what ya readin' ?

"Things Snowball" by Rich Hall... non-fiction "essays"... allegedly!... v.silly...

I read Explorers of the New Century by Magnus Mills last night. I thought it was great, a return to form after Scheme for Full Employment which I didn't enjoy. This one's about two teams of explorers off to find the AFP (agreed furthest point). What Mills does really well is how pettiness becomes the most important consideration in what should be a great adventure - for example they bicker over who shares which tent, what hat they are going to wear, and so on. It also has a brilliant ending - hilarious in its absurdity, but completely believable.

I'm reading 'Solaris' by Stanislaw Lem, because I've never seen either of the films made from it. It's good so far, like a who/what dunnit in space. Big planet, sentient ocean, entire thread of science devoted to the study of it. Bloke gets to research station finds everyone there parianoid wrecks, who keep seeing 'people' who are like solid ghosts. Lots of believable background, not scientific necessarily but the process of science. There are hugely different views of what this ocean could be, which are duked out in academic journals and the popular media, which feel very authentic. Also, unlike a lot of science fiction, it's very full of description of smell, touch and sound, which is why I imagine it's been filmed a couple of times. Cheers, Mark Brown, Editor, www.ABCtales.com

It's interesting to read a book which a v.popular film you haven't seen is based on! I recently read "Ring" by Koji Suzuki & its sequel, "Spiral" - haven't seen either the original Japanese films or the western remakes, but loved the books - can't wait until the 3rd in the series is translated! Oddly, although these stories are basically "horror," the books are very scientific - almost sci-fi - and very much like mystery/detective stories. Well worth a look, even if you're not normally into that kind of thing... "P"

If you have not already read them: Nicola Barker 'Small Holdings' Angela Carter 'Nights at the Circus' or 'The Magic Toyshop' Magaret Atwood 'Surfacing' or brilliant reworking of Hans Christian Anderson's 'The Goose Girl' ( I cannae remeber who it is by) Span

Precious Time by Erica James, At the Stroke of Madness by Alex Kava, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella, Why Men Dont listen, Why Women Cant Read Maps by Allan & Barbara Pease Kat x

My Dark Places by James Ellroy. As dark and sad as it gets.

game, set, match trilogy len deighton coldwartastic

I've read a number of dreary books recently, but then I hit upon a gem: "True Grit", by Charles Portis, which Donna Tartt had praised up in the Guardian as a masterpiece. And, wow, it is. The writing has a gritty, imagistic terseness which you sense is hard-won: this isn't a pulp western, it's a work of literature. But the book is so funny, too. The narrator is this crotchety old spinster recounting, in the early twentieth century, her adventures as a fourteen-year-old girl in the last days of the Wild West, when she remorselessly hunted down her father's murderer. The temporal doubleness of the narratorial voice is what lends the book its wit. Here's the opening, for a taste (it's a sensuous pleasure for me just to type this stuff down): "People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. " (Drew, I'm pretty sure you'd love this one - if you haven't read it already.)

"You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down" a collection of short stories by Alice Walker, she can do no wrong "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis for those who are daring and have strong stomachs and... for those who enjoy sociology and social commentary i just finished "Nation of Rebels Why Counterculture became Consumer Culture" by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter I Love books and these are good ones i hope to pass on the good finds

I'm reading Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow. Plot is a tad contrived (and tooooo complex for my small brain), but it is beautifully written, so all is forgiven.

Same as Pesky, along with Atwood's Alias Grace which I am finding impossible to get into.