What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Jack Standish]

tried reading Mickey Spillaine. lauged so hard my sided hurt. And people were into this kind of stuff? it's not even pulp. Chandler is pulp, Mike Hammer's wank fantasies are just supid.

[T42]

Now finished Surface Detail, as with most Iain m Banks stuff, I think I will need to reread it at some point t.

One of my favourites, that.  I'll maybe do the Banks canon again soon, if I can find them all. I think my daughter half-inched a couple.

[andrewc]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/legacy-of-spies-john-le-carre-review


A new le Carre novel.  Sounds like revisiting "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" might be a good idea before reading this.

[fuzzy]

Having finished Moon Dust which I found quite interesting and revealing in relation to the personailties of the remaining moonwalkers, I am now on to Carrying the Fire by Apollo 11 Command Module pilot Michel Collins. This is his account of what it took for him to become an astronaut and what he got up to. A good read so far. It was written in 1974- 1975 and in places, this is apparent. It is not (thankfully) to heavy on the SCIENCE but more about the gut feelings and interaction between him, his fellow rocket jockeys, test pilots, engineers, beuraucrats and the public. A good find in my astronomical societies library.

[Legs]

Carrying on the Stephen King marathon with The Dark Half. 

[PeteB99]

Jim Al-Khalilis new book on the chances of alien life. Only edited by J A=K but there is an impressive list of scientists contributing.

On kindle at 2.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KADZ21S/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[ElyDave]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/legacy-of-spies-john-le-carre-review


A new le Carre novel.  Sounds like revisiting "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" might be a good idea before reading this.

I read somewhere that there's a film of A Perfect Spy in the offing, which is one of my JLC faves

Carrying on the Stephen King marathon with The Dark Half. 

Good one, I reread The Stand a few months back, his stuff still stands up fairly well.

I'm now reading Puckoon to my son

[Peter]

Having finished Moon Dust which I found quite interesting and revealing in relation to the personailties of the remaining moonwalkers, I am now on to Carrying the Fire by Apollo 11 Command Module pilot Michel Collins. This is his account of what it took for him to become an astronaut and what he got up to. A good read so far. It was written in 1974- 1975 and in places, this is apparent. It is not (thankfully) to heavy on the SCIENCE but more about the gut feelings and interaction between him, his fellow rocket jockeys, test pilots, engineers, beuraucrats and the public. A good find in my astronomical societies library.

I keep re-reading Moondust, or rather, dipping into it.  It's excellent.  It's also strange to think that even somone as old as I is likely to be still alive when there are no moonwalkers left on earth.

[Karla]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/legacy-of-spies-john-le-carre-review


A new le Carre novel.  Sounds like revisiting "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" might be a good idea before reading this.

I read somewhere that there's a film of A Perfect Spy in the offing, which is one of my JLC faves

Really?  I always thought it read a bit like he self-consciously tried to write his major work, and let his pen run away with itself.  Then again, I think much the same thing about The Honourable Schoolboy. 

I haven't heard of a film of APS, but I read that his son's film company had optioned the rights to his biography, which obviously shares a lot of content with the novel.  Then again, they're probably buying it to prevent anyone else making it!  What is definitely in the offing is a BBC series of The Spy who Came In, which I'm very much looking forward to, as tbh I wasn't such a fan of the Richard Burton film.  In other exciting news, the Smiley's People follow-up to the TTSS film has been greenlit and is in pre-production. 

Needless to say, I'm a fair chunk through ALOS already.  Liking it so far.

[andrewc]

Ah. That explains the workname...

[Karla]

[realises his cover is blown and makes a run for the wall]

[T42]

In other exciting news, the Smiley's People follow-up to the TTSS film has been greenlit and is in pre-production. 

I reckon the TTSS film would have been difficult to follow if you hadn't read the book or seen the BBC series.  In fact, if they could wave a magic wand over the Beeb's tapes and turn them into HD, the films wouldn't get a look-in.

[Karla]

Plenty of people who weren't familiar with the story have said that the film was hard to follow, so you don't need to guess about that.  The BBC series is pretty dated though: it was basically a lot of shots of old men talking in rooms,  and they didn't take the golden opportunities to cut any scenes that desperately needed cutting, e.g. Roddy Bloody Martindale.  The screenplay seemed to be lifted lock stock and Walther PPK from the pages of the book.  Essentially, they played it very straight and made programs about how George Smiley caught a spy.  Where the film triumphed, apart from the gorgeous visuals, was that it looked deeper and made a film about office politics, complete with plots, power-plays, allegiances, betrayal, greed, bad judgement, coercion and counter-coercion.  The new book has a lot of material about old Circus politics, casting a different light and a broader context on many of the actions that you experienced through various individuals' eyes in the early novels.  It's especially delicous to see all this through Thomas Alfredson's lens, considering the new revelations through the picture of the Circus that he painted in the film.

Now the BBC series of Smiley's People, that's where they really hit their stride and that's a truly excellent series, one of my all-time favourites.  I'm still looking forward to the film though 

[T42]

One of the catch-phrases in our family for a while after seeing SP was "you fool, Grigoriev!"

[Peter]

Not a book in the sense of being a book but a book in the sense of containing words (and many excellent pictures).  Do have a look.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=15379&v=B1

[andrewc]

https://newrepublic.com/article/144719/happens-science-fiction-genius-starts-blogging


A new (non fiction) book from the wonderful Ursula Le Guin.   Hat tip to our old friend Flying Monkey (@murakamiwood)  who just tweeted about it

[Quisling]

A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston.

I'm re-reading this (so it's not the updated re-released version.)  It's a brief history of Scott and his Antarctic endeavours from 1901 until his death.
It's not a detailed technical history like works by Rolund Huntford or Fridtjof Nansen, but includes some original research on private letters between Scott and his wife.

Readable, and a good introduction to polar exploration literature, but probably not as critical of Scott as some of the more recent analyses although some of his shortcomings are clearly exposed.

Interesting to reflect that there must still be some people alive who were born before Amundsen and Scott reached the south pole in 1911/12. 
Next read will be Apsley Cherry-Garrard's "The Worst Journey in the World", which was undoubtedly pretty bad, but "Mawson's Will" probably takes the biscuit for polar hardship.

[ian]

Starship Troopers. Possibly the most preposterously dull book I've ever tried to read. I'd like my 99p back.

[Jakob W]

I don't remember it being that dull, but a lot of 50s SF hasn't aged very well.

I am currently enjoying James Holland's _The War in the West_, having had it recommended to me by a trusted friend. I'd rather assumed Holland was a pop-hist lightweight in the Dan Snow mould, but he's actually drawn on a lot of recent scholarship, and weaves the various strands of his story very skillfully.

[ian]

It seems mostly mainly dull lists of military ranks, just the one character (seriously, everyone else in the book is literally passing through) who's dull, unlikable, and frankly bit of a dimwit, and padded with endless, endless pages of waffle on military 'morality'. And no it hasn't aged well, which I could forgive it, but for being supermassively yawnworthy, I can't.

It's awful.

[Jakob W]

I suspect (like a lot of Heinlein tbh) it benefits from having been read at an impressionable age; though there are quite a lot of rabid Heinlein fans, I don't think I've ever met any under the age of 55...

[ian]

I've never read any, it popped up on the Kindle 99p thing and the movie was quite satirical fun and involved fighting big bugs, so I thought I'd give it a punt. Let's not even mention the objectionably fascistic posturings, because the terminal utterly unengaging dullness is far more objectionable than the juvenile right wing politics.

Mind you, I was reading proper intellectual stuff at an impressionable age (so I don't have to do it now). Anyway, in other bad book news, I have one more chapter and my final draft of the best vampire book not yet published will be complete. I'd don't care if it's shit, Jess is quite positively the best undead library south London has ever had or will have, and I'm completely in love with her. My wife rolls her eyes, but then she's neither dead nor a redhead.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw. Post-war lesbians. Or possibly one lesbian, one bisexual, as I do not wish to be party to the erasing of bisexual peeps.

[mark]

"What Happened", Hilary Clinton's account of her 2016 presidential campaign. All the negative press about the book (and about Ms Clintin) made me decide to read it and see for myself what the fuss was about.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

The End of Empire by Martin Bell (former BBC War Correspondent) written after much material was released under the Official Secrets Act rules.

The author did his National Service in Cyprus 1957-59 as a humble squaddie.  Surprisingly (for the Army) they put him in military intelligence!
Having myself been there as a child at that time (father was a Colonial Officer) it's a most interesting read, especially as Mr Bell kept the letters he wrote home and is of course a very good writer anyway.  It tells me about the people my father worked for including Sir George Sinclair and the wonderfully named General Darling who was not just a character in Blackadder!  Father kept a number of letters and reports (he shouldn't have but he wanted 'insurance' I suspect) about his involvement and this book is explaining a lot in an entertaining way not devoid of humour and empathy.