What are you reading now?

[muzzer]

Crossing to Safety, 1987, Wallace Stegner. He was wholly unknown to me before, a chance charity shop purchase. Two American couples meet in the early 1930s and become close friends, in different ways. This was his last novel, published when he was 78: it carries the four's story through until old age. I found it very moving.

So many authors I didn't even know existed. Still some time to read and learn.

Stegner is a very interesting writer. I enjoyed Crossing To Safety.

[muzzer]

This week has been all Muriel Spark. I picked up a paperback of her first novel The Comforters a couple of weeks ago in the charity shop, and that sent me back to all the others I have. In order. And then to a US first edition of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on eBay for a very reasonable £12.50. She’s quite the most amazong writer, and this seems to have freed me up a bit in the work I need to do on something I’m trying to write myself. But Spark is highly recommended to anyone who revels in comic humanity and the reality of everything everywhere being contained in every instant. Good and bad.

[smittims]

Well said, muzzer. I wonder if you also like Barbara Pym. I loved 'Jane and Prudence' and re-read it with pleasure. I liked 'A Glass of Blessings' too but haven't been tempted to re-read that yet, so I'm afraid that makes me a luke-warm Pym fan, unlike Philip Larkin who admired her work intensely.

I've just begun rereading 'The Sense of an Ending'. I'm not fond of recent novels, many if not most of which seem written by women for women to read so it was a relief to find in Julian Barnes a writer whose novels redress the balance a little by having something to offer the male reader.

[Petrushka]

I'm not fond of recent novels, many if not most of which seem written by women for women to read.

The listings of new issues I get emailed to me by Waterstones are so dominated by books of this kind that I now routinely ignore most female novelists and probably end up missing the odd one that is well written and offers genuine insight.

[eighthobstruction]

1619 Project : Nikole Hannah-Jones Edited essays - controversial in USA due to CRT debate....went straight to the top of the list as a book certain sections of US politicans etc wanted to ban in educational places....Excellent, pointing to the very many ways slaves are exploited/ suppressed- but in no way just a list of torture methods....then later the book evolves into unfurling the tendrils of modern US culture and the influence of black people on it....

[muzzer]

Well said, muzzer. I wonder if you also like Barbara Pym. I loved 'Jane and Prudence' and re-read it with pleasure. I liked 'A Glass of Blessings' too but haven't been tempted to re-read that yet, so I'm afraid that makes me a luke-warm Pym fan, unlike Philip Larkin who admired her work intensely.

I've just begun rereading 'The Sense of an Ending'. I'm not fond of recent novels, many if not most of which seem written by women for women to read so it was a relief to find in Julian Barnes a writer whose novels redress the balance a little by having something to offer the male reader.

Yes I’ve read quite a few Pyms, she’s very good. Agree also about Julian Barnes. I think he and Martin Amis were reconciled some time after their famous falling out. I hope so. MA dominating all thoughts this morning. He’s one of my heroes and like many others I’m devastated.

[DracoM]

Ann Cleeves 'Shetland' series.

[gradus]

'Cursed Kings', vol. 4of Jonathan Sumption's history of the Hundred Years War. There is no other word for it - Brilliant.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I’ve just reread Great Expectations as a tonic, following watching that appalling BBC alleged adaptation, which was a complete rewriting of the story, and an inept one at that…

[DracoM]

<< appalling BBC alleged adaptation, which was a complete rewriting of the story, and an inept one at that…..>>

Spot on!

[Serial_Apologist]

Not reading this as yet, but yesterday at the Goose Green Fair, for £2.50 I picked up a copy of Iain Sinclair's 2014 book "London Overground - A Day's Walk around the Ginger Line", parts of which were filmed by John Rogers at the time it was taking place and put on youtube; I am greatly looking forward to getting into this as soon as the warm sunny days arrive and I can do it while sunning myself on the lawn.

[vinteuil]

Iain Sinclair's 2014 book "London Overground - A Day's Walk around the Ginger Line"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/12/the-ginger-line-iain-sinclair-on-the-london-overground

.

[Serial_Apologist]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...don-overground

.

Huge thanks for finding this, vints. Sinclair has offered me a crucial salve these past three or so years - his insightfulness a connective route through present-day confusions to matters of lasting significance. And how I envy his writing skills!

[Ian Thumwood]

Ann Cleeves 'Shetland' series.

My Mum loved these books but I read about three of them and was always struck at just how much an improvement the TV series were. The characters seemed to be more fleshed out in the latter and new characters were added which gave the stories more depth. I always considered crime fiction to be the lowest form of novels but reading Reginald Hill for the first time many years ago made me revisit this judgement.

I would have to say that two crime writers really stand out for me. The Ian Rankin Rebus series are terrific and the excitement comes from the juxtaposition of various, familiar characters who are shaken up in a variety of contexts which make the stories really compelling. I suppose the Rebus books are more about office politics than anything else. I would then recommend Philip Kerr's exceptional Bernie Gunther series which are broadly set aound the period of the eaely thirties to late fifties and concern the impact of Nazi Germany on Europe - more often than not in scenarios which are not familiar such as the influence of countries such as Greece, Switzerland and Croatia. I really loved these books and it was unfortunate that PK sadly passed away just as his hero's fortunes started to improve. The books are very "noir" in character but there are a few which tip their hat towards other writers such as Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming. This is a series I really enjoyed.

[DracoM]

Shetland books came to me long after I'd seen telly versions, so was able to imagine those faces, scenery etc when reading.