In this series we ask authors, Guardian writers and readers to share what they’ve been reading recently. This month, recommendations include relatable novels, an unusual rock memoir and nonfiction to help us get to grips with international politics. Tell us what you’ve been reading in the comments.
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Carlo Rovelli, writer
I am very worried about the international situation at present and fear that the west is making serious mistakes – misjudging its long-term prospects. My recent readings are aimed at getting more clarity on all of this. I have found three books particularly helpful: The Avoidable War, by Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia and ex-Ambassador to China, which gives a remarkable in-depth picture of the state and trend of the Celestial Empire, and asks the key question: how to avoid the looming catastrophe of yet another world war? On the same risk, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? by Graham Allison, is unavoidable.
But by far the most interesting and surprising book I have found is All Under Heaven by Zhao Tingyang, one of China’s current most distinguished intellectuals: an enchanting discussion of what international politics has been and could be, which lights a candle in this dark age. On the fiction side of my readings I have suffered through a number of recent novels whose titles I will spare you. I have been much amused by the The Red Arrow by William Brewer, but maybe it’s because of my relation with its main fictional character. However, I have only reached true ecstasy through reading, once again, Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, finally realising that the Paradise is not about Beatrice guiding the poet to the heavens: it is about the heavens as an excuse to sing his love to Beatrice.
Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli will be published in paperback on 1 September (Penguin £10.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
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Holly, Guardian reader
I am currently reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. It is a book that I have wanted to read for a long time, and I finally got a copy for my recent birthday. I am devouring it – I’m enjoying the writing style, the main character and the story. Duck Feet by Ely Percy is another amazing book I read a little while ago. It’s about growing up as a young woman in noughties working-class Scotland. It was deeply relatable, heart wrenching and immensely lively.
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Yash Zodgekar, critic
I recently read How Music Works, the 2012 book by David Byrne. The Talking Heads frontman could be forgiven for writing a traditional rock musician’s memoir, telling anecdotes of debauchery, raucous gigs and the like. However, How Music Works is all the better for eschewing this formula.
That’s not to say Byrne’s rich lived experience as a musician, film-maker and visual artist does not inform the book: in addition to pioneering the art-rock and new wave movement of the late 1970s and early 80s, Byrne has collaborated with renowned artists from around the world, from Caetano Veloso to Fatboy Slim. Rather, Byrne expertly combines this autobiographical information with his positing of surprisingly substantive theoretical arguments relating to the history of music.
Though presented in Byrne’s usual self-effacing, humorous style, these theoretical takes are quasi-academic at times. Was it changes in performance venues that drove sonic changes in music or the other way around? What does it mean to say a band is tight? Why do we increasingly favour listening to music through mediums with bad audio quality?
Byrne manages to offer his thoughts on these questions in a way that is informed by his experience without attempting to be definitive. More importantly, in marrying these fundamental questions with vivid historical detail, he never fails to bring the joy of music to life.
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Andrew Meehan, writer
I’ve had a lovely summer with Marilynne Robinson. Having been so moved by her most recent masterpiece, Jack, I returned to her earlier novels set in Gilead, Iowa. Home is narrated by 38-year-old Glory Boughton, who is similar in age and temperament to Ute Pfeiffer in my new romance novel Instant Fires. Glory’s love story, though, is not a romance but a story of a sister’s love for her errant brother; the Jack of the later novel.
Sticking with the ambivalences of love, the novel I’ve enjoyed the most this year so far is one of the saddest. In Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses, Cushla is working in her family’s bar when she meets a barrister called Michael. Set in Belfast in the winter of 1975, things are grim outside the doors of the pub. Fear and pity are parcelled out in the same increments. Kennedy explores what it means to hope – but also what it means to be disappointed and manipulated. Morally it’s a puzzle – one to delight in.
I also read Mieko Kawakami’s All the Lovers in the Night, wondering all the while how I could shake off its queasy energies, and then coming to the conclusion that I didn’t want to. I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
Instant Fires by Andrew Meehan will be published on 9 September (New Island Books £13.99).
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Pete, Guardian reader
I recently finished reading Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer and its protagonist, Lia, has stayed with me. The story is partly narrated by Lia’s cancer cells, which is the kind of thing I would usually find a bit gimmicky. Mortimer, however, surprised me and my expectations were constantly being subverted. It was immensely enjoyable to read a book where it felt like every word was essential.
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Niva Yadav, critic
I recently got round to reading a book that has been on my to-read pile for several years: There There by Tommy Orange. I really do wish I’d read it sooner. Orange intertwines the perspectives of several Native American characters, exploring the devastating consequences of the cultural upheaval and colonisation they experienced. The connection between the native past and the colonised present makes There There a heartbreaking read, but this is also a rich, truthful novel for which it was well worth switching up my usual holiday reading diet of light-hearted romance novels.
I have also been dipping in and out of Ian McEwan’s short story collection In Between the Sheets. McEwan crafts fascinating and disturbing accounts of human sexual experience, and I like the unpredictability of the stories, especially in Dead As They Come and Pornography. The collection is dark, devious and incredibly engaging.
