What are you currently reading?

[Brian]

I just finished

Death of a Hollow Man
Caroline Graham

This is a Barnaby novel. Midsomer is not mentioned but these are the source of Midsomer Murders.

This book is terrible. Terrible.

Ooh, curious. We are watching Midsomer on Netflix and loving almost every minute (that one about crop circles was dodgy...). I have no familiarity with the original novels. Are the TV adaptations such a huge improvement??

[Ken B]

Ooh, curious. We are watching Midsomer on Netflix and loving almost every minute (that one about crop circles was dodgy...). I have no familiarity with the original novels. Are the TV adaptations such a huge improvement??

I watched some of the early seasons and liked them (I am told they have fallen off in later years). They are somewhat different from the books based on this one. The TV series is a perfect embodiment of "Mayhem Parva". I think there are only 6 or 7 books so the series became independent.
There is no Midsomer in the books, just Causton. Troy is a fat homophobic sexist looking for a chance to cheat on his wife. There was no murder until more than a third into the book, but in the show bodies drop like rain.

[Artem]

Great collection of short stories by Lucia Berlin. Fans of Raymond Carver style may enjoy her writing.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

[SimonNZ]

Knocked off this quickie:



...and was mostly disappointed. Despite being ostensibly set after the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war It reads like something Le Carre had in a drawer since the mid sixties with no change in the depiction of technology or spycraft.

[Ken B]

So better than average for him then.

[SimonNZ]

So better than average for him then.

Heh. Its been a long time since I read his two famous ones, but the other couple of his I've read in recent years seemed slight and easily forgotten.

I did, however, like his collection of miscellaneous nonfiction The Pigeon Tunnel - especially the long interview with Kim Philby's boss (his British one, that is).

[NikF4]

Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

When mentioning I was going to read this I was asked to post my thoughts

I believe it was worth reading. I'm not going to mention motifs or symbols or morality tales. Instead, I'll highlight the accurate insight into human nature. Usually I regret having to read a translation of a book in the language other than it was originally written, but in this instance the message is still clear. Sometimes people will fuck with - or simply fuck - someone just because they can. Dress it up as grand as you like, but it's as straightforward as that. So despite the way seduction is being presented here as a game there's also reward for those well informed and mature enough to see a clearer picture of what's going on. For others lacking in life experience (or personal honesty) it might be reduced to a series of 'wonderfully wicked!' or 'delightfully devilish!' incidents relatable only within a comfortable soap opera style frame of reference. Definitely for adults. Definitely not for children of any age.

[NikF4]

Tonight on the train I will be (re?)reading -

[SimonNZ]

Finished



Not the best Murakami, not the worst. But I enjoy his variations on familiar themes, even if this seems like only two thirds of a book he just ran out of ideas on and wrapped up quickly.


Started:

[Jo498]

Knocked off this quickie:



...and was mostly disappointed. Despite being ostensibly set after the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war It reads like something Le Carre had in a drawer since the mid sixties with no change in the depiction of technology or spycraft.

I have read only a few Le Carré altogether but one pretty good post-cold war (although more precisely it does contain episodes from the cold war era) is "Absolute friends". At least to me it did not read like a recycled sixties plot.

[SimonNZ]

I have read only a few Le Carré altogether but one pretty good post-cold war (although more precisely it does contain episodes from the cold war era) is "Absolute friends". At least to me it did not read like a recycled sixties plot.

i haven't read that one, but will give it a chance if it comes my way. Thanks.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Started reading Hamlet in original English although in an edition with footnotes explaining obsolete words, sentences and sayings. Thus the reading is slow but also very rewarding.

[Ken B]

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood Of 1927
John M Barry

So far a fascinating book. I read Barry's book on Roger Williams, which was also excellent.

The Axeman's Jazz
Ray Celestin
A novel about a real series of murders in New Orleans in 1919

[StarThrower62]

The Mind's I by Daniel Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The Eighth day, Thorton Wilder



I don't know where I found this one. A sort of murder mystery that takes place in an early 20th century mining town in the central U.S. Along the way there are a lot of philosophical and cultural musings. A good book, but more ponderous than I was expecting.

[LKB]

Rereading Ringworld by Larry Niven.

As entertaining as l remember from the first time around, a few decades ago.

" I have a variable sword ",

LKB

[André]

A vacation trip to the US wouldn't be complete without a book. John Grisham's The Whistler will be in my suitcase.

[Ken B]

A very interesting article about one man's religious conversion. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/why-i-became-muslim
An antidote to Woke.

[aligreto]

Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point

This is a re-read after many years. I cannot remember how I got on the first time, even tough I read quite a lot of his novels when I was a young man. This time around, however, I found it tough going. Perhaps as one grows older one gets impatient when a plot or character development is slow and tedious?