August Reading Thread

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HareBrain said:
I've now moved on to Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds, a text-heavy graphic novel I got on spec from the library.
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Wow, this turned out to be superb, and one of my best reads in years. It's a slice-of-life about a young woman who marries a divorced Londoner and then moves with him to a cottage in Normandy, largely as seen through the eyes of a local baker and neighbour who becomes convinced she is doomed to suffer the fate of her literary near-namesake. The format is a collage of diary entries, comic strip, text sections and illustrations, and is possibly unique to Simmonds (I've only otherwise seen her much later Cassandra Darke). She handles it superbly -- her drawing is light and characterful, and the whole thing is really satisfying, intriguing and witty. I'm now going to reread Cassandra Darke and then search out everything else Simmonds has published.

I've also started The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, by Alan Sillitoe.
 
HareBrain said:
It's a slice-of-life about a young woman who marries a divorced Londoner and then moves with him to a cottage in Normandy, largely as seen through the eyes of a local baker and neighbour who becomes convinced she is doomed to suffer the fate of her literary near-namesake.
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I was thinking this was made into a film starring Roger Allam, and therefore might be worth seeing, but I got the wrong work by Simmonds -- he was in Tamara Drewe, the summary of which doesn't have the same appeal. (Both films starred Gemma Arterton, which is probably why I got confused!)
 
The Judge said:
I was thinking this was made into a film starring Roger Allam, and therefore might be worth seeing, but I got the wrong work by Simmonds -- he was in Tamara Drewe, the summary of which doesn't have the same appeal. (Both films starred Gemma Arterton, which is probably why I got confused!)
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I had no idea it was made into a film. I can't see it working anywhere near as well outside of its original format (and IMDB users who rated the film 6.4/10 seem to have agreed).
 
Finished a popular science book:
Nursery Earth: The Wondrous Lives of Baby Animals and the Extraordinary Ways They Shape Our World by Danna Staaf
This is a nicely written book that provides a broad overview of the development and life of baby animals: everything from eggs, pregnancy (not just for mammals), how baby animals grow and what they eat (including their siblings), how their parents take care of them (or not), larval stages and metamorphosis, juveniles etc. The majority of examples are of invertebrate animals (creepy crawlies, squid, snails etc) with the occasional fish, bird and marsupial thrown in. There are also numerous black and white photographs and illustrations with a handful of colour photographs. The contents of the book is very interesting, but I did miss the inclusion of the more cute and fluffy baby animals.​
 
I'm having a try at Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.
An account of the African-American female mathematicians employed in the early segregated days at NASA.
 
THE DEVILS CANDY, Julie Salamon. 2008
About the making of the film BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES.
 
Finished:

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber
A light and fluffy magical realism novel where everyone is very agreeable and disgustingly happy. ;)

The French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert
A broad overview of the French Revolution from the meeting of the Estates General to the emergence of Napoleon, covering approximately 10 years of French history. Very bloody, messy and psychotic ten years. The main characters and events are described, with an accompanying time line at the back. A comprehensive, if somewhat exhausting (no fault of the author, just too many people doing crazy things), book.

To quote Tallyrand (man of many talents and positions, one of which is keeping his head, while everyone else is losing theirs): "Treason is merely a matter of dates".
 
Elentarri said:
To quote Tallyrand (man of many talents and positions, one of which is keeping his head, while everyone else is losing theirs): "Treason is merely a matter of dates".
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And lack of success -- as the poet John Harington put it:

Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?​
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.​
 
HareBrain said:
I'm now going to reread Cassandra Darke and then search out everything else Simmonds has published.
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Cassandra Darke was very good. The art is superb and the characterisation of the lead is little short of genius: a grumpy misanthrope art dealer convicted of fraud, who has no pity for anyone, least of all (which is what makes it work) herself. Her change of heart, and the wrap-up of the plot, is perhaps handled a bit quickly, though, and overall it isn't as good or inventive as Gemma Bovery, which is a shame almost twenty years on. It looks like Tamara Drewe is Simmonds's only other full-length adult work, which I've ordered from the library.

In the meantime, searching around for something near my bed, I picked up a 1931 schools edition of Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, which I bought at a National Trust secondhand bookshop and have never read. Much better so far than I expected.
 
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

If I had only read the synopsis about the megacorporations ruling earth, I probably would have just skipped over this one, but I enjoyed it. There are some shades of Starship Troopers, Forever War, and Armor.
 
I've read a couple of these in the past but I'm making a start on Blood Sympathy, the first of the five books written by Reginald Hill about his balding and black ex lathe operator from a council flat in Luton.
To make ends meet Joe Sixsmith is trying his hand as a private investigator, however he finds himself involved in a murder, instead of his usual routine of serving bailiff notices and taking photos for divorce cases
 
I just read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Matheson wrote the book in 1954 two years before his excellent The Shrinking Man. Set in a postapocalyptic future, Matheson spins this exciting horror tale around the last surviving human - Robert Neville - who hides out at night in his boarded up house, from hoards of vampires that wish to kill him for his blood. This book differs from the common treatment of vampires, as they are envisaged to arise from a bacterial plague, with scientific justification for their powers and weaknesses. Moreover, this is not a tale of one vampire amidst a sea of humanity, but a sea of vampires surrounding a single hold-out survivor. The book is short, but it packs quite a punch, and would serve as a good exemplar for modern writers who feel the need to write huge tomes to encompass their ideas. Matheson has stacked this with subtle philosophy, as we hear Neville's thought's and appreciate his worries. As with The Shrinking Man, the central theme of the book is isolation from humanity; loneliness and the need for society are explored, as well as simply taking us on an exciting ride. Neville's nervous deliberations, his ambitions, and his despair ring true, and he's one of the most well-developed characters in SF.

I'm now reading The Collected Stories, Volume 3, by Somerset Maugham. These are the Ashenden tales, originally collect in the book Ashenden, but now part of the four-volume collected short fiction. Back in the day, Ashenden was the only spy fiction in existence really (so claimed fan Raymond Chandler). They are pretty good stories, and it's good to get back to Maugham.
 
Finished The Worlds Of Frank Herbert, a collection of well told sf stories from the fifties and sixties. Now starting this:
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HareBrain said:
In the meantime, searching around for something near my bed, I picked up a 1931 schools edition of Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, which I bought at a National Trust secondhand bookshop and have never read. Much better so far than I expected.
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Bah, it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to be about myths and folklore (as the first chapter was) but was mostly a history lesson for kids, so I gave up.

Started a reread of the Akira manga. Not sure how long this will last. Too much action-for-the-sake-of-it for my current taste.
 
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