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Peter White who I think is one of the leaders Al Murray examines in Command.
He is, and Murray read 'with the Jocks' as background - I need to seek out a copy, White sounds an interesting fella.
Another recommendation for those with an interest in WW2, is 'Quartered safe out here' by George McDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman books. It's a personal account of his service in the Burma campaign with the Border regiment, first as a Tom and later commissioning as a Lieutenant. It's a really gripping account although his experience leaves him with a visceral hatred of the Japanese (common I think to many who fought in the far east) to the point of getting very angry in the epilogue about those who questioned the necessity of the nuclear attacks on Japan. The moralities and rights and wrongs of that aside, it's a superb insight into an infantryman's lot in the far east in WW2.
‘Quartered safe out here’ by George McDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman books.
Absolutely brilliant. I remember watching him interviewed on the South Bank Show back in the day. His hatred of the Japanese was quite a thing.
Currently reading Russia by Anthony Beevor, quite a history.
Also re-reading The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams on the side.
‘With the Jocks’
This was one of the first WW books I read and I can certainly recommend it – what really came out from it for me was White's thoughts that at any other time, he could have been friends with the people he was fighting against (as in he appreciated that the 'normal' soldier was only doing what they were told to do just as he was).
Just finished High Fidelity by Nick Hornby for a bit of retro. Light reading but its a rare case where I think the film is better than the book!
Talking of retro I have finally started the Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson with Neuromancer. Considering its central themes of AI, big data, metaverse etc Its absolutely crazy to think it was written in 1984
On Tyranny and On Ukraine – Timothy Synder
Reading that now @nickc after reading an interview in the guardian I think. He's not a man filled with self doubt is he, but very readable. Also have With the Jocks on the Kindle. Added those two other WW2 books - not heard of those before.
Also with my quest to investigate every sci-fi trope, I'm reading the 4 book "Old Mans War" series. Well written, rattles along and has some occasional proper science in it.
He is not @Al. you're not wrong. I think you and I must have read the same Sat Guardian article. I think it's an intriguing read nevertheless and his description of Putin's unique take on fascism is very interesting and well observed.
I'd forgotten this thread was still going!
Just finished: Real Tigers (Slow Horses book 3), Mick Herron. Excellent, and felt like possibly the best of the three I've read so far, after a slightly week second one.
Now onto the Orchard Keeper, Cormac McCarthy.
And just had a big ol' delivery of secondhand books to add to the pile, including Welcome to Lagos, The Wife's Tale, a Tchaikovsky sci-fi, and Ringworld for some old-school scifi. Bosh!
He is not @Al. you’re not wrong. I think you and I must have read the same Sat Guardian article. I think it’s an intriguing read nevertheless and his description of Putin’s unique take on fascism is very interesting and well observed.
Yep that's what drew me in. Like you I've read a lot of military history and I was keen to get some new perspectives.
Just finished High Fidelity by Nick Hornby for a bit of retro. Light reading but its a rare case where I think the film is better than the book!
I missed this. I cannot let it pass. I LOVE that book. The film is pretty good but the book is so much better. I could read the section on him re-organising his record collection every day 🙂
‘Quartered safe out here’ by George McDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman books.
Can I also recommend his MacAuslan series, I think there are 3. Affectionate, funny and slightly biographical stories of a postwar Scottish regiment.
Just finished High Fidelity by Nick Hornby for a bit of retro. Light reading but its a rare case where I think the film is better than the book!
I missed this. I cannot let it pass. I LOVE that book. The film is pretty good but the book is so much better. I could read the section on him re-organising his record collection every day 🙂
Agreed. Some of Hornby's stuff is very good, but I think you need to be a certain sort of person to pick up on the detail. 😀
Also with my quest to investigate every sci-fi trope, I’m reading the 4 book “Old Mans War” series. Well written, rattles along and has some occasional proper science in it.
Well written in a 'rattle along so quickly that the reader doesn't have time to question' way. 😀 I read The Last Colony a few weeks ago. It was enjoyable in that US militaristic way, but absolute rubbish. Not as many ideas as in the first 2 books either.
Recently read:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Can anyone tell me what I missed? This is supposed to be a modern classic, and although it starts well, it disappears up itself for the last 300 pages. I was glad to finish it.
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn - thoroughly enjoyed this.
Warpaths by John Keegan. An account of his travels through North America with accounts of the various campaigns along the way. Interesting but 30 years old.
The Duel by Joseph Conrad. The longish short story that Ridley Scott's The Duellists was closely based on. I enjoy a bit of Conrad. Claustrophobic, 19th century verbiage. 😀
The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
Is that the murder set in the stuffy American university inhabited by wholly hateful characters? Yeah, I struggled with it after a while, it is about 150 pages too long for its own good.
Is that the murder set in the stuffy American university inhabited by wholly hateful characters? Yeah, I struggled with it after a while, it is about 150 pages too long for its own good.
That's the one. I couldn't get to grips with the insufferable characters, the narrator who did absolutely nothing with respect to the plot or 300 pages of heavy drinking, drug-taking angsty conversations.
Currently reading "The Nightmare Stacks", book 7 of the Laundry Files by Charles Stross. Pretty damn awesome series.
Having not touched Asimov probalby since my teens, I'm currently re-reading the Foundation series (I'm up to book 3 quite quickly, it's not hard reading), and am intending to pick up the Robots books as well.
Recently finished the Avison Fluke novels from M.W. Craven, and books 2 and 3 of the DS Max Craigie books from Neil Lancaster - all police / crime novels, from 2 authors worth checking out if that's your bag.
I've just finished the Earth Remembrance/Three Body Problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin. Absolutely rammed with ideas and really interesting to read SciFi from a Chinese perspective so lots more focus on collective endeavour than in western SciFi I think
Final book overplays the ending I think but well worth the investment
Reading the Burma Campaign by Frank Mclynn. Good insight into the bonkers politics of the higher command. Slim comes out with credit. Less so others....
Personal connection with "Quartered Safe Out Here" By George Macdonald Fraser - the book is dedicated to my great uncle who was killed in an attack on a Japanese strongpoint described in the book. I think south of Mandalay. Very personal to me - he's buried in Rangoon (Yangon).
Just started Bringing Down Goliath, by Jo Maugham - interesting read so far, bit of a biography anda refreshingly accessible overview of the legal system and its relationship with government.
Talking of retro I have finally started the Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson with Neuromancer. Considering its central themes of AI, big data, metaverse etc Its absolutely crazy to think it was written in 1984
I finally finished it last week, damn I wish I'd read them when they were new. Can't say I really enjoyed the series, but had to keep reminding myself this was the book that spawned a lot of modern Sci-fi, and wasn't re-working someone elses ideas. Going to try his other stuff, and see if I enjoy that any better.
Also just completed Hugh Howey's Sand omnibus, which I enjoyed way more than I expected.
On the look out for something new... between Mick Herron books
Having not touched Asimov probalby since my teens, I’m currently re-reading the Foundation series (I’m up to book 3 quite quickly, it’s not hard reading), and am intending to pick up the Robots books as well.
I am vaguely temped after watching Foundation on Apple TV - can't remember that much from the books.
My favourite Asimov was The End of Eternity - I’d totally forgotten about it as I read it in early 80s but watching Dark reminded me! I think it was a pre-prequel to the Foundation series
Mick Herron's - Bad actors.
Very good.
The Quarry - Iain Banks.
I am a big Banks fan and have been putting off reading this for a long time,I thought it would be too sad.
I was right,it's a tough read 😔
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Poverty-stricken farmers in the US mid-west getting forced off their land by mechanisation. Not as bleak as it sounds.
I read it a few years ago. Loved it. What an ending! I then read a lot more Steinbeck. East of Eden I enjoyed even more.
Currently reading and enjoying Small things like these by Claire Keegan. Very interesting.
Just finished Crime by Irvine Welsh, now on Bob Mortimer's The Satsuma Complex. Very Bob Mortimer so far.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Poverty-stricken farmers in the US mid-west getting forced off their land by mechanisation. Not as bleak as it sounds.
I read it a few years ago. Loved it. What an ending!
Yes, the most perfect ending to a book, ever. Often you get to the end of a book and think 'Is that it'? Or want it to carry on, but the closure on that final page is a thing of almost unique beauty.
But I dispute the claim 'not as bleak as it sounds' – it's pretty bleak at times!
I usually find myself looking at Dorothea Lange photography whilst I am reading it as she beautifully captures the essence of the characters in the book (being similar people during the Great Depression years).
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh is much better than the film, IMO.
I suppose the Grapes of Wrath is pretty bleak, but he doesn't dwell on their plight. Day to day life goes on...
Try 'Down and Out in London and Paris' by George Orwell, if you liked the Grapes of Wrath.
TBF, he could've written a Post-It and I would read it.
Bob Mortimer’s The Satsuma Complex. Very Bob Mortimer so far.
Very much this - really enjoyed it
Two at the moment, one is the second of Ben Aaronovitch’s ‘Rivers of London’ series - I’d read the first two ages ago, and enjoyed them, so I decided to start from the first one, and I’ve downloaded all of them up to book 8; I’ll get book 9, the latest, when I start 8.
The other is a book that belonged to my late partner, ‘McCarthy’s Bar’, by Pete McCarthy. It was her favourite book, she lived in Schull, near Cork, for around fifteen years, and loved it there, but she was forced to come back to England after her relationship broke up, and it was something of a lifeline to a happier time for her. Plus it’s very funny. It’s taken me two years and two months to bring myself to read it, having taken a bunch of books back to the charity shop where she got them from; I won’t be parting with this book though.
Talking of retro I have finally started the Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson with Neuromancer. Considering its central themes of AI, big data, metaverse etc Its absolutely crazy to think it was written in 1984
I finally finished it last week, damn I wish I’d read them when they were new. Can’t say I really enjoyed the series, but had to keep reminding myself this was the book that spawned a lot of modern Sci-fi, and wasn’t re-working someone elses ideas. Going to try his other stuff, and see if I enjoy that any better.
Bill Gibson’s books always go in trilogies, despite everything he tries not to. As the series go on, the settings and the technologies involved become much more like what we see everyday, except when you look at the dates the books were written, he’s still anticipating things that hadn’t happened yet. I’ve read them all, as they were being published, which requires a lot of patience - he’s not a fast writer, in much the same way as how he talks; long pauses between sentences as he considers what he’s going to say next.
Met him twice, at the Brighton World Science Fiction Convention, in ‘85, the year after ‘Neuromancer’ was published, and at a signing organised by Toppings Books in Bath, when ‘The Periferal’ came out. Lovely bloke.
My favourite series is the ‘Blue Ant’, trilogy - ‘Pattern Recognition’, ‘Spook Country’ and ‘Zero History’, they’re much more noir-ish, he’s pretty much dropped any pretence at writing SF by this point, he can’t keep ahead of the technology.
Yes, the most perfect ending to a book, ever. Often you get to the end of a book and think ‘Is that it’? Or want it to carry on, but the closure on that final page is a thing of almost unique beauty.
Agree with this. There are some authors I love who just have the crappest endings to their books.
Also an Orwell fan and have read every novel but just haven’t ever got my hands in London and Paris yet, despite wanting to ever since learning about the Mass Observation studies of the late 30s.
Yes, the most perfect ending to a book, ever.
It's very biblical. Purposefully so
Also an Orwell fan and have read every novel but just haven’t ever got my hands in London and Paris yet, despite wanting to ever since learning about the Mass Observation studies of the late 30s.
@reeksy If you haven't already read it "Our Hidden Lives" by Simon Garfield is worth your time. He's compiled entries from a number of MOP contributors into a sort of composite diary of the immediate post-war period. It's fascinating stuff.
'The looking glass war'.I,m going through a John Le Carre period.
Also an Orwell fan and have read every novel but just haven’t ever got my hands in London and Paris yet, despite wanting to ever since learning about the Mass Observation studies of the late 30s.
Down and out in Paris and London is excellent, so is The Road to Wigan Pier. However, they are now both considered to be partly works of fiction, or at least exaggeration.
I wanna be yours - John Cooper Clarke's autobiography; accompanied by dipping into his poetry collections.
Black Gold by Jeremy Paxman; 'the history of how coal made Britain'.
Next up - How Democracies Die and Empireland.
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.
Have downloaded this on the back of your updates, ta. 🙂
Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Really enjoyed it - I started The System of the World a few years ago and didn't get on with it at all, but I was pleasantly surprised by how readable this was. Funny too. Debating whether to try Quicksilver now, may make more sense starting at no. 1 in the trilogy.
Also been re-reading The Shining after my eldest started his Stephen King phase recently. Forgot how much back story didn't make it into the film, in many ways I think the film is better.
About halfway through Al Robertson's Waking Hell, the followup to Crashing Heaven which I really liked. It's pretty terrible. In fact it's kind of Peter F Hamilton After He Got Uneditable terrible. It's pretty hard to believe it's the same author, even recurring characters are written so differently. I'll finish it but I'm kind of glad the next part in the series seems like it might just never come out.
SO because of that I'm also reading Regeneration by Pat Barker, a novel based on Siegfriend Sassoon and Wilfred Owen's time at Craiglockhart war hospital. Always a bit squicky, this sort of fictionalised history, and I can't really equate the Sassoon in the novel with the absolute ball of rage that he clearly was at the time, but that aside it's really good, and is telling a horrible history in an accessible way.
I live near where Pat Barker grew up.My mate lives on the same street(Union Street,M,bro.
@johnners thanks I haven’t heard of that but will check it out.
I have a 90s academic book about it MOP somewhere.
Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Really enjoyed it – .................. Debating whether to try Quicksilver now, may make more sense starting at no. 1 in the trilogy.
I really enjoyed Cryptonomicon so bought Quicksilver soon after. I'd never accuse Stephenson of being a bad writer but he desperately needs a good editor, especially in Quicksilver. The book is full of really lovely but extremely long scene-setting descriptions, where Stephenson almost revels in how clever he is in bringing London back to life. I stopped reading it after enduring a long section - I'm thinking 17 pages long, but it was a while ago - describing a carriage journey through London.
Where nothing happened.
I got through it with very little patience left, only to have the main character describe the long journey, in length, to another character. I think I was several hundred pages in and nothing of note had happened except somebody had exploded, which was barely mentioned in among the florid scenery descriptions. I haven't read anything by NS since.
The Thomas Hardy approach to creative writing. I remember doing lit at school and a entire double lesson passing while a field and a tree were meticulously described 😉
Coincidentally @northwind, I was looking at my copy The Reality Dysfunction when I read your post. Started in on hols 15 years ago, never finished it. It's now been further relegated in the reading order.
@IdleJohn I think I did the same thing with Quicksilver as well.
I took a step back into time when I found my old Nook eReader thing and realised I had "Executive Orders" by Tom Clancy started on it. It's an interesting read when looking at it with today's eyes and you can see a lot of thing in there that today's neo-liberal conservatives would approve of.
It is by no means a good book, but the use of a pandemic and the reaction of what is effectively an authoritarian president to it is interesting to read about following Covid.
The Thomas Hardy approach to creative writing.
Thing is, I love Thomas Hardy's writing. I think I've read everything he wrote. One short story described the breakdown of a marriage while the couple stayed in a seaside B&B which was one of the most perfect bits of writing I've ever read, while simultaneously being complete free of any events at all. 😀
I was looking at my copy The Reality Dysfunction when I read your post.
I've just been reading this trilogy. I'm into The Naked God. I pretty much don't care about any of the characters at this point. And I'm confused as to what's happening and where. There's so many sub plots. The only reason I'm going to finish is so I don't wonder if it finished strong!
Have downloaded this on the back of your updates, ta.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I am doing! Currently, Hitler and Ribentropp are trying to nurture relationships with Russia, Italy and Japan, promising them all the spoils of what they assume is to be a soon-to-be-broken British Empire, whilst at the same time secretly plotting to invade Russia.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I am doing! Currently, Hitler and Ribentropp are trying to nurture relationships with Russia, Italy and Japan, promising them all the spoils of what they assume is to be a soon-to-be-broken British Empire, whilst at the same time secretly plotting to invade Russia.
Careful with the spoilers. 😀
Just starting Homegrown, Timothy McVeigh and the rise of right-wing extremism.
Was intrigued and downloaded this an an audiobook. It's a bit slow in parts but very useful and if you're at all interetsed in far right groups in the US, this should be on your reading list. It does fill in the gaps in your knowledge about groups like the 3%'ers and Proud Boys
Spaceships Over Glasgow - Stuart Braithwaite.
I generally prefer their instrumental stuff so we'll see how this goes.
Update: I'm now on the final straight with 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' (at a massive 1,200 blind-point pages long). The final unsuccessful German push in the Ardennes has just failed and what is left of his armies (now containing many kids as young as 15 and old men of up to 60) is imploding.
As light relief, I've just bought East of Eden by John Steinbeck as my next read.
I found "My Shit Life So Far" by Frankie Boyle in a charity shop and have just finished it. Damn funny.
William Faulkner's "As I Lie Dying" is next. I like to shift genres 🙂
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, all about the world of fungi, it's fascinating stuff.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
I was a bit dubious as it won the Pulitzer Prize and things that win awards aren't usually books that I get on with fro some reason.
It was a slow start for the first couple of chapters but once you get in to it it's a bloody good read.
I found “My Shit Life So Far” by Frankie Boyle in a charity shop and have just finished it. Damn funny.
Always remember a man on a train snorting with surpressed laughter most of the way from Birmingham to London, and when I caught a glimpse of the cover, it was that. Great book. 🙂
Not got far but still dipping in and out of RAFO The Third Reich - it's a fascinating read, if not the cheeriest of subjects! Also re-reading Shogun for the umpteenth time - that book is enduringly fascinating for me. 🙂
Just finished The Great North Road after reading a recommendation on the sci-fi thread. Thoroughly enjoyable read. Back to working my way through James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels now
Fed up with Game of Thrones (last book). To be honest I hope this is never finished... It's gone totally lame.
Anyway,interim book being read.
Just finished.
And this, in-between GoT.
Suspended Animation: An Unauthorised History of Herald & Britains Plastic Figurines
And...
https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/the-shipwrecked-men/book/
Third in the Murderbot series, which is great if you like your robots sarcastic (I do).
About 100 pages into East of Eden and really enjoying it - I know (although I hope not) that I’m going to be upset as I’m getting kinda invested with some of the main protagonists.
Fantastic book, wish I could read it again for the first time. Sam Hamilton is a beautifully written character.
“As I Lie Dying” is next.
Couldn't work out what the fudge was going on, so have abandoned it for now. Two pieces of trash on the go - my mum gave me "Sniper Number One" by Sgt, Dan something or other, about the Iraq war. Godawful writing, but once I got going finding it interesting. It's my wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night reading.
Also some thriller thing I bought off Amazon (I've looked through the online list of what's on my Kindle and I have no idea what it's called!. It's passing the time) 🙂
Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker for me, given to me by some family member. It's... good? Sort of 20 years from now vision of the future, where people still live very recognisable lives being authors or insurance administrators and live in terraced houses in London, but the NHS has been sold and the environment is down the pan. And there's a cat.
About half way through 1923, Ned Boultings new book.
Really good so far
The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet
Part travelogue, part investigation into Trumpland, it starts with a autobiography of Harry Belafonte, about his work as part of the Civil Rights movement in the 60's and ends with a similar portrait of Lee Hayes The book is mostly interviews and portraits of the various fringe folks that inhabit or grift from the right in America, (the Trumpists, the gun rights, the evangelicals) and documents his attempts to understand the journey and role of Ashli Babbett (to whom he's broadly sympathetic). why they reject science are largely undemocratic and why some of them really do think that democrats are baby eating Satan worshippers, and goes on to speak to some folks trying to escape from it, or force their lives onto a different path, the subplot to it all is Jeff's own failing health and he intersperses and reflects the America he finds with his own fragility. The Undertow refers to the fact that he's broadly recording what he thinks is the opening slow gradual separation of the US into civil war
It's a beautifully written book, perhaps even a future classic.
Found it, my current is called "Just Fall" by Nina Sadowsky. Not that I recommend it or anything. 🙂
Two more finished:
Anxious People, by Fredrick Backman. A kind of poinient comedy. I thought at the start it was trying too hard to be funny, but turns out to be a thoughtful and very readable book.
Extremely Loud Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Reminded me immediately of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, but with a lot more going on. Lots of dealing with grief and trauma, but not heavy or depressing. Definitely a worthwhile read.
Over my holidays I finished
Great Hatred: The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP. An interesting read about a little known act on one of the major figures of WW1 and the ramifications elsewhere. An acquaintance is a relative of one of the assassins and introduced me to the book. Strangely I was then at home without a book on the go so picked up and re-read The Patient Assassin. Similar story, establishment figure getting whacked. Both quite good reads.
Manifesto by Vince Dale.
A good dose of optimism and all that's wrong for this world with the current "capitalist" system.
Can't remember who recommended the "Laundry Files" by Charles Stross. Both my better half and I are four books in and really enjoying them. Quite dark in places, not sure how it gets to 12 books!
It also segued into listening to the excellent 'The Lovecraft files' on BBC Sounds on a recent trip to Scotland. Recommended if you like the HP Lovecraft world. Shame they didn't do a fourth series...
In what seems like a concerted effort to depress myself:
Mobilizing Hate, Martin Davidson How the Nazis turned a normally functioning state into a Holocaust enabling nightmare.
Big Caesars and Little Caesars, Ferdinand Mount: exploration of how both proper demagogues and semi-demagogues, gain, hold onto and lose power. It's worth it alone for the chapters he eviscerates Johnson
Currently on The Decade in Tory, Russell Jones: some of you will no doubt be familiar with his weekly twitter threads "The Week In Tory" this is the same only in long form, a depressing run through of all the ways the Tories have ****ed this country since they got elected in 2010. Read only with access to strong drink
Just finished The Rider by Tim Karabbe. Found it in a second hand book shop on holiday. Can’t believe I’d never heard of it before - it’s a description of a low level fictional road race set in the 70s from a rider’s perspective. Bit weird but certainly worth a read
The Eight Mountains
Just finished The Rider by Tim Karabbe. Found it in a second hand book shop on holiday. Can’t believe I’d never heard of it before – it’s a description of a low level fictional road race set in the 70s from a rider’s perspective. Bit weird but certainly worth a read
Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafés. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.
Great book that one Winston.
just read Guy Martins autobio, adds another dimension to my understanding of rider's approach to goin crazy fast, and the hurdles to overcome on the way to bein as fast as you can be.
Did seem like he got the short straw too often
I can totally understand why he'd want to be lone in his camper the week of the TT, physical support is great but I feel Id want to get the headspace if I was to race like that