August 2020 Reading Thread

[Extollager]

Current reading includes:

Best Short Stories -- Walter de la Mare
Behold, This Dreamer! -- an anthology with copious discussion by Walter de la Mare
The Treason of Isengard -- J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
Tortured for Christ -- Richard Wurmbrand
The Civil War -- Ward & Burns
The Kraken Wakes -- John Wyndham
Tolkien -- Raymond Edwards

I'm slowly reading Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi occasionally just before lights out. I'm gradually reading the complete Grimms' Fairy Tales.

I expect soon to read The Return, a novel of possession by de la Mare, and Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham (a Campion mystery).

The pre-publication books I have on order are:

Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Rod Dreher's Live Not by Lies
Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas, a revised (again!) edition with new material -- there is a thread on this book here at Chrons. The book is expected in October.

 

[hitmouse]

A friend lent me Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell, and I started that. Good dialogue, but not sure it's my kind of thing.

Also started The Nargun and the Stars by Patricia Wrightson, which very much is. I saw/heard this being read on the BBC's Jackanory in 1976 when I was nine, and it captivated me. A few years ago I bought the paperback, but never got round to reading it. It's brilliant, and loses nothing reading as an adult.

Though I gather it's a classic in Australia, I don't think I've ever heard or seen it mentioned by anyone else my whole life (if not for its run on Jackanory I would be completely unaware of its existence). A huge shame, as it deserves to be much better known.

Not heard of it, but I read Wrightson’s An Older Kind of Magic in 1976, and that was great. I think that was also on Jackanory in the early 70s.

 

[HareBrain]

Not heard of it, but I read Wrightson’s An Older Kind of Magic in 1976, and that was great.

I'll certainly look out more by her after this one.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Just started It's All In The Mind, a biography of British comedy writing legend Larry Stephens, most reknowned perhaps for being Spike Milligan's main writing partner for The Goons.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Not reading any fiction at the moment - I might treat myself to a David Gemmell soon, though.

In the meantime, am reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, a ground-breaking book about tree behavior. It's written in a friendly and affable style that makes for easy-reading, and the insights are certainly interesting.

 

[Danny McG]

In the meantime, am reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

Not that old chestnut!
Is it poplar?

 

[tobl]

so, there's a new anita out and the new john conroe audiobook. by the way, i've considering the idea of jumping into a hole and close it up to escape the covid and other stupidities. how about a list of 10 or 20 books you absolutely would have to have no matter what in the bunker?

 

[Allegra]

Started reading -

It'll be another treat from this witty and intelligent author. I enjoyed all his books that I've read, especially the non-fictions.

 

[Danny McG]

Starting on The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

This got more and more dull, chapter by chapter.
I was screaming at the plot:
"Come on, stop talking about nice things to eat and do something!"

DNF I'm afraid, I got slightly over a third of the way through it before giving up.

 

[Danny McG]

New book now. A crime thriller.

Cry Baby by Mark Billingham

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am about to start the well-known post-modern Western novel Little Big Man (1964) by Thomas Berger.

 

[Bick]

Not that old chestnut!
Is it poplar?

Yew wood think so, but it’s quite plane, and I pre-fir the holly-wood spruce-d up version.

 

[Bick]

I really enjoyed the Haldeman collection Infinite Dreams. It not only collected lots of excellent stories, but Haldeman introduces each one with interesting asides about how they can to be, or what they mean to him. I like this in collections - Asimov did it a good deal of these sort of introductions in his collections.

I’m now turning to Shipwreck, by Charles Logan, which is a well regarded Robinson Crusoe-esque survival novel, set on an alien planet, written in 1975. No FTL it seems, so I’m expecting some nice hard SF .

 

[tobl]

i'm waiting to read a new greig beck and specially a new tom kratman.this really a good month. so.. about that list of books...
1 - heinlein stranger in a strange land
2 - heinlein starship troopers
3 - the comte de monte cristo by dumas
4 - complete works by shakespeare
5 - patrick rothfuss name of the wind

new ideas?

 

[Danny McG]

i'm waiting to read a new greig beck and specially a new tom kratman.this really a good month. so.. about that list of books...
1 - heinlein stranger in a strange land
2 - heinlein starship troopers
3 - the comte de monte cristo by dumas
4 - complete works by shakespeare
5 - patrick rothfuss name of the wind

new ideas?

Is this your "books for in the bunker" list?

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Last week we had our first book group discussion, live with social distancing in place. So I am currently reading A Thousand Ships, by Natalie Haynes. Which is a fictional woman's eye view of Troy and the aftermath. Very gripping so far.

 

[tobl]

i'm waiting to read a new greig beck and specially a new tom kratman.this really a good month. so.. about that list of books...
1 - heinlein stranger in a strange land
2 - heinlein starship troopers
3 - the comte de monte cristo by dumas
4 - complete works by shakespeare
5 - patrick rothfuss name of the wind

new ideas?

yep.
thinking about it i might get some of the world classics like cervantes but for now, i would like to ear some opinions

 

[hitmouse]

Ear ear

 

[tobl]

damn, how could i forget
6 - the christmas carol charles dickens

 

[JadeW]

I'm part an alumni book club, I have to read (I didn't vote for it) All We Ever Wanted by Emily Griffin. I had also started Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld and book two of the Song of the Lioness (In the Hand of the Goddess) by Tamora Pierce.