[CanadianMaestro]

 

[PalJoey]

I am also dipping into Judith Schalansky's Atlas of remote Islands (Fifty Islands I have never visited and never will). It won a German Arts Foundation award for "The most beautiful book of the year".
 
It combines detailed illustrations for each island with a page of text that can be plainly historical or sometimes a little poetic, as the mood of the author takes her.
 
It is also fun to read while looking up the islands on Google Earth for aerial photos.
 

 

[altofame]

"This is a book" by D Martin.. Amazing.

 

[proedros]

  Just Finished:
 
Watchmen (1986-1987), by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
 
Had forgotten how much pieces of Watchmen bugged me, but the sum is stronger than its parts, and Watchmen is rightly considered to be one of the foremost works in comic books/graphic novels. I don't think the passage of time and the medium's continued evolution will ever take that status away from it.
 
What's next? I'm thinking Moore's and Gebbie's Lost Girls. 

 
 
Transmetropolitan
 
 
watchmen is good - very good in fact. But TM is even better - it's probably the best graphic novel i have read 

Imagine The Network (1976 film) meets Blade Runner meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Smart , insightful , prescient, funny. Masterpiece.
 

 

[DLeeWebb]

 

[OddE]

Currently reading John Steinbeck's "Once There Was a War" - a collection of his dispatches as a war correspondent during WWII.


This comes on the tails of Max Hastings' excellent (if you're into that kind of thing, that is) "The Secret War" on resistance movements, spies and intelligence services during WWII.
 


Next, I'll read something not on the war - I just picked up the Slightly Foxed edition of Gavin Maxwell's "The House of Elrig", for which I have high hopes.

 

[PalJoey]

  Next, I'll read something not on the war - I just picked up the Slightly Foxed edition of Gavin Maxwell's "The House of Elrig", for which I have high hopes.

Maxwell did serve in Special Forces during WWII, but I don't think this particular volume covers his life as far as that. However, I have only just got a replacement copy for one that disintegrated years ago, and I haven't re-read it yet. My memory may be unreliable on the cutoff date of that volume.
 
He's a damn good writer, and an interesting person from a historically significant family. As well as his autobiographical works (all worth a read), I also enjoyed 'Lords of the Atlas' which is a fascinating account of Morocco's emergence from a pretty much mediaeval state to encountering and influencing the 20th century world. He also documented his journeys among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, whose lifestyle and habitat was later wiped out by Saddam Hussein.
 
He wrote a couple of books about Sicily that landed him in court for a long time, so I'm definitely looking forward to reading those!
 
And the various otter books are fascinating, heartwarming, but all (IIRC) end on a bit of a downer. 'Ring of bright Water' is the most famous and the otter books also made the name of the British TV presenter Terry Nutkins, who lost a finger to one of Maxwell's otters.

 

[OddE]

@PalJoey - I seem to recall being told that House of Elrig ends as he returns to Elrig after graduating from a public school in England, though I may very well be mistaken - I guess I'll find out sometime next week!
 
I've only read his book on the marsh Arabs thus far, which was a very interesting read indeed - I've always had a soft spot for disappearing cultures, for some reason or the other.
 
Thanks for the heads-up on the otter books - I'll probably end up reading those at some point, as I love Maxwell's writing style (He has a way of describing other people which almost makes them come alive, IMHO - though how that works when writing of otters, I wouldn't know... .

 

[WraithApe]

Just finished Saturday by Iain McEwan - very readable and McEwan's prose style is elegant and precise; his writing well-researched. Started Felicia's Journey by William Trevor - seems hellish dull so far. Think I'm going to abandon it in favour of a Martin Amis fix...

 

[serman005]

The Rembrandt Affair, Daniel Silva--another in the Gabriel Allon series.

 

[PalJoey]

Eater, by Gregory Benford. Science fiction from a man with a proper science fact background. Promising so far.

 

[taffy2207]

 
 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Redeemer_%28novel%29

 

[PalJoey]

Or "Bo Jones", as I refer to him, in a manner that is in no way annoying...

 

[DLeeWebb]

 

[OddE]

Re-read The Hound of the Baskervilles for the umpteenth time yesterday, this time in the Penguin Clothbound Classics series - compact hardcover volumes, good paper, excellent typography - even annotated! (Highly recommended; excellent value for money!)
 
Will now revert to Maxwell's "The House of Elrig", and next up after this will be Pakenham's "The Scramble for Africa", which has been sitting on my shelf for a year or so now without me ever getting around to actually reading it.