[Rocksteady]

Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honour. Simply a masterpiece. Thinly fictionalised account of Waugh's own experience of WWII. One of the funniest books I have ever read but also deeply melancholy and humane. I read the revised, single volume version first published in 1964 (not the earlier three volume version). Apparently the later one was how Waugh wanted it read. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Yes I thought this was excellent. 

Fiend, I haven't read much of the authors who are your favourites (apart from China Miéville) so don't particularly feel qualified to recommend. As a punt for sci-fi I'd try Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos if you haven't read it. Best new fantasy I read this year was Son of the Morning by Mark Alder which I think I mentioned up thread. My standard fantasy recommendations are Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, Steven Erikson's Malazan series, Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana and The Lions of Al Rassan. And George R.R. Martin. All the series have their flaws, but for immersive escapism and wonder I'd put them at the top. Guy Gavriel Kay writes beautifully and creates nuanced characters. I find his stories have the bittersweet taste of life.

Recently read Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World which I would say is a must read for anyone interested in Antarctic exploration or 'real adventure' literature generally. The best writer of the explorers who I've read. Apparently the author had lifelong problems with his teeth after shattering them by chattering when he was so cold on his winter journey in perpetual darkness. A harrowing, inspiring and sad tale - well-used excerpts from his fellow-explorers' diaries including Scott's.

Also read Ringworld by Larry Niven - creative but not compelling. Clearly the basis for the Halo series which has a better story.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester - liked this. Born of the pulp sci-fi serial generation, the frame for the story seems a bit tired but the development of the main character, Gully Foyle, is fascinating. This would make a good film.

And currently reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - like the premise of a kind of Vietnam War in space, with relativity causing generations to pass on Earth while the war is fought on distant worlds - very readable so far. 

[DaveC]

Just read Haruki Murakami's first two, short, novels from way back in the early 70s. Hear the Wind Sing feels a bit patchy, he was plainly searching for his own style and it shows even in translation. Pinball felt a more finished book and if this is how he started I'll certainly be reading more of him. I'm at home with the flu this week so reading productivity is really quite high!

[r-man]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester - liked this. Born of the pulp sci-fi serial generation, the frame for the story seems a bit tired but the development of the main character, Gully Foyle, is fascinating. This would make a good film.

Ha! Surprised to see this get a mention. I once picked it up second hand, and remember quite enjoying it. An energetic romp.

Has anyone read any Jack Vance? He's a dab hand with gung-ho protagonists, and has a flair for language and cultural invention. Some great stuff in both sci-fi and fantasy.

Also, has anyone read any Hugh Cook? He wrote a series of fantasy novels, vaguely connected by a shared world (as far as I can remember) and alliterative titles. The wizards and the warriors. The walrus and the warwulf. Etc. Each novel was stylistically and thematically different - apparently 60 were planned (!) but only ten written due to poor sales. I read a few and enjoyed them, but they are hard to get hold of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles_of_an_Age_of_Darkness

[Fiend]

Hugh Cook! Now there is a blast from the past. I enjoyed them quite a bit at the time, despite most books being a bit haphazard and childish. I like the way the protagonists stumble from mishap to mishap around the world, also some of the concepts were pretty interesting. I liked The Walrus and The Warwolf a lot.

I did read the first two books of Dan Simmon's Hyperion stuff, I didn't like it. Another one with too many ties to classical literature for me.

[r-man]

Yes! Nearly twenty years since I read them, and I think they were on their way out then. You're the first person who knows what I'm talking about.

[DaveC]

Picking them off at a great rate now. Just finished The Hotel Years, a collection of travel-based essays from Joseph Roth, the great German writer of the interwar years. The book opens with a short piece describing a man reading newspaper in 1920s Budapest, quite simply one of the most beautiful pieces of descriptive prose I have yet read, with a great little punchline on the end as well. The standard barely drops from one end of his career to the other, a real delight and beautifully translated.

[andy popp]

Just finished River Grenier's Palace of Books, a look at the how, why and whatever of writing by a veteran French editor and writer. A fabulous little book. Andy, I think you might really appreciate this one if you haven't come across it.

Thanks Dave, I hadn't heard of this but it sounds interesting.

I finished M Train on Friday: I enjoyed it but it left me with a sad feeling. I had flights on Saturday and got through a big chunk of Promised You a Miracle, Andy Beckett's history of the UK in the years 1980-1982. Well-written, vivd, impressionistic - some things I remember very well, some I'd completely forgotten. I'm not sure its going to add up to a great deal more though, whether there'll really be a thesis.

[psychomansam]

Just finished Ancillary Justice. An interesting perspective on personal identity, but not a touch on House of Suns or the Prefect.
That comes from my preference for philosophical and political perspective of course - the character development here is subtle but powerful in places. I could mention author gender but fear the consequences.

[Fiend]

Well now there is a coincidence!!

I've just finished Ancillary Sword....

I can't remember much about The Prefect nor that much about Ancillary Justice for that matter, but I do remember House Of Suns being quite spectacular and thrilling.

I do like the Ancillary series so far though. Not much happens in Sword but it happens in a neatly written sort of way and the main character is engaging in a subtle but powerful style. Just ordered Mercy.

[Fiend]

Finished Mercy, more action than Sword but more light-hearted. Some of the interactions are quite entertaining in a casually flippant Banksian sort of way. I'd recommend the whole trilogy, it is a fresh perspective and a neat idea.

[DaveC]

Best five books read in 2015...it was tricky to narrow it down and I have cheated a bit putting three novels together as a trilogy. The presence of fiction in here represents a sea-change in my reading habits, I really don't know what's come over me!
1. Cursed Kings - Jonathan Sumption. The fourth volume in an anticipated five part history of the Hundred Years War that started to appear some 25 years ago and which will apparently be concluded somewhere around 2018. Deeply researched and beautifully written, this volume also has the best material to work with, book-ended by two political assassinations, you have the madness of the king of France and one of the great characters of English history, Henry V, and some momentous battles, most notably Agincourt. I love reading history when it has been done properly and this is a masterpiece, definitely my favourite book of the year.
2. Uncommon Carriers - John McPhee. New Yorker regular McPhee wrote these essays over several years. He travelled across America by truck, freight train and river barge and spent time at a special college in France where they teach merchant captains how to handle even the largest of ships using scaled down boats on a lake. Eye-opening, nicely written, McPhee at his best.
3 The 'Rat" Trilogy (Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, A Wild Sheep Chase) - Haruki Murakami. Murakami's first three novels are now all available in English and I read them all within a couple of weeks, my first encounter with this highly rated writer. I loved watching Murakami develop his writing style as these stories progressed. The first one definitely feels like he is trying to find his style and rhythm and by the time A Wild Sheep Chase gets underway he has definitely found it. What the books are about is for you to find out, Murakami's plots are...a little odd...if this is anything to go by, but I love his prose style and the odd combination of dry humour and melancholy that pervades all three stories. I already have several more of his books now waiting to reach the top of the "to read" pile!
4. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2015 and was recommended to me by a friend so I dove in and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Doerr's WW2-set story of a blind Parisian girl and an orphaned German boy and the extraordinary chain of events that brings them to the same time and place in 1944, is a fabulous read. This book got me reading fiction again after nearly 20 years away.
5. Manhunts, A Philosophical History - Gregoire Chamayou. Does exactly what it says on the tin...! A French philosopher takes us on a tour of man's history of hunting other men. At times a bit heavy but a very original book shedding light on a subject most of us probably rarely think about.

Honourable Mentions:
The Nearest Thing to Life - James Woods
The Palace of Books - Roger Grenier
The Copernicus Complex - Caleb Scharff
The Maze Maker - Michael Ayrton
The Hotel Years - Joseph Roth

[Fiend]

I started a best of culture thread just for that sort of thing 

[andy popp]

I didn't get much chance to read over Christmas but manage a couple of things:

For some reason I had a weird impulse to read about Waterloo and plumped for Bernard Cornwell's Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles as I just wanted a straight forward account. Its well written and very good at keeping a very complex and confusing  story clear. I always knew where I was, as it were.

Also finished Andy Beckett's Promised You a Miracle: UK 80-92. As had suspected this never really developed a thesis - its a series of vignettes really, but they are very well chosen. Much was familiar, but much was strangely odd. He's very good at the strange confluence of different forces and events that came together in the period.

Got two on the go: Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which I've not read before and is shaping up to be a great piece of gothic noir

Completely different is The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans by my friend Barbara Hahn and her collaborator Bruce Baker. Telling the story of an attempt to corner the world cotton market in 1903 it is an exemplary piece of highly accessible scholarship. I'd recommend to many of you here interested in economics. And its pretty reasonably priced for an academic book (£19.99, from OUP).

[filz]

For some reason I had a weird impulse to read about Waterloo and plumped for Bernard Cornwell's Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles as I just wanted a straight forward account. Its well written and very good at keeping a very complex and confusing  story clear. I always knew where I was, as it were.

I had the same curiosity about the Waterloo battle a few months back and I read "The Battle: A New History of Waterloo" by Alessandro Barbero.
The author is both an historian and a novel writer, so the book is well written and the battle is clearly depicted. I really liked this one. Sooner or later I'll probably read Cornwell's book too.

[a dense loner]

Obviously not reading but relating to Cornwell, since new year I've been watching Sharpe an episode every couple of days. Quality stuff! Sean Bean was lucky that Jimmy from Bread liked football, the world moves in mysterious ways

[a dense loner]

And with Tommy going on about The right hand of God on another thread, The left hand of God was a good read. Kind of reminds me a bit of Priest type of thing, but without any vampires. Weirdly I always think of that book when I catch a glimpse of my left hand

[TheTwig]

2/3 my way through a re-read of Pullmans' His Dark Materials.

What a cracking read. It's better than LOTR imho. Wish they would make a decent movie out of it 

[Will Hunt]

Fludd by Hilary Mantel.

Really disliked BUTB and Wolf Hall so was nervous about reading this after being lent it by a friend. It's excellent. Super writing and an intriguing set of characters.

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. Two stories side by side: the first being of Nicholas Dyer, an architect and devil worshipper who is constructing churches and around the city containing secret satanic imagery (and committing some bloody murders on the side). The second story following a detective in modern London attempting to solve a series of murders, mirroring those of the first story's antagonist, and going mad in the process. Sounds good doesn't it? Everything is there from a technical perspective. The language is great, there is intrigue, and all the makings of a good story. And then the author just forgets to add a fucking plot to it. It just ends. Nothing is solved. Unforgivable.

Attempted to get into A Time Of Gifts again, which was recommended to me by Andy - I've got about half way through. Autobiographical work by Patrick Leigh Fermor recounting his time walking through Europe. Sleeping in hayricks one night and Transylvanian castles as the guest of some Count or other the next. I do like it but Fermor seems more engrossed with the architecture and art that he encounters on the way than the people and cultures. He spends pages and pages describing and comparing different artists and theorising about how the geography of the region has influenced their work and yet mentions other potentially interesting events (such as being taken skiing by the innkeeper he is staying with) as mere footnotes. There will be some lovely writing about his journey and then it's back to another long diatribe which, without a classical education in the arts, seems completely impenetrable.

[Fiend]

Dave Hutchinson - Sleeps With Angels.

Short story collection from the author of the recent highly entertaining Europe In Autumn, and continues with his smart writing style in some subtly post-apocalyptic / sci-fi / slightly mystical scenarios. Easy to read and most of them left me wanting more.

[lagerstarfish]

The Windup Girl - post-oil-crash cyberpunk in a very sweaty Bangkok. Full off relentless cyberpunk-esque names and stylings, but still rather good as the intrigue and confusion builds. Not quite finished but it's getting exciting.

finally got around to reading this

it is as Fiend describes

a good bit of sci-fi

now that I've finished it, there is a copy going free to anyone who wants to collect it - I'm in S11, on grit, or in The Climbing Works - could take it to work (Sheff city centre)

[lagerstarfish]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester - liked this. Born of the pulp sci-fi serial generation, the frame for the story seems a bit tired but the development of the main character, Gully Foyle, is fascinating. This would make a good film.

Finally got round to reading this

first published in 1956!

I expected it to seem more dated

loved it

[andy popp]

Excellent piece by Karl Ove Knausgaard about the writing of his novel My Struggle:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/26/karl-ove-knausgaard-the-shame-of-writing-about-myself

Volume 5 out next week.

[andy popp]

Attempted to get into A Time Of Gifts again, which was recommended to me by Andy - I've got about half way through. Autobiographical work by Patrick Leigh Fermor recounting his time walking through Europe. Sleeping in hayricks one night and Transylvanian castles as the guest of some Count or other the next. I do like it but Fermor seems more engrossed with the architecture and art that he encounters on the way than the people and cultures. He spends pages and pages describing and comparing different artists and theorising about how the geography of the region has influenced their work and yet mentions other potentially interesting events (such as being taken skiing by the innkeeper he is staying with) as mere footnotes. There will be some lovely writing about his journey and then it's back to another long diatribe which, without a classical education in the arts, seems completely impenetrable.

Sorry about that Will 

[Falling Down]

Excellent piece by Karl Ove Knausgaard about the writing of his novel My Struggle:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/26/karl-ove-knausgaard-the-shame-of-writing-about-myself

Volume 5 out next week.

Thats great.  I'm reading 'My Brilliant Friend" by Elena Ferrante at the moment.  She's been called 'the Italian Knausgaard'.  No-one knows much about the author, she's notoriously secretive.  The book is a coming of age novel seen through the eyes of a young girl Elena, probably the author, set in Naples in the 60's.  It's really good.

[Johnny Brown]

Tracks - Robyn Davidson

Oh wow, really blew me away this one. Aussie in her twenties wants to walk across Australia. Moves to the Alice, takes two years to scrounge some money and camels together, then sets off in to the western deserts. Loses herself, finds herself... etc. Just brilliant. Recently (finally) made into a big-budget film, which is great but really little more than a trailer compared to the book.


The Shepherd's life - James Rebank

Doing very well at the mo, recently reprinted with photos for the christmas market. Rebank owns a hill farm in the north-east Lakes. In a rather non-linear series of anecdotes arranged around the year he writes about his life. Likely to annoy the hell out of any hill goer. Rebank starts the book in aggressive stance with a massive chip on his shoulder, it improves a bit but not enough to regain my trust. He tells us he is cleverer than all of us, and more blessed. He splits the world into sheep farmers and city folk. Only city folk go onto the fells for fun, and they aren't welcome. This despite a Bland walking into the book at one point; he is a farmer so his fell-running is not mentioned. With the recent floods and increasing public awareness of the wider value of the stewardship farmers carry out, there should be some interesting discussion to be had. Rebank ducks it all: they are doing what they have always done and outsiders have no bloody business poking around. Some fascinating stuff about sheep farming, but a massive political statement in what is left out. Rebank has missed an opportunity here and only succeeded in strengthening a stereotype.