November Reading Thread

[Dave Vicks]

GEORGE GURDJIEFF, JG Bennett.

 

[strawman]

Puttering About in a Small Land, The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, Confessions of a Crap Artist – Philip K. Dick

My fondness for Philip K. Dick’s mainstream novels has to do with their evoking 1950s California, which I somehow feel nostalgic about, even though I am not from there and hadn’t even been born then. Although I think he would get that.

I have these four titles and also Mary and the Giant in mind, with Confessions of a Crap Artist being my favourite. If you enjoy odd, interesting, unworldly characters, Jack Isodore is up there with John Kennedy Toole’s Ignatius J. Reilly.

I like it that Dick’s protagonists are typewriter, TV or used car salesmen and suchlike in these and his sci fi books. You can’t get more down-to-earth than these tangible, familiar, domestic items and their vendors. They are so reassuringly familiar and uncomplicated that the reader is seduced by the unthreatening technology of everyday life and the straightforwardness of the character’s job, and the stage is thus set for the weird and the wonderful twists that Dick will now introduce. It just wouldn’t work with an insurance broker, or a banker.

These humble occupations get the characters into other people’s homes and lives, and they are indifferently paid, which means that the character struggles, so the narrative ball is rolling and there’s a tension already.

These books evince a sympathy and celebration of ordinary people in small town America that has a personal appeal for me. Unlike the science fiction novels, which play out brilliant ideas, these narratives are character-driven. And people, Dick finds, are naturally amusing.

The novels are shot through with Dick’s dry yet often gentle humour, in a world and an elegant prose that moves at the pace of a 1950s saloon. When the nutty stuff happens, we can sit back and watch and wonder.

 

[strawman]

GEORGE GURDJIEFF, JG Bennett.

Interesting one, that Bennett. Make of Gurdjieff what you will!

 

[strawman]

Overreach: The Inside Story Of Putin's War Against Ukraine by Owen Matthews
The author has spent 25 years as a correspondent in Moscow and chronicles the first year of the war from his point of view inside Russia. He uses multiple sources (including accounts from former Kremlin insiders) to show us the changing mindset in Russia in the years leading up to the war and tells how old friends suddenly became hostile or reluctant to communicate with him. It's an eye opener even for people who think they keep themselves informed when it comes to this conflict.

It's a clinical and often scary analysis of what is going on in and around the Kremlin and a book I just can't put down.

Interesting: do tell us more if you feel like it when you finish it.

 

[strawman]

Finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre. Just as good the second time (fifth if you include the two adaptations).

I like it that the forum is open-minded and pluralistic when it comes to genre. The main thing is good books, good writing.

 

[Toby Frost]

Richard Morgan's Black Man/Thirteeen is better on a re-read. It's impressively prophetic, not only in its vision of the USA splitting into two rival nations. It was written slightly before the current interest in autism and the like, and the hero's sense of being in a world not built for him seems to echo that idea of mental difference (although he's basically from another, more dangerous, species). In a way it's a shame that it's so violent, as this would put many readers off its interesting ideas.

 

[Foxbat]

Interesting: do tell us more if you feel like it when you finish it.

Enjoying it very much so far and I’ve not even reached halfway yet. The first part is basically a condensed history of Ukraine but it’s about a quarter of the way in that it gets really interesting. From here, it begins an account of significant events from the nineteen nineties up to the war. It also has sections on all the individuals involved on both sides of the divide.

Most significantly, the sections on those within Putin’s small circle of ex-KGB cronies is the most interesting because we in the West know very little about them.

According to my kindle, I’m now 35% through it and learning more every time I get an opportunity to progress further.

Most definitely the most fascinating book I’ve read so far this year.

 

[Danny McG]

Dark Space by Alex Segura and Rob Hart - basic space opera so far, starting to plod a bit

 

[Dave Vicks]

ENDURANCE:By Scott Kelly. 2017
Astronaut memoir.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

My bedtime reading is Viking's Dawn by by Henry Treece. Very enjoyable. Written in 1955, but doesn't seem especially old fashioned.

 

[Danny McG]

Rereading Pratchett, The dark side of the sun.
I always wanted him to write a sequel to this SF story.

 

[Dave Vicks]

AN ASTRONAUT'S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH. Col. Chris Hadfield. 2013.
Audio.

 

[Danny McG]

Another oldie re-read now.
Fredric Brown "Martians go home"

 

[williamjm]

I finished Ben Aaronvitch's novella The Masquerades of Spring. I enjoyed the contrast in narration and setting to the other books in the series, there's definitely a big influence from P.G. Wodehouse in the character of Augustus Berrycloth-Young (and his redoubtable valet) and 1920s New York is a fresh setting for these books. It's also interesting to see a much younger Thomas Nightingale, one that is not yet haunted but still very determined. The central mystery isn't that compelling but the story is a fun read.

I'm now reading another fantasy-themed mystery, Morgan Stang's Murder on Hunter's Eve.

 

[Danny McG]

Hum, by Helen Phillips.
People living in a world of super intelligent robots.

 

[pogopossum]

Reading (mostly for the second time) the Rivers of London series. Looking at the search engine here, there have been raves for these by multiple readers. What I just finished was October Man, a novella set in Trier Germany, but with the same feel, style, action, and humor of the earlier volumes.
Great characters. Generally light and very contemporary, in style and content, with a creative magic that is lovely. However the magic references Brit history going back at least 2,000 years.
Now reading Amongst Our Weapons. which seems to be among the latest (2022) in the series. I have Winters Gift and The Masquerades of Spring (2023 & 2024) on order from the Library. Had to purchase Tales From the Folly as it did not seem to be available as a loan.
Reading about the author he has been in the business for more than 30 years. His credits include, in addition to 20+ Rivers of London, two Dr. Who serials written in the 80s and a bunch of other screenwriting.

 

[Dave]

Reading (mostly for the second time) the Rivers of London series. Looking at the search engine here, there have been raves for a number of the series by multiple readers. What I just finished was October Man, a novella set in Trier Germany, but with the same feel, style, action, and humor of the earlier volumes.
Great characters. Generally light and very contemporary, in style and content, with a creative magic that is lovely. However the magic references Brit history going back at least 2,000 years.
Now reading Amongst Our WEapons. which seems to be among the latest (2022) in the series. I have Winters Gift and The Masquerades of Spring (2023 & 2024) on order from the Library. Had to purchase Tales From the Folly as it did not seem to be available as a loan.
Reading about the author he has been in the business for more than 30 years. His credits include, in addition to 20+ Rivers of London, two Dr. Who serials written in the 80s and a bunch of other screenwriting.

Yes, Amongst Our Weapons was the last that I bought in Hard back and over a year ago, so about time for a new book I want to see what the new baby is like I guess by their titles Winters Gift, and maybe also The Masquerades of Spring reference that.
I thought I had read all except the graphic novels - Is Tales from the Folly one of those. I have nothing against graphic novels but the price of those and of the novellas are very dear for what you get. The October Man novella was good, as was What Abigail Did Last Summer. What I really want to know about is the story behind the Second World War raid on Ettersberg that went wrong. It has been alluded to since the start of the series and I think the graphic novels do cover this bit of back-story.