2018 50 Book Challenge

California Dreamer · Jul 8, 2013

32. Yours Until Death, by Gunnar Staalesen (2010)

Yours Until Death is the first of the Varg Veum books translated into English although, oddly, not the first in the series. Based in Bergen in Norway, Varg is a dissolute small-time private investigator, and was formerly a Child Welfare officer.

The book opens with a young child walking into Varg's office seeking help recovering his bike from some vicious bullies. Varg agrees to help, and gradually starts to get involved with the boy and his recently-separated mother. After the mother asks Varg to talk to her ex-husband about child support, he sees him go into her flat where he is soon found dead, and she is found holding the murder weapon.

Despite appearances, Veum refuses to believe that she can have done this and offers to help the defense investigation.

The book is quite good without being highly original or surprising. Veum has a nice line in wisecracks but the character is not as memorable as Martin Beck or Kurt Wallander, for example. Staalesen gives him some depth by harking back to Veum's own unhappy childhood, but he doesn't do much with that, at least not yet. The book's real strength is Staalesen's prosaic descriptions of Bergen and its surrounds. One passage where he describes the sudden onset of Spring is excellent, as is the brooding presence he gives the mountain that glowers over this ancient city.

clockwise · Jul 9, 2013

Clockwise counting 65/50: Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children (1980)

An epic tale about India, Pakistan and an amazing muslim family, written in the style of magical realism with a distinct Indian flavour. I see strong similarities with Faulkner and the recent Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan but while I may narrowly prefer Mo Yan's even more brutal and colourful narrative vein, this book mesmerized me very much in the same way.

1,001 children were born within the midnight hour of India's independence August 15, 1947, and these children were all given magical powers of various kind. The narrator, Saleem Sinai, who was the first (or second) child born at the stroke of that midnight of independence, is writing his autobiography to the single audience of his housemaid and wife-to-be. He tells a wonderful, magical and terrifying story of his Kashmir heritage, his Bombay upbringing and his politicisation in Pakistan.

I can't recommend this book highly enough but it is a very thick one and it is not always easy reading. Patience and stamina will be needed but this is doubtlessly great art. Must be one of the foremost achievements of modern literature.

And.... this tale of the 1,001 midnight's children is obviously on the list of 1,001 books to read before you die.

clockwise · Jul 9, 2013

Steve B. said:
83. Notes From the Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky 1864

[COLOR=FF00AA]LIST[/COLOR]

What a horrible awful book.

I must read this. I am however now first pushing through Crime and Punishment which I once, long ago, abandoned well past halfway through. It depressed me terribly at the time but I find it less burdensome today at a more advanced age and possibly taste.

It is strange that Kafka never depressed me like Dostoyevsky, his books are in many ways even darker and more claustrophobic. I have read most of Kafka and all three novels (Trial, Amerika, Castle) actually twice. For those who didn't yet read Kafka, it really is a must!!

clockwise · Jul 9, 2013

California Dreamer said:
32. Yours Until Death, by Gunnar Staalesen (2010)

Yours Until Death is the first of the Varg Veum books translated into English although, oddly, not the first in the series. Based in Bergen in Norway, Varg is a dissolute small-time private investigator, and was formerly a Child Welfare officer.

The book opens with a young child walking into Varg's office seeking help recovering his bike from some vicious bullies. Varg agrees to help, and gradually starts to get involved with the boy and his recently-separated mother. After the mother asks Varg to talk to her ex-husband about child support, he sees him go into her flat where he is soon found dead, and she is found holding the murder weapon.

Despite appearances, Veum refuses to believe that she can have done this and offers to help the defense investigation.

The book is quite good without being highly original or surprising. Veum has a nice line in wisecracks but the character is not as memorable as Martin Beck or Kurt Wallander, for example. Staalesen gives him some depth by harking back to Veum's own unhappy childhood, but he doesn't do much with that, at least not yet. The book's real strength is Staalesen's prosaic descriptions of Bergen and its surrounds. One passage where he describes the sudden onset of Spring is excellent, as is the brooding presence he gives the mountain that glowers over this ancient city.

You are really a connoisseur of Scandinavian crime. What about Stieg Larsson's trilogy? I must admit I haven't yet read it although I am as Swedish as that Muppet chef (but his use of the Swedish language is a bit more eloquent than mine).

LonerMatt · Jul 9, 2013

LonerMatt said:
1. The Undivided pt 1
2. The Undivided pt 2
3. No Country for Old Men
4. The Difference Engine
5. Wake in Fright
6. The River of Doubt
7. The Pearl
8. Crytonomicon
9. Shot in the Dark
10. Malcolm X - Biography
11. Final Empire
12. The Quiet American.
13. Habibi
14. The Invisible Man
15. Tender is the Night
16. Guardians of the West
17. King of the Murgos
18. Demon lord of Khandar
19. Sorcress of Darshiva
20. Seeress of Kell
21. Once We Were Warriors
22. Winter of our Discontent
23. Othello
24. A Scanner Darkly
25. The Well of Ascension
26. Hero of Ages
27. Alloy of Law
28. Marrow
29. The Prince
30. Leviathan Wakes
31. The Meaning of Sarkozy
32. The Death of Ivan Illych
33. The Devil
34. Lucifer's Hammer
35. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
36. Rainbows End
37. Palimpsest
38. Red Shirts
39. Caliban's War
40. The Ocean at the End of the Lane

41. The Communist Hypothesis

A book about communist theory. Slow going, joyless, at times interesting, but pretty boring to be honest.

Steve B. · Jul 9, 2013

84. The Hit David Baldacci 2013

Will Robie teams up with a rogue agent to solve a plot designed to create a new world order.

It was pretty good. Robie is my favorite Baldacci character.

California Dreamer · Jul 10, 2013

clockwise said:
You are really a connoisseur of Scandinavian crime. What about Stieg Larsson's trilogy? I must admit I haven't yet read it although I am as Swedish as that Muppet chef (but his use of the Swedish language is a bit more eloquent than mine).

I read those as soon as they came out in English. I believe the original title in Swedish was Men Who Hate Women. Reading the full trilogy, you can see the reason for that; the progressive Larssen was writing a serious critique of Swedish society.However his posthumois publishers chose to focus all the attention on the Salander character and play her up to the hilt. In the process, I think Larssen's intent was lost.

Steve B. · Jul 12, 2013

85. Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921

[COLOR=FF00AA]LIST[/COLOR]

Huxley's first novel, about a group of Bohemians right after the great war summering at an English estate called Crome. The protagonist writes bad poetry and has painful encounters with the opposite sex. He foreshortens his holiday because of these.

So-so. Certainly not the caliber of Brave New World.

LonerMatt · Jul 12, 2013

LonerMatt said:
1. The Undivided pt 1
2. The Undivided pt 2
3. No Country for Old Men
4. The Difference Engine
5. Wake in Fright
6. The River of Doubt
7. The Pearl
8. Crytonomicon
9. Shot in the Dark
10. Malcolm X - Biography
11. Final Empire
12. The Quiet American.
13. Habibi
14. The Invisible Man
15. Tender is the Night
16. Guardians of the West
17. King of the Murgos
18. Demon lord of Khandar
19. Sorcress of Darshiva
20. Seeress of Kell
21. Once We Were Warriors
22. Winter of our Discontent
23. Othello
24. A Scanner Darkly
25. The Well of Ascension
26. Hero of Ages
27. Alloy of Law
28. Marrow
29. The Prince
30. Leviathan Wakes
31. The Meaning of Sarkozy
32. The Death of Ivan Illych
33. The Devil
34. Lucifer's Hammer
35. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
36. Rainbows End
37. Palimpsest
38. Red Shirts
39. Caliban's War
40. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
41. The Communist Hypothesis

42. While Mortals Sleep

A collection of Kurt Vonnegut short stories. As an unashamed fan of KV, this was enjoyable, but as someone who has read a compilation previously (Welcome to the Monkey House) I felt these stories were generally weaker (although the last one was excellent). Entirely personable, human, savvy and conscionable.

Journeyman · Jul 13, 2013

LonerMatt said:
42. While Mortals Sleep

A collection of Kurt Vonnegut short stories. As an unashamed fan of KV, this was enjoyable, but as someone who has read a compilation previously (Welcome to the Monkey House) I felt these stories were generally weaker (although the last one was excellent). Entirely personable, human, savvy and conscionable.

LM, you should keep an eye out for "Bagombo Snuff Box", another collection of KV short stories.

clockwise · Jul 15, 2013

Clockwise counting 66/50: John Le Carre - A Delicate Truth (2013)

The grandmaster of espionage fiction is 82 years old and can still write better than almost anyone else. This is maybe not up to the absolute top standard of my favourites The Honourable Schoolboy or The Spy Who Came in From the Cold but it is nevertheless very good and always entertaining. Better, I would say, than anything he has written for a long time.

This is about how the gung-ho New Labour in the War against Terror sets aside law and moral to go after enemies. They do so together with a private defence contractor from Houston, Texas and any scandals are elegantly covered up. A young foreign servant and a retired diplomat are risking a lot to become whistle blowers. The British government are the bad guys.

aKula · Jul 15, 2013

13. The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius

Biographies of the first twelve roman emperors written in the 2nd Century AD. Not surprisingly many had already become exaggerated figures of the imagination. The usual pattern for the more notorious seems to have been a steady descent into dark megalomania. It is also an interesting source for learning about Roman culture and the political system. Suitably came with a recommendation from Gore Vidal on the back cover.

Steve B. · Jul 16, 2013

86. Cat and Mouse 1961 Gunter Grass

[COLOR=FF00AA]LIST[/COLOR]

Chronicle of a schoolboy German oddster during WWII. He has a prodigious Adam's Apple. The other kids called it a mouse and set a cat upon his throat as a joke. Hence the title. Also a prodigiously proportioned penis. And an odd devotion to the Virgin Mary.

I liked it. Hoping Tin Drum (supposedly Gass' best) is also on the list.

clockwise · Jul 16, 2013

Clockwise counting 67/50: Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace (2012)

Neil Young has been very important to me and many of his 1970s albums remain on my personal all-time top list. After having seen that his auto-biography got such good reviews, I really looked forward to read about the man and what had gone wrong with Buffalo Springfield and CSNY. To my disappointment, Neil is revealing very little indeed and this 500 page book reads very much as a long thank-you-list to all the wonderful people he has worked with and known over the past five decades.

The man is a genius songwriter but alas not a genius autobiographer. In my view, this is for hardcore fans only.

clockwise · Jul 16, 2013

Clockwise counting 68/50: Yasunari Kawabata - Snow Country (1948)

This is the first book I read from Nobel Prize winning Kawabata and it is undoubtedly a little masterpiece. An independently wealthy young man from Tokyo, a certain Shimamura, takes frequent short vacations at a hot spring resort in the mountains. He meets the geisha Komako and a love affair develops. Komako's love is pure but agonizing and self sacrificial in nature. A bitter sweet tragedy which could never have a happy ending.

2018 50 Book Challenge

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

Go Spurs Go

Distinguished Member

Go Spurs Go

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

Senior Member

Go Spurs Go

Distinguished Member

Distinguished Member

FEATURED PRODUCTS

Similar threads

Featured Sponsor

Definitely full canvas only

Half canvas is fine

Really don't care

Depends on fabric

Depends on price

Forum Sponsors

Forum statistics

FOLLOW STYLEFORUM ON: