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Recent,
Casino Royale - Ian Fleming - No idea where the film came from!
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki
Current,
Making Money - Terry Pratchett
Next,
Not always so - Shunryu Suzuki
Yesterday afternoon and evening, stopping only to eat, I read 'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers' by Guo Xiaolu (her name is the other way round on the cover, reversed for Western readers). I literally couldn't put it down. It starts off in very broken English as the narrator (who writes in the second person) is flying over the sea from China to London, and goes through how she meets the person she's talking to and the events which lead to the conclusion. It is simply brilliant. It's not often you come across writing that leaps off the page in quite the same way so, if anyone wants a light read that won't take long, I recommend this. Very visual, in places very funny and sweet, highlighting the cultural clashes between East and West and seeing the absurdities of British culture from a Chinese point of view (why we place such importance on the weather as if there'll be a typhoon any minute being one of them).
At the moment I am reading Isabel Allende's City of Beasts and all I can say is that I am captivated by it. What a good read.
My next read is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a death foretold, not near as long as a hundred years of solitude, but hopefully as good. Any1 read it?
And just about to read 'Beijing Coma' by Ma Jian. I couldn't wait for the paperback - so I didn't. On the inside cover, the blurb begins thus: "May 1989.Tens of thousands of students are camped out in Tiananmen Square.'' Need I say more? Going to get stuck into it while the house is empty and quiet.
After the rave reviews about Jasper Fforde I have just bought the Eyre Affair. Also One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. First couple of chapters sucked me in which is always a good sign.
By the way, any novel writers should get a copy of The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman which I'm currently reading. Very readable and good advice.
Thanks for the advice, FT. I'll have to try to get it from the library at the moment, though, as I'm more broke than usual (that means really ****ing skint).
i just recieved a book i have been wanting for a while. It's called Out Of The Black Shadows. Its about Steven Lungu who is now the leader of African Enterprise. I heard about this book from a friend when i went to a cell group braai (bbq) and Steven Lungu was going to be there. This is the blurb:
"Stephen Lungu was the oldest son of a teenage mother, married off to a much older man by her parents, and living in a black township near Salisbury, Zimbabwe. When he was three his mother ran away, leaving him, and his younger brother and sister, in the reluctant care of an aunt. By eleven Stephen too had run away, preferring life on the streets.
To survive, he slept under bridges and scavanged food from white folks' dustbins. As a teenager he was recruite into one of the urban gangs, called the Black Shadows, which ran a programme of theft and thuggery with a half-focused dream of revolution.
When a travelling evangelist came to town, Stephen was sent to fire bomb the event, carrying his bag of bombs and mingling with the crowd.
instead of throwing the bombs he stayed to listen...what followed was more amazing than fiction."
He still talks of the bridge he slept under as "my bridge".
After reading about the serious books some of you are reading, this sounds trivial. I'm reading Aldous Huxley's first published book "Crome Yellow", published in 1921!
and i have noticed that the blurb for Out of The Black Shadows is wrong... he wasn't abandoned at age three but at age 7...how do blurbs get it so wrong?
Have just finished "Consider The Lilies" by Carol Fenlon (won the Impress Prize for New Writers 2007) and would thoroughly recommend it. Not only does she write an emotive and engaging story but she uses a variety of interesting techniques to do so.
One of the main characters has been reared in social isolation (very topical given the recent Amstetten case) and it's interesting how Fenlon manages to put across that character's viewpoint. She also makes use of diaries, journals and research reports yet marries them seamlessly into a riveting read about identity.
It's quite short and very easy to read - a perfect choice for a reading group but also a technically interesting one for a writer.
Someone's just passed on to me 'Then we Came to the End' by Joshua Ferris, having worked in offices all my life I suspect that it will have me laughing my socks off. The Sun times says, 'it's about sitting all morning next to someone you cross the road to avoid, at lunch'. We certainly don't choose our work colleagues!
Recent:
Space Captain Smith - Toby Frost (got lots of strange looks on the train as was p*****g myself laughing)
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - Douglas Adams (good laugh)
Bones to Ashes - Kathy Reichs (not as heavy as some of her other books)
Current:
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
Next:
Jack of Ravens - Mark Chadbourn
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz
i'm still waiting for Bernard Cornwalls Sword Song to arrive in the post...but in the meantime am i am getting some editting done...so i'm not too bothered. The Stephen Lungu book was amazing. His humour is brilliant! I would recommend it to everyone!!
[quote=Gully]'Talk To The Snail' - Stephen Clarke. Must Read Lit for a Brit working for a French company. [/quote]
I skimmed through my OH's copy of this while I was in Switzerland, and almost died laughing! Some of the things were a bit close to the mark, but it was funny :D Mr Clarke has spent far too long around French people :P
I'm reading anything by Joe Bennett at the moment. "Musnt Grumble" " A land of Two halves" " Love death and washing up"
His latest book is "Where Underpants come from" I haven't started it yet.
Having heard so many of you talk about it I am reading Stephen King's 'On writing'. Following his recommendation I have just received 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck through the post. I've seen the movie and can't wait to read the book.
'On Writing' is the best book about writing I've ever read. Stephen King is brutally honest, to the point where you could end up thinking, 'Sh**, can I really do this?' He pulls no punches, but that's what's needed. None of this 'anyone can do it if they set their mind to it' crap - this is advice worth reading. Enjoy.
Grapes of Wrath is a stunning novel. Then read East of Eden and indulge in Travels with Charley, a factional book about going round America which is very funny and very sharply observed. Not a Steinbeck fan, as you can see ... but then there is Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday ... I have his book on King Arthur in the 'to read' pile.
Just read all four of Michael Dobbs' books on Churchill which were amazing. So well written.
After reading Bill Bryson's Shakespeare (the only book about him I;ve actually finished and will read again because it was simply brilliant), I'm now reading The Essential Dalai Lama. He's an inspiration.
I have just started, last night, got a third of the way through, 'The Knife of Never Letting Go', by Patrick Ness. If you write for children, I urge you to read it - it's first ed .hardback at the moment, but I suggest you get a signed one now... it's bloody brilliant.
Just read The Legacy by Lynda La Plante and immediately had to jump onto Amazon and buy the sequel, the book is brilliant, what a storyteller!
Now reading the biography of Saladin, following on from watching Kingdom of Heaven, the cut version, on video the other night. I already had the biography, BTW! He impressed me more than Balian, but then Orlando was not heavyweight enough for the role, sorry to say.
Have just finished devouring Lisa See's Peony in Love. The title wouldn't have grabbed me, but having read her last novel, I had to. For anyone who has an interest in how women lived in traditional China, both this one (set in the 17th century) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (19th) come highly recommended by me.
Still reading 'The Stuble Knife' - been too busy painting to read too much. Not quite like how I was when reading 'The Crystal Skull' by Manda Scott...I couldn't put that one down.
Well, I read the Lisa See while putting aside two others, so I'll go back to those now - but I'll read that Joanne Harris I've been meaning to read, as well. Three books at once - am I hopeless?
Finished Saladin's biography, impressive man. I have the second part of The Legacy here but - I visited Nunwell House in the week and the owner sent me a rare book, Nunwell Symphony, papers of the Oglander family who held Nunwell for the best part of 1000 years, based on actual papers discovered in a leather chest. It's fascinating. Waiting, Robert Holdstock (friend from way back)Celtira, book 1 of the Merlin Codex, which means getting the others if I like it and umpteen reference books. Still.
The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillipa Gregory. My 15 year old daughter gave it to me and I gave her The Queen's Fool which was one of the books from the Times. We went to see The Other Boleyn Girl TOGETHER. I love her style of writing, not sure on accuracy historically but don't care
The Boleyn Inheritance is good but she aggravates me no end by leaving Henry out of everything, he's sidelined! No one can sideline someone that big, that important, that overwhelming. I mean, tell me about it, I'm well into writing his life story now and he's one hell of a golden Prince!
Read Nunwell Symphony yesterday, in a day. Papers of the Oglander family dating back to goodness knows when, the papers they found were from the Civil War time, brilliant stuff. Actual history, just as I like it, brought alive.
An erotic thriller! Not usually my genre but the 'cover' caught my eye in the library. That and the first sentence about a 'scarf of blood in the snowy driveway':
'Be Mine' by Laura Kasischke
I was looking for a couple of paperbacks to read on the train, travelling south to a wedding. I also borrowed Prue Leith's 'A Lovesome Thing' - not that I know much about gardening!
Im reading Disastrous Dates & Dream Boys by Mark A Roeder. Im having trouble with the names. The first chapter has introduced us to the following characters:
Brendan
Brandon
Brad
Chad
Nathan
Ethan
Casper
Casey
Jennifer
Jon
Jack
Sandy
Shawn and
Ardelene
Chapter Two is about Dane and his friends.
Chapter Three is about Shawn and his (other) friends.
I like the way its written, but I may have to make notes so I dont get people muddled up.
I'm reading The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks. This is the follow up book to the Traveller. I enjoyed the Traveller a lot but have to admit to not enjoying this one quite as much. I'm half way through perhaps it will improve. :)
Comments
Casino Royale - Ian Fleming - No idea where the film came from!
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki
Current,
Making Money - Terry Pratchett
Next,
Not always so - Shunryu Suzuki
My next read is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a death foretold, not near as long as a hundred years of solitude, but hopefully as good. Any1 read it?
By the way, any novel writers should get a copy of The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman which I'm currently reading. Very readable and good advice.
"Stephen Lungu was the oldest son of a teenage mother, married off to a much older man by her parents, and living in a black township near Salisbury, Zimbabwe. When he was three his mother ran away, leaving him, and his younger brother and sister, in the reluctant care of an aunt. By eleven Stephen too had run away, preferring life on the streets.
To survive, he slept under bridges and scavanged food from white folks' dustbins. As a teenager he was recruite into one of the urban gangs, called the Black Shadows, which ran a programme of theft and thuggery with a half-focused dream of revolution.
When a travelling evangelist came to town, Stephen was sent to fire bomb the event, carrying his bag of bombs and mingling with the crowd.
instead of throwing the bombs he stayed to listen...what followed was more amazing than fiction."
He still talks of the bridge he slept under as "my bridge".
One of the main characters has been reared in social isolation (very topical given the recent Amstetten case) and it's interesting how Fenlon manages to put across that character's viewpoint. She also makes use of diaries, journals and research reports yet marries them seamlessly into a riveting read about identity.
It's quite short and very easy to read - a perfect choice for a reading group but also a technically interesting one for a writer.
Space Captain Smith - Toby Frost (got lots of strange looks on the train as was p*****g myself laughing)
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - Douglas Adams (good laugh)
Bones to Ashes - Kathy Reichs (not as heavy as some of her other books)
Current:
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
Next:
Jack of Ravens - Mark Chadbourn
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz
'The Fiery Cross' - Diana Gabaldon. Only one left after that - 'A Breath Of Snow And Ashes' them I've done them all.
'Wilt In Nowhere' - Tom Sharpe. Fantastic. That guy kills me every time. I just love his humour.
'Talk To The Snail' - Stephen Clarke. Must Read Lit for a Brit working for a French company.
I skimmed through my OH's copy of this while I was in Switzerland, and almost died laughing! Some of the things were a bit close to the mark, but it was funny :D Mr Clarke has spent far too long around French people :P
His latest book is "Where Underpants come from" I haven't started it yet.
cheer Eric
Just read all four of Michael Dobbs' books on Churchill which were amazing. So well written.
I've just finished 'The End of Mr Y' by Scarlett Thomas and really enjoyed it. Would you read a cursed book? :)
Now reading the biography of Saladin, following on from watching Kingdom of Heaven, the cut version, on video the other night. I already had the biography, BTW! He impressed me more than Balian, but then Orlando was not heavyweight enough for the role, sorry to say.
Unfortunately it doesn't grab me.
Read Nunwell Symphony yesterday, in a day. Papers of the Oglander family dating back to goodness knows when, the papers they found were from the Civil War time, brilliant stuff. Actual history, just as I like it, brought alive.
'Be Mine' by Laura Kasischke
I was looking for a couple of paperbacks to read on the train, travelling south to a wedding. I also borrowed Prue Leith's 'A Lovesome Thing' - not that I know much about gardening!
Brendan
Brandon
Brad
Chad
Nathan
Ethan
Casper
Casey
Jennifer
Jon
Jack
Sandy
Shawn and
Ardelene
Chapter Two is about Dane and his friends.
Chapter Three is about Shawn and his (other) friends.
I like the way its written, but I may have to make notes so I dont get people muddled up.