What Are You Reading the Week of 21 June 2014?

Ian McEwan, CBE, FRSA, FRSL (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945."

He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, the son of David McEwan and Rose Lilian Violet (née Moore). His father was a working class Scotsman who had worked his way up through the army to the rank of major. He spent much of his childhood in East Asia (including Singapore), Germany, and North Africa (including Libya), where his father was posted. His family returned to England when he was twelve. He was educated at Woolverstone Hall School; the University of Sussex, receiving his degree in English literature in 1970; and the University of East Anglia, where he was one of the first graduates of Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson's pioneering creative writing course.

He has been married twice. His 13-year marriage to spiritual healer and therapist Penny Allen ended in 1995 and was followed by a bitter custody battle over their two sons. His second wife, Annalena McAfee, was formerly the editor of The Guardian's Review section.

In 2002, McEwan discovered that he had a brother who had been given up for adoption during World War II; the story became public in 2007. The brother, a bricklayer named David Sharp, was born six years earlier than McEwan, when his mother was married to a different man. Sharp has the same parents as McEwan but was born from an affair between them that occurred before their marriage. After her first husband was killed in combat, McEwan's mother married her lover, and Ian was born a few years later. The brothers are in regular contact, and McEwan has written a foreword to Sharp's memoir.

McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) were his first two novels, and earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre." These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1997, he published Enduring Love, which was made into a film. He won the Man Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998). In 2001, he published Atonement, which was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This was followed by Saturday (2005), On Chesil Beach (2007), Solar (2010), and Sweet Tooth (2012). In 2011, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize.

In 2006 he was accused of plagiarism; specifically that a passage in Atonement closely echoed a passage from a memoir, No Time for Romance, published in 1977 by Lucilla Andrews. McEwan acknowledged using the book as a source for his work. McEwan had included a brief note at the end of Atonement, referring to Andrews's autobiography, among several other works. The incident recalled critical controversy over his debut novel The Cement Garden, key elements of the plot of which closely mirrored some of those of Our Mother's House, a 1963 novel by British author Julian Gloag, which had also been made into a film. McEwan denied charges of plagiarism, claiming he was unaware of the earlier work. Writing in The Guardian in November 2006, a month after Andrews' death, McEwan professed innocence of plagiarism while acknowledging his debt to the author of No Time for Romance. Several authors defended him, including John Updike, Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Keneally, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, and Thomas Pynchon.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. He was awarded a CBE in 2000. In 2005, he was the first recipient of Dickinson College's Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholar and Writers Program Award, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 2008, McEwan was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by University College, London, where he used to teach English literature. In 2010, McEwan received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.

On 20 February 2011, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. He accepted the prize, despite controversy and pressure from groups and individuals opposed to the Israeli government. McEwan responded to his critics, and specifically the group British Writers in Support of Palestine (BWISP), in a letter to The Guardian, stating in part

There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics, and for me the emblem in this respect is Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – surely a beam of hope in a dark landscape, though denigrated by the Israeli religious right and Hamas. If BWISP is against this particular project, then clearly we have nothing more to say to each other.

McEwan's acceptance speech discussed the complaints against him and provided further insight into his reasons for accepting the award. He also said he will donate the amount of the prize, "ten thousand dollars to Combatants for Peace, an organisation that brings together Israeli ex-soldiers and Palestinian ex-fighters."

In 2012 the University of Sussex presented McEwan with its 50th Anniversary Gold Medal in recognition of his contributions to literature. In 2014, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas paid $2 million for McEwan’s literary archives. The archives includes drafts of all of Mr. McEwan’s later novels. McEwan commented that his novel Atonement "started out as a science fiction story set two or three centuries into future."

WORKS

Novels
The Cement Garden (1978)
The Comfort of Strangers (1981)
The Child in Time (1987)
The Innocent (1990)
Black Dogs (1992)
Enduring Love (1997)
Amsterdam (1998)
Atonement (2001)
Saturday (2005)
On Chesil Beach (2007)
Solar (2010)
Sweet Tooth (2012)
The Children Act (2014)

Short story collections
First Love, Last Rites (1975)
In Between the Sheets (1978)
The Short Stories of Ian McEwan (1995)

Children's fiction
Rose Blanche (1985)
The Daydreamer (1994)

Plays
The Imitation Game (1981)

Screenplays
Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration (1976)
The Ploughman's Lunch (1985)
Sour Sweet (1989)
The Good Son (1993)

Film adaptations
Last Day of Summer (1984)
The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
The Cement Garden (1993)
The Innocent (1993)
Solid Geometry (2002)
Enduring Love (2004)
Atonement (2007)
Sweet Tooth (in development)

That's a great bio, Richard. Thanks.

>2 TooBusyReading: Glad to know that...others like him more than I do.

I haven't read Atonement or seen the movie, but anyone willing to stand up to British Writers in Support of Palestine has my respect.

I just started a great short story collection. It's the special edition of Lightspeed Magazine devoted to women in science fiction. It's titled the Women Destroy Science Fiction issue because of many complaints over the years that women can't write science fiction. I'm just on the first story about women who join a future US navy and are slowly changed into mermaids for the good of the navy. It's so good and reminds me just why I like feminist science fiction because it explores human possibilities in ways that show women not as tangents but as real human actors in life. The issue is only $3.99 if you're interested in buying it (or just checking it out)
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/issues/june-2014-issue-49/

I'm almost done with an e-audiobook of The Lowland. It's a very understated novel about an Indian man throughout his life and the lives of his family. While everyone is very accomplished they are equally depressed. Strange people.
Still only about 1/3 of the way through When We Were Orphans again understatement and self control are the key words.
I just finished Lorrie Moore's newest volume of short stories, Bark which seems to be a vehicle for great quotes. The lives of the people depicted, though, are again understated and depressing and at times incomprehensible. I'm beginning to wonder if modern humans have outgrown their ability to live.
I also finished Born of Night, and if you're interested in torture, self deprecation and gender stereotypes, this is your kind of novel. There's no understatement here.

>4 Citizenjoyce: Oh drat!! Joyce, I am so sorry. I forgot to copy the link to an Indiegogo campaign for Hadley Rille Books, a feminist SF publisher...they're raising funds to expand their program, and one perk was two ebooks for $18 contributed. They're doing some excellent work!

I'm sure you can search it up, but I meant to copy it for you and post it here. Pfui.

>5 richardderus: Thanks. The main page is here http://www.hrbpress.com/
with a link to the indiegogo campaign here https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/support-the-growth-of-hadley-rille-books-a-qu...

I finished Mestengo by Melinda Roth and liked it. I tried The Snow Child on recommendation of a friend and no matter how I try, I cannot really get into mystical, magical, surreal fiction (I'm not really sure what to call it). I just lose interest right away. Guess I like my reality fiction.

I'm now going to start Proof of Heaven because a friend said I HAD HAD HAD to read it. So there you go.

I am reading I am Pilgrim this week. I'm not far enough along to know if I'm going to like it but it sure is a page turner so far. I have also been listening to the audio of A Land Remembered which has been a very enjoyable story.

I just started Mr Mercedes by Stephen King and The Heiresses by Sara Shepherd

Thanks, Richard, for the nice bio this week. I also have a "love-hate" thing going with McEwan's work. I really, really liked Atonement for its soul and inventiveness, but I found On Chesil Beach and Sweet Tooth to be shallow and manipulative.

Right now, I'm reading The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner, my newly arrived LTER book from the May batch. It's billed as a modern take on the King Lear story and it is starting off well so far.

Okay, glad to know I'm not the only one with a conflicting opinion of Ian McEwan. Atonement is one of my favorite books of all time, but I was less than impressed with Saturday and Amsterdam. Granted, I'm not usually a fan of literary fiction, but I found these to be especially pretentious and boring.

Finished Dark Aemilia by Sally O'Reilly
(Library copy)

Interesting what a simple public acknowledgment of a contrary opinion can bring out, eh what?

I detested Atonement, Solar, and Saturday, but liked Amsterdam and The Cement Garden.

I just finished The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. It was a little too long, but otherwise enjoyed it. Anyone else read this book?

I'm still {clunking | slogging | trudging | pushing} along with book 1 of the Raj Quartet. It does feel like a lot of work, yet I am interested and want to get through it.

The hardcover library copy is heavy and very worn, and the spine is splitting. At the midpoint, where I am now, pages are starting to break away from the binding and fall out. I thought this was going to push me over the edge into buying an e-reader at last; in fact, I thought I might click "buy" on the Kindle Paperwhite this morning and load up with all four parts of this novel, even though I'm halfway through the first.

And then I looked at the prices: $9.99 for each of the four volumes of this set, when I can get them used on Amazon for $0.01 plus shipping or at the library for nothing. Once again I am recalled from the edge of decision.

Meanwhile I have several other books on slower tracks and am particularly enjoying An Incomplete Education, despite finding a surprising number of errors.

I am enjoying, though not bowled over by, Burial Rites.

#4 Citizenjoyce..The novel Atonement was not for me, however the movie is really good, great casting.

My latest isThe Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier I am really enjoying it, good historical fiction.

This is the third of her novels that I have enjoyed the others were The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Falling Angels.

I only have about three chapter left in Iron Kingdom. It's a history of Prussia from 1600 to 1947. I'm only up to about 1840, so I still have the German unification under Bismark, and World Wars I and II to go. It's a very good book, but the organization is a little odd. It's grouped more thematically than chronologically, so there's a lot of back and forth in time. It's tough to keep all the Frederick William's straight. Plus it annoys me that the author, Christopher Clark, keeps using the anglicized name Frederick William instead of the German Friedrich Wilhelm.

>17 hazeljune: I've only read her Remarkable Creatures, which I loved. I have The Girl With the Pearl Earring but I just haven't read it yet.

This week I'm reading The Farm which is turning into a real page turner, and also Summer House with Swimming Pool which is told in first person by a creepy physician who really shouldn't be a doctor. I can't say that I'm enjoying it, more like I have to keep reading to see what happens. There's no turning back now.

Nice bio, Richard. I've only read On Chesil Beach which I thought was just ok.

Just finished a particularly good installment of the Flavia de Luce series, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches.

Next up for listening in the car is Redeployment by Phil Klay.

# 20 hemlokgang-I just finished the latest Flavia yesterday and I agree it was quite good-I wonder if they'll be any more Flavia books

Cdyankeefan.....I think the implication was yes. Maybe some mysterious doings at her new school?

Also finished the lovely and intense The Cove. Next up to listen to at home is The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham.

Hemlokgang-I agree -the school would provide Flavia with an entirely new set of adventures and experiments

Currently reading an early copy of Tana French's upcoming novel, Secret Place, which I am insanely excited about! I'm only a few chapters in, but so far it's classic Tana French mixed with Reconstructing Amelia.

I am currently reading London Train, and have plans to read American Wife this week.

Great bio. Like others, I have mixed feelings about McEwan.

coloradogirl14 I am so jealous. That is one book I'm waiting anxiously for. I reread the previous 4 all the time...well, re-hear as I have them all in audio format. Some of the narrators have the best Irish accents which is exactly what's needed for those gems. The only one that doesn't is Broken Harbor. The new one features Moran from Faithful Place, right? A little off formula for French, but still worming her way into the Dublin Murder Squad.

Ah, Ian McEwan...I was the only one of my friends who actively disliked Atonement. They all loved it. So I gave him another whirl with Sweet Tooth and ... meh. I won't be reading a third.

On the other hand....I adored Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists and have just finished his newest, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, another great read. While I couldn't work up enthusiasm for any of McEwan's characters, I find all of Rachman's people intriguing and find myself wondering what they're up to even when they're not taking center stage in the story.

Not sure I consider myself a reader right now, but I did use books to keep myself still while I fought off some sort of virus and relaxed after a busy few weeks. Finished Enchanted: the Life of Audrey Hepburn (Touchstones not working). My favorite part was her work for UNICEF. She knew what it is like to be a child affected by war and that drove her to make a difference as the organization under its old name made a difference for her. She died way too young.

I also read Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick. It did the trick. I am glad she is giving the Arcane series a break.

I'll fix the Touchstones at some later date.

Major milestone! I have fewer than 200 pages left to read in Allen Drury's 770-page A Shade of Difference, the 1963 sequel to Advise and Consent. America good. Liberals bad. The thing about it is that Drury was a good storyteller for all his preaching, so when I wavered at about the 50-page mark, I decided to stick with this. Knocking another huge hole in the hull of my 50-book challenge ship, though.

>27 Bookmarque: Out of all the galleys I've requested, this is the one I've been the most excited for! It breaks formula slightly by alternating between the police investigation and third-person flashbacks from before the murder occurred, so I'm guessing that the two story lines will converge at the very end. It's fabulous so far.

Also, I don't know if this is still going on, but if you pre-order The Secret Place through Barnes & Noble, you have the option of getting a signed copy for just a few bucks more.

Interesting bio - I've read Atonement within the last couple of months and enjoyed it, although I've not seen any other titles that tempt me by him when I looked at what the library had available.

I'm reading Noli's Story the second in the Kin series by Peter Dickinson, Grass for his Pillow the second in Lian Hearn's Otori series and listening to The Secret Speech the second in Tom Rob Smith's Leo Demidov series (obviously something about part 2s this week!) and also listening to Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang.

I've reviewed the small and glittery-fanged Vlad, a novella about Dracula in Mexico City, in my Orphans thread.

Finished The UnAmericans this weekend, which I really enjoyed. Now reading Edible Stories. Guess it is the year of stories for me.

>34 alphaorder: I'll be interested to hear how you like Edible Stories. On the whole, I liked it. I have The UnAmericans on my TBR shelf (well, on one of them - ha!). I have to be in the right mood for story collections, but when I am, I enjoy them.

I'm 600+ pages into Written in My Own Heart's Blood and having great fun with it, as I have all the Outlander books. Also reading, albeit with less devotion, All Over But the Shoutin'.

I am reading Natchez Burning by Greg Iles and really, really liking it. Looks like I'll be reading the rest of this author's books over the summer!

I finished Donna Leon's The Golden Egg -- Guido Brunetti's still my hero.

Now I'm reading two books:

Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter -- Maria Venegas' true story about her family
West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt

richard, thank you for the bio of one of my favorite writers, Ian McEwan. I don't always love his books, but they never fail to challenge and delight.

I finished and REVIEWED Hannah Kent's debut novel Burial Rites.

Now I'm reading J. K. Rowling's new one The Silkworm.

I'm ba-ack! I've been in the hospital and then a skilled nursing facility for over two weeks. I had a very nasty infection that needed IV antibiotics, and a surgery that had been schedudled had to be postponed.

The good news is that while my reading mojo hasn't been great, it hasn't been terrible, either. I've been reading a different genre than ususal for me - crime thrillers. (As opposed to cozy mysteries or police procedurals.). Kathy Reichs, Jonathan Kellerman, and David Baldacci are all new-to-me authors. I am currently zipping through Hour Game by David Baldacci.

Welcome back!

>39 bookwoman247: Oh dear! That sounds extremely unpleasant. I'm happy you're back, well enough to visit, and on track to full recovery (unstated, but I'm hoping true).

>39 bookwoman247: bookwoman-welcome back!! Glad you're feeling better!!

This morning I started Twilight by William Gay. It's been on my radar for a couple years now and so far I love it in a way that books don't often make me love them.

It's a tale set in the south US in the 1950s and the language Gay uses actually made me use a southern accent to read it. Yeah, I'm a bit strange that often when beginning a book, especially one by a new author, I'll read out loud. This helps me establish cadence, rhythm and voice. Once I've got it, I do it in my head, but the out loud piece is essential.

I'm a northerner. A Yankee. Hardly ever spend time below the M-D line, but yet I started to drawl while reading. Not heavy or cartoonish, but it was there. That's how powerful and dynamic Gay's prose is. I am blown away and sad that I actually have to work today since I'd like to stay transported to Gay's fictional world.

Oh and if you want to get this yourself, I think it's still $2.99 at amazon and I think it was 3 or 4.99 on iTunes.

I finished the ER Shots Fired, and Junkyard Dogs, and now I'm nearing the end of another Longmire, Hell is Empty. Up next is Concealed in Death, and The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf.

>39 bookwoman247: Those authors should help make your recovery a little bit easier! I've read something by all three of those authors, and enjoyed them immensely.

Also, for the Tana French fans on here, I finished The Secret Place last night, and it's just as fantastic as her other novels. I don't know how she manages to create such realistic and complex characters, but she does, and she also recreates the world of teenage friendships and relationships with uncanny accuracy. Author crush has been firmly solidified.

I just finished London Train which I thought was okay, but not great...next up is American Wife.

As a break between volumes of the Raj Quartet, Miss Buncle's Book is suiting me just right. Air kisses to whoever recommended it.

Just finished listening to the somewhat disappointing The Snow Queen. Next up to listen to at home is The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Re #47: turns out it was Richard who suggested it, back on May 20th. A hit! A palpable hit! Thank you indeed.

Almost done with Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault. It started strong, got a bit slow in the middle, and is picking up speed at the end.

Next up will be American Isis, the new biography of Sylvia Plath.

I finished Maria Venegas' Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter which I liked very much, though it was the daughter who interested me most -- I didn't have as much patience with her father. Still, I hope we'll be seeing more of this author -- she's terrific, and her story is inspiring.

I finished Journey by Moonlight by the Hungarian author, Antal Szerb. It is an excellent tale with numerous threads; accepting societal norms, the power of the past, the lure of religion, death, and drama. It is all written with an understanding of psychology and the support of atmospheric scenes.

I've been dipping in and out of the collected works of Robert Frost and am in the midst of the poetry collection originally published as A Further Range.

I'm also reading A Stone for a Pillow by Madeleine L'Engle to complete her Genesis trilogy (I own the omnibus edition) and The Edge of the Precipice: Why Read Literature in the Digital Age?, a collection of essays edited by Paul Socken.

>52 snash: That sounds just like my sort of thing. I've added it to my wishlist.

Finished Roman Holiday and Hell is Empty and Solanin, and now I'm reading Concealed in Death and The Graphic Canon Volume 2.

Hello everyone - I hope that you're all having a wonderful day! I certainly am. :) Well, I started this week's reading with Dream Country by Luanne Rice on Wednesday, June 18th! At 504 pages, I just assumed that this book would take longer than a week to finish - it always takes me slightly longer to finish reading 'chunksters' - (which is what I call books that are 500 pages or longer) Well, I finished this book on Sunday night, June 22nd! So it surprises me that it only took me four days to read this book! This was certainly summer reading; and I would classify it as a modern-day family saga. :)


Anyway, I started reading The Under Dog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie on Tuesday, June 24th! I hope to finish reading this book later on this evening - Thursday, June 26th. Since I only have two more stories left to read, I think I will probably finish this book very soon.

I'm also just a few pages into The White Queen by Philippa Gregory - which I started early this morning - Thursday, June 26th! I'm not that far into the story yet, but I have high hopes for it to be very good.

Listening to The White Devil by Justin Evans. I've read the book before and loved it, but my boyfriend borrowed it months ago and still has yet to return it, so I decided to try the audio. Excellent so far - very creepy - and narrator Steve West has the most gorgeous British accent I've ever heard. *swoon*

Also halfway through World War Z and enjoying it immensely.

I have started in on Alice Hoffman's latest The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

Just finished Mother Puncher by Gina Ranalli

One of the most amazing books ever written! If you even have an ever so slightly twisted sense of humor - this book is a must read, and should be higher on the priority list than the Bible!

It's hilarious, disturbing, weird, and actually has a plot, all at the same time! Something you almost never see!

Up next - deciding between two books, but it will probably be All You Can Eat by Shane McKenzie, I guess if for no other reason, I'm off to Texas next week and this takes place in Texas.

I finished Hour Game by David Baldacci, which I really liked. Unfortunately, I don't have any more if the type of crime.thrillers available right now, so I am starting on a book I was saving for post-surgery - Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale by Gwen Cooper. I think I am going to love this book about a blind cat!

14 pgturner
I read The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd and loved it. I loved how the ending connects to the title so well.

19 coppers
I loved The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and recommend you read it. She is one of my favorite authors.

My friend made me buy Atonement but I haven't had the heart to read it yet. Seems like it will be a sad one.

Yesterday I finished Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis which also finishes the DragonLance Chronicles series for me. I thought it was o.k. It seemed really dull after the last one in the series which was excellent.

Now I'm reading A Woman Alone: Travel Tales from Around the Globe by Faith Conlon for a theme read with the Reading Globally group on here. So far it's been good and even has an excerpt from a book I've had on my wishlist for a long time, Tracks by Robyn Davidson. Having a taste left me wanting more...