January 2016: What Are You Reading?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

During my week away from the computer I read two classics for young readers:

Old Yeller (1956) by Fred Gipson.

Where the Red Fern Grows (1961) by Wilson Rawls.

Both historical novels (the first Texas in the late 1860's, the latter Oklahoma in about 1900), both about a boy and a dog or dogs, both incredibly violent and gory, particularly when it comes to animals.

Kids in the late 1950's and early 1960's must have been tougher than I am now.

I have just started The Sundial (1958) by Shirley Jackson, which appears to be about the world's most dysfunctional family in their vast mansion. At least this one is supposed to be for adults, and is supposed to be scary.

 

[pambaddeley]

During my week away from the computer I read two classics for young readers:

Old Yeller (1956) by Fred Gipson.

Where the Red Fern Grows (1961) by Wilson Rawls.

Both historical novels (the first Texas in the late 1860's, the latter Oklahoma in about 1900), both about a boy and a dog or dogs, both incredibly violent and gory, particularly when it comes to animals.

Kids in the late 1950's and early 1960's must have been tougher than I am now.

I have just started The Sundial (1958) by Shirley Jackson, which appears to be about the world's most dysfunctional family in their vast mansion. At least this one is supposed to be for adults, and is supposed to be scary.

Thanks for mentioning Jackson's book as I wasn't aware of that one. The dysfunctional family story of hers that I have read is We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

 

[tobl]

The end of PoT, you mean, or the end of the trilogy?

the end of the trilogy.

 

[ralphkern]

A certain TBP author's second book. (Cough droflet). You chaps are in for a treat.

 

[pambaddeley]

Read James Blish's A Case of Conscience, then two Jonathan Carroll's - The Land of Laughs and Voice of Our Shadow.

Now on a YA SF tale of Louise Lawrence's - Ben-Harran's Castle.

 

[dask]

Started this the other day. Good so far.

 

[Foxbat]

Just finished Ian Sales' A Prospect Of War and - to be honest - I found initially I wasn't enjoying it very much. It is worth sticking with however because, after about 100 pages or so, it improves significantly and ends up being a pretty decent read.

Now reading The League Of Regrettable Superheroes - a history of comic book heroes that didn't have the longevity of the likes of Batman or Superman...and no wonder with the likes of Fat Man, Captain Tootsie and Doctor Hormone.
Nuff said...

 

[tobl]

Just finished Ian Sales' A Prospect Of War and - to be honest - I found initially I wasn't enjoying it very much. It is worth sticking with however because, after about 100 pages or so, it improves significantly and ends up being a pretty decent read.

Now reading The League Of Regrettable Superheroes - a history of comic book heroes that didn't have the longevity of the likes of Batman or Superman...and no wonder with the likes of Fat Man, Captain Tootsie and Doctor Hormone.
Nuff said...

there are a few books in that general idea like the rules of supervillainy finish the last from mark wayne mcginnis

 

[Randy M.]

Just started The Black Wolf by Galad Elflandsson. I've heard about it for years and thought since it's short I should give it a try.


Randy M.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Thanks for mentioning Jackson's book as I wasn't aware of that one. The dysfunctional family story of hers that I have read is We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Wow. The Sundial was weird even for Shirley Jackson, which is really saying something. It is also so open-ended that I had to do some research to make sure that I wasn't missing a page or two. (My copy ends at the very bottom of page 192, and research indicates that this edition is indeed 192 pages long.) It's difficult to sum up in a few words, but suffice to say that you have a group of not very pleasant people inside a vast mansion expecting the outside world to be destroyed in an apocalypse, all based on a vision one of them had of her dead father. It is also, at times, very funny, but in a very dark way.

 

[Bick]

Read James Blish's A Case of Conscience...

What did you think of this? I was wondering whether to give it a go.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've just finished Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. It was pretty good and quite funny in places, although bizarrely described as "feelgood" in the edition I've got. In some ways, it's actually a rather downbeat book, if a well-written one.

 

[millymollymo]

Mhmm...
Having finished reading a certain author's second book ^^ I'm now starting another one from our 'fold of writers' Heir to the North - now... who the heck wrote it again? Oh that Chopper chap! How could I possibly forget.

 

[pambaddeley]

What did you think of this? I was wondering whether to give it a go.

I found it very much a book of two halves, and after I read it, discovered that part 1, set on the alien planet, was basically a novella published in 1953, which was expanded to novel length by the addition of a second half to show what happened next, set on a dystopian Earth. Unfortunately, although it subsequently won the Hugo in 1959, I found the second half was a real mess. So the first part is quite readable although I don't really get why one particular character reacts the way he does to a certain revelation. Won't say more, not wishing to risk spoilers.

 

[pambaddeley]

Finished a YA SF novel, Ben-Harran's Castle, about the conflict between free will and associated ills, and a protected but soulless society.

Now reading Daphne Du Maurier's The Scapegoat, about a man who meets his double and wakes up after a night's drinking (and probably a Mickey Finn) to find that the other man has cleared off with his car and ID, leaving him to sort out the insuperable problems of his double's public and private life.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Some quickie books:

Gretta the Geep is More Than a Sheep (2010) by Angela Parrino. This is a picture book for young children with a pretty obvious, if very gentle, moral lesson. Be kind to people (well, your fellow animals) even if they make fun of you, and they'll be kind to you. You see, the other children (I mean animals) make fun of Gretta because she's biracial (I mean she's half goat and half sheep; the allegory is pretty obvious.) The weirdest part is when Gretta has a dream about an elderly goat who tells her a big storm is coming so she should warn the others. This turns out to be true, so I have to wonder if this goat is supposed to be a deity figure. Anyway, we only got this because the word "geep" is a sort of private joke around our house.

Signspotting (2011) compiled by Doug Lansky. This is a tiny book of photgraphs of funny signs from around the world. You know the kind of thing; awkward mistranslations ("The melody pet is to here!" from Japan really baffles me), signs that seem to imply something other than what they mean ("Beware of Pedestrians"), odd business names (Fifth Third bank, which is a pretty big chain whose branches I've seen in various places) and the like. Amusing.

Alice's Adventures Under Ground by "Lewis Carroll" (Charles Dodgson.) This is a 2015 edition of the original, handwritten 1864 version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865.) Instead of the author's original illustrations, there are new, pen-and-ink illustrations by Charles Santore, which are excellent. Of interest mostly to Carollians (among whom I number myself) as a embryonic form of the great classic. It's much shorter, and many famous scenes do not appear. (No Mad Tea Party! No Cheshire cat! Much fewer of Carroll's wonderful parodies of poems that were popular at the time.)

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm posting the February thread now...