lativa and Lithuania are Balts and speak Baltic tongues, the Estonians are not Balts)
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Are you sure? Does she have anything to say about th..."
As I said, I haven't come to this in her book yet (?), but I had a look and came across this article;
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
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I don't remember assembly in any of the primary schools I went to.
At grammar school, we had a hymn, a psalm, bible reading and prayers.
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Are you sure? Does she have anything to say about th..."
As I said, I haven't come to this in her book yet (?), but I had a look and came across this article;
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201..."
That's interesting about the family's history, GP., and the article too. I look forward to hearing more.
scarlet - I didn't mean to be in the least derogatory. I've seen her regularly on TV and read about her later theatre work. I was only thinking that she seemed firmly on track for international stardom - the kind we've seen since with Kate Winslet or Rachel Weisz - and after the break in her career it has been a different trajectory.
After the Anselme novel is a return to Danish fiction and the author Martin A Hansen, who died in his 40s but published some important novels, the one i am about to start is The Liar from 1950, set in Northern Jutland
Gpfr wrote: " Archeology and archeologists play a large part in Torquil MacLeod's latest book. We mainly think of the Vikings goin..."The Long Ships an epic novel by the Swedish writer Frans G. Bengtsson, takes its hero, Red Orm, from Denmark to Spain, by way of the Irish coast, where the Vikings had one of the biggest slave markets in the world. Fine scenes at the court of Denmark under Harald Bluetooth. To sea again, and raiding in England. Then a journey to the East, and adventures along the Volga down to Constantinople. Really a map of the eastern Viking world, with rich storytelling. The Vikings in this novel take a pragmatic view of trade versus raiding-- if there were similar forces on both sides, they might trade.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Blood of the Isles: Exploring the Genetic Roots of Our Tribal History (other topics)New Finnish Grammar (other topics)
The Clues in the Fjord (other topics)
Myth in Malmö (other topics)
The Liar (other topics)
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Indeed. Coming from a small town in west Wales, I had no idea how one was supposed to identify 'Jews' back then. I knew a fair ..."
I remember when I went up to high school, when we had assemblies, which included hymns then, there were a few students who came in after those who were, presumably, Jewish or Muslim. I never gave it much thought, such innocence.
Then later on probably in the 80s, I was on my lunch break and a female colleague who, I think, was Hindu, asked if Jewish was a religion or a nationality! I suppose a short answer might have been yes.