Books - What are you reading?

Hahaa, not the most ringing endorsement. I'll let you know what I think of the New York Trilogy.

I enjoyed The Stranding a lot. It's quite unusual to have such a compelling family narrative in post-apoc, and it's so constrained! There's hardly any characters in it. Kate Sawyer is a theatre person and I think that comes through really clearly in the novel, because it's so physically constrained and she's got such fantastic visuals like the hut made out of the whale skeleton - I can easily see this being a great stage play. Thought to myself a few times reading it "is this what The Road could have been like if Cormac McCarthy knew a single thing about women?"

Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways

Nice, that's in my TBR pile! Have you ever read Weird Walk? Similar ouvre!

OMG how did I not know about this? Right up my strasse!

It's very good! Stewart Lee had an essay in it a while back.

If you like that sort of thing you might also enjoy Northern Earth which is a bit more like the Audax UK of alt landscape publications (Weird Walk is like... idk, Thundercross or something. The cool one, in comparison to the crusty one, in other words, 😅 but they're both great)

(PS: i will take all recommendations for similar materials that anyone else buys, I love this stuff to death)

I seem to be an outlier in that most people appear to really rate the New York Trilogy. Left me cold though. And normally I like all that post modern wank.

Currently listening to Bernie Sander's audiobook, him narrating adds so much

That sounds riveting.. Capitalism and my (non) part in its downfall?

Love a bit of Robert MacFarlane, if you've not ready any of his other books, I can highly recommend Underland.
Also Roger Deakin, him and MacFarlane were great pals.

I'll add those to the read list, thanks! I finished The Farthest Shore yesterday, so good.

"is this what The Road could have been like if Cormac McCarthy knew a single thing about women?"

This!

As an example of her non-SF/Fantasy fiction, Orsinian Tales is good.

Just finished this, it is great:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future

The Ministry for the Future is a climate fiction ("cli-fi") novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, whose mission is to act as an advocate for the world's future generations of citizens as if their rights are as valid as the present generation's. While they pursue various ambitious projects, the effects of climate change are determined to be the most consequential. The plot primarily follows Mary Murphy, the head of the titular Ministry for the Future, and Frank May, an American aid worker traumatized by experiencing a deadly heat wave in India. Many chapters are devoted to other (mostly anonymous) characters' accounts of future events, as well as their ideas about ecology, economics, and other subjects.

I've recently been re-reading Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian so Weird Walk kinda fits in with that. (love the T shirt!)

Related in a sense can highly recommend the Scarred for Life books, volumes 1 & 2 are available, volume 3 is on the way. If you're a fan of pop culture/modern folklore/hauntology/shared experience kind of thing

https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brotherstone-dave-lawrence/scarred-for-life-volume-one/paperback/product-12qmgr65.html

Thanks - I am definitely a fan of all that stuff and I haven't read any of those books yet! Though I do think I remember Scarred for Life from when the first volume came out, just didn't get round to picking up a copy then forgot about it. Even the front covers are scary 😆

Recently finished Essex Dogs by Dan Jones. A fictionalised account of the adventures of a group of Essex mercenaries during the 100 years war.

A rip roaring tale of battle and pillage, it’s the first of a trilogy and great fun if you like that sort of thing.

In a strange case of synchronicity, podcast The Rest is History is also covering the 100 years war at the moment. Again, very much worth a listen.

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Just finished Bobby Gillespie's autobiography. Was much more interesting than I'd expected. I firmly like the man now.

No, but will check those out.
Gotta confess, I was ready to be impatient and irritated by the genre - I remembered having no time for a Roger Deakin book I was gifted … sorry @jontea : ) but Macfarlane hits just right. And in this one, the notion of
‘ways’ in ancient sea lanes is particularly enthralling.

Did you not find his constant self aggrandisement as some sort of cosmic vibes warrior a bit grating though?

As if he wasn't just aping every Rock 'N Roll cliché going when in reality he was just off his tits?

I dunno. He talks a good job like....

Finished it last night and I'm kinda with you. It was clever and there were bits of it that I really enjoyed, but (and I know this is somewhat the point) it felt like I was just re-reading the same narrative three times.

I'm trying to remember the title and author of a book I read about twenty five years ago. It was set in the downs between Berkshire and Oxfordshire and rather having a single narrative, focused on different events that happened in the area over a period of a few hundred years.

Does this ring a bell with anyone?

No idea, but I can recommend the book I'm reading set between Turin and Triest with no narrative mostly, focused on different events that happened in the area over a period of a few hundred years?

The second last chapter is 'Antholz'!

Anything from here?

https://www.northwessexdowns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ArtandLiterature.docx

It sounds quite ambitious in its scope, was it good?

Thanks Tom, but it’s not mentioned there.

I remember very little about the book but it did describe the landscape beautifully, and I was going to re-read it.

Interesting to read the mention of Stanley Spencer and the Sandham Memorial Chapel. My grandfather was one of the bricklayers who built it, and I went to secondary school in Burghclere so have strong ties to the area.

I’ve often thought about doing a forum ride to Burghclere, possibly via Church Crookham, to see the chapel and Spencer’s work.

Do you remember any specific line or sentence? Might be worth googling as that has worked for song lyrics for me.