1SamNichols First Message
Can anyone give me some hot tips on books? once I've finished Pefume and Fictions, I want something new to move onto. Anyone got any ideas?
2chrisjwmartin First Message
I don't generally read "serious" books until they're at least fifty years old, so you probably know everything I'd recommend already.
3athens First Message
Why not recommend a serious book I haven't read? Then I'll have the lazy pleasure of having someone else tell me if it's any good. So, why don't you check out Michael Burleigh's "Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics from the French Revolution to the Great War" and then please let me know if it is so good as people keep telling me. Alternatively, a digestive read would be highly appreciated.
5CarolineWalters
It's not new but one I've enjoyed recenty was Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, which is set in the early 20th century in America. It covers the whole crisis with modernity, race, technology and gender issues. Plus I found it's style of real and fictional characters interesting because it is difficult to tell what elements fit where.
If not that then, Blood by Janice Galloway is a rather interesting collection of short stories for when you want a slice of something quickly that will still leave a lingering impression. Or her novel The Trick is to Keep Breathing, if you've time. Though I will warn you that the later is rather bleak.
If not that then, Blood by Janice Galloway is a rather interesting collection of short stories for when you want a slice of something quickly that will still leave a lingering impression. Or her novel The Trick is to Keep Breathing, if you've time. Though I will warn you that the later is rather bleak.
6SamNichols
I enjoy a good bleak novel, Caroline, so I shall have a quick look for one of those books. There's a new translation of the 3 Musketeers that I quite like the look of as well (one doesn't normally judge a book by its cover, but it is quite beautifully bound).
I thoroughly recommend buying complete fiction of W. M. Spackman. I happened to come across it in the back corner of Waterstones, and it was one of the best purchases that I've made of late. It's got about 5 books in it, of which I've finished two now. Hey-day is particularly good - a tale of young socialites in the Great Depression; it reads like a marginally more comic F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I thoroughly recommend buying complete fiction of W. M. Spackman. I happened to come across it in the back corner of Waterstones, and it was one of the best purchases that I've made of late. It's got about 5 books in it, of which I've finished two now. Hey-day is particularly good - a tale of young socialites in the Great Depression; it reads like a marginally more comic F. Scott Fitzgerald.
7SamJordison First Message
I second Ragtime... Waterworks by the same author is even better...
Spackman, meanwhile, sounds great, unfortunate name aside.
Spackman, meanwhile, sounds great, unfortunate name aside.
8athens
The Book of Daniel is my all-time favourite by E.L.Doctorow. I keep going back to it from time to time. Haven't read Waterworks, though.
9SamNichols
Sam,
In my own immature manner, it was the name that first attracted me to the book. Well worth £12.99.
In my own immature manner, it was the name that first attracted me to the book. Well worth £12.99.
10CarolineWalters
Ooh you're making me think I should look at some more Doctorow. I'll have to find a spare minute for extra reading somewhere.
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is also a rather interesting read - very poetic and lyrical. Not a lot happens though but good descriptions of loneliness and isolation filtered through a female consciousness.
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is also a rather interesting read - very poetic and lyrical. Not a lot happens though but good descriptions of loneliness and isolation filtered through a female consciousness.
