Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch
what if we could all be geniuses… for a few months as we die of germ warfare???
Tag: war
Every Time We Say Goodbye by Ivana Sajko
perfect, glorious, flawless. i should only read 100 page bleak novellas
july/aug/sept movie watching round up
what I was watching in July, August, September 2025
LUKA: A Novel by Ian Bancroft
an interesting novel about the horrors of intergenerational sectarian conflict
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
a serious novel that reminds us, again, of the cost of our silences
The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
it’s absolutely fine and that’s why it’s not
The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
we’re not in Earthsea any more…
The Wind Blows Away Our Words by Doris Lessing
getting political with Doris in the eighties
A Small Personal Voice by Doris Lessing (ed. Paul Schlueter)
some beautiful, thematically varied, writings
Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs
a book about some of the worst people in the world
Protected: No Quiet Water by Shirley Miller Kamada (full review)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
No Quiet Water by Shirley Miller Kamada (summary)
an important topic, at least?
Nuclear War in the UK by Taras Young
the history of an apocalypse that never happened (yet)
OUT by Christine Brooke-Rose
christmas brooke-rose quadrilogy day 1/4
POETRY MONTH: Bars Fight by Lucy Terry Prince
potentially significant if unexciting 18th century ballad
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
a pre-release post on a novella about Russian conscripts
Europe After The Rain by Alan Burns
1965 experimental novel about the after-effects of mass war
A Ripple From The Storm AND Landlocked by Doris Lessing (Children of violence #3 AND #4)
double-teaming more excellent doris lessing
a proper marriage by Doris Lessing (Children of Violence #2)
lessing’s children of violence continues to be excellent unlike my mood
Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
an excellent early 80s hybrid text with a distressing – and violent – context
Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings by Nellie Bly
scott reads a collection of writing from a trailblazing lady gonzo journalist!
The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir
some things are worth dying for – what is worth killing for?
On The Beach by Nevil Shute
repression at the end of the world
All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
war, hmmm, what *is* it good for?
The Last Days of Mankind
taxidermied rats telling a tale as old as time (100 years of time)
Proustian Uncertainties by Saul Friedländer
another excellent book about marcel marcel marcel
WAR #1: Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy
read some great fiction for the first time in a while; still bored bored bored tho boohoo
Four Repeater Books (two I recommend)
two excellent books, two not excellent books
Boys in Zinc by Svetlana Alexievich
fell orf my bike boohoo
Famous Trials 9: Roger Casement by H. Montgomery Hyde
some strange, unpalatable, vintage true crime
Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford
a very very very good big book on WAR
Lost Time by Józef Czapski
a touch of proust
Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich
how recently the Nobel Prize meant something
Seven Terrors by Selvedin Avdić
phenomenal pop-post-modernist novel straight outta bosnia
The Automaton by David Wheldon
i remember that i don’t like reading about magic
The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick
pleasantly surprised by what I expected to be trash
The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny
A dense, complex book about a dense, complex conflict
The Road To Tahrir Square by Lloyd C. Gardner
US so vain, I bet you think Arab Spring is about you
Specimen Days by Walt Whitman
The life and memories of Walt Whitman, focusing on war and nature.
The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
The Cold War is a period loved by fiction. The world at that time was cast into blurry, grey-stained, blackContinue Reading
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Iran. Who knows much about it? We’ve all seen Argo, we’ve all heard of nuclear weapons, we’re all aware thatContinue Reading
Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
Rosamond Lehmann is not a widely-read novelist any more, though in the middle of the 20th-century, she was both popularContinue Reading
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Big books. I have an odd relationship with ’em. The idea of big books, to be honest, I have aContinue Reading
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Last night, as I wandered between bars and cafes in Taksim, North of the Golden Horn, I read most ofContinue Reading
A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck
I’m going on a trip to Russia in about six weeks, so have begun my travel research. Unlike normal people,Continue Reading
The Great War by Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco’s wordless, 8 metre long panorama of the first day of the Battle of the Somme is a harrowingContinue Reading
The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
Yes, I read another book by Geoff Dyer and, yes, because it was a structurally complex non-fiction text featuring aContinue Reading
The Poems of Wilfred Owen
In a few weeks, I am driving my father to Paris for a couple of days, and on the wayContinue Reading
Journalism by Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco’s Journalism collects several short pieces (ranging from two to fifty pages in length) drawn and written in the decadeContinue Reading
Homage To Catalonia by George Orwell
I had been intending to read George Orwell’s Homage To Catalonia ever since I encountered Down And Out In Paris And London,Continue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 