What are you reading tonight?

[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.

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

Feckin heavy one and all...

[Dujon]

WtW, that made me chuckle. When Australia was being filmed the press here was all over it with incredible hyperbole and cuddling up to the female lead, Nicole Kidman (Parochial? Us?). On release the film critics change their tune smarter than Maxwell could. Boy, oh boy, did it get panned. The incredible fanfare that accompanied the opening faded quickly to a single bullhorn heard at a distance. I haven't seen the film and don't intend to, but the box-office figures seemed to be well below expectations.

I'm pleased that you are appreciating Flanagan's work as he is thought well of in this neck of the woods.

[William the White]

WtW, that made me chuckle. When Australia was being filmed the press here was all over it with incredible hyperbole and cuddling up to the female lead, Nicole Kidman (Parochial? Us?). On release the film critics change their tune smarter than Maxwell could. Boy, oh boy, did it get panned. The incredible fanfare that accompanied the opening faded quickly to a single bullhorn heard at a distance. I haven't seen the film and don't intend to, but the box-office figures seemed to be well below expectations.

I'm pleased that you are appreciating Flanagan's work as he is thought well of in this neck of the woods.

Glad to have made you smile... Narrow Road is a serious booker contender - and I'm only one third through it, but can be sure of that.

[TANGODANCER]

WtW, that made me chuckle. When Australia was being filmed the press here was all over it with incredible hyperbole and cuddling up to the female lead, Nicole Kidman (Parochial? Us?). On release the film critics change their tune smarter than Maxwell could. Boy, oh boy, did it get panned. The incredible fanfare that accompanied the opening faded quickly to a single bullhorn heard at a distance. I haven't seen the film and don't intend to, but the box-office figures seemed to be well below expectations.

I'm pleased that you are appreciating Flanagan's work as he is thought well of in this neck of the woods.

Never mind Dujon. You did have this......

[LeverEnd]

All this talk of Aussie books reminds me The Secret River by Kate Grenville. That was excellent, don't know if it won anything.

[Dujon]

The Secret River won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature; the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (the NSW Premier's Prize); the Community Relations Commission Prize; the Booksellers' Choice Award; the Fellowship of Australian Writers Prize and the Publishing Industry Book of the Year Award.

It was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin prize.

There you go, LeverEnd. It seems you were not alone.

[bobo the clown]

Who wrote "Skippy" ???

[malcd1]

Who wrote "Skippy" ???

It was an autobiography.

[EverSoYouri]

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!

Feckin heavy one and all...

Australia wasn't abysmal. It was fecking hilarious!

[EverSoYouri]

Who wrote "Skippy" ???

It was an autobiography.

[Jugs]

Currently reading Demian by Herman Hesse for a third time. For anyone interested in a character study that charters a young man's self-awareness via the means of curious, strange and often mad men who enlighten him and help him along in his formative years, you might want to check it out. It's influenced by Zen Buddhism, arguments of what is good and what is evil, and how our environment, upbringing and the people we come into contact with shape who we are. It's a short tale, under 200 pages, dark, always weaving between madness and enlightenment. One of Hesse's best.

[TANGODANCER]

I've only just started it, but The Stonehenge Letters isn't a Dan Brown type fictional thriller, but a novel based on The Nobel prizes and the controversy over their awarding process. The author, Harry Karlinsky, uses as his topic the reason why a hero of his, Sigmund Freud was never awarded one. Looks promising.

[TANGODANCER]

I've only just started it, but The Stonehenge Letters isn't a Dan Brown type fictional thriller, but a novel based on The Nobel prizes and the controversy over their awarding process. The author, Harry Karlinsky, uses as his topic the reason why a hero of his, Sigmund Freud was never awarded one. Looks promising.

Finished. A rather unusual but intriguing book about some fascinating people. Alfred Nobel was an amazing man, and the book is a mainly factual relating, with an added question: Is it fact or fiction? that relates to the title subject, Stonehenge. ( this part of the characters involvement with Stonehenge is entirely fictional) Masses of detail and photographs and some very weird facts about Nobel and nitroglycerine and the people in his life. A really good read.

[CAPSLOCK]

Cloud Atlas is the shit.

Got that but keep putting it off in favour of easier looking reads, basically cos I'm a lazy git.
Finished the Robert Harris Dreyfus book, which was very enjoyable.

Cloud Atlas is my favourite so far, Though Ghostwritten is one of the best debut novels I've ever read.

I note the latest didn't make it to the Booker shortlist.

Reet, I'll give it a go

But remember, I know where you live

So, you'll know where to come to borrow the rest of the David Mitchell complete works...

Struggling

Gonna give it one more go

[Bench]

I read Cloud Atlas. Enjoyed it, but can't say I was completely blown away. I got what it was trying to do but didn't think that it drew it altogether that well - in fact, I thought the film did a much better job of doing this.

Just recently read a couple of military autobiographies and now starting (again) on Game of Thrones. Fantastic series.

Another book that I would readily recommend is Replay by Ken Grimwood. A bit like Time Travellers Wife without all the soppy bits.

[William the White]

I finished Narrow road to the Deep North yesterday.

It is harrowing, deeply moving, rich in its use of language - this writer knows how to paint a picture with words.

The central story is absolutely compelling - the tale of the notorious 'Death Railway' that enslaved Australian POWs were forced to construct, its horrors, tortures, beatings, the immense scale of its inhumanity and the fate of those that die, in many grotesque ways, and the fates of those that survive and must still find a purpose to living.

War, brutality, love, redemption, terror - and a powerful heartbeat underpinning it all - this deserved to win the Booker.

The story telling has no tricks, it moves backwards and forwards in time and place, but the reader is always securely anchored. i was pretty much gripped by every page.

I've just given it five stars on the 'goodreads' website.

Despite this, with misgivings and much hesitation, if I'd been on the Booker panel I might still have argued for Ali Smith's How to be both.

[TANGODANCER]

Just finished The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming, a very decent spy novel in the Le Carre mould. Based on the Burgess, McLean, Philby and Blunt scandals etc. Excellent read.

[LeverEnd]

Just finished The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming, a very decent spy novel in the Le Carre mould. Based on the Burgess, McLean, Philby and Blunt scandals etc. Excellent read.

Did you get hold of Harris' Dreyfus novel yet?

[TANGODANCER]

Just finished The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming, a very decent spy novel in the Le Carre mould. Based on the Burgess, McLean, Philby and Blunt scandals etc. Excellent read.

Did you get hold of Harris' Dreyfus novel yet?

No, not yet mate. Been reading other things. Read the reviews and it sounds good. Most things by Harris are. I'll be watching out for it.

[Prufrock]

I finished Narrow road to the Deep North yesterday.

It is harrowing, deeply moving, rich in its use of language - this writer knows how to paint a picture with words.

The central story is absolutely compelling - the tale of the notorious 'Death Railway' that enslaved Australian POWs were forced to construct, its horrors, tortures, beatings, the immense scale of its inhumanity and the fate of those that die, in many grotesque ways, and the fates of those that survive and must still find a purpose to living.

War, brutality, love, redemption, terror - and a powerful heartbeat underpinning it all - this deserved to win the Booker.

The story telling has no tricks, it moves backwards and forwards in time and place, but the reader is always securely anchored. i was pretty much gripped by every page.

I've just given it five stars on the 'goodreads' website.

Despite this, with misgivings and much hesitation, if I'd been on the Booker panel I might still have argued for Ali Smith's How to be both.

Am saving this till last now it's been announced.

Yesterday I finished To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. Least fav of the three I've got through.

So far:

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - loved the first half, chatty but sharp. Then, as always seems to happen, came 'the twist'. An unexpected one for me, but thankfully believable. Second half saw it somehow descend into the stuff of teen crime thriller though. Sounds harsh because I enjoyed it!

How to be Both - fav of the three. The messing with form stuff was hit and miss. Liked the boy/girl thing they both had, less keen on the gimmick of the two halves being interchangeable. I too got the modern but first, and am convinced she thought of it the other way around. You only read it once, so it adds nothing! Meant there could be no real crossover between the two halves because you can' rely on the reader having read the bit you need them to have. Despite that I rally enjoyed it. Dancing between art, gender roles in two different centuries, with a bit of grief thrown in too. Probably my fav of the three I've read so far, but not a great one for me.

To Rise Again... - irritated me. I should like it, and it started well, but for some reason it turned into a plot-driven novel, with a f*cking stupid plot. It also tried to make some bullshit pseudo-psychological point at the end. Ugh. It also grates when authors try to coin their own phrases for technology and yoof stuff. So the first time he called a phone a 'me-machine' I smiled; when he did it on page 300 I grimaced.

Despite all that, it was saved by two redeeming features. The first was the description of a rant as 'Hitchensian'; the second (which he ruins, btw) is his telling of Paul's relationship with his baseball team. This in particular, though a different team in a different sport, seemed particularly apt for a certain set of arseholes down the road:

"I didn't want my team to lose; i just didn't want my team to be the de facto winner. We already had a team that swaggered around as the de facto winner, that pinched players and purchased their pennants. It was less our duty, as Red Sox fans, to root for Boston than it was to ensure in some deeply moral way - and I really mean it when I say it was a moral act, a principled act of human decency - that we not resemble the New York Yankees in any respect".



Also, read Hitchens' Mortality over the weekend. F*ck me. His usual brilliance sharpened by the knowledge he has cancer. And then his wife's epilogue after he died writing it. One of those 'something in my eye' moments.