Reading in January, 2017
 

Started Lost in Time. Dunno author's name (too lazy to get up and find out). So far it's ok. It's about people and things that really made a difference in history, but have not received acknowledgement by history books or common acclaim.

Interesting premise; mediocre writing.


Also got a book on the Mitford sisters. I read the preface and am not sure I want to read about such narcissistic people.

The bio of Queen Elizabeth got all sentimental and shallow, the closer it got to the present.

I've just finished Hera Lindsay Bird by ...Hera Lindsay Bird. A fresh, startling approach to poetry & the red hot favourite to win the poetry section of the Ockhams (our poetry awards)

I'm still working my way through Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay. I chose it because of it's Yellow Knife setting. I agree with some reviews I've read that the pace is very slow, but I'mloving the beautiful use of language.

I haven't finished Late Nights on Air, but I'm back where I belong - reading Georgette Heyer! :science: Rereading The Black Sheep.

Love that one. Am reading a Ruth Rendell--can't recall title, but it's one of her more recent Wexford ones. She's good.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. Set in Ireland, 1860's. A young Irish Catholic girl has apparently survived without food for four months. Word gets around, and some of the townfolk are thinking miracle. A local committee hires an English nurse and a Catholic nun to watch the girl 24/7 for two weeks, to prove (one way or the other) whether she's taking nourishment.

The world-weary cynical English nurse thinks it's a scam perpetrated by the girl, or her family, or the local priest.

The book is interesting for the mystery -- is she eating? -- and for the look at rural Irish life in the mid-1800's (a few years after the famine), as well as a look at the state of medicine.

me, too :wow:

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War, by Robert J. Gordon.



What?

Finished The Wonder -- it was interesting enough, and I liked trying to figur out the mystery, but I can't recommend it. Well, not paying for it anyway. Library loan, fine. I'd have liked it better if Donoghue had fleshed out the characters, given us some reason for their actions. I guess ignorance and venality can be reasons, but I wanted more.

Starting The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock tonight. 1917, outlaw brothers, a man swindled out of his farm, "filled with impure laughs and family dysfunction" (per the blurb). I've read Pollock's other books and loved them. High hopes.

I was going to start Noonday by Pat Barker (a favorite) but it's the conclusion of a trilogy and it's been too long since I read the first two books, so I'll have to re-read those first.

I'm just staring on The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

A friend recommended The Name of the Wind and that was one of the best books I've read in a while. So far, this one is good, too.

that looks pretty good, actually. now & then I think we should have a separate thread for non-fiction but maybe not.

:shrug:

I started Call the Nurse by Somebody MacLeod about her experiences on a small Hebrides island in the 1970s as a district nurse. As a nurse, it's interesting, but you don't need a medical background to enjoy it. The writing is somewhat pedestrian (she can't foreshadow to save her life), but the characters are three dimensional and you do get the flavor of life in those islands. Kind of like a smaller All Creatures Great and Small.

It is my favourite of GH's post 1960 novels.

I'm back with Late Nights on Air. It will be going back on pause soon as I'm doing a group read of Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout. I read & enjoyed some of the Nero Wolfe series many years ago. I'm gad to get the chance to go back to the beginning.

The Heavenly Table was wonderful. It's very raw and earthy -- one character is a sanitation inspector whose job is to measure the shit level in outhouses, and there's a whorehouse where the ladies are allowed only five minutes between customers -- so there's some crudity. But it's also funny and warm and well-written. It would make a great Coen brothers movie.

The author -- Donald Ray Pollock -- is a neighbor to a Doper, which is how I found out about him. He should be famous but I don't think he is. He's published just two novels and a collection of short stories and they're just as warm and crude as this one.

Also reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton. It's really interesting but I wish I'd gotten the Kindle version. The book is heavy, so it's hard on the wrists, holding it.

Last night I started The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain. Switzerland, 1948, two boys, Anton and Gustav, meet in kindergarten. Anton is a child prodigy (pianist) in a well-to-do Jewish family. Gustav is poor -- his father has died and his mother is struggling to provide. Gustav's mother told Gustav that his father died trying to protect Jews. The novel is the story of the boys' friendship, and probably the reveal of what really happened to Gustav's father.

It's a real page-turner. I've read two other books by Tremain, Restoration and Music and Silence. The woman can write.

Dumped Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay. Clumsy writing, and on page 49, Tremblay starts a sentence with "Her and Sam --" What the fuck? That's pretty basic bad grammar right there.

:jaw:

I swear there are no copy editors anymore. :(

Finished The Gustav Sonata and really liked it. It's sort of about life choices -- sweet and sad but ultimately hopeful. Maybe it's really never too late.

Starting The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead tonight -- lots of positive hype, which I'll try to ignore. Hype is almost always wrong.