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Books... (Read 514587 times)

andy popp

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#1400 Re: Books...
July 26, 2019, 02:05:05 pm
Thanks Jonas, bugger that the FT is paywalled.

It is nearly impossible for me to separate the elections of Thatcher and Reagan in terms of their origins, spirit, and consequences - they are for me in effect the same moment (conversely I think the parallels between Trump and Brexit are often over-played).

For a long time the 60s and the 80s were seen as the critical revolutionary decades of the second half of the C20th but with greater distance the 70s are emerging as a perhaps more important pivot.

jwi

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#1401 Re: Books...
July 26, 2019, 02:49:32 pm
Thanks Jonas, bugger that the FT is paywalled.

Sorry. Also found a review in The Guardian, but that was the usual unintelligible claptrap characteristic of their book section.

andy popp

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#1402 Re: Books...
July 26, 2019, 03:14:01 pm
Thanks Jonas, bugger that the FT is paywalled.

Sorry.

Its not your fault!

While we're in the Middle East I'm going to take the opportunity to recommend anything by Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz - I've read the so-called Cairo trilogy (a masterpiece) and more recently two slim novellas, Adrfit on the Nile and The Beggar, which were both also excellent.

largeruk

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#1403 Re: Books...
July 26, 2019, 07:14:05 pm
@andy popp


andy popp

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#1404 Re: Books...
July 26, 2019, 07:26:07 pm
Thank you very much!

Falling Down

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#1405 Re: Books...
July 27, 2019, 04:07:54 pm
This is such a great thread - thanks to everyone who contributes. My 'to-read' list just gets longer and longer.

Thanks for the reminder of the new Phillip Hoare book Dave, I loved the other two so much. I've got Black Car Burning ready to go.

The final instalment of Don Winslow's epic Cartel trilogy got published recently. The final book The Border sees Art Keller heading up the DEA and features a thinly disguised Donald Trump and Jared Kushner amongst the cast of largely corrupt, horrifying individuals. It's as absorbing, brutal and scary as the previous two. The three of them are absolutely brilliant political crime thrillers.

Robert Mcfarlane's Underland: A Deep Time Journey is his best effort yet by far.  It's beautifully written, thought provoking and both frightening and hopeful at the same time. An exploration of the Athropocene and what lies beneath us.

I recommended David Abram's 'The Spell of the Sensuous' to Dan on one of his threads and decided to read it again.  I enjoyed and understood it more, fifteen years on and second time around. This is one of those books that invites you to experience the world in a very different way to the one we have been accustomed to and it succeeds. Not everyone's cup of tea, but, in these times it was very welcome.

'Call Them By Their True Names' is Rebecca Solnit's latest collection of essays. Essentially a work of environmental and feminist activism, the essays explore Trump, police violence, the Standing Rock protests, race and pretty much everything else that's going on in America. She writes so well and there's a thread of hope that runs throughout.

Octavia's Brood : Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements is a collection of short stories written to imagine a different future by exploring the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change.

Other than that I've been mainlining Charles Olson and his Maximus poems set in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts.  Can't get enough of it.

Oh and I got to meet the demon dog himself, James Ellroy at his recent book reading in London and made him laugh with a joke  8)

andy popp

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#1406 Re: Books...
July 28, 2019, 01:31:51 pm
This is such a great thread - thanks to everyone who contributes. My 'to-read' list just gets longer and longer.

Other than that I've been mainlining Charles Olson and his Maximus poems set in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts.  Can't get enough of it.


I've been to Gloucester, Mass. Its very quaint, I'll have to check out Olson.

To the wider point, this thread really is great, so much diversity of reading and opinions. Another good sources of suggestions and discussions of books is the weekly, reader generated "Tips, Links, and Suggestions" column on the books page of the Guardian website - very civilized and informed with virtually none of the idiocy you get in most newspaper comment sections.

Falling Down

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#1407 Re: Books...
July 28, 2019, 03:44:29 pm
I’d avoid going straight to the Maximus poems - they’re a bit, erm, dense and challenging.


andy popp

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#1408 Re: Books...
July 29, 2019, 01:46:11 am
Noted.

DaveC

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#1409 Re: Books...
July 29, 2019, 02:07:55 pm
I love being back on this thread again,  always looking for new reading suggestions and I've had a few gems from here.  Currently only posting from my phone but must haul out the laptop and get some of this years best posted,  I've been on a golden run of late.  I will just finish by saying that if you have not yet read one or both of Max Porter's books,  Grief Is the Thing With Feathers and/or Lanny then you should do so,  I think the latter is as good as anything I've read in recent years and the former is not far behind it, beautiful lyrical prose, excellent stories full of wonderfully drawn characters and all delivered with admirable economy, neither book is very big. Have I hyped them up enough yet? 😇

andy popp

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#1410 Re: Books...
July 29, 2019, 02:38:14 pm
I just finished The Good Immigrant, USA, edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman, a collection of 26 essays reflecting on the experience of being an immigrant in America today from a vast range of perspectives, experiences and places. I can't really pick out any of them as being above the rest as they all have something to offer, though I did particularly enjoy Basim Usmani reflections on touring as part of Bangladeshi-American punk band the Kominas. Made me think hard about my own immigrant experience.


teestub

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#1412 Re: Books...
July 30, 2019, 05:46:57 pm
I’m sure I probably read it after a recommendation on here originally, but his book Leviathan is amazing and I think I actually read it before Moby Dick.

Yossarian

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#1413 Re: Books...
August 03, 2019, 09:56:07 am
For JB and any other Robert Macfarlane sceptics. These occasional Craig Brown pastiches in the Eye are so perfectly judged...

(Apparently he’s also done Jonathan Meades reviewing kids TV.)




DaveC

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#1414 Re: Books...
August 03, 2019, 10:32:13 am
An earlier essay “Disordered World” is available in English. I haven't read it but I suspect it covers some of the same ground.


I read Disordered World some years ago (when it came out in 2012) and although it might feel a bit dated in some areas now it would still be quite relevant. Malouf was writing about the sense of impending catastrophe that he felt was spreading around the world in the post-9/11 era and how it might be countered. Unfortunately far too few were paying attention.

Cornish

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#1415 Re: Books...
August 03, 2019, 02:37:19 pm
Didn't Know there was a books thread on here.. How lovely.

Best books I've read this year are-

A General Theory of Love - Brilliant non-fiction for anyone, it's kinds an attempt to explain the ins and outs of human relations from a psychiatrists point of view. Co-authored by three professors from an American university I believe.

Working With Nature - Jeramy Purseglove's second book (to my knowledge) after Taming the Flood (1980's). Super inspiring for anyone interesting in eco-system restoration type work or such alike.

A Clockwork Orange - Obviously horrible insight into the nature of violence in the first section but really great themes explored throughout, I had the restored edition which included a few essays and stuff from Burgess which filled in a lot of background and added substance to the meaning of the book.

This Changes Everything - Fuck about does Klein go into alot of detail, but non the less a brilliant and potent book detailing the impacts and wider effects of climate breakdown.   

       

Yossarian

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#1416 Re: Books...
August 03, 2019, 09:42:26 pm
Found the Meades one...


Falling Down

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#1417 Re: Books...
August 03, 2019, 10:09:49 pm
Both of these have made my day.   Thank you! :clap2:

Johnny Brown

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#1418 Re: Books...
August 03, 2019, 10:36:56 pm
That Meades one is dynamite!

Moo

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#1419 Re: Books...
August 04, 2019, 10:33:27 am
Wilding by isabella tree:  https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/isabella-tree/wilding/9781509805099

I found this book very interesting. Certainly written with a lot of enthusiasm and passion, the insights into a different way of approaching wildlife conservation were quite eye opening.

Falling Down

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#1420 Re: Books...
August 17, 2019, 02:33:18 pm
"Things We Lost in the Fire" - Mariana Enríquez.  A collection of short stories set in modern day Argentina.  Really unsettling, dark and macabre.  The author is exploring how Argentina's past flows down into the present - a kind of national inherited trauma.   Gothic horror and magical realism.  A really good read that's stuck with me for several days.  She's a great writer.

andy popp

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#1421 Re: Books...
August 17, 2019, 03:07:39 pm
That was sounding great until I got to the magical realism bit - a genre I really struggle with. Perhaps this book could be the one to change my mind.

Falling Down

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#1422 Re: Books...
August 17, 2019, 03:25:15 pm
Maybe I over egged that bit - it's just very weird.

andy popp

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#1423 Re: Books...
August 17, 2019, 04:02:58 pm
I'm good with Gothic!

Falling Down

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#1424 Re: Books...
August 18, 2019, 12:33:59 pm
@Moo - That looks great.  Will buy a copy to read on hols.

 

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