What is East Dulwich reading today?

[Ant]

Widows of Eastwick by John Updike. So far so good. Indignation is next on the shelf, so let's hope it gets grittier.

[Ladygooner]

The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday. He alwo wrote Salmon Fishing in the Yemen which was highly enjoyable!

[david_carnell]

Homicide by David Simon.

A terrific expose of the banalities of life as murder po-leece in Baltimore. The character descriptions are superb and the case files engrossing.

[Keef]

"The bloke's guide to pregnancy" by Jon Smith.

I think I would recommend it to expectant dads just because there isn't much else out there, and some of it rings very true. However, it is definitely aimed at the stereotypical "Lad", and I'm not sure I can be that obsessed with breasts getting bigger! :-S

Have a nice 3 or 4 books waiting for me if I can plough through this quickly. Not finding myself rushing to turn pages though!

[SeanMacGabhann]

Hmm - I did a double-take when I saw the author..

[Brendan]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> Homicide by David Simon.

Still on the DIY books there David?

[david_carnell]

It's more of a self-help manual.

[mockney piers]

I'm on the same book D_C, and there was a chap next to me on the tube this morning reading it too.

Something in the water (cyanide presumably).

[Ted Max]

David Simon. Now he sounds familiar. Where have I heard that name before?

[david_carnell]

Dunno Ted? Maybe he was in the CPT one night....

[Ted Max]

Looking a little wired, perhaps.

[mockney piers]

He wrote the Generation Kill screen adaption.

Apparently he's done other telly, but I'm sure nothing special, perhaps Casualty or Grange Hill?

[SeanMacGabhann]

I picked the book up today funnily enough

David Simon - you are sure his other TV work was nothing special??

try The Corner and Homicide Life on the Streets!!

oh wait - you were winding me up

[Ted Max]

Grange Hill was a great in-depth look at how education can succeed or fail in raising the opportunities and horizons of young people. Often though, there is a sense of purposelessness, as these kids' backgrounds become hard to escape, drugs take hold, and teachers and the State boards seem apathetic and fatalistic about the prospects of their students.

American TV would never take on such issues in such depth.

[Ted Max]

Or have a flying sausage in the title sequence.

[TillieTrotter]

Has anyone read White Tiger by erm someone...yet? I'm just about to place an order for a few books and quite fancied this. Opinions please.

[TillieTrotter]

EDFers short on opinions!?! Someone must have read it surely. Its by Aravind Adiga.

[LuvPeckham]

Today I am mostly revisiting the Sugar Club cookbook

Sigh, what a shame they closed the resturant in London down in 2002 - excellent food and a good book... off to make sugar-cured beef this weekend I think - downside is that it takes 60 hours to cure. (I want it now)

[AllforNun]

Knave

[capt_birdseye]

Getting through my Book Swap Books at the moment. Julian Barnes' Talking It Over, Evelyn Waugh's Gilbert Pinfold and just about to start last year's Booker winner The Gathering.

[Jah Lush]

The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman. A very funny spoof of a mountaineering expedition.

[Moos]

How did you find Talking It Over, Cap'n? If you liked it, I have Love, Etc. the ten-years-on sequel.

[capt_birdseye]

It was good actually. It took me a while to come to that conclusion though as it was impossible to empathise with any of the characters. Stuart being dull, Oliver was so completely odious (I almost cheered when he got head-butted), and Gillian actually falling for Oliver was incredulous. What's the sequel like?

[Moos]

Um, well to be honest it's not quite as good, but it's worth a gander.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

As an antidote to Philip Roth I'm reading Mihir Bose's biography of Keith Miller, an Australian cricketer.

This extract is from his period in England during 1942:

Soon after he arrived in Bournemouth, he was invited one weekend to play for the RAAF at Dulwich. That Sunday afternoon a hit-and-run raider bombed a bar that was a particular Miller haunt. Had he not been playing cricket he would certainly have been there. Seven of his friends were killed.

Who knew Dulwich was a prophylactic?