What are you reading now?

[richardfinegold]

Tevot has now caught up with the 21st Century and has availed himself of a Kindle

Finished "The Tragedy of Liberation" by Frank Dikotter which chronicles the establishment of The People's Republic of China up to 1957. Unsurprisingly many in China soon became disillusioned by what went on...

While I'm persuaded by the book, I found it more anecdotal and indeed polemical than Dikotter's earlier "Mao's Great Famine" which made powerfully objective use of official records to detail what went on between 1958 and 1962.

Am currently reading Max Hastings' "Catastrophe" mentioned in other threads about The Great War. A gripping read which debunks many of the myths about 1914 - and deeply moving too in its even handedness about the human cost of war. Highly recommended.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

I really enjoyed "Catastrophe". I thought that Hastings critique of the British Expeditionary Force to be particularly devastating.
I hope you enjoy your Kindle. I am using the Kindle App on my ipad.

You may enjoy reading "The Private Life Of Chairman Mao" which was written by Mao's Personal Physician. He had relocated to a Chicago suburb and I met him a book signing. A few days later he died suddenly. He had looked in fine fettle during the signing; I always wondered if some Chinese Secret Police had
spiked his Chai tea that was by his side. Anyway, the book covers Mao's years in power from a unique vantage point. His chapters on the famine and the Cultural Revolution are heartbreaking.

[johnb]

I'm halfway through the second of 3 books that I wasn't aware we had here at home. They are all by J.L.Carr and signed by him in two cases. Apparently my wife's book club read one of them and someone wrote to him expressing appreciation and unexpectedly back came several signed copies so we have two of them. Not knowing any of this I saw "A Month in the Country" on the shelf and remembered seeing the film probably on the box ( harmless, slightly mushy) and thought I'd give it a go. I found it a delight and suddenly realised that a reference to Chalford was significant as quite by chance we are off to that very place this Friday to see its 16th century wall paintings among other treasures. I'm in the middle of "Harpole and Foxberrow, Publishers" and looking forward to "What Hetty Did" especially having glimpsed a passage on the first page "But it was only a sad little band of CND Ban-the-Bomb marchers trudging past, doggedly headed toward the American missile base". Yes, J.L.Carr is all heart.

I discovered J.L.Carr via his delightful, quietly moving and rather special novel "A Month in the Country" which a friend lent me. This was some years before the film came out (for many years I avoided seeing the film) and I proceeded to fall in love with this delightfully quirky author's books.

Another friend used to work in a small independent bookshop and she told me that when they ordered J.L.Carr's books from The Quince Tree Press (the small publishing business that J.L.Carr' established) the invoices were hand written, presumably by the man himself.

If anyone is interested buying any of J.L. Carr's novels, do try to get hold of the Quince Tree Press versions rather than the much poorer quality Penguin, etc.

[Richard Tarleton]

I discovered J.L.Carr

I discovered him, ages ago, when The Harpole Report was a Book at Bedtime, but didn't get round to reading them until relatively recently. That is the novel where Mr Harpole and the redoubtable Miss Foxberrow first meet, and is told in correspondence form - hilarious. The reader - it may have been Martin Jarvis - did all the voices to perfection.

[Ockeghem's Razor]

"The Beginner's Guide to Chinese Calligraphy" by Yi Yuan and Xiong Mingxiang. I bought some equipment (brushes, inkstones etc) at the Ming exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and this will be my autumn/winter adventure.

[amateur51]

"The Beginner's Guide to Chinese Calligraphy" by Yi Yuan and Xiong Mingxiang. I bought some equipment (brushes, inkstones etc) at the Ming exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and this will be my autumn/winter adventure.

Tremendously impressed Ocky, I await your progress bulletins with eagerness

[Barbirollians]

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca WEst - extraordinarily powerful short novel from 1918 .

[Ockeghem's Razor]

"Love From Nancy" letters of Nancy Mitford edited by Charlotte Mosley. Perfectly heavenly.

[teamsaint]

Anybody read any of Olive Moore's four books?

Very well thought of, apparently, and the authors life is something of a mystery.

[verismissimo]

I've had various of Alan Moorehead's books for years and just got around to reading some of them. Eclipse first - eye witness account of WW2 from Sicily to Germany. He writes very vividly.

[johnb]

"The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising" by Patrick Cockburn (the highly regarded middle east journalist), published by, and seemingly only available from, OR Books.

This was published only very recently and surveys the development on ISIS in Syria and Iraq and the furtile ground it found in those countries; the roles of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in supporting jahadi movements; how Saudi Arabia has supported and financed the spread of the fundamentalist, puritanical and divisive Wahhabism throughout the Muslim world and has given financial support to al-Qa'ida, etc; how the US and UK have turned a blind eye to SA's and Pakistan's baleful activities, etc.

Only a 144 page booklet but very worth reading in order to get an overview of the subject.

An excerpt from the first chapter (with a specially written introduction) can be found here.

[verismissimo]

I'm greatly enjoying Misia by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale. The life of Misia Sert - pupil of Faure, close friend of Diaghilev, arbiter of taste in Paris for several decades, main model for Proust's Mme Verdurin.

[Beef Oven!]

The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain

[aeolium]

I've nearly finished Vasily Grossman's massive Life and Fate, almost certainly modelled on War and Peace but centred around the battle for Stalingrad. It's very impressive, with a huge gallery of characters. It was suppressed by the Soviet authorities when he submitted it for publication in 1959 and he died in 1964 not knowing whether it would ever be published.

About to start Return of a King by William Dalrymple, about Britain's first, doomed imperial foray into Afghanistan in 1839-42.

[amateur51]

The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain

"Look inside" it says .. no chance ... so much for transparency.

Care to give us your Top 10 highlights from this worthy leaflet Beefers?

[Beef Oven!]

I've nearly finished Vasily Grossman's massive Life and Fate, almost certainly modelled on War and Peace but centred around the battle for Stalingrad. It's very impressive, with a huge gallery of characters. It was suppressed by the Soviet authorities when he submitted it for publication in 1959 and he died in 1964 not knowing whether it would ever be published.

About to start Return of a King by William Dalrymple, about Britain's first, doomed imperial foray into Afghanistan in 1839-42.

Coincidentally, I'm about to start reading William Dalrymple's ''William Hill: The Man and the Business''. Looking forward to D's take on one of England's most successful working class entrepreneurs.