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Bookwomble
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I struggled to think of a #GuiltyPleasure book for #TitlesAndTunes, then saw this book waiting for me to read, which I totally bought to salve my guilty conscience for enjoying the Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer. So, this book isn't my guilty pleasure, but I will read this deconstruction of Western popular culture's racist fascination with The Orient so that I can "ironically" read a Fu Manchu afterwards, when I will post a matching tune ? ⬇️

Bookwomble Written in 2014, Frayling just missed Trump's "Chynah Virus" bullshit, but it will still be interesting to read in that context.
Apologies for the headache-inducing carpet pattern ? I'm at my parent's house!
16h
29 likes1 comment
blurb
Bookwomble
City | Clifford D. Simak
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I felt like some quick old-school sci-fi as a pallet-cleanser after finishing a couple of volumes of early 19th century literature.
I like the cover of this 1965 Four Square edition: just the right shades of green-and-silver spindly architecture to give a retro-futuristic otherworldly feel 🛸

RamsFan1963 You can't go wrong with Simak 2d
rwmg 3s 6d! 2d
Bookwomble @RamsFan1963 Over the years I've read a couple of his stories in anthologies, but somehow never got to any of his own books until now. I love the frame story connecting this fix-up novel, so 🤞😊 2d
Bookwomble @rwmg Expensive for 1965! 😄 2d
34 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
Bookwomble
Wuthering Heights | Bronte Emily
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Pickpick

Da fuck was that! Someone care to explain to me why this is tagged as "Romance"? ??? I don't think so! ?

In the 6 months I've taken to read it, according to Mrs B I've done nothing but complain how horrendous all the characters are (other than Nellie Dean: Victoria Wood in my mental casting ?). I finished the last 20% in one go today, mainly while picnicking at Rufford Old Hall to finally get it over with, and thank goodness, it's done! ?⬇️

Bookwomble (Rating? 😒 Oh yeah - 4.5 ⭐ I loved it 💔 Don't tell anyone 🤫) 2d
psalva Love this review! 😂 I remember having a similar reaction. 2d
Suet624 I love your final note. I felt the same way. 2d
See All 9 Comments
Aimeesue While I always and forever will loathe WH, your casting of VW as Nellie Dean is inspired! I hadn‘t watched any VW in a while, so I made my way to YouTube and spent a hour there watching Victoria Woods‘ All Day Breakfast. An absolute delight. https://youtu.be/zq2f8QbTrlM 2d
LeahBergen 🤣 Great review! 2d
Palimpsest I finally read this a couple of years ago and would have initially liked it better if I hadn‘t expected romance and the characters weren‘t so awful. I watched the 1939 film version since then which helped me appreciate it more and I know I‘ll eventually reread it. 2d
Bookwomble @Aimeesue I did an internet search to check if Victoria has actually played the part, wondering if I'd seen it and forgotten, but not so. A pity as I think she would have been brilliant as Nellie. So sadly missed 💖 21h
Bookwomble @Palimpsest I'm sure I've seen that film over the years, though I haven't retained much memory of it. I do have the impression that it made less of the abusive element and played up the romance, but I may be misremembering. 21h
43 likes1 stack add9 comments
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Bookwomble
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"Unda: Thou knowest, Ariel, that wicked souls
Are, for wise purposes, permitted oft
To enter the dead forms of other men,
Assume their speech, their habits, and their knowledge,
And thus roam o'er the earth; but subject still,
At stated periods, to a dreadful tribute.
Ariel: Ay, they must wed some fair and virtuous maiden,
Whom they do after kill, and from her veins
Drain eagerly the purple stream of life;
??‍♂️⬇️

Bookwomble ...Which horrid draft alone hath pow'r to save them
From swift extermination.“
- The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles, a Romantic Melo-Drama in Two Acts, by J. R. Planché..
The spirits of water and air discuss the existence of the vampiric Lord Ruthven, Earl of Marsden, possessed by the ancient spirit of Cromal the Bloody.
How many have found the fair-seeming fiancé a spousal monster? ?
(edited) 4d
25 likes1 comment
blurb
Bookwomble
Black Joy | Various
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I picked this up from the library yesterday and want to read it as soon as possible to get it back on the shelf, but feel I really need to finish at least one other book before starting a new one. Toss up between finishing Gothic Plays and Wuthering Heights, probably the former.
I got 99 #BookwormProblems ... 📚🐛

Ruthiella 🎶 I got 99 problems, but this book ain‘t one. Hit me! 🎵 Much nicer lyrics. 👍 3d
30 likes1 comment
review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

The first of the six plays is The Castle Spectre, which won't be troubling Shakespeare, but having sprung from the morbid imagination of no less a writer than Matthew "Monk" Lewis is a galloping gothic ride.
Set in Conwy Castle, which I've visited several times, & referencing Alnwick Castle, ditto, it's full of atmosphere.
Tropes: Jolly fat friar, sarcastic but loyal fool, fratricidal earl with dastardly designs on his niece, said niece-of-great-

Bookwomble -virtue-and-beauty, heroic young suitor, spooky castle, secret passages, spectral visitations, dank dungeon with "surprise" prisoner.
Unexpectedly, the dastardly earl's black slaves have a racial consciousness & realistic motivations I've not come across in a work of this age (1797), but the abolitionist movement was well under way by that time. Sadly, while indications might suggest Lewis was a supporter, he was actually a slave owner himself.
4d
Aimeesue ‘Matthew "Monk" Lewis‘ LOL ? 4d
vivastory @Aimeesue People called him Monk after his novel. It's one of the darkest I've ever read. 4d
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Aimeesue @vivastory Yes, it‘s absurdly dark. I just didn‘t know that became his nickname - It makes him sound like a boxer! (edited) 3d
Bookwomble @Aimeesue Ha! 😄 Or maybe jewel thief. He hides his identity in a monk's habit, and leaves a rosary at the crime scene as his calling card! 3d
vivastory @Bookwomble @aimeesue Father Brown's evil twin 😂 3d
41 likes7 comments
review
Bookwomble
Black Paradox | Junji Ito
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Pickpick

Utterly ridiculous and preposterous, but... let go of any expectation of it making sense and strap in for the ride with the same willing suspension of disbelief that you might bring to the '80s Re-Animator films, and it's body-horror-tastic! 🧟‍♂️🖤

CW for suicide.

35 likes1 stack add
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Bookwomble
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"Far from the haunts of men, of vice the foe,
The moon-struck child of genius and of woe,
Versed in each magic spell and dear to fame,
A fair enchantress dwells, Romance her name."

- The Castle Spectre: A Dramatic Romance by Matthew Lewis ???

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

"I must ask myself whether I am not colouring what I see with my own views."

Holm leaves enough space in the text that his narrator's self-query is relevant to the reader, also. It's a book of impressions, partially understood events & delirium, that, coloured by my own views, perhaps, seems like a metaphor for late stage capitalism. The rich provide themselves with a haven from social collapse, leave the poor to suffer, and start to splinter ⬇️

Bookwomble ... into authoritarian factions. There is an obvious violence inherent in this, which does manifest itself in the narrative, but the atmosphere is rather that of a dream or a state of increasing dissociation and withdrawal. 4⭐ 6d
vivastory Your last sentence made me think of a Ballard novel. Definitely intrigued. 6d
39 likes2 comments
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Bookwomble
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"- I do have some faith in democracy, but I don't think that this vote can be regarded as a matter of course as democratic. The voters knew too little about the alternatives.
- They are always Ill-informed.
- You are possibly right, but democracy does depend on certain principles of freedom and these are often more essential than demonstrations of freedom. That vote was a demonstration of freedom, but it went against the principles of freedom."

Bookwomble Gosh, I'm really struggling to apply this quote from 1967 to a modern-day context. I guess that sometimes speculative fiction just misses the mark 🤷🏻‍♂️🫠 1w
The_Book_Ninja From ‘67 you say? Unreal. 1w
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja Plus ça change... (Pardon my French) 1w
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CarolynM I wonder if the author foresaw the modern day blatant lying to secure votes? 7d
Bookwomble @CarolynM I think it's as old as democracy! 7d
32 likes7 comments
blurb
Bookwomble
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What? 🤨
Post-apocalypse? ☢️
Dystopian, you say? 👮
Luxury bunker complex in which the mega-wealthy shelter while the rest of the world descends into nightmarish chaos?🔥☠️🔥
Hmm 🤔
And you say this is science fiction rather than journalism? 🧐
Very well, you've piqued my interest, sir. Pass it over 📖

Ruthiella First published in 1967 is my catnip. I like to see what was envisioned and what has really happened in the past half century. 1w
LeahBergen These new Faber editions are so intriguing! 1w
Bookwomble @Ruthiella I read in someone's review of a different book that it could not be classed as "dystopian" as it was too close to present-day USA reality. Err, hello! Welcome to your dystopian reality! ⏰?☕ 1w
See All 9 Comments
Bookwomble @LeahBergen They are! This is an interview with the Faber editor of the Editions about her finding Termush in their archive. What a job! 💕📚💕 https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/blog/2023/may/what-was-this-odd-creature-... 1w
batsy Yes! I've added it to the TBR. I agree with @LeahBergen they've brought out some interesting books recently that I'm keen to get to. 1w
Bookwomble @batsy They've only published 6 (I think) in this series, but hopefully they'll keep raiding those archives to offer us these neglected gems. 1w
LeahBergen I want to be an “archive mole”. 😆 1w
Bookwomble @LeahBergen How fantastic would that job title be? 😀 Maybe give you some trouble on the passport going through border control, though! 😑🕵️‍♂️ 4d
LeahBergen @Bookwomble I think so! 😆 3d
36 likes1 stack add9 comments
review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

I stayed up 'til silly-o'clock to finish this last night, failed and had to wait until this evening to complete the last 15 pages - Torture!
Now, I'm no expert on 1950s French criminal law, but I still reckon Maigret could have done more to safely resolve the situation when he is visited at home by a man confessing to a murder he hasn't yet committed. Maigret's inability to prevent this slow-motion car crash of a situation developing is part of ⬇️

Bookwomble ... the morbid sadness of the unfolding story. An emotionally gut-wrenching episode. 5 unhappy⭐s 1w
Leftcoastzen Are you reading them in order ? 1w
Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen No, I can't get them in order, just what comes into the library, but that's ok as they're each self-contained. The only sign of the passage of time seems to be Maigret's alcohol consumption, which in the later books his doctor has advised him to cut down on, which he tends to think about over a glass of calvados. 1w
Leftcoastzen 😄I have some in the stash , I should just start them.Seems like in the old days mystery writers were assuming a reader might jump in anywhere. 1w
Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen Could be so. I find picking up a Maigret a reassuring act - I know what I'm expecting, trust Simenon to deliver, and so far he hasn't disappointed. At some point I may reread the first ones I picked up, as getting to know Maigret has felt like an accretion process, gradually building an understanding of his character, and I wonder if I'd get more out of them now he's more familiar to me. 1w
42 likes5 comments
review
Bookwomble
Maigret Takes a Room | Georges Simenon
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Pickpick

I devoured both my lunch & this Maigret in one sitting: both were satisfying 😋
When one of his inspectors is gunned down on a routine stakeout, Maigret takes advantage of his wife's temporary absence to move into the suspect's bedsit to get a feel for the human currents flowing through the down-at-heel suburban respectability of the crime scene. This one felt tense & claustrophobic, and Mlle Clément one of Simenon's more intriguing characters. 5⭐

johncadams I do love Maigret. I thought the TV adaptations a while back were particularly good. 1w
Bookwomble @johncadams The Rowan Atkinson ones? I thought he was excellent in them, although he doesn't, I think, fit the description of Maigret in the books. Michael Gambon strikes me retrospectively as filling the role physically, but I'd not read the books then so can't say how well he matched him character-wise, but he's also an assessment actor, so... (Sorry for waffling! ☺️) 1w
Bookwomble - excellent actor - (What's an "assessment actor"? ??‍♂️) 11h
39 likes3 comments
blurb
Bookwomble
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I'm reading this to better understand asexual orientation. 22 pages in and I'm already getting enlightening perspectives. The reviews for this book are overwhelmingly positive, however I've found it helpful to read the 1⭐ reviews to fix in my mind that no book can express everybody's experience and that reading this will provide me with useful, not definitive, insight.

Bookwomble One of the optional demographic questions we ask as part of service assessments at work is sexual orientation, with the limited options hetero-, homo- or bisexual. I've always added, "or something else", and will now included "asexual" to the options I specify. Ace inclusivity, with a potential side order of allo awareness-raising! ???? 2w
Aimeesue My organization uses drop-down menus for sexual orientation and gender identity. It‘s very frustrating. Everything circles back to data collection and analytics. 🙄 2w
Bookwomble @Aimeesue I've raised the lack of options being too restrictive & hence oppressive (sexual orientation is bad, gender is worse), but made little progress. It's frustrating because, as with your work, the principle is of data collection & analytics, the supposed intent being to inform & adapt service provision (not just ours, but all services in the organisation: NHS), but we can only collect the data they've already decided is relevant 😡🤷🏻‍♂️ 2w
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Aimeesue @Bookwomble EXACTLY. It‘s so frustrating. I feel like I‘m yelling into the void most days. It rankles me when management defaults to “that‘s the way the system works.” WE made the system. We can change it. 2w
Bookwomble @Aimeesue I recognise that frustration! I guess we just have to keep wearing away at it 🙂 2w
rwmg @Bookwomble @Aimeesue - do you have “would rather not say“ as one of the options? 1w
Aimeesue @Bookwomble Wearing away at is right. I do regularly point stuff like this (my other constant refrain is that requiring online forms, etc disadvantages those who don‘t have reliable internet connections or computers,) so hopefully, someday . . . (edited) 1w
Aimeesue @rwmg Nope. Sometimes I can NOT make a choice “——" but then when records are reviewed they can make a fuss, depending on what data is "missing." 1w
Bookwomble @rwmg We do have that as an option, which is fine if that's the person's actual choice not to disclose, but to have no easy way of allowing confirmation of a person's identity if they would be happy to disclose is largely hetero- and cis-normative, and it's effectively a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. 1w
rwmg @Bookwomble Oh no, I wasn't thinking of that as an alternative for Ace, it's just a pet peeve of mine, forcing people to come out in the name of inclusivity 1w
Bookwomble @rwmg I get you - no, we don't do that 🙂 1w
Bookwomble @Aimeesue @rwmg Well, Somebody was listening! We've just been nominated to trial a new equality, diversity and inclusion policy, which should start to address some of the issues we've been discussing here! I'm really excited for it 😆 1w
Aimeesue That IS good news! 1w
Aimeesue @rwmg It‘s a hard path to navigate. OTOH, it can be valuable information for ourMH providers to know, especially if it‘s causing family issues that affect the individual, I.e., abusive unacceptance by parents, etc. OTOH, a lot of times it‘s irrelevant, so why does anyone need to know? Other than to use preferred name, etc. (edited) 1w
43 likes3 stack adds14 comments
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Bookwomble
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I read that Dazai is one of the most depressing and bleak writers there's been, however this book is acknowledged as uncharacteristically light for him and I found it amusing and witty, the translator having done a brilliant job.
The frame story is a semi-fictionalised Dazai stuck in a bomb shelter towards the end of WWII, distracting his 5 year old daughter from an air raid by reading a picture book he finds too abbreviated, so he creates his ⬇️

Bookwomble ... own narrative, the result being funny, satirical and not at all childish.
The four stories develop traditional Japanese tales, probably as a way for Dazai to comment on his contemporary milieu without being bothered by the censors.
His discursions are funny, and his frequent annoyance with the stories' illogicalities and dubious moral lessons had me laughing at several points. My favourite character is the wisecracking tortoise in the ⬇️
2w
Bookwomble ... story of Urashima Tarō's visit to the ethereal princess of the undersea Dragon Palace.
The image is from the packaging of a brand of cigarettes that Dazai reminisces about not being able to buy anymore in 1945 - the internet can be our friend sometimes 😊
2w
vivastory I read No Longer Human back in March & it's definitely pretty bleak. Was reminded of Akutagawa. 2w
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Bookwomble @vivastory I bought this and another Dazai (tagged). When I was picking what to get by him, I looked at NLH and just thought I needed not to go so dark right now. Mrs B commented recently that I should read something lighter and was barely amused when I offered Wuthering Heights as my "feel-good" book ? BTW, was NLH good aside from its bleakness? 2w
vivastory Wuthering Heights: the heartwarming rom-com of the year, lol. I did like NLH & think it was an interesting work of nihilistic literature. New Directions just published a brief prequel novella that I plan on reading at some point 2w
vivastory Blue Bamboo sounds good. I've also heard great things about Setting Sun 2w
Bookwomble @vivastory Ah - Setting Sun was the other I considered before deciding on a short story collection. I'll see how I get in with that, and if it goes well I'll see about getting one of his novels 🙂 2w
34 likes7 comments
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Bookwomble
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I picked up this nifty little 1965 anthology of Beat Poets for a quid today at a Cub Scout jumble sale.
The introduction says that the 'Beat' name comes from the meaning weary, worn out or raw. And here was me thinking it came from the rhythmic beat of the poetry! I think I watched too many musicals showing Parisian beat poetry clubs with turtle-necked serious young men smoking Gauloise and clicking their fingers 😄

The_Book_Ninja I always think of Tony Hancock in The Rebel when I hear the term beat 2w
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja I vaguely know the film, but I've never quite taken to Tony Hancock. That's the one where he's making a sculpture in his bedsit, is it?🗿 2w
The_Book_Ninja @Bookwomble yeah, Aphrodite at the Waterhole😂 2w
37 likes3 comments
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Bookwomble
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"Once upon a time, long, long ago,
there lived an old man
With a great big wen on his cheek.

This old man, this Ojī-san, or "Grandfather," lived at the foot of Mount Tsurugi in Awa Province, on the island of Shikoku."

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

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Bookwomble
Triste's History | Horacio Vzquez Rial
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Pickpick

#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #Argentina 🇦🇷
Whoa! That was a brutal ride! A novel charting the life & death of Cristóbal Artola, set against the ultra-violent political events of mid 20th century Argentina.
Recruited by a Catholic priest into a death squad, Artola accepts this route out of poverty with little political conscience, as successive coups change governments but not their methods of disposing of the opposition. That Vásquez-Rial manages ⬇️

Bookwomble ... to evoke any pity for his protagonist is a remarkable authorial feat.
Incredibly informative, though critiqued as skewed by VR's disenchantment with the Leftist revolutionary groups he was formerly a part of, and his drift to the Right resulting in a belief in political conspiracy theories. Clearly, though, this historical morass left no-one clean. I'll be reflecting on this one for a while.
CW for graphic murder and torture scenes.
2w
BarbaraBB You found another special one! 2w
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Bookwomble @BarbaraBB I think so 😊 But not for the faint-hearted, and it definitely pushed my limits, but as a testament to the atrocities perpetrated it needed to go where it went. 2w
BarbaraBB Some stories should be told and Argentina has known some brutal years 2w
Bookwomble @BarbaraBB Sadly so, and the ancillary reading I did to understand the events and issues was illuminating, if scary. 2w
Librarybelle Excellent review! 2w
johncadams This looks interesting. Think I might give it a go. 2w
Bookwomble @johncadams I was going to say I hope you enjoy it, but that's not the right word, I think, so - I hope you find it interesting 😊 2w
Bookwomble @Librarybelle Thanks 😊 2w
41 likes10 comments
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Bookwomble
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I donated blood this afternoon, then picked up these books I'd ordered. I'm now under strict nurse's orders to replenish fluids & not do anything strenuous, so sitting with a drink in the garden reading is actual medical advice!
Dazai is an author mentioned in The Cat Who Saved Books, & who seemed interesting when I looked him up. Tagged book is fairy tale retellings, the other a short story collection. But I need to finish Triste's History first!

LeahBergen Lovely recuperation set-up! 2w
Bookwomble @LeahBergen I do lay it on a bit thick when I've donated - my wife (rightly) has no patience for it 😄 2w
LeahBergen 😆😆 2w
IndoorDame Love the covers! And what a perfect excuse for reading day! 🩷 2w
Bookwomble @IndoorDame I found the covers attractive, too. Good choices by the designer 😊 2w
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Bookwomble
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#BookMail 😁
I attended a conference last week: Putting the Politics (Back) in Counselling: and as usual ended up ordering books. The conference topics were on developing awareness of the socio-political causes of psychological distress, decolonising therapy, and the existential threat caused by climate change. It was a fantastic day, which I was going to attend in person but they switched it to Zoom, so less immediate but also less hassle. ⬇️

Bookwomble Holding the Hope has contributions from several of the conference speakers, the topic of climate change being one I'm seeing more of in my work. Therapies for Survivors of Torture is also, sadly, relevant as there's a relatively large asylum-seeker population in the locality where I work. Self-Actualization is a more generally applicable book, one to deepen my knowledge.
Now all I have to do is read them!
2w
The_Book_Ninja Navigating the world right now is so stressful. 2w
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja Yep, it can be pretty freaky. 2w
Aimeesue I hesitate to say they sound like great reads. I guess “important and unfortunately timely” is more appropriate. Hope you find them valuable. 2w
Bookwomble @Aimeesue I'm looking forward to reading them all 🙂 2w
34 likes5 comments
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Bookwomble
Triste's History | Horacio Vzquez Rial
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#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #Argentina ?? #FirstLine
"on its northern, eastern and every flank except for the one that trails off into the pampa like a grubby, ragged strip of lace spattered with settlements and hamlets, the city looks out on the mighty, open river with its one discernable shore and its ominous yellow waters beyond which may lie the world or nothing; solitary, vast amid the vastness, Buenos Aires is the south, the meeting point ...

Bookwomble ... of certain unmemorable destinies, of certain irrevocable encounters, where murderous and other devious assignments are hatched and sometimes dispatched under the shady auspices of smalltime political bosses, born of the murky grey of the concrete and the pigeons"
 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB
3w
Bookwomble One of the longest First Lines? This is the story of the struggle of Cristóbal Artola, "El Triste" (the Sad One) to rise out of poverty. In his Prologue, Vásquez Rial says that Triste's right-wing values held nothing in common with his own, but that in writing the character he came to realise how much of himself was defined by his opposition to men like Triste, and that there was more humanity in him and his like than he had given credit for. 3w
Librarybelle Wow! That is a very long first line! 3w
Bookwomble @Librarybelle It's a doozy, and turns out much of the rest of the book is written in a similar vein, which, luckily, I like 😁 2w
31 likes4 comments
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

That was pretty good, though up to the point I've watched, I think the Netflix adaptation is better as it's taken more time to develop the back story, though that may well be addressed in later editions of the comic. Still, 4🦌, and I'll read the next volume if the library has it, but I'll cope ok if they haven't.

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Bookwomble
The Cat Who Saved Books | S?suke Natsukawa
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“This world throws all kinds of obstacles at us, we are forced to endure so much that is absurd. Our best weapon for fighting all the pain and trouble in the world isn't logic or violence. It's humour.”

This resonated for me today 😌😺 (though I'd throw compassion and empathy in there, too, even if (or especially because) they can sometimes be hard to hold onto).

CarolynM Sometimes you just have to laugh. Hope those obstacles don‘t slow you down too much😽 3w
Bookwomble @CarolynM Generally taking things in my stride, thanks 🙂 2w
33 likes2 comments
review
Bookwomble
H.P Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror | Joe R. Lansdale, H. P. Lovecraft
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Pickpick

This graphic novel contains the title story which, despite that title, bears only a nodding acquaintance with Lovecraft's original story, this being a sequel set in modern times, graced with striking artwork but a pedestrian plot, with a backup tale that sticks more faithfully to its source, "The Hound", with full-page panels of glorious, creepily-painted art, and a more literary narrative style, somewhat hampered by an overly-florid font that ⬇️

Bookwomble ... strains the eyes, but which still redeems the book and lifts it to a soft pick rather than a so-so.
(Should run-on sentence reviews be a thing? 🤔)
3w
34 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Ok, despite the title, this was precisely zero% use in helping advance my decades-long project of organising my books! 😡
On the other hand, it was thought-provoking, intelligent, emotional, funny, whimsical, serious, erudite and utterly bookish. I need more Perec!

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Bookwomble
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"What is scandalous isn't the pit explosion, it's working in coalmines. 'Social problems' aren't 'a matter of concern' when there's a strike, they are intolerable twenty-four hours out of twenty-four, three hundred and sixty-five days a year."

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Bookwomble
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"I write in order to live & I live in order to write, & I've come close to imagining that writing & living might merge completely: I would live in the company of dictionaries, deep in some provincial retreat, in the mornings I would go for a walk in the woods, in the afternoons I would blacken a few sheets of paper, in the evenings I would relax perhaps by listening to a bit of music."

He didn't mention cats, but obviously there must be cats!?‍⬛

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Bookwomble
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I couldn't resist picking up this book simply because of the title, and I'm hoping the eponymous essay will provide the practical and actionable advice I so clearly need!
A selection of essays by Perec of which I'm on the first, dealing with Holocaust literature. Perec's mother died in Auschwitz, so a very personal connection to the subject.

marleed Oh I would have added that title to my shelves, as well! A sister gifted me the tagged and it cracks people up when they spot it on my shelves. 3w
Bookwomble @marleed One of the few acceptable judgements! 🧐📚😄 3w
36 likes2 comments
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Bookwomble
Threads | Kate Evans
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Pickpick

Published in 2017, this piece of graphic-journalism by cartoonist Kate Evans of her experiences as a volunteer at the Calais Jungle refugee camp is hugely informative and humane. Sadly, the more difficulties the governments of Britain and France have gotten into since this was written, the harsher their anti-migrant rhetoric has become.
@arlenefinnigan As you've commented in your review, so many people I'd like to sit down with this book!
5⭐

43 likes3 stack adds
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

The trawler "Océan" has nothing but bad luck from the moment it gets underway, and the crew are convinced it has the Evil Eye cast upon it, with sailors injured, lost overboard, and an increasingly erratic captain. Returning to port, superstitious tempers are high and when the captain's body is fished out of the harbour, Maigret is asked by an old friend to prove the innocence of the young wireless operator accused of his murder. ⬇️

Bookwomble With few clues to go on, Maigret's method is to delve into the psyches of those involved to build a picture of the web of tension and passion connecting them.
One of Maigret's trips out of Paris to Normandy, which Simenon does so well.
3w
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Wells packed a lot of moral themes into what is ostensibly an adventure tale of a mad scientist on a desert island. His obvious target is vivisection, sniping at those who only object if they see and hear the pain and suffering caused. This, possibly, extends to squeamish meat-eaters, too, and he gives a kicking to organised religion and its role in social control and the maintaining of hierarchical class systems.
His implied criticism of ... ⬇️

Bookwomble ...Christian missionary work as a project of colonialism doomed to failure is marred by his reasoning that "those damned savages will just revert to type". That and some causal anti-Semitism aside, it's still an engaging novel with a power to shock and disturb.
Of the three main homo sapien characters, Moreau is chillingly prophetic of Nazi medical-experimenter/geonocidal-fascist-murderer, Josef Mengele; the narrator, Prendick, deserves the... ⬇️
3w
Bookwomble ...last syllable of his name - and, admittedly, Wells calls him a "prig" via the third character: Mortimer, presented as debauched drunkard by Prendick, but to me the only one of the three with anything approaching true empathy for Moreau's tortured subjects, albeit in a way rather compromised by his itchy trigger finger.
⬇️
3w
Bookwomble Speaking of Mengele, Wells, in common with some other Socialists of his time (and, obviously, many fascists), was an ardent eugenicist, which is a disturbing fact when reading the book. He did, it appears, have the moral fibre to recant that position in light of Nazi atrocities, and to apologise for his previous anti-Semitic statements.
(Longest ever Litsy review? Apologies 😔)
3w
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The_Book_Ninja Great review🙌🏼 3w
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja Thank you 😊 3w
AllDebooks That is a great review 👏 3w
AllDebooks I never fail to be impressed with the content Wells brings to this novella. Incredible writing. 3w
Bookwomble @AllDebooks Thank you ? And, yes, he had an incredible imagination, with which he clothed some fascinating and challenging ideas. I wish he'd been able to transcend the "scientific" racist ideologies of his time, but history gives us all feet of clay. 3w
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Bookwomble
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"I have withdrawn myself from the confusion of cities and multitudes, and spend my days surrounded by wise books, bright windows in this life of ours, lit by the shining souls of men.”

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Bookwomble
Tom Strong | Alan Moore
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Moving on from Moore's earlier 2000AD stuff to the somewhat later and more developed storytelling of Tom Strong 💪🦸🏻‍♀️

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Bookwomble
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“Not to go on all-Fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to suck up Drink; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to eat Flesh nor Fish; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to claw Bark of Tree; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to chase other Men; that is the Law. Are we not Men?”

- So, this is where Devo got the title of their first album from!
#BooksAndMusic

TrishB Cool 👍🏻 I think I‘d read that in my teens. 4w
Bookwomble @TrishB If I'd read Moreau when I bought it, I'd have known that in my teens, too! All things come to those who wait 😄⏳📚⌛ 4w
SamAnne I did not know this! 4w
TrishB That is very true! 4w
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Bookwomble
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#TitlesAndTunes
The #IslandVibes tag reminded me I've had Doctor Moreau on my shelf since 1981, so an incentive to remove something from near the base of Mount TBR!
This edition is a 1975 film tie-in to the adaptation starring Burt Lancaster and Michael York, which I have seen and which was appropriately sweaty and claustrophobic. 🐯🐷🐺🐮

Bookwomble Tune is the appropriately unsettling "Irreversible Neural Damage" from Kevin Ayers' Prog-tastic album "The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories", featuring vocals by Nico ?
@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB https://youtu.be/1VwtGkpwXPA
1mo
BarbaraBB Your edition looks wonderfully retro - which it is of course. 1981!! And I am super curious about your song! 4w
Cinfhen I‘m so sorry, I missed this post 🙈I also can‘t seem to find the song on Spotify. I did listen to the YouTube video and the song is great @BarbaraBB 1w
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Bookwomble @Cinfhen No worries 😊 Not that it's super important, but here's a link to the Spotify track (clearly, it felt important enough for me to post the link 😄) https://open.spotify.com/track/6g3QXau8eyd3pgmwUZdAO7?si=3EPsrG-VTsmNKvv_0t4VzQ 1w
Cinfhen Hahaha 🤣 when I clicked the link I got this message that read “Song Not Available”😜For some reason I don‘t have rights to listen from my current country- so weird!!! I‘ll be in the states next week so hopefully I‘ll be able to add it then 🤞🏽♥️ 1w
Bookwomble @Cinfhen Ah, licensing! Safe journey when you travel back 😊 1w
Cinfhen Thanks - I‘ll keep you posted ☺️ 1w
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The Summer Book | Tove Jansson
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#TitlesAndTunes #IslandVibes @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
Revisiting a favourite island in Tove Jansson's fictionalised childhood memoir of the close bond that develops between a grandmother & granddaughter during summer holidays on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland.
Song choice is "That Summer Feeling" from a favourite album, Jonathan Richman's "Jonathan Sings!" It's a record packed with whimsically yearning songs of love, nostalgia and joy. ?️??

BarbaraBB I don‘t know the song (yet!) but the book is an awesome choice! 1mo
Cinfhen I still haven‘t read Tove Jansson 🙈Although I did read this book for #ReadingEurope #Finland 1mo
Cinfhen Song sounds wonderful but like @BarbaraBB I need to have a listen 🎧 💕🎶 1mo
29 likes4 comments
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Bookwomble
A Man Come Home | Roy A. K. Heath
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#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #Guyana 🇬🇾
This was a fabulous second-hand find, which I certainly wouldn't have picked up if not for this challenge, so, thank you, @BarbaraBB and @Librarybelle 🙏
The story follows the Foster family and their friends and neighbours, living in a poor part of Georgetown, Guyana. Some dream of a quiet life, others of making their way in the world, and love is often betrayed and manipulated to these ends.
⬇️

Bookwomble The folkloric element is important to the plot, but not overdone to the point of making this an urban fantasy; nevertheless, it provides some chilling moments, and an atmosphere of doom-laden threat.
Set just after Guyana gained independence from Britain, so late '60s to early '70s, and published in '74, it felt vibrant and real, with well-drawn characters and wonderfully natural dialogue. ⬇️
1mo
Bookwomble Heath deserves to be much better remembered, and I'll be on the lookout for more of his books. 1mo
Librarybelle So glad you enjoyed this one! Great review! 1mo
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Bookwomble
A Man Come Home | Roy A. K. Heath
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"Goat shit small, but goat shit plenty." ????

Well, I guess the little annoyances of life can add up to a big pile of shit, can't they? ?

dabbe They sure can! 🤣💙🤗 1mo
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Bookwomble
A Man Come Home | Roy A. K. Heath
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"Melda was a virgin - no doubt about that! It was not natural at her age. Christine reflected that she herself had eaten bread at fourteen."
Well, the meaning is clear, but "eating bread" isn't a euphemism for sex I'd heard before. However, turns out it's a Jewish idiom which seems to have gained more widespread usage (if you'll pardon the phrase): https://forward.com/food/400311/in-ancient-jewish-texts-bread-was-a-euphemism-fo...

Bookwomble And then I remembered that the common (if you grew up, as I did, in the Carry On films era) English phrase "having a bit of crumpet" has basically the same meaning: https://wordhistories.net/2019/05/17/crumpet-sexual-meanings/
And this is why it takes me forever to finish a book!
1mo
The_Book_Ninja Superbly curated photo🙌🏼😂 1mo
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja Thank you 😊 It's nice to have one's work recognised and appreciated 😌 1mo
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TieDyeDude Down and down the rabbit hole 😅 Interesting idiom 4w
CarolynM “A bit of crumpet” is an expression I haven‘t heard in a long time! How I used to love Carry On films 🥴🙈 I‘m sure Nigella has a recipe for crumpets… 4w
Bookwomble @TieDyeDude I like books that provide an opportunity for that 🐰 I also looked into Guyanese folklore and learned some interesting stuff about that, too 😊 4w
Bookwomble @CarolynM Well, it's not an expression I'd use myself, but it does have a humorous Sid James ring to it. Bwa-ha-ha-ha 😂 4w
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A Man Come Home | Roy A. K. Heath
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#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #Guyana 🇬🇾
Ooh, this one's off to a good start! 10 pages and I'm already feeling engaged - there's hope for me yet! 😁
Bird Foster has done a total of four months' work in his life. When he hears that his brother in Canada is rich enough to buy a house, the envy and shame he feels motivates him to earn some easy money. I don't think it's going to turn out well for him 🫤
@Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

Bookwomble The title comes from the Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai: "The living is a passing traveller / The dead, a man come home." Sounds ominous. 1mo
Librarybelle Hope you enjoy! 1mo
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Bookwomble
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Bailedbailed

#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #Chile 🇨🇱
Well, I tried, though admittedly not very hard, to like this book, but my reading stamina seems to be at a low ebb, as I'm deciding within a score of pages whether I can persevere, which in this case I couldn't.
Despite being about a sci-fi-loving reader with whom I might reasonably be expected to find some connection, I'm getting nothing. Time to move on 😏📚
@BarbaraBB @Librarybelle

Bookwomble This is the second new-to-me Chilean author who's left me cold. I might have to fall back on Isabel Allende. 1mo
BarbaraBB Ah That‘s a pity. Bolaño wrote some pretty good books but I haven‘t read this one. 1mo
Bookwomble @BarbaraBB I haven't read anything else by him. I've read that this was his first novel, which wasn't published until after his death, and some controversy about whether it would have been his wish for it to be in print. Reviews are a bit mixed, but I have no context by which to judge it, just that it wasn't working for me. 1mo
BarbaraBB Well, on to the next 🩵 1mo
Librarybelle That‘s a shame! But, if you‘re not enjoying it, it‘s time to move on…good try! 1mo
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Bookwomble
The Cursed Earth | Brian Bolland, John Wagner, Pat Mills, Mike McMahon
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The reprint of Alan Moore's Future Shocks I just read was ok, but not as good as I remembered from my teen years. Fortunately, the Cursed Earth Saga of Judge Dredd's mercy mission to deliver a vaccine to Mega-City Two by crossing 1000 miles of radioactive wasteland, in the company of a law-breaking punk & a rock-eating alien, was still brilliant! Combining Mad Max, Damnation Alley & Jurassic Park in a wild badlands adventure! I AM THE LAW!! 4🛡️

Bookwomble #BannedBooks Originally published in 1978 in serial form, this 2003 reprint had to leave out Dredd's Cursed Earth adventure in the Burger Wars, thanks to threats of legal action by McDonalds and KFC, who took exception to their companies'post-apocalyptic portrayal as metaphors for corporate greed and environmental destruction. Later reprints do include these episodes, which would be fun to track down. 1mo
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“The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.”

AmyG Ha! 1mo
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And, a #LibraryHaul
Reliving my childhood with a couple of 2000AD graphic novels, a beautifully painted GN about the intersection of modern London with the Kingdoms of Faerie, and what is becoming the inevitable Maigret 😊

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Blindness | Jos Saramago
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I went for the Saramago, I returned with a #BookHaul 😁📚
I haven't yet read the first of Ferrante's Neopolitan books, but when I do, I'll have the second ready.
Registration is a 1954 collection of contemporary Chinese short stories.
Triste's History is Argentinean author, Vázquez Rial's, story of death squads during his country's period of governmental terror.
⬇️

Bookwomble Bound to Violence by Malian author Ouologuem, deals with slavery, colonialism, and survival.
Heath's story, Man Come Home, mingles Guyanese folklore with urban Yardie culture.
Gods of Foxcroft because of the Bruce Pennington cover, with hopes the contents are worthy of it🤞
1mo
shadows Excuse me, can I ask a question...Saramago is one of your favorite writers? 3w
Bookwomble @shadows Well, I've only read three of his books, so it would be premature for me to say he's a favourite author, but I've enjoyed all three, so he's going in the right direction 😁 3w
shadows Firstly thank you,secondly my English language is not good, excuse me for my wrong words, thank you for your answer 3w
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Bookwomble
The Lives of Things | Jos Saramago
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Difficult in parts, but well worth perseverance. The writing flows and the images Saramago conjures are by turns dark and magical.
The first story, "The Chair", I found hard to grasp initially, until I caught the allegory and it fell into place.
"Embargo" satirises our reliance on oil and motor vehicles in a disturbing Twilight Zone-esque way.
"Reflux" is about the futile denial of mortality, and inequality even in death (and probably other ⬇️

Bookwomble ... things I didn't catch).
"Things" is dystopian sci-fi, which reveals itself to be a damning critique of authoritarianism, popular collusion with fascism, and political disappearances. This is the best story, I think.
"The Centaur" is a lovely, sad fantasy of the loneliness of the last Centaur, survivor of the ancient battle with the Lapiths.
"Revenge" has the final few pages; same beautiful language, no idea what the point was.
5 ⭐
1mo
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Bookwomble
The Lives of Things | Jos Saramago
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"The chair started to fall, to come crashing down, to topple, but not, strictly speaking, to come to bits."

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

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Bookwomble
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Kae's newest poetry collection is raw and emotional, tapping their anguish and joy in self-deprecation, self-discovery, and a burgeoning self-acceptance and self-love. Personal and universal, as the best poetry is. 💖🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
Alongside are my latest music purchases which provided my reading soundtrack 🎶📖🎶

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Bookwomble
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Newly published - diving straight into this one!

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Bookwomble
The Lives of Things | Jos Saramago
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Despite my previous flippant comment about the first story, "The Chair", it was actually really good, if you like things held at an odd angle. Undoubtedly, my enjoyment of the story was enhanced by spending twice as much time reading Wikipedia entries on President Salazar, Saramago, libertarian communism and the Carnation Revolution (mostly to be forgotten by tomorrow) than I spent on the story itself. I like those kind of stories ?

Jari-chan I actually love books that make one google things. Even if they're forgotten soon, the knowledge is still somewhere in one's brain. 1mo
Suet624 @Jari-chan completely agree with you. 1mo
TieDyeDude I need to read more of his stuff, and so I shall. Just grabbed one of my shelf to start next 😅 1mo
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Bookwomble @TieDyeDude I've only read his childhood memories and the tagged; the latter I particularly enjoyed. These short stories have mixed reviews, but I think they're really good, so definitely more Saramago for me! What have you picked up off your shelf? 1mo
TieDyeDude All the Names. I've only read Blindness so far, but because of it, I bought several of his books over the years. Blindness was the first, and maybe only, book I reread as soon as I finished it the first time. 1mo
Bookwomble I'm sure you'll enjoy All the Names. I ordered Blindness this morning 😊 1mo
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