RugbyRebels

Just finished "The Sunshine Cruise Company" by John Niven - entertaining.

paddy no 11 wrote:Primo Levi - If this is a man, the truce

First hand account of the concentration camp, Levi doesnt get overly emotionally involved which makes it bearable I guess, one or two of the scenes where people get marched off to their death are just despairing. I was frozen the whole time reading it, not sure id have lasted a day. The second have the truce was more intriguing and enjoyable to read

I first read this about 35 years ago, and it left a lasting impression on me. What a wonderful man who died in 1987, but left a great legacy

Always love Tinker Tailor and the Constant Gardener, the best Le Carre for me.

Just finished the Zanzibar Chest which is a biography by a Kenyan journalist of British descent who covered Africa for Reuters. I find the motivation of journalists and stringers fascinating so I really enjoyed it but if you've any interest in Africa it's worth a look. He can write well too.

About to start the new Sebag Montefiore book on the Romanov's. Anyone tried it, it's a hefty tombe but looking forward to it. Young Stalin was excellent.

David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks. This was long-listed for the Booker in 2014 and I can see why; it is beautifully written. My problem is that I pick up on the idea of reading a book and seldom read the reviews beforehand. Had I done so, I would have known that The Bone Clocks was not going to be one for me. The 1st section was a little difficult to get to grips with; dealing with a runaway 16-year old girl in the 1st person, it was impossible for me to gain any empathy. This was followed by 2 extremely engrossing chapters that served to draw me so deep into the book that when I bumped into the mammoth and utterly weird middle chunk I had to press on despite being baffled by the fantastical nonsense that was being spewed out of every paragraph. I am glad I did, as the final chapter is worth reading in itself - a terrifying dystopic vision of just how f*cked up things might become if we keep on burning up the planet.

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks. This was long-listed for the Booker in 2014 and I can see why; it is beautifully written. My problem is that I pick up on the idea of reading a book and seldom read the reviews beforehand. Had I done so, I would have known that The Bone Clocks was not going to be one for me. The 1st section was a little difficult to get to grips with; dealing with a runaway 16-year old girl in the 1st person, it was impossible for me to gain any empathy. This was followed by 2 extremely engrossing chapters that served to draw me so deep into the book that when I bumped into the mammoth and utterly weird middle chunk I had to press on despite being baffled by the fantastical nonsense that was being spewed out of every paragraph. I am glad I did, as the final chapter is worth reading in itself - a terrifying dystopic vision of just how f*cked up things might become if we keep on burning up the planet.

Sounds a good read

UKHamlet wrote:Sounds a good read

You'd probably enjoy it, ye weird ballix!

Patrick Modiano's Suspended Sentences. Once a year I pick up a book judged entirely on its cover and this year I was grabbed by a cover proclaiming that an author that I had never heard of had been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2014. Hardly surprising since most of the English speaking world had never heard of him until he was recognised by the Nobel Prize committee and little of his work had been translated previously into English. Thankfully this has now been rectified and Suspended Sentences is a true gem. The book brings together 3 novellas, though they are linked and told in an autobiographical style that joins them in a compelling whole. The prose (Which the notes assure us is accurately and brilliantly translated by Mark Polizzotti) is spare but powerfully evocative. If, like me, you know Paris a little you will enjoy the landmarks; if you know Paris well (I suspect many of you will know it better than me) then it will be a real delight.

If you want something different and something to gently stretch your mind, give this a go. Highly recommended.

Max Caulfield's The Easter Rebellion. Published in time for the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Caulfield's readable account has stood the test of time well and remains one of the most lucid and accessible blow-by-blow reconstructions of the fighting during Easter week in Dublin 1916.

There are 1 or 2 niggling details that detract from the authenticity of the book; it is difficult to believe that tired, hungry, desperate rebels knelt in prayer quite so often and some of Caulfield's language suggests that the numbers killed in individual engagements were far higher than the facts portray. However, by far the greatest weakness with the book is revealed by a study of the bibliography. While Caulfield interviewed 49 former insurgents and 67 officers and men of the English regiments who fought, not 1 officer or soldier of an Irish regiment of the British Army was consulted. This is perhaps understandable given the prejudices that prevailed in Ireland towards former soldiers of the British Army at the time of Caulfield's research, but given that the first 2 days of fighting were almost wholly between Irishmen on both sides and that some 40% of the British Army's killed during Easter Week were serving in its Irish regiments, this can only be viewed today as a stark absence of balance.

Still worth a read - if only to put the event into the context of the far greater horrors that were being fought out in France and Flanders.

Javier Marías' When I Was Mortal. A cracking collection of 12 short stories, all involving death and more than 1 or 2 of them displaying an unusual prejudice towards men who wear cuff-links!

Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman. Slightly surprised that no one got round to this last year, after its publication in a welter of publicity. Perhaps, as with me, people were put off by the publicity and the rumours of slaying of sacred cows. Having 1st read To Kill a Mockingbird much later in life than most, it has never had the profound effect on me that it would appear to have had on many and I do not hold any of the characters on pedestals. Even if I had, they belong to Harper Lee's imagination and she was entitled to do with them as she wished. Having said this, I do not believe there is any lack of continuity between Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. The whole premise of Watchman is to explore the agony Scout must go through to finally grow up and emerge from the shadow of her father's conscience. How better to get this across than forcing the reader to go through the same process? Lee (Or Truman Capote if you believe the rumours) has done this superbly.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which the youngest Wildgosling bought me for Christmas. I'd recommend giving it a go, particularly if you enjoyed Mockingbird.

I wish I knew how to read.

Michael Foy and Brian Barton's The Easter Rising. Written by a former school teacher at Methodist College Belfast and a former pupil of the college, this is an accessible history that will find traction with secondary school audiences. Scholarly, yes; but it does not bring nearly the same academic rigour as Townshend or even Caulfield.

On the positive side, it presents the key events of the Rising in handy chapters dealing with each of the rebel positions in turn. This offers a degree of clarity that the day-by-day narratives followed by other histories do not (Particularly for one who is unfamiliar with the geography of early 20th Century Dublin).

On the negative, in striving for balance and impartiality, the authors have lost much of the brutality and horror and avoided the growing debates that surround the Rising and its place in Irish history.

A readable introduction, but far from being the 'standard work' that its endorsements suggest. That's enough for me - no more Easter Rising for a while.

Kate Atkinson Case Histories.

Unusually for me I didn't finish it. I cannot understand why this is so highly rated. Meandering story which takes over 60 pages to introduce our hero, a complete lack of likeable people (apart from the hero I suppose), which isn't a bad thing by itself, but still. The first three chapters go into huge detail about the lives of the people who are affected by the crimes. Given I don't know who the hero is by this point it just seems a pointless 'aren't I clever' device. I felt it would have worked better if we had our hero, then slowly introduced the other elements as he discovers them. Far too much tell and not enough show. Gave up at about page 140, so if you've read it and it becomes remarkably and significantly better in the second half please let me know so I can finish it whilst its still fresh.

If you've not read, don't feckng bother.

Laurent Binet's HHhH. The story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, this is the Prix Goncourt winner for a first novel in 2012, and an original and compelling work of historical fiction. Highly recommended.

Numbers wrote:Just finished "The Sunshine Cruise Company" by John Niven - entertaining.

I've not got to that yet but have read a lot of his stuff. All very funny.
He did try his hand at a thriller called Cold Hands under the name John J Niven which was hugely predictable. Irvine Welsh called it the most cleverly constructed thriller he had ever read. It don't know what (or how much?) he was on when he wrote that. He could just have read only one thriller I suppose.

And for something completely different I read How England Made the English by Harry Mount - 'Englishness' is simply an accident of geography and weather it says. Very interesting even if you aren't English.

onlynameleft wrote:

Numbers wrote:Just finished "The Sunshine Cruise Company" by John Niven - entertaining.

I've not got to that yet but have read a lot of his stuff. All very funny.
He did try his hand at a thriller called Cold Hands under the name John J Niven which was hugely predictable. Irvine Welsh called it the most cleverly constructed thriller he had ever read. It don't know what (or how much?) he was on when he wrote that. He could just have read only one thriller I suppose.

And for something completely different I read How England Made the English by Harry Mount - 'Englishness' is simply an accident of geography and weather it says. Very interesting even if you aren't English.

Agreed, if you're going to have a whodunnit it's best to have a few more characters who could possibly have committed the crime, I had the neighbour pegged from the first 15 pages as she was the only person who wasn't direct family and he made it obvious, especially when he was saying about how they found her accent slightly off, what with the gory ending I could see it being made into another formulaic Hollywood film .

Was given Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane for Christmas. Just got round to reading it now. Fantastic and important. If you don't know what 'grimlins' are, then this is the book for you.

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:Laurent Binet's HHhH. The story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, this is the Prix Goncourt winner for a first novel in 2012, and an original and compelling work of historical fiction. Highly recommended.

I thought so too. Essential reading for anyone visiting Prague. I wish I'd read it before I went.

Regeneration - Didn't realise how much of the story was non fiction which definitely didn't help. Loved it for the first 50 pages but somehow it didn't stay that way not sure why. Some of the side characters stories were wrapped up too quickly and there stories were more interesting than the two main protagonists


Struggling through midnights children at the moment

Just finished Dark Eden by Chris Beckett. Good read, engaging and fast paced, good characterisation and commentary on the nature of individuals in a society. Its sold as a sci-fi novel, but I feel it has more in common with traditional fantasy fiction tbh.

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Gerald F Linderman's Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War. Not entirely sure the title of this book is right as it doesn't so much tell of the experience of combat, but rather examine how that experience shaped the attitudes of the early volunteers. It is an interesting study that will appeal not only to the so-called civil war buff, but to anyone with an interest in what motivates a soldier to fight.

I think I've earned myself a bit of Graham Greene, now.

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:Gerald F Linderman's Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War. Not entirely sure the title of this book is right as it doesn't so much tell of the experience of combat, but rather examine how that experience shaped the attitudes of the early volunteers. It is an interesting study that will appeal not only to the so-called civil war buff, but to anyone with an interest in what motivates a soldier to fight.

I think I've earned myself a bit of Graham Greene, now.

Which one?

Numbers wrote:

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:I think I've earned myself a bit of Graham Greene, now.

Which one?

Brighton Rock

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:

Numbers wrote:

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:I think I've earned myself a bit of Graham Greene, now.

Which one?

Brighton Rock

Nice, good book, the film is very true to it.

Numbers wrote:

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:

Numbers wrote:
Which one?

Brighton Rock

Nice, good book, the film is very true to it.

Seen both of the films so no real expectation of surprises along the way, but already the story is enriched by Greene's brilliant prose.