What books are we reading at the moment ?

[andrewc]

I've got Mieville's "October" balanced on the Teetering Pile Of Unread Books.   His non fiction history of the October Revolution.   One year I may get around to reading it 

[Mr Larrington]

Professor Larrington lent me a couple of fat Miéville papperboks a few years back while I was struggling through Kraken.  They were returned, still unread, a couple of years later.

Edit: Have just added the latest slab of military hist. from Max “Hitler” Hastings – Operation Pedestal: The Fleet that Battled to Malta 1942 – to the “To read” pile.

[nobby]

Does anyone know if she wrote one about her around the world trip? I cannot find anything.

Doesn't look lile it, but you can ask her yourself

https://twitter.com/emilychappell?lang=en
[/quote]
Do you have to be a member of twitter to use it? If so, I'll pass thanks.
Her 'Where There's a Will' has just arrived along with We are Nature by Ray Mears, A Woman in the Polar Night - Christine Ritter, and Terry Waites 'Solitude'.
I am reading Condor Blues by Mark Nicol.

[Mrs Pingu]

Working through "What Will Burn", the new DI McLean book (sorry for the spoiler there)

Oh. I thought I'd just finished reading that, but it appears I was one behind, though I still had this one in my kindle waiting.

[ravenbait]

Just finished Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which was one of the best things I've read in ages. Guess I'll have to get the next one in the series.

Just started Maria Dahvana Headley's Beowulf.

Sam

[nobby]

Just finished Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which was one of the best things I've read in ages. Guess I'll have to get the next one in the series.

Just started Maria Dahvana Headley's Beowulf.
Sam

I have that on my Amazon wishlist. Have you read enough yet to form an opinion? It's the feminist version of the poem and had good reviews but then so did Heaney's Beowulf and I didn't enjoy that.

[citoyen]

Like Ashaman42, Perdido Street Station, maybe for the 3rd time. Read it when it came out 20 years ago, and at least one other time in between. C. Miéville does rather enjoy wallowing in crud, but it's fascinating crud.

Later books of his, e.g. Kraken, came across as somewhat pathetic self-parody, though they bucked up a bit with Embassytown - touch of Kafka there.

Interesting. The City & The City is still the only one of his that I've read, and I loved it, but I understand it's not typical of his work. I've had Perdido Street Station ready to pick up from my TBR pile for some time, but I have no idea when I'll ever get round to it.

[ravenbait]

Just finished Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which was one of the best things I've read in ages. Guess I'll have to get the next one in the series.

Just started Maria Dahvana Headley's Beowulf.
Sam

I have that on my Amazon wishlist. Have you read enough yet to form an opinion? It's the feminist version of the poem and had good reviews but then so did Heaney's Beowulf and I didn't enjoy that.

Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days,
everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only
stories now, but I'll sound the Spear-Danes' song, hoarded for
hungry times.

Their first father was a foundling: Scyld Scefing.
He spent his youth fists up, browbeating every barstool-brother,
bonfiring his enemies. That man began in the waves, a baby in
a basket,
but he bootstrapped his way into a kingdom, trading loneliness
for luxury. Whether they thought kneeling necessary or no,
everyone from head to tail of the whale-road bent down:
There's a king, there's his crown!
That was a good king.

I am enjoying it immensely, but if you prefer your translation not to sound like an assertive street kid performing it as a kind of rap, it might not be for you.

Sam

[citoyen]

Talking of feminist updates of classics, I'm reminded of Elizabeth Cook's Achilles - although I'm not sure it really is 'feminist', except perhaps in the same way that Point Break is 'feminist' thanks to having a woman director...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/04/fiction.poetry

I really should re-read that some time. It's great.

[ravenbait]

Talking of feminist updates of classics, I'm reminded of Elizabeth Cook's Achilles - although I'm not sure it really is 'feminist', except perhaps in the same way that Point Break is 'feminist' thanks to having a woman director...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/04/fiction.poetry

I really should re-read that some time. It's great.

Miller's Song of Achilles is one of my favourite books of all time.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles

Sam

[citoyen]

Talking of feminist updates of classics, I'm reminded of Elizabeth Cook's Achilles - although I'm not sure it really is 'feminist', except perhaps in the same way that Point Break is 'feminist' thanks to having a woman director...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/04/fiction.poetry

I really should re-read that some time. It's great.

Miller's Song of Achilles is one of my favourite books of all time.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles

Sam

I enjoyed that very much too - if I remember rightly, it's bordering on slash fiction... but in a good way.

[ian]

I quite enjoyed the mash-up of HP Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes (more Conan Doyle than Lovecraft fortunately). The style was spot-on without being dated. Purists will hate it, of course, and that fact alone gives me pleasure.

Stumbled into another yet different spin of the wheel with Lovecraft and Carter, which started out promising, but now lolls around like an overdressed and underemployed crime story. It's obviously a TV pitch, reasonably written, but gradually ticking the annoyance boxes. It might pull its socks up and grow some tentacles in the last act, I suppose.

[nobby]

Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days,
everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only
stories now, but I'll sound the Spear-Danes' song, hoarded for
hungry times.

Their first father was a foundling: Scyld Scefing.
He spent his youth fists up, browbeating every barstool-brother,
bonfiring his enemies. That man began in the waves, a baby in
a basket,
but he bootstrapped his way into a kingdom, trading loneliness
for luxury. Whether they thought kneeling necessary or no,
everyone from head to tail of the whale-road bent down:
There's a king, there's his crown!
That was a good king.

I am enjoying it immensely, but if you prefer your translation not to sound like an assertive street kid performing it as a kind of rap, it might not be for you.
Sam

That retains the snarl of a saga. I've just ordered it on Amazon and it will be here today. Cheers

[nobby]

I've just finished Condor Blues by Mark Nicol.
It is an 'true' account of a mixed platoon of PWRR and Argyle & Sutherland infantry in a remote small fort - Condor - in Iraq.
It is not a book to enjoy: infantry OR's are largely post-schoolboys with guns and capable of great bravery, without hesitation, in support of their mates but also breakdown in a crisis. It is also a very good insight into how medals are won and the odds against winning small skirmishes with the supplied weaponry and limited ammunition supply of the time. NCO's are often bullies and either feared, admired or ridiculed and officers are still playing the same games as ever.
It encourages me to hope that the recent, and ongoing, UK defence reviews can only improve the soldiers lot.

Now onto Emily Chappell's Where there is a Will. Excellent opening pages.

[woollypigs]

Near the end of this one :  Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55216172-empireland

Brilliant read on how ingrained the Empire is into todays Britain.

[Mr Larrington]

I am bingeing on John le Carré.  Starting with Smiley.  The past is definitely another country.

[pcolbeck]

The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England - Mark Morris

I had this on pre-order and it was worth the wait. Covers the end of the Roman Empire in Britain to 1066.
My the Anglo Saxons were an argumentative violent back stabbing bunch.
A great read.

[T42]

The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England - Mark Morris

I had this on pre-order and it was worth the wait. Covers the end of the Roman Empire in Britain to 1066.
My the Anglo Saxons were an argumentative violent back stabbing bunch.
A great read.

They still are.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Near the end of this one :  Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55216172-empireland

Brilliant read on how ingrained the Empire is into todays Britain.

Have got well into this:  "Britain Alone: The Path from Suez to Brexit" Philip Stephens, which demonstrates the same problem.  We cannot overcome our delusion of grandeur.

[woollypigs]

This is seen from the US side with many lines linked to the UK Empire. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121985-how-to-hide-an-empire a very good read.

I got this one lined up. Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family's Story of Slavery by Alex Renton - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56997241-blood-legacy

[nobby]

I started reading Ray Mears 'We are Nature' and couldn't decided whether he is being pretentious or scientific so I am resting that one and have read Dennis Lehane's 'The Drop' and a James Oswald Inspector MacClean tale. I've decided to give up on those because I don't like magic and unlikely plots in my police procedurals.
Currently reading Martin Carver's 'Formative Britain - an Archaeology of Britain, 5th to 11th Century AD'.

[ravenbait]

Have started Dan Simmons's The Fall of Hyperion.

Sam

[Jakob]

Audiobook: Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This seems to be a return to form.
Bedside book: The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812 by C.S. Forester. Having read 'Six Frigates' by Ian Toll a few years back, this a good expansion on the conflict with the Royal Navy. Somewhat rose-tinted, but still interesting.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Near the end of this one :  Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55216172-empireland

Brilliant read on how ingrained the Empire is into todays Britain.

Bought for kindle. As a white male son of a colonial officer it is a most revealing perspective. As I read on, it occurred to me how horrifying it would be to me to suddenly swap my position of privilege for that of a person whose race the British regarded as inferior. Even today.

[citoyen]

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

Hmmm. As a fully paid-up member of the David Mitchell fan club, I found this one very disappointing. Lots of hackneyed stuff about an aspiring rock band in the 60s, with nothing very interesting to say about the era - just a load of name-dropping. Plus a bit of the usual supernatural stuff you expect from Mitchell. Countless references to previous books, many of which feel shoehorned in - self-reference becomes self-reverence. I really hope this is a one-off and not a sign that he has run out of ideas.