A friend has given me Vineland by Thomas Pynchon as a housewarming present. It's not the sort of thing I usually read, but I promised her I would give it a good try.
I've already mentioned on the Ship of Fools Book Club thread but I've recently read The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, and haven't enjoyed a novel so much in ages. I also read Bookworm by Lucy Mangan who is the Guardian's TV critic. Its about the books she read as a child. It was interesting on several levels. She enjoyed very much the same books I did as a child, she grew up in an area of London I know well and finally she is twenty years younger than me so a lot of the books she read as a teenager were the ones I was reading as a school librarian to recommend to my pupils.
Unusually for me I'm reading a non-fiction - Humankind (A Hopeful History) by Rutger Bregman. It was recommended at a retreat I went on recently and is a wholesome and uplifting antidote to all the negative stuff that's around at present.
I ran out of energy for this one and have left it for now, with about a third of it unread.
I've since read Patrick Gale's The Whole Day Through - an author I discovered through my real life book group; I tend to pick up secondhand copies if I see them as they're generally a good read. My bedside comfort reread is Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth.
Some of my books-in-waiting: Unruly by David Mitchell; Longitude by Dave Sobel; A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and Rough Music by Patrick Gale. I won't be reading that last one for a while, having just finished a Patrick Gale. I enjoy his books but have to have a break in between them.
My next real-life book group meeting is next Monday when we'll be discussing Lizzie Pook's Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge - a delayed discussion due to someone in the group having health problems. I expect we'll have forgotten most of the details so the discussion will be short. I think the book after that will be Samantha Harvey's Orbital which I recently reread for the Ship's book group.
Some of my books-in-waiting: Unruly by David Mitchell
I may have said this here before, but this is a book for which I highly recommend listening to the audiobook if at all possible (unless, I guess, you find David Mitchell's voice annoying or something). I loved it and was very glad I had the audio experience. Although I guess if you already have a paper copy this is not very useful advice!
I, personally, found Unruly uninspiring and felt that he tried too hard to be funny. But this may well be just me (and probably not helped by me being a historian).
Some of my books-in-waiting: Unruly by David Mitchell
I may have said this here before, but this is a book for which I highly recommend listening to the audiobook if at all possible (unless, I guess, you find David Mitchell's voice annoying or something). I loved it and was very glad I had the audio experience. Although I guess if you already have a paper copy this is not very useful advice!
I love reading aloud to other people but have an intense dislike of being read to so that wouldn't work for me.
I did wonder how a historian would take to Unruly and intend to find out whether my son in law (a history teacher) has read it. I should have "taken" history at school and didn't, so I daresay I won't find it annoying in the way you did @Heavenlyannie .
I picked up a small but very profusely illustrated pocket-sized book on Georges de la Tour when I was in Paris last month. It’s part of a series that the Gallimard publisher puts out. On the rediscovery of de la Tour and his paintings in the early 20th century - very interesting and an opportunity to make my rather rusty French a bit less so.
Finished Alison Bechdel's latest graphic novel, Spent, last night. I recommend it and all of her graphic novels. She is probably best known for the Bechdel test. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test
In a thread in Epiphanies, @Nenya mentioned the book Proof of Heaven by the neurosurgeon Dr Eben Alexander. I'm enjoying reading this book. Dr. Alexander (even though I'm sure he had help) is not a captivating writer, however, his story is fascinating!
Finally made it back to this thread after procrastinating for weeks. Having read Alison Goodman's The Ladies Roadguide to UTTER RUIN, I've now finished the predecessor, The Benevolent Society of Ill-mannered ladies. Both a bit of a lark, easy reading and feature a pair of titled ladies, behaving in a very modern way with feminist leanings assisting oppressed and imprisoned women to escape the rule of their families and live authentically, aided by decent men with a secondary story of them also seeking justice for their own injustices aided by the women, Augusta and Julia. Enjoyable reading, but I am sure many would poo poo the adventures and their settings.
I've also read The Good Losers by Meg Bignell. Callie March signs up her son to join the local rowing club, something she'd always wanted to do as a child, also having the secondary benefit of getting him off screens and into a social group.
Of course things are never going to run smoothly with some very invested parents, some who are unable to participate in doing the background tasks, a group of people coming together to support their kids, though having very different world views; some with subversive ways disrupting the "smooth" operation of the club.
Are those who appear to be the 'difficult" characters, really that way, or is there something more happening both for them as individuals and for the club dynamic? Will their club be successful at the main regatta of the season? Are the club sponsors bad guys or good guys?
I loved the device of some chapters beginning divided by a group chat and the joining and leaving the group, followed by the continuation of the story. The rowing world is something I'm not familiar with, and enjoyed the explanation of that, as well as the story which is very much one of group dynamics, judgements and trying to help one's kids find their way in the world.
I'm in a multiple book situation, having (at last) spent the gift token from several birthdays ago, plus previous recent purchases, plus, as ever, a read on Kindle.
So I dot between a Gladys Mitchell detective story, poems by Brian Bilston, recipes from Ottolenghi's Comfort, instructions on watercolour and - albeit not so much - Mrs Dalloway. Plus there's a Richard Coles I haven't started yet.
I have just finished The Future by Naomi Alderman - of The Power fame. It is very good - I liked her style from The Power, and it makes for something very readable.
This one is more explicitly cli-fi. and has a great twist in it.
Comments
I ran out of energy for this one and have left it for now, with about a third of it unread.
I've since read Patrick Gale's The Whole Day Through - an author I discovered through my real life book group; I tend to pick up secondhand copies if I see them as they're generally a good read. My bedside comfort reread is Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth.
Some of my books-in-waiting: Unruly by David Mitchell; Longitude by Dave Sobel; A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and Rough Music by Patrick Gale. I won't be reading that last one for a while, having just finished a Patrick Gale. I enjoy his books but have to have a break in between them.
My next real-life book group meeting is next Monday when we'll be discussing Lizzie Pook's Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge - a delayed discussion due to someone in the group having health problems. I expect we'll have forgotten most of the details so the discussion will be short. I think the book after that will be Samantha Harvey's Orbital which I recently reread for the Ship's book group.
I may have said this here before, but this is a book for which I highly recommend listening to the audiobook if at all possible (unless, I guess, you find David Mitchell's voice annoying or something). I loved it and was very glad I had the audio experience. Although I guess if you already have a paper copy this is not very useful advice!
I love reading aloud to other people but have an intense dislike of being read to so that wouldn't work for me.
I did wonder how a historian would take to Unruly and intend to find out whether my son in law (a history teacher) has read it. I should have "taken" history at school and didn't, so I daresay I won't find it annoying in the way you did @Heavenlyannie .
I've also read The Good Losers by Meg Bignell. Callie March signs up her son to join the local rowing club, something she'd always wanted to do as a child, also having the secondary benefit of getting him off screens and into a social group.
Of course things are never going to run smoothly with some very invested parents, some who are unable to participate in doing the background tasks, a group of people coming together to support their kids, though having very different world views; some with subversive ways disrupting the "smooth" operation of the club.
Are those who appear to be the 'difficult" characters, really that way, or is there something more happening both for them as individuals and for the club dynamic? Will their club be successful at the main regatta of the season? Are the club sponsors bad guys or good guys?
I loved the device of some chapters beginning divided by a group chat and the joining and leaving the group, followed by the continuation of the story. The rowing world is something I'm not familiar with, and enjoyed the explanation of that, as well as the story which is very much one of group dynamics, judgements and trying to help one's kids find their way in the world.
So I dot between a Gladys Mitchell detective story, poems by Brian Bilston, recipes from Ottolenghi's Comfort, instructions on watercolour and - albeit not so much - Mrs Dalloway. Plus there's a Richard Coles I haven't started yet.
This one is more explicitly cli-fi. and has a great twist in it.