What Are You Reading the Week of 18 April 2015?
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1MDGentleReader
Text from Wikipedia
Alistair Stuart MacLean (Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacGill-Eain; 28 April 1922 – 2 February 1987)
was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. His works include The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra, and Where Eagles Dare – all three were made into popular films. He also wrote two novels under the pseudonym Ian Stuart.
Life
MacLean was the son of a Church of Scotland minister and learned English as a second language after his mother tongue, Scottish Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow but spent much of his childhood and youth in Daviot, ten miles south of Inverness. He was the third of four sons.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, serving in World War II with the ranks of Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. He was first assigned to PS Bournemouth Queen, a converted excursion ship fitted for anti-aircraft guns, on duty off the coasts of England and Scotland. Beginning in 1943, he served on HMS Royalist, a Dido-class light cruiser. There he saw action in 1943 in the Atlantic theatre, on two Arctic convoys and escorting carrier groups in operations against Tirpitz and other targets off the Norwegian coast. In 1944 he and the ship served in the Mediterranean theatre, as part of the invasion of southern France and in helping to sink blockade runners off Crete and bombard Milos in the Aegean. During this time MacLean may have been injured in a gunnery practice accident. In 1945, in the Far East theatre, MacLean and Royalist saw action escorting carrier groups in operations against Japanese targets in Burma, Malaya, and Sumatra. (MacLean's late-in-life claims that he was captured by the Japanese and tortured have been dismissed by both his son and his biographer as drunken ravings.) After the Japanese surrender, Royalist helped evacuate liberated POWs from Changi Prison in Singapore.
MacLean was released from the Royal Navy in 1946. He then studied English at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1953, and then worked as a school teacher in Rutherglen.
While a university student, MacLean began writing short stories for extra income, winning a competition in 1954 with the maritime story "Dileas". The publishing company Collins asked him for a novel and he responded with HMS Ulysses, based on his own war experiences, as well as credited insight from his brother Ian, a Master Mariner. The novel was a great success and MacLean was soon able to devote himself entirely to writing war stories, spy stories and other adventures.
In the early 1960s, MacLean published two novels under the pseudonym "Ian Stuart" in order to prove that the popularity of his books was due to their content rather than his name on the cover. They sold well, but MacLean made no attempt to change his writing style and his fans may easily have recognized him behind the Scottish pseudonym. MacLean's books eventually sold so well that he moved to Switzerland as a tax exile. From 1963–1966, he took a hiatus from writing to run a hotel business in England.
MacLean's later books were not as well received as the earlier publications and, in an attempt to keep his stories in keeping with the time, he sometimes lapsed into unduly improbable plots. He also struggled constantly with alcoholism, which eventually brought about his death in Munich in 1987. He is buried a few yards from Richard Burton in Céligny, Switzerland. He was married twice and had two sons by his first wife, as well as an adopted third son.
MacLean was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Glasgow in 1983.
Style
Compared to other thriller writers of the time, such as Ian Fleming, MacLean's books are exceptional in one way at least: they have an absence of sex and most are short on romance because MacLean thought that such diversions merely serve to slow down the action. Nor do the MacLean books resemble the later techno-thriller approach. Instead, he lets little hinder the flow of events in his books, making his heroes fight against seemingly unbeatable odds and often pushing them to the limits of their physical and mental endurance. MacLean's protagonists are usually calm, cynical men entirely devoted to their work and often carrying some kind of secret knowledge. A twist that he sometimes employs is that one of the hero's closest companions turns out a traitor.
Nature, especially the sea and the Arctic north, plays an important part in MacLean's stories, and he used a variety of exotic parts of the world as settings to his books. Only one of them, When Eight Bells Toll, is set in his native Scotland. MacLean's best books are often those in which he was able to make use of his own direct knowledge of warfare and seafaring, such as HMS Ulysses which is now considered a classic of naval fiction.
Stylistically, MacLean's novels can be broken down into four periods:
HMS Ulysses through to The Last Frontier. These four novels featured third-person narratives and a somewhat epic tone, and were mostly set during World War II. The Last Frontier contained overt philosophical and moral themes that were not well received. MacLean then switched gears to —
Night Without End through to Ice Station Zebra. These six novels (including two under Stuart) all featured first-person (and sometimes unreliable) narration laced with a dry, sardonic, self-deprecating humour, and were all set in contemporary times. These are MacLean's most intensely plotted tales, masterfully blending thriller and detective elements. MacLean then retired from writing for three years, returning with —
When Eight Bells Toll through to Bear Island, a varied collection of six novels that still maintained a generally high quality, with some books harking back to each of the first two periods but usually taking a more cinematic approach (not surprising since he began writing screenplays during this time). Finally —
The Way to Dusty Death to the end (twelve novels). There were no more first-person stories, and his prose is thought to have often sagged badly, with excessive dialogue, lazily described scenes, and under-developed characters. Some bore these faults more than others, and all the books sold reasonably well, but MacLean never regained his classic form.
Certain themes are repeated in virtually all of MacLean's novels. For example, they typically feature a male character who is depicted as physically and morally indestructible (for instance, Carrington in HMS Ulysses or Andrea in The Guns of Navarone); such characters are also often described as having an almost inhuman tolerance for alcohol consumption (such as the Count in The Last Frontier or Jablonsky in Fear Is the Key). MacLean was known to reuse plot devices, characterizations, and even specific phrases. For example, the description "huddled shapelessness of the dead" occurs in some form in several stories, while the villain, on realising that his death is imminent, has a face contorted into a "snarling rictus" (or wolfish grin) of terror. Names are often reused as well, with chief female characters being frequently named Mary, or a variation thereupon (Marie, Maria), while a number of MacLean's lead male characters are named John. His villains usually feature a coldly competent and ruthless mastermind paired with a hulking, brutishly powerful subordinate.
Force 10 from Navarone, MacLean's only sequel, picks up from where the film version of The Guns of Navarone leaves off, not his original novel. Otherwise MacLean eschewed inter-novel continuity, save for two minor instances of a character from one novel appearing in another – Colonel De Graaf from Puppet on a Chain reappeared in Floodgate, and Professor Benson from Goodbye California making a second appearance in Santorini.
MacLean's gravestone at the Vieux Cemetery in Céligny. He is buried a few paces away from Richard Burton's grave. The inscription reads "Come my friends 'tis not too late to seek a newer world."
Altogether, MacLean published 28 novels and a collection of short stories, as well as books about T. E. Lawrence and James Cook. There was confusion around MacLean's pseudonym "Ian Stuart". A thriller titled Snow on the Ben by "Ian Stuart" was published by Ward in 1961, the same year as The Dark Crusader, but this was actually by an English author – Ian Stuart (1927–1993), who also wrote as Malcolm Gray. MacLean used the pseudonym only once more (on The Satan Bug, 1962). Some reference works still list Snow on the Ben as a possible MacLean novel.
Many of MacLean's novels were made into films, but none completely captured the level of detail and the vividness of writing found in his best works such as Fear Is the Key; the two most artistically and commercially successful film adaptations were The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. MacLean wrote some screenplays, some of them based on his novels and others later novelized by other writers. MacLean wrote the novel and screenplay of Where Eagles Dare at the same time; in effect it was commissioned by Richard Burton, who wanted to make a "boy's own" type adventure film that he could take his son to see. The book and screenplay differ markedly in that, in the book, the Smith and Schaffer characters at times go out of their way not to kill anyone, whereas in the film they basically shoot anything that moves. In fact, the film contains Clint Eastwood's highest on-screen body count, as well as a far more laconic interpretation of the Schaffer character.
Around 1980, MacLean was commissioned by an American movie production company to write a series of story outlines to be subsequently produced as movies. He invented the fictitious United Nations Anti-Crime Organization (UNACO), and the books were later completed by others. Among these are Death Train by Alastair MacNeill and Hostage Tower by John Denis. "John Denis" was, in fact a pen name for John Edwards (former editor of the BBC That's Life programme) and his collaborator Denis Frost. Some of these works bear little resemblance to MacLean's, especially in their use of gratuitous sex and violence.
MacLean's influence on future adventure/thriller writers is somewhat hard to measure, due to the conventions and expected requirements of the genre changing.
After his death, the popularity of MacLean's work saw a decline, and, according to Amazon.com, as of 2006 none of his novels were in print in the US. However, most are currently still in print in paperback in the UK. In 2009 HarperCollins began reissuing 29 of his novels, with new covers.
A novel Krwawe pogranicze (Polish for "Bloody Borderland") was released in Poland in 1992, having allegedly been written under that title by Alistair MacLean in 1962; in fact, it was a novel by Tadeusz Kostecki, Droga powrotna Płowego Jima, "Fawn Jim's Return Way", which had been published in 1946 and almost forgotten by 1992.
What are some of your favorite thrillers?
What are you reading this week?
Alistair Stuart MacLean (Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacGill-Eain; 28 April 1922 – 2 February 1987)
Life
MacLean was the son of a Church of Scotland minister and learned English as a second language after his mother tongue, Scottish Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow but spent much of his childhood and youth in Daviot, ten miles south of Inverness. He was the third of four sons.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, serving in World War II with the ranks of Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. He was first assigned to PS Bournemouth Queen, a converted excursion ship fitted for anti-aircraft guns, on duty off the coasts of England and Scotland. Beginning in 1943, he served on HMS Royalist, a Dido-class light cruiser. There he saw action in 1943 in the Atlantic theatre, on two Arctic convoys and escorting carrier groups in operations against Tirpitz and other targets off the Norwegian coast. In 1944 he and the ship served in the Mediterranean theatre, as part of the invasion of southern France and in helping to sink blockade runners off Crete and bombard Milos in the Aegean. During this time MacLean may have been injured in a gunnery practice accident. In 1945, in the Far East theatre, MacLean and Royalist saw action escorting carrier groups in operations against Japanese targets in Burma, Malaya, and Sumatra. (MacLean's late-in-life claims that he was captured by the Japanese and tortured have been dismissed by both his son and his biographer as drunken ravings.) After the Japanese surrender, Royalist helped evacuate liberated POWs from Changi Prison in Singapore.
MacLean was released from the Royal Navy in 1946. He then studied English at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1953, and then worked as a school teacher in Rutherglen.
While a university student, MacLean began writing short stories for extra income, winning a competition in 1954 with the maritime story "Dileas". The publishing company Collins asked him for a novel and he responded with HMS Ulysses, based on his own war experiences, as well as credited insight from his brother Ian, a Master Mariner. The novel was a great success and MacLean was soon able to devote himself entirely to writing war stories, spy stories and other adventures.
In the early 1960s, MacLean published two novels under the pseudonym "Ian Stuart" in order to prove that the popularity of his books was due to their content rather than his name on the cover. They sold well, but MacLean made no attempt to change his writing style and his fans may easily have recognized him behind the Scottish pseudonym. MacLean's books eventually sold so well that he moved to Switzerland as a tax exile. From 1963–1966, he took a hiatus from writing to run a hotel business in England.
MacLean's later books were not as well received as the earlier publications and, in an attempt to keep his stories in keeping with the time, he sometimes lapsed into unduly improbable plots. He also struggled constantly with alcoholism, which eventually brought about his death in Munich in 1987. He is buried a few yards from Richard Burton in Céligny, Switzerland. He was married twice and had two sons by his first wife, as well as an adopted third son.
MacLean was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Glasgow in 1983.
Style
Compared to other thriller writers of the time, such as Ian Fleming, MacLean's books are exceptional in one way at least: they have an absence of sex and most are short on romance because MacLean thought that such diversions merely serve to slow down the action. Nor do the MacLean books resemble the later techno-thriller approach. Instead, he lets little hinder the flow of events in his books, making his heroes fight against seemingly unbeatable odds and often pushing them to the limits of their physical and mental endurance. MacLean's protagonists are usually calm, cynical men entirely devoted to their work and often carrying some kind of secret knowledge. A twist that he sometimes employs is that one of the hero's closest companions turns out a traitor.
Nature, especially the sea and the Arctic north, plays an important part in MacLean's stories, and he used a variety of exotic parts of the world as settings to his books. Only one of them, When Eight Bells Toll, is set in his native Scotland. MacLean's best books are often those in which he was able to make use of his own direct knowledge of warfare and seafaring, such as HMS Ulysses which is now considered a classic of naval fiction.
Stylistically, MacLean's novels can be broken down into four periods:
HMS Ulysses through to The Last Frontier. These four novels featured third-person narratives and a somewhat epic tone, and were mostly set during World War II. The Last Frontier contained overt philosophical and moral themes that were not well received. MacLean then switched gears to —
Night Without End through to Ice Station Zebra. These six novels (including two under Stuart) all featured first-person (and sometimes unreliable) narration laced with a dry, sardonic, self-deprecating humour, and were all set in contemporary times. These are MacLean's most intensely plotted tales, masterfully blending thriller and detective elements. MacLean then retired from writing for three years, returning with —
When Eight Bells Toll through to Bear Island, a varied collection of six novels that still maintained a generally high quality, with some books harking back to each of the first two periods but usually taking a more cinematic approach (not surprising since he began writing screenplays during this time). Finally —
The Way to Dusty Death to the end (twelve novels). There were no more first-person stories, and his prose is thought to have often sagged badly, with excessive dialogue, lazily described scenes, and under-developed characters. Some bore these faults more than others, and all the books sold reasonably well, but MacLean never regained his classic form.
Certain themes are repeated in virtually all of MacLean's novels. For example, they typically feature a male character who is depicted as physically and morally indestructible (for instance, Carrington in HMS Ulysses or Andrea in The Guns of Navarone); such characters are also often described as having an almost inhuman tolerance for alcohol consumption (such as the Count in The Last Frontier or Jablonsky in Fear Is the Key). MacLean was known to reuse plot devices, characterizations, and even specific phrases. For example, the description "huddled shapelessness of the dead" occurs in some form in several stories, while the villain, on realising that his death is imminent, has a face contorted into a "snarling rictus" (or wolfish grin) of terror. Names are often reused as well, with chief female characters being frequently named Mary, or a variation thereupon (Marie, Maria), while a number of MacLean's lead male characters are named John. His villains usually feature a coldly competent and ruthless mastermind paired with a hulking, brutishly powerful subordinate.
Force 10 from Navarone, MacLean's only sequel, picks up from where the film version of The Guns of Navarone leaves off, not his original novel. Otherwise MacLean eschewed inter-novel continuity, save for two minor instances of a character from one novel appearing in another – Colonel De Graaf from Puppet on a Chain reappeared in Floodgate, and Professor Benson from Goodbye California making a second appearance in Santorini.
MacLean's gravestone at the Vieux Cemetery in Céligny. He is buried a few paces away from Richard Burton's grave. The inscription reads "Come my friends 'tis not too late to seek a newer world."
Altogether, MacLean published 28 novels and a collection of short stories, as well as books about T. E. Lawrence and James Cook. There was confusion around MacLean's pseudonym "Ian Stuart". A thriller titled Snow on the Ben by "Ian Stuart" was published by Ward in 1961, the same year as The Dark Crusader, but this was actually by an English author – Ian Stuart (1927–1993), who also wrote as Malcolm Gray. MacLean used the pseudonym only once more (on The Satan Bug, 1962). Some reference works still list Snow on the Ben as a possible MacLean novel.
Many of MacLean's novels were made into films, but none completely captured the level of detail and the vividness of writing found in his best works such as Fear Is the Key; the two most artistically and commercially successful film adaptations were The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. MacLean wrote some screenplays, some of them based on his novels and others later novelized by other writers. MacLean wrote the novel and screenplay of Where Eagles Dare at the same time; in effect it was commissioned by Richard Burton, who wanted to make a "boy's own" type adventure film that he could take his son to see. The book and screenplay differ markedly in that, in the book, the Smith and Schaffer characters at times go out of their way not to kill anyone, whereas in the film they basically shoot anything that moves. In fact, the film contains Clint Eastwood's highest on-screen body count, as well as a far more laconic interpretation of the Schaffer character.
Around 1980, MacLean was commissioned by an American movie production company to write a series of story outlines to be subsequently produced as movies. He invented the fictitious United Nations Anti-Crime Organization (UNACO), and the books were later completed by others. Among these are Death Train by Alastair MacNeill and Hostage Tower by John Denis. "John Denis" was, in fact a pen name for John Edwards (former editor of the BBC That's Life programme) and his collaborator Denis Frost. Some of these works bear little resemblance to MacLean's, especially in their use of gratuitous sex and violence.
MacLean's influence on future adventure/thriller writers is somewhat hard to measure, due to the conventions and expected requirements of the genre changing.
After his death, the popularity of MacLean's work saw a decline, and, according to Amazon.com, as of 2006 none of his novels were in print in the US. However, most are currently still in print in paperback in the UK. In 2009 HarperCollins began reissuing 29 of his novels, with new covers.
A novel Krwawe pogranicze (Polish for "Bloody Borderland") was released in Poland in 1992, having allegedly been written under that title by Alistair MacLean in 1962; in fact, it was a novel by Tadeusz Kostecki, Droga powrotna Płowego Jima, "Fawn Jim's Return Way", which had been published in 1946 and almost forgotten by 1992.
What are some of your favorite thrillers?
What are you reading this week?
2rocketjk
As I mentioned last week, I finished Time of Hope, the first book in C.P. Snow's 14-novel cycle, "Strangers and Brothers." It's an insightful "coming of age" story that takes the protagonist through an impoverished childhood and into manhood as he struggles to make a mark in the British legal profession. The novel takes place in England, the Midlands and London, from just before WW 1 to just before WW 2. The story has its slow stretches, but overall has a lot to say about hope, ambition, disappointment and love.
I also tore through the delightful Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, Jimmy Breslin's account of the first season of the New York Mets, who set a record with 120 losses but along the way won the wild affection of New York City.
I have more in-depth reviews of both on my 50-Book Challenge thread. I also posted my review of the Breslin book up on the the book's work page.
Today I'll finally start Gulp by Mary Roach.
I also tore through the delightful Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, Jimmy Breslin's account of the first season of the New York Mets, who set a record with 120 losses but along the way won the wild affection of New York City.
I have more in-depth reviews of both on my 50-Book Challenge thread. I also posted my review of the Breslin book up on the the book's work page.
Today I'll finally start Gulp by Mary Roach.
3hemlokgang
I am readingRunaway Horses and listening to The Martian.
6Peace2
Interesting bio. I don't think I've ever actually read any of his books, although I'm pretty certain I've seen them around.
I'm currently listening to The Glass Room by Simon Mawer and most of my reading is focussed on Insurgent at the moment - this is a re-read from last year (I know that's not all that long ago - but we went to see the movie and there was all sorts in it that I didn't remember from the book - with good reason), so it's more of a read to compare with the movie than to find out what happens. Have been working extra hours (and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks by the looks of things) so reading for pleasure time has been somewhat more limited over the last week, unfortunately.
I'm currently listening to The Glass Room by Simon Mawer and most of my reading is focussed on Insurgent at the moment - this is a re-read from last year (I know that's not all that long ago - but we went to see the movie and there was all sorts in it that I didn't remember from the book - with good reason), so it's more of a read to compare with the movie than to find out what happens. Have been working extra hours (and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks by the looks of things) so reading for pleasure time has been somewhat more limited over the last week, unfortunately.
7Iudita
I am reading The Pearl that Broke its Shell and re-reading Tell the Wolves I'm Home for book club this week.
8Meredy
Still breathing out relief at having finished Me and Lee, I've made a good start on an interesting psychological thriller called Lexicon. I've also managed to post three overdue reviews (it's catch-up time, sigh), one of them an ER, and so I've begun my next ER book: Boston Strong. A wrong word choice on page 1 does not bode well.
9CarolynSchroeder
I finished It's So Easy, and other lies by Duff McKagan and loved it.
Now reading The Love of a Good Woman, stories by Alice Munro
Now reading The Love of a Good Woman, stories by Alice Munro
10NarratorLady
Finished opus #1 of Bitch in a Bonnet and heading for #2.
11benitastrnad
I am still reading Hellhound on His Trail and listening to Language of Flowers on my daily commute.
I read Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, and Force 10 from Navarone many years ago and thought they were wonderful thrillers. My favorite thriller for many years was Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy but that was easily replaced by Steig Larsson's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books. I also think highly of the Deon Meyer's Benny Giesel series set in South Africa. Those will keep you reading far into the night.
I read Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, and Force 10 from Navarone many years ago and thought they were wonderful thrillers. My favorite thriller for many years was Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy but that was easily replaced by Steig Larsson's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books. I also think highly of the Deon Meyer's Benny Giesel series set in South Africa. Those will keep you reading far into the night.
12ahef1963
When I've not been at work, I've been reading steadily for the past two days, sunk in rather a haze of books. Yesterday I read Henning Mankell's The Man Who Smiled, which showed me again what an intelligent writer Mankell is. Today I read Peter Carey's His Illegal Self, which was brilliant, although difficult to get into.
I think I'm going to read Howard's End by E.M. Forster next. It's been on my shelf for years, unread, in a double volume, bound up with A Room With A View, which I read in university decades ago, and which I may re-read now.
I think I'm going to read Howard's End by E.M. Forster next. It's been on my shelf for years, unread, in a double volume, bound up with A Room With A View, which I read in university decades ago, and which I may re-read now.
13seitherin
Finished Midnight Murders and started Murder of a Dead Man.
14corgiiman
Finished my first Robert Crais book Suspect. A loaner from my sister-in-law. glad she did, was terrific. I'mgoing to read more of his.
15fredbacon
Over the past two weeks, I've read the new Inspector Montalbano mystery, Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri. I found it very cleverly plotted and, as always, engrossing but sexist. It's all of your favorite Sicilian policeman hanging out being themselves with humor and panache.
I also finished the first volume in Victor Klemperer's diary of life as a "privileged" Jew in Nazi Germany, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941. The first couple of hundred pages were a little difficult to get through. They mostly seemed to center around the medical problems of Klemperer and his non-Jewish wife, Eva. (Don't read it if you are at all a hypochondriac. After reading for several hours, I started to believe that I had angina as well.) As the oppression and tension ratchets up, the book becomes very compelling. After finishing the first volume (which ends on New Year's Eve of 1941), I found myself unable to stop. I've moved straight on to the second volume, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945. I had intended to take a break between the two volumes, but I found that I had to push on to see what happens next.
I also finished the first volume in Victor Klemperer's diary of life as a "privileged" Jew in Nazi Germany, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941. The first couple of hundred pages were a little difficult to get through. They mostly seemed to center around the medical problems of Klemperer and his non-Jewish wife, Eva. (Don't read it if you are at all a hypochondriac. After reading for several hours, I started to believe that I had angina as well.) As the oppression and tension ratchets up, the book becomes very compelling. After finishing the first volume (which ends on New Year's Eve of 1941), I found myself unable to stop. I've moved straight on to the second volume, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945. I had intended to take a break between the two volumes, but I found that I had to push on to see what happens next.
16whymaggiemay
>1 MDGentleReader: Thanks for the bio. I loved many of MacLean's books and was an inveterate reader of his novels in the late 60s and 70s. However, when it became clear that the books were being written for the movies, I quit reading them. They were a fun, quick read and were never intended as anything else.
I'm in a strange reading mood and unable to really settle on anything. I've started All the Light We Cannot See, Crossing to Safety, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, Elizabeth Is Missing, and The Human Age. All are good, several are excellent, but none is sparking for me right now so I flip from one to another hoping that something will catch my imagination. *Sigh*
I'm in a strange reading mood and unable to really settle on anything. I've started All the Light We Cannot See, Crossing to Safety, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, Elizabeth Is Missing, and The Human Age. All are good, several are excellent, but none is sparking for me right now so I flip from one to another hoping that something will catch my imagination. *Sigh*
17briannad84
Still reading Damaged by Cathy Glass and am debating between In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson and Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible. I'm in the mood for something summery and both remind me of summer because that's when I first read them and Australia and Africa are both quite hot...
18Tara1Reads
I have been in a reading slump. I have been reading George and Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism by Charlotte Moore forever. I have also read the first few chapters of Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier.
19Meredy
>16 whymaggiemay: Are you looking for a fast, undemanding page-turner that doesn't require checking your intelligence at the front cover?
20hemlokgang
Restless readers. ....try Boys in the Boat!
21seitherin
Finished Murder of a Dead Man and started Black Daffodil.
22jnwelch
>10 NarratorLady: I'm a fan of Bitch in a Bonnet, NarratorLady. Snarky fun, and he has good insights.
I've started The Bloody Chamber and other Stories for the British Author challenge, and so far I like it.
I've started The Bloody Chamber and other Stories for the British Author challenge, and so far I like it.
23grkmwk
I'm still reading The Most Beautiful Book in the World: 8 Novellas, and so far, each story is exquisite. I understand why my fellow book club members have each rated this book 5 stars.
Also still reading Letter to a Future Lover--odd but pleasant (mostly), Harvest Poems, and Notes from a Blue Bike--a bit dull, sadly.
Also still reading Letter to a Future Lover--odd but pleasant (mostly), Harvest Poems, and Notes from a Blue Bike--a bit dull, sadly.
24NarratorLady
22> yes Joe, I heard about it from you! I'm taking #2 in small doses as too much snark can be a dangerous thing.
He was overly harsh about Fanny Price. While not my fave JA creation, it seemed that his prejudice against her lopsided his argument about the book as a whole.
He was overly harsh about Fanny Price. While not my fave JA creation, it seemed that his prejudice against her lopsided his argument about the book as a whole.
25jnwelch
>24 NarratorLady: Totally agree re Fanny Price. That's the one where he missed the boat, IMO. his prejudice against her lopsided his argument about the book as a whole. That's my belief, too.
26PaperbackPirate
I'm making some progress on The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson.
27framboise
#26: That one took me a long time to read to, especially compared to the first two in the trilogy.
Finished The Good Girl yesterday, a story with good pacing and enough interest to keep me entertained, but one of those books where you don't root for anyone because no one is really likeable. Downloaded and started The Namesake last night which I remembered really liking the movie adaptation of. Very good so far.
Finished The Good Girl yesterday, a story with good pacing and enough interest to keep me entertained, but one of those books where you don't root for anyone because no one is really likeable. Downloaded and started The Namesake last night which I remembered really liking the movie adaptation of. Very good so far.
28hemlokgang
Just finished the magnificent Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima.
Next up to read is The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan.
Next up to read is The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan.
29mollygrace
I'm reading The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst.
30Copperskye
I'm reading both Mary Doria Russell's Epitaph and Ivan Doig's This House of Sky. Both are wonderful!
Last week I read David Rosenfelt's Open and Shut, the first book in a quick and fun legal mystery series.
Last week I read David Rosenfelt's Open and Shut, the first book in a quick and fun legal mystery series.
31PrimosParadise
Reading How to Talk to a Widower by Tropper; a mixture of the horrible with the hilarious. I'm not sure if he can sustain the high wire act; I've seen a couple foot slips already. We'll see...
32CarolynSchroeder
In NF land (give or take, I kind of think), I am reading Orange is the new Black by Piper Kerman, the memoir upon which the Netflix show was based. In Fiction-Land, I am beginning Herzog by Saul Bellow ... to read and discuss with a dear friend.
33ahef1963
>16 whymaggiemay: I've not been able to settle on anything to read either, because I'm worried about something. Ironically, it's books that take my mind off stress, but getting into them can be hard. So far I've tried out Divisadero, An Artist of the Floating World, Faceless Killers, and The Wee Free Men, and none of them have grabbed me.
I think I might be able to read Toni Morrison's Sula if I keep at it. Fingers crossed!
I think I might be able to read Toni Morrison's Sula if I keep at it. Fingers crossed!
34whymaggiemay
>19 Meredy: Apparently that's exactly what I'm looking for. Later in the day I started (and quickly finished) Flipped, a JYA novel, I enjoyed. Now I'm back to the core group and not moving very fast. I need to "get over" this hump or embrace lighter reading for awhile.
>20 hemlokgang: I loved The Boys in the Boat and push it on all my friends.
>33 ahef1963: I loved Sula and have read it several times, however, as you might expect, it's not a "light" read.
>20 hemlokgang: I loved The Boys in the Boat and push it on all my friends.
>33 ahef1963: I loved Sula and have read it several times, however, as you might expect, it's not a "light" read.
35Meredy
>34 whymaggiemay: I wonder if The Martian might fit your bill. It pretty much worked that way for me. 'Tain't literature, but it's fast-moving and fun and doesn't insult the reader.
37fyrfly
Finished Queen Lilly Fly By Night by Robin Arthur Jessup
What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank
and Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson.
Reading The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich and The Complete Belgian Tervuren by American Belgian Tervuren Club, Education Committee
listening to Decoding Your Dog: The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Dog Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink.
What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank
and Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson.
Reading The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich and The Complete Belgian Tervuren by American Belgian Tervuren Club, Education Committee
listening to Decoding Your Dog: The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Dog Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink.
38Zumbanista
Finally finished Old Town by Lin Zhe which was a slog with all the back and forth-ing over 3+ generations, though I did find parts very interesting. Just too much darn story.
As an antidote, I quickly breezed through the well written mystery/legal thriller My Sister's Grave and tomorrow I take the dive into Edith Wharton's House of Mirth. Quite looking forward to that from reviews I've read.
As an antidote, I quickly breezed through the well written mystery/legal thriller My Sister's Grave and tomorrow I take the dive into Edith Wharton's House of Mirth. Quite looking forward to that from reviews I've read.
39Tara1Reads
I finished George and Sam. I am glad I finally read it. I am reading Case Histories now and finding it really boring. Hopefully, I can finish it soon and move onto something else. I have put aside Falling Angels temporarily. I did like the first 30 pages that I read though.
40Meredy
As usual, I've forgotten whose book bullet struck me, but Lexicon was quite a read. If I rated strictly on enjoyment, which I don't, that one would be a top scorer. I'll soon be off looking for Max Barry's other novels.
41richardderus
Morning all, hope everyone is contented this beautiful day. It's the perfect day for a thriller, being sunshiney to the point of pain and so breezy we need anchors to sit on the boardwalk.
Spring has sprung with a vengeance, hooray!
Spring has sprung with a vengeance, hooray!
42seitherin
Finished Black Daffodil and started The Destruction of Evidence.
43rocketjk
"we need anchors to sit on the boardwalk."
. . . which, of course, is better than the opposite.
No sitting on the anchors!!!!
. . . which, of course, is better than the opposite.
No sitting on the anchors!!!!
44richardderus
>43 rocketjk: I'll be careful, since being here bedazzles me, Jerry!
47benitastrnad
I finished listening to the very boring Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and started listening to the mystery Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. So far it is a good story about a flock of sheep who are trying to solve the murder of their shepherd.
Good to read a post from Richard.
Good to read a post from Richard.
48brenzi
I finished Tana French's The Likeness, the second book in the Dublin Murder Squad series and I liked it even better than the first book. Now I'm reading The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal.
49Meredy
>48 brenzi: I see that we have some tastes in common. I enjoyed The Likeness very much, even though I found the premise a little too far-fetched even for fictional credibility. The Hare with Amber Eyes was, for me, a very rare five-star work of nonfiction.
50framboise
Really enjoying The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
And really excited that I got from Amazon today Alice Dreger's new book Galileo's Middle Finger. She is an amazing writer, activist and professor of bioethics and I am excited to see her talk and meet her at NYU Medical Center next week. She's even replied to my tweets over the past week. Love writers who love their fans.
And really excited that I got from Amazon today Alice Dreger's new book Galileo's Middle Finger. She is an amazing writer, activist and professor of bioethics and I am excited to see her talk and meet her at NYU Medical Center next week. She's even replied to my tweets over the past week. Love writers who love their fans.
51CarolynSchroeder
Hi Richard! So wonderful to see you!
I am reading Jillian by Halle Butler and it is really great, in a patently uncomfortable way.
I am reading Jillian by Halle Butler and it is really great, in a patently uncomfortable way.
52Coffeehag
>41 richardderus: Richard! Great to see you around!
I'm having a book lull, namely because I'm having a hard time getting through the two books I've been reading. I finished re-reading The Midnight Folk by John Masefield a week or so ago, and quite enjoyed it, but I'm having an awful time slogging through Der rote Ritter by Adolf Muschg. Bits of it are really good, but I hate the protagonist, who, after 450 pages, is still mostly preoccupied with his male anatomy and is a total idiot.
I'm also (supposed to be) reading A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong, because my landlady thought I would like it, but, being five months pregnant, I'm having difficulty reading a book that relates tragically ending scenarios of birth.
I'm thinking of re-reading E. T. A. Hoffmann's Die Elixiere des Teufels (The Elixirs of the Devil) just because I already know I like it.
I hate it when I can't find something I want to read.
I'm having a book lull, namely because I'm having a hard time getting through the two books I've been reading. I finished re-reading The Midnight Folk by John Masefield a week or so ago, and quite enjoyed it, but I'm having an awful time slogging through Der rote Ritter by Adolf Muschg. Bits of it are really good, but I hate the protagonist, who, after 450 pages, is still mostly preoccupied with his male anatomy and is a total idiot.
I'm also (supposed to be) reading A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong, because my landlady thought I would like it, but, being five months pregnant, I'm having difficulty reading a book that relates tragically ending scenarios of birth.
I'm thinking of re-reading E. T. A. Hoffmann's Die Elixiere des Teufels (The Elixirs of the Devil) just because I already know I like it.
I hate it when I can't find something I want to read.
53cdyankeefan
Hi Richard-great to see you!! I'm currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir; Pinstripe Empire by Marty Appel and The Light Between Oceans by M l Stedman
54jnwelch
I started the ER book The Late Works of Hayao Miyazaki, which is a bit academic, but still enjoyable so far, and I've got Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson lined up as well.
55whymaggiemay
>35 Meredy: I've already read The Martian and really enjoyed it, though I thought the ending left something to be desired. Still a fun, entertaining read.
I've started Us which shows promise for getting me out of the rut, but I've barely dipped a toe in so remains to be seen what I think in 40 pages.
I've started Us which shows promise for getting me out of the rut, but I've barely dipped a toe in so remains to be seen what I think in 40 pages.
56CarolynSchroeder
I finished Jillian by Halle Butler and it was great in a very disquieting way.
Now on to Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell which so far, is great.
Now on to Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell which so far, is great.
57PrimosParadise
Finished How to talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper. Enjoyable in a Cameron Crowe/guy lit kind of way. Next...maybe Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey... kind of a reread (like 30 years ago).
58brenzi
>49 Meredy: Yes, the whole doppelganger thing was far fetched but I was completely taken in by the narrative and was able to push my pessimism to the back of my mind. I really enjoyed the story.
Another great doppelganger story that was far harder to buy was Daphne Du Maurier's The Scapegoat, which I read last year.
Another great doppelganger story that was far harder to buy was Daphne Du Maurier's The Scapegoat, which I read last year.
59Meredy
>58 brenzi: I read that one last year, too, and reviewed it here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/19867/reviews/107082297
Those were both stories for which I didn't mind suspending my skepticism because they paid off nicely in drama and outcome while clinging to plausibility just (sometimes barely) enough to avoid being laughable.
I suppose those might be a possible answer to a question in another thread about fantasy stories without magic. Although as soon as you get into defining either fantasy or magic, there's an inevitable dimension of fuzziness.
http://www.librarything.com/work/19867/reviews/107082297
Those were both stories for which I didn't mind suspending my skepticism because they paid off nicely in drama and outcome while clinging to plausibility just (sometimes barely) enough to avoid being laughable.
I suppose those might be a possible answer to a question in another thread about fantasy stories without magic. Although as soon as you get into defining either fantasy or magic, there's an inevitable dimension of fuzziness.
60ahef1963
I just finished reading, on Project Gutenberg Australia, "My Experiences in Australia: Being Recollections of a Visit to the Australian Colonies", by Emma MacPherson (no touchstones for either), which was fascinating reading. I don't know why lately I've been so interested in the early settlement of Australia. I'm certainly no history buff and generally read fiction, but I can't get enough of these early settlers and visitors.
Don't know what to read next. The book I listed above I read on and off over the course of a month, when things have been quiet at work. I'm in a real reading slump, in which even the delights of a new (to me) Stephen King novel can't lift. I feel half-dressed without a book or two on the go, yet I seem to have no way to get myself back to the deep love of reading, and the huge amount of time I spend engrossed in books. It sucks.
Don't know what to read next. The book I listed above I read on and off over the course of a month, when things have been quiet at work. I'm in a real reading slump, in which even the delights of a new (to me) Stephen King novel can't lift. I feel half-dressed without a book or two on the go, yet I seem to have no way to get myself back to the deep love of reading, and the huge amount of time I spend engrossed in books. It sucks.
61fyrfly
The following is as true today as it was yesterday (the week of 18 April 2015):
Finished listening to Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink.
Reading The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich, The Complete Belgian Tervuren by American Belgian Tervuren Club, Education Committee and The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan.
Listening to Decoding Your Dog: The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Dog Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying by David Bach.
Finished listening to Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink.
Reading The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich, The Complete Belgian Tervuren by American Belgian Tervuren Club, Education Committee and The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan.
Listening to Decoding Your Dog: The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Dog Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying by David Bach.
