Wittgenstein’s Poker - Very fond memory of reading this. I used to work in a couple of branches of Borders, and one of the hazards of the job was working on minimum wage, and spending half my shift learning about the books while shelving them, essentially browsing. This is one of the gems I came across doing that. I might try to track down a copy to read it again. I think the same writers did a book about Bobby Fischer next.
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Susie Dent - Guilty By Definition
Crime fiction, set around the time of King Charles’s coronation. It is what you’re expecting it to be, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and ordered the second book in the series. I can imagine books like this are incredibly fun to write, because they’re also incredibly fun to read. For fans of Susie Dent in general, language nerds and crossword solvers.
Yeah, fantastic little book. One of the authors wrote a book on the murder of Moritz Schlick, the founder of the Vienna Circle, which is also touched upon in Wittgenstein’s Poker. Wouldn’t mind reading that at some point if I can find a copy somewhere.
p.s. i spent a few years in my younger days doing similar in a book shop!
Well yeah, like @svenrokk I was underwhelmed by this one: the stodgy/overly-wordy prose never really went away, it could have been about 20% shorter for pacing, and I felt like it didn’t really know exactly what genre it was going for. There is a well-written racy little sapphic sex scene but it’s so fleeting and feels like it comes out of nowhere (oo-err) between two antagonists to the point that it felt like one of those fan-fics where, eg Rey and Kylo suddenly get it on before we go back to normal SW.
Not sure if @Scagden bought it in the end?
loads of crosswordy crime about for some reason, but I have to give a jag for this forthcoming one from a journalist who writes crosswords for newspapers:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/murder-most-cryptic/alys-cummings/9780241810972
this was wildly popular a few years back:
Janice Hallett does a lot of it too, but I only read her debut and it wasn’t for me so ymmv
Bought it yes, read it not yet!
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Will deffo be interested in your English Teacher’s view
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bit rude. don’t worry scaggers, i’m interested in what both you and your teacher think even if theo isn’t
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It’s been so long since I saw the movie that I wouldn’t like to comment. There are various directors cuts and unofficial edits that aim to take it closer to the intended vision - by the reviews I’ve read, most/all of those improve on the original cinematic release.
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Book 33 - Jackie Kay - Trumpet (8/10). Good book, think loosely based on a true story/real person. About a famous jazz trumpet player who was born a woman but lived as a man, had an adopted son who only found out after the death. Written from point of view of different characters from the trumpet players life, including a journalist trying to write a ‘tell all’ book. Struggled with some of the language from unsympathetic characters though
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I’m gonna read The Stand, I’ve only ever read some of the Dark Tower books before and decided halfway through book three that they were not for me so I am cautious about this
Personally I thought The Stand was a hard slog really. Not sure how much I feel it is stylistically like the Dark Tower though.
I think The Shining is a kind of King litmus test: if you you find the Shining a bit of a slog then you’re unlikely to enjoy much else by King but yeah I’d put books like The Dead Zone, 'Salem’s Lot, Dolores Claiborne and Desperation above The Stand.
it’s only 1300 pages, so very excited for it to be a slog!
TBF bits of it weren’t a slog, but other bits made me question continuing
I’ve read 27 pages so far
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some recent reads
Trad Wife by Sarah Langan
Pretty decent horror about a cynical journalist doing a profile piece on a trad wife influencer. You will not be surprised to learn that there are malign influences at work. Good characters, pretty zippy, kind of an American take on folk horror, which seems a very British genre. One of those books where four stars feels generous but three is tight,
As You Wake, Break The Shell by Becky Chambers
First up, you need to be aware that this half a book. It’s blurbed as half of a duology, but it doesn’t feel like an individual novel in a series, more like one big book chopped in half. There’s no climax or resolution, one of the big mysteries inherent in the dual timeline structure isn’t even highlighted, let alone revealed, and when you turn the final page you’re left with a feeling of going on pause. None of which is to say that this isn’t any good. In fact, it’s vey good indeed. It’s what we have come to expect from Becky Chambers, a celebration of human (alien) connection and the good things in life, like friendship, hope, cooking, but most especially of all being in love. There are four main relationships in the book that explore different types of love, from romantic to family to friendship to, uh, a girl and her giant telepathic space alien, and Chambers writes wisely and warmly of all of them. It’s a nourishing and entertaining read, likely to be in or around my books of the year, but I kind of wish she had waited a little longer and delivered a 700 page epic telling the story in one go.
Pictures Of You by Josh Malerman
Incidents Around The House was a good read, and turned out to be a book that really lingered in my mind. I don’t think I can say the same about this one. It just didn’t work for me at all. The premise is too slight to build a novel on, I never felt any emotional connection or sense of jeopardy with the characters, the reveal of what’s going on is just silly, it all relies far too much on coincidence, and the ending is a damp squib. Hated this tbh.
The Rouse by China Mieville
This review needs to be caveated by acknowledging that this is an incredibly dense and complex book, and I suspect that there are depths and mysteries here that will only be given up on rereads. But am I rushing to reread it? Hmmm.
The prose is not the easiest to read. Quite often a sentence will need two runs at to parse properly, and Mieville never goes for the smooth options in vocabulary and structure. This is completely appropriate! It’s a way of making the reader feel the discombobulation the characters experience at the strange and unnatural concept driving the story. It’s intentionally disorientating, in the same way a lot of key events are described obliquely and sketched in outline without ever being fully described, reflecting the idea of the void, the absences, that are at the heart of the book. It’s a neat trick, one that uses the actual language of the book to evoke the feelings and confusion of the characters. But it gets a bit wearing over 1200 pages, and there’s the rub. This book is simply far too long. Now, I love big books and I cannot lie. Mary Gentle’s Ash is in contention for my favourite ever novel, all 1100 pages of it. But that book is full of incident and in depth character work, and The Rouse is lacking both of those. It circles relentlessly round and round over the same ground, it’s grinding and repetitious and ultimately a drudge. I reckon a third of it could have been easily excised, and you’d still be left with an 800 pager. That’s big enough, China! People will still think it’s a massive book!
In the end, I have very mixed feelings about this one. I love the central concept, and there are some very strong set pieces. But I’m certainly enjoying having read it more than I ever did actually reading it.
Palaces Of The Crow by Ray Nayler
Eastern Europe in WWII, and a group of fleeing youths are caught between the Germans and the Red Army, only to fall in with some unusually intelligent crows. I liked this, without loving it. Feels liked a classic children’s book injected with some wild ideas. The encounters with non-human terrestrial intelligence cover similar ground to the same author’s The Mountain In The Sea, which I really liked, and doesn’t come off quite as well here.
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
twee pish
Worry Box by Chris Panatier
More horror, this is a massively entertaining spin on the haunted house tale. The pace is propulsive. I read the last two thirds in one day, and a work day at that. It’s very involving - I felt very invested in and concerned for the family, and I’m usually an emotionless robot. On that, there is indeed a lot of emotion in this book but it all felt true to life without ever being mawkish or over the top, and the family dynamics are expertly presented. There’s also plenty of horror, some only alluded to, some pretty graphic. Very enjoyable book.
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I love you Theo but this is madness.
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Dissenting opinion here, I was hooked for every one of those godamn pages
I caveated here
But still, vehemently disagree with the King fans who consider it his masterpiece. Basically not sure any of his super long books are his best work with the possible exception of Wizard & Glass on second read.
I think I’m looking forward to the Mieville, but yeah, I might prefer a 600-800 page epic instead of 1200 pages!
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