What are you reading now?

[richardfinegold]

John Updike.

Which book? He was quite prolific

[gradus]

Shorelines by Robert Jellicoe, an oral history gathered from the fishermen of Southwold.

[DracoM]

John Updike.

[smittims]

I'm afraid it's the sort of book I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, as I can smell a mile off that it's a feminist rant first and a book about music very much second, just to get people to read it. I hear radio programmes in the same vein every now and then, all repeating the same worn-out fallacies: 'women have always been silenced ': well, clearly the author has never been to Salford!. 'We're not used to women speaking out and having strong opinions'. Well. I am, I've had bucketloads of that since 1952!

Incidentally, Strozzi and co. are often played on Through the Night as well as 'Afternoon Concert', and while we don;t hear as much Weir and Bingham as we used to, they're still very much around.

I'm re-reading La Dame aux Camelias before it gets banned as a 'misogynist' book.

[Ian Thumwood]

I picked up Anna Beer's book "Sounds and Sweet airs" which is an account of the lives of various female composers. I think most people in here love the idea of discovering the works of a forgotten musician /composer and getting into something that no one else seems to be aware of. This books seems to be the product of such a whim by the writer but, having read the first two chapters on Francesca Cuccini and Barbara Strozzi I am staggered by the fact that I was left with no idea whatsoever what their music sounded like. So far, I am finding the book to be a complete muddle and more fascinated by it's own feminist agenda.The actual music seems like an after-thought and the jumbled nature of the text makes these two chapters a nightmare as pieces of biographical writing.

I want to finish this book as it is something that interests me even though two composers I wanted to learn about (Emily Mayer and Louise Ferrenc) are only mentioned in passing. Chaminade is missed completely It is a wierd selection of composers with only two coming from the 20th century (no reference to Baciesizc! ) and only one example really being a truly "great" composer - Lili Boulanger. Judith Wier is mentioned in passing and there is nothing at all about Sally Beamish. I am perplexed and would have though that the limited circumstances for many female composers in 18th and 19th century would have rendered the subjects near identtical in their experiences. The reviews of Amazon not the absence of Hildegard of Bingen and I can't help feeling that a wider range of subjects would have made this a more interesting book.

So far I am finding this book to be a huge disappointment. Has anyone else read it? Female composers deserve something much better.

[richardfinegold]

The Collaborators, by Ian Buruma, whose The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany in Japan was a great read. The new one is fascinating

[Jonathan]

My second novel, a continuation of the first book, currently editing it. It will be published during the summer

[LMcD]

I've just started Mick Herron's 'The Secret Hours' and it shows every sign of being as wittily griping as everything else he's written.

[french frank]

I wondered whether this should be posted here or on the Pedants thread. When was the term 'spoiler' first coined? The OED's first record is 1982, with the phrase 'spoiler alert' - found "in a message posted on the Usenet newsgroup net.movies". But 'spoiler alert' suggests that the word spoiler already existed.

Anyway, I was re-reading The Murders in the Rue Morgue in the caff and it occurred to me that this cover picture (dating from an edition of 1919) of the small Penguin edition would be something of a "spoiler" considering that this is supposed to be an early mystery/detective story:



I rather liked Poe's laconic disavowal of any 'ingenuity', quoted in Wiki: "... where is the ingenuity in unraveling a web which you yourself... have woven for the express purpose of unraveling?"

[richardfinegold]

I am reading Prequel, by Rachel Maddow, a book about American Fascism in the 1930s. It’s meant to accompany a Podcast that she released earlier, but the book contains much material not covered by the podcast

[Pianorak]

Simon Raven: Alms for Oblivion. Needed some light relief after the Ancient Greeks and Persians beat the living daylights out of each other in Persian Fire by Tom Holland.

[smittims]

I've just started re-reading Orley Farm, perhaps my favourite Anthony Trollope novel. I find his characters so congenial I'm sorry to leave them at the end.

[Jonathan]

Many thanks! I now have a link to it (it's available as a paperback and a Kindle version too) - hope this works!

The Ventos Conspiracy 1: Solitude https://amzn.eu/d/6bxI0MK

[eighthobstruction]

Well done Jonathon....

[Jonathan]

Which is a mightily impressive thing to do. Any chance of a link - or a PM if it seems immodest to do so publicly?

Thank you HighlandDoughie! Yesterday I submitted the completed document for review by Amazon's editors, they say it will be live in the next 72 hours. Once it's available, I'll publish a link (as long as that's ok with the Hosts?)

The Kindle version will be out soon - probably next week.

Book 2 (it's a trilogy) will be out next year (it's essentially completely written, just needs a little tinkering) with book 3 following later