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The Anarchy by William Dalrymple.
The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott from the Star Wars: High Republic series.
I'm rereading the Joe Abercrombie books
I started his latest trilogy but realised I couldn't remember loads so started again from the beginning
So very good, up to Red Country now, but blimey they're a bit nihilistic
The Bloody Nine is the best antihero ever!
The Bloody Nine is the best antihero ever!
Prince Jorg from Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy gives him a run for his money but The Bloody Nine's a wrong 'un for sure!
The Host - Stephanie Meyer.
Operation Chastise - Max Hastings
The Calligrapher - Edward Docx
Goodnight Mister Tom - Michelle Magorian
All for the first time.
Update
The Host Got bored but will finish it.
Operation Chastise Excellent. Want to know more.
The Calligrapher Gorgeous, and surprising.
Goodnight Mister Tom Reading it with my kids (9 and 11). Gripped.
The latest Expanse novel (Leviathan Falls) soon to be followed by the latest silly JD Kirk murder mystery (Colder than the grave).
Re-reading Dune and loving it so far. Recently finished City of Mirrors (by Justin Cronin) and gutted that I don't have any more to read!
I’ve just started to re-read The Great Book Of Amber, all of Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, plus the continuation books published later in one big volume. I think it’s about ten books in all. Which, size-wise would fill about the same amount of shelf-space as an average trilogy these days! My original paperbacks are each only about 15mm thick, maybe 20mm, and that was a complete novel back in the 70’s. I’ve just looked it up, there are ten books in all, totalling 1264 pages, so each volume is only 126 pages long! A modestly sized novel these days is often three or four times that!
I absolutely love his writing, he literally paints pictures with words, and he creates wonderful characters and settings for them. It’s such a shame that the only film, (that I know of), that was based on one of his books was such a dreadful travesty of what he’d written that he demanded that every reference to him and his original book were removed from all promotional material. The film is ‘Damnation Alley’, and it really is shockingly awful.
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. A nice, cheerful tale for the festive season!
Finished Hamnet which is brilliant and now reading The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn. A book I think a lot of people one here would like and relate to. I need to read her first book now The Salt Path. I felt at first I was reading them in the wrong order but now I'm not so sure, I think I may get more out of the first book with the context given by the second.
I've been woking my way through Ross Greenwood's DI Barton books
The Snow Killer, The Soul Killer and The Ice Killer
It's defo in the pulp fiction camp, but quite engaging.
Makes a change that the lead detective isn't dysfunctional.
Since I've last posted, I read:
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart which I thought was fantastic
Started Heart of Darkness by Conrad which I thought was awful so gave up. I may have another go.
J by Howard Jacobson....it's very complicated throughout. I thought that it was very good, if somewhat hard work to start with. Didn't really enjoy it from the halfway point though. 6/10 I'd say.
Currently on Disgrace by J M Coetzee....read the first half yesterday and it's been great so far.
To carry on with the SA modern literature theme I've just picked up The Promise by Damon Galgut to read next. It was this years Booker Prize winner.
Broken Heart by Tim Weaver. I've read and enjoyed a few of his books so when I spotted it for £1.30 in a local second hand shop I couldn't pass it by.
I last posted on here quite some while ago so I've been through several books.
I'm now at an age wgere I don't always finish books - it used to be that when I started a book, I'd read to the end but that's no longer the case. The last one that was put down was Joe Abercrombie's "A little hatred". It was well writtena dn I've enjoyed all of his books. but I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. I switched over to Victoria Wood's biography by Jasper Rees which was a good read, and at the moment am RIPPING through "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars", a sci-fi novel by Christopher Paolini who wrote the Eragon books. Excllent reading, and some nice innovations
So, I finished Disgrace by JM Coetzee.....absolutely fantastic, right up there with the best books that I've ever read.
Also just finished The Promise by Damon Galgut, worked really well reading it after Disgrace as they're post examining Post Apartheid South Africa. It was another fantastic book. Slightly harder work than Disgrace I thought, mainly due to the style of writing, very good though.
I've just ordered another JM Coetzee book so may give that ago this week.
I put down Catch 22. I may have another go, ditto 100 days in solitude. The latter was good but needs a lot of commitment from the reader to do it justice so hopefully try again when I have a larger block of time. really enjoyed Brighton Rock recently and picked up some short stories for fun such as Treasure Island. Now reading The wind in the willows which I want to read to my grandson who is still a bit young.
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. A nice, cheerful tale for the festive season!
But very readable. I enjoyed this along with "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski.
Catch 22 seems really marmite. I absolutely loved it, but nearly everyone else that I've spoken to gave up! The none linear narrative does make it fairly frustrating when you're reading it across a week or so I can't remember where in the story you're supposed to be!
Given that he died recently I'm re-reading my signed first edition of Antony Sher's "Year of the King".
I don't have many regrets in life, but not finding the time to see his Lear in Stratford a few years ago is a biggy.
chuckling my way through the Disc World collection by Mr Pratchett 🙂
Currently up to Eric
Currently reading Lost Baggage, the sequel to His Favourite Hole which featured contributions from this very forum
just finished Joe Abercrombie Sharp ends, the bloody nine makes an appearance and is a bloody as ever.. Also did the latest Skippy book (Craig Alanson: Fallout bk13) , 22.5hr of Audio book in a blink, cause I love them, Ch6 had me crying.. reparative or not, I enjoy them.
Onto Leviathan Falls, the expanse novel like fat-boy-fat, Mr May's narration just make the experience lovely (Amos's 'change', was a great ending to the last book).
Three crackers by authors I really enjoy, the next series of random books are going to suck, in comparison
So, I finished Disgrace by JM Coetzee…..absolutely fantastic, right up there with the best books that I’ve ever read.
It is tremendous and utterly brutal. What other one have you ordered? Age of Iron and Waiting for the Barbarians are good too.
Currently reading Sharpe' Fortress, really good read TBH, almost don't want it to end.
It is tremendous and utterly brutal. What other one have you ordered? Age of Iron and Waiting for the Barbarians are good too.
Life and Times of Michael K. Someone else has recommended Waiting for the Barbarians so I might order that too 👍
I need to read her first book now The Salt Path.
Really enjoyed that.
On recommendation by a colleague, I'm reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's a love story of sorts, set in a dystopian future.
According to the blurb in the book, it is credited as the inspiration for 1984. It was written in 1921, and banned in Russia. I couldn't finish 1984, I found it quite boring, but I'm really enjoying this.
I found a copy of We Need to Talk About Kevin the other day, wouldn't describe it as a good read so far but it has a lot of interesting bits that really make you think. I find myself turning pages without much engagement and then suddenly there is a bit where I stop reading and spend a while thinking about what I've just read.
I suppose it's similar in a way to how I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance decades ago.
Spontaneous purchase today - The light division in the peninsular war 1811-1814 - real sharpe......
Still working through Lotharingia by Simon Winder. Very enjoyable writing style and so rich in little anecdotes about historical Europe that I can pick up and put down without worrying about following the thread, it's enough just to dip in and out whenever I have the time.
chuckling my way through the Disc World collection by Mr Pratchett
Might dig out Hogfather, 'tis the season after all
Currently churning my way through JG Ballard - Cocaine Nights however I can't decide if I'm enjoying it or if its a bit of a chore.
I am in the middle of the latest version The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties by Robert Conquest.
Truly frightening
Just read Trainspotting....seen the film a fair few times and remember studying bits of the book for A Level English. It was on the top of one of my boxes of books that are currently in storage, I think that my sister got it for me as a Christmas present about 10 years ago. I guess that I don't need to do a review....flippin awesome though!
Is stuff like Porno and Skagboys worth a read?
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber, and David Wengrow.
It's about why we still cast our ancestors as either primitive and childlike or war-like and brutal, It's using actual archeological evidence (as oppose to made up stories) and having a new look at things like the move to agriculture, the changes that new technologies actually had, and why European societies in the 18thC needed to create theories about them as a reaction to indigenous critique of "civilisation"
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. A nice, cheerful tale for the festive season!
That's a lighthearted sunny romp compared to Cancer Ward!
In preparation for reading Crossroads after Christmas, I'm filling in my Jonathan Franzen gap by reading Purity. Can't decide how I feel about JF. The Corrections was one of my favourite contemporary novels ever but I was so underwhelmed by Freedom. Purity is... okay so far.
Almost finished Brothers in Arms by James Holland. A very detailed description of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry campaign from D Day to the end of the war - France, Belgium, Germany. Very good indeed. It has been described as a British version of Band of Brothers, and I think that is a pretty good comment, and has both positive and negative aspects…
Is stuff like Porno and Skagboys worth a read?
I thought Porno was a bit crap, it's nothing like as good as Trainspotting.
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
Quite surreal and a bit whimsical would be my description.
Almost finished Brothers in Arms by James Holland. ............ It has been described as a British version of Band of Brothers, and I think that is a pretty good comment, and has both positive and negative aspects…
Yeah, Holland does his thing very well, and comparing him to Stephen Ambrose feels about right. Detailed, but not so much that it affects how readable it is, and keeps the book moving along at a decent pace. There will obviously be stuff omitted.
I'm currently reading Adrian Goldsworhy's Phillip and Alexander. Sometimes it feels like it needs a bit of the above. 😀
* Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson - near future climate change thriller, typical Stephenson - a bit long and loose but some good ideas. light years better than SevenEves
* As I walked out one midsummers morning - by Laurie Lee. Account of his walk through spain the in 1930's on the cusp of the civil war. Brilliant, brillaint writer and recommended.
* Spain by Jan Morris. Another amazing travelogue by one the best travel writers out there.
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1444787179/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tu00_p1_i8 ]Paradise Sky by Joe R Lansdale[/url]
Is stuff like Porno and Skagboys worth a read?
Read em all. Irvine Welsh is briliant.
The moon's a balloon - David Niven.
I read this many years ago and had completely forgotten what an interesting life this actor had lived.
The book is extremely well written and takes one back to a simpler time but not always better.
Just finished the Shatner Ashes of Eden
4/5 Not painful to read a rather good yarn.
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"The moon’s a balloon – David Niven"
Such a great book as is Bring On The Empty Horses
I read them both as a teenager, I need to revisit too
Spanish fly - indeed, his other book very good and funny.
Spent ages trying to find some new science fiction that wasn't the same regurgitated recommendation lists for 2021 and came across Angry Robot publisher. They have a digital sampler on their website (some good, some dire) but I'm currently enjoying Glow by Tim Jordan
Pretty decent debut.
“Reminiscent of the best space opera mixed with the gritty, violent dystopia of cyberpunk. Recommended for fans of Alastair Reynolds and William Gibson.” – Booklist
Death in Her Hands - Ottessa Moshfegh.
The last few years I've been reading a lot of contemporary fiction, trying to find something beneath the hype of certain newish authors. Lots of difficult second/third novels. Moshfegh can write, best examples probably being the character studies in her Homesick for Another World, but I still don't get that she has anything much to say, just that if she ever had something to say she'd say it very well. It's a dickish thing to come out with, "your hyped novel seems more style than substance", but a book is an investment of time, more so than a film or record, and I really miss that feeling of being introduced to new ideas through fiction. People say all the good writers are doing tv now, and Dan Harmon has skills in both sticking to a formula and subverting it, but there must be people writing ambitious unpretentious fiction somewhere.
Gone to sea in a bucket.
Well, re-reading really.
Decided I should probably attempt to fill in a big black hole in my knowledge of the USSR, from say 1918 to 1988. 😆 Just randomly picked a book. Went for this.
30 pages in seems decent, fascinating stuff. 🙂
Parked The Anarchy (and reading in general) over Christmas. Now reading Victoria Coren's poker book For Richer, For Poorer and The Dillinger Days by John somebody - Steven King recommended it for people interested in depression-era gangsters, and what a bunch of dicks they all were.
I'm almost certainly going to regret it, but watching the Wheel of Time tv series inspired me to pick up the first book, which I read so long ago that I couldn't really join in the online hate train against the series, or criticize it for changes, could only remember the broad strokes.
What I do remember is how absolutely shit the middle of the series is, so, no plans to go any further than this one.
I read another JM Coetzee book over Christmas, The Life and Times of Michael K. He's fast become one of my favourite authors, so will order some more of his. Currently reading Redhead By The Side of The Road by Anne Tyler...very readable, will have finished it in under 5 hours, both books are very interesting takes on a person's character.
I have also made good on the first new years resolution that I've ever made, by starting a book club.
Currently reading Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum: Glasgow's Portal to the World, by Muriel Gray. The building was constructed according to the winning entry in the 1891/92 competition to design a new combined art gallery and museum for Glasgow. Initially, the design was to include an art school too, but at a later stage this was dropped from the plans. I had never considered, as pointed out in this book, that if an art school had indeed been integrated into the overall design, there would have been no need for Mackintosh to design the Art School – a magnificent building (in my opinion) and regarded, by some at least, as a masterpiece.
Anyway, this ties in nicely with one of my next reads – The Flower and the Green Leaf: Glasgow School of Art in the Time of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Have had a browse through and it looks really interesting.
For Richer, For Poorer was good, bit indulgently overlong in places and she uses poker terminology that meant nothing to me when it would have been interesting to know more clearly what was going on, but good stuff. Kind of ploughed through The Dillinger Days out of spite but I was glad when they were all either dead or banged up. Made a start on Carrie Fisher's Surrender The Pink because Summer was reading it in a Mint Sauce scene but it's not for me, got about two thirds through and decided to draw a line, now on the excellent You Don't Want To Know by James Felton - one to pick up for short stints rather than dive into for a lengthy sitting, short chapters, much grossness and genuinely laugh-out-loud funny if we share the same sense of humour. Also tackling Stanislavsky's An Actor Prepares - tried it (and failed) before but now just reading rather than studying it, which is making it much easier going!
Just finished the Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (no idea why it took me so long to get around to it).
Started Play it as it lays by Joan Didion. Think the last time I picked a Didion book was due to Rattlesnakes... 🤣🤪🤣🤪🤣
I've just finished The Trial by Kafka....not sure it was worth the effort as I found it fairly tough going.
I think that I'm going to start The Handmaid's Tale tonight.
Bloody Scotland short stories by various artists. Very good. But that last one "Paradise Sky" was wonderful. Should be a Netflix series
Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, enjoying it.
Have the final Expanse book (Leviathan Fall) by James Core to start when i've finished the above.
Booked marked this as need to cast my net passed all the sci-fi nonsense i usually read.
Having recently watched the film for the first time, I'm reading The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Finished You Don't Need To Know - grotesque, sweary, ace.
Finished Pound For Pound, a biography of Sugar Ray Robinson - so-so, rolls along pretty quick but lacks depth and rather skips over less savoury aspects of the man - if anyone knows of a decent biography of him, let me know!
This way for the gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
Read this when I was younger, and thought I'd just remind myself given the resurgence of the American and UK right wing.
Last year I challenged myself a book a month and hopefully going to get through that again this year.
Over xmas (or as it was known in this house the omicron period) I managed to finish off Simon Armitage's book Walking Home. A trip down the Pennine Way. Very entertaining.
My first of the year was Robert Twigger Walking the Great North Line.
My daughter picked up a couple of books for me at xmas and I've started Catch-22. Possibly not something I would look at but none of the books I read last year were overly similar (with the exception of my last two, but they were in different years!) anyway must admit I've struggled through the first 50 chaotic pages but that may just be my brain struggling with stuff after covid brain fog.
Still got Tehanu on the go with Cibola Burn (Expanse book 4) waiting in the wings. That was months ago I wrote that.
Got slightly distracted from them as the wife got me Bob Mortimer's autobiography for Christmas so I've been chucking my way through that. Also, got the two Thursday Murder Club books so I think I'm taking a break from sci-fi/fantasy for a while.
Sad Little Men - Private Schools and the Ruin of England, Richard Beard.
@tom-b I’ve got an anthology of Kafka’s from 20 odd years ago and tried (but failed) to get through the Trial. I think the trial is referring to the reading experience rather than the subject matter!!
At about the same time I read Kelmans how late it was - another bag o sh**e - I’ve now decided life’s too short for rubbish books just because they’re seen as worthy 😂
Hahaha yeah I'd tend to agree!
@white101 Catch 22 is well worth persevering with. I think that I've said earlier on this thread, the none linear nature of it means that it can be hard to realise where you are with it (it was for me anyway) Maybe switch to something easier and come back to it post Covid brain fog? We suffered exactly the same post Covid issues 😔
@Tom-B I think thats good advice. I've popped it back on the shelf and picked up The Thursday Murder Club.
Over xmas (or as it was known in this house the omicron period) I managed to finish off Simon Armitage’s book Walking Home. A trip down the Pennine Way. Very entertaining.
I'd recommend anything by Simon Armitage, book or TV. Often very funny, always well written. I think in All Points North he has a few pages about dealing with his car insurance company after he makes the change to full time writer. It puts his premium up, and they justify it by saying that he'll be more at risk from the public as a poet than as a probation officer. 😀
Just finished Martha Well's murderbot diaries series, which are mostly novellas, but Network Effect just won this years Hugo for best novel. Not only good stories, but seriously funny as well. A cyborg designed for killing things which has overridden the systems designed to control it and like to spend it's time watching soap operas...
Also just started Bob Mortimer’s “And Away”. A jolly read.
I have just started John Nichol's 'Lancaster' (a history of the legendary bomber and its crews) – I was almost in tears on the train and that was only three pages into the Foreword.
Half way through the The North Water by Ian Macguire , there is a tv series coming soon which is meant to be good so thought I’d try and get the book in first as I really struggle to read the book if I’ve seen a tv or film version first . The book has been great so far
I'd watched the TV series and then got the book for Christmas - halfway through. Both great, and the TV series is a great adaptation of the book.
Sad Little Men – Private Schools and the Ruin of England, Richard Beard
Listened to the audiobook, and while it's a good listen/read, I did find it a little repetitive. I think it's really a good long essay rather than a book?
I have just started John Nichol’s ‘Lancaster’
Len Deighton's Bomber is always a good recommendation if you enjoy Lancaster.
Had a spurt recently after not reading very much for a while. Got through three LJ Ross crime thrillers set up in Northumberland, they were mildly entertaining.
Picked up some Stephen King books for the first time in a LONG time - I'd forgotten just how good a read he is, I properly tore through The Outsider and Billy Summers. Let It Bleed is on the reading pile (along with a few more LJ Ross books) and I will be picking up Mr Mercedes, Finders Keepers and End Of Watch from the library (or charity shop) in the near future.
Currently reading the latest John Connolly novel, "The Nameless Ones". Cracknig read, as always
also on the reading pile are two christmas presents, Mark Cavendish's new "Tour de Force" about this years tdf and the green jersey, and Dave Grohl's "The Storyteller"
I have just started John Nichol’s ‘Lancaster’ (a history of the legendary bomber and its crews) – I was almost in tears on the train and that was only three pages into the Foreword.
D'you know, that went back onto the "To Read" pile for me - I was expecting the story of the plane rather than the crews, and everything I read seemed a tad hysterical and one-paced (I didn't get very far, TBH). Not saying it's not good, and I definitely WILL read it, I was just expecting it to be something slightly different.
Just pulled the Cruel Sea off the shelf after 3 decades! This in spite of having lots of new books to read too. I have to say it is utterly brutal compared to the film.
Also keen to learn a bit more about the Spanish Civil War so have bought Beevor’s book on the subject. Although it is criticised by some it seems to give a good overview.
The White ship by Earl Spencer.
A good read so far.
Just finished The Handmaids Tale and The Testaments.....both were stunning. I suppose 'a feminist 1984' is a phrase that could be used to both praise and dismiss them depending on your stand point. For me, they are a sort of feminist 1984, slightly more accessible as she doesn't delve as deep into the thought process behind the totalitarian regimes' workings as Orwell did. Certainly not books that I'll forget in a hurry.
Next up is No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. It seems fairly batshit, it's the first book for my new book club that starts next Thursday.
The "old mans war" series by John Scalzi some fine military SF with a lot of of humour. Some of the best I have read for a long time. aliens are weak tho - they just behave like people