..however busy you are, make time to read the extract from Doris Lessing's Nobel acceptance speech at http://books.guardian.co.uk/nobelprize/story/0,,2224068,00.html.
Just read it.
In the spirit of feeding the hunger, I've decided that from time to time I'll put a space on the site for book recommendations. Not just to say 'my favourite book is', or to review the latest books out, there are lots of other places to do that, but to draw attention to a book other people might have missed, and which you think is really worth reading.
I'm going to start off by recommending THE FARM by Richard Benson. I vaguely heard about this when it came out a couple of years ago, but only just got round to reading it, and I think it's really good. Benson is a journalist, and he uses a plain unaffected style to describe the events around the sale of his family's farm and the end of a way of life for his parents and brother. It is about the current state of farming in this country, but it's more about being a son (and a Yorkshireman). It's moving and funny, and - because of the indomitable characters - not quite as heartbreaking as you're afraid it's going to be, which can only be a good thing.
More recommendations please...?
Zeph
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Rosa the foxfinch
Fidel the faithful parrot
Ernesto the Crocoduck
POEMS AND OTHER PIECES, published under pseudonyms --- Send your offerings to THIS ADDRESS FOR CONSIDERATION --- zephotherstuff@gmail.com
OTHERSTUFF MASCOTS
Rosa the foxfinch
Other Sites
OtherStuff Mascots
Fidel the faithful parrot
Revisit earlier otherstuff easily here:
- 10 or less (9)
- 50 word stories (15)
- 50 word/Food (10)
- About Animals (4)
- Beyond the Pale (10)
- Bluedaddy (1)
- Books (3)
- Cake (1)
- Captain Ned (1)
- Captions (16)
- DoctorShoot (12)
- Dogs (1)
- Duncan23 (1)
- Ebren (4)
- Eggs (1)
- Elephants (5)
- Everything Else (6)
- Favourite Places (5)
- Festive Items (12)
- File (51)
- Guitougoal (9)
- Haikus (14)
- Henry Moon (1)
- i-ku (42)
- Mac Millings (4)
- Marcela Mora y Araujo (1)
- Melton Mowbray (1)
- Meltonian (2)
- Merchandise (1)
- Mimitig (42)
- Mishari Aladwani (1)
- MouthoftheMersey (5)
- Mrs Offside (4)
- Munni (6)
- OffsideinTahiti (11)
- Opinion (3)
- Paddleman (7)
- Pastagobbler (2)
- Pinkerbell (5)
- Ringo37 (5)
- Rules and Instructions (7)
- Tony Parker (2)
- TonyEllis (5)
- Warnings (5)
- Where I Am (13)
- Winter Count (2)
- Wordles (7)
- Zephirine (50)
OtherStuff Mascots
Ernesto the Crocoduck
25 comments:
Lessing's remarks were also reported in the Guardian - I think it was in yesterday's pages but may have been earlier - I'm a bit behind with my newsprint.
The Farm is a magnificent book - it made me cry but in a kind of good way. I may be mistaken, but I have a feeling that he is writing/has written a follow-up.
And here's a recommendation. JG Ballard The Drowned World.
zeph,
the girl and the woman, a very troubling story-
Zeph, good idea!
I'm reading "L'évangile de Jimmy" at the moment, by Didier Van Cauwelaert. It's a futuristic novel about American scientists cloning Christ from blood samples taken from the Turin Shroud. Quite funny, and the scary thing is that it's based on facts. Some of these samples ARE actually floating around and some people (yes, American evangelists) are trying to get their hands on them for that very purpose.
I don't know if it's translated. If not, I may well volunteer.
While you're checking the translation rights, find out if the film rights are available:)
Good point. Got any funds?
hep.hep,Nobody moves. I am the one in the movie business now.
Indeed. Let me rephrase that question, then. Got any funds, Guitou? Zeph and I will do the adaptation. File can star as the dirty piece of cloth.
Geeezus!
Himself.
my son, grand cru see fiction.
Ouch, that one actually took me a while. Am I slow or is that one of your worst puns ever?
I did worst but it's not easy to do bad puns
Indeed, Guitou, bad puns are an art form.
I've just finished reading Doris's speech (that translation was urgent, but it can wait, right?).
I'm a bit stuck for words myself after that, so I'll just copy and paste my favourite bit:
"The storytellers go back and back, to a clearing in the forest where a great fire burns, and the old shamans dance and sing, for our heritage of stories began in fire, magic, the spirit world. And that is where it is held, today."
Thank you, Zeph, for bringing this to my attention and making me spend half an hour reading something valuable.
Yes Offie, Zeph, brilliant Lessing Address, what a contrast and what a way to show the importance of stories
great quote Offie, and in the next para:
"It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative."
don't know the Farm Zeph, but it sounds good, this month I've been mostly reading The Joke by Milan Kundara which is good so far but then I can't seem to sit down to it...
Yes, wonderful stuff from Lessing - even if she is scathing about us trivial internet types frittering our great literary heritage away in blogs!:)
That image of the African girl reading the paragraph of Tolstoy will stay with me for ever.
And yet File, it is our imaginations with story-telling that can destroy hopes, dreams and the future.
One bad apple can rot the barrel.
Also, if you haven't read THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini, it is definitely worth a look. It was a big hit and the movie will be out soon so probably most of you have read it, but still:)
What I liked even more than the main plot was the part about the Afghan exiles living in the States, the best description I've read of an emigre community trying to keep up its old way of life.
And of course the cat-owners amongst you should all have read FELIDAE by Akif Pirincci! The first (and best) of a series, this is a detective story in which all the main characters are cats. Cute it isn't - it's a classic and nasty serial-killer tale(tail?).
Originally written in German so there should be a French translation around.
Felidae - the works of the cat detective are great. I only know of the first 2 books - are there more?
Mimi, there are 5 Felidae books in German but only two have been translated into English. A German friend told me the later ones are not so good. There's an animated film too, but again we haven't had it here.
Zeph: my German is rudimentary and certainly not up to reading a cat detective book in the original, so I can only wonder.
Regarding the film - if you find out more, please do tell. Could be the best cat cartoon since Fritz the Cat.
Hmm, Mimi, I've just done some research. The Felidae film is on Youtube in sections, but.... be warned... this is the dubbed version and it has annoying American voices - not annoying because of being American but they sound too light-herated and Disneyish for what is apparently a pretty dark film and has all the nasty bits from the book. I think I'm going to keep an eye open for a version with subtitles!
erm, that was meant to be 'light-hearted'..
Thanks Zeph: I'll have a search and give old youtube a try.
Post a Comment