What book (s) are you reading now ?

Just finished the Warlord trilogy by Bernard Cornwell, now onto the Cicero trilogy by Robert Harris.

nr: Davids Graeber & Wengrow – The Dawn of Everything. It’s quite orange.

Just started the Agatha Raisin series, it’s light hearted after finishing Ben Macintyre’s – ‘The spy and traitor’. It was well written but hard to read with this dreadful war going on.

I’ve got two on the go at the minute both loosely fall into the 20th century military history category. A period of history I find interesting and one that seems relevant to much of the current global instability.

Rhapsody In Blue, an autobiography of an RAF pilot who flew through the cold war years, was involved in the Harrier test programme etc.

I’ve also just started a book called “The Vietnam War” by Geoffrey C Ward and Ken Burns. It’s a conflict and region I know little about and picked it up on a whim at Duxford a couple of weeks back. It’s well reviewed and, so far, well written. I’m still working through the political and ideological history at the beginning of the book.

Lee Child, Better off dead. The latest Jack Reacher novel. Sorry 😁

“Riding Out: A Life-Affirming Journey Around the Coast of Britain”

https://g.co/kgs/sQFWoB

really enjoyed reading this.

Robert Jordan – The Great Hunt
Book two of The Wheel of Time series

Musical Truth Jeffrey Boakye
Pre Raphaelites T Hilton
and the Oliver Eagleton book has just arrived

If anyone’s interested in dipping into a bit of Joyce, this recording is unbelievalbly good and much easier on the brain than battling with the book. Ch 14 is my favourite, like a book in itself. Read the notes, they’re good. Going deeper, R Ellman’s biography of Joyce is excellent and Italo Svevo’s ‘Confessions of Zeno’ gives an insight into the bloke on whom Leopold Bloom was based. Ch 1 on giving up smoking is hilarious.

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0610/1146705-listen-ulysses-james-joyce-podcast/

Oh and it’s 100 yrs since it was published and banned. It is indeed full of filth.

I’m probably about 10% into the Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein, and absolutely in love. Partly because of the sci-fi-wrapped-in-fantasy thing, I always like that, partly because it’s just well written, but I think mostly because so far it’s so bloody friendly. Nobody seems to have a dark past, or to have had their parents murdered, the world seems not driven by evil or misery, people work together to get shit done… It’s almost the perfect antidote to the modern day “Fantasy in which everyone is a dick” thing. I mean, I love that too, but it’s nice to have happy positive people facing adversity in a rational way.

I’m sure it’ll change as it goes on but so far I love it just about as much as I’ve loved any book in the last decade.

Night boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry. Readable, hilarious and unfolding as a tragedy…

Just started Ben MacIntyre, Agent Sonya. Great read as are all his books I’ve read. Would like to go see the film based upon one of his books.

On with 100 Years of Solitude at the moment. Finding it a little hard going – the fact that a number of the characters have the same or similar names isn’t helping!

Rereading Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, makes you think about the language we otherwise use every day without any thought at all. 🙂

On with 100 Years of Solitude at the moment. Finding it a little hard going – the fact that a number of the characters have the same or similar names isn’t helping!

😆😆😆 You stop worrying about that after a while and just enjoy the story

@Northwind
What did you think of the Steerswoman?
I was given a copy ages ago that I had forgotten all about,so thanks for the reminder.
Really enjoyed it and The Outskirter’s Secret just arrived this morning 😀

Just finished Dave Grohls biography, certainly perpetuates the ‘nicest guy on rock and roll’ strapline. I’d received this and the Bob Mortimer ones for Xmas, both were rather enjoyable even though I’m not particularly a bio reader.

Up next will either be Ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman(reread) or a Rory Clements book (traditional ww2 spy caper).

100 Years of Solitude

So many Ursulas! I remember enjoying it, but had to let go a bit and just enjoy its oneiric* style

*sorry, a word I discovered meaning ‘dreamlike’ that, now that I know it, I must use whenever appropriate, which is not often.

Currently reading The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem – delightfully funny and imaginative Sci fi short stories. I’ve been reading some bits out to the kids who are loving it too.

The Invisible Cross by Andrew Davison – a collection of letters home and War Diary entries from an officer in WW1 (with author text to flesh them out with broader information about the ongoing war). Very interesting to read an account that isn’t just detailing the frontline horror, it is more of a personal experience of solitude, loneliness, frustrations, and the repetition war brings.

Mike Heron ‘You know what you could be’ (for any youngsters, folkies around Edinburgh in the 60s who formed the Incredible String Band). Entertaining read. Have also got Barry Miles ‘biography of William Burroughs lined up.

Robert Jordan – The Great Hunt
Book two of The Wheel of Time series

Wow that takes me back! My English teacher and tutor in the sixth form read these and used to pass them on to me afterwards. I remember I used the flame visualisation technique that the hero uses to help with kicking conversions in rugby.

Currently I’m reading Breath by James Nestor and Deadly Beautiful by Liana Joy Christiansen – all about getting a realistic perspective on dangerous animals.

Currently reading Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce. It’s interesting and quite unexpected.

Next up is Walking in Circles by Todd Wassel – recommended on here some time ago by @pondo. (How’s the Japanese coming along?) 🙂

Just finished The mote in God’s eye by Niven and Pournelle. I rather enjoyed it. Great concept, ridiculous and funny.

Just started the Hobbit, took a couple of chapters to get into it but quite enjoying it now.

Next up is Walking in Circles by Todd Wassel – recommended on here some time ago by @pondo. (How’s the Japanese coming along?) 🙂

Ah ha, I hope you enjoy it! I thought it was great, but then I do rather have a fetish for Japan… 🙂

That said, the language learning has gone on hold – off to France this summer, so switched to French. I shall go back to Japanese at some point! 🙂

Just picked up The Boy, Richard Williams’ biography of Stirling Moss – early days but top notch so far. 🙂

Ah ha, I hope you enjoy it! I thought it was great, but then I do rather have a fetish for Japan… 🙂

That said, the language learning has gone on hold – off to France this summer, so switched to French. I shall go back to Japanese at some point! 🙂

👍 Much to interest me too in Japanese culture … so I suspect I will enjoy this book. Would like to visit some day. Hope you have a great holiday in France. 🙂

Like all Peter’s works it’s very comprehensively researched, is detailed and no doubt hyper accurate, which also like Peter’s works can sometimes get in the way of the humans that are in it. It’s dense and fascinating, and has some genuinely new things to say about a part of the war that’s too often just a paragraph or two tacked onto the end of studies about the breakout from Normandy or the aftermath of the Ardennes campaign, or a side story to the Russian coming from the East.

The Ratline by Phillipe Sands, author of East West Street, another very well recommended read.

Just finished The Spy & the Traitor by Oleg Gordievsky. 100% recommend, nail biting page turner, truth being far more shocking than fiction.

Bob Mortimer and Paul white houses book on fishing based on the TV show, it’s brilliant

Just finished The mote in God’s eye by Niven and Pournelle. I rather enjoyed it. Great concept, ridiculous and funny.

I’ve read this a couple of times now, great fun. Wonder what happened to my copy.

Currently working my way through the Montalbano detective novels when I have nothing else to hand, and on non fiction I was in a holiday cottage last week and there was a copy of Captain ‘Winkle’ Brown’s main book. I thought of nicking it, but restrained myself and ordered myself a secondhand copy on return. Turned out to be a signed first edition too, bonus!

I’ve also been planning rides round prehistory sites lately and google alerted me to Julian Cope’s big orange book from a few years back, so I put that on my birthday list and it’s very very good.

And my mate’s new Roman army adventure book has just landed on my doorstep but I haven’t even read the first chapter, so I won’t recommend it, yet. It’ll be bang on for historical accuracy and terminology though.

Just finished Lemmy’s ‘White Line Fever’. Oddly enough bought it in the very sedate second hand shop in Wightwick Manor and it was so jaunty I finished it in two days.

Recently switching between Tim Parks (Italian Ways and Italian Education) and Simon Winder (Lotharingia and Danubia) both excellent travel writers/historians who can put across their love of a subject whilst also poking gentle fun at it in a humorous way. Both have had me laughing out loud and desperately looking for someone else who has read them so we can enthuse together 🙄

Currently I’m reading Breath by James Nestor

@reeksy is this the one my physio was telling me about, literally about improving how you breathe and the benefits of doing so? Need to give it a read

Afropean by Jonny Pitts, an absolute must read. Changed my whole perception of Africaness and what it means.

Just finished Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch. The latest in the Rivers Of London series.

Now reading Dune after a 99p Kindle PSA on here.

@13thfloormonk yes, that’s the one. I read about it on hear.

@reeksy is this the one my physio was telling me about, literally about improving how you breathe and the benefits of doing so? Need to give it a read

Breath through your nose – I just saved you some cash. 😉 I found that book uninspiring

Breath through your nose – I just saved you some cash. 😉 I found that book uninspiring

😆

Might still give it a try, have been mucking about with chest/diaphragm breathing in part to help relax tight low back (seems to help) but also had some decent results on the bike, apart from flecking my top tube with snotters whilst chasing segments 😂

@nickc – might have a go at that. Finished Sicily ’43 by James Hollands and he’s another whose research is top notch. Good storyteller as well.  Read ‘Big Week’ before that. Off on hols next week, so have a load of Kindle/real books to choose from including:

Mythos: Steven Fry,  Fake Law: Secret Barrister, Olive, Mable and Me: Andrew Cotter (bought after watching his YT vids), Tornado, John Nichol, Both James O’Brian books (how to be right/wrong) and Beyond by Stephen Walker (Recommended in another thread).

That’ll only leave me about another 30 unread books I’ve bought/received as presents. I need to retire to get on top of the unread collection 🙂

Oh and my guilty Space Opera pleasure has been Backyard Starship series by JN Chaney. Man that bloke writes fast. This one is a collaboration and you can kind of tell. So much stuff going on in each book, hard to keep track but a great humorous easy read when you’re not in the mood to concentrate.

 Fake Law: Secret Barrister

Like a lot of these sorts of polemic books I’ve read recently; Sad little Men by Richard Beard, and The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, come to mind. While they’re all reasonably well written, they all sort of fall into the same trap of repeating the same point over and over and each chapter varies in only slight detail. Here’s why family courts don’t work, in a largely similar way to why criminal law doesn’t really work that you read about previously. Here’s another large family owned estate that’s got a broadly similar history to the previous chapter and I’m again feeling slightly excited and anxious as I walk across their land…

My guilty space opera pleasure continues to be The Expanse series. God they’re shite…but in a compelling and fun way. They really are the book equivalent to eating a family sized Cadbury’s bar all by yourself in one sitting.