Off Topic Art & Literature

St. Beddytare said:

My wife wanted to watch the tv Strike series.Which she had apparently recorded back at Christmas time. Roughly 10 hours of watching the TV later. I have to admit the series was great. Still on my first book and although I know the end it is still worth listening to. And I have three more Strike series and another coming in Sept at least I don't know the ending of two of them!!

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Is that the one about the Private Eye?

I'm reading a book at the moment called "Where The Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. It's quite possibly one of the best books I've read for years. The prose is quite magical, almost poetic and the whole ambience of the swamplands of North Carolina (where it's set) and of "small town America" is really excellently done.
If anyone reads it (or has read it) I'd love to get your feedback too.

Good effort with this thread guys.

I've just finished To Kill a Mockingbird for the second time. The bit when Cal shows Atticus all the food that the black community sent to him after the trial is such a powerful moment. Very moving.

St. Beddytare said:

Would you Adam and Eve it...........I'd just started JK Rowling's 4th book Lethal White only to find out they have another tv series of
Cormorant Strike and the same story. Not giving in the wife insists on seeing the series I still prefer the book.

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I remember you saying that you enjoyed the DCI Ryan books.
Have you tried the Will Trent series, by Karin Slaughter?
He’s a special agent for the GBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, but he has “personal issues and a history”, so I advise that you read in chronological order so that you get to know his character.
Good stories with different types of crime from the norm, good dialogue and fast moving.
Karin Slaughter also wrote an earlier series of books, about the police force in Grant County Georgia, with one character from that series becoming integral to the Will Trent series.
I will be working my way through the Grant County series, in the near future. Some I read many years ago, in paperback, but I plan to start from number one, to reacquaint myself with the characters, and to build the kindle collection.

St. Badger & Beddy

If you like detective novels I serious recommend Philip Kerr's excellent "Bernie Gunther" series. I have been working my way through these books over the last 18 months and find them difficult to out down and extremely well written. At the moment I am reading an omnibus edition of the first three books, "March violets", "The Pale Criminal" and "German Requiem" which date from 1989 and early nineties. Kerr initially wrote three books before recommencing after a hiatus of 15 years. The first two stories are set in 1930s Germany but "German Requiem" moves forward to 1947 and deals with the aftermath of how German lost the war. On the face of it, they are detective stories with the eponymous hero usually working as a private detective having been kicked out of the German police as the Nazi's weeded out officers who were not sympathetic. However, there is a lot of historical fact in these books which is also amplified by some thorough research.

The first few books have a linear time line but some of the later ones flash back before and after the war. The only "dud" book in the series I have read , "Field Grey," tried to be too clever and cover a real life character being the adversary throughout a period of about 15 years. Previous books have covered stories concerning the Berlin Olympics, Heydrich in Prague and Hitler's lair in Bavaria but they also deal with post-War subjects such Peron-era Argentina and Cuba before Castro. I do not know a great deal about 20th century history and these books are fascinating in revealing the state of paranoia in Germany at the time, with various factions, organizations and characters effectively plotting amongst themselves for authority. I think the author does really well in making you appreciate how "ordinary" people came to accept the Nazi's in Germany at that time without questioning what was really going on. However, the stories stretch in to the late 1950s too and illustrate just what a long shadow the Nazi's cast over the Germans and the influence this had on politics elsewhere.

I have read 8 already and am on the ninth. This is the only series where I have bought anther volume before I have finished the latest book I am on. Impossible to put down.

The series also has it's own website:-

https://berniegunther.com/

If anyone is thinking of reading Jane Austin for the first time, can I just say “don’t bother”.
Thought I’d plug a few gaps in my literary education this summer, but if Persuasion is anything to go by, I haven’t been missing much. It wasn’t a torture to read, she has a very elegant writing style, and the gentle satire was engaging enough. She didn’t manage to make me care enough about her cast of minor English gentry though, to be that bothered what happened to any of them.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, on the other hand, I’d recommend to anybody. Glad I finally got round to tackling that one. I would class that as very much a “must read” for anyone with an interest in 19th Century literature, philosophy and social evolution.

Archers Road said:

If anyone is thinking of reading Jane Austin for the first time, can I just say “don’t bother”.
Thought I’d plug a few gaps in my literary education this summer, but if Persuasion is anything to go by, I haven’t been missing much. It wasn’t a torture to read, she has a very elegant writing style, and the gentle satire was engaging enough. She didn’t manage to make me care enough about her cast of minor English gentry though, to be that bothered what happened to any of them.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, on the other hand, I’d recommend to anybody. Glad I finally got round to tackling that one. I would class that as very much a “must read” for anyone with an interest in 19th Century literature, philosophy and social evolution.

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Frankenstein is an excellent read. And Shelley's life story is a bit mental too.

For Austen, haven't read Persuasion, but I enjoyed Pride & Prejudice. Then again I wasn't expecting much and that usually means a pleasant surprise.

I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s novels and enjoyed them all.

Susan said:

Frankenstein is an excellent read. And Shelley's life story is a bit mental too.

For Austen, haven't read Persuasion, but I enjoyed Pride & Prejudice. Then again I wasn't expecting much and that usually means a pleasant surprise.

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I liked the film Pride & Prejudice, with Keira Knightley. Whereas none of the Frankenstein movies have been great imo.

Maybe there’s something in that. Would rather watch Dracula, Nosferatu, Interview With a Vampire, or half a dozen other vampire movies, than re read the Bram Stoker novel.

Archers Road said:

I liked the film Pride & Prejudice, with Keira Knightley. Whereas none of the Frankenstein movies have been great imo.

Maybe there’s something in that. Would rather watch Dracula, Nosferatu, Interview With a Vampire, or half a dozen other vampire movies, than re read the Bram Stoker novel.

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The three-part BBC-produced version of Dracula that came out this year was pretty good. The first episode in particular.

ChilcoSaint said:

I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s novels and enjoyed them all.

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Got a fave?

EDIT: Also, how about the Brontes?

Susan said:

Got a fave?

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Has to be P&P, although Emma is an absolute gem in terms of the psychology of the characters. Austen was an amazing observer of people and their ways.

Edit: Just saw your edit! Funnily enough the Brontës have passed me by, although I keep meaning to delve. I might try Jane Eyre first as it's the one my wife keeps nagging me to read.