#1187

Almost finished The Mirror & the Light, it’s very good though there is an element of ‘when are they going to get to the fireworks factory?’ about it

#1188

anyone read ‘night film’ by marisha pessl? might read that or snow falling on cedars. either any good?

#1189

i’m reading circe
fun isn’t it

6 Likes
#1190

Sfoc is good. I cried

1 Like
#1191

I want to reread it already. So bloody good.

#1192

Reading David Mitchell’s fictional 60’s rock band novel and absolutely loving it, as always with him it’s really fun and compelling.

#1193

Forgot I also read Light Years by James Salter

Set in 50s America, it’s another tale of bourgeoisie marriage breaking at the seams

What sets it apart is the lyrical prose and the zen-like tone- things seem to just flow naturally, there’s rarely any abrasive conflict

Really enjoyed reading it

Am halfway through The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

It’s really good so far. It has a Russian doll quality in that it features a warren of overlapping stories. The notebooks are divided into personal, political, prose…so you have to keep a little bit on your toes.

The intro of the book is pretty interesting; Lessing talks about how the book has been pigeonholed by various readers. Some think it’s absolutely about the war of the sexes, some think it’s really about politics (socialist/communist). So far she manages to write insightfully about both, which is quite an achievement.

#1194

I liked Night Film. It was years ago now that I read it, so I couldn’t tell you much about it, but I remember liking it.

1 Like
#1195

Finished Girl, Woman, Other - like it a lot in a lot of ways, but dare I say it’s a bit overrated? A lot of the characters seemed to be just an abundance of cliches for the most part

#1196

All the reviews said dont bother reading it on a kindle coz of all the newspaper cutouts and whatnot so just went for something else :man_shrugging:

#1197

I can imagine it would be odd on a kindle but don’t see it would that bad, it’s all still black and white and kindle can render that fine.

Remember quite enjoying it, felt like there were probably a lot of references to horror films / directors that probably went over my head but it had a good spooky vibe and made the enigmatic director feel very believable.

1 Like
#1198

Thought it was actively quite poor. Basically YA for millennials but badly written and unpleasant characters.

1 Like
#1199

I’ve got the Golden Notebook on my todo pile. I bought it after I read the Good Terrorist but then never started it.

Enjoying Jerusalem. Have a feeling it’s not really going to go anywhere in it’s 1200 pages though.

#1200

After I finished these Stephen King short stories (generally I like 'em, though a tad hit and miss, I’m finding), I’m going to read a short story my sibling wrote and had published recently (I am a hyped proud brother).

Also GH’s podcast has me desperate to read The Twenty Days Of Turin now

2 Likes
#1201

Picked up Infinite Jest again because I have too many thousand-plus page books lying around. I think its specificity is what really ruins it. It’s so exhaustive in its descriptions that it feels entirely artificial - there’s no space, no organic interplay with the reader. All the characters seem to be filtered through the same voice as well. After reading a couple Shirley Jacksons the problems with it seem really clear to me. I think it’s an absolute failure, but a pretty stunning one nonetheless. Still probably won’t finish it!

1 Like
#1202

Can you recommend me some stuff please dis?

I like slightly naff historical fiction like conn igulden and some Robert Harris and the pillars of the earth.

I like John le carre.
I like Sherlock Holmes but not Agatha Christie.
I like dickens.

The last ‘proper’ book I read was The Underground Railroad which I liked very much.

I liked the tv programme of wolf hall but darent try the books.

#1204

What do you mean by this? Haven’t read SJ or Infinite Jest, just curious

@harru The Nickel Boys, the new one by Colson Whitehead?

1 Like
#1205

How historical? Cause if you like John Le Carre you should try Len Deighton, especially his Bernie Sansom books, which are set (and were written tbf) in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Plenty of top notch espionage stuff in those.

1 Like
#1206

also, if you like a bit of espionage fiction and aren’t averse to mild SF elements, then you absolutely need to read Dave Hutchinson’s Europe In Autumn. c&p of my Goodreads review:

Europe In Autumn is set in a near future Europe, where in the aftermath of pandemic and economic collapse nations are splitting and fracturing into smaller states and entities. Devolution is the order of the day, from a bunch of organised football hooligans who have commandeered an ageing tower block estate, to an entire transcontinental railway line that runs from Portugal to Siberia. As countries spin off ever more republics, duchies and polities like glaciers calving icebergs, border crossings and controls have become very tightly enforced, which in turn leads to a black market in couriers who can transport data, documents and even people across lines the local authorities would prefer them not to. The lead players in this market are Les Coureurs Du Bois, a cloak and dagger organisation dedicated to an idealistic vision of a world without borders and complete freedom to move – Schengen 2.0.
We are introduced to Les Coureurs through Rudi, an peripatetic Estonian chef working in a Krakow restaurant. An chance (maybe) encounter with some rowdy Hungarians ends with him being inducted into their ranks, and embarking on a series of training missions where we see him build his operational knowledge, from a bumbling beginner to someone who can assess a situation and work out all the angles in a matter of minutes. Ultimately things go catastrophically wrong, pitching him into an unknown world of shifting loyalties and double crosses straight out of the finest espionage fiction, as he travels across a fractured continent trying to discover exactly who wants him dead. The novel reads more like Le Carré than it does SF, along with a heavy dose of Kafka’s Eastern European paranoia, before it opens out in the final few chapters.
This is a tremendous book. Hutchison’s writing is deft enough to keep the pages turning no matter how complex the plot gets (and boy, does it get complex), the espionage tradecraft is fascinating, and the evocation of a broken Europe seething with thousands of different cultural grudges is outstanding. I’ve just finished reading it for a second time, and it’s still of the most invigorating, unputdownable reads of recent years.

1 Like
#1207

Historical fiction and detective stuff? Read The Name of the Rose if you haven’t done so already. It combines them both, is both dense and serious yet playful and funny, and it’s too wonderful for words :slight_smile:

4 Likes