Yeah, books wot I have read recently:
I'm just finishing Joe Queenan's study of Dan Quayle, Imperial Caddy
(subtitle: The rise of Dan Quayle in America and the decline and fall of
practically everything else), which is good in places, although Queenan's
facetious style can be v grating.
My big discovery this year has been Robertson Davies - I read the Cornish
Trilogy (The Rebel Angels, What's Bred In The Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus),
having been lent the first of those by a friend, and I devoured them. Such a
delight to discover a writer wo can really write! His sense of humour is
dry, his characterisation salty and evocative, and he is incredibly erudite
in his language and knowledge.
I read Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong this year, and it is simply one of the
best novels I've ever read: sensuous, horrifying and humane. I had tears in
my eyes on the last page. Another one that had me welling up was I Know This
Much Is True by Wally Lamb, a Great American Novel. Salman Rushdie's The
Ground Beneath Her Feet was pretty good, although in a different way.
Then there are the course-related books, but I don't suppose that many
listers will be scouring second hand book shops for copies of Clinical
Studies in Transpersonal Psychology or The Multi-Orgasmic Male (I am not
making that one up) - or maybe they are??
I read In The Land Of Dreamy Dreams earlier this year too, a collection of
short stories by Ellen Gilchrist, mostly set in Louisiana. That was an
atmospheric set.
Recent purchases that I can't seem to get around to include Susan Faludi's
Stiffed and Susan Straight's fabulously titled I Been In Sorrow's Kitchen And
Licked Out All The Pots; and then there's Sex Lives of the Great Dictators,
which, believe it or not, is related to my studies.
Azeem in London
NP: September 67 - "Lucky Shoe" - bonus points to anyone who can tell me
anything about this. September 67 are a female duo loosely in the Indigo
Girls/Dear Janes mould, with pretty good songs and a lead voice who sounds a
bit like Shawn Colvin, which is obviously no bad thing
PS I'm not trying to be smart here - I REALLY don't know anything about them.
I saw it in a second hand shop for the princely sum of one pound, thought it
looked interesting and liked the photos in the booklet, and was pleasantly
surprised.
