What books are we reading at the moment ?

[rafletcher]

The latest Le Carre,

Quite polemical in parts.  Oh, all right, Very polemical in parts..

Aah but the language. So dated     I’ll see how it goes, but Im not hopeful of it gripping me. Mind you, perhaps Smiley’s People wouldn’t now, who knows.

Nat is supposedly 47 now,  but talks as if he were in the ‘30’s.

ETA I gave up. Life’s too short sadly. The last of his I’ll try, assuming he lives to write another. On to Martin Cruz Smith’s The Siberian Dilemma.

[L CC]

I like the Smiley novels, but they are a period piece. I'm not sure Le Carre translates to current affairs, sadly.

[Ruthie]

I just finished 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry.  Very, very good, but so sad. And really shocking in places.

[rafletcher]

I like the Smiley novels, but they are a period piece. I'm not sure Le Carre translates to current affairs, sadly.

Agreed, I didn’t persevere with the one before this either, A Legacy of Spies. Again, I felt the language dated.

[Canardly]

George Martin's prequel Knight of the Seven kingdoms. Several early and later novellas combined. So so.

[T42]

I like the Smiley novels, but they are a period piece. I'm not sure Le Carre translates to current affairs, sadly.

Agreed, I didn’t persevere with the one before this either, A Legacy of Spies. Again, I felt the language dated.

I tend to agree with that, but it's supposedly an ageing Peter Guillam writing in retirement so he's writing in the manner someone of that age might write, e.g. John Le Carré.

[pcolbeck]

Germany, Memoirs of a nation - Neil MacGregor

Highly recommended if you want to understand Germany or even the EU really.

[fd3]

Just finished:
Something Wicked this way Comes - Bradbury.  I thought I was better at the start, but then I thought the first half was exceptionally well written, so not too surprised that it didn't maintain it throughout. A (should have been A*)
Greedy Man in a Hungry World - Jay Rayner.  He is good at telling anecdotes, but it didn't "totally change the way I thought about food" or "dispel myths about food" as promised.  His arguments often run against each other (he does acknowledge this) and some very big claims get very little support.  Worth reading for the idea that Carbon Miles only count for ~3-5% of the food's footprint, so some food from abroad can be lower carbon than that which is locally produced.  D-
The Female Man - Joanna Russ.  I see what she was trying to do, but it does come across rather clunky and hard to decipher.  I'm not a woman in the 1960s, so a lot of this doesn't really apply to me. D+
The Guns of Avalon - Roger Zelazny.  I quite liked "Lord of Light" so have been a bit disappointed by his other stuff, this was a pretty straightforward Conan/Elric style fantasy book, but without the Conan (boo!).  C

[ElyDave]

Just finished The Wasp Factory, despite having read much Iain M Banks, that didn't go quite how I expected

[rafletcher]

I enjoyed Martin Cruz Smiths latest Reno, the Siberian Dilemma, although the finale was IMO a bit of a cop-out. Followed that with Tess Gerritsen's The Apprentice, which was diverting enough I'll read the next in the series.

Have just started Giles Blunt's Forty Words for Sorrow, the first of the Cardinal novels. There are differences from the TV series of course, but having watched that it's good to put the voices and intonation to Cardinal and Delorme.

[T42]

The Guns of Avalon - Roger Zelazny.  I quite liked "Lord of Light" so have been a bit disappointed by his other stuff, this was a pretty straightforward Conan/Elric style fantasy book, but without the Conan (boo!).  C

Well, it certainly pre-dates the Schwarzi films by 10 years, although Wiki says not the comic character. That said, it was a descent into pulp, much as were Fritz Leiber's swords & sandals fantasies.  A Rose for Ecclesiastes is much more typical Zelazny output.

[Quisling]

I’ve finished all the books I received for Xmas/birthday and can heartily recommend:
Homesick: Why I live in a shed by Catrina Davies
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
And
Out of the wreckage by George Monbiot

All good thought provoking reads.

[sg37409]

Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   
(Need to get through it quickly to get on to Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs which I bought after hearing  some of his reading of it on R4 recently.)

[Mr Larrington]

Re-reading Rankin's "Rebus".

How's that for alliteration?

[Canardly]

The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart. One of the better Athurian legend tales.

[Ruthie]

Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   
(Need to get through it quickly to get on to Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs which I bought after hearing  some of his reading of it on R4 recently.)

Unreliable Memoirs is wonderful, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Parts of it come back to me, even now, and it must be twenty-plus years since I read it.  He was such a clever, funny man.  I wonder if I'd get a few more of his literary references if I read it now.  Should probably do that.

[Snakehips]

Information Warriors: The Battle for Hearts and Minds in the Middle East by Vyvyan Kinross

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Equate-Pat-Lancaster/dp/1908531657

Topical stuff.

[ElyDave]

Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig.  Very pleasant read.   
(Need to get through it quickly to get on to Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs which I bought after hearing  some of his reading of it on R4 recently.)

Bought the Sandi Toksvig for my mum for Christmas, had a brief read in the bookshop, looks very good

[nicknack]

Having a bit of a binge on Adrian Tchaikovsky at the mo. I finished off 'Children of Ruin' over Christmas, read 'Dogs of War' last week and I'm now halfway through 'Cage of Souls'. All good.

[andrewc]

"Agency", the sequel to William Gibson's scary "The Peripheral" is released shortly.  Here's a lengthy but rather good profile from The New Yorker.


  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-science-fiction-real#

Another puff piece in the Grauniad. [size=78%]https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/11/william-gibson-i-was-losing-a-sense-of-how-weird-the-real-world-was?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other[/size]

[fd3]

A Rose for Ecclesiastes is much more typical Zelazny output.

I shall give that a spin once I clear my current pile from the library.  Currently reading
Moorkock's Dancers at the End of Time - nearly finished the first "book", it's mildly amusing, but a bit like going to a comedy show and being left with a smile on your face.
Delaney's Dhalgren, only a short way in but I am not hooked (early days though)
Coldwater Smith's Rediscovery of Man - two short stories in and quite enjoyable.  Time will tell whether words/concepts like "cranching" will get on my nerves.

...

Not read "Wasp Factory" but I didn't like The Bridge or ... forgot the title of the other book of his I read.

[T42]

Most of Moorcocks's output ranks as mildly amusing. Mother London, though, is something else.

I thought The Bridge was brilliant, but then I've enjoyed every Banks I've read except The Quarry, which he wrote in the knowledge that he was dying of cancer. If you fancy a good space opera, try Consider Phlebas. I must admit, though, that I have a tendency to think of it as Consider Flab-Ass, which is most unfair.

[andrewc]

There's a new Ben Aaronovitch "Rivers of London" available for pre-order.    "False Value".



"The hugely anticipated brand new RIVERS OF LONDON novel...


Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner's brand new London start up - the Serious Cybernetics Company."(*)


* Groan 

[ElyDave]

Most of Moorcocks's output ranks as mildly amusing. Mother London, though, is something else.

I thought The Bridge was brilliant, but then I've enjoyed every Banks I've read except The Quarry, which he wrote in the knowledge that he was dying of cancer. If you fancy a good space opera, try Consider Phlebas. I must admit, though, that I have a tendency to think of it as Consider Flab-Ass, which is most unfair.

My previous Banks vs M Banks was Dead Air which I enjoyed greatly.  I came to Banks long after M Banks, and oddly enough have just finished reading Consider Phlebas to my son.  I'd find it hard to pick a favourite, but I've just read Matter for about the third time.

[T42]

I've re-read Surface Detail a several times, particularly the wee sting in the tail - but then, stings in the tail is standard Banks practice. Excession is a favourite too, although you need to be steeped in Culture culture before reading it.  His sanguinary spaceships are great fun.