Book recommendations? / Vests /

[Goddlefrood]

> Carol responds:
 
> If we're recommending fiction, we could exclude his writing on 
> the grounds that it's drama (including several subgenres) and 
> poetry, right? 

Goddlefrood:

I'm familiar with the bard's works having performed a good number 
of them in my youth and produced a few too. Kemper had excluded 
Shakespeare because he would be the overly obvious choice from 
an American perspective presumably. Look Back in Ager, which I 
recommended as an iunfluential work is a play, btw.

> Carol responds:
> Hardy was undoubtedly brilliant, but his writing can be 
> disturbing. 

Goddlefrood:

Agreed, Tess itself is quite disturbing I'd say. Hardy can also 
be a little depressing at times. It's extraordinary writing, 
nevertheless.


> Carol:
> BTW, I don't see anyone recommending nonfiction books, and I'm 
> afraidn that my tastes (history, language, and paleoanthropology) 

Goddlefrood:

Leviathan would be fiction then ? ;-)

If you want good historical recommendations, here's a brief 
selection from my recent reading:

(i) White Gold by Giles Milton. A fascinating account of one 
white slave in particular and the white slave trade in general. 
Here's an excellent portrayal of the Barbary Corsairs and their 
trade in white slaves during the course of the mid 17th century 
until the destruction of Algiers in the early 19th century. Of 
Milton's other works I would recommend Nathaniel's Nutmeg and 
Samurai William. I wasn't so struck on Big Chief Elizabeth and 
really didn't like The Riddle and the Knight, although both 
have some interest, the former particularly to those in the 
US I should say.

(ii) Salamis by Barry Strauss. All you ever wanted to know, 
and perhaps a lot you didn't want to know, about the Battle 
of Salamis, its forerunning and aftermath.

(iii) The Bounty by Caroline Alexander. The famous mutiny and 
surrounding events. Bligh is not villified as he usually is in 
this work. The obvious reason for the mutiny was that the South 
Seas held a fascination for the crew members who mutinied, 
something I could have told anyone who was interested a very 
long time ago.

(iv) My tendecy is towards ancient authors, so I have also read 
or reread Appian, Arrian, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch and 
other of the usual suspects, all of which I would recommend.

> Carol:
> Of the twentieth-century poets, the one I'd be most likely to
> recommend is Hart Crane (specifically "North Labrador"), though 
> tastes vary, of course. And don't ask me about anyone born after 
> about 1920.

Goddlefrood:

Here's the very reason that poetry is out of fashion, that is 
that more recent poetry is not terribly good and instantly 
forgettable.

> Carol:
> Well, actually, I considered "singlet," but, IMO, it's too
> old-fashioned and too British to work for this particular 
> manuscript.

Goddlefrood:

FYI, as far as I'm concerned singlet is more an Australian term 
than a British one. What has been described I would call simply 
a vest.