Question What are you reading?

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Wes Streeting's One Boy,Two Bills and a Fry Up: A memoir of growing up <and Getting on:A moving memoir.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Kai Bird & Martin J.Sherwin's American Prometheus:The Truimph and Tragedy OF J:Robert Oppenheimer .A lengthy and fascinating biography.The book on which Chris Nolan's recent film was largely based.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Catherine Taylor's uperb memoir The s :A Memoir in Northern Time set in Sheffield (and Cardiff) in the 70's adn 80's:Very much a female coming of age memoir .Good on the politics and music of the time.

 

[blues exile]

Football Year Book 2023-2024 now branded as Utilta which was formerly Rothmans and then Sky. With over 1000 pages and the print seems to be getting smaller, although might be my age! As usual, a mine of information as well as being an effective door stop.

 

[Tinks]

I have read a couple of his books and just stumbled across this one and thought mmmmmm now who does this make me think of

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Alaster Campell's But What Can i Do?:why politics has gone so wrong and how you can help fix it.

Rather better on the analysis mentioned in the sub-title tnan in answeriing the initial question.Sadly.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Rachel Joyce's The ulikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry.Both moving and uplifting.

 

[Napster]

The God Delusion; excellent read

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

The God Delusion; excellent read

Not everybody knows that Richard Dawkins was the author of this, you know.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Anyone who thinks Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a religous book is mistaken, IMO.The main characeter describes himself as an agnostic.I've been an atheist (Thank God )all my adult life.Personally,FWIW,I'd descibe the book as more of a spiritual quest than anything else, as many books about walking tend to be.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Paul Lynch's momumental Prophet Song.A harrowing dystpoia set in modern day Dublin.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Kazu Ishiguro's wonderful first novel A Pale View of Hills.Bought as a prezzie for my wife (not by me).

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finised Pat Barker's early novel Blow Your House Down.An excellent read.

 

[ThurrockShrimper]

just finished Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5

just started Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

 

[rshepp]

Solzhenitsyn - Lenin in Zurich, a very good insight into Lenin activities during the war just prior to the 1917 revolution.

Tom Clancy - Cardinal in the Kremlin, hard going this one find myself picking it up occasionaly, persevering though because it 600 pages long!!

Just finished. Russian revolution and Civil War. 1917 to 1921.
Blood thirsty lot the Bolshevics.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Bob Mortimer "And Away" autobiography.
Interesting and amusing.

 

[Jacob Sladder]

"Chernobyl" - not my first read on the subject but never fails to shock me as to how close the world came to the other reactors going up and the global-changing devastation that would have occured, save for only the bravery of many and the readiness of seniors to order others to certain death. Truly terrifying.

 

[LCBB72]

The Cockleshell Heroes , C E Lucas Phillips . I know it was first published 67 years ago and have read it a few times , it is still a fantastic read .

 

[Rob Noxious]

Vin C. Smith’s debut novel The Mind of Sky is an enjoyable and ultimately moving story of Valentine Sky’s mental health turmoil amidst the unwelcome care role he has taken on for his cantankerous father Douglas who has drifted into self-neglect due to cognitive impairment.

The story is set in west Cornwall and a diverse cast of characters emerge in Valentine’s life in addition to his previously-established ethereal onlookers of Marx, Freud and Woolf, who cast their watchful eyes and acerbic voices in judgement of Valentine’s activities.

Valentine seeks help via a meditation centre which is governed by a guru-type figure known as The Bhagwan. Valentine’s involvement at the centre leads to a series of events which force him to confront scenarios from his troubled past. A key development in the course of these events is in Valentine’s relationship with the centre’s full-time volunteer, Lowena, who develops an uncanny understanding of Valentine’s demons. The events referred to above conclude in a cathartic denouement during the 'Midsummer Mayhem' gathering of all the novel’s key characters at The Merry Maidens stone circle.

Vin C. Smith is able to convey the world of mental health discord with clarity and understanding. His accomplished use of dialogue provides a strong foundation for conveying the personalities of the characters he portrays and his good use of humour is a pleasing addition to his serious consideration of the psychological issues he has explored here, not least in the fractious relationship Valentine has with Douglas and the difficulties of being a carer whose caring qualities have been adversely affected through his own travails.

The Mind of Sky was published by The Conrad Press earlier this year.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Finally finished Ruvani Ranasinha's over long Hanif Kureishi Writing the Self: A biography.IMO the book suffers from wanting to provide an academic and literary analysis of HK's work as well as a conventional biography.