What are you reading now?

[DracoM]

Re-reading much.

[muzzer]

Hitler in Vienna by Brigitte Hamann. Forensic and compelling in its account of what happened. I also have Postwar by Tony Judt and Mann’s The Magic Mountain close to hand, and Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism. I’m afraid there are no laughs anywhere but some sort of comfort.

[Petrushka]

Hitler in Vienna by Brigitte Hamann. Forensic and compelling in its account of what happened. I also have Postwar by Tony Judt and Mann’s The Magic Mountain close to hand, and Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism. I’m afraid there are no laughs anywhere but some sort of comfort.

The Hamann book is brilliant. I bought it when it came out and have read it twice. Still got Tony Judt to read along with so many others in a mountain-high pile that I despair of ever reaching the end before the Grim Reaper intervenes. And still I buy more!

Looking forward to Antony Beevor's latest book, out on May 26, on the Russian Revolution which I was hoping might be rush released.

[richardfinegold]

I started The Family Mashber by the Russian Jewish Author Der Nister. This was written in Yiddish and not translated into English until the 1980s. It takes place in Ukraine in the 1870s. So far it reminds me of Thomas Mann Buddenbrook as it may have been written by Isaac Bashevis Singer, although Nister was a far better writer than Singer, with much greater complexity of characterization than Singer ever achieved, but the same kaleidoscopic range of characters. Yiddish fiction tends to proceed in a non linear fashion and occasionally have some fantastic magical elements, something that always annoyed me about Singer. Nister was supposed to have been the doyen of Yiddish writers until he was killed by Stalin, and this is supposed to be his masterpiece so I am withholding judgment for now

[muzzer]

The Hamann book is brilliant. I bought it when it came out and have read it twice. Still got Tony Judt to read along with so many others in a mountain-high pile that I despair of ever reaching the end before the Grim Reaper intervenes. And still I buy more!

Looking forward to Antony Beevor's latest book, out on May 26, on the Russian Revolution which I was hoping might be rush released.

Beevor was on the news the other day and profoundly more authoritative than anyone else I’ve heard, unsurprisingly. But I’ve not read any of his books - which would you recommend? Likewise the to be read pile is too high. I hope younger relatives get the benefit some day.

[Petrushka]

Beevor was on the news the other day and profoundly more authoritative than anyone else I’ve heard, unsurprisingly. But I’ve not read any of his books - which would you recommend? Likewise the to be read pile is too high. I hope younger relatives get the benefit some day.

I have all of Beevor's books from Stalingrad on and have read al of them apart from his mammoth volume The Second World War which will need some time set aside. I would recommend all of them though my own favourite is his book on Arnhem, perhaps because a very long standing family friend was taken prisoner there. I knew the basic outline of the battle but was unaware of just how truly terrible it was. A real eye-opener.

[richardfinegold]

Beevor was on the news the other day and profoundly more authoritative than anyone else I’ve heard, unsurprisingly. But I’ve not read any of his books - which would you recommend? Likewise the to be read pile is too high. I hope younger relatives get the benefit some day.

His book on the Spanish Civil War is top notch, but his Stalingrad book is as good a place to start as any

[Asa Downs]

I started reading Barnaby Radge historical novel by Charles Dickens. This is Dickens' fifth novel and the first of his historical novels.

[teamsaint]

The Book of Trespass, Nick Hayes.

For the most part an enlightening look at property laws and how they enable control in our society, seen through the prism of the author trespassing on the property of the powerful.
Well written, though some aspects I find a little irritating , but well worth a read.

[gurnemanz]

I have all of Beevor's books from Stalingrad on and have read al of them apart from his mammoth volume The Second World War which will need some time set aside. I would recommend all of them though my own favourite is his book on Arnhem, perhaps because a very long standing family friend was taken prisoner there. I knew the basic outline of the battle but was unaware of just how truly terrible it was. A real eye-opener.

After the impressive Stalingrad I had a Beevor phase which took in D-Day , Ardennes, and Downfall of Berlin. All recommendable with many new insights into the nature of war, especially with attention given to the point of view of the ordinary soldier

[french frank]

Left out on a neighbour's wall to be collected by anyone interested: Who Touched Base in my Thought Shower?A Treasury of Unbearable Office Jargon, by Steven Poole.

I thought it would be an evening's light reading before being deposited in the street bookcupboard, but in fact it also has a discussion about the meaning and history of phrases like 'Drink the Kool-Aid', and indeed the eponymous 'Thought Shower' (a replacement for the thoughtless term 'brainstorm', considered insensitive towards people suffering from epilepsy … apparently). It also looks at the possible psychology of general "Office (or Business) Jargon" as serving a different purpose from other specialised jargons designed to explain helpfully technical issues for specialists. Office jargon which is borrowed from other technical contexts ('push the envelope', 'drill down', 'paradigm shift' and the recently queried here 'optics') spreads out into the general population where it isn't even readily understood and is therefore unhelpful.

[DracoM]

'Wuthering Heights' - having taught it, am reading now to discover embarrassingly how much of it I MIS-taught!

[johncorrigan]

'Wuthering Heights' - having taught it, am reading now to discover embarrassingly how much of it I MIS-taught!

From a similar area, Draco, I read 'The Gallows Pole' by Benjamin Myers about the coin clipping gang in West Yorkshire in the 1760s. It was a great read, very well written, about 'King' David Walton and the Cragg Vale Coiners, a ruthless band inhabiting the Calder Valley in the period before the arrival of the industrial age.
Also been reading John McGahern's 'Amongst Women', set in rural Rosscommon in Southern Ireland - brilliantly written, very claustrophobic novel. I think I'll read more of his, once I've recovered from this one.

[Pulcinella]

Recently finished
Pat Barker: The women of Troy
This is the second volume in her new trilogy (the first being The silence of the girls).
I didn't rate it as highly as some of the reviewers, but at least it finished at a point where I want to see how she carries on.

Also, rereading
James Michener: Poland

A Polish neighbour (on her own at Easter as her Spanish husband had taken their children to visit his parents in Spain) who came round for a meal said she didn't actually know much Polish history (I suspect that there was very much a Russian slant on the subject at the time when she was at school there) and I mentioned having enjoyed this very much when I read it many years ago, so I ordered two cheap s/h copies and we're both pitching in.

[Belgrove]

Recently finished
Pat Barker: The women of Troy
This is the second volume in her new trilogy (the first being The silence of the girls).
I didn't rate it as highly as some of the reviewers, but at least it finished at a point where I want to see how she carries on.

Just started this in preparation for visiting Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City, which is partially inspired by Euripides’ Hecuba which, I believe, Barker covers. The Greeks concealed inside the Trojan horse provides a tension filled opening to the book. The Silence of the Girls was excellent.