The SMB Book thread

Recently discovered Stories Of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang:

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It's a collection of short stories (the titled story is the one that inspired the movie Arrival) and I really enjoyed it... great stories and characters throughout.
 


TartanMackem said:
My pace is slowing as the weather gets better, but just finished my 23rd book of the year this morning.

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, Stephen Kinzer - 9/10

So after Chomsky and a few other books brought incidents to my attention that I'd never known about previously - US intervention in Guatemala and Nicaragua - I decided to learn more about the USA and the CIA's interference in the world. And wow. I'd always assumed that most of this stuff was a large part conspiracy-theory and over-egged for Hollywood films, but it seems that the information is publicly available and undeniable. And with some pretty gruesome consequences for an awful lot of people. 14 countries have had governments overthrown by the USA, and of those 14 only really Hawaii and Grenada could argue that they benefitted. This book does a pretty good job of going through most of them and explaining the reasons behind them. **Spoiler alert** the reasons are almost always: Big business, communist paranoia, and bloodymindedness.

So if you ever want to know why most of the world hates the USA (and to a slightly lesser extent also the UK) then this book will lay it all out for you.


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The regime change bunch were caught leaving the whitehouse backdoor after a meeting with trump a few months back.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 8/10
Rated his masterpiece by some critics. An overdose of graphic violence - as always with McCarthy - but with a religious sub-theme. That's where this didn't quite do it for me (and is probably the reason why it's highly rated). It's my seventh McCarthy. I wouldn't start here here (No Country for Old Men is probably the best way in), but still essential reading if you're into his work.

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enjoyed that too. Not easy reading at times but a bit of a modern day classic
 
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. Picked up on the back of a thread @RestlessNatives started 're. comic novels and it is indeed very funny without ever straying into slapstick. Main theme, I suppose, is unconventional lives and the vagaries of getting bogged down in philosophy. However it isn't heavy going and would definitely recommend. 8/10.
 
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James Swain - The King Tides
I gave up after a couple of chapters. Far too cliched with clunky dialogue, almost as if a bot has written it guessing how hard nosed detectives are meant to speak.
This is just a random selection from the first two chapters.
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It was free as part of the Amazon Prime First promotion but you'd hope that if they are promoting half a dozen books a month, there'd be some sort of quality threshold.
The protagonist has always had a beer belly, even when he was the best ever Navy Seal.:lol: I suspect the author is trying to justify himself being a bit of a chubster.
2/10
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 8/10
Rated his masterpiece by some critics. An overdose of graphic violence - as always with McCarthy - but with a religious sub-theme. That's where this didn't quite do it for me (and is probably the reason why it's highly rated). It's my seventh McCarthy. I wouldn't start here here (No Country for Old Men is probably the best way in), but still essential reading if you're into his work.
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I say old boy, just chosen some holiday reading, being The Fan Man by Kotzwinkle, Willard and his Bowling Trophies by Brautigan, and The Dead Father by Barthlelme.

Don't suppose you'd like to pitch another to the list?
 
Thackeray said:
I say old boy, just chosen some holiday reading, being The Fan Man by Kotzwinkle, Willard and his Bowling Trophies by Brautigan, and The Dead Father by Barthlelme.

Don't suppose you'd like to pitch another to the list?
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Some good stuff there. (I read Brautigan's A Confederate General from Big Sur a couple of months ago - wild, man.)

Have you read any Tom Robbins? Skinny Legs and All, Still Life with Woodpecker, and Jitterbug Perfume are all great. Definitely a touch of Brautigan, but spun off in inventive directions.

One of the best books I've read this year is Something Happened by Joseph Heller. 500 pages in which not much happens (but you keep reading because he's never less than interesting) then something happens and for the last 30 pages you're in WTF shock. Incredible book.

I'm currently working my way through the Graham Greenes I hadn't got round to. Travels with my Aunt and The Captain and the Enemy would both make great holiday reads.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
One of the best books I've read this year is Something Happened by Joseph Heller. 500 pages in which not much happens (but you keep reading because he's never less than interesting) then something happens and for the last 30 pages you're in WTF shock. Incredible book.
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Great book. Possibly better than Catch 22, though I'm not sure I could bring myself to read it again.
 
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner 6/10
This is on the Man Booker longlist. I suspect it ticked all the right boxes: women striking back against men; the complications of being trans in the US prison system. Well written and easy to read, but perhaps a tad lightweight to be up for a prize for literary fiction. (That said, the inclusion this year of a graphic novel has perhaps holed the Booker's literary pretentions below the waterline.)

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Turning Blue - Benjamin Myers 6/10
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As I said on my review of The Gallows Pole, I don't believe Myers' refusal to use certain forms of punctuation adds anything and merely leaves you confused and distracted.
That aside there are a lot of positives about this book. His description of the Yorkshire countryside is stunning yet again. The Steven Rutter character is well developed and the story does keep you turning the pages but I feel that it lacks something.
Anybody who has read David Peace's Red Riding quartet will feel the story has already been done to a large extent. There are quite a lot of plot holes which you can sort of accept but a purist police procedural fan won't be happy.
Is the Larry Lister (Jimmy Savile) character an overdone cliche?
The two main characters, Brindle and Mace, have the potential to have depth but never quite get past two dimensional. I always struggle with characters who are journalists struggling to write a novel, especially when the author is a former journalist.
Myers is a good writer and his style is winning accolades and awards everywhere but I do think this novel would benefit from using the time spent obsessing about punctuation elsewhere.
 
Arkle said:
The Shadow District - Arnaldur Indridason

The first of a new series from the Icelandic scandi-noir author. This one flits between the current(ish) day and 1944, when Iceland was occupied by US forces. In the current day, retired police detective Konrad pieces together the clues to find the killer of an old man. In 1944, an Icelandic police detective, Flovent, and a US army liaison, Thorson, try to find the killer of a young woman found strangled behind the Iceland National Theatre. How are the cases connected?

Indridasson is a solid writer of detective fiction and this is pretty much up to standard. The twin storylines are well handled and Konrad looks to be a good successor to Indridason's previous focal point, Erlandur. 8/10
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Read this a few months ago liked it a lot (but I like most of his) - what was interesting is realising how 'backward" Iceland was until WWII (if thats the right phrase)
 
Six Four - Hideo Yokoyama 3/10

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Six Four is a dull, overly long, and repetitive book. Coming in at over 600 pages, I found it a struggle almost from the off. The author has a habit of reiterating information repeatedly and spelling out every aspect of the protagonist's work in needless painstaking detail. I found the book to be drawn out and it was a chore to finish. Although there was a brief spark of interest around the final 70 pages or so, the author soon wrung any enjoyment out of the scenario by returning to his exhaustive descriptions of police procedure and thought processes.

Nothing about the book rang true for me. The conversations felt forced and unrealistic and the situations certain characters found themselves in were obviously shoehorned into the narrative for the purpose of providing a reason for the twist near the end.

I have a terrible history with finding enjoyment from translated books. I tend to avoid them as I feel a translator who had no input in the actual writing of the story often fails to carry the true meaning of the author's original vision. This effort is, unfortunately, no different. Often huge swathes of text in Six Four make little to no sense or lack clarity, giving the impression that the translator was struggling to convert one language to another and plumped for a best fit option, with very limited success. I picked this book up against my better judgement and it has only reiterated my aversion to reading novels originally written in a foreign language.

Additionally, I fear this book suffers from Increased Score for Being From Japan Syndrome. I somehow fail to believe that a book so long-winded and laborious would be praised so highly if it was penned by a Brit, for example, but as the author is Japanese, he benefits from the mystique and reputation that is associated with his country of birth. Controversial I know, but I feel the same can be said of the work of Murukami which I also find beyond tedious.

Overall, I find this a hard book to recommend. It is far too long, frequently pushes the boundary of plausibility, and the writing style/translation is dry and uninteresting. Possibly one for ardent Japanophiles only.
 
Italian Outcast said:
Read this a few months ago liked it a lot (but I like most of his) - what was interesting is realising how 'backward" Iceland was until WWII (if thats the right phrase)
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Yeah. The war really brought Iceland forward, I guess in part due to outsider involvement (British then US troops). I get the impression that away from the larger cities that a rural way of life was still the norm until much later as well.
 
RestlessNatives said:
Turning Blue - Benjamin Myers 6/10
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As I said on my review of The Gallows Pole, I don't believe Myers' refusal to use certain forms of punctuation adds anything and merely leaves you confused and distracted.
That aside there are a lot of positives about this book. His description of the Yorkshire countryside is stunning yet again. The Steven Rutter character is well developed and the story does keep you turning the pages but I feel that it lacks something.
Anybody who has read David Peace's Red Riding quartet will feel the story has already been done to a large extent. There are quite a lot of plot holes which you can sort of accept but a purist police procedural fan won't be happy.
Is the Larry Lister (Jimmy Savile) character an overdone cliche?
The two main characters, Brindle and Mace, have the potential to have depth but never quite get past two dimensional. I always struggle with characters who are journalists struggling to write a novel, especially when the author is a former journalist.
Myers is a good writer and his style is winning accolades and awards everywhere but I do think this novel would benefit from using the time spent obsessing about punctuation elsewhere.
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The one I rated above is also a police procedural by an ex-journalist. It was terrible. :lol:
 
RestlessNatives said:
Turning Blue - Benjamin Myers 6/10
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As I said on my review of The Gallows Pole, I don't believe Myers' refusal to use certain forms of punctuation adds anything and merely leaves you confused and distracted.
That aside there are a lot of positives about this book. His description of the Yorkshire countryside is stunning yet again. The Steven Rutter character is well developed and the story does keep you turning the pages but I feel that it lacks something.
Anybody who has read David Peace's Red Riding quartet will feel the story has already been done to a large extent. There are quite a lot of plot holes which you can sort of accept but a purist police procedural fan won't be happy.
Is the Larry Lister (Jimmy Savile) character an overdone cliche?
The two main characters, Brindle and Mace, have the potential to have depth but never quite get past two dimensional. I always struggle with characters who are journalists struggling to write a novel, especially when the author is a former journalist.
Myers is a good writer and his style is winning accolades and awards everywhere but I do think this novel would benefit from using the time spent obsessing about punctuation elsewhere.
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Agreeing to disagree on Ben Myers again I think, I’d have rated Turning Blue a lot more than 6. Only Pig Iron I enjoyed more actually. He signed a two book deal with Bloomsbury today.
 
Jasper said:
Agreeing to disagree on Ben Myers again I think, I’d have rated Turning Blue a lot more than 6. Only Pig Iron I enjoyed more actually. He signed a two book deal with Bloomsbury today.
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I'd originally given it a seven and it had a lot of good points but when I sat down to write what I thought, there was too much I disliked. Maybe I was being a bit harsh in focusing on what I disliked more than what I liked.
I wish him well, he comes across a decent bloke and he is obviously very good at what he does, it just doesn't quite hit the spot for me.
 
RestlessNatives said:
I'd originally given it a seven and it had a lot of good points but when I sat down to write what I thought, there was too much I disliked. Maybe I was being a bit harsh in focusing on what I disliked more than what I liked.
I wish him well, he comes across a decent bloke and he is obviously very good at what he does, it just doesn't quite hit the spot for me.
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I haven’t got round to reading your books yet like so if they’re better than his I reserve the right to accept my wrongness :lol:
 

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