The space to talk about the books you are reading, and find out which ones we are reviewing
Autumn has arrived, though we're all hoping for an Indian summer to make up for the Icelandic spring we suffered in the UK this year. Hannah is taking a well-earned late break after the rigours of the Edinburgh international book festival - so I'll be overseeing this thread for the next couple of weeks.
If you missed our daily Edinburgh books podcasts, do check them out, as it gave us a chance to range further and wider than usual, with interviewees including the Colombian-American neo-thriller maestro Sergio de la Pava and Lebanese-Canadian wild child Rawi Hage, the Russian Mikhail Shishkin and Argentinian Patricio Pron (these last two alongside the irresistible James Kakalios, whose talk on The Physics of Superheroes was one of my highlights of the festival).
Back in London, I'm continuing a love-in with Australian literature which began when I spent a month in Melbourne and Adelaide earlier in the year. One of my discoveries was Tony Birch, whose World Writers' conference keynote speech ran on the books website over the weekend (his gothic coming-of-age novel Blood is surely a film-in-waiting). Another is Hannah Kent, whose strikingly accomplished, and distinctly unAustralian debut, Burial Rites, has just been longlisted for the Guardian first book prize. At the moment I'm deep into Belomor, by Nicholas Rothwell - a heady mix of art and opals, in Europe and Australia, now and in centuries past.
But enough of me. Here are some of the books you've been been reading over the last week:
Just finished Timothy Findley's Not Wanted On The Voyage. Why, having read Famous Last Words and Pilgrim, did I stupidly wait so long to read more Findley? And why do I never seen Findley's name mentioned anywhere?
Eagerly devouring The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Had dismissed it previously as I feared it might be twee, but the positive comments of @AggieH and @GetOver99 persuaded me to put aside my prejudices, which I'm happy to say were way off the mark. An absolute delight.
About halfway through 'The Lady in the Lake' by Raymond Chandler, and for my money it's the best one so far - every other sentence I want to read out to someone. Also on a whim, having not really read any graphic novels or comics, I started Chris Ware's 'Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid in the World' which I'm also enjoying - not entirely following some passages, but it can be quite heartbreaking at times, and quite special in its mundanity...
Journokatie says she's finishing up The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver. "It's his latest Lincoln Rhyme book. No matter how many of Deaver's books I read I never get bored." A rival to Rick Gekoski's Lee Child?. It takes something really thrilling to distract from the tingle of shingles (I know, I've had it). Hope you're back to health soon Journokatie.
Finally, a challenge from capebretoner:
Can anybody recommend any recent travel books? The genre seems to have faded away, or more likely I have failed to keep up. Where are the new Thubrons, Chatwins etc?
Here are some of the books we'll be reviewing this week:
Nonfiction:
Danubia by Simon Winder (Picador, £18.99)
The Blunders of Our Governments by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe
What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist who Tried to Kill Your Wife? by David Harris-Gershon
The Manager: Inside the minds of Football's Leaders by Mike Carson
Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters by Daniel Gray
Noble Endeavours by Miranda Seymour
The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Fiction:
Lion Heart by Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury, £18.99)
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris (Sandstone Press, £8.99)
The Bone Season Samantha Shannon Bloomsbury, £12.99)
Malarky by Anakana Schofield (Oneworld Publications, £11.99)
Night Film by Marisha Pessl (Hutchinson, £16.99)
Children's fiction:
More Than This by Patrick Ness (Walker, £12.99)
Paperback:
Grimm Tales for Old and Young by Philip Pullman
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