Second Quarter 2021 Reading

[ljkeane]

Firewalkers was decent. The story was quite good but it felt a bit rushed getting it all into a novella.

Next up I'm reading Claire North's 84K.

[Zorral]

Laid in a variety of reading to chose from in case I had a heavy reaction to second anti-virus injection.  Which I'm glad I did, as I'm fatigued as well as sore, light-headed and fuzzy thinking -- though assume this will go away by tomorrow evening, as is the case with others who have had this kind of reaction too, to their second round.

- Andrew Birkin's J.M Barrie and the Lost Boys: The Real Story Behind Peter Pan (1979 in England, in tandem, sort of, with the BBC, with his award winning British television trilogy based on the book.  It's been updated more than once. Published only in 2003 in the US. The later editions include more extensive visual material than the previous ones, as well as some materials not included in the trilogy of films because he hadn't stumbled upon them yet.

- Sybille Bedford's A Visit to Don Otavio: A Mexican Journey (1953; Bruce Chatwin's Intro, 1986) -- "...a travel book written by a novelist ..."

- Nick Bryant's When America Stopped Being Great: A History of the Present (2021).  The author is a Brit, so there is bite, wit, and glee, as well as research.  

- Marie Vieux-Chauvet's Dance On The Volcano (1957. Translated from French into English in 2016. This is an historical novel, whose chronological location is late 18th century San Domingue -- to become Haiti. The protagonist is a successful mixed race opera star, whose talent takes her across racial barriers and social barriers, after which, she begins to develop a social and political consciousness as well, as the Revolution inexorably draws in. This is a brilliant period to locate an historical novel with depth;  the theater and opera were wildly popular in pre-Revolutionary San Domingue, performed by highly talented artists, both home-grown and visiting from France and Europe -- and well-paid, many of them.  I've wanted to read this novel for a long time.

 

[TheLastWolf]

Amitav Ghosh is out with his latest, Jungle Nama

For those who don't know him, he studied at Doon School, India together with Ramachandra Guha (fellow cricket lovers like @ljkeane, @Xray the Enforcer, @Paxter, @Hereward @Rajaetc might recognize the historian) and Vikram Seth. The LGBTQIA+ activist and splendidly author (have you read A Suitable Boy yet? Am awaiting the Girl ) 

Ghosh has been nominated for the Booker twice IIRC. His Ibis trilogy was splendid. Opium Wars. Pirates. Colonial love etc. 

Gun Island was more mature, climate change and migration. 

This tho, Nama is unique. Read to find out 

[williamjm]

I read Neil Gaiman's A Game of You which I thought did a good job of building a narrative based on childhood dreams. There are only relatively brief appearances by Morpheus and other major characters in the rest of the series but I thought the characters in this were interesting both in the real world and in the dream world.

I'm now reading Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt. I've read all the other stories set in the world but haven't read this one before, out of the novels it does seem to get mentioned a lot less than The Curse of Chalion or The Paladin of Souls but it's been good so far.

[Zorral]

13 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Amitav Ghosh is out with his latest, Jungle Nama

Thank you for letting us know!

[Ormond]

Just finished The Death of Bernadette Lefthand by Ron Querry. This novel is now considered a classic of Native American literature -- originally published in 1993, it was republished in a 25th anniversary edition in 2018. Querry is a Choctaw but has spent much of his life in New Mexico and Arizona. The characters in this book are Jicarilla Apache, Navajo, and Hopi. The biggest part of the book is told in first person in the voice of the title character's 16 year old younger sister, with also some bits in the voice of a White woman Bernadette did houseclearning for and some third person descriptions of the background to the tragedy mentioned in the title.  I am not really sure how members of the Navajo nation themselves react to this book. It left me with the feeling that Navajo culture, even in comparison with other Native American cultures, has a rather bleak and scary view of the world where evil is almost impossible to overcome. The writing is excellent -- I think Querry does an amazing job of writing in the voice of a 16 year old working class Apache girl. But it's not a novel to read if you want something escapist -- though I am very glad I read it, The Death of Bernadette Lefthand has left me with a sense of disquiet and mild horror. 

 

[Inkdaub]

Finished Gwynne's A Time of Blood and continued through A Time of Courage.  There were some things I didn't like but overall I enjoyed them.  I'll likely read Gwynne's new stuff at some point.

I have now moved on to Connolly's Dirty South.  I am a big Connolly fan and this one is as good as I expected it to be. 

Smart money says I'll read Martine's A Memory Called Empire next.

[Peadar]

Reading Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, as recommended here. Enjoyable so far. Lots of interesting cultural and historical snippets.

[TheLastWolf]

On 4/11/2021 at 11:11 AM, TheLastWolf said:

Amitav Ghosh is out with his latest, Jungle Nama

For those who don't know him, he studied at Doon School, India together with Ramachandra Guha (fellow cricket lovers like @ljkeane, @Xray the Enforcer, @Paxter, @Hereward @Rajaetc might recognize the historian) and Vikram Seth. The LGBTQIA+ activist and splendidly author (have you read A Suitable Boy yet? Am awaiting the Girl ) 

Ghosh has been nominated for the Booker twice IIRC. His Ibis trilogy was splendid. Opium Wars. Pirates. Colonial love etc. 

Gun Island was more mature, climate change and migration. 

This tho, Nama is unique. Read to find out 

 

19 hours ago, Zorral said:

Thank you for letting us know!

 

7 hours ago, Peadar said:

Reading Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, as recommended here. Enjoyable so far. Lots of interesting cultural and historical snippets.

Great! First time someone going by my recommendation and turns out he/she's enjoying it 

[Peadar]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Great! First time someone going by my recommendation and turns out he/she's enjoying it 

Ah, yes, it was yourself  Thank you!

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished Flashman and the Tiger, by George MacDonald Fraser... and with it, I complete the twelve-volume Flashman Papers.

[The Wolves]

After all these years I have started reading Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace . I’ve been meaning that to read this for years and after reading Les Miserables earlier this year I decided to finally tackle it. 
 

So far I like it a lot, and just really like the character focus right now. I’m also reading an Aladdin retelling and I like it so much. 

[Zorral]

I've never been able to read Les Miserables. Which is doubtless me, not the book.  Or the translations?

Yet, in many ways, I do believe Tolstoy was a better writer.  Which in my mind at least doesn't mean a greater writer, though it could, maybe?  

The older I get the more I enjoy War and Peace (1869).  And the less I can manage to read in Les Miserables.

Yet, Les Miserables (1862) is also an historical novel that deals with the Napoleonic eras.  They were published just about the same year too. They are both still considered great novels.

I mean, I did try Hugo's novel recently again, and did no better.  But I enjoy reading Hugo's biography more than Tolstoy's.

I am puzzled by my reactions.  

Wait a minute!     maybe class snobbery on my part?  W&P focuses on the aristocrats.

I really should read the immensely long disquisition in Les Miz on Waterloo.

[The Marquis de Leech]

I've knocked off a couple of ancient short pieces - A True Story, and The Syrian Goddess, both by second century Syrian writer, Lucian of Samosata. The former has occasionally been cited as science-fiction from the Classical World, a sentiment with which I strongly disagree.

[williamjm]

I finished Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt. I've read all the other stories set in the world and enjoyed them all, and unsurprisingly I also enjoyed this. The initial set-up did feel somewhat familiar from the two earlier novels with a protagonist haunted by their past finding themselves in a situation where they have to help protect others from a mix of political intrigue and supernatural events. I'm not sure Ingrey is as compelling a character as Cazaril or Ista are but I still found him an interesting protagonist and as always with Bujold there is a strong supporting cast, I think it might have been good to see more of the story from Ijada's perspective.

Although set in the same world as The Curse of Chalion and The Paladin of Souls it is in a different part of that world (and a different time-period). I think the Weald did feel a bit like a generic medieval fantasy setting but the shamans and how they interact with the divine powers introduced in the previous books were the most interesting part of the world-building. The pacing is slightly uneven, slowing down considerably after an eventful opening but the final section definitely picked up the pace again and I thought it came to a strong conclusion.

I think it is the weakest of the (for now) three novels set in the world but I still liked it a lot.

Next up I'm going to read Ben Aaronovitch's latest What Abigail Did That Summer.

[IlyaP]

Because I just do not have the mental bandwidth right now to read anything remotely complicated or demading, I'm making my way through Nate Kenyon's Diablo: The Order, which I am actually quite enjoying. Keynon as it turns out is a noted horror writer and it comes across in the prose. It's one of the better media tie-ins I've read in recent years, and I'm enjoying the atmosphere, prose, and restrained world building in the text. A legitimately good read, regardless of whether you're a fan of the Diablo games. 

[The Marquis de Leech]

Finished Black Ajax, by George MacDonald Fraser.

Not actually a Flashman novel, but part of the continuity (Harry's father, Buckley Flashman is a major character). As one would expect, it was thoroughly educational, this time about black boxer, Tom Molineaux fighting for the English Boxing Championship in 1810. Fraser does an impressive job giving voice to multiple POV characters, while it kept jumping out at me how alien the slang of two hundred years ago actually is.

[Wilbur]

2 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

Finished Black Ajax, by George MacDonald Fraser.

Not actually a Flashman novel, but part of the continuity (Harry's father, Buckley Flashman is a major character). As one would expect, it was thoroughly educational, this time about black boxer, Tom Molineaux fighting for the English Boxing Championship in 1810. Fraser does an impressive job giving voice to multiple POV characters, while it kept jumping out at me how alien the slang of two hundred years ago actually is.

GMF did a really terrific job of communicating how the past is truly another world.

If you get a chance to read it, I recommend his account of the Burmese Front in WW2.  GMF served on this front during the war, and it is called Quartered Safe Out Here, and it is really outstanding.  If anything, he understates the grim realities of the terrible climate and conditions the servicemen had to endure - I have been there, and it is about the least enjoyable place you can imagine.

And if you read that, then your next steps need to be his hilarious sort-of-fictional books about the Scots regiments at the end of WW2 and the years afterwards.

The General Danced at Dawn

McAuslan in the Rough

The Sheikh and the Dustbin - in this last book, GMF confesses that these books aren't actually very fictional.

[A wilding]

I second those recommendations ...

[The Marquis de Leech]

I'm unfortunately reliant on library books for GMF, and in addition to the ones I have already read, there is only Mr American and McAuslan in the Rough.