What are you reading at the moment?

[Wolverine]

theia;1443954 wrote: No, I haven't. I've got a couple of his that I haven't read yet but when I checked just now, there were none of Odd. I'll take a look at amazon...


the first book really caught me off guard.

[theia]

Wolverine;1443961 wrote: the first book really caught me off guard.


Excellent reviews...I've ordered the first one and it should be here by Wednesday when I'll have finished my current book.

[Peyton]

I am currently reading life after death This is my favorite author Deepak Chopra. this book based on its all depend on how u will die . Ater death you die and life goes on with or without you simple just make the best if life while your still alive?

[spot]

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

She's an engaging writer and I very much like the structure she's applied to allow back-reference circularity, building a story rather than just telling what happened. She must have studied a lot to be able to pick details from so many interlocking strands.

I rather enjoyed Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland too.

The book waiting in the wings at the moment is Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg

[LarsMac]

Was given a copy of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. and just finished it.

Her writing was at times, inspiring. It is a very good read. I can see immediately why her publisher suggested that she write something else, though. The historical context is important.

She wrote this shortly after the Brown vs Board of Education decision (1954) and that plays a part in the story line. Had this book hit the streets in that time, the public outrage in the South would have caused her much pain, I think. The publisher would not have wanted to deal with the reaction. Their market in the South would have been ruined.

And, I might add, even the "colored" market would likely have been unkind to Ms Lee in those days.

It is a very strong commentary on life in The South in the mid-fifties. I suspect there is more than a little of her personal experience in these pages.

[ZAP]

I'm reading Say You're One Of Them by Uwem Akpan. It was sent to me along with 4 other books by a friend. He told me that his book might prove to be the most difficult for me to read so, of course, this is the one I chose to read first.

[LarsMac]

I usually have several books going at once.

Of late, I am reading

Inside, Outside by Herman Wouk

and

The Post American World, by Fareed Zakaria

and

Saving Capitalism, for the Many, Not the Few, by Robert Reich.

[tude dog]

Coolidge by Amity Shlaes.

Looking forward to The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.

[theia]

I’m thinking of downloading Ben Okri’s latest book (to Audible). It’s a selection of short stories, Prayer for the Living. I really liked Astonishing the Gods. He wrote a good article in the Guardian yesterday about the imagery/symbolism of “I can’t breathe”

[Betty Boop]

Nearly finished Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

[Bryn Mawr]

I'm currently reading The Highland Lady in Ireland, the diary of a Scottish landowner living on her estate in Ireland during the potato famine and I'm about to start The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater that my youngest daughter tells me is fascinating.

[spot]

I’m thinking of downloading Ben Okri’s latest book (to Audible). It’s a selection of short stories, Prayer for the Living. I really liked Astonishing the Gods. He wrote a good article in the Guardian yesterday about the imagery/symbolism of “I can’t breathe”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/ ... -of-feasts is a helpful background of small snapshots, I enjoyed finding that.

I think someone used Astonishing the Gods as a springboard for a first novel, I finished it last month on my Kindle. It's David Mogo Godhunter by another Nigerian, Suyi Davies Okungbowa. I'm too ignorant to say whether it gives a helpful picture of aspects of life in Lagos but that's what it left in my mind. https://blacknerdproblems.com/david-mog ... -among-us/ discusses it.

I'm part-way through the extremely famous "From Ritual to Romance" which is still eye-opening a hundred years after it was published, and the boy has finished having the Anabasis as his bedtime story so we're looking for a replacement. He thinks it ought to be Molesworth. Me being the reader, I'm not entirely convinced I can do the voice.

As for audio books, I binged my way through an episode a night of Old Harry's Game on the Radio 4 Sounds website where they were all available. It sprang from a TV series I'd never seen from the 90s called Drop the Dead Donkey. If this were confession time I'd also note that I'm now watching my way through that too. Andy Hamilton is a national treasure.

[theia]

An interesting read from Ben Okri, spot, especially the fasting while he was writing Astonishing The Gods. Thanks.

I haven’t got the hang of how to quote on here. I’ve found the “ but am worried I’ll quote the whole page, or the whole forum.

[Bryn Mawr]

An interesting read from Ben Okri, spot, especially the fasting while he was writing Astonishing The Gods. Thanks.

I haven’t got the hang of how to quote on here. I’ve found the “ but am worried I’ll quote the whole page, or the whole forum.

Tap on the quote marks in the top right corner of the post you want to quote

[theia]

An interesting read from Ben Okri, spot, especially the fasting while he was writing Astonishing The Gods. Thanks.

I haven’t got the hang of how to quote on here. I’ve found the “ but am worried I’ll quote the whole page, or the whole forum.

Tap on the quote marks in the top right corner of the post you want to quote

Thanks, Bryn

[theia]

The Prosecutor by Nazir Afzal who worked for the CPS in North West England. He was a prosecutor in the Rotherham case but I haven’t got that far yet

[LarsMac]

Moving Mars, by Greg Bear

[spot]

Moving Mars, by Greg Bear

I quite like Mr Bear, he can put a plot together and spin it over a lot of books before he comes up with another.

What I am recently reading is puzzling me. I have red several authors who wrote between the civil war and the thirties. They write in a southern dialect and spell accordingly. One of them, of course, is Joel Chandler Harris, whose Sayings of Uncle Remus are are well worth while. However. I'd quite like an opinion.

Are these pieces best taken verbatim, as they were written, or is it possible to update their vocabulary, that's the question. Would more be lost by removing words one would not have used oneself, or is one listening to somebody who put on paper what he heard on the street. And if that's the authentic way to take it, should one set it aside and refuse to participate any longer. I have the impression that Joel Chandler Harris quite admired the character he was inventing, and that he was not creating a parody or satire or mockery. It's undoubtedly educational. On the other hand I don't think I could reed it to my children. Brer Rabbit I can, but The Sayings is far more capable of causing unintended offence. Perhaps it's on a par with enjoying the film appearances of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, which we discussed on an earlier occasion.

The other book I'm part way through is The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which may or may not have tangential overlaps with these musings.

For the record, last week I red a first novel which was thoroughly enjoyable, different and thought-provoking: Queen of Hunger by L.E.H. Light though I confess I skipped the bedroom scenes which I'm sure were very tastefully done but I prefer to avoid them, I fast-forward as soon as someone takes off a shirt. I hope she sells in huge numbers and has more published.

Is that why I stopped reeding more volumes of Game of Thrones?

[spot]

The other book I'm part way through is The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which may or may not have tangential overlaps with these musings.

Do you know what, I enjoyed that, from cover to cover, more than anything I've seen since William Gibson, and for much the same reason, the use of language. That is one polished performance, I'm definitely going to find Mr Beatty's earlier work. I picked it up at a venture and I've never seen such self-confidence.