The All-New Books Thread

[Serge]

I've just finished reading John le Carré's The Pigeon Tunnel, which was enjoyable enough, but as I feared, had the edge taken off it by most of the stories appearing in last year's (superior) Adam Sisman biography. And in the case of stories about his conman father, Ronnie, appearing (lightly fictionalised) thirty years ago in 'A Perfect Spy'. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, but I would recommend the Sisman over it any day.

[Artie Fufkin]

Yeah, it was ok. A well written yarn. He writes kids well. And I did like the twist on the zombie genre.

Spoiler alert

I always remember being morbidly fascinated by the cause of the outbreak when I heard about it on QI : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis

[close]

I have just started this :

Fuck me, it's good !!
Can't remember who recommended this on here (Serge?), but thanks whoever it was.
Loving it so far. Visceral !

[Serge]

It wasn't me, though a colleague at work said she liked it.

[Artie Fufkin]

It's got some top notch swearing in it !

[BritishHobo]

It might have been me - I've been meaning to post about it here again, because it's the one book not just from last year's Man Booker longlist, but last year period, that I cannot stop thinking about. I won't give anything away, but it gripped me straight from the off, and it's stuck with me since. I've seen it compared to The Revenant and while I've not read the book, it's nothing like the empty, senseless violence of the film. It's a fucking rough, beautiful novel, one that really pulls you into its epic, dirty world. I feel like it should be a tatty leather-bound book with the pages all grimy and dirt-splashed, it's one of the most atmospheric books I think I've ever read.

[Artie Fufkin]

It's a fucking rough, beautiful novel, one that really pulls you into its epic, dirty world. I feel like it should be a tatty leather-bound book with the pages all grimy and dirt-splashed, it's one of the most atmospheric books I think I've ever read.

I couldn't have put it better myself. I'm about 100 pages in

Spoiler alert

(frozen Sumner-popsicle)

[close]

. It's awesome. Best book I've read for ages.

[Serge]

My recent reading....

Elizabeth Strout's Anything Is Possible. This time last year, I'd never read any of her books, now she's one of my favourite writers (and I'm still hoarding two of her earlier books that I'm saving for when I read too many middling books in a row, just to remind me that books can be amazing.) This one is set in the same world as that of 'My Name Is Lucy Barton', and, although it's never mentioned by name, it seems certain that the memoir that Barton is just supposed to have published in the fictional world of 'Anything...' might just be 'My Name...' One of my friends said that the thing she loved about 'Name' was the fact that you got mentions of people you'd like to hear more about, such as the Pretty Nicely Girls, and in this book, you get just that. Like 'Olive Kitteridge', it's a novel told in short stories, and all of the characters are so well written, you know exactly who they are within just a couple of pages, and actually start to feel like you have a stake in their lives. Amazing stuff.

The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh aka The One Where Begbie Is Now A Famous Artist Living In America. I have to admit, before I started it, I didn't think I could even begin to believe that Begbie could have changed character so much, but actually, that bit worked quite well. It's a shame that - SPOILERS - about halfway through the novel, the new, measured, calm, even likeable Begbie gives way to the old, violent, horrific Begbie. It's like Welsh didn't have the courage to keep up this character for a whole book - which could have worked, with all the violence being done by other people - and just decided to give the fans some Begbie ultraviolence. This culminates in an interminable torture scene that serves absolutely no narrative purpose whatsoever. I also suspect that he had one eye on the inevitable film adaptation.

Safe by Ryan Gattis. Last year, I read Gattis' previous novel, the brilliant 'All Involved', and can thoroughly recommend that. This one isn't quite up to those heights, but isn't bad. Where that novel had the unique structure of each chapter being told from a different character's point of view, this one is a two-hander, with the view alternating between a veteran safe-cracker who now works for the DEA and a gangster who is growing tired of all of the violence and trying to figure out a way to get his family out of the firing line. It does read a little like George Pelecanos on occasion, which is always a good thing, and the way Gattis plays on the idea of which character is most symapthetic at any one time is pretty good. Although it's not as good as 'All Involved', I would be happy to see Gattis start to turn out a thriller like this once a year if that's where he's headed.

Limmy's That's Your Lot, which I wrote about in the Limmy thread.

Scenes From A Revolution by Mark Harris, a book which takes the five movies nominated for Best Picture Oscar in 1968 - 'Bonnie And Clyde', 'The Graduate', 'In The Heat Of The Night', 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' and, er, 'Doctor Doolittle' - as its subject, especially the way the last named - a bloated, sub-par musical, doomed by the caprices of its star - is seen as one of the last gasps of 'Old Hollywood' , and the first two are seen as the coming of the New. Of course, it's not that clear-cut, but it still makes for entertaining reading. Rex Harrison really was a cunt. Anyone who liked 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls' will like this. And as I've only ever seen one of the movies in question - 'Bonnie And Clyde' - it did at least make me go out and buy that, 'The Graduate' and 'In The Heat...' on DVD (they didn't have 'Guess...', and I've no interest in seeing 'Doolittle', even if it does have Anthony Newley in it....!)

And I've just finished reading Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, an utter pile of crap which is basically a misery memoir masquerading as polemic. Vance seems to think he was born the poorest of the poor and managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps to becoming the rich, successful lawyer he is now. This book is basically hurt white man crap of the highest order. He sneers at anyone whose circumstances have led to them being reliant on government assistance, whilst with a straight face recounting how his $200,000 Yale scholarship was paid for by.....er....the government. Although there has been trouble in his family, he never went hungry, without a roof over his head, somewhere safe to live and (by his own admission) expensive Christmas presents whilst growing up, and although he continues to describe hilself as a hillbilly, it's plain that no-one has been one in his immediate family for three generations. It's utter fucking garbage.

[Artie Fufkin]

Just starting this. Not really sure what's going on at the moment, but it's really well written.

[Artie Fufkin]

Love that cover, too.

[Quincey]

Just finished Parliament Ltd: A journey to the dark heart of British politics by Martin Williams. Quite bleak but very interesting. Shows how the whole parlimentary system needs reform and some arse kicking.

[non capisco]

Reading a book about Prince by some fella called Ben Greenman. There's a footnote that seems to suggest he thinks it's the real Prince guest starring in that 'Big Train' sketch where Prince hunts jockeys. Sack the researcher!

[mr. logic]

Based on a true story, by Delphine de Vigan.

Haven't quite finished this one, but have enjoyed it.  It feels like that exercise you see suggested for writer's block- to write about writer's block- taken on by an accomplished author, and she pulls it off with considerable skill.  Would be interested in reading her other books.  Anybody a fan?

Before that it was Lolita, which I feel like I wanted to enjoy more than I did enjoy. 

[Serge]

Since my last post in this thread....

Marc Fisher and Michael Kranish's Trump Revealed, an excellent biography of The Donald. Yes, they're biased going in, but he does make it easy for them by having been such a tireless arsehole over the years.

Alan Partridge: Nomad by Coogan & The Gibbons Brothers. Very funny, maybe not quite as good as 'I, Partridge', but I did roar with laughter quite a lot. I'm not sure that Partridge would swear so much if he really wrote a book, and I'm damn sure that he would never have heard of Modest Mouse.

Talking of Modest Mouse, they also crop up in Johnny Marr's Set The Boy Free, which I thought was excellent, even though I've got practically no interest in any of the music he's made since The Smiths split up. His unshakeable niceness as a person shines through every page, though, and I'll take it over Morrissey's any day.

Then Arundhati Roy's The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness, which was almost worth waiting twenty years for. The opening chapter is really shaky, and I worried that it was going to be a book that I'd give up before long, but it picks up drastically after that. Most reviews seem to concentrate on the disjointed style of the narrative, but I've read plenty of other authors who have used the same style - Elizabeth Strout most recently, for a start - and the way it shifts from character to character is great. Hope she doesn't leave it twenty years until her next novel.....

Then my reading time was (ironically) disrupted by the Derby Book Festival, which I enjoyed greatly. I got to meet quite a few authors - Sebastian Faulks (very nice bloke), Joseph Knox (most entertaining Q&A of the whole festival), Alex Wheatle (second most entertaining Q&A of the whole festival), Jenny Eclair (brilliant with her fans, and also very nice), Tim Dowling (not a massive fan of his, but, again, very nice), Jon McGregor (biggytitbo's long lost twin), Tony Garnett (who I'd never heard of, but was so impressed by his story that I bought his book), Paula Byrne (an absolute sweetheart), John Hegley (a massive git), and Stephen Westaby (who made us sit through films of him performing open heart surgery, cheers). I covered 11 events in the space of 8 days, went to a disappointing book fair, ate two mixed grills and generally had a good (if massively tiring) time.

The book I carried around with me during that week was David Hepworth's Uncommon People, which was perfect for the few minutes I could snatch to read it every now and then, as it was a bunch of 8-10 page pieces about various musicians, trying to get to the heart of what being a 'rock star' really means. It's structured so that he picks one person per year from 1955 onwards, and zeroes in on an event to illustrate a specific point. This only falls down when he gets to a year when he can't really find anybody suitable, so 1989 is all about....uh....Bonnie Raitt. You remember 1989 as the year of Bonnie Raitt, right? That's all anybody was talking about. That aside, a decently entertaining series of essays, which just made me wish that Word Magazine was still going.

And then Anthony Warner's The Angry Chef, in which he attacks fad diets (clean eating, paleo, GAPS, etc) and the shaky ground upon which they stand, and points out the ways in which they could ultimately be dangerous. It's a great book, and long overdue, but if I could nitpick, if you call yourself The Angry Chef, I'd expect the writing to be a bit more.....angry. I thought it would be Mr. Agreeable-levels of swearing and ranting, but it's pretty sober writing, and when swearing is involved, it almost feels shoehorned in. To be fair, having checked out his blog, that seems to be more the kind of thing that I was hoping for, and I guess it's possible that the legal people have stepped into make sure he doesn't bash people by name too often. But in a just world, it would outsell Ella Woodward, The Hemsleys and Joe Fucking Wicks by ten to one.

And I've just started to re-read Copey's Krautrocksampler for about the fourth time. I'm endlessly dipping into it to re-read passages, but it's nice to actually sit and read it cover to cover again occasionally.

[Artie Fufkin]

The book I carried around with me during that week was David Hepworth's Uncommon People, which was perfect for the few minutes I could snatch to read it every now and then, as it was a bunch of 8-10 page pieces about various musicians, trying to get to the heart of what being a 'rock star' really means. It's structured so that he picks one person per year from 1955 onwards, and zeroes in on an event to illustrate a specific point. This only falls down when he gets to a year when he can't really find anybody suitable, so 1989 is all about....uh....Bonnie Raitt. You remember 1989 as the year of Bonnie Raitt, right? That's all anybody was talking about. That aside, a decently entertaining series of essays, which just made me wish that Word Magazine was still going.

My sis* bought me this for my birthday. I was excited enough already by the Bowie pic on the front, and now you tell me there's a chapter on Bonnie Raitt !!?

*she actually went to a book signing of his and got me an elaborate inscription in it, involving a drawing of a pair of crossed drumsticks - I bet he loved her !

[Ray Travez]

I had jaundice a while back, so I was bedbound. I read Hooky's book about the Hac, then his book about New Order, Substance. I think it's destroyed any mystique that New Order might have had for me. Barney sounds unbearable. Telling Siouxsie Sioux, "I'd really like to fuck you up the arse" at some awards do. I mean, I don't even...!

Also a book about bin-diving by a dirty filthy bin-diver.

I read Morrissey's autobiography. He seems terribly unhappy- I don't know if anyone else has picked up on that? Weird to have streets that I lived in described- I pretty much lived in exactly the same place as he grew up, in the ugly new house that replaced his demolished victorian terrace. Some astonishing bursts of prose, interspersed with pages of carping and moaning.

Being a Beast- got bored of it, gave up. Nice idea.

Moby's autobiography, Porcelain (audio). Never bothered to finish it, but I liked the beginning. Might go back to it (it's from the library).

Just started reading Grass Soup, a diary written by a guy imprisoned in a Chinese gulag. He's slightly more cheery than Morrissey.

I think I'm going to have to get Springsteen's audio book out, even though I have no love for his music, apart from the one about being on fire. Sounds really interesting.

[Artie Fufkin]

Just starting this. Not really sure what's going on at the moment, but it's really well written.

Took a while, but I finished this yesterday. Really well written and very enjoyable for a book about genomes. The metafictiony of it I found a little distracting. I didn't really know what was happening at first. But, yeah. Overall really good. I have another of his books on my wish list.

[Artie Fufkin]

However, I am now reading this :

I'm a sucker for King. This is the last of his 'Bill Hodges Trilogy'. The first 'Mr Mercedes' was really good, the second 'Finders Keepers' was ok, I've heard this is the best of the 3.
Let's see.

[Quincey]

I've read Don Winslow's The Force, which is very good, great plot and good writing style.

[holyzombiejesus]

I started David Keenan's This Is Memorial Device a week or so ago but after about 50 pages, gave it away. It was excruciating. Just awful bullshit. Lines like "My own life has been seriously damaged by books - I've never been able to enjoy a paperback without wanting to commit myself to it forever." Full of 'cool' reference after klanging cool reference. There's a sex scene that uses the words pussy and panties. One character is an artist who doesn't realise that her hair is on fire because she's so engrossed in her art. Her hot girlfriend (yep!) finds her with her hair all smouldering and it's not even a shit metaphor. Just really cringeworthy stuff. More like Young Adult Fiction than anything. Really reminded me of the time I re-read Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries, in that everything I found so cool and edgy when I was in my teens just came across as tacky. I should add that TIMD is not a patch on The Basketball Diaries.

Then I tried Eimear McBride's latest but just couldn't get in to it. Has anyone else read this or her previous book, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing? I will try and go back to it at some point.

I'm currently reading A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume. I really enjoyed her first book (Spill Simmer Falter Wither) and this is even better. There's not a huge plot, just a young woman, suffering from depression goes to live in her recently deceased grandmother's house. She ruminates on art, cycles about, is really rude to her hairdresser and gets pissed watching telly. Really great writing though.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Good evening. Any other fans of Ottessa Moshfegh in here? I quite enjoyed Eileen and her short story collection Homesick for Another World, but haven't gotten to McGlue yet. I've read interviews in which she suggests that she considers the latter her best work.

[holyzombiejesus]

I read Eileen and thought it was ok but didn't think it warranted its subsequent inclusion on the Booker list.

I was thinking about translations today. I was looking for when the next Booker longlist was being announced, saw that the International list was out and realised that I don't remember really enjoying a translation from the last 100 years or so. I've tried but generally find them quite stilted and awkward. Does this sound stupid? Maybe it's the kind of book I go for, definitely more 'literary fiction' (bleurgh), (often from that publisher whose name I've forgotten but do really nicely designed small books) than Scandinoir or whatever. Thinking about it, it's probably not even true as I enjoyed things like Perfume. But, yeah, translations.

[marquis_de_sad]

From reading interviews with some translators, it seems that a lot of them believe that the only way translations can be marketable is if they're made "readable", ie, dull. I think it was Ken Liu (translator of the Three-Body Problem) who said that when people read science fiction, they enjoy the strange words and concepts as part of the experience, but when foreign works are translated the tendency is to smooth over those differences.

[phantom_power]

Ha yes Serge, the 33 1/3 series is transcendentally terrible. I actually found a joblot of them in a box in Dalston a few years back and quickly saw why they were binned. Some good names attached to them sometimes too.

I am a bit behind on this thread but the one on It Takes a Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back is excellent

[gloria]

However, I am now reading this :

I'm a sucker for King. This is the last of his 'Bill Hodges Trilogy'. The first 'Mr Mercedes' was really good, the second 'Finders Keepers' was ok, I've heard this is the best of the 3.
Let's see.

I was pissed of with this because it takes a sudden turn into a different genre.

[Artie Fufkin]

I was pissed of with this because it takes a sudden turn into a different genre.

Intriguing.....

I'm about 1/3 through and really enjoying it. God, King waffles, but it's great waffle.

[mikeyg27]

(often from that publisher whose name I've forgotten but do really nicely designed small books)

Peirene? I really like a lot of their stuff. Sometimes it can be a little stuffy / wooden, but usually they have an interesting range of stuff that I would never read otherwise because I can't do any other languages. Reader For Hire was one of my favourite books last year.

Since it's been ages since I read a Proper Long Literary Novel I've just started J R by William Gaddis. I'm only a little way into it but I've got to say that it's way funnier than I was expecting.

[Serge]

Post-op reading.....

Fearless, the new book on Post-Rock by Jeanette Leach, which is a bit much, as I still haven't got around to reading 'Storm Static Shock' yet, the book on Post-Rock that came out last year. Not a bad read, though slightly hindered by her need to try and cram everyone in there - I would have liked to read more on Godspeed and Mogwai, for a start. And it does seem that most musicians described as Post-Rock hate being called Post-Rock. On the plus side, I have finally found out where the cover of Bark Psychosis' 'Hex' is......*

Followed by The People's Songs by Stuart Maconie, which is much better for a convalescence read, being quite a light book which theoretically takes 50 songs as a prism through which the history of British popular music from the forties onwards, but in reality takes in hundreds of them, and not all British. Nothing too startling for anybody who knows a bit about music, but an entertaining enough read.

Then two novels by Ragnar Jónasson, Black Out and Rupture. I enjoy his books, but I'm not sure why - the plots are slight, the writing isn't any great shakes and the hero of the books, Ari Thor, is an unlikeable non-character who verges on the thuggish at times. And yet I rattled through two in as many days (they're not exactly challenging reads). In 'Black Out', as in the previous, 'Snowblind', Ari Thor doesn't so much solve the case as stand by and watch someone else do it. In fact, he doesn't even watch them do it, as he rushes off to attack an innocent man and get stabbed for his troubles. He's a bit of a twat. 'Rupture' is two entirely unconnected mysteries yoked together by a plot contrivance and Ari Thor is absent for the whole of one case. Still.....not bad.

And finally, the new Magnus Mills book, The Forensic Records Society, which I essentially read in two 45 minute settings, which is quick even for me and quick even for a Magnus Mills book. A slight tale about record obsessives meeting in the back room of a pub, which quickly builds into a typical Mills absurdist story in which a naive narrator is the last to catch up with what's going on around him. I liked the conceit that no artists names are ever used, just record titles. I didn't like the fact that a book about record geeks starts with two of them getting a fact wrong**. But if you like Mills, you'll probably like this.


*Leyton Goods Yard.

**Who exactly says, "I saw ya!" at the end of 'Happy Jack'.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Grace Paley - Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
Not really digging it so far and I've like two stories left. There's some great turns of phrase but the overall thing is hollow.

Raymond Carver - Cathedral
Not lapping him up as much as I did with whatever the last one I read. Still some lovely moments though, I really enjoyed Cathedral itself, the longer stories here seem to be the stronger ones.




Looking for female authored recommendations btw, if anyone wants to fling a few my way. Ideally post-1945 and my attention span will rarely exceed 300 pages or 50 page chapters.

[Serge]

At Hawthorn Time and Clay by Melissa Harrison
The Burgess Boys, Olive Kitteridge and Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
The Girls by Emma Cline

[holyzombiejesus]

Looking for female authored recommendations btw, if anyone wants to fling a few my way. Ideally post-1945 and my attention span will rarely exceed 300 pages or 50 page chapters.

Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is my favourite novel but was written in 1940 so don't know if you'll allow it. Most of her other books are also brilliant and written after '45. They're relatively short, really readable and full of love and loneliness and yearning.

I like Sarah Hall. I loved her first three - Haweswater, The Electric Michaelangelo and Carhullen Army (AKA Daughters of the North) - most.

Would go along with Serge's Melissa Harrison recommendations.

Lots more if you want them but I'm in the attic and slightly drunk adn my books are in the living room and bedroom.