esrosedotblog

BOOK REPORT

I haven't updated my reading list in awhile.

I suppose that is because I have been on a cycle of reading all the work by William Gibson and Alan Furst.

I've interspersed with the Bernard Cornwell series of 25 Richard Sharpe novels.

I have the intent of reading all of Cornwell's stuff. It will take me a long while.

I broke the cycle recently and, at Jim's suggestion, am reading Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.

It is a book from Britain and quite good.

A 13 year old boy tells his story over the period of a year.

He is a smart combination of Holden Caulfield and the kid in that book about the Dog in the Night.

Very very good.

I have thoroughly praised the Alan Furst books before but have a new pleasure to report.

They all cover the same period; the late thirties and the runup to the War in Europe; there is a lot of history being learned.

They also have, sometimes subtle and often blatant, cross references. Characters appear who we have read about in other books; places and events are referred to that we learned about before.

I have said that I intend to read them again and soon. They are so good.

And this cross reference stuff is another reason to support such a project.

Another writer has returned to my awareness. I have always enjoyed the work of Ward Just and he has a new novel which I haven't cracked yet. This suggests that I might want to go to read all of Just when Furst and Gibson run out.

It will be some time before I am done with the Sharpe novels. I think I have 8 to go.

I notice that this posting is a bit disjointed but then that is the way the reading goes. I go from the 30's to the cyberpunk period twenty or thirty years from now and then back to 1812 with Richard Sharpe in the British Army.

Currently with the 13 year old in 1982.

Time warps.