Summer reading recs for Remus please

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Okay, so you all know how bloody fussy I am, but it is that time again.

I'm having a bit of a classic sci-fi moment, so anything in that line would be good.

Really well written classic fantasy might work too.

Quirky history books would be great, especially anything with a criminal or medical slant.

Anything to do with Victorian or Edwardian history is usually up my street, again especially if it's slightly off the wall - prisons, graveyards, medicine, crime etc.

Anything to do with historical exploration especially polar or mountains.

Anything random you think might be worth a punt might also just be the one too.

Tia. :)

Is it that time again?

I have the perfect book for you: Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre.

Non-fiction. History. Medical slant. It's perfect for you.

Re classic sci-fi: Have you read Dune yet?

Have you read R.S. Downie's Ruso series? Historic crime, medical slant, also very funny.

Classic fantasy - Keith Roberts - Pavane (alternative reality fiction done really well)

And if you want really classic - Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (his short story 'The Foghorn' still makes me cry)

It is ALWAYS that time. :)

I've read, 'The Martian Chronicles.' Cote - I've just mentioned, 'Dune' on the other thread and promise to start it tomorrow. :)

Will google the others - thank you.

The problem with you, Remus is that you are so incredibly well read that it'd difficult to find you anything worthwhile that you haven't already read. . But most of us on here enjoy a challenge.

Oh yes yes Operation Mincemeat is AMAZING. DH is reading it aloud to me of an evening

OP have you read Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child? Epically scary feminist literary scifi
Also Rebecca Stott Ghostwalk is supposed to be a very good Victorian detective book

Also the Anne Perry books...

Just popped in to say that I am halfway through Song of Susannah. Wolves was GREAT. Already dreading it all coming to an end though, I am too hormonal to cope.

Have you read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin? I expect you have, but worth a mention.

Oh gosh, you utterly MUST read The Invention of Murder. Judith someone. Tracks the Victorian obsession with murder and fascinatingly how it actually made murder mystery a 'thing' in real life as in fiction...

Also (on a roll) did you read James Meek's The People's Act of Love a while back? Caused a justifiable stir. Think murder, lust, religious mania in revolutionary Siberia. Astonishing book.

If you really want to go off the wall literary the tiny imprint Galley Beggar Press has just punished a book by Eimear McBride (sp?!) Called A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing - think a lusty feminist teenaged.girl James Joyce. It's been wildly we'll received and it's going to be a cult classic or I'll eat my hat.

Wolves is excellent, isn't it? I liked Song of Susannah less but then it all gets wonderful - and horrible - and wonderful and.... :)

Pointy - I'm not sure I'm well read, but I'm certainly READ!

Read the Lessing - I don't dislike her but I do find her a bit wearing at times. Liked The Golden Notebook and some of her short stories best, but probably won't seek out any more of hers.

Haven't read the le Guin, so will check it out - but again, she's not somebody who's ever made me go rushing to read more of hers tbh. In fact (and I know how awful this sounds, sorry) I'm on a bit of a downer with female writers generally, lately.

Have read 'Ghostwalk' and her other one, 'The Coral Thief.' They are okay but not earth-shattering. I preferred, 'The Coral Thief' (and it has the most gorgeous cover!). :)

i don't like Anne Perry.

Operation Mincemeat looks just right.

Yes to the Invention of Murder btw. I LOVED her other two.

Sorry but I HATED, 'The People's Act Of Love.'

Aye, the Flanders.books are amaze. Especially the food one.

Where do you stand on Edna O'brien? Her memoir is wonderful but if you don't like her you'll proper loathe it.

I'm barking up ALL of the wrong trees!

Rupert Tomson? Secrecy (latest) sounds good - it awaits on m'elecktrical reading device

Just seen Flanders has one called The Victorian City too - which is now v much at the top of my list. :)

Have never heard of Edna o Brien.

Necropolis? Nothing like digging up London's dead to make a summer evening pass.

I've just read John Lanchester's Mr Philips. Dull middle aged man leaves for work one morning but encounters born barons &c. Funny and mucky in an English sort of way.

I'm always trying to get people to read the OTHER Orwells - Burmese Days, Coming Up for Air, the Clergyman's Daughter, Aspidistra etc. but does anyone listen? No, they do not.

Also, I'm always, always trying to get people to read Melmoth the Wanderer - you are clearly v well read and might turn out to be the only other person I know that's read it?

You like classic scifi - have you read Tono Bungay or the other HG Wells books?

'Kay, best place to start with Edna (if you're interested: not sure it would be your bag judging on your wishlist, but it's worth a punt) would be Country Girls, her debut.

Banned in Ireland for filth. Lyrical and honest account of growing up in mid 20th century rural Ireland and wanting a bit of a shag (that's boiling it down to the barest of bones, obvs).

Porn barons, not born barons!

That'll be Dave's internet filter kicking in early, then.

Read Necropolis - that's exactly the sort of thing I'm after.

Have read most if not all of Orwell's and am now working through the essays. Particularly like Aspidistra.

I have neither read nor heard of Melmouth The Wanderer and will google immediately!

Melmouth is EXACTLY what I'm after.
Edna - not so sure. I have a bit of an aversion to Irish growing up stuff.

Take it you've read all the Patrick Hamiltons? He gets unjustifiably forgotten IMHO.

Melmoth is a mighty tome and utterly but UTTERLY terrifying. Parts of it are so appalling I had to actually cover portions of the page with my hand.

The Monk is ace and in a similar vein (if you fancy getting your Goth on) but heaps camper and so less likely to put you in therapy for the next ten years.

Oooo! Give it a go! I have promised a bottle of good red wine to anyone who can read it an talk to me about it - no-one's claimed it yet!

Disclaimer: as far as I'm concerned any wine costing more than a fiver is 'good'.

MelMouth? :)

Haven't read any Wells' except the obvious ones - loved War of the Worlds and enjoyed The Time Machine. Hated The Invisible Man. And have forgotten the name of the 4th one I read. Hang on...

Fun fact, by the way: Oscar Wilde called himself Sebastian Melmoth after the Wanderer when exiled after his prison sentence

I'm sorry I've hijacked your thread. I get a bit overexcited by book talk