Books - Recommendations, Extracts, Out of Copyright links & Reviews

[Macca 16,959]

Harper Lee's long lost manuscript of "Go Set a Watchman" was discovered in 2011 and the book form was finally published just last month (July, 2015)

The book was a follow on about the events of "To Kill a Mockingbird" twenty years on except Harper Lee wrote 'Go Set a Watchman' before she ever wrote 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'

Upon reviewing 'Go Set a Watchman', Harper was commissioned to re-write the book by her publishers ... it was retitled 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and of course, the rest is history.

Anyway, here's the first chapter (in text form) of 'Go Set a Watchman' and on this same link you can listen to the first chapter (read by Reese Witherspoon)

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Edited August 30, 2015 by Macca

[hardtack 10,537]

I recommend almost anything and everything by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, but in particular "Kafka on the Shore" and "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle". He has also written a brilliant piece on the sarin gassing in the Tokyo subway called "Underground" in which he interviewed and told the stories of both victims and perpertrators.

[Grapeviney 9,717]

Yay, a book thread on Demonland! Good work Macca.

Interesting back story to the new / old Harper Lee book, with claims that the publishers basically took advantage of her age and the death of her sister to line their pockets with the riches that would inevitably follow with another book. The Harper Lee 'Go Set a Watchman' Fraud.

I've read Murakami's "Underground", which was fascinating, but couldn't get into "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Will check out the others you have recommended hardtack.

Must admit that my reading habits have been disrupted by my decision to get Foxtel for the footy this year; instead of reading before bed, I find myself watching late night crap, or overseas sport.

I've just started on a collection of essays by Noel Pearson called "Up From The Mission", but the best book I've read in recent months would be Paul Kelly's "Triumph and Demise", which tells the story of how the Rudd / Gillard / Rudd governments squandered so much political capital in such a short amount of time. No-oe understand power and politics like Kelly, and no-one writes with the same authority and clarity. Like his earlier books on the Hawke Government (End of Certainty) and Howard / Keating (The March of Patriots), this one will become the definitive account of the Labor era.

[Macca 16,959]

Here's a free book that is out in the public domain ... Mark Twain ... 'Following the Equator - A Journey Around the World.'

Mark Twain visited Australia as part of his travels around the world in the late 19th century and wrote about & visited many towns, cities & places (including Melbourne, Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Horsham, Bendigo, Ballarat, Tasmania et al) He was engaged in his own speaking circuit per se because of the financial difficulties that he was facing at the time (he'd lost most of his money in a failed business venture) ... all the same, it must have been quite a treat for the locals (especially in the country towns)

In the book he also made many observations about our history, culture and somewhat chequered past up until that point .. the Australian part of the book is from chapters 9 through to chapter 29 but the whole book is a thoroughly enjoyable read (and he absolutely pulls no punches too)

Anyway, here's the book in text form and also, here's the book in audio form (read by John Greenman)

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Edited September 2, 2015 by Macca

[Grapeviney 9,717]

This is not so much a specific book recommendation as it is for a publisher - Granta.

Can't remember when I first came across them, but I reckon I've read 20+ titles and have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them.

They are my safe-as-houses, go-to publisher - I'll buy them even if the blurb doesn't really interest me.

They are renowned for their reportage / non-fiction but equally feted for fiction.

Here are a few randoms that I've loved:

This is just beautifully written and a touching story: Diana Athill ~ After a Funeral

Life growing up in Osho's ashram: Tim Guest ~ My Life in Orange

Bleak but beautiful story about a broken Czech family: Ivan Klima ~ No Saints or Angels

They also publish Granta ~ The Magazine of New Writing, a brilliant quarterly that is often (broadly) themed and has a mix of fiction, reportage, poetry and the like, which you can get in most bookstores. Like the book publishing arm, the Granta magazine (which is more of a small book than magazine) never fails to deliver the goods.

[Grapeviney 9,717]

Just finished Hack Attack, by Nick Davies.

This is a cracking read about the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert's London Sun and News of the World newspapers, written by the Guardian journalist who first exposed the practice, and then continued to pursue it, despite the best efforts of NewsCorp, Scotland Yard, the prosecutor's office, Parliament, and the rest of the Fleet Street press to make it go away.

The behaviour of NewsCorp is not surprising if you're familiar with the British tabloids, although I was astonished to learn that as the noose tightened around its neck and the cops were finally closing in, they deleted 300 million emails (!!) from their servers, of which only 90 million were able to be recovered by investigators.

No, the shocking thing here is the way the other institutions - especially the cops and the prosecutors - boldly lied at every stage of the affair until, finally, they were forced kicking and screaming to bring News to account. It's a fascinating and worrying expose of corruption at the highest levels of British society, and the cynical ties that exist between powerful elites - police commissioners, newspaper editors, government ministers etc - who thought they were above the law.

It reads like a detective novel at times, and even if you know the ending and how it all panned out, you can't help but secretly barack along the way that News will ultimately gets its comeuppance. It does, but as the author notes at the end, you have to wonder just how much of a difference it all made in the wash-up.

Yes, the News of the World was forced to close, and a number of journalists and newspapers executives were convicted and even jailed, but the NOTW was quickly replaced by the Sun on Sunday, and Rebekah Brooks, Rupert's number 1 editorial gun in the UK, was restored to her position as CEO of the company's British operations after she was acquitted (luckily, in my opinion) of phone-hacking charges.

If nothing else, Hack Attack is proof that good investigative journalism still exists, and it is possible, although difficult, to still hold powerful institutions to account.

Very highly recommended. 

Edit: Just saw on Twitter that Andy Coulson, the former Murdoch editor jailed for hacking, has set up a new PR company. In response, former UK Deputy PM John Prescott, a phone-hacking victim, tweeted: "I left him a good luck message on my mobile." Haha!

[Grapeviney 9,717]

Fascinating read here about Israel's attempts over the years to assassinate Yasir Arafat, an extract from a forthcoming book about the history of Israeli intelligence agencies and their targeted killings.

What stands out is the moral tussle between senior military / intelligence / government figures, and the lengths to which some of them were prepared to go to, to get rid of the PLO leader, and how they were thwarted by others who thought the collateral damage (such as shooting down a commercial plane) was too high a price to pay.

Really looking forward to the book as the article reads like a thriller and seems to be meticulously researched, with multiple sources giving their perspective on how each event unfolded.  

[nutbean 8,838]

All  - this is not meant to start a political discourse  but I have just finished "Aboriginal Australians - A history since 1788" by Richard Broome - well researched and not a difficult read. Highly recommend it.

 

I also finished Fire and Fury - inside the Trump Administration by Michael Wolff. His writing style reminded me a lot of Caroline Wilson. He cleverly mixes quotes with words attributed to others that may be quotes but you are really not sure. He mixes a whole lot of quotes with opinion or what he thinks "may" have been said. It becomes so intertwined it leaves the reader none the wiser as to what actually was said and what wasn't said, what is fact ( quotes) and what is fiction ( pure opinion).  Having said that - for the life of me, it must have been the biggest snowjob of all time that anyone connected with Trump allowed him one minute of access as he has zero good words to say about anyone in the Administration.

[Grapeviney 9,717]

28 minutes ago, nutbean said:

All  - this is not meant to start a political discourse  but I have just finished "Aboriginal Australians - A history since 1788" by Richard Broome - well researched and not a difficult read. Highly recommend it.

 

I also finished Fire and Fury - inside the Trump Administration by Michael Wolff. His writing style reminded me a lot of Caroline Wilson. He cleverly mixes quotes with words attributed to others that may be quotes but you are really not sure. He mixes a whole lot of quotes with opinion or what he thinks "may" have been said. It becomes so intertwined it leaves the reader none the wiser as to what actually was said and what wasn't said, what is fact ( quotes) and what is fiction ( pure opinion).  Having said that - for the life of me, it must have been the biggest snowjob of all time that anyone connected with Trump allowed him one minute of access as he has zero good words to say about anyone in the Administration.

I haven't read the Wolff book, nut, but I came to exactly the same conclusion you did about sources / facts / quotes / opinion from reading the extract at the time of its release. There is a real art to that style of 'reportage' (if you could call it that) - creating something out of nothing and making it seem solid - but it leaves the door wide open for criticism about accuracy and truth, and also leads to questions about motive and bias. 

Also agree about the Broome book - a pretty good historical account. 

[Bitter but optimistic 22,237]

[censored] me !! Book reviews!!

What is Demonland  becoming ?

[daisycutter 29,613]

3 hours ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

[censored] me !! Book reviews!!

What is Demonland  becoming ?

well uncle, you could always start a new thread on crocheting alpaca wool

[Earl Hood 6,086]

On 29/01/2018 at 3:03 PM, nutbean said:

All  - this is not meant to start a political discourse  but I have just finished "Aboriginal Australians - A history since 1788" by Richard Broome - well researched and not a difficult read. Highly recommend it.

 

I also finished Fire and Fury - inside the Trump Administration by Michael Wolff. His writing style reminded me a lot of Caroline Wilson. He cleverly mixes quotes with words attributed to others that may be quotes but you are really not sure. He mixes a whole lot of quotes with opinion or what he thinks "may" have been said. It becomes so intertwined it leaves the reader none the wiser as to what actually was said and what wasn't said, what is fact ( quotes) and what is fiction ( pure opinion).  Having said that - for the life of me, it must have been the biggest snowjob of all time that anyone connected with Trump allowed him one minute of access as he has zero good words to say about anyone in the Administration.

Hi  Nut

thanks for the Richard Broome reference. I will follow that up. May I also recommend Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu. You may have read it? It looks at aboriginal society pre 1788 based on archeological studies but mainly on the observations of those who had first contact, the writings of the explorers, surveyors and first squattors. It paints a fascinating picture of pre European life here, a varied society that farmed, hunted, built stone houses and had permanent settlements. What was going on here for nearly 60,000 years was unique and needs to be further explored, studied and celebrated. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen when the 40,000 year old bones of Mungo Man could not get government funding for a dedicated rested place in Lake Mungo recently.

Edited February 6, 2018 by Earl Hood

[nutbean 8,838]

19 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

Hi  Nut

thanks for the Richard Broome reference. I will follow that up. May I also recommend Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu. You may have read it? It looks at aboriginal society pre 1788 based on archeological studies but mainly on the observations of those who had first contact, the writings of the explorers, surveyors and first squattors. It paints a fascinating picture of pre European life here, a varied society that farmed, hunted, built stone houses and had permanent settlements. What was going on here for nearly 60,000 years was unique and needs to be further explored, studied and celebrated. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen when the 40,000 year old bones of Mungo Man could not get government funding for a dedicated rested place in Lake Mungo recently.

It will be my next read.

What i found very eye opening was a quote from James Cook on observation of the Indigenous people during his exploration of the east coast

"They live in a tranquillity which is not disturbed by the inequality of condition. The earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life. They covet neither magnificent houses or household stuff. They live in a warm and fine climate and enjoy wholesome air".

Looks like no one took much notice of Jimmy's observations !

 

 

Edited February 7, 2018 by nutbean

[daisycutter 29,613]

20 hours ago, nutbean said:

It will be my next read.

What i found very eye opening was a quote from James Cook on observation of the Indigenous people during his exploration of the east coast

"They live in a tranquillity which is not disturbed by the inequality of condition. The earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life. They covet neither magnificent houses or household stuff. They live in a warm and fine climate and enjoy wholesome air".

Looks like no one took much notice of Jimmy's observations !

 

 

sounds like a greens manifesto, nut 

[nutbean 8,838]

1 hour ago, daisycutter said:

sounds like a greens manifesto, nut 

I think James Cook was leader of the Greens after Bob Brown but before Christine Milne.

[dieter 3,325]

On 2/7/2018 at 4:03 PM, nutbean said:

It will be my next read.

What i found very eye opening was a quote from James Cook on observation of the Indigenous people during his exploration of the east coast

"They live in a tranquillity which is not disturbed by the inequality of condition. The earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life. They covet neither magnificent houses or household stuff. They live in a warm and fine climate and enjoy wholesome air".

Looks like no one took much notice of Jimmy's observations !

 

 

Lovely stuff, Nut.

[Grapeviney 9,717]

On 2/7/2018 at 4:03 PM, nutbean said:

 

Looks like no one took much notice of Jimmy's observations !

 

Jimmy? No-one called him that.

Pretty sure it was Jimbo, or if not that, Cooky.    

[nutbean 8,838]

16 hours ago, Grapeviney said:

Jimmy? No-one called him that.

Pretty sure it was Jimbo, or if not that, Cooky.    

Saily McSailface ?

[Macca 16,959]

If you like a good mystery/whodunnit I can recommend these 2 books

2 x TV mini-series based on the books are forthcoming 

The Woman in Cabin 10

The Couple Next Door