April Reading Thread

[Vertigo]

I don't know, would they these days? The torch function on my phone is labelled flashlight, and I'm guessing that's the same for all phones, and that's probably what they would use as a torch most of the time.

If only we had some members under 30 we could ask.

(ETA: mind you, you have kids in your household so you might know better.)

My torch function is labelled as "Torch"!

 

[HareBrain]

My torch function is labelled as "Torch"!

Well, that's my argument succinctly destroyed!

 

[Randy M.]

Nah
They're English kids, they'd always call it a torch.
However CJ clearly decided to 'Americanise' the story

Maybe not CJ. Maybe the publisher.

 

[Danny McG]

My torch function is labelled as "Torch"!

Ditto

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started the slim little book Sarah Palin's Expert Guide to Good Grammar: What You Can Learn from Someone Who Doesn't Know Right from Write (2017) by Jenny Baranik, who teaches writing at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, of all places. (Appropriately, the author's photograph on the back of the book is quite stylish, in an Audrey Hepburn sort of way.) The book uses quotes from the politician to teach basic principles of the proper use of the English language.

 

[Parson]

I have started the slim little book Sarah Palin's Expert Guide to Good Grammar: What You Can Learn from Someone Who Doesn't Know Right from Write (2017) by Jenny Baranik, who teaches writing at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, of all places. (Appropriately, the author's photograph on the back of the book is quite stylish, in an Audrey Hepburn sort of way.) The book uses quotes from the politician to teach basic principles of the proper use of the English language.

That sounds too weird to be believed.

 

[Vertigo]

Whilst I've been out in Chamonix for the last three months I've had very little reading time available and even less for writing anything about the books I've read. So here's a quick summary with a few words from my memory of each:

The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke
A classic piece of hard science fiction and mostly wearing its years quite lightly. 4/5 stars

The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O’Brian
Another great volume in the life of Maturin and Aubrey. Sadly, not too many volumes left now; only two more full novels! 4/5 stars

Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland
It took me a little while to get into this one. The initial premise of this tough independent space pilot who still manages to throw all caution to the wind when she meets a handsome stranger just didn’t feel very plausible. But once past that the book lived up to its SF Masterworks status and I ended up thoroughly enjoying this classic space opera. 4/5 stars

Our Lady of the Artilects by Andrew Gillsmith
This started off with an interesting premise; if androids are developed with AI that is comparable to human including empathy then have they got souls? And if so can they be possessed by the devil? Sadly the remainder didn’t quite live up to it. A rather improbably optimistic and slightly strange view of a future cooperating religions, it just got steadily weirder but not in a good way. Ultimately disappointing. 3/4 stars

Kinnara by Kevin Ansbro
Another slightly strange offering from Kevin Ansbro. I first read and enjoyed his book In the Shadow of Time and decided to go back to his debut novel. This, unsurprisingly, doesn’t have quite the polish of his later book and is a little closer to fantasy than magical realism but still enjoyable and generally well written. It does get a little too dark mid-way through with a sequence of coincidences and misunderstanding that rather stretched my suspension of disbelief and the final solution was a bit of a deus ex machina. However, he does write well and engagingly and I will continue to read more of his work. 4/5 stars

Lament for the Fallen by Gavin Chait
This just barely had enough interest to keep me reading until the end but it did have some big issues. An army of 7 enhanced humans who together are more powerful, apparently, than all the armies of the future Earth. And yet one close range shot to the head will incapacitate them! Its utopian and dystopian societies were, I felt, politically very naïve and some distinctly rose tinted glasses were much in evidence. Also, the periodic little stories that were meant to be laden with important meanings just felt rather pretentious. Disappointing. 3/5 stars

The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata
This is my second book from Nagata following a recommendation from Greg Bear; the first book – The Last Good Man – I enjoyed quite a lot but this second one I simply couldn’t get into. The science felt implausible, and I couldn’t relate to any of the characters. Ended up a DNF though it wasn’t all bad. 2/5 stars

MASH by Richard Hooker
I didn’t even know there was a book before the film and TV series! The narration and the dialogue started off very wooden and I couldn’t believe it had spawned the brilliant film and TV material that followed. But, as it progressed, the writing improved and eventually it had me laughing out loud. Interestingly the book is very episodic, and I can see that it was almost certainly more suited to becoming a TV series than the film. There is really no overarching plot but rather a series of short stories or vignettes. Brilliant once it got going it shows all the same juxtaposition of pathos and humour that I remember so vividly from both screen formats. 4/5 stars.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this. Okay it is really just The Martian mark two with added first contact. But ultimately that whole ‘I’m going to science the sh*t out of this’ style of writing with a lot of internal dialogue does seem to be something Weir does very well. Though I’m not sure how many times he can pull it off before it becomes tedious. This time it worked for me; not so sure it will again! 4/5 stars

 

[Danny McG]

Re-read of Death Freak by Clifford Irving and Herbert Buckholz, written in the 1970s.

Fantastical yarn about an American and his Russian opposite number, they both design really unusual killing devices for their spies.

I have the sequel The Sleeping Spy waiting for after this

 

[Dave Vicks]

Currently THE VOICE OF THE VIOLIN,by Andrea Camilleri ,1997.

 

[HareBrain]

Finished Watership Down by Richard Adams. Despite a few odd choices (why give rabbits a language of their own they're no more capable of speaking than English? Why do mice talk with a Spanish accent?) overall I thought this was excellent, with some very strong nature writing that managed to highlight, without intending to, what we've lost since. (For example, the rabbits hear a corncrake at one point -- this was written in 1970-ish, but even by the time I was volunteering on bird reserves in the early 90s, these birds had already become confined to the Hebrides and Ireland.) The rabbits' culture and their folk-tales were brilliantly done, without going to the impossible levels of William Horwood's Duncton moles (some of whom can write). I loved how most rabbits were incapable of understanding something as simple (to us) as the concept of a raft. The omniscient narrator mode might be a hard sell for adult fiction these days, but nothing else could have worked as well.

I might rewatch the 1978 animated film soon.

 

[Bick]

Finished Watership Down by Richard Adams. Despite a few odd choices (why give rabbits a language of their own they're no more capable of speaking than English? Why do mice talk with a Spanish accent?) overall I thought this was excellent, with some very strong nature writing that managed to highlight, without intending to, what we've lost since. (For example, the rabbits hear a corncrake at one point -- this was written in 1970-ish, but even by the time I was volunteering on bird reserves in the early 90s, these birds had already become confined to the Hebrides and Ireland.) The rabbits' culture and their folk-tales were brilliantly done, without going to the impossible levels of William Horwood's Duncton moles (some of whom can write). I loved how most rabbits were incapable of understanding something as simple (to us) as the concept of a raft. The omniscient narrator mode might be a hard sell for adult fiction these days, but nothing else could have worked as well.

I might rewatch the 1978 animated film soon.

You make me want to read it again, HB. It’s a good 40 something years since I read it, so maybe I’m due a re-read. I have to admit to a slight itch to look at Duncton Wood again as well. I don’t know if that would work so well now I’m grey and cynical, but my memory was of enjoying that also. I love the feeling of a pastoral old England those books evoke. A lost England in some places to be sure, but also there to be found off the beaten track if you know where to look.

 

[HareBrain]

It’s a good 40 something years since I read it, so maybe I’m due a re-read.

I think mine was at least thirty, maybe close to forty. I might have avoided rereading because I'd always thought of it as a children's book, having read it in junior school at the age of 10-11 (I remember it was the first book I'd read containing the phrase "piss off!"). But nothing in my recent reading suggested it's primarily for kids. It really is one of those things "for ages 8-80".

 

[Elentarri]

Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith - interesting philosophy/science examination of consciousness, with octopuses.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Up next 2 THE SHADOW radio plays. And a Martin Scorsese film study.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I just finished rereading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. As a result, I'm of the opinion that the book well-rewards a second reading (at the least). The relevance of various characters and events to other persons and events was much clearer this time around, greatly increasing my enjoyment of the story.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading A Queen for all Seasons, by Joanna Lumley.

 

[alexvss]

Returning to Lord of the Flies a couple years after dropping it. The first time I tried to read it, the words just weren’t getting across. It must’ve been my state of mind back then. Now, I’m having a great time reading it. It’s just so addictive, and things keep escalating. One of its many accomplishments is doing escalation just right, at least until the part I’m reading. I’m about 60% in, when the title character appears, and it’s insane--I wasn’t expecting that at all! I look forward to reading the rest of the book.

 

[Danny McG]

Tonight I'm starting Moths by Jane Hannigan.

A pandemic (toxic moths!) has killed most men and turned a lot of the survivors into psycho killers.

The story begins forty plus years later, fortress like institutions (with multiple filter layers) house the remnants of men, women run the world now.

I've got as far as a "how it all began" flashback from the protagonist - she is discussing this strange new disease with a transgender friend.

 

[The Big Peat]

Re Torchgate - My US phone also says torch.


Anyway, I'm reading The Blessing Way by Joe Hillerman to mix things up. Very cleanly written, but not quite drawing me in.

 

[HareBrain]

My US phone also says torch.

Yes, but a big flame comes out of yours.