Books - What are you reading?

Have you read any Ian McDonald?

Luna trilogy, Brasyl, The Dervish House, River of Gods are all good reads.

What 11 books did you order?

Generally anything by Paul Auster, Annie Proulx, George Pelecanos, Hemmingway

Specifically off the top of my head

The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino

Havent read, but are on my list to buy and try (this is a mixed bag)

Boy Genius by Yongsoo Park
Shoot by Douglas Fairbairn
A head full of ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Drinky Crow Drinks Again by Tony Millionaire
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
I wrote this for you by Iain S Thomas
A book of dreams - Peter Reich
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills by Charles Bukowski

I was recommended The Mandibles, which could be quite topical at the moment.

thanks, this looks nice regardless so going to pick one up

Right now?

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I just read To Calais, In Ordinary Time which was excellent, but I didn't realise when I started reading it that it was set during the time of the Black Death.

Also not an easy read due to the use of middle English and French, but I really enjoyed it. Worth it for the middle English sex scenes if nothing else!

Has anyone else read it because I'm still confused about the sex scene between Will and Madlen...

Lance by Vladimir Nabokov, The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson, Leaving The Yellow House by Saul Bellow, The Vigilante by John Steinbeck, The End by Samuel Beckett, The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges, Three Japanese Stories by Akutagwa and Others, The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier, The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison, New York City in 1979 by Kathy Acker and All My Cats by Bohumil Hrabal.
Mostly short stories!

Will check out those recommendations, thanks all!

Totally, i am really creeping along with the mirror and the light. All these people talking about reading bucketlist books, like I'm going to read the Tunnell by Gass or something, I just wanna read a Phillip Kerr.

So, self-isolation and lockdown. I thought it could be a good occasion to get acquainted with Shakespeare's work a bit more. What are my options in terms of editions etc? I suppose I want something nice but also fairly accessible / with side notes, if that makes sense.

Papillon -

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That's a good book.

I'd recommend trying to watch a version of whatever play you're looking at, or at least an audio recording - the language makes much more sense that way, and all plays are somewhat dead on the page. Lots of places are streaming recordings at the moment, or there's YouTube etc.

Edition-wise, the Arden Shakespeare's the big critical edition; they do a complete works for students that's about £20, as do Oxford (and I think Cambridge) University Press. There's also something called the no fear Shakespeare that has a modern language version running alongside the original text, but I think you have to buy individual editions of the various plays.

Good shout on these. Thanks

Is the book better than the film adaptation? I watched it on a plane and thought the story was great but it was just terribly acted and directed.

It's much better.

Agree, the film is okay, but the book, irrespective of how much of it is actually true, is a great read.

Thanks for the advices, much appreciated!

+1 for Papillon

I thought Wendy Craig wasn't up to much but Geoffrey Palmer is always worth watching.

Halfway through and a great read.

Thanks, will give it a go at some point!
Just finished As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee, enjoyed it a lot, as I did with A Moment Of War when I read that a few months ago. I've got Cider With Rose lined up to finish off reading the (sort of) trilogy in reverse order.

Any suggestions for sci-fi, particularly space operas in the vein of the Deathstalker series, etc. With the Kindle self-publishing this is one of the areas that seems to have a lot of tat.

Also, suggestions for fairly light swords and sorcery, David Eddings style? Cheers

Raymond Feist on the second point, even if you don't want to commit to such a long series, the first book, Magician is a great read and worth exploring if you like fantasy