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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Apr 10 2025, 3:32pm
Post #1 of 23
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It's the occasional reading thread!
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A very happy Easter season to those who celebrate!
I'm still listening every day to a bit of Andy Serkis's superb reading of LotR. Faramir has brought Frodo and Sam to Henneth Annun. I'm struck by the depth and length of their conversations in the book as contrasted with the brusque, businesslike, and, sigh, misbegotten exchanges in the movie.
Despite countless readings (and listenings) to these books, I'm always finding something new. For example, this time through I'm noticing Faramir's "shrewd guesses" are even more shrewd than we're told. When he says Isildur's bane must be a weapon of some sort, he sure isn't imagining Sam carrying that huge mace around in his pack with his cooking implements!
In other audio, I've listened to The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: A Journey Through History's Greatest Treasures, written and read by British historian Bettany Hughes. She does a thorough, if rather discursive, discussion of the seven classical wonders, examining their origins, what they must have looked like while extant, and how much is left of them now. Funny how she keeps falling over the ghost of Alexander the Great 
I also listened to a Golden Age mystery, Death of a Bookseller, by Bernard J. Farmer with an introduction by Martin Edwards. I'm not familiar with Farmer, but enjoyed the book as I enjoy all Golden Age mysteries because that world is so completely different from ours. This story concerns a man unjustly convicted of murder and the police sergeant who puts his own career on the line because exonerating the man is the right thing to do.
I then listened to a short story, The Answer Is No, written by Fredrik Backman and translated by Elizabeth DeNoma. This is a humorous but also touching story featuring a man who doesn't want to deal with other people and the people in his apartment building he ends up dealing with. Backman also wrote A Man Called Ove, a small but very warm novel.
I've just started Drop Dead, a romance by Lily Chu, read by Philippa Soo and John Cho. So far the female protagonist has made a huge mistake at the obits desk of her newspaper, and the male protagonist, her rival at another paper, is gloating. Hm. I wonder how this is going to turn out?
I read the ebook of Stargazy Pie, the first in the Greenwing and Dart series by Victoria Goddard. This is a fantasy in which a young man returns from his university to his home town, and in the process of working through a magical plot discovers much about his own history. This was highly recommended by a good friend, who has happily worked her way through the entire series (with its clever, food-related titles) and gone on into the rest of Goddard's books, impressed by her complex worldbuilding.
But while her worldbuilding is indeed impressive, it was hard for me to negotiate. If Stargazy Pie wasn't clearly marked as the first in a series I'd think it was at least the fourth, there's such a complicated backstory. It was like starting FotR with the Council of Elrond. I was unsurprised when I learned the author spun this series off the world she has developed in multiple other books. She also does something I don't care for in any work of fiction: Her characters exchange meaningful looks, make some sort of realization, then just walk away leaving this reader at least going, "What? What?"
I'm afraid it's one and done for me, but YMMV, of course.
I then read a much shorter and more straightforward ebook: The Greatest Nobodies of History: Minor Characters from Major Moments, by Adrian Bliss. This is a delightfully imaginative collection of essays from the points of view not just of non-historical people but of animals and even a tree, ranging through history from ancient Athens to Australia in the 1930s. Bliss meticulously recounts the true events as well, making it a win-win narrative.
So what have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Annael
Elvenhome
Apr 10 2025, 4:08pm
Post #2 of 23
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*dodges things thrown at her*
I know, everyone loved it, but the amount of snark-to-actual-content ratio was just too high. His is, imho, an adolescent male type of humor in which the point is to show off to friends and also diss other people as much as possible, and I didn't find it funny at all. I was also handicapped by not being British and so not being in on all the in-jokes. I gave up about a third of the way through.
So instead I downloaded a Josephine Tey novel I'd never heard of, The Expensive Halo, A Fable without a Moral. In the same genre as Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies but nowhere near as good, mostly because it's too short. If she'd spent more time expanding on it, I could see promise. Then I re-read Miss Pym Disposes, which was far more thought-provoking than I remember it being when I read it 20 years ago--especially a conversation she has about "how do you know what the right thing to do is?" with a character I would have liked to spend more time with.
Amazon had a collection of Dorothy Sayers's short stories about Peter Wimsey for 99 cents, so I downloaded & have been going through them. Probably it would have been better to space them out, because taken as a whole, Lord Peter grates a bit; Sayers is an intellectual classist snob and it comes through her character, especially when three "Lord Peter" characters show up to claim a secret formula and the inventor tests them by making them taste wines and guess what they are; with the real LP sneering down the others. But the mysteries are excellent, for the most part, and a couple of the short stories were obviously precursors to later books.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
(This post was edited by Annael on Apr 10 2025, 4:09pm)
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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Apr 10 2025, 6:56pm
Post #3 of 23
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I know, everyone loved it, but the amount of snark-to-actual-content ratio was just too high. His is, imho, an adolescent male type of humor in which the point is to show off to friends and also diss other people as much as possible, and I didn't find it funny at all. I was also handicapped by not being British and so not being in on all the in-jokes. I gave up about a third of the way through.
Sorry to hear this. Usually I'm very sensitive to this exact sort of thing, but not here. Maybe it's because I'm already so familiar with the material that I found a different take on it refreshing.
I see we agree on Miss Pym and on the Wimsey short stories as well. I like Wimsey just fine, but a little at a time is best!
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Apr 11 2025, 1:17am
Post #4 of 23
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I too was disenchanted with Unruly, for the same reasons. The humor started to grate on me, and the British-isms flew over my head. I did scan through to the end, and although I appreciated having the pictures, the captions tended to be puerile.
I followed it with a nice dose of short local history books written by local authors, for our library's monthly historical society book discussion. I'm also reading John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels, a non-fiction work which centers around the fire which destroyed Venice's Fenice opera house, and the incredible characters who inhabit that city. Fascinating and well-written, although he does go into too much detail about some of the people. But I never knew the story behind Ezra Pound's final years, it's disgusting what happened to him, and the attempted "robbery" of his legacy.
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"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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CuriousG
Gondolin
Apr 11 2025, 2:42pm
Post #5 of 23
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Yes, everyone but me has probably read her, and that's why I'm doing it, to improve my cultural literacy. Tackling Hercule Poirot books at this point: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which I enjoyed, but now on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd I'm feeling there's way too much repetition, so maybe she wasn't meant to be binge-read. I enjoy her character and scene descriptions, and I have nothing but awe for all the backstory construction she's done and how artful she is at dropping in clues along with twists and turns, but I do find her dialogue could be trimmed back quite a bit. Way too much like "Could you open the door?" "Yes, I can open the door." >> C'mon, Agatha, trust your readers and move things along! So when I see quotes, I start skimming. Still a fun read overall.
I may next read a Dresden book instead--that's the kind of story that should appeal to me, but I've tried reading Dresden books before and somehow they never grab me. It's all about being in the right mood for the right story, I think.
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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Apr 11 2025, 6:51pm
Post #6 of 23
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I've been very critical of my reading recently (although more with fiction than non-fiction), but I liked Unruly in audio so much I bought a copy of the paper book. Yes, there's snark, but Mitchell makes some very cogent remarks on power in general and monarchy in particular, and I think his analyses of trends, cities, battles, etc. are good.
I first encountered this more casual and contemporary voice in the writing of history in books by a British author named Emma Southon. I was at first taken aback by the tone of her A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but by the time I got to A Rome of One's Own (both are obviously Roman history) I was accustomed to it. It could well be a British thing.
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Lily Fairbairn
Gondolin
Apr 11 2025, 6:55pm
Post #7 of 23
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She's definitely part of our cultural literacy. Personally, I think she's a better writer than many critics give her credit for, but often the plots for which critics give her gobs of credit make me roll my eyes. Still, Ackroyd is a classic of the genre and I'd love to hear your thoughts when you've finished it.
(I agree, often it's better not to read too many books by an author in a row. Those writing tics will really jump out at you.)
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Apr 11 2025, 7:22pm
Post #8 of 23
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Ah well, at least you gave it a nudge.
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We all like different flavours, even in writing. Mitchell's wit is definitely my cup of tea, but then I've seen enough video clips and shows with him in it that I knew what I was going into with Unruly.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Fantasy novel - The Arcanist's Tattoo
My LOTR fan-fiction
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Starling
Gondolin
Apr 11 2025, 8:38pm
Post #9 of 23
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Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found it mostly irritating.
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Starling
Gondolin
Apr 11 2025, 8:41pm
Post #10 of 23
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I love David Mitchell ('Send us your reckons' and 'Homeopathic A&E' still make me laugh until I can't breathe), but I found Unruly almost unreadable.
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Apr 11 2025, 10:28pm
Post #11 of 23
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Homeopathic A&E is *chef's kiss*
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And I love that 'Are we the baddies?' is getting wider recognition lately.
My introduction to him was his video on 'I could care less', for which I still have a soft spot. 
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Fantasy novel - The Arcanist's Tattoo
My LOTR fan-fiction
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cats16
Gondolin
Apr 11 2025, 10:41pm
Post #12 of 23
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I didn't realize it was a David Mitchell book you all were talking about. I assumed it was some academic I'd never heard of, so I didn't even bother to google until I saw "David Mitchell" upthread and had a feeling it may not be the Cloud Atlas writer, lol.
We love Would I Lie to You and have seen David on other shows so are quite familiar with his humor, so I would think this would be up my alley.
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
(This post was edited by cats16 on Apr 11 2025, 10:41pm)
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Meneldor
Doriath
Apr 13 2025, 4:10am
Post #13 of 23
(72912 views)
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The Big Little War: A World War II Epic
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by James Dunford Wood
In May of 1941, the Axis nearly took over Iraq from British control. Taking the Iraqi oil fields and closing the route from the Mediterranean to India could have changed the outcome of the war. This little-known campaign involved Germany, Britain, various factions of Iraqis, Indians, Vichy French, Free French, Italians, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Greeks, and more. At the center of all that was the British air base of Habbaniya, a flying training school equipped with biplane trainers that had been obsolete for more than a decade, manned by instructor pilots with little operational experience and student pilots with less, and armed with guns and bombs that had been marginally adequate back in the first world war. This little outpost in the desert was besieged by 9000 Iraqi troops. It's a fascinating story I had never heard of, with a convoluted political backstory which is enlivened by diary entries from the author's father, one of the student pilots who somehow survived the battle. Of course, I was also intrigued by all the mentions of places in Iraq that I used to fly over and into.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107
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Annael
Elvenhome
Apr 14 2025, 12:09am
Post #14 of 23
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that's where Frank Herbert got the name for one of his locales on Arrakis: Habbanya Ridge..
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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DwellerInDale
Nargothrond
Apr 14 2025, 1:39am
Post #15 of 23
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I read this book after Amazon recommended it to me. Given that the plot is centered on an insane serial murderer who captures young girls, tattoos butterflies on their backs, and keeps them prisoner in a garden until he ultimately dispatches them on their 21st birthday, maybe Amazon knows something about me that I don't. The author, Dot Hutchison, is known for young adult fiction; this would be her first novel for adults. I didn't find the story horrifying; to me the novel was more surreal and allegorical. In any event, it was an enjoyable read-- but perhaps not the best choice for those who spook easily.
Don't mess with my favorite female elves.
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DGHCaretaker
Nargothrond
Apr 14 2025, 3:10am
Post #16 of 23
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I read this book after Amazon recommended it to me.
I don't trust algorithmic recommendations. I consider them akin to junk calls. Though at least with junk calls, you know the intent. With algorithmic recommendations, the intent is often unclear.
I would listen to acquaintances who have no financial interest or provably real people on forums like these.
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Meneldor
Doriath
Apr 16 2025, 3:18pm
Post #17 of 23
(56449 views)
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(Star Nation in Peril book 3) by Skyler Ramirez
Another spin-off from his Dumb Luck & Dead Heroes series, it's a fun lightweight scifi adventure focusing on super-spies. It builds up to an Ocean's 11 heist with all the requisite capers, and just enough plot twists to keep me guessing. There's a bunch of entertaining new characters and I hope to see more of them in the next book.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107
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cats16
Gondolin
Apr 16 2025, 5:36pm
Post #18 of 23
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I finished All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. As with his previous book Suttree, this one really blossomed for me after 75 or so pages. I'm taking a bit of a break before reading my next McCarthy.
In the meantime, I've started The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, which is a light and refreshing read in comparison.
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
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CuriousG
Gondolin
Apr 16 2025, 6:05pm
Post #19 of 23
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What did you think of the minimalist writing style?
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I know it's new and trendy and popular, and I wanted to appreciate it, but I really didn't. OK book overall, but I like it when authors make characters' inner feelings/motivations/lives more transparent to readers, and I spent more time guessing at those areas than I wanted to. It delivered a great tribute to horses and life with horses, as well as the ruggedly independent lifestyle of cowboys in the West and border regions.
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cats16
Gondolin
Apr 17 2025, 6:16pm
Post #20 of 23
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I think it's a style that takes a bit of rigor to adjust to for each of his books - it's almost like watching someone from across a bar and keenly watching their behavior to learn things about them. But once it clicks in place, it's really enjoyable for me. And I think I'm the kind of reader/writer that embraces some of that open-endedness, which I know isn't for everyone!
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
(This post was edited by cats16 on Apr 17 2025, 6:17pm)
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
Apr 19 2025, 3:09pm
Post #22 of 23
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Doctor Who - Mad Dogs and Englishmen
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I'm currently reading a Doctor Who book that I acquired at the UBCon swap meet last weekend, Mad Dogs and Englishmen (a novel of the Eighth Doctor) by Paul Magrs. I was not expecting to run into fictionalized stand-ins for J.R.R. Tolkien, his wife Edith, C.S. Lewis and the Inklings!
“Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved.” - Tony Isabella
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Apr 19 2025, 3:14pm)
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Meneldor
Doriath
Apr 21 2025, 12:25am
Post #23 of 23
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The Starship in the Stone, book 3 by MR Forbes
More action-packed science fantasy as the crew of the Excalibur grows and they lead the resistance against the Draconite forces of Queen Morgana. It's entertaining enough that I'm still reading and will probably pick up the next one in the series when it comes out. Most of it is kind of forgettable though. It's popcorn literature.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107
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