What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

Arghus

Happy International Book Day people!

The most recent book I read was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - Wow, fantastic book. I'm a rusher through books, I usually have just started something before I'm impatient to get through it and move on to the next read. But, occasionally, I read something that forces me to slow down and savour it - I'd include The Bell Jar in this category. I loved the precision of her descriptions and the vividness of her imagery and metaphors. Loved it. Of course that's the first half of the book - the second half of the book is an extremely harrowing and uncomfortably exact depiction of mental illness, but it's still great writing, no matter how grim it becomes. The best literature for me lets you inside another person's head and to see things through their eyes, in a way that doesn't feel staged or phony. It's a powerful book, highly recommended.

megaten

Arghus wrote: »

Happy International Book Day people!

The most recent book I read was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - Wow, fantastic book. I'm a rusher through books, I usually have just started something before I'm impatient to get through it and move on to the next read. But, occasionally, I read something that forces me to slow down and savour it - I'd include The Bell Jar in this category. I loved the precision of her descriptions and the vividness of her imagery and metaphors. Loved it. Of course that's the first half of the book - the second half of the book is an extremely harrowing and uncomfortably exact depiction of mental illness, but it's still great writing, no matter how grim it becomes. The best literature for me lets you inside another person's head and to see things through their eyes, in a way that doesn't feel staged or phony. It's a powerful book, highly recommended.

Owned the bell jar for years and always put off reading it for hearing how miserable it is so I was saving it for a day I wasn't going to do anything anyways.

Doctor Roast

The Migration Myth, How Uncontrolled, Unrestricted, Unlimited Migration Destroys The West by Joseph R Oxfield

"For decades the Western world has seen inflows of masses and masses of migrants. We have been told this is a good thing, and to embrace it. The migrants, so they say, bring cultural enrichment. They are good for the economy. We need them! Do we, really, though? This book dives into the common arguments used to defend mass migrations. It analyses the rhetoric used by globalists that seek to abolish the nation-state. Does it make sense what they are saying, or does repetition aim to convince us that what they say is true? Many anti-migration politicians and opinionmakers fail to properly explain why they believe migration is the wrong choice. This book will help you explain exactly why none of the arguments in favor of migration are valid, and often times they're not even true. If you do believe migration to be a good thing, then read this book and see if your beliefs are as unshaken as they were the day before.It is beyond all doubt that we are in a struggle between those that favor the nation-state and its national borders, and those internationalists, globalists, or Marxists that wish to tear down the fabric that builds the nation. "

EmmetSpiceland

‘Go home?: The Politics of Immigration Controversies’

By Hannah Jones, Yasmin Gunaratnam, Gargi Bhattacharyya, William Davies, Sukhwant Dhaliwal, Emma Jackson and Roiyah Saltus.

New Home

"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson and "The Solace of Leaving Early" by Haven Kimmel, and to a slightly lesser extent, "Fugitive Pieces" by Anne Michaels did exactly that for me, Arghus.

Doctor Roast

The White ship by Ian Cameron

"It was a treacherous undertaking - an expedition to a glittering ice-capped Antarctic island, ravaged year-round by the primordial fury of the elements, seething with volcanoes ready to unleash their earth-shaping fire, and haunted by subterranean caves that echo with supernatural cries. A place of savage beauty -- and unpredictable terror!

They came in search of the legendary "golden" seals, but cut off from the outside world by the impenetrable ice, they encountered a chilling vision of a ghost-ship on an ill-fated voyage and were forced to relive the past in an ice-bound hell."

4Ad

Eleanor Olephant is fine...
Very funny/deep so far !!

Love You To Death by Michael Clifford. Real life murders in Ireland up to 2008. Actually, very sad and tough reading.

4Ad

4Ad wrote: »

Eleanor Olephant is fine...
Very funny/deep so far !!

This was brilliant I thought..(I read it in just over 24 hours I think..)

I'm currently getting through The name of the rose' by Umberto eco..
It's pretty good..

appledrop

4Ad wrote: »

Eleanor Olephant is fine...
Very funny/deep so far !!

That is an outstanding book, enjoy!

Arghus

Ulverton by Robert Thorpe: A novel set in the fictional English village of Ulverston, with chapters taking place at different historical intervals from the 1600's up until the 1980's. Typically each chapter is first hand account of some residents existence - the neighbour of a soldier returning from the Cromwellian wars, a farmer, a member of the Upper class - the central conceit being that the whole functions as a portrait of a place as time and society moves around it.

It’s an interesting book because of what it does in form - there's huge variation in style and approach in each chapter and the recurring themes and motifs do a good job of making plain the idea of history being a continuous process, where one epoch builds on the other.

But, unfortunately, the book is an absolute chore to read. Some chapters are borderline unreadable - it's almost impossible to follow the stream of conscious dialect that a lot of characters speak with. All very authentic and well researched, but not very enjoyable for a reader. And I don't think there's equal reward for the effort in the end, even if the novel isn't without quality.

Tauriel

Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess.

I found this quite boring to be honest. He pretty much claimed to be as much as a victim himself. He alleges was helpless in preventing mass exterminations in Auschwitz and did his upmost to convince his superiors for more resources to improve camp conditions for prisoners and to remove prison guards that abused their position of power.

bnt

I used to live in South Africa, not far from a town named Ladysmith. There's another town, further away, called Harrismith. Were Lady Smith and Harry Smith related? Yes: Harrismith was named after Sir Harry Smith (1787-1860), quite a remarkable figure who spent two periods in South Africa, the second as the Governor of the Cape Colony. Before that, he was a Captain in Wellington's army during the Napoleonic Wars, and it was during the Peninsular War (against the French in Spain & Portugal) that he met and married a refugee from one battle, Juana María de los Dolores de León. She was Spanish nobility, a descendant of Juan Ponce de León, and was just 14 years old at the time.

This is all background to the book I'm currently reading, The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer, which I sought out because of my interest in this story. It describes the horrendous Battle of Badajoz (1812) which led to their meeting, how they were married just 3 days later, and how Juana refused to be sent away to safety, instead following the army around and supporting her new husband. It's a fictionalised account based on extensive research, about how Juana endeared herself to everyone up to and including the Duke of Wellington, who called her Juanita. The book covers this early period, up until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Graces7

Almost finished " The Seamstress" ; Maria Duenas. Set in prewar , Spanish Civil War and world war 2 era and totally fascinating. A reread.

appledrop

Currently Reading 'The four winds' by Kristin Hannah.

It's fiction but based on Dust Belt and Great Depression in America in 1930s when all land in this area turned to dust and couldn't be farmed.

It's very powerful and sad.

People left the areas in search of better life in cities etc but there was nothing for them.

Doctor Roast

Memoirs of Vidocq: Master of Crime by Eugene Francois Vidocq

"Francois Eugene Vidocq is known as the first detective and father of criminology. His writings have been an inspiration for all detective, mystery and crime stories for the past century ormore. He led a life of adventure as a criminal, soldier, inmate, smuggler, circus performer and secret police spy. Here he becomes a legend in his riotous autobiography of criminal exploits and secret agent work. Renowned as the first detective story, Vidocq's memoirs influenced the likes of Balzac, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allen Poe"

Kewreeuss

Apple TV is going to do Asimov’s Foundation sometime this year, so I’ve downloaded the series and am working my way through the books.
Great read, but has tracts of scientific explanations that I occasionally skip because I want to know what happens next, not the detail

Kewreeuss

Kewreeuss wrote: »

Apple TV is going to do Asimov’s Foundation sometime this year, so I’ve downloaded the series and am working my way through the books.
Great read, but has tracts of scientific explanations.

I'm listening to the audiobooks for my runs, really accessible as sci-fi goes.

Dial Hard

Still on my break from The Mirror and the Light. Started rereading The Dark Tower Series the other week and decided to take a break from *that* after Wizard and Glass. My sister surprised me the other day with Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist, which I was about 2/3s of the way through when I left it in New York last February. Finished that today and have started Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, which I'm bet into already.

Thelonious Monk

60% of mirror and the light, I'm enjoying it but god it's so long. Just behead the f*cker already.

Dial Hard

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

60% of mirror and the light, I'm enjoying it but god it's so long. Just behead the f*cker already.

I'm pretty sure the Biden family bible used for the inauguration was smaller than TM&TL.

Thelonious Monk

Dial Hard wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the Biden family bible used for the inauguration was smaller than TM&TL.

I'm on Kindle so it's hard to even quantify the size

Cheesey Cheese Hood Cheese

Savage Lust (Night Seekers 5) by Desiree Holt

i buy direct to support the artist, always -
https://desireeholt.com/

huffington piece: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/desiree-holt-erotica-sexiest-senior_n_2330890 (in case you thought it was just kindle self publishing)

AlejGuzman68

Arthas Rise of the Lich King,from the world of warcraft series by Christine Golden.

Your Face

The Captain Coignet Notebooks.

"Memoirs of A Soldier of Napoleon's Imperial Guard from the Italian Campaign to Russia and Waterloo"

Tauriel

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Very interesting book that looks at the attitudes of the USSR that contributed to the explosion at Reactor Number 4 and the attempts at covering up the true cause and fallout of the disaster.

"The dramatic true story of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, based on original reporting and interviews with survivors".

Dial Hard

Just finished Bethany Clift's Last One at the Party, it's about a woman who's the sole survivor of a global pandemic.

The main character was so annoying that I was hate-reading it by halfway through. I'd refuse to believe there are people that stupid, lazy and helpless in the world if I hadn't met several over the years. I actively wanted her to die for most of it.

breezy1985

"At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig" by John Gimlette
A journey through Paraguay which is a country I knew nothing about outside of a soccer team. Seems to have been a pretty crazy place for the 19th and 20th century with a string of horrendous dictatorships

gutenberg

appledrop wrote: »

Currently Reading 'The four winds' by Kristin Hannah.

It's fiction but based on Dust Belt and Great Depression in America in 1930s when all land in this area turned to dust and couldn't be farmed.

It's very powerful and sad.

People left the areas in search of better life in cities etc but there was nothing for them.

I have this on my TBR list. I loved her The Nightingale - if you haven't read it, then I really recommend it.

I have two books on the go. One is Jung Chang's Wild Swans. The other is Cal Newport's A World Without Email.

Barna77

Thomas Harding, The House by the Lake

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding traveled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been a holiday home for her and her family, but in the 1930s, she had been forced to flee to England as the Nazis swept to power. Nearly twenty years later, the house was government property and soon to be demolished. It was Harding’s legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over―a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it?

When Harding began to make inquiries, he unearthed secrets that had lain hidden for decades about the lives of the five families who had lived there: a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widow and her children, and a Stasi informant. The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. As its story began to take shape, Harding realized that there was a chance to save it, but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family’s feelings towards their former homeland―and a hatred handed down through the generations

Took me just a week to read it.