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Dec 2016
5:14pm, 31 Dec 2016
12,054 posts
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Columba
I have joined the thread, though having read all comments so far I don't feel inclined to try any of the books. This is partly because they all seem to be SF, and although I loved SF once (good SF, that is) I now rarely read it, partly because there seemed to be such a lot of bad SF around.
Currently reading "Confessions of X" by Suzanne Wolfe. Historical novel, set in the 4th - 5th century, Carthage, Rome and Milan so far. Augustine of Hippo (later declared a saint) wrote several books including his "Confessions", more-or-less an autobiography. He had a long-term mistress ("All saints have a Past" as someone said), by whom he had a son. He doesn't name her, and gives very little information about her. She is the "X" of the title. It's quite interesting but not really gripping.
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Dec 2016
5:34pm, 31 Dec 2016
19,676 posts
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Diogenes
Sidebar duly updated. I ought to explain that I am adding books purely at my own discretion based upon those that are read and discussed by a number of members of the book group without being official book club selections.
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Jan 2017
10:49pm, 18 Jan 2017
12,221 posts
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Columba
"Confessions of X" finished and passed on to a charity shop.
Now reading "The tenant of Wildfell Hall".
In between, I read "The Spirit Level" but as it's non-fiction I don't know that it "counts". We have had non-fiction on the Book Thread, though. The Immortal Something of Henrietta Lacks.
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Jan 2017
10:55pm, 18 Jan 2017
12,222 posts
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Columba
Life.
The Immortal Life.
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Jun 2017
3:12pm, 9 Jun 2017
93,301 posts
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GregP
Hello. Here be spoilers regarding Die Trying by Lee Child.
So.
Northern Montana to central San Francisco on the 4th of July in a panel van. Seems like our bad guy set off early - for the sake of argument we'll say 'early' is 00:01. Still think he's going to be hard pushed to get there to detonate a truck bomb during the evening fireworks.
Google reckons 20+ hours, and that's without refuelling, eating, going wee-wee and whatnot.
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Jun 2017
1:34pm, 13 Jun 2017
29,486 posts
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McGoohan
Reluctant Fundamentalist
This was *nearly* the book for June. When I saw it in the Small Indie Bookshop (c) I bought it anyway. It'll do for my 2007 A Book A Year.
Now, I quite enjoyed this, in that I could pick it up and fly through the chapters with no problem. However, it has one major flaw which is repeated multiple times throughout. Basically it's a problem caused by the book's own structure.
A Pakistani national who has previously lived and worked in America, relates his life story to an American visitor in a cafe throughout the day. The timescale is ludicrous for a kick off - they seem to stay there all day. However, as it's being told in the first person, you get a lot of:
'What's that you are asking me? How long did I work there? Three years, my American friend.'
or
'I see you are apprehensive. Perhaps you are worried by our waiter's demeanour? I agree he is a big man but he is from a society of rather stern-faced individuals. Ah, but I was telling you of my first sexual experiences in New York...'
or
'I detect from your wrinkled nose that my tales of ill-fated sexual encounters have offended your sensibilities and that sound you are making is a grunt of disapproval? I am sorry if that is so. Ah look, the waiter is returning. Let us order some more tea and I can continue detailing the minutiae of working for a New York investment company'
Yes. I made those up, but they're pretty close to the real thing. These problems of having a first person narrator were wrestled with by Samuel Richardson in Pamela in 1740 - how to have the narrator repersent everyone's reaction without it seeming false. Richardson failed then. Mohsin Hamid has failed now.
By the end it was getting ridiculous, with the narrator self-describing everything they were doing. 'And now we are walking down the street to your hotel...'
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Jun 2017
1:39pm, 13 Jun 2017
23,548 posts
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Diogenes
That's put me right off
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Jun 2017
1:40pm, 13 Jun 2017
29,490 posts
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McGoohan
Er.... spoiler alert...
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Jun 2017
1:42pm, 13 Jun 2017
29,491 posts
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McGoohan
With the benefit of half an hour's hindsight it was rubbish, really. The Booker 2007 judges shortlisted this, the ****ing tools.
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Jun 2017
1:43pm, 13 Jun 2017
93,358 posts
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GregP
It sort of reminds me of Patrick Rothfuss. This is A Good Thing, although I suspect Mr Rothfuss is a bit hobbity-tosh for the group gestalt.
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Acts of Minor Dissent
Sep 2024