Comments on Belgian Waffle: Bonsai cat, crisp injury, books

Are you not reading Caitlin Moran's "How ...

2011-10-22T09:19:25.093+02:00

Are you not reading Caitlin Moran's "How to be a Woman"?
What's wrong with you? Have bought copy for every female I am remotely related to. Marvellous.

Delurking to say: Annie Proulx - I love them all ...

2011-10-19T14:31:51.624+02:00

Delurking to say:

Annie Proulx - I love them all but they do veer wildly between uplifting and bone-crushingly tragic. That Old Ace in the Hole and The Shipping Forecast are free from any real trauma though, and brilliant reads.

Louise Erdrich - The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse - this is one of the bext things I've ever read, wry, unnerving, and with incredibly engaging characters. It is quite magic realist though, can't remember whether you like that or not?

The Crimson Petal and the White - clever, fascinating and thoroughly believable Victorian drama recently (well) serialised by the Beeb. A pageturning doorstopper.

Last but not least, I am assuming you've read this already, but The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is an incredible book. Very dark but with moments of fragile beauty. her last book, Lacuna, is meant to be brilliant too though I can't vouch for it as I haven't read it innit.

Incidentally, I have just embarked on an MA hence total internet radio silence as am still working full time. You're still the first (sometimes the only) thing I read on t'interwebs though...

Never mind your eclairs. I'm still waiting for...

2011-10-14T09:58:27.529+02:00

Never mind your eclairs. I'm still waiting for my banjo (First prize in pub raffle in deepest Gloucestershire, circa 1978)

Edith Wharton? She's my favorite. Best: House ...

2011-10-13T01:41:01.469+02:00

Edith Wharton? She's my favorite. Best: House of Mirth and Age of Innocence, naturally. But for amazing Real Housewives satire? Custom of the Country. Oh my lord, I do love that book, and yet it took me so long to get to it.

I love Bonsai Cat. That face says more than you want to hear.

These are great book recommendations. The last bo...

2011-10-13T01:05:33.765+02:00

These are great book recommendations.

The last book I read was Anathem by Neal Stephenson (have been indulging in a lot of speculative fiction recently, I realise it's not for everyone!).

Here is a quick steam pudding recipe which I have tried. I used crushed cardamom instead of vanilla and maple syrup instead of lemon curd.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5598/fastestever-lemon-pudding

Ha, you are all brilliant. 1. I LOVE My summer o...

2011-10-12T13:12:24.393+02:00

Ha, you are all brilliant.

1. I LOVE My summer of Meat. Love love love. Read it years ago and completely fell for it, it's a one-off.

2. Matthew Kneale's When We Were Romans is one of my absolute favourites of recent years. I love the spellings.

3. Last Letter from Your Lover - I know Jojo and she, and it, are brilliant.

The others I am rushing to get NOW. I have never read Barbara Pym and I know it's a huge hole in my reading.

B. I fear any bonsai in my house will come to a far worse fate than vibrating to death, but god, it did make me laugh.

Your other commenters have left good recommendatio...

2011-10-12T12:41:33.918+02:00

Your other commenters have left good recommendations. I particularly like Iris Murdoch and Barbara Pym. Have you ever read Matthew Kneale? The English Passengers is a hilarious, but also very serious novel about a religious crazy who thinks the garden of eden is found on tasmania, and charters a Manx smugglers' ship to take him there. His other novel, When we were Romans is also excellent, about a boy whose mother flees to Rome with her kids to get away from her ex husband. Includes hilarious quotes from a history of horrible popes.

Huxley in Hollywood, which every reviewer disdainf...

2011-10-12T09:27:16.745+02:00

Huxley in Hollywood, which every reviewer disdainfully wrote off as some sort of lesbo tell-all, okay. His wife orchestrates and ends casual affairs for him, one of which is almost with the wife of the Hubble telescope´s namesake (but I'm making it sound cheap), and that´s not even one of the good parts.

oh also, Dr D once bought a bonsai for his mother,...

2011-10-11T22:04:19.960+02:00

oh also, Dr D once bought a bonsai for his mother, and she killed it by keeping it on top of the washing machine. it vibrated to death. it's one of my favourite stories.

"And the Land Lay Still". Heartbreaking...

2011-10-11T22:03:42.770+02:00

"And the Land Lay Still". Heartbreakingly good, to the point where I can't start the next section because there will be that much less to read. Sparse and humane and echt-Scottish (Saltire award winner - shut up, I'm acclimating) with some of the geigh for good measure.

Interestingly, re Nabokov (comment above), my thesis adviser was a Nabokovian doctoral chap, and he couldn't teach it for 25 years after getting his PhD. (But he is, in the meantime, a beautifully dense writer.)

WV: oungsad. WHERE IS MY Y? blogger just called me old, i think.

Whatever you do, do not read Nabokov. (That's ...

2011-10-11T21:17:06.014+02:00

Whatever you do, do not read Nabokov. (That's the advice a young writer is given in David Mitchell's Ghostwritten, anyway.)
Also, this, without any further comment: http://designyoutrust.com/2011/10/08/at-at-halloween-costume-for-dog/

I also have to suggest both novels by Leif Enger -...

2011-10-11T20:53:06.331+02:00

I also have to suggest both novels by Leif Enger -- So Brave, Young, and Handsome + Peace Like a River. Not only are both wonderful stories, but there are passages you'll mark so you can re-read them again. They're beautifully written.

You may also want to consider memoirs A Girl Named Zippy and its sequel She Got Up Off the Couch, by Havel Kimmel.

Also: My Year of Meats, by Ruth Ozeki. That's a book tailor-made for a book club -- it's odd and amazing.

For a little book that you can read in pieces, tha...

2011-10-11T20:44:50.652+02:00

For a little book that you can read in pieces, that will offer up small delights even when your brain is tired: I Know You're Out There by Michael Beaumier. I believe it's categorized as Collections/Essays.

To wit: "In my family, we were taught that the secret to a successful marriage, or a successful anything, is stamina. If you and your beloved can make it to the point where you're too tired to chase anyone else and too weak to kill each other, you will bask in your triumph and serve as a model to others."

I hope that your eclaires turn up soon. For a bit...

2011-10-11T18:07:14.666+02:00

I hope that your eclaires turn up soon.

For a bit of fluff - Jojo Moyes 'Last Letter from Your Lover'. I loved it. But I did go around for days talking like I was an upper-crust gel with a twinset and pearls.

I want a bonsai cat too. Next thing for Lashes is Warhammer 40k. Be afraid for your wallet. VERY afraid.

Ali x

I'm reading/listening to (audio book) The Help...

2011-10-11T17:17:54.381+02:00

I'm reading/listening to (audio book) The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It was given away free by the Observer a month or two ago, and seems very much downloaded, so you've probably read it already. It's pretty damn good so far (three quarters of the way through). About the deep South of America in 1962, institutional racism, redemption story, very uplifting. At least I hope it will be when I find out What Happens In The End.

Barbara Pym No fond return of love or Molly Keane ...

2011-10-11T17:17:10.583+02:00

Barbara Pym No fond return of love or Molly Keane Good Behaviour. Can be read and re-read.

I'm in the middle of Iris Murdoch's A Seve...

2011-10-11T16:48:16.145+02:00

I'm in the middle of Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head, which is a very good first person narrative about adultery... it's very arch in the early Murdoch manner, but I can recommend it for the way in which it adroitly manipulates the reader. Though of course Murdoch is always slightly depressing because it's so bloody brilliant. A first class mind, as my friend from the book club would say.

When I am stuck, I read Anne Lamott's Bird by ...

2011-10-11T15:24:32.136+02:00

When I am stuck, I read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, possibly the best book ever written for writers (apart from maybe Stephen King's On Writing).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bird-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp/0385480016/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318339404&sr=1-1

Also, some owls for you:
http://www.hobbs.co.uk/index.cfm?searchTerm=owl&page=1049&x=0&y=0