Ersatz TLS discussion

Hello, everyone. Sorry to have kept you hanging around. In addition to Goodread's crash on Tuesday, I've had an unexpected event of my own and I'm going to be out of circulation until 22nd December. I will leave this thread open until 22nd or 23rd December , and then put up a new thread which will stay open until the new year. Thanks for bearing with me.

Nice to see @Greenfairy back with us, and welcome home to @Andy.

Straight to the books. I have a fistful of good books which I'm reading in fits and starts: A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary, Winter Garden by Beryl Bainbridge, The Wife by Meg Wolitzer and Nigel Slater's The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, Stories and 100 Essential Recipes for Midwinter. A Woman in Berlin, particularly, is brilliant and I suspect everyone else has read it already. And Nigel discussing marzipan is always soothing. (Ahem, almond paste.)

The turn of the season may cause any (?) of us to think about some genre reading. (I used to go for ghosts in December, though rather less so now.) And if you're tempted by some horror at this time of year, ersatz has some recommendations for you. You could start by looking at a strong recommendation from @AB76 of Wieland, or, The Transformation by Charles Brockdon Brown (1798):

this post-revolutionary American tale, set in Pennsylvania …. ... brings anxiety and unease to a former idyll on the outskirts of Philly(the 1798 version). By his style of language, the pacing of events and a constant form of enquiry into illusions vs reality, this is a top notch gothic horror tale, based around suggestion more than reality so far. I feel any horror tale that hovers around "suggestion" is the more unsettling and chilling.

Stylistically, despite the age of the work, it was a very well paced and written novel, there was real skill in the creation of suspense and questioning in the reader of events occurring in rural Pennsylvania over 200 years ago.

Then go on to take a look at @Andy's recommendation of:

The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Vol. 1. This is an excellent anthology of world horror. ... One reason why it works so well is that it encompasses the great variety there is in the genre …. [travelling] the world seeking the folklore and resident evils so integral to the cultures of the countries.

That segues neatly to @Robert's recommendation of The Adventure of the German Student by Washington Irving, which Andy neatly located for free at Gutenberg here:
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/060...

And finish with a final recommendation from Andy of: “Horror-wise, [some of] Angela Carter’s collection in Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories."

So there you have it. Seasonal reading, sorted.

More horror – of a different kind – from @Fuzzywuzz's recommendation of Alan Davies's autobiography, Just Ignore Him:

Alan is an actor/comedian who is best known these days as a panellist on QI, a BBC Series. His story revolved around horrid events in his childhood - an abusive father, indifferent and hostile siblings (particularly his elder brother) and the loss of his mother, when he was 6 years old, to leukaemia.

I finished this book last night and felt emotionally exhausted by the end of it. God knows how Alan came through this. It's amazing how humour can plaster a myriad of distressing events in one's life.

Having something pressed into your hand accompanied by that familiar exhortation, “you must read this” is not an unmixed blessing. Or maybe that's just me? On this occasion though, @Veufveuve is very happy:

Someone I helped out in a very minor way unexpectedly gifted me a book by way of thanks; Italo Calvino's The Complete Cosmicomics - something which I would likely never have chosen for myself, making me doubly grateful.
I  read the first five stories (chapters? I'm not sure) ... this morning - …. [and] I've enjoyed them a great deal so far: funny, sad, intelligent, surprising, and sometimes just rather lovely.

A knotty discussion about the extent to which books are based on writers' personal experiences led to a discussion about great WWI books, kicked off by @FrancesBurgundy's splendid call to arms:

Some great books came out of WW1. My favourite (though I haven't read them all) is Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End. The war parts are based very much on FMF's own war service, and the pre- and post-war parts ring very true. I recently re-read all four volumes consecutively, which was a great experience - reinforcing what I'd said to myself each of the other times I read it - 'this is what it MUST have been like to go through WW1'.

Compare that to Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War - an unconvincing late 20th century imagining of what it was like.

The upshot of all that followed – and I too recommend And Quiet Flows the Don, though I've only read part 1 – is that I now have a desperate yen to read something Russian.

There's something delightful about enthusiastic out and out fandom that's hard to resist, and I was much taken by @Miri and @Hushpuppy's discussion about Dune (and sequel). Not that I understood a lot from their conversation. Anytime Hushpuppy wishes to explain: “I  was not super fond of the image of the fishy Steersman sloshing in his orange tank though” , I'm all ears.

@Paul has been reading a lesser-known John Steinbeck:

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights It sure seemed like a good idea for Steinbeck to try to retell La Morte d'Artur, but he really had no idea how he was going to do it and where he was going to bring it. Only in the last of the 4 stories did you get a sense that it was John Steinbeck recounting the Arthurian legends in his own style. Beforehand, it was just a glorified Cliff's Notes.

The influence of Thomas Malory on Steinbeck seemed clear. Whether it was the roving band of paesanos in Tortilla Flat, or the Round Table of drunks and vagrants in Cannery Row, Steinbeck often mined the idea of noble brotherhood, and destructive adventurism for irony and warmth.

That last story, of Lancelot and Lionel's Quest to escape Peaceful Boredom had that wry, tobacco-tinged humor that characterised Steinbeck's best writing. He hacked and hewed through the morass of Thomas Malory, eschewing the paint-by-numbers repetition. He created a sense of place, identifiable with a landscape, where Malory could only propose flimsy stage backdrops. The Lancelot tale was a glimpse of what could have been, a living representation of Arthurian legend that was lacking from Malory (Chretien de Troyes has more of a sense of being set in the world and not only in legend).

However, it stopped there as Steinbeck ran out of interest or energy or purpose. Clearly a post-humous publication, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, is really unecessary even for completionists. The letters appended to the story, between Steinbeck and his editors do little to show in what direction the book could have developed.

This charming post came from @Shelflife:

Just popping in for a minute to share my delight with Michael Frayn's Headlong, which had been a recent recommend by Georg and Mach - many thanks to you both. I would go so far as to say it's a (highly entertaining) must for anyone interested in paintings - and shrewd observations of people, too, even more so should you appreciate the occasional highly farcical plot element (and narrative).
Reading this book also led to some lovely weightlifting sessions ("lovely weightlifting"? I would never have thought I would find myself combining these two words...) on the sofa with Bruegel's complete works: Bruegel's paintings are explored in erudite and funny detail in Frayn's novel by the protagonist (an academic now leaning towards hapless and clumsy criminal) who wants to find (or believes he has found) the missing key to them all.
I really enjoyed this.

Looks like there are at least two takers for that book so far, and more to come, I should think.

@Russell has been reading Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. (I pause here to note that the Nobel prize has been awarded to sixteen women and one hundred and two men, if my counting's right.) A World of Strangers is his choice:

A convincing picture of a racist society – South Africa in the late 1940s - from the easy opulence of a mining magnate to the bleak townships of “these natives”. Good quality, mid-century writing. You sense at once the confidence of the author, even though it was only her second published novel. The story becomes more engaging as it goes along. She tells it through the eyes of a young Englishman sent out by the family publishing firm. (There are perhaps more details of dress and decoration than might be remarked by a male author, but otherwise the male persona worked well.) The whole story felt deeply authentic.

And finally, I was surprised to see that Andy was reading Just Thieves by George Galloway. My second thought was my surprise just reflected my prejudices and that I should be a bit more open-minded. My third thought was to notice that Andy was, in fact, reading Just Thieves by Gregory Galloway.

Here's wishing us all well for the pre-holiday season marathon. Breathe deeply, and keep a book close to hand.

Happy reading, all.

@Georg - you wrote:

OK, you've decided to move the goalposts from humourlessness being a turn-off to you to black-and-white characters being a turn-off.

Not quite accurate - I added the extra criterion (surely, we make our decisions/judgements on far more than one), but also pointed you in the direction of Dostoyevsky's Bobok, which is a fine example of black humour. However, I must thank you for forcing me to take another look at what I wrote, because as a result I came across this information:

The philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin regarded Bobok as one of the finest works in the literary tradition of Menippean satire, and argues that it encapsulates many of the thematic concerns of Dostoevsky's major novels.

Bakhtin is a name new to me, and has many interesting ideas on Dostoyevsky, which I'll maybe attempt to summarise when I have a spare moment! Cheers for now.

scarletnoir wrote: "@Georg - you wrote:

OK, you've decided to move the goalposts from humourlessness being a turn-off to you to black-and-white characters being a turn-off.

Not quite accurate - I added the extra criterion (surely, we make our decisions/judgements on far more than one)"

On the subject of black and white characters in Le Carré (your primary issue), I don't have much to add on the books per se, having only read the two (TTSP and A Delicate Truth), but I thought the TV adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl was really brilliant and full of shades, so much so that there were a lot of arguments btl arguing in favour or against the very same characters and their motivations. Maybe give that adaptation a try?

(Fab intro as always MsC - I hope the cause of your giant headache buggers off.)

scarletnoir wrote: "@Georg - you wrote:

OK, you've decided to move the goalposts from humourlessness being a turn-off to you to black-and-white characters being a turn-off.

Not quite accurate - I added the extra cri..."

I am glad I occasioned your discovery. It hopefully makes up for my pestering you ;-)
I have looked up Bakhtin on wiki. Didn't have the time to properly read the article, but I think I will get back to it. Sounds really interesting, and I can imagine even exciting to a Dostojewsky aficionado.

Thanks for the "Bobok" recommendation. Found it as a pdf and it is short enough to read online (which I rather dislike). Will report back.

Hushpuppy wrote: "I thought the TV adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl was really brilliant and full of shades, so much so that there were a lot of arguments btl arguing in favour or against the very same characters and their motivations."

Thanks for that... I'd been turned off le Carré by then (or/and it wasn't on a free-to-air platform), so I didn't see it. If it reappears on a channel I can view, I'll certainly give it a try. (I will never change my opinion of the absurd and execrable 'Night Manager', though.)

I probably expressed myself badly in the correspondence with Georg (not surprisingly - I awoke at 02:30), but in my book humourlessness is still definitely one of the biggest turn-offs/no-nos. That still needs some expanding, though. Perhaps 'lightness of touch' - very difficult to define - is more of an essential. If reading a book feels like eating a non-stop diet of porridge, then it's a no from me. On the other hand, 'jokes' don't make a book 'humorous' - I know Kate Atkinson has her admirers, but her 'jokes' are so telegraphed, I really don't find them funny at all. Indeed, I was sort of amused on reading Big Sky that the only halfway decent (and old) joke in the whole thing was told by a stage comedian - and it was clearly intended to come across as a failure. Still better than the author's own jokes, though.

So... on the fly, the criteria which matter to me are: quality writing (using interesting words, but not so that you need a dictionary all the time); creating believable characters - preferably with some depth; humour - or at least, lightness of touch; and plotting - something which is at least half-way possible.

No-nos: dull and/or depressing writing; overkill on vocabulary and/or descriptive writing; total lack of a sense of humour; characters without any depth/back story, and who are instantly identified as 'good' or 'evil' without any ambiguity; anything at all which is 'magic', 'miraculous', or otherwise strictly unbelievable.

Now, not all of these criteria apply in all cases. For example, when reading a simple, straightforward and unambitious crime story, it doesn't matter too much if the baddie is 'really bad' for no clear reason so long as the plotting, pace and quality of writing are acceptable. However, if we are reading a book written by an author with greater literary pretensions, then stricter criteria apply. We expect more from our 'better' writers, and surely that's as it should be. There is no way in which to devise a 'perfect' set of criteria which can encompass all possible writers/books/styles of writing.

Finally - let me make it clear that I do not expect others to share or agree with all of these points - or even not with any of them. Everyone has an absolute right to make up their own mind, and chose their own criteria. I have no wish or intention to impose these ideas on anyone else. As Nietzsche may have written: "I mistrust all systematizers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity." (Since that is a translation, it's likely that something has been lost...)

Georg wrote: " I am glad I occasioned your discovery. It hopefully makes up for my pestering you ;-)."

Well, I admit to having been a little miffed, but then it was in the early hours and my sleep patterns are all over the place ATM, so brain-work and the patience to deal with sophisticated points don't come easily... ;-)

See my comment to Glad. above, which sums up my thoughts... and by all means correct the Nietzche quote, which I've always felt to be possibly inaccurate!

Bottom line: we all like/dislike certain books/authors... we can provide reasons/criteria to explain/justify these preferences.... but finally every individual will have their own trigger points, and will react differently. We can't - and should not - expect others to share all our likes/preferences/criteria... I certainly don't. But I am delighted when I can share enthusiasms with others, and never intentionally upset others by expressing my opinions in a forthright manner.

In our family, we say: "Food is too important to lie about", meaning - if the dish could be better, please say so so that we can make it better next time. Books are too important to lie about, too - even if, without wishing to do so, it ruffles a few feathers from time to time.

@Bill wrote last week:

My wife came across the phrase "millennial ennui" in quotation marks, as if it were a well-recognized phenomena, but I had never encountered it as far as I can recall.

I discovered that it's considered a genre by some readers and, according to this Goodreads list, I've actually read three examples of it.

Never heard of it... people do love to invent 'categories', often based on not much - WTF was 'generation Z' for example? I never found out and it doesn't seem to have affected my life one iota...

As for the books - the only one I read was 'Convenience Store Woman' - not bad, but I wasn't sure where the author would/could go next...

As i enter the last few weeks of 2021 reading, i am down a good 14 books on 2020, which still puzzles me. Its cold and still in the shires, just as i like it

Current reading is:

Conquered City by Victor Serge (1931) - St Petersburg and the terrible years of communist excess is the topic of this novel, the events of 1919-20 as victims are stalked and killed in the new hell of Soviet Russia. Serge conjures up the snow laden and violent streets of the ex-capital of the Russian Empire.

The Steel Spring by Per Wohloo(1968) - is a strikingly modern detective novel about pandemics, environmental issues and morality, gripping so far

I have yet to start it but American Diplomacy by George F Kennan will follow my reading on the DDR.

Not to forget Josephine Peary My Arctic Journal is a fascinating diary of her travels in Greenland with her husband the explorer Robert Peary. The constant supply of animals to be shot and killed can be quite brutal to read but is very much of the time, Peary describes a few incidents where she hunts animals down mercilessly.

Hi All, and thank you Anne for the new thread. I hope your world quickly returns to normal, especially before Christmas.

I lied on the last thread saying I had finished Powers and Thrones, I don't know why I said that. The battery had run down on the e-reader (it is behaving a little erratically) so was waiting for it to charge up again. I am actually on page 467 having just finished the chapter on Builders which makes me want to go and visit all the wonderful cathedrals built around Europe in the Middle Ages. I am totally irreligious (?) but do love to visit such gems of architecture and also castles and their remains, and stately homes. (I get the feeling that Dan Jones has the same sense of awe as I do when seeing them). But then I feel hypocritical when thinking about how the money (and lives) spent on building these could have helped starving destitute people. Speaking of which, the current chapter is called Survivors and starts in the 13teens when several years of failed harvests caused absolute destitution and starvation. As Dan says "Little did he (a writer as the time) know that the worst lay ahead". It was of course the outbreaks of plague which followed.

giveusaclue wrote: "Hi All, and thank you Anne for the new thread. I hope your world quickly returns to normal, especially before Christmas.

I lied on the last thread saying I had finished Powers and Thrones, I don't..."

I hope that you are done with the plague now. The reaction of the lowly members of society wanting more and that of those who had the 'more' reminded me of the current situation - at least in the States where union members are not satisfied with a 3% raise and vote a proposed contract down. And then there's the union effort of Starbucks employees in upstate NY and the reaction against by Starbucks HQ.

Money is one issue and respect seems to be another.

History repeating itself.

AB76 wrote: "...every employee who took sick leave as a "right" and then abused it caused problems for employees as whole."

I'm not sure if that applies, exactly, in the public sector - but that sort of behaviour leaves a bad taste. We had several secretaries in the office - one was off frequently for all sorts of reasons - some probably legitimate, but still... another, older, would stagger in even when looking like death warmed up - she was also our most efficient and conscientious secretary by a long way.

No prizes for guessing which one I respected...

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...every employee who took sick leave as a "right" and then abused it caused problems for employees as whole."

I'm not sure if that applies, exactly, in the public sector - but that s..."
I remember when I first started work in a wages office. We got sick notes in for two warehousemen around March time. Our section leader immediately said "they will both be back on such and such a date" In my innocence I asked how she knew. She said "they always have exactly the number of sick days off that they are entitled to every year,"

Okay UKers ready to attempt to win 10 books? https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/...

MK wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Hi All, and thank you Anne for the new thread. I hope your world quickly returns to normal, especially before Christmas.

I lied on the last thread saying I had finished Powers ..."


Still on the results of the plague!

Money is one issue and respect seems to be another.

History repeating itself.

Human nature repeating itself I am afraid. There have always been the altruistic, the selfish, the lazy and the hardworkers. The ones who try to solve a problem and the ones who blame everyone else.

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Hi All, and thank you Anne for the new thread. I hope your world quickly returns to normal, especially before Christmas.

I lied on the last thread saying I had finis..."

And there are those who are cajoled (at best) or bullied (at worst) to come to work when they are seriously unwell.

It happened to me once. Had I made a mistake it could have been fatal (literary). I would have been the only one responsible for it, the only one who had to live with it..

That only dawned on me later, As well as the fact that, had I made a such a mistake, it could also have cost me everything I had worked hard for. In real terms..

I was cajoled more than bullied. "Taxi service" back and forth provided by a colleague, only five hours ...

It happens a lot in social services. The system fails, the individual is made, and made to feel, responsible.

Would you like to be operated on by a brain surgeon who is unwell and has been dragged ot of his bed because a "job" needs doing?
In that, or similar, cases you'd better start praying.

(CoI: I am neither a brain surgeon nor a social care worker).

Georg wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Hi All, and thank you Anne for the new thread. I hope your world quickly returns to normal, especially before Christmas.

I lied on the last threa..."


Sorry for your rotten experience. It shows that the failings of human nature come at all levels. I do hope you are well now.

I readily admit taking a mental health day here and there. And I don't begrudge anyone who needs a 'me' day.

That said, I had the unique experience of having a large payment for 1/2 my sick leave when I retired from my last position. (I know, I know - I had never heard of such a thing either.)

But back to my original thought and while I know employers can be restrained by rules, I also know if employers treat employees like replaceable widgets, employees quickly learn to take advantage where they can. It may be perverse, but that's being human.

It will be Gustave Flaubert's 200th birthday on 12 December - today I received a newsletter from a publishing house alerting readers to this, and specifically recommending Bouvard and Pécuchet - Bouvard and Pécuchet with The Dictionary of Received Ideas. I think that may be a hint - this one is still on my kanban reading list... Hmmm. I won't manage by 12 December, but it should be less than 200 years!

Edit: Thank you so much for another great intro, MRs C, and I hope you will be much better and de-headached again very soon.

I hope that you like the luminescent mushrooms that I posted on Photos.
Greetings Anne.
Here’s another quote . I expect you will remember who wrote it, known as one of the best love poets but this is different.



Quote for today;

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee

.
(view spoiler)[ John Donne (hide spoiler)]

I suppose this is a bit left field, but it's a lovely story which may be of interest to some of you - about an Indian woman who learns to read at 104 years of age:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

Georg wrote: "And there are those who are cajoled (at best) or bullied (at worst) to come to work when they are seriously unwell.

People should never go to work when they are really ill... mistakes can easily happen, although not usually having such serious possible consequences as in your case. Also, if it's an infection, they can easily pass it on to to others...

On the other hand, it's not acceptable for people to always be skiving off on Fridays or Mondays to make a 'long weekend' - and there are such people, unfortunately.

scarletnoir wrote: "I suppose this is a bit left field, but it's a lovely story which may be of interest to some of you - about an Indian woman who learns to read at 104 years of age:
https://www.theguardian.com/world..."

That is an amazing story, I think I must have something in my eye! Not only is wonderful for her it is a great example to any one else that it is never too late. I am sure there are many in this country who could benefit from this late learning.

"scarletnoir wrote: On the other hand, it's not acceptable for people to always be skiving off on Fridays or Mondays to make a 'long weekend' - and there are such people, unfortunately"

Oh, I came across as few of those throughout my working life. Funnily enough, they were often the ones who did the most moaning when they were at work!

In my recent exchange with @scarletnoir I said there was no humour in "Crime and Punishment".

Scarlet suggested I read Bobok

I did. That doesn't change CaP, but I will never again doubt that the man himself did have a sense of humor.

I really enjoyed that very short but almost perfectly formed short story.

scarletnoir wrote: "I suppose this is a bit left field, but it's a lovely story which may be of interest to some of you - about an Indian woman who learns to read at 104 years of age:
https://www.theguardian.com/world..."

So heartwarming.
On a closer look some things in this story do not add up imo.

I think it is heavily sugarcoated. Like the photo: a woman from a poor background wearing a pristine white gold-trimmed sari while cooking Indian food? Give me a break!

My week of reading has been most enjoyable.

I’ll start with The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga translated by Margaret Sayers Peden.
Quiroga’s own story rivals any of in this collection, though quickly I must add that it was great fun.
Born in Uruguay in 1878 he and his three older brothers barely survived childhood, afflicted with convulsive lung problems throughout. At the age of 5, he was present when an accidental gunshot killed his father. His mother remarried happily, but with Quiroga in his teens, his much admired step-father shot himself. After studying in Montevideo he failed at several jobs, but made good friends, one of whom he shot accidentally, while cleaning a pistol outside his house, another committed suicide. His first wife poisoned herself, leaving him with two young children. He moved to live away from civilisation in the jungle, where he found peace in a hermit-like existence. Along with his children he domesticated wild animals, hunted, even brewed wine. Though he moved back to the city to live in Buenos Aires after he had some success as an author, he returned to live his last days in his beloved jungle, dying at his own hand with a glass of cyanide when in great pain from what is likely to have been prostate cancer in 1937.
It is no surprise therefore that such an eccentric wrote weird fiction.
He wrote stories which, in their jungle settings, used the supernatural and the bizarre to show the struggle of man and animal to survive. This book is an excellent way to be introduced to him. Though some of the stories would be classed as horror (for example, the title story), most reflect his love of animals and nature, and even suitable to be read by small children (the novella Anaconda for example), but as one might expect, all are fascinatingly strange.

It has just been reissued, and the new publication includes some really good illustrations by Ed Lindoff.

And, Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun translated by Janet Hong.
This is an unusually structured crime thriller, told in eight vignettes; three women looking looking back over the course of 17 years, to a tragedy that happened while they were in high school.
Rather than getting to the truth, this deals with the aftermath, and the effect that the crime had on those closely involved.
It is neatly conceived, understated and a refreshing approach to a murder mystery. Despite its slim form, it manages to deal with issues far beyond the murder, for example of class differences, guilt and revenge.

But best of the week for me, has been The Singing Forest by Judith McCormack.

This concerns a young Jewish lawyer, Leah, presented with a transformative case.
In 1937, Stalin’s Politburo ordered a purge of "anti-Soviet elements" in society, targeting anti-Stalin Bolsheviks, former Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, priests, ex-White Army soldiers,and common criminals. At the same time, he also initiated "national operations", which meant the ethnic cleansing of non-Soviet ethnic group, and many of them, but specific to this novel, Jews. During these years, approximately 1.6 million people were arrested, 700,000 were shot, and an unknown number died under NKVD torture.
The novel opens with two young brothers in the forests of Belarus discovering bones which lead to the unearthing of a mass grave. Using accounts from the few survivors, a driver and confession taker for the NKVD, 16 years old at the time, Drozd, now in his 90s, is tracked down and arrested in Canada, where he escaped to in the 1940s.
Leah enters proceedings at a stage when the evidence is to tenuous to convict; those brave enough to speak say only that it ‘may’ have been him.
McCormack interweaves Leah’s own story with that of Drozd, and in doing so examines the difficulties faced in the prosecution of what obviously is a war criminal. It is dark subject matter, but very skilfully handled, and builds to a searing and thought provoking climax.
It is a startlingly humane piece of writing which seems to have snuck under the radar since it’s publication last month and evaded many media reviews as yet.
I thoroughly recommend it.

CCCubbon wrote: "I hope that you like the luminescent mushrooms that I posted on Photos.
Greetings Anne.
Here’s another quote . I expect you will remember who wrote it, known as one of the best love poets but this ..."

probably the first English poem I've ever read. I was about 14. It was the preface (?) of a novel. "Nobody is an Island", written by the not-yet-bestselling author he became, Johannes Mario Simmel ( who was then and still is looked down upon by the literary establishment - idiots).

Sorry for the digression... ->fast forward:

Decades later, starting in 2016, it found a permanent place in my (now somehow bitter) heart.

giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...every employee who took sick leave as a "right" and then abused it caused problems for employees as whole."

I'm not sure if that applies, exactly, in the public..."

that made me laugh!

the other side of the coin was the macho men aged 40-50, who staggered in with bad colds or flu and then bragged about "never taking a day off sick in 20 years", when in reality they were just infecting everyone else and were actually sick and should be off sick.

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "It will be Gustave Flaubert's 200th birthday on 12 December - today I received a newsletter from a publishing house alerting readers to this, and specifically recommending Bouvard and..."

Flaubert in Egypt is on my christmas list....

My Singapore wing of the family have arrived in the UK, isolated, tested negative and now staying with my parents.

Spent a lot of today playing Happy Families, Monopoly, Top Trumps and dancing to music videos. My 5yo nephew is a mini-Michael Jackson, he was really cutting some rug to the LMFAO tune "Party Rock Anthemn", while his uncle and father slowly disintegrated into sweating, panting wrecks. As we finished "shuffling"(the refrain is everybodys shufflin", he moved on to a dance-a long medley, no sign of getting tired!

But i digress, the most wonderful thing is my 8yo niece Ellie is a total bookworm, she got a bookworm prize at school and has been devouiring 250 page novels about witches every few days for 6-7 months. I found her at breakfast tucked in a corner reading a Sebeal Pounder novel....to much hilarity she was found reading Viz after lunch!!!

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "It will be Gustave Flaubert's 200th birthday on 12 December - today I received a newsletter from a publishing house alerting readers to this, and specifically recommending Bouvard and..."

And yesterday (11th) was Naguib Mahfouz's birthday.

AB76 wrote: "that made me laugh!

the other side of the coin was the macho men aged 40-50, who staggered in with bad colds or flu and then bragged about "never taking a day off sick in 20 years", when in reality they were just infecting everyone else and were actually sick and should be off sick."


Can't say I met too many of those!! The opposite of the "manflu" types?

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "that made me laugh!

the other side of the coin was the macho men aged 40-50, who staggered in with bad colds or flu and then bragged about "never taking a day off sick in 20 years", w..."

yeah, ones who thought zero sick leave was an achievment

I've just learned via an acrostic puzzle that there is a 213-page book about the semicolon.

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark

"There was no need to ban this book, people would have read it anyway"

(Heinrich Heine on Karl Immermanns historical tragedy about the struggle for freedom by the Tyrolians under Andreas Hofer).

Via some detours that brought me to read about the long and checkered history of book burnings.
The wiki.de article is better and more extensive than wiki.en, but the latter's "see also" refers to a long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of....

However, the imo most bizarre incident is missing. According to wiki.de:

On December 15, 1935 the representatives of Istanbuls Armenian communities gathered in the Pangalti district to protest against the film adaption of Franz Werfels novel "The Fourty Days of Musa Dagh" that dealt with the Armenian genozide by the "Young Turks" movement during WWI.
A picture of Werfel and his book (in the English edition) were placed on a podium. Asot Kecyan, the Armenian correspondent for the newspapers Azatatar and Norlu set fire to Werfels picture and book while the Turkish national anthem was sung.
This was followed by a statement given by the Patriarch of the Armenian church: "We Armenians live like brothers and sisters in this paradise founded by Ataturk. We show the world that the assassination of our country, as perpetrated by Franz Werfel, calls for death. A curse on all who speak and act against Turkishness."

(a pun could be had cheaply)

Machenbach wrote: "Shame they used a colon in the title; they could have done better.

I bought Index, A History of the recently, mainly as a reward for the titling."

😉 I'll probably end up buying both.

There’s a really good piece in The G written by Felicia Pearson on the great Michael K. Williams, Those That We Lost in 2021. So very sad.
On a brighter note the part played by Pearson (Snoop), must be the most evil female on screen, and with zero previous acting experience.

Anne Rice has died, age 80.
https://twitter.com/i/events/14699424...

Its always nice to start a novel with moderate hopes and become enlivened and satisfied by reading it

The Steel Sping by Per Wohloo is fascinating me. It is a mix of various genres, quietly expressionist, part-sci-fi,part detective novel with themes that are eerily contempary. A mysterious pandemic, curfews, orders to stay at home, environmental pollution and all based in a nameless police state where alcohol is banned.

Wohloo maintains a steady and bleak element of suspense without it becoming too mannered or tedious. Its "cold fiction" where the questions asked arent queried by the author, almost simply observational. Am half way through...

AB76 wrote: "Its always nice to start a novel with moderate hopes and become enlivened and satisfied by reading it

The Steel Sping by Per Wohloo is fascinating me. It is a mix of various genres, quietly expres..."

Ahh... "Wohlhoo",,,

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet

Somebody (you ?) should educate google

Lljones wrote: "I've just learned via an acrostic puzzle that there is a 213-page book about the semicolon.

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark"

I had to look up acrostic; although I think I might give up the semicolons and indexing books given the length of my digital tbr pile already.

I finished reading Uschi Gatward's story collection English Magic today. I enjoyed it very much. Hope to be able to write a bit more about it at a later time.
Just a silly aside comment: Don't read it if you are trying to stop smoking! (I am not, never managed to start smoking in the first place...) It struck me how often people lit up in the various stories (cigarettes, and, just in some stories, the odd joint, too). Apart from this almost common element (? I would have to check again with the first stories), they are very different and impressively versatile, I hasten to add.

Veufveuve wrote:

And yesterday (11th) was Naguib Mahfouz's birthday.

Ah, he is in my TBR sprawl, too, also thanks to AB - thank you for the reminder! I just took The Thief and the Dogs from the shelf, but I decided against it, for now - I need a bit of comfort reading on this lightless day and don't think I can face revenge stories...

So I will reread Britannia Mews instead. I read it by interwar's / Justine's recommendation for the first time, last June: A lovely book - only to be expected.

@ AB: Looking forward to reading your views on Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour!

I am having one of my slowly slowly pace reading times as I run down to my next injection but am finding the latest in the Sam Wyndham books by Abir Mukherjee to be as good, if not better than the previous.

This one is told more from the viewpoint of his assistant Surendranath. Banerjee set in Calcutta in 1923 and I found myself looking at images of places mentioned, learning about oppressive British rule and what people wore.

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "I finished reading Uschi Gatward's story collection English Magic today. I enjoyed it very much. Hope to be able to write a bit more about it at a later time.
Just a silly aside com..."

I hope i get it as Xmas present, have read a lot of French colonial accounts and journals over the last few years and i think Flaubert in Egypt could be a gem!

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Georg wrote: "...Scarlet suggested I read (Dostoyevsky's) Bobok

I did...I really enjoyed that very short but almost perfectly formed short story."

I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I read them too long ago to be certain, but I have a suspicion that there is some dark humour to be found in some other books as well...'Notes from Underground' and 'The House of the Dead', perhaps. It also occurs to me that humour is difficult to translate, and that for all we know there may be rather more to be enjoyed by Russian speakers than is evident in translation.

Slawkenbergius wrote: "The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."

Nice quote... on that basis, my wife will endure as she has planted at least 50 trees, most of which are thriving (and 15m tall or more for the older ones). I, however, shall disappear.

Andy wrote: "There’s a really good piece in The G written by Felicia Pearson on the great Michael K. Williams, Those That We Lost in 2021. So very sad.
On a brighter note the part played by Pearson (Snoop), mu..."

I read that too, yesterday. As soon as I thought of 'Snoop', I thought of 'nail gun'. There were a lot of characters in the Wire who were awful, but Snoop was truly horrifying.