February, 2024 Reading: "In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." (Blake)
CharlasLiterary Snobs
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1CliffBurns
Made a good start to my reading year in January, hoping to keep up momentum this month with literary fiction, biographies and poetry.
You?
You?
2CliffBurns
Big shout-out to Bill Warren's KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES, the definitive look at SF films of the 1950s, all the bug-eyed monster and flying saucer flicks you know and love.
I picked up the "21st century edition" from the library and it's a monster, over a thousand pages and weighs as much as a small child.
Can't really count it as a read as I've been paging through it, looking for the movies I watched as a kid (ex. "It! The Terror From Beyond Space"), but I gotta say, it's a whole lotta fun.
I picked up the "21st century edition" from the library and it's a monster, over a thousand pages and weighs as much as a small child.
Can't really count it as a read as I've been paging through it, looking for the movies I watched as a kid (ex. "It! The Terror From Beyond Space"), but I gotta say, it's a whole lotta fun.
3mejix
The Glory of Their Times Interviews with Major League players from the early part of the 20th century. Some are very interesting. If you read between the lines it's kind of dark. Stories of poverty and exploitation glazed with old timey music in the audiobook version.
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. Started this one without realizing it was an abridged version. Felt very chopped up and the ending was somewhat abrupt. I was left curious about Merton though, found him an intriguing character.
Currently reading Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase.
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. Started this one without realizing it was an abridged version. Felt very chopped up and the ending was somewhat abrupt. I was left curious about Merton though, found him an intriguing character.
Currently reading Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase.
4CliffBurns
Immersed in a big, fat, smart, literary novel (I'll post about it in a day or two), but yesterday I treated myself to Mervyn Peake's CAPTAIN SLAUGHTERBOARD DROPS ANCHOR.
Peake, of course, wrote the GORMENGHAST trilogy (just gifted to my youngest kid who's getting heavily into fantasy), but this is a children's book, which the author also illustrated. The Dore influences are apparent, as is Peake's love of the grotesque.
Great fun for kids of all ages.
Peake, of course, wrote the GORMENGHAST trilogy (just gifted to my youngest kid who's getting heavily into fantasy), but this is a children's book, which the author also illustrated. The Dore influences are apparent, as is Peake's love of the grotesque.
Great fun for kids of all ages.
5CliffBurns
THE NIX by Nathan Hill.
This is the fat literary novel I referred to in my previous post.
Very, very good. A story employing multiple time periods in order to explain why a woman walked away from her husband and child, never to return, in an attempt to reclaim her life and escape from conformity and bourgeois irrelevance.
Highly recommended.
This is the fat literary novel I referred to in my previous post.
Very, very good. A story employing multiple time periods in order to explain why a woman walked away from her husband and child, never to return, in an attempt to reclaim her life and escape from conformity and bourgeois irrelevance.
Highly recommended.
6CliffBurns
CURSED BUNNY by Bora Chung (translated by Anton Hur).
A collection of short stories and the ideas are certainly odd and eccentric but the writing seems uniformly flat, each of the tales has a similar tone. It could be the fault of the translator but, overall, I thought this book undeserving of the accolades it's received.
Has anyone else read it? I welcome your impressions.
A collection of short stories and the ideas are certainly odd and eccentric but the writing seems uniformly flat, each of the tales has a similar tone. It could be the fault of the translator but, overall, I thought this book undeserving of the accolades it's received.
Has anyone else read it? I welcome your impressions.
8iansales
Reading:
Three to Conquer, Eric Frank Russell - they don't write them like this anymore. Fortunately. A telepathic man in 1980s USA (it's fun counting how many things EFR got wrong), the only one he knows off, fails to save a state trooper who was shot by three mysterious assailants, only to later discover the perpetrators were Venusians who had infiltrated Earth-- sorry, the US, in the guise of the three crew of a secret government mission to Venus (secret? really?). The telepath, a Rational Man down to his toenails, persuades the authorities of the existence of the Venusians infiltrators, and sets out to capture them and foil their fiendish plot. Fast-paced, but complete tosh. Nominated for the Hugo in 1956, but lost to Double Star.
These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs - reading this it occurred to me how many recent space operas are simply copying what Susan R Matthews did 20 years ago. Except she did it better. In the UK, we had New Space Opera, and in the US Matthews was quietly writing highly political space operas with a torturer for a protagonist and a way of referring to space opera tech that avoided all the tropes and clichés that had gone before. And that's what US space opera has become. Banks's acknowledged influence is barely there to be seen, Matthews's unacknowledged influence is everywhere. In this one, the first of a trilogy, humans have settled three planetary systems and are ruled by a three-part government, the Kin, comprising a religious arm, an army of assassins, and a bureaucracy, and a number of powerful families. A generation or so before the book opens, a mining magnate committed genocide by destroying all the settlements on a planet which had been a source of fuel for jump-gates. But this is not your common or garden wiping out of a planet because the inhabitants had their own language and religion and are considered a race apart. Sound familiar? (And especially ironic, after October 2023). One family's power rests on its artificial version of the fuel, and the surviving members of the genocide, who work in the family's factories and are given favoured treatment. This is one of those space operas where all the tech is magical and all the characters are sociopaths. Clarke's dictum has been abused for decades by sf, more so now than ever before. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" is true for anyone not familiar with that technology - but in these space operas, they have people who use and maintain that tech every day, so it won't be fucking "magic" to them, will it? This is not to say These Burning Stars is an especially bad book - it's readable, pacey, inventive within its remit, and competently written. But why can't we have New Space Opera back, instead of these poor copies of the Jurisdiction universe?
The High Crusade, Poul Anderson - a Hugo nominee from 1961 (A Canticle for Leibowitz won) and it was a mixed bunch that year. In this one, aliens land in mediaeval England but are overrun by the local baron and his soldiers, who then seize the alien spaceship. But a plan to use the spaceship to travel to Jerusalem comes a cropper when the spaceship heads out into space and dumps the knight and soldiers on an alien world. Which they then conquer. Because the aliens' technology is no good against lances, longbows and swords. It's all very silly, the cod mediaevalism wears thin very quickly, and the world-building is wafer-thin, as are the characters. It's all told, many decades after the fact, by a monk who accompanied the knight. A short-story idea that might have proven amusing at that length, but is stretched way too thin at novel-length.
The Honourable Schoolboy, John le Carré - the sixth novel featuring George Smiley and the middle book of the "Karla trilogy". It's also the longest book of the series, and the one that would have been the most expensive to film, given it's set in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Haydon, Karla's mole, has gone and now Smiley is in charge of the Circus. A pipeline for funds from Karla to an unknown recipient in Hong Kong comes to light and, after much investigation, Smiley discovers that a high-placed semi-legal businessman in China has a brother who is high in the Chinese government and also a mole for Karla. And the brother wants out. So Smiley kicks off a complicated plot to force the brother out into the open and hence into the hands of MI5. Most of the plan involves Jerry Westerby, a stringer introduced in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, bouncing around south-east Asia, trying to track down those involved in Karla's pipeline. A good book, but overly long and overly complicated - although excellent on its various places. It's easy to see why it's not mentioned as much as the two novels which bookend it.
The Green Man’s Quarry, Juliet E McKenna - the latest in McKenna's loose urban folklore series about Daniel Mackmain, a jobbing carpenter whose mother was a dryad and as a result he can see various creatures from folklore. In this one, a giant cat has been murdering people (wild big cats in the UK are common Silly Season news) but I had not thought there was any connection to English or Scottish folklore. Apparently, there is. Mackmain is asked to stop the murdering panther by a naiad, manages to identify it as a Scottish "cunning man", and so finds himself exploring yet another corner of the mythology of the British Isles. They're very good these books, I recommend them. Fun, well put-together and interesting. Each one stands alone, but you might as well start at the beginning, and then read all the way through to this one. You won't regret it.
Three to Conquer, Eric Frank Russell - they don't write them like this anymore. Fortunately. A telepathic man in 1980s USA (it's fun counting how many things EFR got wrong), the only one he knows off, fails to save a state trooper who was shot by three mysterious assailants, only to later discover the perpetrators were Venusians who had infiltrated Earth-- sorry, the US, in the guise of the three crew of a secret government mission to Venus (secret? really?). The telepath, a Rational Man down to his toenails, persuades the authorities of the existence of the Venusians infiltrators, and sets out to capture them and foil their fiendish plot. Fast-paced, but complete tosh. Nominated for the Hugo in 1956, but lost to Double Star.
These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs - reading this it occurred to me how many recent space operas are simply copying what Susan R Matthews did 20 years ago. Except she did it better. In the UK, we had New Space Opera, and in the US Matthews was quietly writing highly political space operas with a torturer for a protagonist and a way of referring to space opera tech that avoided all the tropes and clichés that had gone before. And that's what US space opera has become. Banks's acknowledged influence is barely there to be seen, Matthews's unacknowledged influence is everywhere. In this one, the first of a trilogy, humans have settled three planetary systems and are ruled by a three-part government, the Kin, comprising a religious arm, an army of assassins, and a bureaucracy, and a number of powerful families. A generation or so before the book opens, a mining magnate committed genocide by destroying all the settlements on a planet which had been a source of fuel for jump-gates. But this is not your common or garden wiping out of a planet because the inhabitants had their own language and religion and are considered a race apart. Sound familiar? (And especially ironic, after October 2023). One family's power rests on its artificial version of the fuel, and the surviving members of the genocide, who work in the family's factories and are given favoured treatment. This is one of those space operas where all the tech is magical and all the characters are sociopaths. Clarke's dictum has been abused for decades by sf, more so now than ever before. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" is true for anyone not familiar with that technology - but in these space operas, they have people who use and maintain that tech every day, so it won't be fucking "magic" to them, will it? This is not to say These Burning Stars is an especially bad book - it's readable, pacey, inventive within its remit, and competently written. But why can't we have New Space Opera back, instead of these poor copies of the Jurisdiction universe?
The High Crusade, Poul Anderson - a Hugo nominee from 1961 (A Canticle for Leibowitz won) and it was a mixed bunch that year. In this one, aliens land in mediaeval England but are overrun by the local baron and his soldiers, who then seize the alien spaceship. But a plan to use the spaceship to travel to Jerusalem comes a cropper when the spaceship heads out into space and dumps the knight and soldiers on an alien world. Which they then conquer. Because the aliens' technology is no good against lances, longbows and swords. It's all very silly, the cod mediaevalism wears thin very quickly, and the world-building is wafer-thin, as are the characters. It's all told, many decades after the fact, by a monk who accompanied the knight. A short-story idea that might have proven amusing at that length, but is stretched way too thin at novel-length.
The Honourable Schoolboy, John le Carré - the sixth novel featuring George Smiley and the middle book of the "Karla trilogy". It's also the longest book of the series, and the one that would have been the most expensive to film, given it's set in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Haydon, Karla's mole, has gone and now Smiley is in charge of the Circus. A pipeline for funds from Karla to an unknown recipient in Hong Kong comes to light and, after much investigation, Smiley discovers that a high-placed semi-legal businessman in China has a brother who is high in the Chinese government and also a mole for Karla. And the brother wants out. So Smiley kicks off a complicated plot to force the brother out into the open and hence into the hands of MI5. Most of the plan involves Jerry Westerby, a stringer introduced in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, bouncing around south-east Asia, trying to track down those involved in Karla's pipeline. A good book, but overly long and overly complicated - although excellent on its various places. It's easy to see why it's not mentioned as much as the two novels which bookend it.
The Green Man’s Quarry, Juliet E McKenna - the latest in McKenna's loose urban folklore series about Daniel Mackmain, a jobbing carpenter whose mother was a dryad and as a result he can see various creatures from folklore. In this one, a giant cat has been murdering people (wild big cats in the UK are common Silly Season news) but I had not thought there was any connection to English or Scottish folklore. Apparently, there is. Mackmain is asked to stop the murdering panther by a naiad, manages to identify it as a Scottish "cunning man", and so finds himself exploring yet another corner of the mythology of the British Isles. They're very good these books, I recommend them. Fun, well put-together and interesting. Each one stands alone, but you might as well start at the beginning, and then read all the way through to this one. You won't regret it.
9CliffBurns
WARTIME LIES by Louis Begley.
Film buffs know this is another "lost Kubrick" film, another project (like the ill-fated "Napoleon") that was dumped in pre-production because a similar or related film preceded it, stealing its thunder.
So I've wanted to read it for ages and glad I finally did. I think its kind of detached p.o.v. (the narrator is a kid clearly traumatized by the things he witnesses daily as he and a brave, resourceful aunt seek to dodge Nazis and informers in war torn Poland) would've suited Kubrick's style.
Not an easy read (surprise, surprise) and frequently gripping. A sense of impending doom hovers over the whole novel, the oppression and dread the characters experience perfectly communicated.
Film buffs know this is another "lost Kubrick" film, another project (like the ill-fated "Napoleon") that was dumped in pre-production because a similar or related film preceded it, stealing its thunder.
So I've wanted to read it for ages and glad I finally did. I think its kind of detached p.o.v. (the narrator is a kid clearly traumatized by the things he witnesses daily as he and a brave, resourceful aunt seek to dodge Nazis and informers in war torn Poland) would've suited Kubrick's style.
Not an easy read (surprise, surprise) and frequently gripping. A sense of impending doom hovers over the whole novel, the oppression and dread the characters experience perfectly communicated.
10CliffBurns
NIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER, a collection of ghost stories by Jeanette Winterson.
A couple of chillers, some of which the author presents as authentic or true-ish. Quite atmospheric at times.
Enjoyable, especially the tales dealing with grief and its mind-bending qualities.
Not great...but a good deal of fun.
A couple of chillers, some of which the author presents as authentic or true-ish. Quite atmospheric at times.
Enjoyable, especially the tales dealing with grief and its mind-bending qualities.
Not great...but a good deal of fun.
11CliffBurns
Last book of the month, Louis Jenkins' WHERE YOUR HOUSE IS NOW.
Another collection of prose poems by a master of that medium.
Funny, evocative and wise.
Terrific book.
Another collection of prose poems by a master of that medium.
Funny, evocative and wise.
Terrific book.
