BS: Read any good books lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 04 May 08 - 10:03 AM

I love her stuff as well. Have you read Postcards . I have finished the Joseph Roth book and have just begun The Emporors Tomb which sort of follows the same family. I just love his writing, there were many passages that I read several times. I am going to the second hand shop to look for more.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: BK Lick
Date: 03 May 08 - 08:27 PM

I'm surprised no one's yet mentioned E. Annie Proulx who won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among other major awards, for The Shipping News. Her wonderful story collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories contains "Brokeback Mountain." (Both these titles have been adapted into award winning movies.) The current issue of The New Yorker (where "Brokeback Mountain" first appeared) contains a new story titled "Them Old Cowboy Songs." I do purely love this lady's writing.

—BK

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Gulliver
Date: 03 May 08 - 04:56 PM

HiLo, I have Joseph Roth's Radetzkymarsch (the German version of Radetzky March) on my bedside table and hope to start it shortly. I'm glad you think it's a good read. One of my favourite books is by Roth, called in English (I think) The Weights and Measures Inspector (Das Falsche Gewicht in German). It was made into a great film in the 70's, starring Helmut Qualtinger and Evelyn Opela.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,bflat
Date: 02 May 08 - 05:25 PM

I recently finished A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. I read it four times consecutively because of its powerful insights. I know I'll read it again soon. I keep picking it up, randomly opening it and refreshing myself. Now reading, The Good Book by Peter J. Gomes.

Ellen

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 01 May 08 - 06:04 PM

Am now about half way through The Rudesky March by Jospeh Roth. A wonderful read. Kept me up til 2am last night. Also re read Precious Bane by Mary Webb..I do love that old stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: paula t
Date: 01 May 08 - 06:00 PM

Kathryn and I are really into the Michelle Paver books (young adult/teenage),"Wolf Brother" and the others in the series.We are eagerly waiting for the next one to be published.
I actually enjoyed reading the "Dark Materials" trilogy, although I felt rather flat by the end.Guess I'm a bit old fashioned.
I love the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. I have been known to laugh out loud or occasionally sniffle at some of the clever and touching moments. I love Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 01 May 08 - 02:09 AM

I have just finished The God Delusion by Richard Dawkin and God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchins. If you believe in God now, you wont after reading these books.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 10:33 AM

thank you hen harrier, I shall check out the site.
   I have just begun to re-read Eric Newby, A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush. Great read.
    I did read all three of Pullman's book, and although I found them troubling, I did not think them malicious in any way. It is very clear that he has an axe to grind, but the story drove me on in spite of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Gulliver
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 05:47 PM

Another book on South Asia, now reading: From Kashmir to Kabul, the Photographs of John Burke and William Baker, by Omar Khan. Great photos from the 1860s/1870s done by two Irishmen of humble origins in Afghanistan and Northern India, with an extensive commentary on the history and geography of the area, the prevailing political situation, personalities of the time, etc. Don

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,Jim Martin (Hen Harrier)
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 05:11 PM

'The Boy at the Swinging Lantern' is a wonderful story, I managed to get a 2nd hand copy from:

http://www.childrensbookshop.com

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 12:40 PM

"the dreariest vision of the Universe since Kurt Vonnegut"

Yes, I figured that was where it was going. The overall impression I got was that Philip Pullman's personal philosophy is that of some kind of zealot with a big hate on for something (Organized religion, I presume?) and that his general view of life has been so poisoned and compromised by that one big hate that he's become downright depressing to listen to...so why even bother? His nihilistic attitude stirs loathing in me, frankly.

After finishing book 2 I had no intention of contributing further to his income by buying the 3rd book. Pity, considering that the first book was an excellent adventure story.

Whatever Philip's view is of his personal universe, I definitely don't want to be there.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 12:30 PM

Sorry, hit the wrong thingy. I just finished one of the best travel book I have read; The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron, excellent. written in the 1930's abiut his travels from Tehran to Oxiana. It certainly reminds me how much the world has changed in a very short time. Also finished a mystery Called The Janissary tree by Jason Goodwin. It introduces inspector Yashim in 1830's Istamboul. He is excellent at re creating the atmosphere of time and place. There is now a sequel, which I have not read as yet, it is called The Snake Stone.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 12:24 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: john f weldon
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 09:01 AM

LHawk & Sandra in S:
A good decision. Part 3 has the dreariest vision of the Universe since Kurt Vonnegut, but without the humour. It would drive you to suicide, except that his afterlife is even worse!

The most notable quality of Pullman is the total lack of humour, quite the opposite of JKRowling.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 06:23 PM

Amergin, that was nasty

And untrue

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:55 AM

Ron dies in the last one....

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:34 AM

Little Hawk - I love children's/young adult fantasy so I eagerly read Vol 1 of the series & stopped half way thru Vol 2.

I've read lotsa' books where heroes die, who hasn't (& DON'T ANYONE TELL ME WHO DIED IN THE FINAL VOL. OF HARRY POTTER as I really must get around to reading it) but I didn't like the way characters were killed off & I think your response says it for me, too.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:29 AM

I tried the Philip Pullman trilogy. The first one was great. I didn't like the second one much. Decided not to read the third installment. I don't think I like whatever it is that he believes about life very much at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 10:00 PM

I'm now onto the third book in the Saxon series - Kings of the North. Difficult to put down.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: freda underhill
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:13 PM

I'm reading The Death of Dalziel by Reginald Hill. I love his Dalziel and Pascoe books, he writes with humour and great social understanding and insight. this one explores attitudes to terrorism, and white anglo fascism. Reginald Hill is a very warm, witty and evocative writer. his book Underworld was set against the background of the mining industry and is as a great novel as you can wish for.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: kendall
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:34 PM

I wish C.S. Forrester could still write.I loved his Hornblower series.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: john f weldon
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 07:53 AM

A long bout of pneumonia, with not much I could do but lie abed and read. First the Xmas Books:

Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy: Starts out fun, but gets confused later.
The Rum Diaries (Hunter Thompson): Aimless drifting, but entertaining.
A Deepness in the Sky (Ventnor Vinge): Not as good as the wonderful Fire in the Deep.

...and then I ran out of new stuff, and started to plumb the mustier shelves of my library, and found....

Philosophical Dictionary (Voltaire): which holds up very well after 250 years! Witty, wise and strangely current!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: dulcimer42
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 11:37 PM

Katlaughing, I still support the stores. Because with each new book I read, and then post...... it continuously builds. It allows me to order another, which I read and post, allowing me to get another.....   And membership is free. They say it might be necessary, in the future, to have a memb. fee. But I think it will still be well worth it.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 11:13 PM

Just read an old copy of "Forty Lashes Less One". It's an Elmore Leonard western about some convicts in Yuma prison in the late days of the American West. Damn good story...and quite funny in places too. I recommend it if you can find it at the used book store or the library.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 10:06 PM

dulcimer42, THANK YEW!! I can hardly wait to start using the paperback swap site. What a nifty idea. The only thing is it makes me feel badly for our local used bookstores. I will probably still try to support them now and then. BUt, I've already found several book on that site which are never available at the bookstores here.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Padre
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 08:54 PM

"A Blessed Company"- Parishes, Parsons and Parishioners in Anglican Virginia, 1690-1776. A wonderful book describing the Anglican Parishes in Colonial Virginia

Great Factoid: Beginning in 1696, Anglican clergy in Virginia were paid a salary of 16,000 pounds of tobacco, which was never increased until clergy salaries were discontinued in 1776. That's a long time between pay raises!

Padre

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: dulcimer42
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 05:29 PM

For those of you who love to read:   I've discovered a great website: Paperbackswap dot com.   You list 10 or more books which you would trade. For every book you trade, you get a point.   You can get a book from someone else for the cost of a point. Only cost is postage. I hear of a good book and head to this site , and it generally is available. I now have a backlog of about 8 books setting beside my recliner "to be read!" This was a real find for me. Current bestsellers seem to move rapidly. I receive it from the list, read it and relist it, and receive another point for another book........

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: dulcimer42
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 05:18 PM

Three fascinating, revealing, horrifying books of life, as a female in Saudi Arabia: Author: Jean Sasson. Books are : Princess,    Princess Sultana's Daughters, and Princess Sultana's Circle. Read them in order, to receive the best understanding.    I could scarcely lay them down until I finished reading them!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 06:35 AM

Gulliver,I bought a hardback re-print of The Assassins by Bernard Lewis, a very detailed read of the fore-runners of to-days suicide bombers, nothing stood in their way in pursuit of their appointed victim.
First published in 1967.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 11:06 PM

Thanks for the recommendation, HiLo. I am going to the used bookstore tomorrow so shall look for it.

I am about half-way through Dixie City Jam a murder mystery by James Lee Burke featuring a detective "Dave Robicheaux." I've not read any others by this author. His portrayal of New Orleans and other southern Louisiana areas is very interesting and colourful. It was written pre-Katrina, so I keep thinking I wonder if this landmark and that still exist. So far it's pretty good. Not a favourite, yet, but worth picking up.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 10:53 PM

A couple of weeks ago I read the latest of Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series; I forget its name but it follows its predecessors' gentle path.

A week or so ago I reread Chris Cunningham's The Blue Mountains Rediscovered, a shafting of the myth attributing the first crossing of the Blue Mountains (west of the penal colony at Port Jackson, the site of Sydney) to Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson in 1813, instead of to John Wilson in 1798, let alone uncounted generations of the local Aboriginal peoples.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 04:05 PM

I liked Bill Wyman's book about the blues also - some great pictures

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Gulliver
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 03:08 PM

Funny you should mention The Valley of The Assassins by Freya Stark--I was reading one or two chapters of it last night as Ella Maillart mentions the Old Man of the Mountain in Cruel Way. A favourite of mine is Trespassers on the Roof of the World by Peter Hopkirk, who also wrote the Great Game.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 11:13 AM

Thank you katlaughing, I did find that site and have since found that the book is currently out of print. If you enjoyed My journey to Lhasa, you may also enjoy The Valley of The Assasins by Freya Stark.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 01:09 AM

HiLo, here's some info on the author the Boy With the Swinging Lantern: Click Here. It was published in 1952. I checked for it at www.addall, which searches a bunch of bookseller databases and nothing came up. Seems it may be a bit rare?

Loved Alexandra David Neel's My Journey to Lhasa.

wld, no worries. I've been doing tons of murder mysteries lately, too! Anything by John Lescroart, Stephen White, Michael Connelly...and, of course, the British authors, too. Any "inspector" novel I can find!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:26 PM

I second LEJ's recommendation of The Kite Runner, the best picture of recent Afghanistan I have ever read.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Gulliver
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 09:48 PM

I'm reading, firstly, A Perfect Spy by John le Carré. It's interesting enough but far from being the "best novel since the war", as is trumpeted all over the cover, IMO.

Also reading Cruel Way by Ella Maillart about her trip overland with Anna Schwarzenbach to Afghanistan in 1939. I find it particularly interesting because I followed almost the same route (though a good deal later). It's well-written with feeling and she certainly knows her history.

And finally, the Destruction of Dublin by Frank McDonald, about the planning shenanigans that went on in the 60's and 70's.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:51 PM

Some years ago I read one titled "Way of the lanturn" It was a novel set in the midst of the French revolution. Excellent story.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:48 PM

The Book of Lost Books reminds that I did read a good book in The Book of Lost Things though it is certainly not for everyone (kind of a fairy tale gone bad), which further reminds me of Black Swan Green (yet another adventure of a ten year old) which I really loved. (yes these threads are fun and useful.)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:40 PM

I liked the Dark Materials and thought the ending was quite interesting, considering the age group at which it is aimed.

I'm onto 'Pale Horseman', the second of the Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. This guy is one of my favourite authors, although I haven't been tempted with the Sharpe books at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:19 PM

I'm trying to read a Vince Flynn book. I don't know why they sell so well.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:51 PM

sorry to be so low brow

A Killing Frost - the latest RD Wingfield. I loved it.

Inspector Frost at his naughtiest, and penpusher Inspector Mullet in an unholy alliance with the new Chief Inspector look like they might do for him this time.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: john f weldon
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:42 PM

Well, Mrs Duck, i just finished the series. It starts out fun, but seems to get lost.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 01:41 PM

Just finished the second in Philip Pullmans trilogy. Read 'Northern Lights' (made into a film under title Golden Compass) and second is called 'Subtle Knife'. Plan to get the third 'Amber Spyglass' out of the library this weekend.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:20 PM

Hen Harrier, can you provide a bit of information regarding the Patricia lynch book, Boy At The Swinging Lantern ? It sounds intriguing. Is it still in print..ISBN No? Publisher. I can find no trace at my Public Library nor on Amazon. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: irishenglish
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:08 PM

Just finished The Historian, which I found pretentious, and very undramatic. Currently reading a funny travel book called Narrow Dog to Carcassonne about an English couple taking a canal boat across the Channel and travelling through the French canals. Funny at times, but a little too clipped at the same time-just when you think he has found a topic to expand upon, he stops right there, and he's on to something else. Best book I read this year so far though is Kate Atkinson 's Case Histories.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:03 PM

I have just read over again an old book im my collection called `The long march of everyman`, the book was adapted from a BBC radio series with extracts from peoples lives from 1750 to 1960.
Some of the stories are heart-rending, at the height of the British Empire poverty was at its height,and the suffering of the poor is told by those who were on the verge of starvation. An enlightening but also a harrowing read.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 11:46 AM

Oh, I do love these threads. Lots of new titles to explore, ones I've read recalled and reminders of things to re-read. I have just finished Embers by hungarian author Sandor Marai, it is a wonderful exploration of love and friendship, among other things. It is also beautifully written. Have also recently read the following The Orament of The World by Maria Rosa Menocal, it is about the meshing of cultures, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, in early Spain. Also reading some old fashioned travel Books.The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron, written in the 30's about a journey to Afghanistan. A short Walk In the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby, great read and My Journey to Lhasa by Alexandra David Neel. and a grand old victorian ripping yarn, Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Bradon. And finally a wee Edwardian Gem by Ivy Compton Burnett, A House and it's Head.
   Thanks again to all, a very enjoyable thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:29 AM

"100 years of solitude bored me to tears."


                        Me too!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:27 AM

100 years of solitude bored me to tears. On the flip side, I liked the Tale of two cities, the Illiad, the Oddysey and Moby Dick.

Anyway, I just finished "Eaters of the Dead", and found it to be a very poor version of the Beowulf saga.