Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[rebelstar]

Probably right to, although there's not a huge amount of actual factual spoilerage in there. Sorry, I'd thought by now it would probably be safe. Mea culpa.

Not a problem - my own fault for being tardy, if anything...

[GundamGuy_UK]

I've got about 14 hours of train to look forward to over the next few days, so I picked up the late and great Michael Crichton's Airframe while I was in town.

[Sostie]

Her name was Marguerite de Bonneville and the bar was Marie's Crisis Cafe. He did keep his British citizenship, apparently because he felt the American Constitution was such an abhorrent document (because of the language in it that condone the owning of slaves) that he refused to become a citizen of the USA.

Thanks Rach. Those were two points that really stuck in my head, yet contradicted in he book. The differences are interesting

According to the book Bonneville did stay with him during his last months, but Paine was actually looked after by a woman called Hedden. Also the site of Marie's Crisis Cafe was not previously Bonneville's farm but that of a friend of Paine's law partner. Seems she was a bit of a hinderence to Paine - having promised to look after her and her children, she refused to help out at his farm, look for work, and decided that she'd rather live in the city, so had Paine pay for her to stay in one of New York's top hotels. She almost bankrupted him!

The question of his US citizenship wasn't mentioned either. Except when he was in prison in France where there were questions over whether he was a French or US citizen. Paine fought to be considred a US citizen - the reason he was sent to prison!

Guess no one will know what really happened..

[widowspider]

Thanks Rach. Those were two points that really stuck in my head, yet contradicted in he book. The differences are interesting

According to the book Bonneville did stay with him during his last months, but Paine was actually looked after by a woman called Hedden. Also the site of Marie's Crisis Cafe was not previously Bonneville's farm but that of a friend of Paine's law partner. Seems she was a bit of a hinderence to Paine - having promised to look after her and her children, she refused to help out at his farm, look for work, and decided that she'd rather live in the city, so had Paine pay for her to stay in one of New York's top hotels. She almost bankrupted him!

The question of his US citizenship wasn't mentioned either. Except when he was in prison in France where there were questions over whether he was a French or US citizen. Paine fought to be considred a US citizen - the reason he was sent to prison!

Guess no one will know what really happened..

Aye - I think our info comes from several sources but you can never really know what is 100% factual.

[crazeegems]

I'm reading Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov. It's amazing, but is making me feel slightly uneasy.

[Sir_Robin_the_br...]

Since you've read Microserfs, I'd say read JPod now. It's a great follow-up.

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking that Jpod would be a good one to read next as I did enjoy Microserfs a bit more than Girlfriend.

Better finish LA Confidential before I pick it up though...

This post has been edited by Sir_Robin_the_brave: Nov 21 2008, 02:49 PM

[GundamGuy_UK]

Can anyone recommend any good animal photography books?

Not books on how to take photos of animals, just a picture book in essence. But a good one.

[Rebus]

Can anyone recommend any good animal photography books?

Not books on how to take photos of animals, just a picture book in essence. But a good one.

I flicked through this sitting on a friend's coffee table and it was very impressive. It's not just animals though, but encorporate all of nature including plantlife.

This one, although not solely a picture book, includes stories by the photographers themselves about the images they took. The pictures in there are particularly superb but it’s really interesting to hear the story behind the image, which I found just as interesting as the photograph itself.

---

Reread Jospeh Conrad’s The Secret Agent as I hadn’t read this since school. It’s the book that really got me into reading literature critically and it’s still just as compelling and brilliantly written.

[mcraigclark]

I love this one. I've given it as a gift at least 5 times.

[GundamGuy_UK]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It's a bit tricky to find books like that on Amazon. I'll have a look around Waterstones tomorrow, I think...

[maian]

Finished The Intruders by Michael Marshall yesterday and it was pretty entertaining, all in all. I still wish he'd go back to straight sci-fi, rather than awkwardly crafting supernatural elements onto otherwise straightforward crime thrillers. He's still a clever and skilled enough writer that these problems end up being negligible in terms of my overall enjoyment, but I did audibly groan when I realised what was going on.

[sweetbutinsane]

Ivy by Julie Hearn. It was a strange story, but a very good read and quite funny in places.

[sweetbutinsane]

When my dad was getting Christmas stuff out of the loft yesterday, I got him to pass down a showbox that I'd filled with all of my old Ally's World books. I was flicking through them this morning and it's weird how much I remembered about them (and I own twelve out of fifteen of the books, as well as having read another two of them when they were in the local library). They used to be my favourite books when I was about 12-14 so they made me feel really nostalgic.

I think I might try and find the other three books now, if they're still available.

This post has been edited by sweetbutinsane: Nov 30 2008, 04:53 PM

[Zoe]

'Other People' Martin Amis

Baffling tale of amnesia and identity. Ultimately unsatisfying, but ingeniously written - like a lot of Amis' work - as our protagonist struggles to describe the world around her with no frame of reference.

'Digging to America' - Anne Tyler

Warm, witty, wonderful - another immaculate vignette of family life. It's not the most groundbreaking of contemporary fiction, but it's truthful and very well written, like all her novels.

'Restless' - William Boyd

Great concept (English grandmother reveals herself as WWII Russian spy through memoirs handed to her daughter), but less than engaging. The daughter's story is boring, she's an unlikeable character, with an unbelievable child, and her mother's story of espionage, though interesting, is too slowly relayed in bite-size chunks that irritate rather than create suspense. It's a dual narrative that doesn't really work as one side is far more interesting than the other, much like Louise Welsh's 'The Bullet Trick'.

'Once in a House on Fire' - Andrea Ashworth

Far from your standard childhood abuse memoir, this reads like the best novels and is completely devoid of self-pity. Ashworth re-tells her childhood from a completely convincing childlike perspective and with the skill of a great descriptive writer.

'

[Jessopjessopjess...]

'Other People' Martin Amis
Baffling tale of amnesia and identity. Ultimately unsatisfying, but ingeniously written - like a lot of Amis' work - as our protagonist struggles to describe the world around her with no frame of reference.

I remember losing interest towards the end, but those first few chapters in particular were extraordinary and challenging.