What are you reading now?

[Dave]

How was Heart Shaped Box Dave? I have a couple of his books here still to be read. Can't imagine what it was like growing up with SK as your father! I've just finished Portobello by Ruth Rendell which I really loved. Mainly for the characters (eccentric, dynamic and so interesting) and for the sense of place she evokes with Portobello. I mainly know that area from film and so it was interesting to read it from RR's perspective. It actually reminded me a lot of the area I live in.
I now have Barbara Vines The Birthday Present to read. I only hope to be as prolific as RR/BV when I'm her age.   

Hi Josephine and sorry for the late reply - been having all kinds of computer problems of late. Yeah, I enjoyed The Heart Shaped Box. It was chosen as the book of the month on John Connolly's forum and if you'd be at all interested in my opinion - or anyone elses for that matter - here is the link:

http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/forum/index.php?topic=5926.0

[Dave]

The first great discovery of 2009: The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. The premise behind the advertising campaign is that no information regarding context, location or theme is given, therefore the reader takes up this book entirely on trust without having any idea about what may happen. Have to admit this intrigued me enormously and I'll continue in this manner by wholeheartedly recommending this novel without giving anything away, other than to say it incorporates betrayal, redemption, love and loss. Staggeringly brilliant work of fiction which is both challenging and highly accessible. So, The Other Hand by Chris Cleave it is.

[Dave]

Just finished the non-fiction Red Dust by Ma Jian. This is about a thirty-year-old male native of China, who, around ten years or so after the Cultural Revolution, is facing imminent arrest for anti revolutionary activities, i.e. thinking for himself and leading, by the authorities standards, a bohemian and dissolute lifestyle. He sets off on a journey around China, living on his wits and travels to ancient monasteries and earns just sufficient to live on by labouring in backward dust laden agricultural villages, largely untroubled by the ludicrous teachings of Chairman Mao and the attendant unworkable dogma of communist China. His spiritual quest takes him to Tibet where he reconnects with his Buddhist faith. The strength of Red Dust is Jian’s eloquent powers of description and his analysis of the maelstrom his county has been thrown into. Essentially a travel book, though it is so much more than that. Not everyone’s cup of green tea, admittedly, but I loved it.

Now part way through The Tortilla Curtain by T C Boyle which is shaping up nicely with the scene already set for much conflict, racial unrest and moral ambiguity.
 

[Kevin]

I've read a few books since I was last on here, the latest one to get finished was Rain Fall by Barry Eisler, which I really enjoyed.

I started Birthday girl by Stephen Leather, which will accompany me on the train to London on Thursday. I'm only 21 pages it, but it's promising to be a cracker!

[Dave]

A week or so ago I finished the staggeringly good The Tortilla Curtain by T C Boyle. In short this is the tale of an American liberal forced to confront his own prejudices after his life becomes connected with that of an illegal Mexican immigrant. Flawless novel that forces the reader to challenge their own preconceptions and morality.

Almost finished The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin. Events leading up the Great War are chronicled along with its aftermath. Berlin provides the location, largely during the decadent period between the two Worlds Wars, where unrestrained hedonism and inflation raged as furiously as an Austrian megalomaniac with a dodgy tash and a chip on his shoulder. Set against a backdrop of social unrest, political instability, extreme hardship, poverty and prostitution, this is an almost fiercely evocative novel, with the crunch of National Socialist jackboots a none too distant echo and the gas chambers of Auschwitz about to create a black cloud blocking out sunlight for whole generations. Great book, my only minor quibble is that at times it reads like a biography rather than a novel and I'm not certain that it will end with a suitably fitting dramatic finale.

Hope to start The Song of Kali by Dan Simmons very soon.

[Dave]

The Whispers by Orlando Figes.

This non-fiction work is a fascinating look at the lives of ordinary Russians during Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror. The title refers to the way in which the populace was afraid to openly communicate to each other in case they were accused of uttering anti Soviet sentiments. Spoken indiscretion was a sure way to the hell of a Siberian labour camp to be either shot or undergo a twenty year hard labour sentence. Around the years of 1937 to 1936 one male in nine was imprisoned on one trumped up anti communist charge or another. At this point Stalin was persuaded that, in terms of administration rather than humane considerations, that the overflowing jails, whilst providing an endless source of slave labour, were proving too costly to run. Uncle Joe’s solution to this was to arrest the minister in control of the prison system,  incarcerate him in one of the gulags he’d previously run, then promptly have him shot as a conspirator. Stalin’s crimes against humanity in general and his own people in particular are far too numerous to mention here. That said, I was still surprised at his virulent pogrom against the Russian Jewish population. Perhaps naively, I’d always believed that as liberators of the German death camps, the Communist system that Stalin ostensibly followed outlawed racism as a policy. It seemed that the Russian leader was able to re write Communist Party Manifesto as the mood took him. As late as 1952 Stalin declared:

“Every Jewish nationalist is a potential agent of the American intelligence.”

Of course this was intended to initiate persecution of the Jews to almost Nazi proportions. Luckily Stalin died before this policy could be fully implemented

The Whispers is a fascinating testimony to the horrors and murder carried out by arguably the most appalling despot in history.  This individual, more that any other, even his murderous one time partner in crime, Mao Tse Tung, took a worthy political ideology – Communism – corrupted it into an evil social experiment that led to the death of millions and the abject misery of countless others. Moreover, Stalin provided the template that dictators throughout the following decades would adopt. This wonderful book has a commendable clarity, and is a sad and clamorous tribute to those who suffered needlessly for so long. The Russian people were led to believe they would inherit a socialist utopia predicated on Marxist principles.

They got Joseph Stalin.
 

[Josephine]

I've just finished reading a crime novel set in verse by Australian poet Dorothy Porter called The Monkey's Mask. I didn't know how I'd go with this (an entire novel in verse!) but it was brilliant. Very strong, gutsy and beautifully phrased. It's amazing how much Dorothy can convey to you in a few strong strokes of words. The story is based around a female private eye who is gay and investigating the death of a young girl in Sydney. I could have read it in one sitting as it really draws you in. It's something a little different and for those of us who love words a total joy to read. I did feel a little sad reading it as Dorothy died last year of cancer way too young. I actually won the Dorothy Porter Award one year at Sisters in Crime and she presented it to me. I only wish I had read her wonderful book first so I could have told her how impressive I found it.

[Dave]

The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates. Only about 150 pages into this weighty and literate tome and it probably ranks alongside The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle as my favourite read of the year so far. In short it’s about a Jewish family who escape Nazi Germany by migrating to America in 1936. Though only alluded to thus far, the desparate emigration has somehow involved betrayal and abandonment. Presumably the circumstances surrounding this duplicity will become apparent as the novel progresses.  The father of the family is a broken man, fiercely embittered and refers disdainfully to all non Jews as “the others” and raises his family in claustrophobic isolation near the cemetery where he plies his trade as the town’s ragged gravedigger. In evoking this bleakly desolate environment, the writing is suffused with similes and metaphors of such shimmering and coruscating beauty that the appreciative reader will re-read whole paragraphs simply in order to savour the elegance of the prose. Thus far there are so many questions unanswered and I’m not certain what direction this grim novel will take. What I am sure of, though, it that I’m in the presence of greatness.

[Josephine]

What a lovely review Dave! Have you read Skin yet? Dying to hear your take on it! xx 

[snapdogs]

Just started reading Karin Slaughter book.... after the first three chapters I gave up! just not my cup of tea, and I did not think that she writes anything like Mo, which is what someone else said... So it will be going back to the library, Martin misunderstood is the title of the book!

[Kevin]

For any of you that attended last year's Harrogate, there was a book in many of the freebie linen Robert Crais bags by Chris Simms, (Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year shortlister 2009) called Shifting Skin.

I lent it to a colleague at work who is into "gory and fast-paced" writing. She gave it back, having quite enjoyed it. Having singularly failed to put it back properly into my TBR library, I read the first couple of chapters last night; I am really quite pleased at my inefficiency. It's good to be lazy sometimes! 

[winsmm]

Hi Kevin,

Not only do I manage the upkeep of Mo's site but also that of Chris Simms: http://www.chrissimms.info/

I would be more than happy to pass on any comments to Chris regarding his writing if you fancy writing a short review here when you have finished reading Shifting Skin.

Best wishes,
Steve.
Webmaster www.mohayder.net

[Dave]

Brockek's Report by Philipe Claudel. Staggeringly well structured novel concerning the arrival of an outsider in an unspecified village after what was almost certainly the Second World War. Brobeck is a survivor of a concentration camp and it's his duty to complie a report on precisely what happened to the outsider. Brodeck himself is emotionally damaged and the way the novel is narrated - without a conventional linear flow - is a reflection of his tortured thought processes and everything he has witnessed and experienced in the camp and what he regards as his own cowardice and culpability. The prose, translated from the French, soars beatifically, which, coupled with a profound insight into human cruelty and its recurring consequences , is nothing short of masterful. Quite brilliant.

[Josephine]

I'm reading Fox Evil by Minette Walters. I know it's been out for yonks but I'm really behind in all my 'pleasure reading.' I'm enjoying it and love the way it's unfolding with characters different to how I originally perceived them. Trying to find time to read Peter Temple's The Broken Shore. I've also just finished a Jane R  Goodall book The Visitor which was a little bit creepy. Not quite as disturbing as Fox Evil with all the mutilated animal scenes however.

[Kevin]

Hi Kevin,

Not only do I manage the upkeep of Mo's site but also that of Chris Simms: http://www.chrissimms.info/

I would be more than happy to pass on any comments to Chris regarding his writing if you fancy writing a short review here when you have finished reading Shifting Skin.

Best wishes,
Steve.
Webmaster www.mohayder.net

Goodness, Steve! Me become a book critic/reviewer? Well, I know that I am not nearly as eloquent a reviewer as some on here, but here goes:-

Shifting Skin was a complimemtary book, given out by Robert Crais' publishers at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July 2008. Quite why that is remains a mystery to me, as the writing is of top quality, colloquial in parts and had a real air of authority in terms of knowledge of the local area, both in its physical representation and what goes on behind the doors of the establishments, whether they be true or fictional. The characters were believable, as were the methods of investigation and teamwork of the main protagonist, Spicer, and Saville, his new partner.
The other investigative threads that ran through the book gave a credible insight into the life of a real life detective in an urban setting, who would need to carefully balance where time was spent and how to go about achieving the aims, namely finding and arresting the culprit whilst gathering sufficient evidence that will stand up in court to obtain a conviction.
Whilst I didn't pay for my copy, I enjoyed Shifting Skin sufficiently to buy a copy of Savage Moon, but, having read the Spicer series out of sync., I will have to buy Killing The Beasts and read that before I can move on to Savage Moon.


Steve, please feel free to pass this on to Chris; I will visit his site in due course and look forward to doing so.