Trainspotting

Title: Trainspotting
Author: Irvine Welsh
Published: 1993, this Vintage edition is from 2004.
Genre: Scotland takes drugs in psychic defence
Pages: 344


I know, I know, I know... sooo many other books to read, for the first time! But sometimes the urge to read Trainspotting gets too strong, and you gotta give in. I need to, anyway. It really got me through one of the most stressful weeks at work I've had in ages.

As many times as I've read this, one of my absolute favourites, this might well be the first time I've read it in the original lingo. At least it was the first time I've read this particular copy of mine. The Scottish dialect bits, I had to read those 'out loud' in my mind sometimes, before I understood what was being said, what was happening. Although I did already remember most bits by now...

Trainspotting! Update from last time, I did manage to convince my brother to watch the movie. He liked it.It's -both the book and movie- about heroin addicts in Leith, Scotland, and their messed-up lives. And it's just so fucking good. It's also ugly and parts make you cringe and gag, but Welsh has a way with his words, humour sharp as a needle, and you just keep coming back for one more hit. Luckily, once you've bought the book, and/or the movie, you don't have to pay: it's only the first hit that costs you. I'm sorry, I'm trying to be witty, but ah'm just a wee bit pished.


   Ah hate cunts like that. Cunts like Begbie. Cunts that are intae baseball-batting every fucker that's different; pakis, poofs, n what huv ye. Fuckin failures in a country ay failures. It's nae good blamin it oan the English fir colonising us. Ah don't hate the English. They're just wankers. We are colonised by wankers. We can't even pick a decent, vibrant, healthy culture to be colonised by. No. We're ruled by effete arseholes. What does that make us? The lowest of the fuckin low, the scum of the earth. The most wretched, servile, miserable, pathetic trash that was ever shat intae creation. Ah don't hate the English. They just git oan wi the shite thuv goat. Ah hate the Scots. 

Valentine Grey

Title: Valentine Grey
Author: Sandi Toksvig
Published: 2012
Genre: War and Victorian London.
Pages: 334 plus bibliography and such




I always love it when Sandi Toksvig is a guest on QI, she's just great and funny, so when I found this lovely thing at the bookshop -on the same trip when I found Maxie Mainwaring: that was a good, good day- I was just tickled pink! The book's about the Boer war, and life of gay people in the Victorian times, so I wasn't expecting a giggle a minute, but I have to say, I also didn't expect to have my heart torn to pieces! Wahh!!!


Valentine Grey, our heroine, spent her first ~15 years in India, as the apple of her father's eye. Things change drastically when she gets sent to her uncle's house in London, where she has to wear skirts and shoes and act the proper lady. Lucky for her, she gets along famously with her cousin Reggie, who takes her out into the city, and to meet his lover, the lovely Frank.


Then on comes the second Boer war against the Dutch, in South Africa. But instead of the dandy Reggie, it's Valentine who puts on the uniform and heads out for adventure! Cross-dressing fun and jolly war adventures, right? Nooo! Toksvig thankfully doesn't romanticize war and has tossed cliches aside. So, even though yes, my heart is still bleeding, I loved this book and its characters. Plus, there was the history lesson, which I always like. Even if it's on such an ugly thing as a war.




   Now Reggie was cross. 'Why must you be so adventurous, Valentine? Honestly, you scared me half to death. It's so unnecessary. Why can't we all just sit? Read a book or something? Do what English people are supposed to do and spend an hour on the weather?'

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Title: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Author: Fannie Flagg
Published: 1987, this Vintage edition is from 1992
Genre: Historical aww
Pages: 395 plus some recipes!


Oh, this poor little book! Its previous owners have treated it so poorly, it has even been burned in places! Poor thing... you're safe now. Anyway! When I was a kid, I saw this movie with lots of women, Julia Roberts one of them, and for years I kept confusing that movie with Fried Green Tomatoes. But because of the first movie kind of made me go Ecch as I grew up, I never watched this one, not until last year/early this year when I realised what a mistake I'd made. And that's a damn shame!

The story is set in two times: we've got 1986, where, at the Rose Terrace Nursing Home, 86-year old Ninny Threadgoode starts telling about life in the thirties to Evelyn Couch, who just happened to sit beside her in the visitor's lounge. Evelyn and her husband visit his mother there every week, and since she doesn't get along with her mother-in-law, Evelyn soon befriends Ninny, who keeps telling her stories, happy to have someone to talk to.

And then there's the past, in a small railway town called Whistle Stop. Now, they've changed some things for the movie, but the book, guys, gals, it's got bees! And lesbians! In 1930's Alabama, no less! Two women, living together, raising a kid, and no-one bats an eye. And there's the great depression and the KKK and things are pretty bad for you in general unless you're a white man, but the book is still so full of hope and joy. It was just a pleasure to read.


   Ruth leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You're an old bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode, that's what you are..."
   Idgie smiled back at her and looked up into the clear blue sky that reflected in her eyes, and she was as happy as anybody who is in love in the summertime can be.

Mysterious Skin

Title: Mysterious Skin
Author: Scott Heim
Published: 1996 originally: this was a Kindle-edit.
Genre: Drama
Pages: 4198 little mobile phone-size pages


This one's pretty hard to write about without spoiling plot points. And although the reader figures things out sooner than most of the main characters, I don't wanna spoil anything. Because y'all need to check this out.

So. Umm. Two kids, Neil and Brian, are in the same baseball little league one summer, that changes both of their lives for good. Yeah, that's good. The rest is spoilers.

I first saw the movie sometime last year. It was pretty good, darn good actually, and had Joseph Gordon-Levitt sexing up lots of men. So there is that, too. Then I found the book, for cheap, for the Kindle app, and bought it.

If this really non-descriptive babbling didn't make you want to read the book, at least check out the movie. Then you'll maybe want to read the book, too! Be prepared to come across some adult themes, though. In addition to Joseph Gordon-Levitt sexing guys up.

The Bell Jar

Title: The Bell Jar
Author: Sylvia Plath
Published: Originally 1965, this edition is from 1986
Genre: Semi-autobiographical
Pages: 258


I'm on my third book after finishing this one, so let's see what I can recall...  Esther Greenwood, a college girl, is working in New York on a summer internship, away from home and family and her something-of-a-boyfriend, who is in hospital with tuberculosis. She's young, free and in New York, but she can't enjoy herself. To her, the city isn't glamorous or exciting, and she doesn't seem to care what happens. When she returns home, she finds out that her plans for the rest of the summer fell through, and she ends up staying with her mother, becoming increasingly depressed.

The book is semi-autobiographical, with names and such changed from Plath's own life and experiences. I was semi-aware of this when I read the book, but I don't know what really happened and what didn't.

For a book about depression and how it was treated back in the days (electric shocks, ow), The Bell Jar was not a depressing or dark read. It was even humorous in places, even though the humour could be very dark.


   The same thing happened over and over:
   I would catch a sight of some flawless man off in the distance, but as soon as he moved closer I immediately saw he wouldn't do at all.
   That's one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the coloured arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.

Maanantaisin suljettu

Nimi: Maanantaisin suljettu
Alkuperäinen nimi: Zavírací den
Kirjoittaja: Pavel Soltész
Julkaistu: Taifuuni, 1992.
Genre: Murhamysteeridekkaripokkari
Sivuluku: 285


Kuten jo aikaisemmassa päivityksessä mainitsin, joku pois muuttava naapuri jakeli kirjastoaan ilmaiseksi tuossa viikko pari sitten. Mukaan tarttui... piti käydä laskemassa. 15 kirjaa, plus kaverille kolme. Tämä oli yksi viidestätoista. En vain voinut vastustaa yhteen lempipaikkaani, Prahaan, sijoittuvaa dekkaripokkaria jännällä kannella.

Opiskelija Martin Vencu (toim. huom. En osaa lisätä tsekkinimien päälle kaikkia mahdollisia pikku-v -merkkejä ja pallukoita. Bear with me...) on luvannut esitellä ystävättärensä Veronikan jazz-bändin isänsä tuttavalle, joka voi kiskoa nyörejä ja saada bändin jonkunlaiseen musiikkikatselmukseen. Hakiessaan Veronikaa jazzkapakka Banjoon, jossa bändillä on illalla keikka, selviää että joku on käynyt tonkimassa paikkoja Veronikan kotona. Ei kestä kauan ennen kuin alkaa löytyä ruumiita. Martin ei saa kovin hämärää sotkua mielestään, ja päätyy selvittämään mysteeriä, lähinnä juttelemalla Banjon erikoislaatuisen asiakaskunnan kanssa.

Maanantaisin suljettu oli ihan jännä pikku mysteeri, mutta jokin kirjassa oli että... en osaa ihan selittää, mutta olen ekoista sivuista asti yrittänyt miettiä mikä kirjassa on niin... no, se vain on vähän... outo. Sekin vähän hämmensi että vasta sivun 120 hujakoilla selvisi edes se, mille vuosikymmenelle tarina sijoittuu. Mutta kirja oli nopeaa ja ajoittain hauskaakin lukemista, eli ihan kiva etta nappasin sen omaan hyllyyn.


   En todellakaan halunnut enää ajatella asiaa. Hetkisen vielä mietin, mikä kumma minut sai kysymään Rousista, käsilaukusta ja veden keittämisestä, mutta pakotin itseni heittämään ne mielestäni. Menin huoneeseeni ja paremman puutteessa rupesin siivoamaan sitä.

Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante

Title: Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante
Author: Monica Nolan
Published: 2013
Genre: Pulp fiction!
Pages: 281


 Whee! I had just been thinking that I need/want to read Lois Lenz (linky link) or Bobby Blanchard (the link) again, as they're fun and great summer reading, but then I happened to find this one in the book shop! Joy of joys!

Third of Monica Nolan's series -I hope there'll be a looot more- set in the late fifties, early sixties, we've already met Maxie in the first book as a minor character, living in the same boarding house as our other heroines. And now it's her turn to shine! Maxie's an heiress to a rich family, but when she's caught -by her mother! Gasp!- in a country club's powder room, getting to know another young girl very personally, she's told to either move home from the big city, or make it on her own. Maxie chooses the latter, and sets out to find a career for herself. Jobs aren't as easy to keep as one would think, but luckily there are plenty around. Girlfriends are not so easy to keep either, especially since there are so many other pretty girls around! Maxie is particularly interested in Lon the laconic loner, who seems to be mixed up with the Scandinavian mobs running the darker side of the city.

Oh, oh, oh, that's another thing. Alliteration. I love alliteration, and Ms. Nolan does as well. It makes me happy and helps to set the pulpy tone for these lovely books.


   Maxie burst into the Arms full of her new job and her new discovery. "Hallooo!" she caroled, when she reached the fifth floor. "Where is everybody? I've got news!" How the girls would exclaim when she told them that Kitty, the new girl, was playing the innocent student while spying on all of them in order to write a supposedly serious sociological study of the Sapphic sisterhood!


I might just re-read Lois and/or Bobby anyways.