What are you reading now?

[richardfinegold]

Alan Furst is superb at evoking the atmosphere of wartime Europe in his novels. If you haven't read them I'd highly recommend.

Yes I have read a few, and he gets the history right. My favorite was Phillip Kerr’s character Bernie Guenther

[Ian Thumwood]

The Phillip Kerr series of Bernie Gunther books are terrific.The historical research was incredible and Kerr seemed to focus on some little known incidents so they avoided stereotypes. "The from the other" is probably the best but they all lead you down a garden path thinking that the plot is about one thing when it is really the case.

However, i think the best thing about these books is the dialogue. Shame Kerr died young. The last novel was not so great but the penultimate 'Greeks bearing
gifts' seemed to hint at Bernie finally getting redemption - albeit the style of this novel was actually a pastiche of Ian Fleming. 'Prague Fatale' had previously sent up an Agatha Christy locked door mystery. I felt that Kerr would have taken Bernie into more dubious territory and have him tied up and manipulated by Mossad.

Bernie Gunther is a great literary creation. Tom Hanks had bought the film rights but you wonder how the cynicism of the books would work on screen.

It is a bit like James Herriot as the appeal is in how the story is told. Film adaptions fall a bit flat.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I read no fiction - no time is my explanation - however that is an excuse as life is all about choice, I know.

My holidays with Mrs CS are not ones where a reading list is relevant - no long days of static relaxation. I take three books, knowing the one I want to read, and two others in case I can't abide the main choice. For several years, often the main choice has been one of Alan Furst's - the scene and character setting are very absorbing and the whole novel engaging, ensuring that I finish it. It seems I could usefully try the Phillip Kerr works as well.......

[Belgrove]

Given the rapturous reviews, I was looking forward to reading Karla’s Choice (written by le Carré’s son, Nick Harkaway), but ended up dissatisfied. It features George Smiley and takes place the year after the events of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. The plot is suitably convoluted and features characters appearing in the earlier Smiley lexicon, and some who appear later in the canon. The style and pace is all there too, although having to parse the arcane, allegorical manners of speech of the Circus’ inmates becomes tedious. There is also a curious flashback (crucial to the plot) inserted into an exciting getaway, which is just bizarre plotting. Moreover the narrative was insufficiently compelling, nor was it always believable. Smiley, who is portrayed as a tubby, donnish bureaucrat, suddenly becomes an action man, running down alleyways and driving fast cars, before reverting to type. And the careful psychoanalytical deconstructions that characters make of others, even when in extreme danger and under stress, fails to convince. Having reread the Karla trilogy, principally to tease apart the threads of the closely woven plot, I cannot imagine revisiting Karla’s Choice to discover what I’ve missed, principally through lack of interest. (But I’ll read the hinted at follow-up nevertheless.)

[smittims]

Housman Country, by Peter Parker. A fascinating examination of the origin and influence of A.E.Housman's A Shropshire Lad. It's a combination of Lit-Crit, biography and social history , explaining how one small book came to have a legacy its author never expected .

[richardfinegold]

The Phillip Kerr series of Bernie Gunther books are terrific.The historical research was incredible and Kerr seemed to focus on some little known incidents so they avoided stereotypes. "The from the other" is probably the best but they all lead you down a garden path thinking that the plot is about one thing when it is really the case.

However, i think the best thing about these books is the dialogue. Shame Kerr died young. The last novel was not so great but the penultimate 'Greeks bearing
gifts' seemed to hint at Bernie finally getting redemption - albeit the style of this novel was actually a pastiche of Ian Fleming. 'Prague Fatale' had previously sent up an Agatha Christy locked door mystery. I felt that Kerr would have taken Bernie into more dubious territory and have him tied up and manipulated by Mossad.

Bernie Gunther is a great literary creation. Tom Hanks had bought the film rights but you wonder how the cynicism of the books would work on screen.

It is a bit like James Herriot as the appeal is in how the story is told. Film adaptions fall a bit flat.

Bernie does become embroiled with the Israelis intelligence services, who somewhat reasonably conclude that given all the work he did on behalf of the likes of Heydrich , Himmler and Goering that he must have been an important Nazi. And for me one the least satisfying aspects of Bernie’s’ travels is the fuzzy description of what he was doing with the Einsatzgruppen under the command of Arthur Nebbe

[Lordgeous]

I seem to read more books on music as I get older. Currently enjoying Nancy Shears' I Knew A Man Who Knew Brahms. She was/is the lady who as a teenager became a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra's library staff and ended up being Stokowski's musical assistant for many years. Nice 'behind the scene's' stuff and lots of anecdotes about the musicians she encountered in that era.

[LMcD]

Housman Country, by Peter Parker. A fascinating examination of the origin and influence of A.E.Housman's A Shropshire Lad. It's a combination of Lit-Crit, biography and social history , explaining how one small book came to have a legacy its author never expected .

I've read and enjoyed this fascinating book twice. I'm currently reading Robert Harris's 'Precipice' - no loss of inspiration as far as I'm concerned!

[Petrushka]

Currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice as part of my 2025 mission to read all of Austen in order of publication date in her 250th anniversary year.

P&P is big step forward from Sense and Sensibility, with better characterisation and more humour. Her insight into human nature, especially the way men think, is remarkable. I've mentioned before that this was was my set book for O Level Eng Lit and, as a 16 year old, l absolutely hated it. I eventually read it again 30 years later when I totally loved it! Now, it's one of my top books.

[smittims]

I too find it one of her best. Mansfield Park is my favourite ; I've never cared much for Emma, I'm afraid.

I'm re-reading the Eustace Diamonds (Trollope) for perhaps the third time. Inexhaustibly entertaining, and one of the Palliser novels that did well in the old TV adaptation , with Sarah Badel as Lizzie and Terence Alexander as Lord George.

[french frank]

My brother is rereading Northanger Abbey (one of the novels we studied in 4th form. I do declare, I cannot in the least understand what humour he discovers in the following exchange on the subject of "Blaize" Castle::

"The finest place in England—worth going fifty miles at any time to see."
"What, is it really a castle, an old castle?"
"The oldest in the kingdom."
"But is it like what one reads of?"
"Exactly—the very same."
"But now really—are there towers and long galleries?"
"By dozens."

[Ian Thumwood]

I rattled through William Boyd's "Gabriel's moon " which is the first part of an espionage trilogy. His earlier "Solo" picked up the baton with James Bond to great effect but this is more low key and a bit satirical. The crux of the plot concerns the relationship between the principle character and his female handler with the former ultimately wrestling back control from the latter's machinations. It is very amusing largely because no one is quite what they seem. Even the characters from his social circle are colourful.

The book is set in 1960 and the period feel is akin to something like The Ipcress File. In this book the hero is very much a reluctant spy and the book is nearly two thirds complete before you get the first glimpse at what is going on. The conclusion is really satisfying even if the identity of the British mole was quite easy to guess. I loved the fact that the protagonist ultimately extricates himself from danger in a way that usurps his handler whilst also accidentally currying favour with the others he is supposed to be working against. The sequel should make the web even more complicated. It is really good fun.

[smittims]

I can imagine that coming across as funny, ff, in a film , depending on how the lines are spoken. I think we're shown the difference betwenthe characters: wide -eyed innocence and 'knowing' assurance, what nowadays is derided as 'mansplaining'.

[french frank]

'knowing' assurance, what nowadays is derided as 'mansplaining'.

In this case, amusingly justified and what Miss Austen probably suffered with good humour. For those whose geographical limitations don't allow them to appreciate the joke, the impressive and very old Blaise Castle had been built less than 40 years earlier as a small ruined Gothic folly to be viewed with pleasure in the grounds of the nearby mansion house.

[Jonathan]

Having now republished book 1 of my science fiction series (with a few minor corrections), now moving onto book 2. So that's what I'm reading at the moment!

As for books that I'm not the author of, still ploughing through 1984 for book group at work - luckily, the meeting was rescheduled to this coming Thursday giving me more time to read it!