What book are you reading right now?

"Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. A towering literary achievement, The Orphan Master’s Son ushers Adam Johnson into the small group of today’s greatest writers."

Interesting variation on a theme

A difficult but very rewarding read (warning!...do not attempt to read when tired)

Hooray!  My favorite thriller writer has a new series!

My favorite series of Wilson's is "African noir", where Englishman Bruce Medway -- fixer, negotiator, debt collector and investigator -- works trade deals for sheanut.  It’s something picked by the locals in the Ivory Coast, who treat it and sell it on to al Hadjis, the traveling Muslim businessmen, and they in turn sell it to westerners who store the sacks in warehouses.  From there, it is transported down to the Ivory coast ports and shipped out in bulk to factories in Northern Europe where it is crushed into a butter and used in chocolate and face creams.  It's a seedy business (sorry, couldn't resist) fraught with corruption, double-dealings, betrayal, murder and so on.  The writer lived there for many years, knows the territory first hand, and recreates it in a very authentic way.

He also has a series of wonderful, complex detective novels set in Lisbon that I enjoyed a lot.  See robert-wilson dot eu for more info.

ATB.

Hook

I have just started Iain M Banks "The Hydrogen Sonata" - a culture novel.

Very saddened to hear on the news a few minutes ago that he has teminal cancer and is unlikely to live out the year.

Yep, no more Culture.

One of my favourite collections of work/art. A couple are hit and miss but overall a pretty solid achievement.

Seems to be facing up to it with a typical Scots stoicism...

Long time since I read any French writer. 'The Plague' is going to be next.

THE GUEST.

A fascinating very short story by Albert Camus. For anyone who has fifteen minutes to read it:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dsbeckma/the%20guest%20by%20albert%20camus.pdf

Had to read this in original at school together with the Plague - put me off Camus for a long time as it was always more of a chore but now I like / appreciate him more.

Same here. Had to read passages from his books in my French classes, too busy being terrorized by the language to appreciate the writing.

'Delete This At Your Peril - The Bob Servant Emails' by Neil Forsyth. G

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.....by Simon Jordan ....ex Crystal Palace owner.

A fried of mine(a Palace STH) offered to lend it to me last week and TBH i only took it to be polite.

I have to say when i started reading his autudiography i had trouble puting it down. The guy goes into the nitty gritty of how he made his millions ducking and diving in the mobile phone business,then moves on to the rough and tumble of buying and running a football club.

This book is a great read for anyone who follows football. The guy does not mess with fancy words.

Mista h

I can't stand the subject of this book, and I'm not a big fan of its author, either, but this is a brilliant read - well-written, full of previously-unknown detail, scrupulously researched, fair-minded, balanced and it moves along at a cracking pace.

It's the political biography against which all future political biographies will be measured. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Looking forward to the next volume.

..get close to finalization, isn't me...I normally finish a book in a short time..

steve

Gripping stuff.

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“For Michael Sandel, justice is not a spectator sport,” The Nation’s reviewer ofJustice remarked. In his acclaimed book—based on his legendary Harvard course—Sandel offers a rare education in thinking through the complicated issues and controversies we face in public life today. It has emerged as a most lucid and engaging guide for those who yearn for a more robust and thoughtful public discourse. “In terms we can all understand,” wrote Jonathan Rauch in The New York Times, Justice “confronts us with the concepts that lurk . . . beneath our conflicts.”

'Pushing Ice' dates from 2005, but I only got around to it last week. Hard core high concept Sci-Fi, this one starts small and ends on a huge scale. Reynolds ideas are almost always good but it's the personalities and character evolution which he only got more or less under control more recently. In this book, his two main protagonists make some jarring choices and as a result, lack credibility. Around the last fifth or so, however, things tighten and I ripped through the final pages and the conclusion was worth it. Summary: uneven, but recommended for genre fans.

Cheers,

EJ