September Audio Books and Podcasts

I am very much enjoying my recent discovery of Jerome K. Jerome and have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole....

First up I listened to this on Audible & it was free. It's Ghost Tales by Bram Stoker, Sir Walter Scott and Amelia B. Edwards as well as Jerome K. Jerome. These are serious ghost stories, and while I hadn't read any of them, they all felt very familiar. There is one little bit of nuttery at the end of J.KJ's one, otherwise it didn't really seem like his other works.

However, the above was good background for what I listened to next.

This is sort of 2 books in 1. The first is very funny, and dissecting the formula of the Victorian Ghost Story genre. It's classic Jerome K. Jerome nuttiness and I laughed out loud more than once. It also highlighted why all those stories seemed so familiar. They are all built with the expected tropes and traditions of the classic ghost story in literature at the time. The second half is just ghost stories - a few by Poe, Kipling and other well known authors. 

Cat (Wire) recommended the Tim Curry, Michael Palin movie of Three Men in a Boat, free on Youtube. It's dramatised by Tom Stoppard so you know it's a good adaptation. I thought it was missing my favourite bit but it appears later in the film, so the movie is sort of mixed around a bit. Tim Curry made a comment that it was sort of the last moments for the Victorian man where idle happiness was possible for the upper classes and life was idyllic, before the world changed forever with the build up to war. Three men in a boat (reviewed here) was written in 1889 but the humour is as whacky as anything today. It was meant to be a serious travelogue with some humorous elements but apparently the editor kept throwing out any of the serious guide references.

If you like classic movies, Cat's Wire is all over it, reviewing films from the Golden Age of Cinema and more.

Jon Ronson's The Castle is out, and he's touring Australia with it. I adore Jon Ronson so have been eagerly awaiting it. It's on the unravelling men that we currently seem to be seeing - through the manosphere and beyond. It's crazy yet true insights into all sorts of aspects, starting with a creepy castle that his son was lured to. When he was last out he mentioned this anecdote at his talk, and since then, has built a book around it. What I like about Jon Ronson is that he goes in without judgement. I find Louis Theroux has a bias that he sets out to present. Ronson, on the other hand, seems to see the best in everyone until they prove otherwise, even if they are white supremacists, for example. It leads to a more interesting investigation. Anything by Jon Ronson is fascinating and funny. He is an extraordinary talent these days in the culture war times.

Other Ronson reviews:

Last Days of August

So you've been publicly shamed

The Butterfly Effect

What I do

The Debutante

Things Fell Apart - note there is a new series coming of this podcast, and lucky me discovered a series I hadn't listened to, so currently enjoying that here.

Post on his Psychopath night.

and this old post made me smile: Small Mercies.

Yes, I am a total fan girl on his work! 

I am labouring through my book club book so will review it next time, so I give it a chance...

Do you go nuts for certain writers? Who?

Linking with #SundayPost #StackingtheShelves #TrafficJamReboot #TuesdayTwirl & MonthlyBookworms #Acupofteaandagoodbook #SundaySalon

Also a quick shout out to Get Lost magazine going into Print - my copy turned up (they had a subscription special so I treated myself to a year to test it out). A little more interesting than normal travel mags & at a glance, a lot less ads.