That's u + Rouj then. I will pur chase th is th ing

From that time they were left in peace; but the trader’s wife became very thin, and
though her reason returned, she shortly afterwards died of consumption. The other
lady, Mrs. Wang, began to get better as soon as the foxes had been killed; and as to
the boy, he was taught riding and archery[3] by his proud parent, and subsequently
rose to high rank in the army.

Why bother when you have Rieu's?

Thorough research on Emily colours me interested.

Brooks wrote:

Booked it during train rides. But yeah I only audio stuff now, it's a better use of my time.

I love the idea of audio books - but my mind wanders when I try them.

Or I fall asleep.


One of my favourite things is drifting off to sleep to some random narrative on Radio 4.  That's probably why this happens to me.

regmcfly wrote:

Just finished Neil gaimans Norse mythology. Now I can go back to God of War

Is it actually a decent story? It looks pretty hefty but don't know if gaiman has told it as a narrative or just a collection of 'facts' as the were

Kernowgaz wrote:

MattyJ wrote:

regmcfly wrote:

Just finished Neil gaimans Norse mythology. Now I can go back to God of War

Is it actually a decent story? It looks pretty hefty but don't know if gaiman has told it as a narrative or just a collection of 'facts' as the were

I thought it was more of a collection really

It's a collection of myths, as most of these are. They're structured in an order that links certain events. I enjoyed it. It's very straightforwardly written.

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Stopharage wrote:

Recently finished The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. Best to go into it knowing as little as possible. It's probably the most original bit of writing I've seen in years. It's extremely disorientating and for much of the first half of the book you'll be utterly flummoxed by what on earth is going on. It's a (possible) murder-mystery set in a Cluedo-esque setting with a wide cast of characters, most of whom are deeply unlikeable. There is also a consistently shifting narrative and the whole thing has a touch of Sexy Brutale. Recommended.

Agreed on all of this. It’s fantastic, properly original.

Mentioned this past time; my 9 year old girl is called Evie Hardcastle so that got me to pick it off the shelf in the first place.

So it's definitely the Seven and not the 7,5 right? Amazon only found the 7,5 one, which will release in September apparently.

I'm looking for something new to read after I've finished the 3rd Annihilation book. The Seven Deaths doesn't seem to have an ebook version though.

Thanks. Had a look at Amazon UK and they indeed have the Kindle version and it seems to be cheap now. £4,76 in stead of the US $26 to pre order the book.

I'll see if I can purchase that one then.

edit. can't seem to purchase from UK amazon. Wrong region. Would anyone see if they can gift it? I can use paypal to cover the costs of course.

Here’s the thing, Chinese is a pretty vague language - words carry a whole lot of implication but lack specificity, and the approach to storytelling is quite different as well, often just being a sequence of events on a theme or overall arching narrative, rather than a traditional multi-act structure. It’s why the pacing of chinese movies can seem quite weird, sometimes, and it’s also why when I ask my students to explain the plot of a movie they often start by trying to describe every plot beat and character as it happens, rather than just give a description of what the movie is generally about.

Add to that, a lot of texts from various Chinese periods and dynasties expect an implicit understanding of:

1. Confucian / Daoist principles
2. Chinese social structure
3. The Chinese national character

Chinese self-critical writing can be pretty fucking tops, though, and there’s some really cool stuff. A good intro to looking at Chinese society from a critical perspective is the short essay “Looking to the West” by Long Yontai, which only takes a few minutes.

After that, go to The Legend of AhQ, by Lu Xun, as well as Ding Ling’s Miss Sophia’s Diary and then there’s a play called Thunderstorm. It’s also worth checking out To Live (活着）which is a Cultural Revolution era story.

These are all 20th century writings, but they’ll help teach some concepts and ideas which are common in writings from previous dynasties. Plus, you know, they’re pretty fucking great.

Some pretty decent books reduced on Kindle for the weekend. 

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor. Highly praised last year, won a load of awards. Its about a community dealing with the disappearance of a child. It's not really a crime novel but is about the development of the community over the years that follow. The style of writing will either annoy you or you'll fall for it. Worth using the 'look inside' aspect of Amazon to check the stilting prose. 

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer is down to £1.49. I've been championing it since it came out and it's gone down pretty well here. He also has a short story collection going cheap. 

America City by Chris Beckett is 99p. He's very highly thought of in sci-fi circles and his Eden trilogy is decent. This is more a realistic dystopian imagining than an out-and-out sci-fi blockbuster. 

The Last Days of Paris by China Mieville is 99p. 

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner was one of my favourite books when I was a nipper and is well worth a read at £1.49.

The stone cold classic that is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is down to 99p. 

If you like Christopher Hitchens, then God is Not Great is down to £1.29.

To Kill the President by Sam Bourne. Got a load of column inches last year for basically having a Trump-esque president in danger of being offed by the people around him, written by a Guardian writer. I read it on holiday and it was perfect holiday fodder but didn't have a great deal of depth.

Read The Algebraist (Ian M Banks) which was excellent - hugely inventive, nice comic touches, and a intriguing story.  

About to finish In a Cottage In a Wood, which is pretty pulp-fiction but fun enough (and enjoyably light in comparison).  A week's holiday looming, so hoping to get some more reading under my belt, though with the Kindle loaded up I'm not sure what...

Just finished The Republic of Thieves ( Book 3 of The Gentleman Bastards ) and it was as brilliant as expected. Locke Lamora and Jean are two of my all time favourite characters and the author has a wonderful grasp of dialogue. It also managed to have a great balance between a stand alone story / advancing the overall narrative of the series. Great stuff.

Although I have now caught up and need to wait for the next one which sucks.

The Unwomanly Face of War it turns out is the most upsetting collection of war memoirs I've ever read. I can only read a dozen or so pages before needing to take a break. Trying to read it in the bath yesterday and I ended up feeling nauseous and had to throw it away.

I've watched the infamous film Come and See which dramatises the factual mass slaughter of rural Russian villages by the Wermacht and ends with an entire village being locked in a barn which is then set on fire as they all watch. No punches pulled in showing it either.

And even with this little context I am shocked by it all. I thought I'd gotten jaded to historical slaughter but this has cut me deep. In this case, due to 99% of the memoirs being female soldiers often as young as 16, who are also running off to the front to fight with no idea what they're getting into, the grief piles up. These women recount their front experience often in completely different ways to men from any nation's army. They talk readily about emotions, snipers feeling for stray horses their comrades goad them into shooting for meat then refusing to partake in the stew from guilt, kissing a dying man who's delirious and thinks you're his sweetheart back home who he never confessed to, recounting crimson ice flows containing the frozen remains of Russian and German soldiers slowly down river like some macabre curio.

Then we have life after the war were many women are seen as unmarriable and are barely remembered in the state literature. The author includes several conversations she had by post with state censors wondering exactly why she would even care about these women's first hand accounts. "You've been reading too much Remarque" (All's Quite on the Western Front) says one who suggests she's mistreating her countries' heroines by humanising them.

What are the native titles?