Sunday 27 September 2015

What I've Been Reading Recently 2

Another episode in an occasional series. Since last time I've read:

I Married a Communist by Philip Roth
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
What is a Social Movement? by Hank Johnston
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
A Confederate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan
Social Movements in Global Politics by David West
A Hazard of New Fortunes by Dean Howells
Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Back Passage by James Lear
Strangers at the Gates by Sidney Tarrow
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Social Movements and Social Classes by Louis Maheu (ed.)
Social Movements in an Age of Austerity by Donatella della Porta
Villette by Charlotte Brontë

5 comments:

Phil said...

How was the della Porta?

Phil said...

Truly excellent. Plenty in there for sociology of social movement geeks. It builds on the other excellent book (also in the list) by Sid Tarrow. In the 50 years since Smelser's Theory of Collective Behaviour, social movement scholarship has finally discovered capitalism.

Paul Nightingale said...

I just read Roy's Capitalism: A Ghost Story. Recommended.

asquith said...

Politically I read Janan Ganesh's book on Osborne. Of a tosser, by a tosser and presumably for a tosser, but I think we should know who we're ruled by. The rationale as to why he chose to be a professional politician is so revealing and sadly all too believable.

I was round at my mate's the other day and his landlord had left some books, the most interesting of which were by Graham Greene. As a "former" catlicker myself (not that you ever really leave) I understand his world. Read that Monsignor Quixote, it's a masterful piece of work. I was interested into the whole Don Quixote business after Christopher Lee (yes, that Christopher Lee) did a heavy metal album (really) about him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYgqKp9JJLU

That Monsignor Quixote, and The Heart of the Matter (admittedly the plot of the latter is slightly far-fetched, but even so), and I'm greatly looking forward to getting into his other work.

Phil said...

Cheers for sharing your books, Asquith. Always good to know what a fellow Stokie's reading. I read Don Quixote a few years ago and I agree. A comic masterpiece.