The "I am currently reading" thread

[horribleblob]

A  current discussion on SF has led me to dig out my thirty year old, dusty and foxed, copies of Daughters of Rachel: Women in Israel by Natalie Rein, and Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape by Susan Brownmiller. A daunting weekend read and not books I'd thought I'd revisit.

[wearysmith]

Talking of digging out.... a recent loft rediscovery.

 

I read this as a young teenager. Even at the time I was aware that it was comedy/satire, but still thought it close to the knuckle. But back then I was the 14 year old boy looking at the 16 year old girls in school longingly. 

 

I wonder how his sell to publishers these days would go? "It's a comedy about a male teacher in an all-girls school who sleeps with many of the (sometimes underage) pupils....". I very much doubt it'd be picked up for distribution and Mr Thomas would probably find Plod knocking on his door.

 

To say its of its age is an extreme understatement.

 

There's parts that I grinned at but it has not aged well. The past really was a different country (that I survived!)

 

[feargal]

Blimey, that looks very dated Wearysmith! 🤨

 

I've just started Kill the Father by Sandrone Dazieri.  I'm hoping it's going to be good as it's one of a trilogy.

[Bargepole23]

58 minutes ago, feargal said:

Blimey, that looks very dated Wearysmith! 🤨

 

I've just started Kill the Father by Sandrone Dazieri.  I'm hoping it's going to be good as it's one of a trilogy.

Read all three, great trilogy, great choice 👍 

[wearysmith]

2 hours ago, feargal said:

Blimey, that looks very dated Wearysmith! 🤨

 

 

Bought it new in '72. I was 14. I'd already read 'Virgin Soldiers' as we'd been doing it in English (at King Ted's), and 'Orange Wednesday'. He became a favourite author of mine. I maintain that his 'Arrivals And Departures' is one of the best books ever published about relationships.

 

This copy got passed around a few friends and rellies, then packed away for loft storage. When I left home it came with me to Gleadless, straight into another loft 😀. The pages are browning, but it's still in reasonable nick.

[Rockers rule]

On 18/11/2023 at 15:39, wearysmith said:

Talking of digging out.... a recent loft rediscovery.

 

I read this as a young teenager. Even at the time I was aware that it was comedy/satire, but still thought it close to the knuckle. But back then I was the 14 year old boy looking at the 16 year old girls in school longingly. 

 

I wonder how his sell to publishers these days would go? "It's a comedy about a male teacher in an all-girls school who sleeps with many of the (sometimes underage) pupils....". I very much doubt it'd be picked up for distribution and Mr Thomas would probably find Plod knocking on his door.

 

To say its of its age is an extreme understatement.

 

There's parts that I grinned at but it has not aged well. The past really was a different country (that I survived!)

 

I'm not going in't attic but have a copy up there.

Loved the bit with the protractive on teachers mopeds silencer  😄.

 

Still have all my NEL 'Hells Angel'  'Biker' books. 

[Top4719]

Winter of the World by Ken Follett, great books these, they weave fictional stories around actual historical events, this starts in 1933 and spans the second world war, a great read.

[metalman]

The usual mix of old and new crime, mostly.

 

Robert B. Parker - Bad business. When Spenser tails a man in a divorce case, he uncovers a web of corporate wife-swapping and murder. As good as always.

Barbara Paul - Kill Fee. Editor Leon  wants to eliminate his magazine's co-owner. When someone does it for him, he's initially pleased, but then he gets a bill. Another really ingenious crime novel from this versatile author.

Richard Hull - A Matter of Nerves. Village butcher is butchered... but which of the inhabitants of a row of new bungalows did it? Somewhat grittier than Hull's earlier books but still entertainingly told.

Joyce Porter - Dover Two. Girl in industrial Northern town is shot, remains in a coma for months and is then murdered in the hospital. Doesn't sound amusing but it is because it's the Yard's fattest, laziest detective Wilfred Dover who bungles his way to the answer. Excellent.

Keigo Higashino - Salvation of a saint. Man poisoned with arsenic while alone in his flat. Did his wife do it and if so, how, as she was hundreds of miles away at the time? Detective Kusanagi and his physics professor friend Yukawa work it out. Another insanely clever howdunnit.

Ross Macdonald - The drowning pool. Family matriarch drowned in swimming pool, but as usual with Lew Archer on the case the body count doesn't stop there. Up to his usual standard.

Sheila Stewart - Country Kate. Reminiscences from the Warwickshire village of Long Compton in the early part of the last century. Excellent.

Elly Griffiths - The dark angel. Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and her on-off lover DCI Nelson decamp to Italy on the flimsiest of pretexts and find a murder there. Actually this was one of the better ones in terms of the motive making vague sense.

John Buxton Hilton - Rescue from the Rose. Inspector Brunt investigates the murder of a barmaid in a pub in Buxton in 1911. Cleverly done period setting.

P. G. Wodehouse - Piccadilly Jim. Party animal Jimmy Crocker turns over a new leaf and somehow ends up impersonating himself in New York. Excellent as usual.

 

Now reading: Agatha Christie - The thirteen problems. 13 short mysteries solved by Miss Marple. What more can you say?

 

[feargal]

On 19/11/2023 at 10:19, Bargepole23 said:

Read all three, great trilogy, great choice 👍 

Ooh, I enjoyed this so much! I've ordered the next one from the library 

[Guest]

Just finished Prayer For The Dead by James Oswald, book five in the Inspector McLean series.  Even with a supernatural element much reduced from previous books in the series, I was enjoying it thoroughly until the the last couple of chapters when it suddenly sprouted more loose ends than an old sock attacked by a swarm of moths and a pack of enthusiastic kittens.  And the solution was due more to luck than good management.  A wee bit disappointing following nine tenths of such a good, solid, well-told tale.