The Book Thread 2022

[Blip]

1. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
2. The Expectation Effect by David Robson
3. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
4. Road Ends by Mary Lawson
5. A Brief History of Earth by Andrew H Knoll
6. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Lois Roth
7. The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
8. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
9. The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
10. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
11. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
12. Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy
13. The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
14. Gorski by Vesna Goldsworthy
15. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
16. Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
17. The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
18. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
19. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl part translated by Ilse Lasch

Harrowing and illuminating description of the author's first hand experiences of the Nazi concentration camps; his doctrine of logotherapy, outlined in the second section, does not resonate with me.

[Macdoc]

Almost done the Martin Beck series and listening to

About Scott's Antartic expedition. Title seems correct
They were insane given their gear.
Mostly directly from the journals which makes the dire experiences very vivid yet spirits stayed high. Amundsen did much better with his gear and reliance on dogs instead of "motors", ponies and dogs plus man hauling. Beat Scott to the pole and lived to tell the tale.

I had not realized how much longer and tougher a journey than the race to North Pole. I do now..

[scott1328]

1. Caliban's War, James S A Corey Book 2 in the Expanse Series.
2. Time’s Eye, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
3. Sun Storm, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Sequel to Time's Eye.
4. The Firtstborn, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
5. Abaddon’s Gate, James S A Corey, Book 3 in the Expanse Series.
6. Cibola Burn, James S A Corey, Book 4 in the Expanse Series.
7. Nemesis Games, James S A Corey, Book 5 in the Expanse Series.
8. Babylon’s Ashes, James S A Corey, Book 6 in the Expanse Series.
9. Persepolis Rising, James S A Corey, Book 7 in the Expanse Series.
10. Tiamat’s Wrath, James S A Corey, Book 8 in the Expanse Series.
11. Leviathan Falls, James S A Corey, Book 9 in the Expanse Series.
12. Fragment, Warren Fahy
13. Memory’s Legion,James S A Corey, Collection short stories and novellas set in the Expanse universe.
14. Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi.
15. Old Man’s War, John Scalzi.
16. The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi, Sequel to Old Man’s War.
17. The Last Colony, John Scalzi, Third in the Old Man's War series.
18. The Human Division, John Scalzi, Fifth book in the Old Man's War series.

19. The End of All Things, John Scalzi, Sixth book in Old Man’s War series.

[Macdoc]

last in the series

[don't get me started]

1. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
2. The Expectation Effect by David Robson
3. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
4. Road Ends by Mary Lawson
5. A Brief History of Earth by Andrew H Knoll
6. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Lois Roth
7. The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
8. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
9. The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
10. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
11. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
12. Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy
13. The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
14. Gorski by Vesna Goldsworthy
15. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
16. Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
17. The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
18. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
19. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl part translated by Ilse Lasch

Harrowing and illuminating description of the author's first hand experiences of the Nazi concentration camps; his doctrine of logotherapy, outlined in the second section, does not resonate with me.

This was book 45 on my 2020 list and I had a very similar reaction.

In post 298 of that thread I wrote:

"The second part of the book dealt with the author’s psychological approach to therapy ( Logotherapy) and was interesting in light of the first part of the book, but not something I feel a particular need to research further. "

And our fondly remembered Fallible replied in post 301 of that thread,

"DGMS, glad to see another gaining something from Frankl. I felt the same as you about Logotherapy, but his insights into meaning and processing have given me both personal comfort and a useful route for work with some patients of mine, struggling to find meaning after bereavement by suicide, etc."

Pretty similar reactions all round.

[don't get me started]

1. Cognitive Discourse Analysis: An introduction - Thora Tenbrink
2. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender And Identity- And Why This Harms Everybody – Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
3. A History of the World in 12 Maps – Jerry Brotton
4. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language – Patricia T. O’Connor & Stewart Kellerman
5. Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning - Jenefer Philip, Rebecca Adams & Noriko Iwashita
6. Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin
7. Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World - Nataly Kelly & Jost Zetzche
8. English Words: A Linguistic Introduction - Heidi Harley
9. Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives Jan P. de Ruiter (Ed.)
10. Persepolis Rising - James S.A. Corey
11. English Prepositions: Their meanings and uses - R.M.W. Dixon
12. Draußen vor der Tür - Wolfgang Borchert

13. Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication - Jeannette Liitlemore

240 pp.

This is an investigation into a ubiquitous feature of all natural languages. Metonymy is the way people use some aspect of a concept to represent some other part, in a way that is recognizable to their interlocutor. A common example would be something like "In response to the statement by the Kremlin, the Whitehouse said that it would apply further sanctions." Now, of course, the Kremlin and the Whitehouse are inanimate buildings and are thus incapable of issuing statements. What is meant here is the Russian and American governments- meaning people who are officially part of the government of those countries. In daily discourse this is taken for granted and people know what you mean.

Metonymy is used in all kinds of situations. "The ham sandwich on table six wants his check' uttered by wait staff means 'the customer at table six who ordered a han sandwich wants his check. "The buses are on strike again" means that the people who drive buses are on strike. "The suits will no doubt want to review this policy" means the management will want to review this policy and so on. (These examples are canonical in the literature in that they all refer to noun metonymy, but Littlemore also points out that metonymy exists in verbs, adjectives and other parts of speech.)

The boundary between metonymy and metaphor is rather fuzzy and Littlemore gives a good overview of the various different methodological boundary disputes that exist in dealing with these two phenomena.
There was also some interesting stuff on metonymy and language learning and translation, as metononic expressions may or may not cross the language frontier intact.

The underlying idea is that most language is very under-specified and many utterances rely not on formal rules of grammar and semantics to be comprehensible, but on a whole host of other inferencing, implicating and shared understanding strategies to be comprehensible.

[don't get me started]

1. Cognitive Discourse Analysis: An introduction - Thora Tenbrink
2. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender And Identity- And Why This Harms Everybody – Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
3. A History of the World in 12 Maps – Jerry Brotton
4. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language – Patricia T. O’Connor & Stewart Kellerman
5. Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning - Jenefer Philip, Rebecca Adams & Noriko Iwashita
6. Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin
7. Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World - Nataly Kelly & Jost Zetzche
8. English Words: A Linguistic Introduction - Heidi Harley
9. Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives Jan P. de Ruiter (Ed.)
10. Persepolis Rising - James S.A. Corey
11. English Prepositions: Their meanings and uses - R.M.W. Dixon
12. Draußen vor der Tür - Wolfgang Borchert
13. Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication - Jeannette Liitlemore

14. White - Marie Darrieussecq (Trans. Ian Monk)

145.pp

Saw this mentioned upthread and was intrigued. A very quirky and stylized tale. I liked the blending of the past and present, memory and immediacy, micro and macro historicism and personal narrative. An engaging and radical piece of writing.

[Kaleid]

I'm really pleased you enjoyed it. The novella format is perfect for its style, it could all be a bit much otherwise. Still, I'm very glad to have read it; it is, as you say, very quirky and engaging, and certainly unlike anything I've ever read before.

[Kaleid]

1. The Five - Hallie Rubenhold
2. The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain - Ian Mortimer
3. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
4. The Golden Strangers - Henry Treece
5. White - Marie Darrieussecq
6. Villette - Charlotte Brontë
7. The Dark Island - Henry Treece

8. Fat Chance - Simon Gray

An account of what happened when Stephen Fry walked out on Gray's production of 'Cell Mates' in 1995. The plain, unvarnished truth will never come out about what happened exactly, so what you get here is the viewpoint of the person whose project collapsed after Stephen left due to a breakdown - and therefore, a thoroughly biased and (justifiably?) bitter account. It's sharply written, but he's so vitriolic that any sympathy you could feel for him fades; indeed, the whole book seems to be more of a theraputic release, with no attempt whatsoever to ingratiate himself to the reader. It just leaves you wanting to know Rik Mayall's version of events.

[scott1328]

1. Caliban's War, James S A Corey Book 2 in the Expanse Series.
2. Time’s Eye, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
3. Sun Storm, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Sequel to Time's Eye.
4. The Firtstborn, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
5. Abaddon’s Gate, James S A Corey, Book 3 in the Expanse Series.
6. Cibola Burn, James S A Corey, Book 4 in the Expanse Series.
7. Nemesis Games, James S A Corey, Book 5 in the Expanse Series.
8. Babylon’s Ashes, James S A Corey, Book 6 in the Expanse Series.
9. Persepolis Rising, James S A Corey, Book 7 in the Expanse Series.
10. Tiamat’s Wrath, James S A Corey, Book 8 in the Expanse Series.
11. Leviathan Falls, James S A Corey, Book 9 in the Expanse Series.
12. Fragment, Warren Fahy
13. Memory’s Legion,James S A Corey, Collection short stories and novellas set in the Expanse universe.
14. Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi.
15. Old Man’s War, John Scalzi.
16. The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi, Sequel to Old Man’s War.
17. The Last Colony, John Scalzi, Third in the Old Man's War series.
18. The Human Division, John Scalzi, Fifth book in the Old Man's War series.
19. The End of All Things, John Scalzi, Sixth book in Old Man’s War series.

20. Redshirts, John Scalzi, The crew men and women aboard the USS Intrepid are sick of dying on away missions and they're going to do something about it.

[Evolving]

I'm really pleased you enjoyed it. The novella format is perfect for its style, it could all be a bit much otherwise. Still, I'm very glad to have read it; it is, as you say, very quirky and engaging, and certainly unlike anything I've ever read before.

I'm intrigued too, and have taken the plunge and downloaded it. In the original French. People may be interested to learn what the French title is. It's "White".

I shall report back...

[UncertainSloth]

1. the long take - robin robertson - 8/10
2. the gatekeeper - russ kane - 5/10
3. dr potter's medicine show - eric scott fischl - 8/10
4. just one damn thing after another - jodi taylor - 8/10 -
5. trinity - louisa hall - 8/10
6. the night ocean - paul la farge - 9/10
7. washington black - esi edugyan - 8/10 - a good read, but not quite sure it quite hits the spot for the booker shortlist as it did

[scott1328]

1. Caliban's War, James S A Corey Book 2 in the Expanse Series.
2. Time’s Eye, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
3. Sun Storm, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Sequel to Time's Eye.
4. The Firtstborn, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
5. Abaddon’s Gate, James S A Corey, Book 3 in the Expanse Series.
6. Cibola Burn, James S A Corey, Book 4 in the Expanse Series.
7. Nemesis Games, James S A Corey, Book 5 in the Expanse Series.
8. Babylon’s Ashes, James S A Corey, Book 6 in the Expanse Series.
9. Persepolis Rising, James S A Corey, Book 7 in the Expanse Series.
10. Tiamat’s Wrath, James S A Corey, Book 8 in the Expanse Series.
11. Leviathan Falls, James S A Corey, Book 9 in the Expanse Series.
12. Fragment, Warren Fahy
13. Memory’s Legion,James S A Corey, Collection short stories and novellas set in the Expanse universe.
14. Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi.
15. Old Man’s War, John Scalzi.
16. The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi, Sequel to Old Man’s War.
17. The Last Colony, John Scalzi, Third in the Old Man's War series.
18. The Human Division, John Scalzi, Fifth book in the Old Man's War series.
19. The End of All Things, John Scalzi, Sixth book in Old Man’s War series.
20. Redshirts, John Scalzi.

21. Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi, A reimagining/retelling of H. Beam Piper’s sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy.

[Blip]

Interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that you had a similar reaction to the Frankl, don't get me started.

A question for you and Kaleid: did you read the Darrieussecq in paperback format? I can't seem to find a download version and I'm keen to join the three of you in reading it!

[Evolving]

Interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that you had a similar reaction to the Frankl, don't get me started.

A question for you and Kaleid: did you read the Darrieussecq in paperback format? I can't seem to find a download version and I'm keen to join the three of you in reading it!

I downloaded it from Amazon on to my Kindle, but if you haven't a Kindle I don't know!

I've made a start on "White", on a lengthy-ish train journey on Thursday (to Brussels, if you want to know), and it's an interesting read. I think, without Kaleid's introduction I might have wondered for rather longer who these "we" are who seem to be observing everything that happens - the things that happen are related in the third person, but from time to time there's an interjection in the first person plural, and it's weird that these "we" seem to be everywhere - in the ice waste, in the deeps of the ocean with the whales and the squids, and even in the water in the glasses on the table aboard the ship on which Edmée is coming. Very strange.

But on the way back yesterday I felt like reading something else, and I should probably add that title to my list. Here goes, then.

[Evolving]

1. Professor Unrat, Heinrich Mann
2. God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens
3. The Ill-Made Knight, T.H. White
4. Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
5. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
6. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
7. The Character of Physical Law, Richard Feynmann
8. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
9. Knight Crusader, Ronald Welch.

10. Die Physiker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Appparently this was one of the most frequently played plays in the German-speaking world for decades after it was first performed (in 1962, I think); maybe it still is. Personally I think it's rather dated, and contrived, and I greatly prefer his other famous play, Der Besuch der alten Dame, which I remember reporting on in an earlier incarnation of this thread. I suppose it hit home at the time, because of all the angst about atomic war.

[scott1328]

1. Professor Unrat, Heinrich Mann
2. God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens
3. The Ill-Made Knight, T.H. White
4. Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
5. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
6. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
7. The Character of Physical Law, Richard Feynmann
8. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
9. Knight Crusader, Ronald Welch.

10. Die Physiker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Appparently this was one of the most frequently played plays in the German-speaking world for decades after it was first performed (in 1962, I think); maybe it still is. Personally I think it's rather dated, and contrived, and I greatly prefer his other famous play, Der Besuch der alten Dame, which I remember reporting on in an earlier incarnation of this thread. I suppose it hit home at the time, because of all the angst about atomic war.

in my German literature class, we performed a reader’s theater of Der Besuch der alten Dame. i remember not “getting it’

[Macdoc]

talk about mixed genres - Up for the Nebula this year.

https://www.denofgeek.com/books/donuts- ... mon-stars/



fascinating ...learned a bunch, laughed a bunch and a few tears. What more can you ask.

[Evolving]

1. Professor Unrat, Heinrich Mann
2. God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens
3. The Ill-Made Knight, T.H. White
4. Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
5. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
6. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
7. The Character of Physical Law, Richard Feynmann
8. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
9. Knight Crusader, Ronald Welch.

10. Die Physiker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Appparently this was one of the most frequently played plays in the German-speaking world for decades after it was first performed (in 1962, I think); maybe it still is. Personally I think it's rather dated, and contrived, and I greatly prefer his other famous play, Der Besuch der alten Dame, which I remember reporting on in an earlier incarnation of this thread. I suppose it hit home at the time, because of all the angst about atomic war.

in my German literature class, we performed a reader’s theater of Der Besuch der alten Dame. i remember not “getting it’

That surprises me. Was the language too challenging, or what was the problem?

I found the play deeply ominous and troubling, as his fate closes in on Whatsisface (can't remember the chief character's name), and towards the end as he wants to leave on the train, is surrounded by his fellow villagers at the station, and he knows they're going to stop him, although they deny it with fake friendliness, and so he capitulates and just walks back into the village towards his inexorable destruction.

[Evolving]

Interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that you had a similar reaction to the Frankl, don't get me started.

A question for you and Kaleid: did you read the Darrieussecq in paperback format? I can't seem to find a download version and I'm keen to join the three of you in reading it!

I downloaded it from Amazon on to my Kindle, but if you haven't a Kindle I don't know!

I've made a start on "White", on a lengthy-ish train journey on Thursday (to Brussels, if you want to know), and it's an interesting read. I think, without Kaleid's introduction I might have wondered for rather longer who these "we" are who seem to be observing everything that happens - the things that happen are related in the third person, but from time to time there's an interjection in the first person plural, and it's weird that these "we" seem to be everywhere - in the ice waste, in the deeps of the ocean with the whales and the squids, and even in the water in the glasses on the table aboard the ship on which Edmée is coming. Very strange...

It does seem only to be available in French on Kindle.