What are you reading tonight?

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I' ve still got neck-ache from looking up at you..

I was slouching a lot so as not to make BoltonBoris feel short

[TANGODANCER]

Just finished Inside Enemy, a believable John Le Carre style MI6 novel by ex-soldier, foreign-office member, Alan Judd. Has all the ingredients without overkill. Enjoyed. Next up is The Bourne Dominion....

[William the White]

Reading number 2 from the Booker shortlist delivery. Ali Smith's How to be Both. Chapter 2 is set in and around the famous Palazzo Schifanoia in Emilio Romagna with at its heart a reflection on its famous frescoes.

Wow.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ferra ... 1846%3B700" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EverSoYouri]

Reading number 2 from the Booker shortlist delivery. Ali Smith's How to be Both. Chapter 2 is set in and around the famous Palazzo Schifanoia in Emilio Romagna with at its heart a reflection on its famous frescoes.

Wow.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ferra ... 1846%3B700" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ah yes. Is that Brian Sewell I see lurking in a corner..?

[EverSoYouri]

arse!

(or as Bobo would say, adce)

[EverSoYouri]

Cents the lot of you.

Are holes and cents.

Wonkers.

[William the White]

Ali Smith's How to be Both has me awestruck.

Its subject matter is art - and particularly the art of Francesco del Cossa and particularly (though not exclusively) his frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia and a single painting of his in the National Gallery in London.

It is about art and its creation, and art as redemption, art as commerce, art as passion, art as contention, art and politics, art the size of a postcard or art covering a palace wall.

It is also about love, and loss, and bereavement, and gender.

And it is told in two story lines, five centuries apart, one that of a teenage English girl whose mother has died, the other an Italian Renaissance painter.

The prose is often heightened, poetic, arranged in poetic form, with jagged line breaks and insistent rhythms.

I think it's wonderful and hope it can find its readership. (It has a sitting duck target in me!).

The book comes in two versions, the starting story in one being the bereaved English girl (the one i got), in the other del Cossa. The stories intertwine pleasingly.

Hope it wins the Booker next week.

[Prufrock]

Today I finished the first of the Booker delivery. Karen Joy Fowler's We are all completely beside ourselves is, in turn, laugh out loud funny, sad, and uplifting by the end.

It's a story of sibling affection, loss, animal rights and family obligation, with a brilliant twist in the middle.

Very good, earns its place on the shortlist.

Now to choose the next...

Currently 60 pages in. Blasted through in a couple of hours. Reminds me of Gone Girl so far, hopefully isn't so thoroughly disappointing!

[bobo the clown]

Today I finished the first of the Booker delivery. Karen Joy Fowler's We are all completely beside ourselves is, in turn, laugh out loud funny, sad, and uplifting by the end.

It's a story of sibling affection, loss, animal rights and family obligation, with a brilliant twist in the middle.

Very good, earns its place on the shortlist.

Now to choose the next...

Currently 60 pages in. Blasted through in a couple of hours. Reminds me of Gooner Girl so far, hopefully isn't so thoroughly disappointing!

I sorted out that spelling error for you Pru.

You're welcome.

[Prufrock]

you bastard, Sunday night beer escaping through nose.

Speaking of, where is our fav Arsenal fan these days? It's no fun (well, less fun) when they lose if we can't tease her. We need some fun at the moment, this is downright selfish!

[EverSoYouri]

Finally finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Glad to have read it, generally enjoyed it when I picked it up but rarely felt the urge to have to get back to it.

Felt that it opened in sensational style (I mean I was gripped and loved how it was told) - young teen caught up in a terrorist incident at MOMA in New York. Doesn't maintain that pace or the gripping yet clear narrative drive.

Nevetheless, some interesting and strongly drawn characters along the journey and the boy (as he grows into a man) is complex but (just about) likeable.

Philosophising concluding passages a bit indulgent but (probably just about) in character.

Much more rewarding than the last 700+ pager by an American I read (Don DeLillo's Underworld)

Be interested to know what anyone else made of it. This isn't (as you've no doubt sussed) a ringing endorsement, but, even so, I am tempted to read The Secret History.

[William the White]

Looks like i should finish number 3 from the Booker parcel if i can find an hour tomorrow. Joshua Ferris's To rise Again at a Decent Hour has an insomniac - but brilliant - dentist as its hero (so successful has Park Avenue practise and apartment).

He's also a committed atheist who follows a team that doesn't win a thing for 84 years - Boston Red Sox (at this point I'm on his side).

He is an unhappy and unfulfilled man, at the end of a long relationship, whose life seems empty - not that he can be arsed doing much to fill it. Booze and old VHS videos of Red Sox games is what its come down to.

Then, the twist, the inciting incident - his identity is 'stolen' in the sense that someone opens a website purporting to be his practise, then Facebook, using his name, then Twitter and is using them to promote a strange history of a long lost biblical tribe, that may or may not be anti-Semitic.

it starts off as a very funny, satirical look at the 'problem' of being a dentist and rich but lonely in New York. But turns into something more chilling.

[William the White]

Looks like i should finish number 3 from the Booker parcel if i can find an hour tomorrow. Joshua Ferris's To rise Again at a Decent Hour has an insomniac - but brilliant - dentist as its hero (so successful has Park Avenue practise and apartment).

He's also a committed atheist who follows a team that doesn't win a thing for 84 years - Boston Red Sox (at this point I'm on his side).

He is an unhappy and unfulfilled man, at the end of a long relationship, whose life seems empty - not that he can be arsed doing much to fill it. Booze and old VHS videos of Red Sox games is what its come down to.

Then, the twist, the inciting incident - his identity is 'stolen' in the sense that someone opens a website purporting to be his practise, then Facebook, using his name, then Twitter and is using them to promote a strange history of a long lost biblical tribe, that may or may not be anti-Semitic.

it starts off as a very funny, satirical look at the 'problem' of being a dentist and rich but lonely in New York. But turns into something more chilling.

Well, I really enjoyed this book, with reservations about the believability of the theology (an ancient religion founded on the primacy of doubt). It is witty and despairing, which is a good combination, but I liked it most for its brilliant depiction of the agony of following, obsessively, a team that never wins anything... A dubious gift inflicted on our hero by his father, who dies, leaving the boy with the Red Sox. There is a poignant passage when he recounts the emotional turmoil when the Red Sox finally beat their despicable rivals the Yankees and win the world series after 86 years - and even this does not bring back his father.

Good, often very good, but still behind Ali Smith for me in the Booker race.

[EverSoYouri]

Looks like i should finish number 3 from the Booker parcel if i can find an hour tomorrow. Joshua Ferris's To rise Again at a Decent Hour has an insomniac - but brilliant - dentist as its hero (so successful has Park Avenue practise and apartment).

He's also a committed atheist who follows a team that doesn't win a thing for 84 years - Boston Red Sox (at this point I'm on his side).

He is an unhappy and unfulfilled man, at the end of a long relationship, whose life seems empty - not that he can be arsed doing much to fill it. Booze and old VHS videos of Red Sox games is what its come down to.

Then, the twist, the inciting incident - his identity is 'stolen' in the sense that someone opens a website purporting to be his practise, then Facebook, using his name, then Twitter and is using them to promote a strange history of a long lost biblical tribe, that may or may not be anti-Semitic.

it starts off as a very funny, satirical look at the 'problem' of being a dentist and rich but lonely in New York. But turns into something more chilling.

Well, I really enjoyed this book, with reservations about the believability of the theology (an ancient religion founded on the primacy of doubt). It is witty and despairing, which is a good combination, but I liked it most for its brilliant depiction of the agony of following, obsessively, a team that never wins anything... A dubious gift inflicted on our hero by his father, who dies, leaving the boy with the Red Sox. There is a poignant passage when he recounts the emotional turmoil when the Red Sox finally beat their despicable rivals the Yankees and win the world series after 86 years - and even this does not bring back his father.

Is this the 'shot that echoed round the world' game? Also the launch point for Don DeLillo's Underworld

Good, often very good, but still behind Ali Smith for me in the Booker race.

Glad her book is better than her reading (or her interview) on Newsnight tonight.

[Prufrock]

'Shot that echoed around the world' was a smaller game between two non-Yankee New York teams I think. First televised game though, and a thrilling ending. Red Sox won much more recently. Not long after the Moneyball guy turned down the job managing them.

[EverSoYouri]

'Shot that echoed around the world' was a smaller game between two non-Yankee New York teams I think. First televised game though, and a thrilling ending. Red Sox won much more recently. Not long after the Moneyball guy turned down the job managing them.

You're right, Pru, just wiki'd it.

Impressive hyperbole from USA sporting press though re a sport nobody outside USA (oh and Japan) gives a toss about.

[William the White]

Looks like i should finish number 3 from the Booker parcel if i can find an hour tomorrow. Joshua Ferris's To rise Again at a Decent Hour has an insomniac - but brilliant - dentist as its hero (so successful has Park Avenue practise and apartment).

He's also a committed atheist who follows a team that doesn't win a thing for 84 years - Boston Red Sox (at this point I'm on his side).

He is an unhappy and unfulfilled man, at the end of a long relationship, whose life seems empty - not that he can be arsed doing much to fill it. Booze and old VHS videos of Red Sox games is what its come down to.

Then, the twist, the inciting incident - his identity is 'stolen' in the sense that someone opens a website purporting to be his practise, then Facebook, using his name, then Twitter and is using them to promote a strange history of a long lost biblical tribe, that may or may not be anti-Semitic.

it starts off as a very funny, satirical look at the 'problem' of being a dentist and rich but lonely in New York. But turns into something more chilling.

Well, I really enjoyed this book, with reservations about the believability of the theology (an ancient religion founded on the primacy of doubt). It is witty and despairing, which is a good combination, but I liked it most for its brilliant depiction of the agony of following, obsessively, a team that never wins anything... A dubious gift inflicted on our hero by his father, who dies, leaving the boy with the Red Sox. There is a poignant passage when he recounts the emotional turmoil when the Red Sox finally beat their despicable rivals the Yankees and win the world series after 86 years - and even this does not bring back his father.

Is this the 'shot that echoed round the world' game? Also the launch point for Don DeLillo's Underworld

Good, often very good, but still behind Ali Smith for me in the Booker race.

Glad her book is better than her reading (or her interview) on Newsnight tonight.

Yes, that was pretty poor. not that there's any reason why a great writer should be able to read aloud well, or even talk about what she's written.

[Worthy4England]

Berlin Game by Len Deighton. It's not going to make the Booker shortlist - but a good pulp read.

[William the White]

I'm reading Narrow Road to the Deep North by Australian Richard Flanagan.

One hundred pages in and I've already forgiven him for writing the screenplay to the abysmal Australia.

[thebish]

I'm reading Narrow Road to the Deep North by Australian Richard Flanagan.

One hundred pages in and I've already forgiven him for writing the screenplay to the abysmal Australia.

I'm sure that's a weight off his mind!