Book Thread
I've just finished reading 'The Tenderness of Wolves' by Stef Penney. It won the 2006 Costa Book of the Year (that used to be the Whitbread Award) and it's also her debut novel.

It tells the story of a number of settlers, trappers and native Indians in Canada in the late 1800s. A trapper is found murdered, a young man disappears and then his mother goes after him to find out what has happened. All of this is set against the hard Canadian winter.

The author has never been to Canada and wrote it entirely from research she carried out in the British Library. It's hugely atmospheric and I can honestly say that I felt cold almost the entire time I was reading it.

That's the good bit about the book.

The bad bits?
Too many poorly drawn characters, too much superfluous information, too many plot lines that are left without being fully realised and in some cases, unresolved.
In my opinion this novel should have either been cut back drastically to only perhaps three major plot threads or else considerably lengthened into an epic novel of maybe twice the length so that the multiple threads could each have been given their own space to develop without the reader losing the plot in amongst all the snowflakes.

www.amazon.co.uk/Tenderness-Wolves-Stef-Penney/dp/1905204817

I now have the pick of about 50 new books sitting on my To Be Read shelf....

Hmmm.....the new Rushdie next perhaps?


What's everyone reading at the moment?
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:01, 30 replies, latest was 17 years ago)

Hammond Innes wrote a book set in Canada
that really makes you feel like you're there. 'The Land God Gave to Cain' I think.

(I have a slight weakness for boyish adventure books)

I have just finished the Olivetti Chronicles which my sister gave me for my birthday, and have consequently got back on the Margrave of the Marshes. Both superb books and highly recommended!
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:02, Reply)

I'm re-reading an old favorite.
The Malayan trilogies by Anthony Burgess.

Fact - I now drink Tiger beer because of this book.
( girlinthehole, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:07, Reply)

My current book list
Because of this writing course I'm doing, I'm making an effort to read at least a book a week, each very different from the one before.

So I've gone:
'Cold Comfort Farm' by Stella Gibbons
'Sense and Sensibility' by Jane Austen
'Wicked!' by Jilly Cooper

I'm currently on 'Lord Jim' by Joseph Conrad. It really is rather superb, and one can sense the oppressive, thick air of the south Pacific. I'm quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying it, as I did not like 'Heart of Darkness' at all.

Next up is a set of short stories by Evelyn Waugh.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:13, Reply)

...
Just finished "The Maltese Falcon", and am about to start "On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts".

I heard "Tenderness" when it was serialised on the radio - didn't think much of it then, either. But I was impressed by another serialised book: "The Testament of Gideon Mack", which is ace. I've also got "The Truth Commissioner" in the queue.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:20, Reply)

I'm reading
The Da Da De Da Da Code by Robert Rankin, mainly because I like a good giggle and secondly because I can never be bothered to read something that needs much effort in the half hour before I go to sleep.
( rubberduck should only be used after consulting with your GP, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:22, Reply)

My attention span
Is awful at the moment, so I've been reading the same book for ages:
Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace.

It's really good, so far. Set in Japan after they surrendered at the end of the War.
Main character is a police officer, investigating a series of murders, against a back-drop of a terribly fucked-up county, where everyone is dirty, hungry and desperate.
( Cawl, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:25, Reply)

I've been intermittently reading
Crow Country by Mark Cocker. One of my friends decided for some reason that this was an appropriate birthdat present.

It was a bit of a slow start, but he's started talking about crows again in the current chapter so I'm hooked again.

Also trying to read a book about weather and climate, as it's slightly embarrassing belonging to an atmospheric physics group and not knowing any meteorology...
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:28, Reply)

Conspiracy
I like a good laugh at paranoid conspiracy theorists, so I'm reading a David Icke book atm about the World Trade Centre tragedy being a big fat con.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:29, Reply)

Hahaha!
"Cocker"!
( Cawl, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:29, Reply)

^ You can't spell "Cocker"
without "Cock."

Or "'er." So it sound like an instruction.

Fnarr!
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:30, Reply)

*grins*
God-damn, we're highbrow.
( Cawl, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:31, Reply)

I could hardly get involved in a literary thread
without lowering the tone somehow. _{Wasn't even my initial intention, but then I was talking about crows again...}

EDIT: I suppose this is a good place to link to a tale about another piece of literature I found, thus neatly bringing the two qotws together: www.b3ta.com/questions/found/post300641
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:32, Reply)

I'm useless
I'm struggling to re-read Catch-22 for an online book club.

Not struggling because I don't like it, I do, I love it, but I keep getting distracted by other things.

First a Gram Parsons biography came out, then I picked up a Warren Zevon biography. Then volume 12 of 100 Bullets came out, and volume 3 of The Boys.

And now I can't remember where I was in Catch-22.

I'm shit, really.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:36, Reply)

I'm reading the A-Z Handy Road Atlas for Great Britain.
I kid you not. I have good reason.

I think Lowestoft did it.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:36, Reply)

Recently Read
The Time-Traveller's Wife which was lovely.
House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende which was rather tremendous.

Now reading The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

I would also receommend Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:43, Reply)

@ BK
The Time Traveller's Wife is wonderful! I read it when it first came out - fantastic story.

As is The House of Spirits - Allende is always good though...

I've not read that particular Atwood - although the film is rather good and plenty of her other ones are excellent.

And Never Let Me Go is on my To Read list!

Clearly you have excellent taste.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:44, Reply)

@ chickenlady
Yeah, I've become quite a big fan of Allende.
Her version of Zorro was excellent.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:45, Reply)

Try
Portrait in Sepia and City of the Beasts - the second one is a cracker.

Allende is brilliant, I'm just hoping that Rushdie's new one is as good as anything by Allende....
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:47, Reply)

well i have been book busy
Im still trying to fucking read "The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library " i'll give it a day more until I decide finally that it is the most dull book on the planet, put it down and never see it again, which is annoying as it cost me a cool £20


I also have Rushing to Paradise by JG Ballard to read, and The Magus by John Fowles looming on the horizon.

oh, and The Black Angel by John Connolly is a "meh" its alright, but not great.

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds was alright I suppose as well

for cheesiness I have got a couple of Flashman books that are utter trash but amusing, as I grew up reading the Sharpe books they are polar opposites!
(Halfy By light alone, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:50, Reply)

I feel dumb
I feel dumb reading this thread, as everyone seems far more high brow than me!

(insert sarcastic "Just finished reading Janet and John" joke in here)

I want to read the Time Travellers Wife, but the library close to work doesn't have it, and the one copy in the area is reserved by loads of people (Haringey - kill your child and we will barely notice, yet I'm pissed at their lack of books.)

Currently reading Dear Fatty by Dawn French. It's an auto auto biography written in the form of dozens of letters to people, which is a little quirky but seems to work :)
( SeasonTicketless is too often the statue, and rarely the pigeon., Wed 12 Nov 2008, 12:27, Reply)

re-reading 'Lolita'
despite the subject matter, I've always thought it the most romantic thing I've ever read and an absolute paean to the female form.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 12:42, Reply)

Words, words, words, words.
I'm currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, though I'm finding the staccato style and bleak setting (pre-war, Nazi Germany) a trifle wearing. I also don't think it's as ground-breaking as the critics say it is; yet another novel from the point of view of the Grim Reaper, who doesn't enjoy his work but takes pleasure in watching the affairs of humans.

Previously, I read The Book of Dave by Will Self, which is a good book but which I didn't find particularly enjoyable, again for the bleak outlook and use of language. Irritatingly, I started reading it because I wanted something lighter than The Book Thief and expected a little more humour; it tells the story of a future society based on the discovered ramblings of a deranged London cabbie.

Before that, Bellwether by Connie Willis, which is sort of about how serendipitous scientific discoveries are made and is very funny.

Anything by Kazuo Ishiguro or Haruki Murakami is worth reading. I also have a good chunk of stuff I haven't yet read. I really must make the time.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 12:58, Reply)

I read Never let me go by Ishiguro and found it dull.
And seasonticketless, were not all literary snobs on here. I've read what would seem quite highbrow books without really being aware of their status and enjoyed them immensely. It's just a case of reading a lot of different stuff and finding out what floats your boat.

I also read gossip magazines at work voraciously and I'm not ashamed to say so.
( girlinthehole, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 13:00, Reply)

I'm reading two books at the moment
The Appeal by John Grisham and Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

The Grisham is OK, about what you'd expect from him.

Dexter I've only just started so we'll have to wait and see.
(bill, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 13:08, Reply)

I've just finished
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, a totally different book to what I normally read, it's good.

Now I'm reading Necroscope: The Touch by Brian Lumley, and it's bad, I've liked every other one of his books but his one makes me cry it so bad.
(Herr Doktor Lemminge Is bored, so cheer me up!, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 14:42, Reply)

READING!
This week i've been mainly reading b3ta.com

(obviously, tut!
(bugboybeast, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 14:53, Reply)

I'm now one chapter in
to Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence

It's brilliant!

Reads just like Grimms!

Hooray for fairy tales!
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 15:21, Reply)

I just finished
"The Stainless Steel Rat" by Harry Harrison, and the Sin City graphic novels. Pure fluff, both of them, and I love 'em.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 12 Nov 2008, 16:02, Reply)

I just read
The.Powerbook by Jeanette Winterson. It freaked me out as it is about online lives and has tulips in it (yes, really). You should all read it.

Now I'm reading Fred and Edie by Jill Dawson.
Verdict to follow.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 20:39, Reply)

Variety
I have a voracious appetite when it comes to books but tended to get stuck in a rut with particular authors (hence I've read every Stephen King, Wilbur Smith, Robert Rankin, Dan Brown book etc).

Bored with this and instinctively distrustful of critics I've now start reading books that other people have chosen in book shops. I simply loiter around watching what "totally random stranger" chooses and buy the same book.

There are some rules but this random library generator has thrown up a few good reads (Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicom being one and Kurt Vonnegut's classic Slaughterhouse-Five amongst them).

Naturally a few dogs have been ploughed through (mainly 2nd generation chick-lit) but on the whole, a rewarding strategy.
(Mediaslut, Thu 13 Nov 2008, 7:45, Reply)