Chiff and Fipple Forums

I spend a large amount of time reading. I'm curious about what other members suggest as Must Reads. Two or three titles.

Last Night´s Fun by Ciarán Carson.

Bob

an seanduine wrote:Last Night´s Fun by Ciarán Carson.

Bob

I came here to post that.

Related to a tune of the same name?

Yes, much of the book is about his experiences with Irish music.

Reading:
Last Night´s Fun by Ciarán Carson.
(I think it should be required reading)

You might enjoy:
Folktales of Ireland, edited and translated by Sean O'Sullivan

Reference:
Companion to Irish Traditional Music, edited by Fintan Vallely
(2nd edition, and expensive, but still can't bring you fully up-to-date).

To gild the lilly a bit. . .to the same extent talking about music is like dancing about architecture, this is your book. And Ciarán Carson is yer man, being an internationally renowned prize winning poet. Carson was deeply steeped in Irish culture and traditional music in Ulster in the time of ´the Troubles´. Remarkably, the music existed slightly removed from the secular strife and had participants from both sides of that gulf. If you are not familiar with an ´Ulster Fry´, you will be on a more than first name basis with them by the time you finish the book. Each chapter is loosely built around a tune.
I only have to look at the cover of this book, or touch it to move it, and I can recall the quality of the early morning light coming through the lace curtains in San Francisco after my first all-night seisiún as the musicians were being called away for breakfast. The tunes. The musicians. The craic. Life changing.

Bob

The Steel and Fire series by Jordan Rivet. They're actually self-published, but they're some of the most creative fantasy books I've come across in years.

chas wrote:The Steel and Fire series by Jordan Rivet. They're actually self-published, but they're some of the most creative fantasy books I've come across in years.

All of the books in the series are cliffhangers from what I'm told. I never touch those. I hate them.

Tor wrote:

chas wrote:The Steel and Fire series by Jordan Rivet. They're actually self-published, but they're some of the most creative fantasy books I've come across in years.

All of the books in the series are cliffhangers from what I'm told. I never touch those. I hate them.

They're all out, though, so you can read them all at once.

I'm not crazy about cliffhangers either, and these didn't bother me all that much. Part of it is that she writes pretty fast, so it was only about six months between volumes. Compare that to Kristen Britain, who comes out with a book about every five years.

If you are a big reader and enjoy historical fiction, Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin series is a good read. Set in the British Navy in the years of the Napoleonic wars these books are filled not only with action and politics, but surprisingly well developed characters, vivid descriptions of locations all over the world in the early 1800s and examples of the fledgling scientific method developing at that time. WARNING: This is a series of 23 books, and once you get started it is tough to put them down.

If you are the type that likes to "see the movie" before you get pictures of the characters in your mind's eye, don't worry. There are no spoilers in the film. The movie chose broadly among 4 or 5 of the books to give an impression of the characters, but didn't actually follow any specific story line. If you choose to see the film I recommend the biggest screen you have access to, a darkened room, no distractions and a great sound system or set of headphones.


If you like mystery series and stories of the modern American west, Craig Johnson does a series centered on an aging Wyoming sheriff and the people in his life. The first 13 of the 15 book series were very good. This is another book series made into a Netflix series. The books and series really have their own lives and have little in common except the main character. The casting director for the films did not follow the descriptions of the characters all that well, their development or their store lines. So if you read the books and watch the series you'll find brain exploding a tiny bit. Just consider them "loosely based on" and you'll be fine.

I liked The Painter by Peter Heller, a bit of a stand alone mystery. He wrote a second book recently that I would not recommend.

Peter Bowen has a very good Montana/Native American series set around a Metis Indian cattle inspector fiddler and his extended family, the mysteries are good, but the character development and the description of the local is exquisite.


Robert Jordan stuff is good if you like fantasy. But if you like fantasy you likely have already read his stuff.

Then there is the first half of The Goldfinch...

Dsytopian: The Running Man by Steven King, skip the film. Steven King was says in the preface of the latest addition, "Arnold Schwarzenegger is the last person I would cast."

Thanks for the reply. I cannot imagine undertaking a series of 23 books! I didn't stay engaged to read all three of the Game of Thrones series.

To mysteries - I had read several of a series set in medieval Europe... Brother Cadfeal. They were quite interesting but to me he seemed to sometimes deduce more than the evidence would allow. But perhaps that is a problem of my own lack of detection.

Jordon - Read a novel or two some years ago which I don't recall anything of. So I suppose they didn't engage me.

Movies - I've seen one movie in the last 10 years.

Some of my choices: Serious - "Demon Haunted World" Carl Sagan. "Transcendental Temptation" Paul Kurtz. Enjoyment - "Tailchaser's Song" T. Williams. Various short story collections.