This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

I finished Charlotte Bronte's The Professor. The language used was a bit heavy and laid on a bit thick at times with about half of the conversations taking place in French but overall I enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised how good it was since it was her first novel and was only published after her death and the success of Jane Eyre.

I started The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and well, it's okay. I wasn't expecting it to be so silly really. It reads like a children's book with no depth so not what I was looking forward to. Perhaps the descriptions of the historic events he was a part of during his life will make up for it.

Finished Life After Life by Kate Atkinson ... really, really loved it. It made up for my disappointment with The Goldfinch!

Last night I read A Sixpenny Song by Jennifer Johnston - another delicious novella & truly beautiful writing as always.

Now it's on to Parnell - A Novel by Brian Cregan ... picked this up on impulse in the library.

Started And The Mountains Echoed last night. Loved Hosseini's other books so hope this will be as good.

Reading "Child 44,,. Remarkable piece of writing, 2008, by a chap who was

barely 30 yrs of age yet writes of 1950s Soviet times as though he had lived

through that era. Ridley Scott has considered basing a film on it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Not that far into it. Not sure yet. An old lady in a hospital that's about to close down is recounting her life story as the doctor charged with assessing who's sane enough to be released and who needs to be shipped to other hospitals keeps interrupting the story with his case notes. I'm assuming they'll start to overlap eventually but at the moment she's mid flow on some interesting story and his case notes but in and he's just moaning about his personal life. I'll stick with it.

I read that not long ago and had the same doubts as yourself when starting it. It begins slowly and even a bit incoherently I thought but it improved during the second half and turned out to be a decent story.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Not that far into it. Not sure yet. An old lady in a hospital that's about to close down is recounting her life story as the doctor charged with assessing who's sane enough to be released and who needs to be shipped to other hospitals keeps interrupting the story with his case notes. I'm assuming they'll start to overlap eventually but at the moment she's mid flow on some interesting story and his case notes but in and he's just moaning about his personal life. I'll stick with it.

I cant say I liked that book. but worth finishing.

College work has started up again so less reading for fun for me. boo hiss.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I've read a few since my last posting hither:

Harvest by Jim Crace

Booker nominated novel, told from the perspective of a villager in an anonymous agrarian society. Set in an unspecified Tudor-esque time, I loved this setting, I cared more about what was happening with the world than the characters within. Well written and paced, very good.
I read the American ebook edition of this and while I'm used to American spellings and they don't usually bother me, the use of plow/plowman for plough/ploughman kind of jars with the Ye Olde Englande feel of the novel. Also it reminded me of Homer Simpson as Mr. Plow
# Call Mr. Plow,
# That's my name,
# That name again Is Mr. Plow


In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

The linguist Arika Okrent explores the history of invented languages, from the more well known (like Esperanto and Klingon) and the less well known (Babm or aUI anyone?). There's some lighthearted moments here (like when Okrent meets Klingon enthusiasts and takes the proficency test) but the explanations of the concepts of the various languages and their construction are very clear and well written. I enjoyed this a lot and read it in a couple of sittings, I can see myself re-reading some of the chapters in the near future.

Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman

I've read a lot about the Gor books over the years so thought I may as well read one to get some context and see for myself what it's all about. Tarnsman... is the first of thirty-two or so books by Norman set on the planet of Gor. The controversy around this series relates to the female slaves of the planet. The slave issue is a major plot point of this novel but apparently it gets focused on a lot more as the series went on. People actually live the BDSM Gorean slave/master lifestyle in real life.

The novel itself is a fairly mediocre action adventure. The main protagonist, Tarl Cabot, is brought from Earth to Gor to become a warrior and to ride the gigantic war-birds of Gor (the titular Tarns). It's not particularly well written, Norman recaps a lot more than necessary and seems to think that spiders are insects. There is a rank called Ubar and these leaders are referred to using a instead of an eg. “Who could refuse anything to the daughter of a Ubar?”. Even disregarding the gender politics at play here there wasn't enough in this for me to read any more books in the series. Pulp.

I just started the novella/novelette Carmilla by Irish Gothic author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, good so far.

Finished And the Mountains Echoed. I liked it but it wasn't as good as his other two. It was very disjointed and felt like short stories rather than a novel, albeit with linked characters.

Starting Ghana Must Go by Taiye Salasi.

Two that I've read since last posting.

'After the Reich: From the Liberation of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift' by Giles MacDonogh.
An excellent account of life in occupied Germany and the land it lost with losing WWII. Lots of 1st hand accounts.
Its well divided into life under each occupier, Britain, America, Soviet Union and France and the day to day difficulties of foraging for food and shelter experienced by German civilians as well as the difficulties faced by displaced persons trying to return home.
Also examines the problems faced by the Allies in the denazification of Germany, especially as the wartime alliance fell apart.
A really well written account over all.


'Street Without Joy: The Frence debacle in Indochina' by Bernard B. Fall
A first hand account by a French journalist on the defeat of the French in Vietnam in 1954.
The prologue states that this book should have been mandatory reading for US leaders as they escalated their operations after the French defeat. Very interesting to see how the US made many of the same mistakes and had almost identical problems with terrain and logistics which nullified their advantage in what what was a war without fronts