Down but not out

Hermy

The Road - Cormac McCarthy: Wow - what a book! First time reading McCarthy and I was blown away by how good this was. The hopelessness, the utter despair, the almost complete absence of anything normal, and how vividly he depicts it all with his sparse language. I look forward to reading more of his work.

Hermy

How It Is - Samuel Beckett: The third and final part of this short book has been hanging over me for the past few weeks but I finally got through it the other day. Despite it's brevity, being just short of 130 pages, it's probably his most challenging piece of prose fiction, made all the more challenging by the absence of punctuation. If anyone is interested here's an old clip of Nicol Williamson reading an extract from it as Beckett envisaged it. I think it's terrifying!

Hermy

A Slanting of the Sun - Donal Ryan: A very interesting collection of short stories from Ryan which, as well as themes and settings one might expect, also includes some much darker elements I wasn't expecting, and all of it is written impeccably.

Hermy

Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss: A wonderful charity shop find the other day and one I've wanted to read since it came out over twenty years ago. Though pitched as a tongue-in-cheek rallying call for the beleaguered punctuation mark, this book is nevertheless a very informative read on the origins of punctuation marks, how their use has evolved over time, and the rules governing their proper usage today.

Hermy

Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi: Another book club choice and one I really didn't expect to like as I'm not one for sagas but, especially in the early chapters, it really drew me in. Beginning in west Africa in the 1700's during the slave trade the author tells the stories of two families, generation by generation, tracing their lives right up to the present. At times the story felt a bit rushed and the jump from one generation to the next a bit jarring but overall I liked it.

Hermy

Nutshell - Ian McEwan: A curious tale of murder amid domestic disharmony told from the bizarre perspective of the as yet unborn sole witness to events. I really liked this book, the writing was excellent, and I got through it in a few days.

Hermy

The French Intifada - Andrew Hussey: I've always had a certain grá for France - maybe it's all the years I spent watching the Tour - but my recent discovery that my birth father is Breton coaxed me to buy some books about the country. Written by the same author as Paris: The Secret History (still tbr), this was a very readable book, a real eye opener about the roots of so much of the conflict in the Arab world and beyond, and like Homegoing, it pulled no punches in describing the absolute savagery and barbarism of the colonists.

Hermy

I started this thread a year ago so I'll stick with that date and, depending on which list I look at, I've either read 36 or 38 books in the past 12 months which I'm very happy about. The reading log has definitely given my reading a new impetus so thanks to any of you who take the time to read my ramblings. My favourite by far was Lessons by Ian McEwan, though I was also really struck by The Road and Yell Sam If You Still Can, and my least favourite was Dracula which was such a let down given its fame. I've given up on a number of books including Sophie's World which I may have read before and am just not that interested in rereading, Underworld by Don DeLillo which was so painfully slow, and a couple by Jonathan Franzen which did nothing for me. Most of the books I read in the past year were relatively short so I intend to get through some longer works this time round, including Cryptonomicon which I've just started, Ulysses which is long overdue given I'm forever listening to the RTE dramatisation of it in the car, and Wolf Hall and They All Love Jack which I'm determined to get back to and finish.