What are you reading

[raleighnut]

Just finished the latest John Rebus book, brilliant, no wonder they made him Sir Ian Rankin in 2022

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm reading a biography of Alma Mahler. Sort of turn of the century Viennese "IT Girl" who led a very interesting life in tumultuous times, married several times to variously famous bods including the composer Gustav Mahler. Unfortunately it's quite a thorough biography so does have plenty of boring bits with not a great deal to interest someone superficial like me.

 

[All uphill]

I'm reading a biography of Alma Mahler. Sort of turn of the century Viennese "IT Girl" who led a very interesting life in tumultuous times, married several times to variously famous bods including the composer Gustav Mahler. Unfortunately it's quite a thorough biography so does have plenty of boring bits with not a great deal to interest someone superficial like me.

Imo she was a far better composer than Mr Mahler. I think he probably knew that too.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Imo she was a far better composer than Mr Mahler. I think he probably knew that too.

In the bit I'm reading she's definitely of that opinion. But she's reluctantly accepting of society's view of a "woman's role"

 

[Drago]

In Too Deep, the latest Jack Reacher mindless beat 'em up.

 

[Reynard]

Gave up on the Harry Potter fanfic two thirds of the way through. The quality of the writing and plot deteriorated, and too many Deus Ex Machinas were employed in order for the author to move the story arc along.

Really frustrated after investing the time to read around 300,000 words, but alas meh is meh...

 

[Conrad_K]

I've just finished "The Rainbow and the Rose" by Nevil Shute. His books are very dated with some awful attitudes from our viewpoint. For me, no one can communicate loss so well - I find them very moving.

"On the Beach" was mandatory reading in many American public schools in the 1970s. For 6th-graders. I found it suicidally depressing, and avoided anything by Shute after that.

Many years later I encountered "Trustee from the Toolroom", which was not just better, but downright uplifting, even if it was a bit slow and stodgy by modern standards.

There's a Wikipedia page for the novel, but I suspect the page creator never actually read the book, buy was determined to trash it anyway.

There's a review on the homeshopmachinist forum that's pretty good:

Keith Stewart was one of those pudgy little men nobody thought about much. He had his little workshop in his basement, wrote articles for "Miniature Mechanic", and his wife worked in a shop to make ends meet. He's just barely getting by, but he's doing what he wants to do.

His sister and wealthy brother-in-law plan to sail from England, through the Panama Canal, off to Tahiti, and eventually back and north to Vancouver, where they intend to relocate. At his brother-in-law's request, Keith solders up a sealed box for his sister's jewelry and embeds it into some of the concrete ballast of the boat. Keith agrees to keep his 10-year-old niece until her parents make it to Vancouver.

Months later, word comes that the ship has run into a reef near Tahiti. Two bodies were found, and all that was left of the sailboat are the keel and some concrete bits. Their will makes Keith trustee of his niece's inheritance... all 56 pounds of it. Her parents had apparently sold off everything they had and converted it into diamonds before they left.

That jewelry box belongs to his niece, and it's his duty to retrieve it for her if he can... but Keith is a man who seldom leaves his house. He has no passport, no car, no relatives he can impose on, and almost no money. He doesn't even have any close friends; just some casual acquaintances among the local model engineering hobbyists. So he starts calling up the only people he knows...

Today we'd call it "networking". And that's really what the book is about; how a reputation can precede you, and a dash of "six degrees of separation."

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I am reading Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore. It is different to what I expected. It is more an adventure book for boys. True it has a strong romantic element. It is also historical fiction because it was written in the 19th Century but set in the 17th Century. It is not bad actually.

One of my favourite reads, have read it multiple times ! Was introduced to it 50 years ago as a result of family holidays on Exmoor.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Have just finished Columba’s Bones by David Greig, set on Iona during the times of Norse raids. Part horror part romcom, I found it completely captivating.
Have just started Pat Barker’s Women of Troy, looks very promising.

 

[All uphill]

"On the Beach" was mandatory reading in many American public schools in the 1970s. For 6th-graders. I found it suicidally depressing, and avoided anything by Shute after that.

Many years later I encountered "Trustee from the Toolroom", which was not just better, but downright uplifting, even if it was a bit slow and stodgy by modern standards.

There's a Wikipedia page for the novel, but I suspect the page creator never actually read the book, buy was determined to trash it anyway.

There's a review on the homeshopmachinist forum that's pretty good:

That's one of my favourites!

 

[Marchrider]

Just finished 'The White Queen' by Philippa Gregory, not enjoyed it as much as some of her other more fictional books (Tidelands & The Wise Women, were just brilliant page-turners), but nevertheless an interesting look at the war of the roses from the perspective Edward IV wife Elizebeth. What brutal times, betrayal, backstabbing, murder, what terrible people - the lot of them

Now started something very different - set in a very posh Edinburgh, Isabel Dalhousie and 'the Right Attitude to Rain'.

 

[Profpointy]

Imo she was a far better composer than Mr Mahler. I think he probably knew that too.

I'd not known Alma was also a composer in her own right. Might have to explore a bit given that recommendation

 

[stephec]

I bought this on Wednesday, I'm about halfway through it, around 1967, when he's just making a name for himself.

When you read a book there's usually a voice in your head that you read it with, can you guess who's voice I'm reading this with? 😂

 

[Yellow Fang]

I am reading Blue Moon by Lee Child. Every time I finish reading a Jack Reacher book I wonder how many of Reacher's bastards are running around America. I can imagine one saying, "Tell me about my father, mommy." She would look wistfully into the distance and say something like, "He was a Prince. He was a free spirit. He was too much man for one woman. Blah-di-blah-di-blah."

 

[Yellow Fang]

Just finished the latest John Rebus book, brilliant, no wonder they made him Sir Ian Rankin in 2022

I read one Rebus book. It was alright, but I think Rebus had a lot on his plate. Nazi war spies, Serbian sex traffickers, and the Japanese Yakuza.