Sunday 27 December 2015

What I've Been Reading Recently

Since last time, I've polished off the following books:

LA Noir by James Ellroy
The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Expressions of Identity by Kevin Hetherington
Xeelee Endurance by Stephen Baxter
Networks of Outrage and Hope by Manuel Castells
Party and Society by Cedric de Leon
Isaac and Isaiah by David Caute
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Third Wave Feminism by Stacy Gilles, Gillian Howie, and Rebecca Munford (eds)
Up Against Foucault by Caroline Ramazanoglu (ed)
Gaga Feminism by J Jack Halberstam
Complete Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm
Ocean's Eleven by Dewey Gram
Understanding Judith Butler by Anita Brady and Tony Schirato
Psychoanalysis: An Introduction by Ian Craib
The Magus by John Fowles
Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
Masculinities in Theory by Todd W Reeser
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Masculine Domination by Pierre Bourdieu
Snow Falling On Cedars by David Gutterson
Pornification by Susanna Paasonon, Kaarina Nikunen, and Laura Saarenmaa (eds)
The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
Body Talk by Jane M Ussher (ed)
The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
Feminisms and the Self by Morwenna Griffiths
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris
Rereading Capital by Ben Fine and Laurence Harris

There are some truly superb novels and thought-provoking works of social theory in that list. Anything catch your eye? And what have you been reading recently?

6 comments:

jim mclean said...

The old grey cells cant absorb so much these days. Apart from browsing my library for snippets of wisdom I have read Dr Sleep just to compare it to the Shining. No comparison, a half decent read but no classic. Poems of Robert Garioch, nice thrift shop find and re-read Nehru, the Lotus Eater From Kashmir (D.F.Karaka), basically how Nehru gave the impression of moving forward while in reality was ensuring the divisions with society were maintained and was looking back. Alex Salmond comes to mind.

asquith said...

Say what you like, I'm on the Arnold Bennett and I'm starting a Simon Sebag Montefiore re-reading drive in light of his new book early next year. And a real deviation from what had been my standard fare, I'm hooked on this:
https://www.chesterton.org/lecture-26/

Chris said...

Hmm, I don't read that feminist rubbish - it's for liberals.

Dick Gregory said...

This is out in three weeks. I also have a Lawrence Block on order from the library.
[http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Country-Syrians-Revolution-War/dp/0745336221]

Anonymous said...

I doubt Fine and Harris would now defend all the formulations in their book. They were still struggling to transcend the orthodoxies of official Communism when they wrote it. Simon Clarke's review in Capital and Class at the time is worth reading.

Mike

Phil said...

Cheers Mike. I was interested in the book because it's been on the to-read list for a very long time, and I think there is some utility in the concept of state monopoly capitalism. It's something I hope to be visiting in the new year.