[DaveC]

Swann's Way it will be then. I'm stealing some leave next week so a bookshop raid is definitely on.

[fried]

I recommend the translation by Lydia Davis. It' called 'the way by Swann's'. It's worth checking out some reviews which will explain why this is considered to be a more accurate translation (in spirit).

Don't we have a professional Proust scholar on our books somewhere?

[fried]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/03/harper-lee-new-novel-to-kill-a-mockingbird

Better late than never.

[DaveC]

Finished the first couple of books for the year in the last week or two. Kristin Hersh's 'Paradoxical Undressing' is an extraordinary memoir and whether you ever listened to Throwing Muses back in the 80s or not, it is a great read giving some insight into the mind of a bipolar songwriter with synesthesia! (I'm sure I've spelt that wrong.) Dabbling in fiction I polished off Conrad's Heart of Darkness in about 90 minutes, it's amazing how much of the  dialogue went into Apocalypse Now pretty much unchanged. All-in-all, an interesting read, OK but not much more.

[Fiend]

You guys might like this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Annihilation-Southern-Reach-Trilogy-VanderMeer/dp/0007550715/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421170310&sr=8-3&keywords=southern+reach

Jeff Vander Meer - Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy)

It's pretty much as if the ghost of Iain Banks came back to haunt Adam Roberts, beat him with a large stick until he stopped putting such annoying characters in his novels, and they teamed up to write a subtle, dislocated, psychological thriller inspired by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game...

Finished this trilogy. You guys who like unreal fiction / subtle sci-fi need to get on this, I'm sure it would be worth a look for people like Falling Down. It's low-key, mysterious, and creepy.

[DaveC]

Ticked Kerouac's On the Road in pretty short order while on leave from work. Some of the language seems odd now but it is an interesting portrait of a certain time and place written in a fascinating style.

[Falling Down]

You guys might like this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Annihilation-Southern-Reach-Trilogy-VanderMeer/dp/0007550715/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421170310&sr=8-3&keywords=southern+reach

Jeff Vander Meer - Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy)

It's pretty much as if the ghost of Iain Banks came back to haunt Adam Roberts, beat him with a large stick until he stopped putting such annoying characters in his novels, and they teamed up to write a subtle, dislocated, psychological thriller inspired by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game...

Finished this trilogy. You guys who like unreal fiction / subtle sci-fi need to get on this, I'm sure it would be worth a look for people like Falling Down. It's low-key, mysterious, and creepy.

Thanks Fiend, I'm off hols in a couple of weeks so will check it out.

[Moo]

Not seen it mentioned here before but 'Three to see the king' is a hilarious afternoons read.

[Rocksteady]

Ticked Kerouac's On the Road in pretty short order while on leave from work. Some of the language seems odd now but it is an interesting portrait of a certain time and place written in a fascinating style.

I liked On the Road but I though that The Dharma Bums was a better and more developed elucidation on the same theme/topic. I liked the characters and story trajectory more.

[andy popp]

Ticked Kerouac's On the Road in pretty short order while on leave from work. Some of the language seems odd now but it is an interesting portrait of a certain time and place written in a fascinating style.

I liked On the Road but I though that The Dharma Bums was a better and more developed elucidation on the same theme/topic. I liked the characters and story trajectory more.

My favourite Kerouac novel is the little known 'Maggie Cassidy,' a very sweet tale of his first love on the streets of Lowell, MA - incidentally the very first place I ever visited in the US.

[DaveC]

I will undoubtedly try some more Kerouac in the future. I tried getting into Dostoyevsky (Notes from the Underground) but I've shelved it for the time being. It just wasn't holding my attention but I'll give it another go sometime. Swann's Way arrived today btw so I may take that straight off the "to read" pile and get started. Three fiction books in a row? The Mrs is starting to wonder what's going on!

[SA Chris]

Ticked Kerouac's On the Road in pretty short order while on leave from work. Some of the language seems odd now but it is an interesting portrait of a certain time and place written in a fascinating style.

in summary

Jack
Kerouac
Went away
Came back

(I have no idea whare this came from, but it sticks in my head, and no it's not from the song).

[Falling Down]

My Kerouac fave is Desolation Angels his account of spending the Summer in a cabin as a fire watchman before returning with a bump into San Fran. That and Dharma Bums...

Caroline Cassady's biog "Off The Road" is really great giving a female perspective on the male dominated beats. 

[Durbs]

I'm on a bit of a Muarakami spree at the moment - love most of his stuff (Though Norwegian Wood didn't really do it for me). Just finished the Wind Up Bird Chronicle which was perhaps slightly overly long, but still an interesting read.

Also read "The Hen who dreamed she could fly" by Sun-Mi Hwang  - a short Korean book which was rather short and poignant.

Finished The Great Gatsby too which was fantastic.

Other recommendations:
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie - Picked it up randomly on Kindle, very good read. I don't ever read sword-swinging fantasy stuff but it was great.
Player of Games by Iain M Banks - already recommended on here, but just adding a +1
Anything by David Mitchell

[Falling Down]

Andy Popp http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/01/karl-ove-knausgaard-interview-shame-dancing-in-the-dark

[andy popp]

Thanks Ben. I'd just read it, and seen that  the next volume is out in translation. Interesting to read it now that I've been in Sweden for the last week as well. What intrigues me is that  we (he and I) are such poles apart in so many ways, and yet I find so much that is powerful and resonant in the novels. Great work isn't ever just about finding something we agree with.

[Duma]

H is for hawk
Reading this on my phone which is a bit odd (thought it was an audiobook when I bought it... Doh!) anyway really enjoying it, her descriptive prose re the hawk and her grief is great, the stuff more directly about her dad doesn't grab me the same, but perhaps that's more me than the writing. Recommended.

[Falling Down]

Jagged Red Line by Nick Williams.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jagged-Red-Line-ebook/dp/B009T8XBD2

This is quite a book.

I knew Nick as we were at Leeds University Mountaineering Club together in the early 90's - and in 93 he went off to Ukraine as part of his course and spent a considerable part of it climbing (esp the final summer there..). When he returned there were grim tales of a horrible climbing accident, people he was climbing with fell and perished - and what followed were even grimmer sounding hints of a epic overland journey - with a body - back from the 'stans' to Kiev. Only with a beer (of several) in hand and with a look that switched from intense/manic to distant he sometimes let on what happened over there. With good reason, as it was clearly a horrendous experience...

Nearly 20 years later on, I found (via Facebook) that Nick has penned his account of his experiences and its up on Amazon as a self published book.  It starts as an autobiographical travel tale - relating the quirks, oddities and ways of post communist Ukraine - then as Nick forges links and friendships with climbers it moves into a climbing travel book - until the tragedy and its ramifications unfolds. I found it one of the most moving mountaineering books I have read - it is funny, incredibly sad, touching in highs and lows. Superbly written with a very clever and moving shift in tense from first to third person. I'm probably biased - knowing Nick many years ago - but the incredible tale, the comeradeship forged and the hardships encountered and overcame made this a truly compelling read. I can't reccomend it enough.

Tom, this has been on my Kindle for a couple of years now since you pointed us to it but I finally got around to reading it a couple of days ago.  I normally have an aversion to self-published (e)books that haven't had the benefit of an editors advice and scalpel (Jon Redhead and his endlessly tiring "!" getting in the way of some great writing) which is probably why I've never read past the opening paragraphs until now.  More the fool me.  This is a great little book and stands up against the more well known mountaineering epics.  Better than some of Boardman and Tasker's in fact.  I second your high recommendation.

[Falling Down]

Some stuff I read on holiday.

Glow Ned Beauman.  Really enjoyed this. Kicks off at an illegal rave in a disused launderette with Raf, the central character who suffers from a 25 hour sleep/wake cycle disorder chatting up a girl and being given a new synthetic drug "Glow" and then takes off on a strange conspiracy thriller involving shadowy mining corporations in Burma, bent PR consultants, internet social engineering, pirate radio stations and feral foxes.

I binned Charles Stross's Accelerando pretty quickly.  I'm sure he's full of good ideas but I can't bear how he writes.  I think I referred to his style earlier as hearty real-ale, hail-fellow-well-met backslapping stuff and again this reared its head within a few paragraphs.  I'm sure when worked in IT he must have worn Homer Simpson socks and a wacky tie.  Still he's written more books than I ever will and is wildly successful.  Just not for me.

Following an intense dream that referenced him I downloaded Orpheus by Ann Wroe.  A really great read venturing into myth, history, art, philosophy and psychology.  Hugely entertaining and thought provoking.  Left me zapped afterwards.

Nick William's A Jagged Red Line - see above.

James Ellroy Shakedown a 99p single from Kindle about Freddie Otash, a character from the LA Quartet and American Tabloid series.  Otash is in purgatory, locked between Earth and Hell as a Ellroy unpacks his secret diary and FBI file.  Hardboiled, hilarious and classic Ellroy.

Just downloaded Annihilation on Fiend's tip so will report back - looks good.

[Rocksteady]

Just finished The English and their History by Robert Tombs having been put onto it by FD's mention of it above.

Wow. I thought this was an absolutely wonderful tour of English history and a very thoughtful exploration of what it means to be English - what values are deemed as English, why, what has changed, what has remained the same.

I got a sense of shibboleth-busting in this book - the 'traditionally accepted' views were challenged again and again. I got the feeling that there was a lot of revisionist history written in the Marxist school from the 1960s onwards in the UK and that Professor Tombs was cutting against this as a new generation of academic.

One of the interpretations that most astounded/fascinated me was that the national distribution/demographic of Tory voters vs Labour now closely corresponds with the national distribution/demographic of Anglican vs Dissenter religious views in early centuries. There was definitely a feeling in the book that like it or not our political attitudes, conscious or unconscious, are deeply shaped by the religious past of our country.

[seankenny]

One of the interpretations that most astounded/fascinated me was that the national distribution/demographic of Tory voters vs Labour now closely corresponds with the national distribution/demographic of Anglican vs Dissenter religious views in early centuries. There was definitely a feeling in the book that like it or not our political attitudes, conscious or unconscious, are deeply shaped by the religious past of our country.

There's more fascinating research on this. Aside from the usual stuff about black educational attainment in the US and patterns of slavery, one team of academics think that areas in Germany which saw 14th century anti-Semitic pogroms had a higher incidence of anti-Jewish violence in the 1920s and a higher number of votes for the Nazis.

http://econ.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/18631/Voigtlander_2011April19.pdf

Peter Ackroyd is very good with this sort of thing as regards London, with some areas keeping their character for centuries (at least the way he tells it).

[Falling Down]

Just watched M (Mike) John Harrison read his new short story "The Crisis"... Flippin' eck he's a damn good writer and had the audience hypnotised with a live reading.

[the_dom]

For the Knausgaard fans out there:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/magazine/karl-ove-knausgaard-travels-through-america.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/magazine/karl-ove-knausgaards-passage-through-america.html

[Rocksteady]

Just finished reading Son of the Morning by Mark Alder, a historical fantasy novel set during the Hundred Years' War. The fantasy hook is that the divine right of kings is literally true, with kings able to call on angels to assist their armies on the battlefield. Only Edward III can't summon his angels and is looking for help from hell. Hell itself is divided between devils and Luciferians, demons who were overthrown when God overthrew Lucifer at the dawn of creation.

I enjoyed this more than any new fantasy book (i.e. not in well-established series) since I discovered Steven Erikson. Some great characters and historically rings quite true (apart from the angels and stuff). Found myself googling a lot of stuff, which all turned out to be true. Sounds like a truly horrible time to be alive - which is part of the point that the author is making. Highly recommended (if you like this sort of thing).

[Fiend]

Alistair Reynolds - Blue Remembered Earth

Which kelvin has also been reading recently? It's been a while since I've read any AR despite being addicted to 90% of his books. This is....well it's a bit odd for me, it's semi-near-future Earth-based sci-fi, and doesn't really have a particular hook or thrilling theme to captivate me. BUT it is still really good, well-paced, very readable and enjoyable. I guess a further indication of ARs skill that he doesn't need to rely on big hard sci-fi themes to write a good yarn.