I'm determined to have another go at science fiction - have never been able to get on with the genre but several of my friends love it so I've got the uneasy feeling I'm missing something. To this end I've borrowed a copy of "Consider Phlebas" by Iain Banks from one of said friends.
There are many sub-genres within SF. Even if you don't get on with one, there are others. It is a very broad category.
Finally got around to reading 'Oranges are not the only fruit' by Jeanette Winterson, after all these years. The main character being a lesbian seems to have faded in importance 30+ years later, but her upbringing by a very religious (and batty) mother still seems shocking. I'm sure it will resonate with others brought up in a similarly strict and sheltered environment. However, I wasn't so keen on her flights of fantasy into storyland world - perhaps it helped her to cope, but I found them jarring and distracting from the main storyline. Each to their own.
I wasn’t keen on the story land chapters either, but have been attached to the book for many years as it related a kind of upbringing I would otherwise have found it difficult to convey to other people.
“Why be happy when you can be normal?”, her actual autobiography of the same period, came out a few years ago and is also a good read, though uncomfortable in parts.
I’ve just discovered Edmund Gosse’s “Father and Son” which is a somewhat similar account of an oppressively religious upbringing, minus the gay element and published in 1907.
I’ve just discovered Edmund Gosse’s “Father and Son” which is a somewhat similar account of an oppressively religious upbringing, minus the gay element and published in 1907.
Many years ago when I was at school we had piece of English homework (probably a précis - remember those? I loved doing them!) on a passage from "Father and Son" and my English teacher subsequently recommended it to me as "a profound and beautiful book which I think you would enjoy." I did read and enjoy it very much, and still reread it occasionally.
Relatively recently I read somewhere that the father was a gentle, mild-mannered man who was deeply distressed by his son's perception of his childhood.
He comes across as gentle in the book, which may have been why his son found it so difficult to escape his restrictive views. I know some very nice and gentle people who get their own way about unreasonable things on a regular basis, because it’s frankly embarrassing to oppose such a nice person.
'Before I go to sleep' by S. J. Watson is my most recent completed read. Very different from 'Still Alice' in that the main character doesn't deteriorate as the days go by, rather she gets better at remembering (with the aid of keeping a regular diary). Just as the theme - woman wakes every morning having forgotten everything she knew before - gets rather tiring, strange twists start to appear in the story, which keep the reader's interest. I thought I'd guessed what the ending would be, but I was wrong.
Currently reading Mika Waltari's The Egyptian--per Wikipedia, though praised by Egyptologists when first published, it was dismissed by critics as glorified pulp in the author's native Finland. The English translation (from the Swedish translation!) is definitely a page-turner, but the novel does to me lean in style more towards the "fiction" than the "historical" (also, philosophical digressions were cut during translation, which may actually have been a good thing).
Sharon Penman is one of my favourite historical novelists. Her Welsh trilogy is excellent, though be prepared to need hankies towards the end, because the historical events she relates are pretty traumatic.
Sharon Penman is one of my favourite historical novelists. Her Welsh trilogy is excellent, though be prepared to need hankies towards the end, because the historical events she relates are pretty traumatic.
I'm reading a biography of Christopher Isherwood. I found it in a second hand booksale and a review on the front said "read this if you're interested in the 20th century" which I am. Also was a bit embarrassed about knowing diddly squat about Isherwood beyond a vague idea about Cabaret. Well - turns out it's a very interesting book but oh GOLLY was Isherwood not a pleasant little person. The book is by Peter Parker (not spiderman).
I picked up the autobiography of Johnny Morris of Animal Magic fame in the Honesty Bookshop. It's called There's Lovely, and is told in very short chapters which, so far, are very funny. I'm in the middle of his childhood just after the First World War in South Wales, but there's a picture of Dotty the Ring-Tailed Lemur further on, so I'm anticipating a lot of fun memories of Animal Magic too.
Interesting, I had no idea Johnny Morris was a Welsh boy.
My latest good read was 'House of Glass' by Susan Fletcher. A young, disabled lady from Kew Gardens is asked to provide plants for a glasshouse at an old country manor (which, of course, is reputed to be haunted). She believes no such thing, being - unusually for a female in the early 1900s - an atheist. She is also forthright and determined, leading to some interesting conversations with others in the rural area, including the vicar, the gardener, a local farmer, a ghost-hunter, and the Master of the House. The unexpected twist near the end of the book is one I certainly wasn't expecting.
If you enjoy plants, thinking through issues such as feminism, the existence of the soul, the reality (or not) of ghosts, and the dynamics of pre-WW1 country house living, then you are guaranteed a good read.
I'm reading Marilynne Robinson's Jack, the companion volume (you can't really call any of them sequels, as the connected story doesn't unfold chronologically) to Gilead, Home, and Lila. Although Gilead is most people's favourite of that series, I loved Home the most, and the unfinished story of what happened to Jack, the Reverend's prodigal son, is my favourite part of the books. I was very excited when I saw she had written another book just about Jack, waited months for it to come out, and am now reading it ... and loving it, but also trying to pace myself. I could race through it and it would be done very quickly, but I don't want it to be over. And I'm almost afraid for how she's going to end it. I'd like this book to tell me what happens to Jack after the events of Home but, as I suspected, it goes back in time rather than forward, telling the backstory we didn't get in Home, and I think at the end I will probably still be left with unanswered questions. But the book is beautiful, as they all are.
I just finished Battle Ground, the long anticipated newest entry in the Jim Butcher Dresden Files book. It's a real rush of a book, and was worth the wait.
Just finished re-reading H.D.F. Kitto's The Greeks - written in the early 1950s as an introduction to Classical Greek culture. I'm sure some of the scholarship has been superseded by now, but he was a very engaging writer who managed to convey with great enthusiasm what made Classical Greek culture distinctive.
Currently enjoying 'The Gate of Angels' by Penelope Fitzgerald. It is set in a fictional Cambridge college, in 1912. Full of quiet and delightful humour - very tongue in cheek - and also an interesting examination of how science and faith interact - or don't.
I took Mr Golightly's Holiday away with me for the weekend and have finally finished it. I didn't see the end coming and will revisit it with hindsight, in the fullness of time.
I would have liked it, if it had acknowledged its debt to Mr Weston's Good Wine by Powys. As I remember it, the Vickers basically copies the older book.
The edition I have has an author's afterword about that:
"It has been pointed out to me that a God in the shape of a middle-aged man also visits an English village in T. F. Powys's Mr Weston's Good Wine. As Mr Golightly and Mr Weston would probably agree, there is nothing new under the sun, and I can only say that the idea of 'humanising' God came to me independently. I believe anyone who reads the two books will see that the themes are very different."
Ah, I read it when it first came out, without the Afterword. The similarities seemed striking to me then, but it's a while ago and I can't remember the details.
Alister McGrath's new book - he says - is not an autobiography, although it certainly reads like one. A professor of theology (most entry level students will be directed to read at least some of his books, he writes in a clear, explanatory style) but with an interesting past as an atheist scientist. I think there will be new revelations towards the end of the book, as I cannot believe he swung from one extreme to the other, without at least partly coming back towards the middle again. But I haven't read that far to find out yet.
What a coincidence, Firenze, I have a copy of Lud-in-the-Mist that I stopped reading about halfway through, and in the last couple of days I've been thinking of going back to it. Now I'm inspired to actually do it.
Since March (what happened then?) I have been solely re-reading old favourites of which I have several bookcases. However a couple of seeks ago I went into WH Smith determined to come out with a book I hadn't read. I came out with "Elizabeth is Missing" by Emma Healey, which I really enjoyed - though maybe not enough for it to become an old favourite. We will see.
"Elizabeth is Missing" by Emma Healey, which I really enjoyed - though maybe not enough for it to become an old favourite. We will see.
I'm interested that you think of novels as becoming old favourites. I tend to read novels once and pass them on (including 'Elizabeth is Missing', which I also enjoyed). But factual books I tend to keep, and sometimes refer to particular parts of them over and over again.
There is a delight in re-entering the world of a favourite novel, I find. And of course many of them tell you new things in new readings, either because you notice things that had passed you by (I am a very fast reader, and could miss small things) or because you yourself are in a different place and have become a different person in the interim since last reading. But of course no book can become a new/old favourite if I don't read any books that are new to me!
Just finished "The Art of Rest" by Claudia Hammond, which is a really interesting and gentle look at resting (yes it is non-fiction). Becasue we all need some rest.
Like Cathscats I am a very fast reader, but I also have a very keen memory. For fiction reading, especially any with suspenseful plots, this spoils the enjoyment as I quickly remember the denouement. Thus many of my fiction purchases have gone on to grace the shelves of the parish opshop, while the non-fiction purchases stay on our bookshelves.
I read Now We Shall Be Entirely Free last year and didn't expect to re-read it.
However, I have just discovered that the North East Man's 4 x great grandfather from Tiree was in the 91st Argyll Fencibles in the Peninsular War. I will be re-reading it through new eyes, and with a map by my side!
I haven't had much room in my brain for fiction reading recently, as I've been binge watching Star Trek Discovery Season 2 instead, but I have just started Francis Pryor's book The Making of the British Landscape, because anything Francis Pryor writes about archaeology is worth reading.
I'm currently half-way through My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Set in 16-th century Istanbul, this is a multi-faceted and complex book which combines much discussion about the nature and use of art (especially Islamic miniatures) with a love story or two and a murder mystery. Did the victim (one of the painters) fall victim to professional rivalry, romantic jealousy or religious terror?
It is much better (deeper and more interesting) than Silent House by the same author, which I read a couple of years ago. I can now see why Pamuk won a Nobel Prize for Literature - not just to honour a Turkish writer. I am of course reading an English translation.
Finally finished My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. several months after starting it. Unfortunately it got bogged down for about half of its 500 pages in technical and philosophical discussions about Ottoman miniature painting, which is basically illustration of handwritten stories. (Printing came to the Ottoman empire only centuries later.) The schools ranged from traditional (paint not what you see but a more stylised view of how Allah might see it), through to the 'Venetian' style with both perspective and the faces of actual people and horses , and of course the Puritanical view (all representation is idolatory and therefore contrary to sharia law.
When it got a bit much I read instead either w**k papers or light reading like the Wodehouse which is ship book club's book of the month for October.
Recently finished "The Anarchy", William Dalrymple's overview of how the East India Company came to dominate the subcontinent. It is very readable and pitched just right for someone with my vague general ideas. He is particularly strong on Mughal politics and the rivalries between the various Indian factions - his strongest sympathies clearly lie with nominal Mughal Emperor Shah Alam who seems to have got the short end of the stick from pretty much all sides.
I still love his travel writing better than his history, though - "From the Holy Mountain" is one of my favourite books in the world.
Recently finished "The Anarchy", William Dalrymple's overview of how the East India Company came to dominate the subcontinent. It is very readable and pitched just right for someone with my vague general ideas. He is particularly strong on Mughal politics and the rivalries between the various Indian factions - his strongest sympathies clearly lie with nominal Mughal Emperor Shah Alam who seems to have got the short end of the stick from pretty much all sides.
I still love his travel writing better than his history, though - "From the Holy Mountain" is one of my favourite books in the world.
That is at the top of my TBR pile @TurquoiseTastic, so your comment encourages me to open it soon.
Just finished Samantha Power "The Education of an Idealist". It is a really fascinating read, and an insight into US politics (Obama era - so with a human and functioning executive).
Recently finished "The Anarchy", William Dalrymple's overview of how the East India Company came to dominate the subcontinent. It is very readable and pitched just right for someone with my vague general ideas. He is particularly strong on Mughal politics and the rivalries between the various Indian factions - his strongest sympathies clearly lie with nominal Mughal Emperor Shah Alam who seems to have got the short end of the stick from pretty much all sides.
I still love his travel writing better than his history, though - "From the Holy Mountain" is one of my favourite books in the world.
I am currently half way through "From the Holy Mountain" and am reading it sparingly to get the full flavour. Tremendous stuff.
I really enjoy short stories, particularly those of Dylan Thomas and Daphne du Maurier. I am currently reading the winning entries in the U3A short story competition, all on the theme of Time. They are good and well worth reading, scroll down here. My favourite so far is 'Greenwich Mean Time', a very poignant story linking life in the war with Covid present day.
I kept seeing internet commercials for "Outlander" on Starz. I poo-poo'd every commercial loudly and rudely, thinking the television show and the books upon which the television show is based would be some romantic, bodice-ripping crap...and then...
And then, I was very bored one day and saw that Netflix had the first three seasons on the app, for a limited time...
Yeaaahhh. I'm so hooked now, it's not even funny. I am going to go online and see if my local library has a digital copy of the first couple of books...sigh.
The sex scenes in the television show are rather graphic but it's a great show. Very good dialogue, good drama, suspense, excellent chemistry between the two leads, etc. The Gaelic is hard to understand and the accents are very thick, but oh, well.
I am really looking forward to getting my hot little hands on the books. 🤣
You have a treat ahead of you. The books are better (of course they are) because her strength likes in dialogue and characterization, though her settings are very good as well. Hilarious!
I don't remember much about On the Holy Mountain but I think I enjoyed it. I definitely loved In Xanadu and Nine Lives by the same author - the latter being less of a travel book and more a series of interviews with members of different religious groups in India. Some stories were very striking, such as that of the man who spends three months of the year being worshipped as a god. I also read his City of Djinns, also about India, which didn't really make much of an impression on me.
I'm trying hard to enjoy Iain M Banks's Consider Phlebas, lent to me by a friend to try and get me into science fiction. My real life book group book is Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan which looks fairly promising and at least doesn't have as many words on the page.
Comments
There are many sub-genres within SF. Even if you don't get on with one, there are others. It is a very broad category.
“Why be happy when you can be normal?”, her actual autobiography of the same period, came out a few years ago and is also a good read, though uncomfortable in parts.
I’ve just discovered Edmund Gosse’s “Father and Son” which is a somewhat similar account of an oppressively religious upbringing, minus the gay element and published in 1907.
Relatively recently I read somewhere that the father was a gentle, mild-mannered man who was deeply distressed by his son's perception of his childhood.
It does take the side of the House of York
I love all her books, but this was the one that got me hooked on her (and on Richard III -- it's the ultimate Ricardian novel).
My latest good read was 'House of Glass' by Susan Fletcher. A young, disabled lady from Kew Gardens is asked to provide plants for a glasshouse at an old country manor (which, of course, is reputed to be haunted). She believes no such thing, being - unusually for a female in the early 1900s - an atheist. She is also forthright and determined, leading to some interesting conversations with others in the rural area, including the vicar, the gardener, a local farmer, a ghost-hunter, and the Master of the House. The unexpected twist near the end of the book is one I certainly wasn't expecting.
If you enjoy plants, thinking through issues such as feminism, the existence of the soul, the reality (or not) of ghosts, and the dynamics of pre-WW1 country house living, then you are guaranteed a good read.
The series is really interesting. Exploring "what ifs" - and finding some challenging answers. As to how rapacious we humans actually are.
The edition I have has an author's afterword about that:
I'm interested that you think of novels as becoming old favourites. I tend to read novels once and pass them on (including 'Elizabeth is Missing', which I also enjoyed). But factual books I tend to keep, and sometimes refer to particular parts of them over and over again.
However, I have just discovered that the North East Man's 4 x great grandfather from Tiree was in the 91st Argyll Fencibles in the Peninsular War. I will be re-reading it through new eyes, and with a map by my side!
That would account for the dark flashing eyes and the habit of impromptu flamenco on the dining room table.
Finally finished My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. several months after starting it. Unfortunately it got bogged down for about half of its 500 pages in technical and philosophical discussions about Ottoman miniature painting, which is basically illustration of handwritten stories. (Printing came to the Ottoman empire only centuries later.) The schools ranged from traditional (paint not what you see but a more stylised view of how Allah might see it), through to the 'Venetian' style with both perspective and the faces of actual people and horses , and of course the Puritanical view (all representation is idolatory and therefore contrary to sharia law.
When it got a bit much I read instead either w**k papers or light reading like the Wodehouse which is ship book club's book of the month for October.
I still love his travel writing better than his history, though - "From the Holy Mountain" is one of my favourite books in the world.
That is at the top of my TBR pile @TurquoiseTastic, so your comment encourages me to open it soon.
I am currently half way through "From the Holy Mountain" and am reading it sparingly to get the full flavour. Tremendous stuff.
You have a treat ahead of you. The books are better (of course they are) because her strength likes in dialogue and characterization, though her settings are very good as well. Hilarious!
On the other hand, I've finished Machines Like Me. It's a long time since I had a book that I picked up at every opportunity to read a few more pages.