What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Oaky]

Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf.

Ooh, what's that about?

It's on our shelves somewhere at home.  I haven't read it myself, but if it's the book I'm thinking of, mrs_o's eyes went something like this:  when she read it.  I think the depictions of sexual depravity were the reason.

[clarion]

Not reading, just browsed.

On the shelves at work is a wonderful book based on a TV series.  It is Brian Magee in conversation with several people on the subject of modern western philosophy. 

Interesting enough, and I doubt that the series would even get commissioned today, but the list of guests inludes Ayer, Marcuse, Chomsky etc etc etc!

That must have been a magnificent piece of television.

[Mr Larrington]

I have recently finished The Regiment, by Michael Asher.  Clearly he knows a great deal about the SAS.  But as soon as he gets to writing about a battle, whoa!  There are three possibilities:

• My vocabulary is not as extensive as I'd hoped
• The SAS really does have dozens, if not hundreds, of slang terms for discharging a weapon, the noise it makes and the effect it has on the person on the receiving end, in much the same way as the Inuit don't have hundreds of words for snow
• He's made them up because he thinks they sound good

"Scranching" artillery shells and "blebbing" blood from a gunshot wound to the leg?

Edit: Now on Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, which is altogether less grating.

[LindaG]

Just finished Ian McEwan's Solar.

Very puzzled re: what all the fuss is about.  It isn't that good.  And not particularly funny, either.  Though insightful in its examination of human frailty.

YMMV

[DrMekon]

I am reading Family Britain by David Kynaston still, but ...Barring Mechanicals arrived yesterday evening, and I read it through immediately. Wonderful stuff. I have placed it on my colleague's desk in the hope that it will inspire him to do some training rides in prep for the 200km we're doing next month.

[citoyen]

I'm re-reading The Screwtape Letters.    So funny, and although it's dated it's still bang on target 

I've never read it but I got the audiobook as a birthday present from an aunt many years ago. John Cleese was the reader. I remember it being very good and making me laugh lots.

I think Andy Hamilton owes a debt to Screwtape - its influence on Old Harry's Game is clear.

d.

[DaveJ]

Just finished "Transitions" by Iain Bank. Probably my favourite author and it's his best book in a long time. Recommended Interesting that he writes normal fiction as Iain Banks and SF as Iain M Banks. I'd class this book as SF but it's Iain No-M Banks. Maybe 'cos it's actually set on planet Earth, or maybe he's decided to drop the distinction between genres.

I thought it was confused, very derivative and didn't go anywhere...

+1

Of all his books that I have read, this is the one I least enjoyed.

Dave

[Si]

Reading a Nicci French whodunit.

It's about a cycle courier who finds murders happening around her.

I think that if I didn't have a small amount of knowledge concerning cycling then I'd find it an interesting book.  As it is, every little error that the authors make about bikes screams out and diverts attention from the perfectly good plot, characters and writing style.  Reading such books must be hellish for members of the police force 

[clarion]

Which book is it?

[Bledlow]

The Last Witchfinder - James Morrow

[Edit]Finished, but only because I find it hard not to finish a book I've started. Starts well, but goes steadily downhill. And it's a long book.

[Deborah]

'Becoming a Writer' Dorothea Brande. I'm desparate to improve my writing style. The papers I write for work are dense and dry and I want to find away for the papers to be more engaging.

[Flying_Monkey]

The papers I write for work are dense and dry and I want to find away for the papers to be more engaging.

I know what you mean. However, I warn you that you will get a lot of papers rejected if you try to write in a lighter style. It's amazing how much peer-reviewing is influenced by superficial expectations.

[peliroja]

Just finished The Angel's Game - pretty good escapism. Now half way through an Anne Mustoe.

[Flying_Monkey]

Finally got round to Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise. And... it is almost entirely unremarkable. Given the laudatory reviews, I was expecting something brilliantly written, genuinely harrowing and insightful about the war. Instead I get a rather limp, dated (unsurprisingly) satire of French manners and class. Had this not been 'undiscovered' for so many years, and had been published at the time, I don't think it would have been remembered as being that great.

[itsbruce]

Recently finished:

"Q", by Luther Blisset.
"Doctor Brodie's Report", by Borges.
"What a Carve Up!", by Jonathan Coe.

[Si]

Which book is it?

"Until It's Over"

(assuming that the question was directed at me?)

[clarion]

It was.  Thanks.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's set in Mississippi in the early 60s and it's told from the perspective of two black women working as household maids, and one white woman who was brought up by a black maid (there's quite a bit in it about white women locking up their jewellery before the black "help" arrives - but trusting the maids to bring up their kids!) but came home from college one holiday to find the maid had been sacked and nobody would tell her why. I enjoyed it very much.

[Nuncio]

Am just about to start 'Swansea Terminal', by Roger Rees.

Ooh.  Never heard of it/him, but just looked it up.  Looks good, if only for the local interest.  Don't forget to post an update.

Just finished it Nuncio. I really enjoyed it, and it was great reminiscing about the places I used to go to. There is no absolute structure, you just have to go along with it. I don't know whether you have checked out the new Swansea library, its fantastic!

Assuming you got the name wrong (my Swansea Terminal was by Roger Lewis!) I've finished it.  I enjoyed it but suspect that it was purely because of the local interest - all the pubs and locations were familiar to me, even if the characters and the 'world' they inhabited were not.  I'll be able to confirm this if I ever get through Last Train to Llanelli, which, despite its title, appears to be set in Bristol.

I haven't been to the new library yet.  I used to work in town opposite the old one (which makes an apearance in Swansea Terminal) and popped in regularly - I was sorry to see it go.

[Legs]

Reading a Nicci French whodunit.

...the authors ...

I didn't realise this until I was watching Only Connect a couple of weeks ago.

(I've got a couple of Nicci French hand-me-downs on the bookshelf but haven't read any of them yet.  Are they any good?)

[JT]

Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson

A history of football tactics.

[Mr Larrington]

Just finished "Where The Hell Have You Been? by Tom Carver.  A biography of his father Richard, concentrating mostly on his capture by the Afrika Korps and subsequent incarceration in, and escape from, a POW camp in Italy.  The he happened to be General Montgomery's stepson added a certain interest, but fortunately the Germans didn't find out, as otherwise he'd have been off to Colditz like a shot...

[tral-rat]

[mike]

Last Orders by Graham Swift.

Incredibly powerful book about death and life, written in a beautifully simple way.  One to go on the 're-read in about a year' pile.

[Bledlow]

Seen the film?

Good book, but not as good as Waterland, I think.