What are you reading at the moment? Recommendations welcome

[Sedayne]

Almost a decade late to the party, but I've recently finished Autumn and Winter by Ali Smith. I really loved them both. Compelling and slightly odd characters who despite (or maybe because of) a sense of distance, I really warmed to. I listened to them both on Borrowbox, wonderfully narrated by Melody Grove. Spring and Summer are next in the series, but have a different narrator which is a shame. I will get to them eventually.

Meanwhile, on recommendation from @Rachael Burnett, I'm reading Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and concurrently (though not simultaneously) listening to Orlando read by Clare Higgins.

I've read Orlando before - as a teenager - and re-read parts of it more recently as research for my first novel. I have mixed feelings about it which are born out in the argument between my main characters. As I listen to it now, I can feel Neil getting excited about the nature of writing and change, and Hannah feeling exasperated by the too-detailed description of the opulence of Orlando refurnishing his stately home. 'It's not the gender swap I have a problem with, it's the aristocracy,' says Hannah.
I'm enjoying the re-listen, though. There's more fun in it than I remember.

 

[wrightstuff]

I just finished reading Magpie Murders...only to realise that it was a re-read...and apart from some key moments (that I didn't even connect with each other), I had completely forgotten the book! Am I losing it, or was it that forgettable?! Answers on a postcard to...

 

[A.Morgan]

I have to admit that currently I do not have very much time for leisure reading. I am working full time and researching and writing a third book on fanatical religious ideologies and how they have harmed societal mores. I will make an attempt to instill some time management to focus on of interest.

 

[Claire G]

I've just started We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I kept seeing it recommended and I thought I'd give it a go, having read and enjoyed her acclaimed short story, The Lottery. So far, so good! I'm intrigued by the set up, the village and the villagers' attitudes to the family. The style's quite rambling but this reflects the character's unusual mind and I got used to it after the first page or two.

 

[E G Logan]

her acclaimed short story, The Lottery.

I know Jackson is much acclaimed, but for me, she always undercooks her ending, where one more short, pointed sentence would make it clearer but no less chilling. I think The Lottery is her best, with the gradually dawning awful realisation.
I had to read Hangsaman twice, and the ending three times, to realise the menace was there, just not clearly enough, IMO. Four or five words would have done it. And although the most frightening sequence of Hill House is as good those moments in Dark Matter and The Woman in Black, maybe even better, the very end isn't tight enough. Again IMO, but I had to read it twice. Slowly. I don't want any spoilers, but for me, there were a couple of things that needed to be pointed up better.
I always found We Have Always Lived in the Castle interesting, ambiguous; it was her final book, a bit different perhaps, written when she was already in ill health, including mentally. I hope you enjoy it.

(BTW, the reason I was researching Jackson's books in such detail is, I write ghost stories, too. I'm afraid I normally tend to skim.)

 

[E G Logan]

Saltwater Mansions and Other Untold Stories by David Whitehouse has had rave reviews and, for once, perhaps justifiably. I certainly enjoyed it. I didn't go along with the reviewer who raved about the quality of the author's prose, though. It was fine, OK, told the story, but I was far from enraptured.

It's an interesting format he's come up with, and the cynical old journalist in me couldn't help suspecting that it wasn't what he'd originally intended at all. But, that said, if Whitehouse felt he had to 'pull the chestnuts out of the fire' – i.e. he couldn't do what he set out to do – the result he came up with worked out very well.

This book must have been a joy to find a genre description for, NOT. Broadly, it's narrative non-fiction, peppered with genuine reminiscences (via interviews) from several people who appear in what might be called the book's 'origin' story: the mysterious, unexplained disappearance of a resident from a flat in Saltwater Mansions, Margate. There is also a partial memoir of Whitehouse's own life, and the changes, over the years, to that town.

Current Margate resident and journalist Whitehouse set out initially to discover what had happened to Caroline Lane, whose utility bills and mortgage continued to be paid for 13 years despite her disappearance, but his real-life investigation turned into something more interesting here.

 

[James Charles]

Well, here is what I am beginning tonight:

From our very own Litopian, Eva. It arrived in the mail today!