What are you currently reading, how do you feel about it, and what's next on the list? Part 2

[IceIceBabyBump]

The original thread is nearly full: Page 40 | What are you currently reading, how do you feel about it, and what's next on the list? | Mumsnet

So, here's another one to keep us going!

Yes, I feel that too.

I looked at the Booker Longlist last night and I was mostly just thinking "What the hell is this nonsense?" None of them really grabbed me, and some of them just sounded ridiculous.

Thanks for the recommendations for folk horror - I'll take a look. I'm after something spooky and atmospheric for autumn nights!

The News from Dublin by Colm Toibin. He really is the master of Show don’t Tell. Enjoyable if not memorable.

I can heartily recommend 'The Burial Tide' by Neil Sharpson. Also, 'The Cold House' by A G Slatter which is very short - only 160 pages - and so might be a good starting point. Good characters and smart dialogue.

I mean, obviously, with this sort of thing, you have to be willing - and able - to suspend your disbelief but I've always loved a fairy story (I mean the evil ones like The Red Shoes) so I see folk horror as an extension of those.

I can now add that I DON'T recommend 'Netherwood' by Jake Arnott, unless you're a big fan of Hammer horror type movies and/or live in Hastings.

I looked at the Booker long list and have forgotten! 😬 What looked particularly “What the hell is this nonsense?” @IceIceBabyBump? 😊

Omg that sounds intriguing (not enough to read it obvs) but what a combination!

To be fair to it @tobee , it wasn't awful. It was a good yarn, and it was clear that a fair amount of research had gone into it, but it wasn't what could be called literary. It reminded me of the Dennis Wheatley books I used to see my tiny, kindly, church-going mother read back when I was a kid. Out of curiosity, I read one of those a couple of years ago, and, just like this book, it was Hammer horror in written format.

I don’t know if graphic novels count but I just borrowed Posy Simmond’s “ Cassandra Darke “ from the library on a whim, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Love Posy Simmonds. I bought all her old guardian comic books off ebay a few years ago with the Weber family that were published in the 80s and really remind me of my childhood.

Me too! Grew up on the Grauniad Women’s Page and Posy! ( back when they straightforwardly supported women’s rights, sigh). I also have most of her work.
Have you read Gemma Bovary, her take on Emma Bovary? V funny.

I’m currently ploughing through Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series - v quick reads though each book seems to get 100 pages longer, they are hit and miss, this one, the Sun Sister, is more absorbing than the last one - more interesting and realistic characters. She does a rollicking story each time and I like the way she contrasts past/ present with a different location around the world each time.

Trying to get started with On Chapel Sands, Laura Cumming’s memoir of her difficult relationship with her mother.

No but I think I’d love it. My grandparents lived in France so I havd some exposure to the expat scene there. Will seek it out.

Coming to join in. I’ve been off books for a while and bought a few to get me back started. And a reading light! I am a speed reader so a book usually done in 1-2 days
currently on Redeeming 6 - Chloe Walsh. I got hooked by this series

I'm just finishing Opal, Patricia Wolf. Is the third of an Australian detective series. Think the first is called Outback.Bit formulaic, but perfect for a rainy bank holiday.

Would you recommend the reading light @tretaddict ? I’m 59 and need reading glasses.

Oh 100%, it’s made a big difference. It’s one of those neck ones

Currently reading the Mike Atwell detective series by Steve Higgs and Penelope Cress. Easy to read, entertaining and slightly comedic. I don’t usually read books in a series straight after one another, but these are fairly short, with an underlying storyline running through them, so just finished book three in the series.

Not sure what I’ll read next (after books 4-6). Something from my ‘library’ on kindle, probably downloaded after a recommendation on Bookbub, which could be anything from a psychological thriller to a cowboy romance (which I’ve only recently discovered is a genre).

'Transciption' by Ben Lerner. Top notch. Short but beautifully witten, exploring the nature of the relationship between parents and children, as well as how they are remembered and recorded. Do we ever really know them? Do they ever really know us? Do we want them to? Interesting technique of using the same sentences more than once but in relation to different events and characters. Made me think something had gone wrong the first time I noticed. Maybe a tiny bit po-faced, but existentialism is a serious business...

Next up some non-fiction - 'A Noble Madness', a history of collectors as cultural figures.

I've just read 'Hunger and Thirst', the new novel by Claire Fuller. I love her writing and this one is was so enthralling I couldn't put it down. It's quite a unique blend of social realism, focusing on the life of a 16 year old girl who was living in 'care' during 1980s Britain, and a kind of literary Gothic horror. The characters are so well written and the plot so twisted and mesmerising I didn't want it to end. It's quite scary though and has put me off bungalows.

My next book will be 'High and Low', the new novel by Amanda Craig. This is apparently a 'state of the nation' type book, a genre which I tend to enjoy a lot.

Posy Simmons is so brilliant. I too have all her books, all of which are sheer genius, it's not only the illustrations but the stories/themes are bang on as well.

France are much, much more into graphic novels than we are here in Britain, and she even won an award from them at a French graphic novel festival a few years ago.

When I ordered my copy of Gemma Bovary from our local bookshop the bookseller and I spent a good 10 minutes looking through it and chuckling

Love Posy too! I often re read Mrs Webber’s Diary; these were the sort of adults I came across as a child.

I often quote it as well - especially: Did you know if you unscrew your tummy button your bottom falls off? Just ask my dc as I ask them what happens all too frequently