I might have to give that a go then.

The Keep by Jennifer Egan

This is one of the best fiction books I have read in a long time. The story concerns a sorta loser who goes to some eastern European country to help his cousin restore an old castle into a hotel. There is also a sub-story concerning the narrator who is a convict in a prison writing class. The book is creepy, scary, full of tension, and sad. The only negative comment I have is the epilogue. It ruins the end of the book & totally drains the emotion of the climax.

And now I've just finished After Dark by Haruki Murakami

I've got to remember not to read two fiction books at the same time again. It gets very confusing. And these two book that I just read were very, very similar.

This story takes place from just before midnight to dawn the next day. The main character is a young girl whose out all night reading at a Denny's. She crossed paths with some interesting characters. And like the other book, there is another thread of a story that pops up from time to time concerning her sister in a state of super-deep sleep.

Finished A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh last night. Bloody brilliant but bloody bleak.

Woo, double post! Maybe I read too much...

Anyway, I started and finished I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert last night. It was kind of like an extended version of The Word section of The Colbert Report and that did kind of drag after a while and the whole thing felt like a script for a Report episode. However, it was still very funny and had the same satirical tone that I love in The Report with Colbert's self-aggrandising nature very apparent (to the extent that he gets companies to sponsor chapters). I'd have preferred it to have more of the fictional biography sections that divide up the book but otherwise it's a funny read. It was also cool to see the complete transcript of Colbert's infamous White House Correspondents' Dinner, even if it loses something compared to the footage of the event.

I just always forget to post about them.

After enjoying 'Tokyo' (which sort of bridges the gap between crime fiction and contemporary fiction) I am currently I am working my way through seven novels that represent different types of quality detective writing (selected by my Dad).

I the past week I've read Easy Meat by John Harvey, which was very entertaining and set so locally to me I can walk to most of the locations in less than two minutes, so locally that I used to live on the street where one of the murders took place. It took me a while to adjust to the amount of exposition and location detail in the prose. Language is far less important than plot and characterisation it seems. This does make this genre of fiction very pacy and immediate, but I am still unsure how much I like it.

Then I read Blood from a Stone from Donna Leon, from the series of Brunetti novels set in Venice. I enjoyed it less, perhaps because it wasn't set literally up my street, but it had a higher quality of writing and a more engaging and sinister tone. Venice was very much a character. Unfortunately, unlike the pacy 'Easy Meat', it had an inconsistent tone, which left me bored in places, and it took a long time to get going. I think this is because 'Blood from a Stone' is 14th in a series, and it perhaps requires an affection for Commissario Guido Brunetti that I haven't had the opportunity to develop. Not that I couldn't see it happening if I had the inclination to wade through another 13 of his adventures.

In the past month I've also read Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller (before I started on my detective marathon), which is much more my usual reading fare. It's about James Dyer an unusual character in that he can't feel any pain, and has a very rich 18th Century backdrop evocatively drawn. The Hardy-esque prose is wonderfully written, and an incredible achievement. Again though, it takes an awful long time to get going and at times the incredibly skillful writing feels self-indulgent and a bit like showing off.

The perfect balance perhaps lies somewhere between these two styles; but, though I am enjoying a side-track into the world of genre writing, I am expecting to return to contemporary fiction very soon - and probably with a renewed affection for the power of well written prose.

Just don't ask me to give HP a whirl.

I read that recently as well. I've never read one of Murakami's books before, but I loved the way this was written, and I will be trying some more of his books at some point.

I'm going to finish Queen Camilla today. It's not been very good. I'm going to try and use next week to finish The Dictators which I haven't enjoyed either.

I'm currently racing through Alastair Reynolds's House of Suns. It's his new stand-alone novel set 6 million years into humanity's disparate and exotic future. It's easily the most whimsical, least hard-SF book Reynolds has written, and as such, is the most accessible and enjoyable - dare I say it - 'romp' in his canon. Since his universes are usually strictly ruled with (albeit speculative) science, it is refreshing to experience the pace and adventure of this more fantastical universe. The intrigue and mind-boggling timescales of typical Reynolds keep the pages turning. The only downside is the slightly sketchier character development, forced out a little for the sake of so much happening.

It's the first one I read too. And of course I loved the way it was written too, very cinematic.

Here's what I said about it before:



I can't remember the musician's name now, but I really like his character.

Yeah he was a great character. I like the cover of your book. We have a different one.

I like the US version more. The musician was called Takashi or something similar.

The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters by G W Dahlquist
A great story of derring-do, evil geniuses, diabolical plans and political/royal shenanigans set in Victorian London (the location and period are never named, but that is the assumption).
Three characters' - a young moneyed lady, an assassin and a (German?) naval doctor - cross paths and form an alliance when each somehow witness part of the "diabolical plan" and together attempt to bring it to an end. It does get a little confusing at the end, but is still fun.
If you enjoyed the Lucifer Box novels by Mark Gatiss, I'm sure, although less tongue in cheak, you will enjoy this.

In The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U - a history of Burma with a view to understanding how the country has ended up in its current situation. I found it a little dry in places, but it gave me a much broader and better knowledge of Burma's history and the lessons we can learn about why the military managed to get such a stranglehold on the country.

I read 'Dearly devoted Dexter' the second in the Dexter books the other week and it was not near as great as the first. It was an ok enough read, but the character of Dexter is unchanging and the whole thing felt a bit lacking. Having watched both series one and two of the series I can't help but feel that they made all the right choices with the series.

I'm currently halfway through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon and it's already made me cry half a dozen times. Its breezy, readable style only barely disguises the heartbreak at the centre of it all.

I finished The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas yesterday. Really good story (the title page of the book refers to it as a fable) about a boy (Bruno) who's Dad goes to run Auschwitz (or Out With as the little boy pronounces it). The main story is about Bruno's interest in the people in the striped pyjamas he can see from his bedroom window. He eventually makes friends with a little boy who is his age but lives on the other side of the fence. The story is told from Bruno's perspective and is a good read (it's almost a short story) because the story is set against the backdrop of Auschwitz rather than dealing with the issue of the holocaust directly, it does touch on it briefly and it shapes the story but doesn't over power it (I felt).

Finished this late last night and it was absolutely incredible. The story, about two Jewish cousins, one from New York, the other having escaped from Prague after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, creating a comic book character called 'The Escapist' was brilliantly told, with Chabon offering brief glimpses into their creative process, how they deal with success and their own respective sexual awakenings. So, in one sense, it's a very personal story.

At the same time, it creates an evocative and exciting vision of New York in the 1930s and 40s and really delves into experiences of Jewish people at that time, particularly those of immigrants escaping from the horrors in Europe. Feeding into this is an examination of the role of Jewish writers on the creation of the comic book form and the role that this truly American artform came to play in the lives of people during the war, it's decline in the immediate aftermath and how much it has been maligned over the years.

Finally, it's one of the most beautiful and intelligent accounts of the real power of comics and the escape that they can offer.

I'm going to see Michael Chabon in Pittsburgh on 2 May. I've got a first edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay that I've been hanging onto for years, hoping I'd get the chance to meet him.

I wasn't overly impressed with The Yiddish Policeman's Union, however.

I've not read that one yet, though it's on the ''to read'' list.

After finishing to write my second own novel I'm back to reading stuff. I've decided to start with Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City. It was okay. Not very well balanced and a little repetitive, but towards the end it got better and better.

Next week I'll read Palahniuk's Rant. I got high expectations.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Simply, yet well written, story of a father and his young son's trek across post-apocalyptic America. Totally engrossing, but couldn't help think I've read/seen it all somewhere before, though can't put my finger on where.

War of the Worlds? (Cruise version?) They sound similar premises.

Oh no. A lot more grim than that. And no aliens. A lot like A Boy And His Dog. Except a man instead of a telepathic dog. And no subterranean utopia.

Gotcha. To be fair, there's loads of post-apocalyptic America stories out there, so it could be a combination you're getting the feeling of. Might be one for me to check out though, after I finish American Gods.

Considering how short and simply constructed it is, you certainly get more back than invested.

As post apocalyptic stories without aliens, telepathic dogs, underground nut jobs and men in leather chaps riding customised automobiles go it's one, if not the best.

Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga...

Exactly. If made by Mike Leigh. And without mutants and law men.

And an eight-foot armadillo.

I finished this yesterday after devouring most of the last third over the weekend. This was an excellent return to form after the disappointing 'The Prefect'.

There is a definite change in tone from the hard-SF of his previous books, and this creates a 'golden age' feel, which is more fanciful and whimsical. Not that all the rules of physics are thrown out of the window; those which remain enhance the story: Reynolds always plays with great spans of time, but this is possibly the most expansive. But the hundreds, thousands... millions even... of years which pass do not alienate; they serve only to create a sense of dizzying and exhilarating scale, and all the while the very human characters at the centre of the tale anchor us to reality.

Amongst all the technological wonder is a very touching forbidden love story, which slowly unfolds just as the mysteries of the plot do, and this is handled well. One of the best qualities of Reynolds's stories are the subtle, slow-burning relationships between the (however exotic) humans which inhabit his universes.

I'd recommend this to Reynolds fans and newbies alike.

Great book. Currently being brought to the screen by the director of The Proposition and starring Viggo Mortenson.

Me too. A terse style that I thought might start to grate (short sentences, nameless characters, missed punctuation), but it works and the sparing words still betray a lot of emotion, tension and a quiet sense of devastating loss.


ETA. Viggo, eh? That could work.

Are you psychic? Maybe you have seen the future.

i knew you'd say that

He's here all week.

Or is he?

A friend of mine has lent me all of the Hyperion books. Just started in on the first one and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

Is that a series? Because over here, Hyperion is a publisher and that would be a lot of books.

I think Kei is talking about the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. That, or his friend has a very impressive personal library and access to a wheelbarrow.

Sorry, I should have been more specific and said the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons.

My bad. Although I do know some people with very large personal libraries and wheelbarrows.

Ah, that makes much more sense. I haven't read him yet, although I have a copy of The Terror.

On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

It's the story of twin brothers who were born at the beginning of the 20th century in a farmhouse on the English-Welsh border. It tells of their whole lives together, living life as they'll always live it, separated from the modern world. The storytelling is excellent & very vivid.

The other week I was reading The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I really, really enjoyed it (well, apart from the bit where it told you what happened to everyone from the Annexe) and am feeling inspired to keep my own journal now.

Just in case the Nazis rise again in North East England.

I've recently got through The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis (didn't convert me to Christianity), A Piano in the Pyrenees by Tony Hawk (nice funny light read), The Coma by Alex Garland (I thought it was a really good story, but I've thought that about his other two books that I've read) and Slam by Nick Hornby (only worth reading as a pass the time book).

I'm now reading Brat Farrer by Josephine Tey and am enjoying it very much. Reading on the bus is paying off at catching me up on my "to read" list. Tomorrow I shall be continuing my slog through The Dictators by Richard Overy which is a dreadful book but I will finish it one day.

You never know.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Cabon

I didn't know this was science fiction! It took a while before I realised it was set in an "alternative history", and then I read it is nominated for a Hugo Award. That sadly was the only real surprise about this book.
A pretty average detective story, concerning fantastical(ish) events and a strange setting neither of which were that interesting.
If you are Jewish or speak Yiddish and have an inteest in the intricacies of chess, you might find more to enjoy in this book. Otherwise it's a bit "meh".

Just finished Dave Gorman's America Unchained. Off he drives round the States trying to avoid giving any money to The Man™ - i.e. no chain motels, petrol stations, cafes or mechanics. Very fun.

I just finished Brat Farrar, Agatha Christie style book about an fraudulent heir who comes back from the dead just as his inheritance is due. Enjoyable if you like that style of book, which I do.

Can't remember whether I've already mentioned it - Blockbuster by Tom Shone.
It was a great read about the new style blockbusters came about, starting with Jaws in '75.