Recommendations and discussion welcome.

Six of One

Well this is a great idea. I'm often asked, "have you read any good books lately?" and can only remember whatever I'm currently reading!

Have had a look at the pile of books on my shelf and here's some of what I've been reading over the past few months:

The Road; Comac McCarty.
Stranger on a Train; Jenny Diski.
Blood River; Tim Butcher.
The Poisonwood Bible; Barbara Kingsolver.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Mohisin Hamid.
The Sea, The Sea; Iris Murdoch.
Bonfire of the Vanities; Tom Wolfe.
The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde.
The Shock Doctrine; Naoimi Klein.

I'm dipping in and out of:
The New Granta Book of the American Short Story; Richard Ford (ed).
The Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories '04/'05; David Marcis (ed).

And last night I started:
The Memory of Running; Ron McLarty.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction but the Naomi Klein book really made an impact and I would reccommend it to anyone. I ordered 'Enron, the smartest guys in the room', on Amazon last night so will try my hand at a second non-fiction next week. Bought, started and gave up on 'River Kwai Railway' a couple of weeks ago too- not nearly as gripping as I had somehow gathered from the cover!

xebec

The Enron book is a tough read, but it's a great look at what went on back then. Some of the stories about the people are very interesting, although it does get a bit complicated when it goes into detailed discussion of how they hid their losses.

If you find that book interesting, another one I really enjoyed is called Barbarians at the Gate. It's the story of the sale of RJR Nabisco, with different private equity companies bidding for and fighting for the company.

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Finished 'The Memory of Running' today.

It was okay. The main character I found interested and enjoyed getting to know him as his story was told. Norma I hated. The false sentimentality of those godawful phone calls with the silences. A couple of 'yeah right', roll eyes scenarios in the books, shootings, rivers, the boy in the storm. And really- how many people are going to misunderstand you then when all is cleared up go and invite you into their home for a few days? Really? How many? So while I actually did, overall, enjoy the read 'tis not one I would recommend.

Has anyone else read it?

Enron book not arrived yet, but too tired anyway. A short story tonight!

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Moll Flanders; Daniel Defoe.
I love all these old books, even just for the round about back to front way they form sentences. Enjoyed this.

The Grass is Singing; Doris Lessing.
A great read. Expected it to be a more difficult read than it was, read it two sittings and then regreted not making it last longer!

Started the Enron book today, so far so good Xebec!

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Finished 'Enron, the smartest guys in the room', eventually! It really did take me about a month to read it but I'm glad I did. It gives a good insight into how big companies end up getting away with all sorts of shenanigans.

After that I read The Inheritance of Loss; Kiran Desai and am currently reading Natso Kirino's 'Real World'.

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After 'Real World' I read Haruki Murakami's 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman'.

I rarely read the blurb on the back cover of a fiction book. I find plot summaries usually ruin the first quarter of the story so I just start reading. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman was a Christmas present and I just waded right in. Having read 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicle' years ago I expected some level of strangeness, so wasn't suprised that the story seemed all over the place for the first few chapters. After a while though I started thinking, "WTF is going on here?". Then I read the back cover and found out it was a collection of short stories. :rolleyes:D'oh! Once I knew that I enjoyed the rest for what they were.

Currently reading Conor O'Clery's 'May You Live in Interesting Times'.

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The Orchard on Fire; Sheena Mackay.

Revolutionary Road; Richard Yates.
On on reading the line, "You in a trap! You in a trap!" I thought I'm sure I've heard DiCaprio saying that! And yeah, that film that I thought looked like utter crap when I saw the trailer turns out to be based on one of the best novels I've read in ages.

thebang

xebec wrote: »

The Enron book is a tough read, but it's a great look at what went on back then. Some of the stories about the people are very interesting, although it does get a bit complicated when it goes into detailed discussion of how they hid their losses.

If you find that book interesting, another one I really enjoyed is called Barbarians at the Gate. It's the story of the sale of RJR Nabisco, with different private equity companies bidding for and fighting for the company.

Enron was one of the best books I ever read. Its got some great detail and I thought Skilling was great central character.
While things were complex and obtuse, I think that was the whole point and how they pulled the wool over everyones eyes for so long!

Six of One

thebang wrote: »

While things were complex and obtuse, I think that was the whole point and how they pulled the wool over everyones eyes for so long!

Yeah, listening to the recent goings on in the banks, all that borrowing from each other and presenting it differently I was glad to have read Enron and have an insight into how it's possible to get away with things like that, would have been clueless previously.

Just finished The Second Plane; Martin Amis. Different essays and two short stories based aroung September 11th and his general theories around Islamist fundamentalism. I had only read his fiction before, didn't realise he was quite so academic minded.

Started The State of Africa so don't expect to be posting here for a while!

SeekUp

Six of One wrote: »

Revolutionary Road; Richard Yates.
On on reading the line, "You in a trap! You in a trap!" I thought I'm sure I've heard DiCaprio saying that! And yeah, that film that I thought looked like utter crap when I saw the trailer turns out to be based on one of the best novels I've read in ages.

So I just finished Revolutionary Road, and I must say, I'm a bit disappointed. I hadn't heard much about it, but when I told a couple of people that I was reading it, I got a, "Wow, brace yourself," kind of response. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed Yates' style, and I actually was quite drawn in by Frank's character (April, not so much, go figure!), but I got to the end and thought, "Meh, what's next?"

Six of One

Heart of Darkness; Joseph Conrad.
Bill Bryson's African Diary; Bill Bryson.
The Ballroom of Romance and other stories; William Trevor.

Still reading State of Africa. :rolleyes:

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Forgot about Pilo Family Circus; Will Elliot.

imasmeasmecanbe

just finished the destiny of nathalie 'x' by william boyd. a nice collection of short stories

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I went off on my travels and neglected this but may as well resume for 2012!

So for January:

I read the Hunchback of Notredame; Hugo Victor, but have to admit to skipping the long architecture chapter! :eek:

The Reader; Berhard Schlink.

Mister Pip; Lloyd Jones.

The Blind Assasin; Margaret Atwood.

Thoroughly enjoyed each one of those, particularly The Blind Assasin. Have now started '2666', a book that was recommened to me as a big, long lasting read to take travelling but I didn't want to commit to it while abroad, so finally giving it a bash now.

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Still reading 2666 but needed something bus friendly:

A short history of tractors in Ukranian; Marina Lewycka.

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Another travel friendly number while I trudge through 2666:

Every inch of her; Peter Sheridan.
Short answer on that one: Load of crap!