Davies is the journalist who recently uncovered the News International phone tapping scandal but much of it was already in here on the subject of the dark arts of journalism. The book is an excellent examination of the state of modern journalism (told from the inside) and the delivery of news.
I flew through the first hundred pages or so of this until a friend let slip the ending after she'd seen the film. I lost momentum for a few weeks. This is an excellently written novel which still has relevance today.
An acclaimed American novel incorporating the Kennedy Assassination, you say? Why did I never read this sooner? I loved this, not just for the subject matter but also for the writing. I read about two-thirds of Delillo's Underworld about ten years ago and found some of the writing a little patronising wherein he would explain the significance of his metaphors or create unnecessary analogies. After reading Libra, I am tempted to revisit Underworld and its brilliant opening passage.
I doubt I would have gone near a true crime book were it not from the creator of The Wire. This is a fascinating book about murder investigation and police politics. Simon writes with the scope of a novelist when describing what he saw with his 365 days with the Baltimore PD. The one thing which differentiates it from a novel is a general absence of the characters' homelife.
I read this slightly out of obligation after a former colleague gave it to me. I was interested in a bit of light reading but, having read Jeremy Paxman's The English, this was too familiar former. Added to that is the fact that I am not English and have observed many of the characteristics noted in this book. I soon skipped and skim-read large passages of the book. Paxman's book was more easily digested.
This had served as an adornment to my book shelf in two flats over two years. After seeing the paperback version in a shop I thought it was high time I read my own copy. The large hardback lacks the portability of a nice paperback so I didn't read this as quickly as I might have done had I taken it with me to the coffee shops of York. However, I thought it was an insightful depiction of the making of the film. Having seen Star Wars countless times since the age of four, I now find it difficult to be engrossed in actually watching the film, so familiar has it become but this provided a great deal more detail than is usually provided on the development of the script, the foundation of ILM and the obstacles Lucas had to overcome. Even if one of not a fan of the film, it is a well constructed document of the requirements of film making.
I recently entered my details on a dating website and in the brief section under books I had to say that my favourite books are "Modern American Fiction". The fact that Orwell was English might explain why it took me over ten years from buying to reading this. Or, I simply forgot I had it. I'm glad I waited so long to read it because its significance is more apparent to my more mature self who has thought about the use of language in newspapers, the use of war to maintain power and the role of the individual in society. Some of the book's terms such as "Big Brother" and "Thought Police" have become ingrained in the popular vernacular but that doesn't denude their impact here (where they are given actual meaning rather than being synonymous with CCTV). I feel that 300 pages is enough for the novel as after establishing the situation and introducing the plot, the novel leads quickly and naturally to resolution.
Having grown up in Wales I think that modern history was ignored in favour of local interest. As a result, I've felt rather ignorant about aspects of this country's history. I had watched the TV series when it aired and with a voucher in hand thought I could acquire more detail. On reading this I realised I wasn't as ignorant as I had thought (and I wasn't just remembering the TV series) but it filled in a lot gaps. At over 600 pages I knew this wasn't something I wanted to spend months reading (because I have other books to read and it's not like fiction where you can become absorbed in another world) so I read it in less than two weeks. It's well-written and witty but it does seem to make assumptions of the reader notably the General Elections and the reasons for victory. Marr is most incisive when writing about the time he's actually covered as a journalist from the Thatcher period onwards.
There are similarities between this and Price's earlier Clockers where the drama and mystery centres around a shooting. Like that earlier work it's as much a study of an aspect of society as it is a murder mystery. Where Clockers centred around drug pushers in the New Jersey projects (with the film adaptation set in Brooklyn) Lush Life looks at a more bohemian life in and around Manhattan's Lower East Side. The mystery of the murder is the event around which the story centres rather than being the crux of the story.
Obama's second book is his political treatise wherein he shows an admirable vocabulary and awareness of politics on the right and the left. Whereas George W Bush once famously said "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" Obama does at least consider an opposing point of view. I share Obama's point of view on most things in the book and therefore it's difficult to be objective.
I enjoyed Pelecanos's debut novel A Firing Offense when I read it three or four year ago. In the time since I have discovered The Wire and Pelecanos's contribution to it. The character ofDennis "Cutty" Wise was drawn from notes made when researching Drama City. The title of the novel is a nod to its setting, like most of Pelecanos's novels, in Washington DC and the fact that the novel is a short drama. Its plot is very simple and focuses on character. However, it felt a little light and like an extended television episode without the context of a series.
I childishly read this in five or six days so that I could say I read it quicker than a friend of mine. I'd heard that the novel was darker than its film adaptation especially as the Clough family objected to the novel's supposed portrayal of Brian Clough as obstinate and capricious. The film adds many of Clough's famous witticisms and aphorisms making it a lighter expericence but the novel isn't as dark as I had been lead to believe. The novel explores Clough's psyche behind the bluff veneer and the opposing forces which lead to his failure at Leeds United.
From reading a novel in five or six days I then took a few months to read this. This was due to the dense subject matter and the fact that I started a new job which left me too tired to read about the fight against free market economics in Poland in the late eighties. I felt that the middle section sagged slightly due to either me being distracted or because I felt that it was starting ti repeat itself. There is a place for repetition in order to emphasise a point but, for whatever reason, I didn't quite regain interest until the book explored free market economics as professed by George W Bush and his alumni. An interesting book which I wish I had concentrated a little more on.
The reading of this book also suffered from me either being distracted in the break room at work or just too tired to concentrate on it fully. Additionally, there's no real plot to the book, rather a fractured depiction of lives in the aftermath of 9/11. DeLillo's earlier Libra jumps back and forth in time but is far more cohesive than the elliptical approach used here. The overlapping stories and its lack of a plot give it a dream like quality which give a feeling rather than a dramatisation of the effects of the attack on the Twin Towers.
A short text which I was able to read in a couple of hours. I was familiar with aspects of communism but had never read this. Much of it is still relevant, particularly in light of the current recession but history has shown that communism works in theory but in practice. As much as I appreciate some of the ideology I'm not yet ready to sign up.
I'm only 112 out of 458 pages in so I can't assess the entire novel. I might have finished it in the next week. Thus far it's shaping up to be a Great American Novel in the classical vein. The first person narrative is not stylised and seemed dry to begin with but gradually forms character. Can't say much more than that yet.
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