What are you reading?

[Twit 2]

"Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany"

Good fun, ideal companion piece to Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential", with a fair amount of overlap. Batali comes across as a cunt, and I'm not sure if Buford gives him an easy ride for this because he's being journalistically objective, or if he's just too in awe of the pro-cooking world and the opportunities he's being given. In any case, it's interesting to compare the descriptions of Batali's behaviour in the book with the knowledge that he subsequently got accused of sexual assault and misconduct. In that sense, the book does seem very much "pre-Me Too" era and a bit naive, although hindsight makes that easier to say. If you're a fan of either food writing or Gonzo journalism you'll like it, and if you're a fan of both you'll love it.

[Famous Mortimer]

"The Broken Heart Of America" by Walter Johnson.

Okay, so it's about my new home, St Louis, and they talk about a place near the end which is about 20 yards from my front door, but even if you're not from here, I reckon there's plenty to get your teeth into. It's got lots to say about the history of America, just using St Louis, which has seen some of the worst people and trends, as a backdrop. When I got over that pretty much every big street is named after someone who killed a load of Native people, or just brutally mistreated slaves, I really enjoyed the writing.

Apparently, the same author has written "River Of Dark Dreams", which lots of people rate as one of the best books on slavery ever.

[Captain Crunch]

Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson.  I read this for book club and I wouldn't recommend it, much like Jonathan Coe's Middle England it's just a puppet show for 'issues'. 

A better bet is Duplex by Kathryn Davis, utterly incomprehensible but you don't care because it's beautiful.  Dreamy, delicate and strange.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Gig by Simon Armitage - Rather embarrassingly when I bought this I didn't know he was the current Poet Laureate or anything else about him, I was just swayed by the very enthusiastic quotes on the cover. It's an odd old thing too, a mixture of non-fiction pieces about his relationship with music, reviews of a few bands, and stories from his own gigs as a poet, along with some lyrics he wrote for a couple of documentaries. When he's writing about music it's largely interesting, and his passion comes across well, but other times it's stultifying boring, and his anecdotes are even quite annoying at times. A very generous 3/5.

[chveik]

1982, Janine

incredible stuff. making the internal monologue of a depressed and horny middle aged man so fascinating is quite the feat.

[poloniusmonk]

A better bet is Duplex by Kathryn Davis, utterly incomprehensible but you don't care because it's beautiful.  Dreamy, delicate and strange.

I've been meaning to get to Duplex for yonks - this has put it next on my list. Thanks!

[buttgammon]

1982, Janine

incredible stuff. making the internal monologue of a depressed and horny middle aged man so fascinating is quite the feat.

That's a brilliant book - even the typography is great! I've wanted to read Lanark again ever since he died at the end of last year but my copy is in my mum's house and I haven't managed to get there since.

[Fr.Bigley]

Gig by Simon Armitage - Rather embarrassingly when I bought this I didn't know he was the current Poet Laureate or anything else about him, I was just swayed by the very enthusiastic quotes on the cover. It's an odd old thing too, a mixture of non-fiction pieces about his relationship with music, reviews of a few bands, and stories from his own gigs as a poet, along with some lyrics he wrote for a couple of documentaries. When he's writing about music it's largely interesting, and his passion comes across well, but other times it's stultifying boring, and his anecdotes are even quite annoying at times. A very generous 3/5.

I once saw him in Cafe in Leeds and he kept looking over like he knew me and I kept trying to place him, I think back that maybe he thought I was some super fan waiting for a wave or something but for weeks I actually thought I'd worked with him in the past until I turned BBC four on and he was chatting about something or other. He has the face of an any man.

[mr. logic]

I actually really enjoyed Martin Amis' new one, apart from that horrible Phoebe person.

[Captain Crunch]

Dendera (2015) by Yuya Sato.

I was keen to read this one, the Amazon blurb makes it sound really interesting:

When Kayu Saitoh wakes up, she is in an unfamiliar place. Taken to a snowy mountainside, she was left there by her family and her village according to the tradition of sacrificing the lives of the elderly for the benefit of the young. Kayu was supposed to have passed quickly into the afterlife. Instead, she finds herself in Dendera, a utopian community built over decades by old women who, like her, were abandoned. Together, they must now face a new threat: a hungry mother bear.

But it's so boring!  It just goes on and on and on with people talking, it's almost interminable.  I was particularly disappointed by the promise of a 'utopian community' because I read a lot of that.  Here it's not really a community it's just a few huts with a self-appointed leader and daily foraging.  It's not really an exploration of community at all. 

The ending is a massive cop out too, very disappointing overall. 

[Small Man Big Horse]

Edit: Found a more relevant thread.

[Famous Mortimer]

"If On A Winter's Night A Traveler" by Italo Calvino

It's fantastic. One of those books I've been meaning to read for years, and am now getting round to. I love the way it's written, the words, the ideas...I'm glad I started it.

[Famous Mortimer]

Finished it, a day later. It's what I've been wanting without realising from all the experimental or post-modern novels I've read, I think. If you've ever looked it up and the description has put you off, please forge ahead as it's an absolute gem.

[buttgammon]

Finished it, a day later. It's what I've been wanting without realising from all the experimental or post-modern novels I've read, I think. If you've ever looked it up and the description has put you off, please forge ahead as it's an absolute gem.

Glad you liked it. It's such a fun book!

[Artie Fufkin]

Just getting into Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl. Brilliantly written. Not sure where it's going. Everyone's starving in the future. Huge agri-companies gene-ripping. That kind of thing. Set in Thailand. Hot! Elephant carnage!

Finally finished this a couple of nights ago. It seems it took me almost 2 months! Disappointing overall, after a promising beginning. Very well written, but nothing really happened. Mweh.

[Twit 2]

Finished it, a day later. It's what I've been wanting without realising from all the experimental or post-modern novels I've read, I think. If you've ever looked it up and the description has put you off, please forge ahead as it's an absolute gem.

Cosmicomics next!

[Famous Mortimer]

"All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" by Marshall Berman

About modernization and modernism, with a Marxist bent. The first section is an extended analysis of Goethe's "Faust", which I knew from the million references but had never really read anything directly about. Interesting so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

[Artie Fufkin]

Robert W Chambers' The King In Yellow.
Wow.
This is freaky-deaky, man.
And the kindle version I have of it the layout is all fucked up.
I presume this is an error, and not intended?
It's brilliant stuff, anyway. Other worldly.
I'm always a bit dubious about 'olde worlde' books, but that's cos I'm an unschooled prick, I guess. But this is really hitting the mark.

[Twit 2]

"All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" by Marshall Berman

About modernization and modernism, with a Marxist bent. The first section is an extended analysis of Goethe's "Faust", which I knew from the million references but had never really read anything directly about. Interesting so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

I like this book and have a soft spot for rambling books about modernism. I recommend Pyramids at the Louvre by Daniel Albright and Glenn Watkins, both mainly center on music though. Peter Gay's book is good.

[Twit 2]

Untwisting the Serpent by Daniel Albright and Pyramids at the Louvre by Glenn Watkins

[buttgammon]

I like this book and have a soft spot for rambling books about modernism. I recommend Pyramids at the Louvre by Daniel Albright and Glenn Watkins, both mainly center on music though. Peter Gay's book is good.

It's perhaps a bit dated now but The Pound Era by Hugh Kenner is another good book about modernism that freely roams around the territory. Despite the title, it's not all about Ezra Pound, which probably isn't a bad thing.

[gilbertharding]

The Real Cruel Sea by Richard Woodman, which is a pretty long, almost literal blow-by-blow account of the Battle of the Atlantic.

I wouldn't have been drawn to it, except I recovered it from my late parents' house recently. My Dad had it because it actually features as one of its primary sources the unpublished memoirs of my Grandpa who was in the Royal Naval Reserve and was the captain of several ships in the war.

It's quite a hard read - I'm only halfway through, and 'we' are definitely losing at this stage - every other page has an account of a convoy being decimated by U Boats or surface ships, with the accompanying death and destruction (the engine room crew always seem to die instantly), or else an account of month-long voyages of lifeboats full of survivors who don't have enough food or water, or clothes, or who one by one go mad from drinking sea water and jump overboard...

I've been through a few of the bits in which my Grandpa features. I didn't know him all that well, but it's quite an odd experience to read.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Punch by Noah Hawley - Before this I really liked Noah Hawley, Legion was superb, the first two seasons of Fargo were excellent, and I enjoyed his novels Before The Fall and A Good Father. But after this I'm not so sure if I'll ever read anything by him again as I really struggled with it, and found large parts incredibly irritating. The omniscient narrator is a smug, condescending, patronising idiot who makes statements that are supposed to amaze but would seem obvious to a ten year old, and there's not a single bit of symbolism that he doesn't explain in depth to the point that I was tempted to stop reading many a time. The only thing that kept me going was my fondness for his previous work, and the presumption that at some point it'd get good, but it never came. So yeah, if you're a fan of Hawley's like I am (was?) I'd avoid it like some kind of airborne plague that nobody likes.1.5/5

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas - Fun romp where a body is found in a locked room, and the mystery of who it is and why she was murdered follows. It does frustrate a little as despite time travel being a major aspect we learn little about how it's changed the world, and only get tiny snippets of what the future is like, but the central mystery is an enjoyable one and the characters involved in the story are a lot of fun to spend time with. 3.75/5

[Scarlet Intangible]

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter


Wow. What an imagination. What a writer she was. I don't think I know of a prose writer as poetic as Carter. Poetic and a brilliant storyteller.

In this book she wraps you around her little finger, drags you into this 'magical' realm, fiddles with its reality, and drops you off at the end - enchanted, amused and wondering.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter


Wow. What an imagination. What a writer she was. I don't think I know of a prose writer as poetic as Carter. Poetic and a brilliant storyteller.

In this book she wraps you around her little finger, drags you into this 'magical' realm, fiddles with its reality, and drops you off at the end - enchanted, amused and wondering.

I loved that too, and Carter's work in general, if you've not yet read Wise Children I'd definitely recommend it as along with The Passion Of New Eve it's my favourite book of hers.

[Captain Crunch]

Finally got round to reading House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski after having it on the shelf for about TEN years.  I wasn't really impressed to be honest, I don't know if it's aged badly or if it's been overtaken but I found it very flimsy.  I found the misogyny a bit much, normally I can set it to one side but it did grate here.  I can see why people love it but it was disappointing for me. 

[Twit 2]

Walking by Erling Kaage. Twee fragments written on the back of bog roll. Better than a Hygge book, but only just. Walk this one to the charity shop. Cheers WIFE.

[Famous Mortimer]

"All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" by Marshall Berman

About modernization and modernism, with a Marxist bent. The first section is an extended analysis of Goethe's "Faust", which I knew from the million references but had never really read anything directly about. Interesting so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

Took me a while to get through it, but I'm glad I did. Apart from the bit at the end where he bangs on about New York, unable to avoid the problem common to New Yorkers of them thinking everything about their city is interesting and worthy of knocking up into some grand theory of the world. And mentioning street names as if anyone gives a shit.

Then I read "Men Explain Things To Me" by Rebecca Solnit in about an hour. Made me angry and sad but ready to fight more for a better world.

[Pink Gregory]

I loved that too, and Carter's work in general, if you've not yet read Wise Children I'd definitely recommend it as along with The Passion Of New Eve it's my favourite book of hers.

I read her 'Heroes and Villains' last year.  Enjoyable speculative fiction but I'm not sure it measured up to Nights... but maybe that's not what she was going for.  Sort of Brave-New-World ish.

Struggled with reading this year - read Owen Hatherley's Trans-Europe Express for 4-5 months because much as I like his writing I know next to nothing about architecture.  Started Owen Hatherley's Adventures in the Post-Soviet Space, which I'm finding much easier going, and just as fascinating.