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Reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. For a history book it's good. Reads like a story. Crazy life that guy had.
Read The Stone Man a few months ago having grown increasingly curious about all the hype. Loved the pacing and dialogue, but ultimately found it unsatisfying because the ending provided no answers and simply encouraged one to read the sequel. Not for me.
Just finished Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows (Cthulu Casebook 1) on Audible. A rather good romp and provides an alternative take on how Holmes and Watson formed their bond whilst tackling a Lovecraftian horror. It also happens to mention a portal to the Ancient Ones literally up the road from me.
Just restarted Rivers of London having given up on it several years ago. I know there are some Aaronovitch fans on here too.
I'm working through the books so far this year Finished American Dirt just after Christmas - very good, feels quite undramatic in a way, which feels appropriate. Wrapped up House of the Dead (about the Siberian exile system under the Tsars) this week, and now half way through The North Water, which is gripping, grim and surprisingly similar to The Terror (TV show)
half way through The North Water, which is gripping, grim and surprisingly similar to The Terror (TV show)
The North Water was also TV series, slightly less supernatural than The Terror 🙂
The North Water - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660970/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
The Terror - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2708480/episodes?season=1&ref_=tt_eps_sn_1
just finished
the latest William Boyd - the Romantic
...and it's a really good one. Just romps along. And the the latest Ian McEwan
...just brilliant as usual. A world view that resonates with me.
And that's a slight issue. They're two of my favourite writers but they're both getting on a bit (they're ahead of me but it's a reminder that I am too, which I don't like). I'm sure they're good for another few, but this generation who to me were the grown-ups when I was at a formative age (include Amis, Ishiguro etc; Banks, Mantell and others already having left the building) must be into 'late works' territory by now. And I don't quite have replacements. Donna Tartt does a book a decade pretty much. The Goldfinch was worth waiting for but when's the next. David Mitchell I really enjoy but is now basically playing out his fantasy universe. Hari Kunzu I guess could be up there but I've read all his stuff now.
Have just read this
...which was pretty good and ticked a lot of my boxes (middlebrow pretending to be high brow is fine by me) but more confirming than extending world view, which is what I want a good book to do.
So if anyone has suggestions based on the above...?
Reading Cormac McCarthy The Passenger.
Its about… er not a **** clue. Its certainly different. Must admit, I just skipped a big section where 2 fellas were having an extremely detailed scientific conversation. You can’t tell who’s saying what and… well, what did it have to do with the plot? Baffling! Yeah, sure is different.
Is it the first McCarthy that you've read? I'm assuming that it doesn't have long sections of untranslated Spanish dialogue? I love his books - The Crossing is up there with the best - and these two are on my to-be-read pile next to the bed.
Just finished reading a Sebastian Faulks book – The Snow something or other (I don’t remember). I do, now, remember why I dislike fiction so much – it can be really shite at times.
If you dislike fiction, I'm wondering why you chose such an arty-farty book by an arty-farty author? I remember disliking Birdsong when I read it in the 90s but can't remember why. I suspect that it's the same reason that I dislike Ian McEwan and other middle-class metropolitan authors. Maybe it's that I can't relate to most of what they write, which is weird and worrying when I can read a Cormac McCarthy book and sympathise with the serial killer reclusive woodsman main character.
Is it the first McCarthy that you’ve read? I’m assuming that it doesn’t have long sections of untranslated Spanish dialogue? I love his books – The Crossing is up there with the best – and these two are on my to-be-read pile next to the bed.
Nope, I've read them all and absolutely loved them. (The Spanish translation was done by my iPod or Kindle)
The Passenger is so different. Garry_Lager , up in [url= https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/what-book-s-are-you-reading-now/page/12/#post-12617921 ]page 12[/url] mentions the scientist/mathematician connection too.
I will finish it, but yeah, I just couldn't read that conversation. Maybe I was tired and will go back to it 🙂 (probably not though)
Sunburst and Luminary: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunburst-Luminary-Apollo-Don-Eyles/dp/0986385905 - one of the two MIT'ers who designed the software for the Apollo Lunar Module. Recommended off the space thread. I'm a proper apollo nerd and there's lots in here I didn't know. The description of the 120x alarms on Apollo 11 are really interesting. Also the way the software was developed. It's a bit tech heavy in parts but I loved it.
Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/silk-roads-9781408839973/ - It was on offer on Kindle and I've really got into it. Gives you (well me at least) an perspective I really didn't have being very much of the Western view on history. Funnily enough it was recommended via evil-zon after I'd read a Ghengis Kahn book. As said above ^^^ what a life!
I am not buying any more books until I've got through the 10+ hardbacks bought for me over the last few years. And I probably need a break from reading trashy space opera series as well!
Nope, I’ve read them all and absolutely loved them.
The Passenger is so different.
You've not put me off, I'm still looking forward to reading them! 😀
Just finished reading, With The Jocks by Peter White. It's essentially his diaries from the last year of WW2 as he makes his way from Normandy to Bremen with the KOSB.. It's a very detailed and moving account which includes wonderful sketches of his experiences and the people he encountered. He was an artist after the war.
Recently read, A month in the country, by J.L.Carr which I liked a lot, before that it was, Death and the Penguin, by Andrey Kurkov which is slightly surreal but I enjoyed it enough to get the follow-up, Penguin Lost
You’ve not put me off, I’m still looking forward to reading them! 😀
I’m glad! 😆
Just finished the 2nd Patrick O'Brien, Aubrey/Maturin series, got the 3rd ready-to-go. But thought I'd read The Name of the Rose first,never got round to reading it before.
Just started Becky Chambers “The Galaxy, and the Ground Within”. Read her previous books, enjoyed them, and this one as well, so far.
I'm about three stories in on Murakami's - First Person Singular collection. Short stories are a bit strange aren't they!?!? Its enjoyable so far though.
For a daft laugh I just finished Bob Mortimer's Satsuma Complex. If you like Bob, you'll love it!
I've got Bob Mortimer's autobiography lined up next. Just finishing Pat Nevin's. Before that, Thursday Murder Club which I expected to hate but found to be excellent and addictive
I’m about three stories in on Murakami’s – First Person Singular collection. Short stories are a bit strange aren’t they!?!? Its enjoyable so far though.
A well written short story is a thing of beauty, a work of art even. Thomas Hardy was a master at it - there was one very short tale where, without writing much about the characters, he managed to make you feel the hopelessness of their relationship in a few pages. And Ursula Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas should be on everyone's must-read list. I've normally got a book of short stories on the go alongside whatever else I'm reading, just to dip into.
But, to go back to your comment - short stories are a bit strange - anything by Murakami is a bit strange. I've pretty much given up on him after reading many of his books, because I rarely know what the hell happened when I get to the end despite enjoying the journey! 😀
A well written short story is a thing of beauty, a work of art even.
Definitely. A well-curated anthology of fantasy or SF short stories is something I love - a nice antidote to the 1000 page door stoppers or endless series that the genres so often put out.
a nice antidote to the 1000 page door stoppers or endless series that the genres so often put out.
That seems to be a thing with Sci-fi / fantasy!
https://www.bookeditingservices.co.uk/average-word-count-in-a-book.html
That seems to be a thing with Sci-fi / fantasy!
I hate it. The classic SF authors managed to do a good job in 200ish pages, without needing never-ending sequels. I blame Tolkien, myself. Although Frank Herbert may be the culprit 😀
Re-listening to the Breaker series by Edward G Robertson.. end of the world plague
I wasn't aware of the spoiler when I first listened, so was a tad when it turn left sharply, but it on the books 'about' page so not a major spoiler. Maybe just the narrator that makes it, but I like the series
Wood as an industrial arts material by Wayne Murphy.
Pretty much does what is says on the tin cover.
Pretty much does what is says on the
tincover.
Surely "bark"...
Yeah, it can also be **** amazing. Hey! like most things really.
Yeah I know, that's why I tried to qualify it..
it can be really shite at times
Some fiction I like (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, 1984, Catch 22 and Grapes of Wrath stand out to me) but some fiction can feel really contrived at times (that Faulks book I mentioned, likewise a Le Carre book I read last summer). Funnily enough, it was Faulks 'Birdsong' that actually got me reading non-fiction about the wars in the first place.
Just finished reading, With The Jocks by Peter White.
Now that IS a very good read – I have read it a couple of times now.
I am currently reading Hew Strachan 'The First World War' which is a good read and covers the detail of HOW we ended up at war in better detail than I have read before (it's usually 'Franz Ferdinand got shot, war started') but it goes into a bit more detail of how the various powers ended up at war, who wanted what etc.
Yeah, sorry Johndoh. Was a pretty pointless response. Hoped you wouldn't notice 🙂
Just finished Ann Leckies trilogy ancilliary Justice, etc. great stories
I devour novels. Can easly read one in a couple of hours! ( if its something light) It means I need a lot of reading material
Just finished Ann Leckies trilogy ancilliary Justice, etc. great stories
You could have taken mine when you stopped here on your epic ride. I thought the first one was ok but didn't develop, but the second was awful, and I took all three to the charity shop having not struggled through the third. I kept thinking that I was missing something really important about the books, but in reality they are poorly written, with terrible plot structure and no pacing. Let's get the tea service out for a long cuppa just to break up the flow of this post! YMMV, very obviously. 😀
Still on Game of Thrones (Feast for Crows)
Finding this a bit of a slog 🙁 Feels ghost written.
Hopefully Dance with Dragons will be better 🙂
I have just watched The Last Mountain, which I found deeply tragic, worrying and uncomfortable for many reasons. I now need to read Regions of the Heart for balance and some idea of completeness I hope.
Just finishing a period murder mystery novel (also listening to it on Audible). A bit of a slow burn, detailed scene setting novel with a list of references as well - not something most novels have.....
Have bought the next one in the series to read / listen to.
Still on Game of Thrones (Feast for Crows)
Finding this a bit of a slog 🙁 Feels ghost written.Hopefully Dance with Dragons will be better 🙂
Set low expectations so you won't be disappointed redthunder.
I'm a big fan of GRRM on the basic writing level - think he's really good. So while Feast for Crows goes off the rails big picture, I still more or less liked it page by page. But Dance with Dragons is really a low point, it's legit boring. if you read voraciously then it's no big deal, but if you're more selective I'd park it up after FfC. It was great while it lasted.
The Wim Hof method. It was a Christmas gift so thought I'd have a look.
Currently on day 9 of enduring cold showers 😆 Can now manage about 1 minute whilst remaining 'relatively' relaxed! Day 1 was jumping about whilst sounding like a monkey for about 15 seconds!
50 Things About Us - Mark Thomas
Slow Horses - Mick Herron
not usually a book reader but was bought a couple for christmas. finished mortimer and whitehouse go fishing (decent but probably a bit toooo much fishing info in it for the layman) and now on bob mortimers 'the satsuma complex', a novel that hes written.
Chased by Pandas - 'My life in the mysterious world of cycling' by Dan Martin.
Very enjoyable so far.
Almost final book..
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I'm about to start The Remains of the Day. Never seen the film so no idea what to expect
Pies and Prejudice
In search of the North .. Stuart Maconie.
Cheers Binners.
[url= https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brotherstone-dave-lawrence/scarred-for-life-volume-one/paperback/product-23116461.html?page=1&pageSize=4 ]"Scarred For Life"[/url]
Reliving the 70s 🙂 After seeing their stuff on Twitter, I thought I'd order the book, its great. Not quite what I expected, lotta words, but really enjoying it.
Just finished East of the Mountains by David Guterson. Read it decades ago, but I could relate more to it now I'm older. If you enjoy Cormac McCarthy/Hemingway etc, it's a good shout (along with Snow Falling on Cedars)
Just read the sci fi "Red rising" series by Pierce Brown. Nothing new but fast paced and I enjoyed it.
Reading "Girl A" now which I'm enjoying.
Still reading the behemoth that is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. At 1,200 pages and managing around 80 pages a week (almost blind point text and some heavy going needing re-reads) it’s going to take me most of the year to complete. It is very, very good though - some historical books can be hard going at times but this is so well written.
Just finished Joe Parkins, A Dog In A Hat, his account of racing as an American in Belgium in the late 80's / early 90's. Not as glam as you'd imagine, a harsh profession. Drugs and race winners decided before the finish line. I found it insightful.
Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances, I'm a big fan of the author, but his latest book is the one I've gelled with least, found it a bit of a grind to get through.
I've just started Stephen Baxter's The thousand Earths and, enjoying it so far.
In Patagonia.
Not long finished Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown
In Patagonia is a superb book @ratherbeintobago
@Johndoh I know how you feel that's about my reading pace these days.I also read poetry which has the tremendous advantage of being shorter than a novel, 😂
@ratherbeintobago Aw nice one,just had a wee flashback there to when I was reading all Chatwin's stuff.
Might have to go and dig out The Songlines. 👍 😃
Honour by Elif Shafik.
She's a great writer, her and William Boyd have been my go to recently.
Just finished Slade House by David Mitchell (not the funny one) Total rubbish but would make a good 'by the pool read' as can be done in a few days
Literally just had a delivery by the dreaded A (Sunday night?????) William Gibson The Sprawl Trilogy plus a book of short stories........time to dive headfirst into the Matrix!
I'm on a bit of a roll over the last few months; just finished Bobby Womack's autobiography which is excellent. Lots I didn't know about particular musical artists, including his close friendship with Ronnie Wood; but ultimately it's quite a sad life story in many ways.
The one before that was Devolution by Max Brooks (author of World War Z). It's nothing like as good as WWZ, and quite unsurprising in its strokes, but still not a bad read.
Next is... I'm not sure, I've got a couple of Robert Jackson Bennett's, The Fifth Season, a Cormac McCarthy and various others to look at
Currently reading The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich.
It's a compendium of first hand accounts by Russian women who fought on the Eastern front in WW2. Huge range of roles: partisan fighters, pilots, nurses, medics, sappers and snipers. Many of them little more than half-starved kids when the war started. Imagine getting your period for the first time (with absolutely no understanding of what's happening to you) in the middle of a forced 20 mile march, in a man's uniform with boots 6 sizes too big. Forget about sanitary products, they didn't even get women's underwear until '43/'44.
It's fantastic and should be read by everyone, but obviously it's almost unbearably sad. I feel like I'm pausing every 5 pages to say "That's the worst thing I've ever read", only to have it topped 5 pages later.
Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
It's meant to be about how 3 dysfunctional brothers deal with the murder of their father. But I'm over 400 pages in, and he's not dead yet while the characters are being built. "Unnecessarily verbose" doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm doing lots of skip-reading... The philosophical discourses are genuinely engrossing (and at times hugely funny), but there's so much waffle between those episodes. Despite that, it's still encouraging me to pick it up and continue reading.
Recently,
Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman
A murder and its consequences; very Irish, very hilarious, very surreal, and by the end it's properly harrowing. Amazing book, possibly in my top 10.
Still dipping into The Republic of Pirates from time to time. Love a bit of pirate action, and this focuses on the roots of piracy from the early 18th century, looking at the likes of Blackbeard, Hornigold, Vane and the chap who set out to hunt them down, Woodes Rogers.
Tried a bit of Relics by Tim Lebdon. A good idea but I didn't care for any of the characters.
On a side note, I've been listening to some podcasts on Lord Nelson and it appears he was not a particularly nice chap. Comes across as someone who does what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants, regardless of the consequences.
Brain Energy by Dr Christopher M. Palmer. I'm probably about halfway through and finding it to be a fascinating read.
J'irai tuer pour vous.
True story about an ex soldier who becomes an assassin for the DGSE (French MI6) and gets sent to kill terrorists in Lebanon in the 80s. Not very well written, but fascinating story....
The art of trampig.
Very good.4 star.
Rereading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. An interesting reread since it's over a decade since I last read it, and also, last time i read it I was in hospital with a broken hip and high as balls on morphone. So, I remember it quite different to how it is! Doubly interesting looking at all the speculative "in the future nobody will go to a bank, we'll all use imaginary internet currency. Also we'll store our information online, in a big internet vault in a cave"
Picked this up on a whim from the library
Ben Short - Burn
Gotta love your local library
Just wrapped up Robert Jackson Bennett - Vigilance. I really like a lot of his books (City of Stairs, American Elsewhere etc); and this is slim but a really thought-provoking premise. Unfortunately it completely lacks a third act; there's the setup, it hits its stride and... ends. Still, good.
Next up I think perhaps the Fifth Season ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19161852-the-fifth-season), or possibly Other Minds (about octopuses https://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-Minds-Octopus-Evolution-Intelligent/dp/0008226296/ref=asc_df_0008226296/)
I recently finished the audiobook of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (author of The Martian).
I struggle with books if they don't grip me, and this was one of the rare ones I didn't want to end. It slowed down a bit towards the end, and it's pretty far fetched, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Another French period murder mystery ticked off. This one was quite interesting as it turns out we visited the scene of the crime last year - Chateau Amboise, so I was quite familiar with the setting and we had both stood where the murder took place....
The authour supposes that Charles 8th was murdered rather than died from an accident - for which there is a plausible case based on historical records.
Still on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - at about page 380 of 1,200 now and I'm up to September 1938 and Case Green.
Just finished "Alex" by Pierre LeMaitre and I will probably need several weeks of counseling. Some fantastic plot twists, a bit boring in places, but utterly terrifying in others and very graphic descriptions of people being mutilated. Not for the feint hearted. Must be good though, as won awards in the original French and the English translation...
However, I now know how to describe, in French, pouring half a litre of concentrated sulphuric acid into places you really don't ever want to do that with....
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/10/alex-pierre-lemaitre-review
Post Office Charles Bukowski
Reading Judas 62 by Charles Cumming.
I finished Box 88 also by Charles Cumming earlier this year.
Easy to read, great story telling but I feel I need to read something a little lighter next, too many spy stories with graphic details of murder and mayhem can be a bit depressing in a world of mainly bad news.
Just finished Beloved by Toni Morrison (For blokey beer n book club)
Took a while to tune into what was going on due to the writing style, but well worth the effort. Slavery, trauma and a ghost!
Just finished The Gallows Pole by Ben Myers, a well written piece of historical fiction. Could be of particular interest to those in or around the Calder valley. Listened to seven chapters of RTE's Ulysses on flights recently, will do the rest in July. Have Henry Marsh's book lined up on brain surgery, Do No Harm.
I'm currently reading The Books of Babel series by by Josiah Bancroft (Sci-fi Fantasy?). It took me a while to get into the first book (Senlin Ascends) but by the end was enjoying it and was eager to read the second. I think Bancroft does a good job of transporting you to his world of Babel. I would describe it as a 'nothing too heavy' switch off read, but there is also definitely a bit of a social commentary subtext going on. I'm now on the third book and hope the fourth and final book is a fitting end.
Still on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – at about page 380 of 1,200 now and I’m up to September 1938 and Case Green.
Posted 1 month ago
Update - now on page 750. France have just capitulated, Hitler wrongly assumes Great Britain will ask for peace but Churchill has just made his 'Finest Hour' speech. Anyone that is remotely interested in the World Wars should really read this absolutely fascinating book.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir(d)
It's a bit strange (sci-fi) and, by a long chalk, not my usual genre (historical non-fiction).
Recommended by Neil de Grasse Tyson in his Star Talk podcast.
Johnson at Number 10 - Anthony Seldon. First of probably many to look at Johnsons time as PM. Overall it's somewhat sympathetic to him, but at the same time does not hide the authors obvious criticism and exposes his pretty fundamental flaws. The book aimes a pretty critical bullet at the ministers and advisors with whom Johnson surrounded himself
On Tyranny and On Ukraine - Timothy Synder, bought these as a two for one. On Tyranny is a guide to not being a dick really, it's just a manifesto of how to behave if you're worried that you live in a country that seems to sliding towards despotism. Can be read in an afternoon. Buy it and give it to your children. On Ukraine is his exploration of the history of it, why Putin is wrong, and why you may have the wrong idea about the war. Is designed for the sorts of Americans who probably won't read it because: Tucker Carlson and Trump exist.
A Stranger In Your Own City - Ghailth Abdul-Ahad: Personal account of the 2nd Iraq War from an Iraqi architecture student turned interpreter, cameraman, and reporter.
Ultra Processed People - Chris Van Tulleken: Why your ultra low carb/ultra low fat diet isn't having the long term health effects that you think it should do. Or why it's OK to eat properly made bread, but not cornflakes.
Anyone that is remotely interested in the World Wars should really read this absolutely fascinating book.
Absolutely, it's without doubt the best in an overcrowded field about the Nazis.
Absolutely, it’s without doubt the best in an overcrowded field about the Nazis.
Yeah, I really don't know where to go to next after I've finished it – I think it might have to be Churchill's memoirs.
Just read 'Command' by Al Murray. Some interesting insights into various WW2 Allied leaders and how that leadership developed from the cluster***ks of early in the war, to later successes. It's got the famous ones like Paton and Montgomery - with all their flaws, but it looks much further down the rank structure too, at company commanders who were successful and what made them so. It doesn't hold any punches either - Orde Wingate of Chindit fame, comes out of it looking like an arrogant, inflexible nutter whose tactics were costly and mostly ineffective. His 'fame' it seems, was largely due to good PR when the allies needed some good news at a stage in the war when the Japanese seemed invincible.
Currently reading Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn, about nature reclaiming spaces abandoned by man. First seen in a recommendation earlier in this thread I think. Early days, but really enjoying it.
Just starting Homegrown, Timothy McVeigh and the rise of right-wing extremism.
Hopefully something the Americans have that doesn’t cross the Atlantic to the same degeee, but with Nat Cons stoking fires who knows.
@johndoh Have a look at Daniel Todman's 2 parter; Britains War. Book One (Into Battle) covers 1937-1941 and book two (A New World) covers 1942 -1947.
Both are blend of politics, both domestic and obviously the war, the military and civilian life both at home and abroad. the first obviously the run up and appeasement, and the seconds runs out at the eve of Partition. It's a really impressive bit of reserach of individual accounts while at the same time these massive complex sweeping technological and social changes.
Just started this one
The Denial: A satirical novel of climate change
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Denial-satirical-novel-climate-change-ebook/dp/B08BWR1R9C
@blokeuptheroad, in my Tsundoku (look it up all you bibliophiles) is "With the Jocks" which is the personal account of Peter White who I think is one of the leaders Al Murray examines in Command. Looking forward to it.