[chris05]

Just finished Sugar Street, the final volume of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy - a marvellous set of books following one Egyptian family across the tumultuous first half of the C20th. A must for anyone who enjoys multi-volume novels.

That looks great Andy, just ordered it. Thanks for posting

I have just finished the first book in this trilogy and highly recommend it. Its always great to discover a new author and this thread has introduced me to quite a few. Cheers guys.

[JamieG]

I recently just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and it is probably one of the funniest books i have ever read. Very sad at times too. I would highly recommended it, although i suspect it is not to everyones taste.

[Fiend]

Relatively low-brow, but I found this fun recently:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/14-Peter-Clines-ebook/dp/B00898J9IE/ref=pd_sim_351_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YZMY0156XHKMA5DHD5X

[Duma]

I recently just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and it is probably one of the funniest books i have ever read. Very sad at times too. I would highly recommended it, although i suspect it is not to everyones taste.

God damn it! This post reminded me how great it is, and my copy seems to have gone awol at some point in the last ten years.

[Moo]

Just finished go set a watchman, not in the same league as mockingbird. Atticus is dead to me now.

[fried]

Just finished go set a watchman, not in the same league as mockingbird. Atticus is dead to me now.

I'm really nervous about ever reading it. You've completely put me off now.

[cjsheps]

I recently just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and it is probably one of the funniest books i have ever read. Very sad at times too. I would highly recommended it, although i suspect it is not to everyones taste.

That's interesting. After the initial description of Ignatius which made me laugh, I got fed up with it really quickly. It seemed to just consist of people complaining, with various degrees of justification.

That said, it's a runner-up for best thing I've ever found on the Ceuse campsite Free Shelf. Nothing on that bottle of Polish vodka (wad-ka) though.

[drdeath]

I recently just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and it is probably one of the funniest books i have ever read. Very sad at times too. I would highly recommended it, although i suspect it is not to everyones taste.

It's years since I last read it but I still talk about 'my valve' whenever I get a little gassy....

For this month i have been very much enjoying

'A Brief History of Seven Killings'  by Marlon James

Damn powerful.

Now on the Booker long list...

[Will Hunt]

Just finished go set a watchman, not in the same league as mockingbird. Atticus is dead to me now.

I'm really nervous about ever reading it. You've completely put me off now.

I've read it now and I'm choosing to deal with it in the way that I believe some others are. That is, to treat Watchman as an alternate book set 20 years later in an alternative Maycomb. If you look at the controversy around the book's release then this approach seems to add up.

The writing of Watchman is quite sloppy and reads very much like a first draft. A thoroughly inferior version of events to Mockingbird.

[jwi]

Just finished go set a watchman, not in the same league as mockingbird. Atticus is dead to me now.

I'm really nervous about ever reading it. You've completely put me off now.

I've read it now and I'm choosing to deal with it in the way that I believe some others are. That is, to treat Watchman as an alternate book set 20 years later in an alternative Maycomb. If you look at the controversy around the book's release then this approach seems to add up.

The writing of Watchman is quite sloppy and reads very much like a first draft. A thoroughly inferior version of events to Mockingbird.

I haven't read it but suspect that Ursula K Le Guin's review is quite a bit better than the book...
http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2015/08/03/a-personal-take-on-go-set-a-watchman/

[Will Hunt]

Le Guin's review really highlights that what you make of the new book is largely based on what you think of the way it was published. Another review I have read commends Mockingbird's editor for recognising that the most intriguing, well written, and enjoyable parts of Watchman are the flashbacks to the narrator's childhood. Why not send Lee away to rewrite the book from that perspective? And while she's at it, tidy up the crap dialogue and pieces of prose that don't hang together well. Perhaps Lee, of her own volition, found herself rewriting the characters into their original forms? It's all complete fantasy either way - based mostly on what the reader wants the book to say.

What we have now are two books which don't hang together as a pair - certain things that the characters do in one book are completely incompatible with the characters from the other. They have been presented as such for the interests of Harper Collins. One is clearly greatly superior to the other, whatever you think of the book's themes.

[Schnell]

Just finished go set a watchman, not in the same league as mockingbird. Atticus is dead to me now.

I'm really nervous about ever reading it. You've completely put me off now.

I've read it now and I'm choosing to deal with it in the way that I believe some others are. That is, to treat Watchman as an alternate book set 20 years later in an alternative Maycomb. If you look at the controversy around the book's release then this approach seems to add up.

The writing of Watchman is quite sloppy and reads very much like a first draft. A thoroughly inferior version of events to Mockingbird.

I haven't read it but suspect that Ursula K Le Guin's review is quite a bit better than the book...
http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2015/08/03/a-personal-take-on-go-set-a-watchman/

For me the review certainly outlined the psychology at play better than the book itself, still enjoyed it though and I think it could have been longer to retain some of the nostalgic elements but develop the conflict more. To be honest in terms of plot it was pretty useless, I don't see why you wouldn't make the conflict between Jean-Louise and her family revolve around some plot element. I thought the car crash scenario might provide this but it was dealt with very superficially, as was the town council meeting that Jean Louise walked in on.

[JamieG]

I recently just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and it is probably one of the funniest books i have ever read. Very sad at times too. I would highly recommended it, although i suspect it is not to everyones taste.

That's interesting. After the initial description of Ignatius which made me laugh, I got fed up with it really quickly. It seemed to just consist of people complaining, with various degrees of justification.

That said, it's a runner-up for best thing I've ever found on the Ceuse campsite Free Shelf. Nothing on that bottle of Polish vodka (wad-ka) though.

It seems to be quite a divisive book. I've spoken to a few people that loved and others that absolutely hated it. Guess you have to be able to identify with Ignatius on some level and agree with what he is rallying against. Although maybe not to the extreme that he does. I'm sure we've all watched something on TV just to get the satisfaction of thoroughly hating every moment of it. For me it is x-factor and those kind of shows. There is a perverse pleasure in watching a show like that and hating everything it stands for. Just like Ignatius at the cinema.

Or maybe I just like complaining. :-)

[Jaspersharpe]

Read a few books on holiday which I'll summarise quickly:

A Decent Ride - Irvine Welsh - Juice Terry returns with Welsh on top comedy form. If you can laugh about the sort of totally grim subjects he covers that is, which I can and did. Piss funny.

Crime - Irvine Welsh - Being a massive fan I was surprised I'd somehow missed this one and you couldn't get a more different Welsh book than the one I'd just read. Although it follows on from Filth in that it contains some of the same characters, it's much more of a dark crime thriller than anything of his I've read before. Really good.

Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto - Recommended by FD as perfect holiday reading earlier in the thread. I concur. Having just finished watching the second series of True Detective, you can see where the sense of tension and creeping dread comes from. He's a very good writer.

A Foreign Country - Charles Cumming - The Mrs brought this on holiday and as I'd devoured my books in a week I gave it a go. Really good proper old skool spy romp but with clever nods to what's actually going on nowadays. Easy reading and very entertaining.

The Psycopath Test - Jon Ronson Very funny, very thought provoking look at what mental illness actually is and how it's been defined and treated over recent years. Probably been mentioned previously on the thread but I'd not heard of it until a guy we met on holiday gave it to us. Ronson is a genius/idiot and the book is great.

[Johnny Brown]

I found the Psychopath test fairly interesting but found the writing style annoying. It's all 'Dee diddle de diddle de dee. Dur dur. (! implied). I guess its very easy reading aimed at the masses though. Plus by the end he has basically admitted his interesting initial hypothesis didn't bear close analysis. Shame as he was an eloquent bloke on the radio.

Whilst off work I ploughed through Nicholas Shakespeare's very thorough biography of Bruce Chatwin. Well worth a read if you're interested to the backdrop to his writing. Given he only wrote six book in his 48 years I would have preferred a bit more detail on the background to the books and a little less painstaking detail on his whereabouts and relationships at all times, but its a minor quibble. On the other hand I have learned that the early eighties New York gay scene would not have been for me at all.

[Rocksteady]

Only recent read of note for me was Anathem by Neal Stephenson, following recommendation upthread from the_dom.

What a cracker! Speculative fiction thriller with some very techy mathematical/philosophical concepts at the centre of the storyline. Sometimes slightly heavy going with the storyline depending on the reader understanding some of the concepts. But the witty dialogue and likeable characters and shaolin-monks in space type action carried it along nicely. One of those books that has a life that endures long after you set it down - I ended up googling all the concepts and ordering a bunch of science books afterwards.

Back on the next volume of Proust now, which as ever is a real treat.

[fried]

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.

I'm finally about halfway through (after a few months), sensationally good, literate, but easy to read. If you're stuck for a meaty summer history read; look no further.

[SA Chris]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poisonwood-Bible-Barbara-Kingsolver-ebook/dp/B002RI91MG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434449138&sr=1-1&keywords=%27the+poisonwood+bible%27

Has anyone reads this? I've had it recommended to me by a few people, but I'm struggling to persevere after a few chapters, and thinking of bailing before I commit and have to stick it out to reach the chains.

Yes, I really liked it and have recommended it to others. The first Kingsolver I read ('Pigs in Heaven' I think) was reluctantly picked up in a hotel lobby when I'd run out of holiday reading. I was probably a bit sceptical, but she's a good, thoughtful writer. I thought 'The Poisonwood Bible' had quite a strong, compelling narrative ... I'd say it gets quite gripping really, I wanted to know what would happen to the characters.

Thanks for the advice. I persevered, and in the end really enjoyed it. The start is slow, but as you say gets gripping, but felt the narrative ran out of steam towards the end.

[Fiend]

Stallo - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stallo-Stefan-Spjut/dp/0571296785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440964539&sr=8-1&keywords=stallo

Now this is nice, I think some of you might like it. A subdued thriller about Swedish troll / folklore mythology come to a rather covert life. It's written in a methodical, slightly unemotional Scandinavian way (this might be the translation), and is much more Let The Right On In meets Harrison Ford's Witness than it is Troll Hunter. It's a good creepy slow-burner.

[hamsforlegs]

It seems to be quite a divisive book. I've spoken to a few people that loved and others that absolutely hated it. Guess you have to be able to identify with Ignatius on some level and agree with what he is rallying against. Although maybe not to the extreme that he does. I'm sure we've all watched something on TV just to get the satisfaction of thoroughly hating every moment of it. For me it is x-factor and those kind of shows. There is a perverse pleasure in watching a show like that and hating everything it stands for. Just like Ignatius at the cinema.

Or maybe I just like complaining. :-)

No, I like complaining too.
I always think of Ignatius as a sordid, New Orleans Nietzsche. I love the idea of all of that amoral bombastic force coming from a man with dodgy bowels and loose grasp on reality. I love the book - it's just so sweaty and horrible and fun.

Read a few books on holiday which I'll summarise quickly:
Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto - Recommended by FD as perfect holiday reading earlier in the thread. I concur. Having just finished watching the second series of True Detective, you can see where the sense of tension and creeping dread comes from. He's a very good writer.

I also read this after FD's write up. I'll admit that I wasn't a big fan of the book, but you could see how Pizzolatto's approach translated really well in True Detective (which I loved). I felt like maybe the cinematography and acting in the TV series gave things a consistency and direction that was a bit missing in the book. Still a decent holiday read.

Thanks also for earlier heads up on this thread for 'Train Dreams' (Denis Johnson) and 'The Sportswriter' (Richard Ford). Train Dreams was unlike anything I've read before - just a terrific book to read in one late sitting with a glass of whisky. A crushing social commentary written in the most poetic form. The Sportswriter was also great - a very different side of Ford's writing from 'Canada', somehow both a defence and a satire of the rootless, affable middle class man. Looking forward to going straight into 'Independence Day'.

We just moved house, and in preparing for the move dug out a load of old books including my better half's collection of Moomin books by Tove Jansson. Just read 'The Moomins and the Great Flood', which I found weirdly intoxicating. That magic kind of children's writing that hints at enormous dark issues just beneath the surface.

[Falling Down]

Really glad you enjoyed Train Dreams and The Sportswriter.  I thought the former was really special & you've spurred me into pulling my finger out and sharing some things I've read over the Summer that are worth sharing.

The Myth of Brilliant Summers: Austin Collings

A series of very short stories from the biographer of Mark E Smith.  Collings grew up in the suburbs of Manchester like me and these are dark brooding glimpses into a more gritty life than I led but could sense and see at close hand.  I read this in one sitting late at night and it felt like eating a cheap kebab and a warm can of cheap lager under bright strip lighting.  Powerful and disturbing.

Cartel: Don Winslow

A massive, MASSIVE sequel to Winslow's “The Power of the Dog” which picks up the story of America's "War on Drugs" straight from the ending of the first book. There's enough five star reviews in the papers and online that do better justice than I can here.  Both are absolutely brilliant and as with the first one, I could not put this down. 

The Mighty Dead (Why Homer Matters): Adam Nicolson

My education was pretty shit really and I know nothing about the Greek epics.  After reading some Jung and Freud and feeling stumped with all these references to the Gods and legends that were formative in our understanding of the human condition I decided to read The Odyssey as it's supposed to be the most approachable .  Beforehand I picked up this fabulous book by someone who had the benefit of a great schooling and writes beautifully.  This is another of those stirring books by somebody who's dead clever with history, literature, travelogue, philosophy, anthropology and personal experience all mixed up that educates and entertains in equal measure.  Reminded me of Phillip Hoare's Leviathan with ancient Greeks instead of whales.

The Odyssey: Homer (translated by Walter Shewring)

Well, I didn't expect it to be so entertaining and relatively easy to read.  What a story about us all.  I now see why Homer matters.  Give it a try, it's fantastic.


How UFOs Conquered the World. Mystery of a modern myth: David Clarke

David Clarke wrote a PhD in folklore and ended up as the UK's foremost UFO-ologist at Sheffield Hallam.  Similar to Dreamland and Mirage Men this is about the people interested and obsessed with UFOs in the UK.  He started out a believer as a teenager in the seventies, turned skeptic and turned his attention as to why we're all so fascinated by lights in the sky.  If you grew up reading Unexplained magazine & watching Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World you'll enjoy this book.

A Cure for Cancer: Michael Moorcock

The first Jerry Cornelius novel and part of Moorcock's Eternal Champion multiverse.  Strange, very 60's, surreal and funny.

Trouble in Paradise: Slavoj Zizek

Lots of food for thought.  He's super smart and funny too.  Proper chin stroking stuff.

[the_dom]

Cartel: Don Winslow

A massive, MASSIVE sequel to Winslow's “The Power of the Dog” which picks up the story of America's "War on Drugs" straight from the ending of the first book. There's enough five star reviews in the papers and online that do better justice than I can here.  Both are absolutely brilliant and as with the first one, I could not put this down. 

I thought The Power of the Dog was amazing, and somehow missed this. Excited now.

[Falling Down]

It's even better.  I thought POTD was a bit wooden in places (thought that's harsh considering) but Cartel blows it out of the water in its scope and the fullness of the characters.  It was like being utterly glued to a film for 48 hours straight. I'm glad I read it on holiday over a couple of days - I didn't do much else.  My partner was very tolerant..

[Fiend]

Europe In Autumn - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Europe-Autumn-Dave-Hutchinson/dp/1781081956/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442505418&sr=1-1&keywords=europe+in+autumn

Another one you 'orrible lot might like. Smart, very near future, eastern Bloc themed sort of spy thriller. Hints of Declare, Transitions, The City And The City, but the author has got his own style and it's a good one, the dialogue made me laugh a few times. Intriguing stuff that ends very abruptly, but there is a semi-sequel in the works.

[DaveC]

I've had a quiet year on the reading front in 2015 and until recently what I had been reading was a little on the dry side for most. I recently made a rare foray into the world of fiction and polished off Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer-winning All The Light We Cannot See in a few days. One of the best books I have read in a long time. The prose is economical and easy to read, chapters are short, it certainly hauled me along with it very nicely thank you.
Currently I'm into Jonathan Sumption's Cursed Kings, the fourth volume in his superb history of the Hundred Years War. He's been working on this series since the mid-80s apparently and so far he has published in 1991, 1999, 2009 and 2015. The fifth and final volume is expected in 3 or 4 years. At 800-1000 pages per book this is work on the scale of Gibbon's Decline and Fall or Braudel's History of the Mediterranean and the writing and depth of research is top notch. I would thoroughly recommend the whole series if you are interested in this period of history.