May God Forgive, by Alan Parks.
May God Forgive, by Alan Parks.
Originally Posted by per anporth
I guess the latter isn't a very long story or are you a quick reader?
And now I see "May" in the first title is the month May:
Bloody January (2017)
February's Son (2019)
Bobby March Will Live For Ever (2020)
The April Dead (2021)
May God Forgive (2022)
Apparently not translated in Dutch.
^^^
They're not demanding reads (well, in respect of writing style - the content is pretty grim), plus, I'm in a "quiet" period at work...so I can get through them in a couple of days or so.
The style is quite similar to Ian Rankin, but set in Glasgow in the early 70s rather than contemporary Edinburgh, & much more violent.
Parks actually has a music industry background - he worked for London Records during the 80s & 90s.
Finished Mr. Mercedes (Stephen King) two nights ago and started Finders Keepers last night. Loved the first book!
I am reading "A History of Wales," and also re-reading Beowulf, in Seamus Heaney's translation, and trying to teach myself Old English. I've been watching The Last Kingdom on Netflix.
yes, I am a dork.
"And this is the chorus.....or perhaps it's a bridge...."
Rumours Of Glory - Bruce Cockburn memoir
To Die in June, by Alan Parks.
(btw - May God Forgive was a significant step up in a series that really shows a writer finding his writing chops as he progresses)
Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem.
After an extended jaunt in the dark closes of Glasgow noir, back to the worlds of the strange/first encounter/beyond comprehension.
(First time I'll have read the book - I think Tarkovsky's film is a work of supreme genius; I had a go at the Soderbergh remake last night, & had to give up after 40 minutes or so, it was so disappointing...)
After finally finishing the new John Irving I started reading I Have Some Questions For You (2023) by Rebecca Makkai in Dutch translation. The beginning suggests this might be in the same vein as The Secret History by Donna Tartt, although this time set in a high-school situation in stead of the universary world.
Music theory for dummies.
Finished Finders Keepers and about to start End Of Watch in the excellent Stephen King trilogy. Pre ordered Holly.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Are these books thrillers, mysteries, or horror?
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
They're almost more like supernatural police procedurals, but the main character is a retired cop. The antagonist brings in the supernatural element.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
OK, I'll have to track these down. I prefer SFF but it's King so they'll hurtle along at a breakneck pace.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
The supernatural briefly appears in the second book but doesn’t get going until the third.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You want to read the title story of If It Bleeds before you read Holly. It's a Holly solo story and a powerful one.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
So I was in more or less equal parts inspired & frustrated by Solaris. The deep, "philosophical", material was brilliant, at times awe-inspiring; as were Lem's attempts to evoke/describe the dynamics of the "ocean". But, he really struggles with "characters", & his dialogue is frequently clumsy & implausible. It's as if he has no feel for either human psychology (other than in abstract, philosophical terms) or social interactions.
Thanks for the heads up.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Staying in the zone of the strange/contact, moving on to XX, by Rian Hughes.
Hughes is a designer/typographer/graphic artist, as well as a weriter, & the book is an extraordinary visual achievement - something that I can't imagine would work in a virtual format, or, at any rate, work nearly so well. Have just dipped my reading toes in thus far, but already loving it!
Hmmm interesting. I read Solaris when I was an impressionable teen with a SciFi fixation and no deep understanding of philosophy or indeed the human experience. I enjoyed it then, but I have found with other books of that idiom and era, when I revisit there is something lacking. There are of course exceptions that are still electrified by their ideas and invention, but I feel many authors of the time did not cope so well with dialogue and character.
I will be interested to hear your conclusions on this one. I really enjoyed The Secret History but publication ws a long while ago, and perhaps I could revisit. I do have a hardback of another of her novels The Goldfinch on my shelves, but I have not got around to opening it yet.
I have been spending time with a few early Kazuo Ishiguro novels this week, firstly A Pale View Of Hills and since then I have moved on to When We Were Orphans. He is one of my favourite writers, he has a simple economy of words but paints pictures and still invokes the conflicting manners of the differing generations of post-war Japan so well in the former. I think there are only nine novels in his bibliography, and with this current book I will have read them all.
You know, when you read a Donna Tartt-novel you have to be patient. Just like Dickens she tells her story very slowly with a lot of details and sub-stories. I like that, because underneath she knows how to keep the history thrilling. The Goldfish, just like the novel written before that, The Little Friend, are "hard work", but I've enjoyed them just like The Secret History. The main difference though is that her first book was a psychological thriller, while the next two are novels with psychological en thriller-elements.
Rebecca Makkai's novel (I'm on page 92) is a slow burner too. You know there has been a crime years ago, but who done it is unclear and the way the main-figure is placed in the story is refreshing. It's not a high-school like I wrote before, but a boarding school (no, not Charterhouse).
What translation did you read? There are at least two English translations, and one of them is very bad -- translated from the German translation.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Picked up Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like I Do, A memoir" at Ollie's Discount store. Already learned that Bill Wyman got him laid at 15 and he got crabs from it...
You say Mega Ultra Deluxe Special Limited Edition Extended Autographed 5-LP, 3-CD, 4-DVD, 2-BlueRay, 4-Cassette, five 8-Track, MP4 Download plus Demos, Outtakes, Booklet, T-Shirt and Guitar Pick Gold-Leafed Box Set Version like it's a bad thing...
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks