What are you reading now?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • muzzer
    Full Member
    • Nov 2013
    • 1190

    Thanks I'll check out the webchat. The thing about her books is they're all at least slightly off the wall one way or another. I read several many many years ago and thought a little went a long way, but on reading Wise Children recently was amazed at how inventive she is and with no respect for limitations of genre. So she might not be for you at all!

    Comment

    • vinteuil
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 12765

      Originally posted by Stanfordian View Post
      Sorry, but V.C., K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. was his title! Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was a professional soldier who rose to rank of Lieutenant-General. His V.C. and D.S.O., and was mentioned in dispatched six times, all examples of his bravery. He fought in the Boer War and both World Wars. "He was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip and ear; survived two plane crashes; tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and tore off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them." He lost an eye and had a hand amputated and that was before he escaped from prison in Italy in WW2.
      ... and he married Countess Friederike Maria Karoline Henriette Rosa Sabina Franziska Fugger von Babenhausen .

      .

      Comment

      • Stanfordian
        Full Member
        • Dec 2010
        • 9308

        Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
        ... and he married Countess Friederike Maria Karoline Henriette Rosa Sabina Franziska Fugger von Babenhausen .

        .
        That will be in too! After all it is an autobiography.
        Last edited by Stanfordian; 18-06-18, 11:21.

        Comment

        • Pianorak
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 3127

          Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
          Single and Single another version of "a son's anguished relations with his father" [Adam Sisman] previously explored in A Perfect Spy....
          S & S a recent Kindle download. Is it as good as A Perfect Spy? Currently reading Der Stechlin by Theodor Fontane, to be followed by "L'Adultera".
          My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)

          Comment

          • DracoM
            Host
            • Mar 2007
            • 12955

            No: A Perfect Spy is better IMO.

            Comment

            • vinteuil
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 12765

              .

              Wilhelm Raabe : Stopfkuchen. In translation ("Tubby Schaumann: A Tale of Murder and the High Seas"). How I wish I had acquired German when I was young! Sixty six is too old to learn German...

              I love Raabe. Far too little available in English; Stopfkuchen a gloriously frustrating tale with an unreliable narrator and various long-winded and digressionary characters - but when you reach the dénouement you see how it all makes sense. In the same volume (Wilhelm Raabe, Novels, The German Library, Continuum publishers) the lovely Horacker.










              .
              Last edited by vinteuil; 18-06-18, 15:54.

              Comment

              • Richard Tarleton

                Originally posted by DracoM View Post
                No: A Perfect Spy is better IMO.
                Among his 3 or 4 best (IMO, of course )

                Comment

                • Conchis
                  Banned
                  • Jun 2014
                  • 2396

                  My weekend reading was this:



                  Who remembers Robert Shaw, these days? Not many, I'd hazard a guess, though Jaws and From Russia With Love are still watched. His parallel career as a novelist and playwright seems to have been completely forgotten. Has anyone on here read any of his novels?

                  Comment

                  • verismissimo
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 2957

                    Originally posted by Conchis View Post
                    My weekend reading was this:



                    Who remembers Robert Shaw, these days? Not many, I'd hazard a guess, though Jaws and From Russia With Love are still watched. His parallel career as a novelist and playwright seems to have been completely forgotten. Has anyone on here read any of his novels?
                    I walked past him once at a test match at Lords. Such charisma!

                    Comment

                    • Richard Barrett
                      Guest
                      • Jan 2016
                      • 6259

                      Current reading is The Sea by John Banville, the first of his books I've read. I'm looking forward to reading more, even though I haven't finished this one yet. What a beautiful and subtle prose style he has, owing much to Beckett to be sure, but still much more individual and affecting on the level of just the texture of words and sentences than most contemporary fiction I've come across, while never lapsing into empty virtuosity like some.

                      Comment

                      • Mal
                        Full Member
                        • Dec 2016
                        • 892

                        Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post
                        Current reading is The Sea by John Banville, the first of his books I've read. I'm looking forward to reading more, even though I haven't finished this one yet. What a beautiful and subtle prose style he has, owing much to Beckett to be sure, but still much more individual and affecting on the level of just the texture of words and sentences than most contemporary fiction I've come across, while never lapsing into empty virtuosity like some.
                        I greatly admired this Booker winner as well, Upstate by James Wood has something of a similar feel, with an old chap visiting an adult daughter and reliving his past, the prose is perhaps as not as beautiful as Banville, but it's very good, and is certainly not empty, it fizzes with philosophical ideas and observations on matters as disparate as town planning and cures for depression. But my favourite for soul-wrenching narrative and incantatory prose, at the moment, is Sebastian Barry, both Days Without End and The Temporary Gentleman.

                        Comment

                        • muzzer
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2013
                          • 1190

                          Robert Shaw - Had no idea, sounds fascinating.

                          Comment

                          • Constantbee
                            Full Member
                            • Jul 2017
                            • 504

                            Originally posted by Pianorak View Post
                            Currently reading Der Stechlin by Theodor Fontane, to be followed by "L'Adultera".
                            On my must read list, PR Very slow reading for me, I'm afraid, and not yet available in English translation A little publishing house called Angel Classics has been some excellent work translating some of the lesser known 19th Century novellas, including Fontane's Cecile, and some very welcome translations of little known Russian fiction. The winter project for me was ploughing through Theodor Storm: Paul the Puppeteer and Carsten the Trustee which I still think sounds better translated as Carsten the Steward, but ... oh well.
                            And the tune ends too soon for us all

                            Comment

                            • vinteuil
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 12765

                              Originally posted by Constantbee View Post
                              On my must read list, PR Very slow reading for me, I'm afraid, and not yet available in English translation A little publishing house called Angel Classics has been some excellent work translating some of the lesser known 19th Century novellas, including Fontane's Cecile, and some very welcome translations of little known Russian fiction. The winter project for me was ploughing through Theodor Storm: Paul the Puppeteer and Carsten the Trustee which I still think sounds better translated as Carsten the Steward, but ... oh well.
                              ... yes! Angel have been doing invaluable work. If you are into Storm, Angel Classics have done his masterpiece, The Dykemaster.



                              Angel also have some Stifter - also woefully under-represented in English translation :





                              .

                              Comment

                              • Constantbee
                                Full Member
                                • Jul 2017
                                • 504

                                Originally posted by vinteuil View Post

                                Angel also have some Stifter - also woefully under-represented in English translation :



                                .
                                Thank you for reminding me, vinteuil I have 'The Dykemaster' which I read in parallel with 'Der Schimmelreiter' from time to time for practice. A good tip btw for anybody trying to brush up old language skills. It's another title I don't like much. Can't think of anything better, though. It means 'The Rider on the Grey Horse' but that's a bit literal and bland. With apologies to Jim Morrison I might have translated it as 'The Rider on the Storm'
                                And the tune ends too soon for us all

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X