What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Salvatore]

It's one of Salvatore's favourites.  I like Pooter's Cummings and Gowing joke, and their reaction to it.  I get a lot of that myself.

It's a close-run thing between it and The Third Policeman for my favourite book of all time.

[citoyen]

It's one of Salvatore's favourites.  I like Pooter's Cummings and Gowing joke, and their reaction to it.  I get a lot of that myself.

That was definitely one of my favourite bits. That and the dinner with Hardfur Huttle, the intellectual American.

d.

[Nuncio]

There have been two BBC radio adaptations broadcast recently.  There was an older one with Arthur Lowe (obv) reading as Pooter.  And a a semi-dramatized/semi-narrated one, with Johnny Vegas (yes, that Johnny Vegas) as Pooter, and Katherine Parkinson  as Mrs P, reading from her diary.  I know which one I preferred.

[her_welshness]

Wow - big congratulations to Hilary Mantel who has won the Man Booker Prize for 'Bring up the Bodies'. Only woman to win it twice 

[nmcgann]

Iain Bank's latest Culture novel - The Hydrogen Sonata

So far its another goody. Lots of ships with silly names in this one.

I'm struggling with this, very disappointing so far. (I'm a huge IMB fan too, so had high hopes)

[citoyen]

Wow - big congratulations to Hilary Mantel who has won the Man Booker Prize for 'Bring up the Bodies'. Only woman to win it twice 

I thought she might also be the only British writer to have won it twice but I was forgetting JG Farrell. Or is he regarded as Irish?

d.

[clarion]

First time two books in a series have won, too.

It'll be a terrible anticlimactic if the last book in the trilogy doesn't win too.

[citoyen]

Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.

d.

[clarion]

I don't know about the rest of the field that year off hand, but that was worthy of a prize.

[citoyen]

I don't know about the rest of the field that year off hand, but that was worthy of a prize.

I've just checked and it was The Famished Road that won that year, which I've not read but I'm sure it's deserving. The only two on the shortlist that year that I've read are Roddy Doyle's The Van and Martin Amis's Time's Arrow. Meh.

Anyway, currently reading...

Queen Lucia, the first in EF Benson's Mapp & Lucia series. Loving it so far. Very funny - much more so than I was expecting. A good few proper LOL moments. Reminds me in some ways of Jane Austen, though perhaps EM Forster would be a closer comparison, with its scathing satire of the pretensions of the English middle classes in the 1920s - the characters, all hideous snobs, could all be extras from A Room With A View.

d.

[Peter]

D, have you tried Barbara Pym?

[citoyen]

D, have you tried Barbara Pym?

No... but a quick google suggests I ought to. She sounds right up my street. Thanks for the tip. As if I need more stuff to add to my already enormous to-read pile...

Here, by the way, is an interesting piece on EF Benson by Philip Hensher* that does a good job of explaining why Mapp & Lucia are so funny (although, dammit, I've got two more books to read after this one before their paths actually cross in my reading):
http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/shared/WebDisplay/0,,213732_1_0,00.html

d.

*Another author who figures prominently on my to-read pile...

[Peter]

Hi, D,

I think Philip Hensher may just have written a piece on hand-writing in The Observer.  I'll have to look at his books, now!

I can never remember all the Pym titles but my wife suggests you start with Excellent Women/i], then Jane and Prudence, Less Than Angels, A Glass Of Blessings.  That should keep you busy!

P.

[citoyen]

 

[billplumtree]

D, have you tried Barbara Pym?

No... but a quick google suggests I ought to. She sounds right up my street. Thanks for the tip. As if I need more stuff to add to my already enormous to-read pile...

I tried Barbara Pym's No Fond Return of Love, on the recommendation of a friend.  It's damn fine writing, but I didn't really find it interesting, y'know?  Maybe it just hasn't worn well.  You're welcome to it for your pile if you want it - just PM me your address if you do.

[geoff]

Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.

d.

Bit of a long shot that perhaps...? "The Famished Road" was itself, surely, ground-breaking and utterly deserving, and then if Regeneration had won in 1991, would Ghost Road have won a few years later as well?

Anyway, had "Bring up the Bodies" for my birthday in August, (and read/enjoyed it) I was also given "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller, which is tremendous and which I'd recommend without reservation. The writing is vivid and the plotting brilliant.

I then went on to  re-read "Gatsby" after oh...plenty of years. Glad I did it...

Now reading Sarah Walters' "Fingersmith" not far into it, though....

(click to show/hide)

there are already dark hints that Things Will Not Go Well. Of course, this might just be the laying of a false trail, unless the book is framed as a memoir from the condemned cell (no, please don't say).

[rafletcher]

Just think... Hilary Mantel would have earned none of these firsts if Regeneration had won in 1991 as it deserved to.

d.

Pat Barker, surely?

[clarion]

Yes.  That's the point.  And I looked to see why Regeneration didn't win.  I think it lost to Ben Okri's The Famished Road, which is an utter work of genius, so it is not shamed.

[citoyen]

if Regeneration had won in 1991, would Ghost Road have won a few years later as well?

Maybe. I got the impression at the time that The Ghost Road got it on behalf of the whole trilogy, which is one of the reasons I was slightly surprised that Bring Up The Bodies won again this year.

I'll get round to The Famished Road one day...

d.

[Quint]

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

[Feline]

I finally finished Will Self's Umbrella. It took me a while to read this one as it required concentration.
I am now moving on to 'The Lighthouse' by Alison Moore.
I only have 24 unread new books on my Kindle now 

[LindaG]

Delta of Venus by Anais Nin.

[citoyen]

Delta of Venus by Anais Nin.

aka 50 Shades for people with a brain.

d.

[rogerzilla]

I have Nelson DeMille's latest for this weekend away.

[Wascally Weasel]

I have re-read Buchan’s John Macnab which is a great autumn read, especially after a commute via Richmond Park when the deer rut is on.

Now following it up with the bittersweet The Return of John Macnab by Andrew Greig.