Tips, links and suggestions: What are you reading today?

It feels a long time since I was writing a new TLS thread; it's good to be back. Thanks to everyone who has told us their thoughts on creating a space for other books blogs; you have given us a lot to think about.

To pick up Claire and AggieH's conversation about ways of finding book reviews, we have another development to tell you about. If you have written a review it will now be added to your reader profile like this.
Big improvement, no?

After a week of many shortlists, including those of the Women's prize for fiction and the Orwell prize, let's kick off with a past award-winner, this time of the Booker: A Sense of Ending, by Julian Barnes.

singo111:

The writing is undeniably magnificent, managing to say so much in so few words, but never feeling particularly poetic. It's precise, but is the polar opposite of the similar brevity-merchant Yasunuri Kawabata whom I was reading last week. Whereas Kawabata writes like a watercolourist, with atmospheric touches to guide the reader's imagination, Barnes is a draughtsman, finding the exactly right words for crisp and clear (albeit equally beautiful) sentences.

To be honest, that's where my appreciation ends. I struggle to get excited by unreliable narrators (not a spoiler to reveal this, he reveals it on nearly every page), and there isn't enough in the theme of unreliable memories to make this a masterpiece (IMHO)... Obviously others, not least the booker judges, disagree.

lukethedrifter replied:

I'm a huge Kawabata fan, but also loved The Sense of an Ending. It's an interesting parallel to draw. Barnes might be sparse of word (at least there), but he is explicit about feeling and emotion; I think Kawabata alludes much more than he explains.

AggieH said:

I don't think it has enough layers & dimensions to be a rewarding reread either. I do re-read Barnes' other work. Especially Flaubert's Parrot, Arthur & George and his short stories. I think he won the Booker for the wrong book.

And to quote getover99: that's why I love this place - so many points of view to be found here. Here's a roundup of what others were reading and what they thought of their choices.

Northumbriana:

Last night I just finished Hiliary Mantel's Giving Up The Ghost. She may be almost thirty years older than what I am, but so much of it resonated with me: working class girl expected to 'stay in her place'; branded as more ambition than talent; ending up on anti-depressants at university (different reasons.) Mantel's intelligence is breathtaking.

About to start Karen Charlton's 'Catching The Eagle.' I have high expectations of this one, as it is set around the Kirkley Hall in Northumberland, which I has a lot of ties and childhood memories for me.

Karen Heenan-Davies:

This week I'm reading a classic of Latin American fiction - Dom Casmurro by the Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. it was first published in 1899. I'm reading it on the recommendation of a work colleague. It's rather odd so far.

Cornishwellies (great username by the way):

Olivia Laing's To The River - and adoring it. Supposedly didn't sell well, and really should have. One for the Sebaldian/Sinclair aficionado.

Before we share our review list, here are five books stories from the last seven days you might have missed:
1. The 10 best words the internet has given English
2. Bill for compulsory science fiction in West Virginia schools
3. Marian Keyes: 'I thought I'd never be able to write again'
4. From Above and Below : Man and the Sea - in pictures
5. Watershed ages in a reader's life

Here are the books we're reviewing this week, subject to last minute changes. We put the review up through the week, but they all live on reviews page so you can browse them in you own time.