What is East Dulwich reading today?

[tinagwee]

a travel book about the aran islands written around 1899 by Jm Synge who also wrote The Playboy of the Western World

[dukesdenver]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

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> I finished No Highway by Neville Shute in the wee,

> small hours of this morning. Very nicely written

> and with splashes of humour, slightly frothy in

> places but not in a yukky way.

>

What are the odds, I too read this a couple of weeks ago, it's a cracker! If you like the old lurid Pan paperbacks they have quite a few other Shutes in the the secondhand bookshop by Balham station. Leave some for me, though!

[TillieTrotter]

Just finished a couple of good 'uns. Dissolution by C.J. Sansom, a murder mystery set in Henry VIII Dissolution of the Monasteries. Very good.

Affinity by Sarah Waters, very sapphic undertones with a great twist at the end.

[Jah Lush]

Currently reading Primary Colours by Anonymous which I got at a Forum book swap. A funny and fast paced political satire.

[Keef]

I'm currently reading this post as I type it.

[Kells]

TillieTrotter Wrote:

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> Just finished a couple of good 'uns. Dissolution

> by C.J. Sansom, a murder mystery set in Henry VIII

> Dissolution of the Monasteries. Very good.

>

> Affinity by Sarah Waters, very sapphic undertones

> with a great twist at the end.

I really didn't like Affinity. But Fingersmith (Sarah Waters again) was amazing, you have to read it. I think it's her best book. But I haven't read NightWatch - has anyone on here?

Currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's easy reading, and I'm not feeling too energetic....

[citizenED]

After such a long time in the reading doldrums, ie never finding a novel that grabbed me enough to take me away on its full fathom fantasy, or not really ever being arsed to make the effort to truly get stuck in, I have just read "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Patrick Gale. It was brilliant. Amazingly structured, brimming with terrific characters and driven along with brooding multi-faceted storylines. Wow. Why did I not know of this guy before? Anyone else read any of his stuff?

[capt_birdseye]

Recently read "Shantaram", not impressed at all. Followed it up with "The Road" having seen it name-checked on this forum a few times, and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Now on "The Damned United" which I'm also loving.

[hannahspanner]

I loved Shantaram totally fell in love the book, was in India at the time so I think that helped.

[SimonM]

Just finished Michael Parkinson's autobiography - which was wonderful.

Now starting Philip Norman's John Lennon biog. - which is enormous!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I have just discovered Jan Struther online. She was the author of "Mrs Miniver", articles in The Times that was made into a film.

They are a delicious slice of the thirties and as they are articles, one can dip in and out.

Not as comfortable as squishing up on a sofa, but unless anyone out there has the book form, I shall continue to peer into the screen.

[Jah Lush]

Just finished Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves and I've just started Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

[Narnia]

I just read Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Garcia Marquez for the second time.

[TillieTrotter]

Has anyone read the Abstinence Teacher? I'm just about to embark and have had a few negative comments on it. I'm not in the mood for a struggle (it's for a book club).

[Sherwick]

I'm reading Ruskie: Beers, Bears & Babushkas by Matthew Francis (a first effort by a very good friend of mine). His style is very much like the late, great Douglas Adams (not quite as good yet of course!). Here's a a description from http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=59114

Ruskie: Beers, Bears & Babushkas shows a picture of Russia, Russian Business and the Russian People as they really are. Admittedly, they don?t all drink copious amounts of Vodka but some of them do. Not all Russian women threaten to cut off their fingers as proof of their love for someone, then again some of them do. In general, Businessmen in Moscow don?t go around shooting their competitors in order to make sure their business succeeds, but, you guessed it, once again some of them still do! Matthew Francis, a young Englishman, arrives to set up a ?Western Style? consulting practice in Moscow and gives a hilarious account of the pleasures and perils of being a Brit in Russia. Faster than a Russian woman chasing a designer handbag, scarier than being threatened by the Moscow Mafia, and sexier than watching Maria Sharapova play tennis in her underwear. Or maybe not! One thing for sure, this is a story of the Real Russia, the Russia you definitely don?t read about in the newspapers!

[bigbadwolf]

Check out the 'Roma sub rosa' series. It follows the exploit/adventures of a detective in ancient Rome. It's by a Texan writer called Steven Saylor.

I don't usually re-read books but I've also just re-finished Alistair Mclean's 'Ice station zebra', a cold war classic!

[Jah Lush]

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Love that book!

Do we need to organise another book swap soon?

[MrBen]

The Rise and Fall...and Rise Again. Gerald Ratner - My Story.

[Marmora Man]

D-Day. Anthony Beevor. Tough reading, particularly recognizing that so many of the frontline troops were no older than my teenage son currently working his way around Europe.

[TillieTrotter]

So, what are we reading at the moment folk?

[Jah Lush]

Just finished John Irving's The Water Method Man which I was a bit disappointed with to be honest. Though quite humorous it wasn't really until towards the end that I finally started to quite enjoy it and which by then was too late. Not one of his best. However, I've just started Let It Bleed, which is another Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus detective novel and I know I'm solid ground here as they never disappoint.

[????]

Sapiens A Brief History of Human Kind - Harari. Great stuff.

Still can't get back into fiction at the moment.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Just finished Penelope Lively's "Ammonites and something else". Most succinct description of the Suez Crisis I've ever read. The rest was a bit meh.

Am two chapters in of "The Last Rosette" by one of the Pullein-Thompson sisters. (Can't be bothered to get up and look which one). Absolutely topping. Not for Aquarius Moon and her ilk though, descriptions of fox hunting and hunt carcasse stores abound. I am transported back to my childhood, and I still want a pony for Christmas.

[steveo]

James Ellroy Quids