Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[covingtoncat73]

I finished The Past is Red by Cat Vallente. It was really good.

[Uncle Robin]

I've just started La forma dell'acqua and already finding it not as far above my Italian as Il Gattopardo was in many places. I'm excited to read at Wiki that Camilleri uses actual Sicilian in the series too, and tempted to see if I can learn a bit of that language to enhance the reading experience. I once gently chided a Sicilian tour guide for demeaning his native language as a mere dialect, but even though the UN and Italian law both agree with me that Sicilian is a language in its own right, I had no idea quite HOW different it is from standard Italian, looking forward to seeing it in use.

[poohbear_nc]

I've been reading some Graham Greene novels lately - not entirely sure why - seems I acquired some titles years ago when they were deeply discounted - and found them lurking in my TBR pile. So I decided to give them a try.

I bogged down quickly in Orient Express, and then jumped to The Quiet American, and made it through The End of the Affair. Greene creates very repulsive, non-sympathetic, but very human protagonists that you don't really care about, but whose actions draw you in to see how badly they screw up their lives and how badly they injure their family and friends.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I've just started La forma dell'acqua and already finding it not as far above my Italian as Il Gattopardo was in many places. I'm excited to read at Wiki that Camilleri uses actual Sicilian in the series too, and tempted to see if I can learn a bit of that language to enhance the reading experience. I once gently chided a Sicilian tour guide for demeaning his native language as a mere dialect, but even though the UN and Italian law both agree with me that Sicilian is a language in its own right, I had no idea quite HOW different it is from standard Italian, looking forward to seeing it in use.

Even Italian Dialects can be radically different from Italian. At least it is according to my wife's family.
Apache

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Apache

Even Italian Dialects can be radically different from Italian. At least it is according to my wife's family.
Apache

There's an EXCELLENT discussion of this here
https://youtu.be/zUlNhs8rJ_g?t=126

He makes the point that the various "dialects" are not dialects of modern standard Italian, since that was largely a "creation" of Dante, resulting in a Florentine variant becoming the prestige national standard. He argues that if they are dialects of anything, they're all dialects of Latin, not Italian. On my first visit to San Marino, my friends there taught me a few words and phrase in sammarinese (basically romagnolo) and a few of them surprised me by seeming more French than Italian.

In the case of Sicilian, though, the differences are even more extreme. Given the very low esteem in which the various "dialetti" are held in Italy, I was surprised to learn that Sicilian has official Italian government recognition as a language proper, but its geographic isolation and the impact of Arabic etc have clearly made it even more distinct than other regional variants. The tour guide I mentioned had said of a plant we were driving past "I don't know the English or the Italian word for it, I only know the Sicilian" and proceeded to apologize for that "failing", which I didn't think a failing at all.

[Apache]

They always talked as if their dialect was more of a peasant version of Italian. I do agree that no one should apologize for speaking in their language. To many are dying off because the younger generations no longer wish or know how to speak the language of their ancestors.
Apache

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up, one bought yesterday: The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters (& Joan Hess). The last of her Amelia Peabody series, finished after the author's death, which finally dropped below £3 yesterday. I've been waiting a couple of years for this (I finished the previous novel in October 2019!)

And delightful it was too. Most enjoyable.

Next up: A random pick from my TBR: Firefly Gadroon by Jonathan Gash. The sixth in his Lovejoy series. I've read this years ago in paper, and I'm looking forward to a re-read.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Apache

They always talked as if their dialect was more of a peasant version of Italian.
Apache

Indeed, it's that they do it to themselves that's especially sad, like an elderly Panjabi man one who once said to me (in Hindi) "Panjabi is bastard Hindi"

[LDB]

Currently enjoying Sound of a Furious Sky. I definitely like the main character and will read more.

[ReadingManiac]

Just finishing up A Christmas Tale by Austin Crawley (re-read) for wrapping up my Christmas reading.

I don't expect to have much reading time tonight or any tomorrow. Bloody families...

But 26th I'll be starting something completely different. Looking at a couple of third in series books where I've read the first two.

[Uncle Robin]

I'm back into Shakespeare's Englishes, probably my last read of the year. I also just spent the most money I ever have on an ebook. The equivalent of around $33US for Beethoven's Orchestral Music - An Owner's Manual by David Hurwitz after really enjoying several of his Youtube videos, especially his detailed look at LvB's 6th. I'm hoping that reading his book while listening to the symphonies while help my zero-musicality soul grok them a bit better.

[Uncle Robin]

4/5 for Shakespeare's Englishes: Against Englishness, a densely written book that was more academic than demotic in its register for sure. I enjoyed the experience of reading it and learned a lot, but could also feel confirmation bias at work and even then still noted instances where the arguments made seemed to tend toward tenuous. It also confirmed two other things for me:
(1) I absolutely HATE so-called "real" page numbers, with a passion. The book was a pdf, and having to click twice to advance the page count by one was corrosive to my sense of self-worth, especially as I was already reading at a crawl. The ill-yclept "real" page numbers are the work of the Devil.

(2) - I'm definitely doing better with nonfiction than fiction. The stats at The StoryGraph confirmed my suspicion about this, revealing that for 2021, theaverage rating out of 5 for each type is as follows
nonfiction 3.94
fiction 3.4

And now I'm going to see if I can bump that fiction average up before the end of the year with some light SF, Nathan Lovell's Half Share

[CRussel]

I'm finally getting around to reading (or listening) to the latest Michael Connelly, The Dark Hours. This is primarily a Renee Ballard book, but with a healthy dose of Bosch.

This was a tough start -- I put it down and walked away from it for a week while I read a couple of other books, but I finally came back to it and gave it another try. This time it went better, and by 15-20% of the way into it I was completely and totally hooked. Just finishing up tonight, and I'd give it a solid 4 stars.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A random pick from my TBR: Firefly Gadroon by Jonathan Gash. The sixth in his Lovejoy series. I've read this years ago in paper, and I'm looking forward to a re-read.

I had forgotten so much, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

Next up: Maelstrom by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. The first in their follow-up to their Petaybee series. I didn't much like that series, so I'm not sure I'll like this. We'll see. (I bought this one way back in August 2008!)

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm finally getting around to reading (or listening) to the latest Michael Connelly, The Dark Hours. This is primarily a Renee Ballard book, but with a healthy dose of Bosch.

This was a tough start -- I put it down and walked away from it for a week while I read a couple of other books, but I finally came back to it and gave it another try. This time it went better, and by 15-20% of the way into it I was completely and totally hooked. Just finishing up tonight, and I'd give it a solid 4 stars.

I'm at 60% and after a bit of a slow start I'm liking The Dark Hours a lot too.

Merry Christmas!