April 2019: Reading Thread

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Hugh

Hugh

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Now that 1st April has been and gone, members may be more likely to feel they will be taken seriously if they post details of what they have read or are reading...
 
I'm still reading Forster's A Passage to India, as I don't seem to have found much reading time recently. About half way through, it is still superb, in both the precision of the prose and the subtlety of the characterisation.
 
I’ve just finished Charles Williams: “The Greater Trumps”, perhaps best described as an occult thriller centred on the Tarot. On my first read I found it disappointing and more than a little clichéd, but, given that Williams is something of a unique character, I decided to persevere and read it again, looking to discard the pot-boiler elements and focus on those parts that might reflect (1) His personal philosophy (2) His understanding of the Tarot. This second read was more worthwhile and I realised that in its way it’s a surprisingly powerful work.
I haven’t been drawn (as yet) to read any other Williams books, but I’m about half-way through the biography by Grevel Lindop, “Charles Williams, The Third Inkling”, and enjoying it much more than I expected (I strongly suspect I got the impulse to read it from @Extollager, so many thanks). As soon as I read that Williams had written a book on the Tarot, I ordered it toute suite. I’ve had a lazy interest in the Waite pack for a long time, and as Williams was a member of Waite’s “Fellowship of the Rosy Cross” for a good few years, reaching a senior level, and also seems to have had access to some “Golden Dawn” material, I was very interested to see how he wrote about the Tarot. In fact he describes nothing that is specific to the Waite pack, but he still manages to dramatise aspects of the Tarot effectively.
 
Hugh said:
I’m about half-way through the biography by Grevel Lindop, “Charles Williams, The Third Inkling”, and enjoying it much more than I expected
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I remember now that's been on my TBR list for some time.
 
You might like it. If you know nothing about him other than from Carpenter's "Inklings", as I did, he's a surprisingly interesting conflicted/ charismatic individual.
 
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I've read a couple of his novels (All Hallows' Eve and Descent to Hell, I think) and his book "Witchcraft", all of which were interesting. Hardly surprising he was conflicted, being a Christian with occult interests.

I'll bump the bio to the top of the list, now you've reminded me of it.
 
I'm starting 'Chiefs' by Stuart Woods. I watched the mini series in the early 1980's and have had this ebook for a long time as it slowly worked it's way up my TBR list.
I've only finished the prologue so far and it's got me hooked in.

I've another book I started this morning, 'The Flower Girls' by Alice Clark-Platts. Loaned from a friend, however I found this book emotionally disturbing after a few chapters (subject matter was too grim) so I've closed it and will return it unfinished.
 
I've finished book 3 of the Murderbot series by Martha Wells; Rogue Protocol. I have immediately ordered and began reading book 4 Exit Strategy. My opinion thus far is that this is a great series. But I have reservations about the 4 novella set up. There is absolutely no significant break break between Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy. It is like moving from chapter 9 in a novel to chapter 10. I'll have more to say when I finish.
 
Brian G Turner said:
plus the writer has a really good voice
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I think that was a guy I heard on Desert Island Discs in late January, and the very natural way he came across made me want to buy his book straight away -- except I then forgot about it during the four-hour car journey.
 
i'm continuing with the 1632 serie by eric flint. it's okay, i mean, it's entertaining but nothing that great
 
starting F. Paul Wilson’s Hosts.

It’s a Repairman Jack book set shortly after the events of The Tomb, so while not a part of his adversary cycle, it is linked.
 
I finished reading The Psychology of Time Travel, by Kate Mascarenhas. It was a cracking good read about Time Travelling and a murder committed by a box that used time travel as a toy. It starts in 1967 and four female scientists who create a time machine. Not bad for a debut author. 9/10.

Now I have started reading Transcription, by Kate Atkinson. This is the second of the book group books. A spy thriller with a twist.
 
Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives ed. by Sarah Weinman. Anthology of 1940s-'70s "domestic" crime stories, in other words, crime/mystery stories written by women at a time when the mystery mostly broke into hardboiled/noir and the puzzle stories of Agatha Christie and her generation of writers. Several of these were first published in EQMM (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) when the digest sized magazine wrestled away rack space form the pulps. Weinman includes stories by well-known writers like Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson, some writers who were well-known like Charlotte Armstrong, and several others with devoted but not large readerships like Nedra Tyre and Celia Fremlin.

Very enjoyable anthology, several of the stories could have been episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and I think one or two were) and there's one that could easily have translated to The Twilight Zone.

Currently following up with a novel by one of the writers included, In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. About 3/4 through it and it's very, very good noir from the 1940s. From what I've read and what I recall of it, the Bogart movie version doesn't do it justice.


Randy M.
 
Hugh said:
I’ve just finished Charles Williams: “The Greater Trumps”, perhaps best described as an occult thriller centred on the Tarot. On my first read I found it disappointing and more than a little clichéd, but, given that Williams is something of a unique character, I decided to persevere and read it again, looking to discard the pot-boiler elements and focus on those parts that might reflect (1) His personal philosophy (2) His understanding of the Tarot. This second read was more worthwhile and I realised that in its way it’s a surprisingly powerful work.
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I love The Greater Trumps (which I think is the first thing I ever read by Williams—I went looking for something by him because of his association with the Inklings, and the combination of that plus the Tarot was irresistible) but I seem to remember being disappointed the first time I read it, too. Which usually doesn't lead to a second read for me, but there were certain scenes that stayed with me, so I read it a second time years and it was a different experience. For me, it's my favorite of those of his books I've read.

I used the Waite pack for about twenty-five years, and it was evident to me that the story was not about that deck at all.
 
dannymcg said:
Have you got the Baen free CD with a lot of those books on?
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sort of... i kinda found the books to listen... that said, i'm not a big fan of alternate historys... the premisse is better in my opinion that the one in david weber's safehold series but it's not earthshattering. and i kinda like the david's series a lot. i finished with hartman wizard series before i beguin with this.... it's called syfy but it's more like star wars and less like star trek
 
dannymcg said:
I tried a couple of them Wizard scout books but I couldn't really get into them . There was nothing wrong with them, they just didn't appeal to me
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yes, they kinda jump all over the place. lots of inobtanium lol frankly i know of one, maybe two authors that made magic and science coexist without great traumas. the rest are flaudering. they should just pick a side lolo i even found one with a great idea that went completely wrong.... it annoyed the hell out of me, because until that momment i really was enjoying the story
 
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