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Wolf Hall
nearly finished that, then i'm on to Green Earth, by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Typee by Herman Melville. I'm quite enjoying it; nothing like the scope or depth of Moby Dick but it has that recognisable witty observation, sense of fun and critical eye.
After that, I need to get going on the next book club choice, the dystopian We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
Just finished Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. A wonderfully concise book which made me laugh out loud umpteen times and did not inspire me to do the Iditarod.
Apeirogon by Colum McCann - really enjoyed it despite the fairly harrowing subject matter. The cadence was good but it did leave a few unanswered questions but maybe that was the point.
<span class="bbp-author-name">@Bikingcatastrophe my sister and brother in law know Peter and have advised him on matters around arson. He's even made Mac the County Fire Officer in his books as a thank you. I really enjoy them especially the fact that it's set so locally and has so much detail of real places I know well.</span>
<span class="bbp-author-name">Currently reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. It's an incredible piece of writing, I can't possibly convey in words just what she can do with them, it's like magic.</span>
The Old Ways - Robert Macfarlane
Beautifully written.
Police at the station and theu dont look friendly by Adrian McKinty, I did enjoy it , come to the end of the Sean Duffy novels, just ordered Berlin Game, Len Deighton.
My novel reccommndation would be Covenant with Death John Harris - a novel written by a veteran of the The Somme about a bunch of young lads joining a Pals battalion in 1915.
Currently reading Neil Stephenson’s new book, ‘Termination Shock’, about halfway through. Very pertinent, set about seven years ahead, featuring geo-engineering to try to control climate warming, the conflict between India and China, even briefly mentions Harry and Megan!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termination_Shock_(novel)
I've just started the new Neal Stephenson, only about 8 pages in so far. I have just had another go at the Samuil Petrovich series which I do like. I also dip in and out of Jay Stringer's books.
This is funny, an easy read- and a real eye opener on what it's actually like to be a doctor. Even though I work alongside doctors every day in a hospital I had no idea! It's certainly helped me understand their profession a lot more.
It's essentially a long series of anecdotes, so very easy to pick up but also a bit too easy to put down again, as there's no plot to keep you page turning
Signs of the Inka Khipu - Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records.
Exactly as it sounds...
Have you got to the bit where he references Alan Garner’s book ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’?
Yes - MrsSalmon has the Weirdstone of Brisingamen on CD in the car, it's really good!
I did leave Underland alone for a while though after hearing Macfarlane on the radio - he got on my nerves a bit for some reason
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Because my wife picked it up in a charity shop. A tough read. First published in 2003. Quite suprising that in the course of his research for the book the author interviewed several participants in the events described. I hadn't realised Khrushchev was up to his neck in the purges of the late 1930s and WW2. But being in power after Stalin's death was able to cover up the extent of his involvement by destroying papers.
Also quite chilling descriptions of the Katyn massacre. Thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals murdered by the Russian during WW2 on Stalin' orders. Thousands of the Poles were killed by Vasily_Blokhinn with a bullet to the head as they were led into a room at 3 minute intervals. Believed to be the most prolific executioner in history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Blokhin#Role_in_the_Katyn_massacre
Laidlaw by William Macilvaney. The daddy of all the "tartan noir". Now with the passage of time evokes Glasgow in the 70s in all its glory. You can picture the pubs hazy with fag smoke and hear the bones crunching when life turns violent.
Sorry, but I'm enjoying this...
Roadside free box pick up. Always worth a rummage.
Also quite chilling descriptions of the Katyn massacre
I think more chilling is perhaps the fact that under Gorbechev, who I think was the first CCCP leader to admit to Russian involvement (under Glasnost) and then Yelstin releasing the signed orders of Stalin, things have once again returned to outright denial under Putin, who's once again claiming it was Nazi propaganda.
just ordered Berlin Game, Len Deighton.
You can watch the excellent 80s TV series starring Ian Holme as Bernard Sampson on Youtube. 13 x 1 hour episodes.
I watched it, for the first time in 20 odd years, earlier this year.
Civilisations - Laurent Binet.
If the conquistadors didn't conquist and the Inca then invaded Europe.
I think more chilling is perhaps the fact that under Gorbechev, who I think was the first CCCP leader to admit to Russian involvement (under Glasnost) and then Yelstin releasing the signed orders of Stalin, things have once again returned to outright denial under Putin, who’s once again claiming it was Nazi propaganda.
Posted 20 minutes ago
True. The book was published in 2003 so the research would have been conducted during the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras. Probably couldn't be done now.
I'm reading the new Joey Dunlop book - Joey Dunlop The definitive Biography. It's a good read. Lots of background info about his life off the track.
You can watch the excellent 80s TV series starring Ian Holme as Bernard Sampson
Ian Holm as Bernie Samson was miscast IMO. Though not as bad as Gary Oldman playing George Smiley.
Just sitting down to start The Book of Joy – His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams. It's been sitting on my to read pile for ages and I'm finally feeling like reading it. Looking forward to some joy, optimism and positive perspectives.
You can watch the excellent 80s TV series starring Ian Holme as Bernard Sampson on Youtube. 13 x 1 hour episodes.
Nice one cheers
Jah Wobble’s “Memoirs of a Geezer”
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