Anyways, I read the Joe Abercrombie age of madness trilogy which was decent enough. Some memorable characters in that.

I wrapped up The Blade Itself last week after stepping away from it for a few months. Started Before They Are Hanged immediately after. Abercrombie creates such a unique vibe with memorable characters and cracking dialogue.

Was thinking about returning to the Malazan books recently, after seeing a crazy offer on Humble Bundle. I stopped half way through the third book about 18 years ago, but have always been curious about the utterly bonkers world that Erikson created.

After several months I finally wrapped up “Out of Sheer Rage”. I genuinely have no idea why it was on my list – it’s about an author’s struggles to write a biography of DH Lawrence, and while the first half is vaguely amusing and surprisingly relatable (about how he can’t be arsed, basically, so keeps procrastinating to avoid doing it, then feeling depressed at his procrastination etc), it just dragged.

Anyway, now that’s finally done, I’ve picked up Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time. It’s chunky – 650 pages – but in 3 nights I’m already through about a quarter of it. It’s instantly more engaging than, say, Alastair Reynolds, more humour in it while still keeping fairly hard science.
And The Hollywood Killer is still going, but it’s got a bit gruesome so I’ll come back to it in a few days.

I’m on the final book of Iain Rankin’s Rebus series. It’ll feel weird when I’ve finished it.

Was thinking about returning to the Malazan books recently, after seeing a crazy offer on Humble Bundle. I stopped half way through the third book about 18 years ago, but have always been curious about the utterly bonkers world that Erikson created.

Malazan is worth it, imho, although it’s a lot of books. Erikson is good and knows how to put pen to paper – Malazan has an overall coherence that you almost never see with these massive series – they usually go pear-shaped at some point when the author loses control or interest in the overall narrative. He doesn’t quite pull it off with Malazan (imho) but it’s a unique set of books.

He’s got a similar gift to Abercrombie with dialog and character – a lot of energy in his writing.

I was a very late comer to Terry Pratchett discworld books so I read one of those every third book. They are great and I kick myself for not reading them earlier because they clearly have a lot of cultural references that were current at the time of printing. I have read ten of them so far so plenty more to go.

I don’t often read autobiographies but I am reading and enjoying David Niven, The Moon’s a Balloon.

He’s got a similar gift to Abercrombie with dialog and character – a lot of energy in his writing.

I feel like both of them set out to be nonconformist and write what they wanted to write… and both happened to be more than capable of pulling it off.

Will return to Malazan one day.

I’ve just finished Landlines by Raynor Winn. It’s basically the tale of her & her husband who set off to walk the Cape Wrath Trail from north to south, and when they got to Fort Bill, decided to just keep going, selfsupported and camping much of the way. They finished at home in Cornwall. She previously wrote The Salt Path, covering their trek along the SW Coast Path. All of these things while her husband was suffering with a degenerative brain condition which should have meant he was incapable of walking or doing much for himself, but the whole process of fresh air/exercise, and coping with the challenges that something like this throws at you, actually meant that his symptoms were markedly reduced over the several months involved. There are plenty of “Ooh, it’s rather dusty in here” moments. And her observations on the mess we’re generally making of the world, locally and globally, strike a chord. Very well worth the £11 in the supermarket.

I kick myself for not reading them earlier because they clearly have a lot of cultural references that were current at the time of printing.

Pratchett’s books haven’t dated too badly, the world’s still flat.

Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams is my next after aborting Paul Morley’s utter waffle The Age of Bowie. I used to like Morley in the NME, but a full book is just painful..
Butcher’s Crossing is (hopefully) in the McCarthy vein.

I wrapped up The Blade Itself last week after stepping away from it for a few months. Started Before They Are Hanged immediately after. Abercrombie creates such a unique vibe with memorable characters and cracking dialogue.

I really enjoyed The Blade Itself and subsequent books in the series, and.i highly recommend them – but just haven’t got on with any of his other books. No idea why.

Still (re)reading ‘Bomber Boys by Patrick Bishop – not really enjoying it as much as I remember from the first time around and I can’t decide whether or not the author agreed with the ‘area bombing’ approach that was taken. At one point he seems to suggest that Harris was doggedly using the tactic without direct approval from Porter and that he was wrong, the next he seems to be saying he was entirely right. Likewise, his opinion of the effectiveness of the whole campaign seems to flit from ‘useless’ to ‘very successful’. I’ll be glad when I am done with it!

Butcher’s Crossing is (hopefully) in the McCarthy vein.

You’re not a million miles off, both part of the “new realism” direction westerns started taking. I liked it a lot, one section of the book still ranks high in my “shittest way to spend a winter” list!

[quoteShe previously wrote The Salt Path, covering their trek along the SW Coast Path.[/quote]

I have Landlines and her third one in the ‘to read’ pile, after reading The Salt Path a few months ago. I’d avoided it for ages because I thought the misery aspect was a bit too much, but then saw her talking to Rick Stein on one of his programmes, and she came across well. (By coincidence, she was on some Mel Giedroyc thing last night.) I thought her writings about homelessness were extremely touching, and she’s clearly a very good writer. Like you, I welled up a few times during the book. On the other hand, my brother disliked it –  seeing their homelessness as a result of their own decisions. It’s not really a book about walking, imo.

I’ve really enjoyed all of Joe Abercrombie’s books, love the way he manages to make me dread and need to read the next chapter, for everything to be completely reset.

As for Erikson’s Malazan series, fabulous but totally rocket ship madness when books don’t follow on from each other, I’ve watched YT reviews since that made me feel better about being completely lost from one book to the next.

Just Finished John Scalzi’s latest ‘Starter criminal’, not one of his best but I simply enjoy his writing . He does explain he was taken out by Covid during writing and suffered from brain fog while recovery. Along with the latest Mick Herron’s ‘Secret Hour’, slow horse saga, a really good change of scene.

I did both of those mid Justin Cronin’s Ferryman, as his slow build up was taking too long, but I’m back into it now

I’m currently reading ‘Fritz and Tommy: Across the Barbed Wire’ by Peter Doyle and Robin Schäfer. It’s a collection of letters home from English and German soldiers narrated by the authors for context. It’s really interesting as it doesn’t go too deeply into the history of the Great War, it just identifies key events and then illustrates them with the letters so you get to read letters from both sides, side-by-side to compare moods and emotions at key points in the war such as the Somme, Third Battle of Ypres, the final German Offensive etc. And, as it was jointly written by an English and German historian (and published in both English and German) it remains very neutral.

I’ve just finished The Shadow Casket by Chris Wooding, excellent stuff. Very much in the mold of a classic fantasy book. Not perfect but it’s a series I’d certainly read again.

After really enjoying Foundation on Apple TV I’ve actually started a sci-fi book. An STW favourite, Iain M Banks Consider Phlebas. I’ve read all the ‘normal’ Iain Banks books and no idea, apart from science fiction not being as big a draw to me, why I’ve not tried his stuff before. The book opens in a very Iain (M) Banks way.

I have just picked up a copy of “Attached: Are you Anxious, Avoidant or Secure? How the science of adult attachment can help you find – and keep – love” as I have struggled with relationships for most of my life.  At 47 it’s probably time to try to fix that.  It might not make me a better human but it can’t make me any worse.

Just started ‘The Glamour Boys’, by Chris Bryant. There was an exhibition in the town museum about Chippenham between the Wars, and part of it had a copy of the book, the connection being the significant involvement in events that brought Britain into the war against the Nazis of Victor Cazalet, MP for Chippenham.

We like to think we know the story of how Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, but there is one chapter that has never been told. In the early 1930s, a group of young, queer British MPs visited Berlin on a series of trips that would change the course of the Second World War.

Having witnessed the Nazis’ brutality first-hand, these men were some of the first to warn Britain about Hitler, repeatedly speaking out against their government’s policy of appeasing him. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hated them. Branding them ‘the glamour boys’ to insinuate something untoward about them, he had their phones tapped and threatened them with deselection and exposure.

At a time when even the suggestion of homosexuality could land you in prison, the bravery these men were forced to show in their personal lives gave them extraordinary courage in public. Undaunted, they refused to be silenced and when war came, they enlisted. Four of them died in action. And without them, Britain would never have faced down the Nazis.

One thing that surprised me, although maybe perhaps not that much, was just how many of the Nazi Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were homosexuals. And it seems Hitler knew as well.

was just how many of the Nazi Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were homosexuals. And it seems Hitler knew as well.

Not really when you think that Ernst Rohm (leader/founder of the SA) was openly gay. I think the Nazi leadership mostly looked the other way and when it was time to get rid of someone it was often the convenient excuse.

I think the problem with Bryant’s book is that Chamberlain has to be both the PM who hated* the group of politicians telling him Hitler’s a bad ‘un, and at the same time in reality, the politician who did more than most at the time to start the process of re-armament, and outmanoeuvre Hitler when it wasn’t politically possible to go to war with Germany (because for all it’s faults; appeasement was popular in the UK, right up until the point that it suddenly wasn’t).

To suggest that we “would not have gone to war with Hitler” is a neat by-line on the back of a book, but the facts don’t bear it out really. I think the history and treatment of gay men in the military in WW2 is probably a worthy subject, I found this a bit tabloid for my taste.

* Bryant makes much of Chamberlain having these men followed and spied upon, but Chamberlain treated the secret services like his very own political hit squad on anyone he thought worthy of having dirt on.

Just finished Old Gods Time by Sebastian Barry. It’s one of the best books I’ve read, beautiful language, almost Beckett in places. It’s about a retired policeman in Ireland thinking back over his life and trying to come to terms with what has happened to him. Doesn’t sound gripping maybe, but I couldn’t put it down.

Also on an Irish theme but a bit more straightforward, Kala, about a girl disappearing – what led to it and what happened after.

Just finished O Brother by John Niven, author of Kill Your Friends and Amateurs.

It’s a memoir, focussing on his relationship with his younger brother, who died by suicide at the age of 42.

Obviously it’s a tough read, but it’s also a fantastic evocation of time and place: West of Scotland childhood in the ’70s, coming of age in the 80s, soundtracked by punk, post-punk and the embryonic UK indie scene, 20s hedonism as rave hits, then life in 90s London as a coke-fuelled A&R man.

It’s for anyone who’s ever been a member of a family, had (or been) a wayward sibling, or loved music. The examination of suicide and its consequences is unflinching – the  sequence in which his brother finally dies following days in a coma will knock the wind out of you.

However, the book is also bloody funny. There are some truly toe-curling accounts of teenaged embarrassment, largely courtesy of his brother, a congenital wind-up merchant with zero respect for closed doors or locking mechanisms. There’s also a fabulous thread of incidents within which he meets the various members of his beloved Clash, only to somehow manage to grossly offend them on every occasion.

If I’m any judge of the STW demographic, there’s many on here who would get a lot out of this.

Quick PSA for a Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian 99p on Kindle – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00UXKIXUQ?

Northerners: A History – Brian Groom

As the title.  A good read about who and what makes up Northerners.  Not a deep deep dive, as that could be several volumes long.  Enjoying it a lot, as I’m Northern by birth and family, but never really grew up there.  We moved south when I was 8, and I moved abroad once I was grown up, but returned to live in County Durham 14 years ago.  Kind of tying me back to my roots.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/northerners/brian-groom/9780008471231

the natural history of badgers, by ernest neal
I love to see them,spent too many wasted evenings trying but failing,but fantastic when they get close
the book is well out of date but still many facts you wondered about, lets hope they are still here for the next generations to see.
And these generations too, if theyre not turning a blind eye to whats going on, or have any interest beyond coronation st

Just finished Richard E Grant’s ‘pocketful of happiness’ – various diary excerpts and stories of his wife, Joan Washington, and family dealing with Joan’s death from NSC lung cancer. Good book.

Re-reading The Crow Road by Iain Banks.

Re-reading Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation by Umberto Eco

Reading, not sure how I haven’t done so before, Charley’s War volume 3 Remembrance

Reading ‘Humans’ by Tom Phillips. Amusing snippets of disastrous history.

Seems there’s on ongoing book most everywhere I look. Should get most finished by next week.

Next up might be PJ Harvey’s Orlam that I got at her gig on Monday.

Book club this time is a couple of Mick Heron spy thrillers. Set on the less glamorous backoffice end of the MI5 spectrum, various screw ups/desk jockeys happen to finally get involved in something juicy. Readable and quite well done, but very much within the genre, and I’m not sure what we’ll discuss when we meet up. I predict that the inevitable topic switch to UK politics and/or AI will happen sooner rather than later this time. 

I’m also reading Ultraprocessed Humans, which is fascinating and educational. He argues that Ultra Processed Food, rather than fat/sugar/carbs are the leading cause of obesity. UPFs have some sort of cheat code which bypasses people’s switch to say they are full, so you eat much, much more than you would otherwise. 

Long Way Home – Ryan Van Duzer

Finished ‘Fritz and Tommy’ last week and now reading ‘Band of Brothers’ by Stephen Ambrose. I have had the book for ages but kept avoiding reading it as I was worried it would feel like a screenplay of the series but it isn’t at all – it is so much better at expressing the characters than the series managed. For example, although everyone hated Sobel and thought him ‘chickenshit’, they (almost) all also respected him and acknowledged he did an amazing job at making them one of the most effective fighting units of WW2. When I have finished it, I will have to re-watch the series.

Echoes my thoughts about Band of Brothers as well @johndoh. Reading Killing Floor, the first Jack Reacher novel just for a laugh. It’s terrible, but in a easy reading, gripping sort of way. I can see why they’re so popular 

If you like that one Nick, you’ll like all of them 😉 I think I got to about 4 or 5 before giving up. My better half has ploughed through the lot.

In my never ending trashing SF/Space Opera phase, I read the Elfor Trilogy by R.R Haywood. Interesting concept, plot holes you could drive one of the ships through, quite tense tho but a bit of an unsatisfying ending. 

Band of brothers is great. Never seen series so can’t comment but it’s a fantastic book.

I’ve just started Austerity Britain 1945-51. Wow I knew the rationing went on but it’s incredible. Also the amount of data collected in ‘mass observation’ before proper computers is staggering. Big fan of David Kynaston and his social history stuff. 

Book club this time is a couple of Mick Heron spy thrillers.

Adapted on Apple TV

Band of brothers is great. Never seen series so can’t comment but it’s a fantastic book.

I can recommend it – it feels very much like Saving Private Ryan (especially the D-Day sequences) but it is very much based around the true events of E (Easy) Company. The interviews with the veterans at the end of episodes made me cry.

Got fed up with Star of the Sea, first book in a long time I abandoned.

Just finished Wizard of Oz by  L. Frank Baum 🙂 .. she had silver shoes BTW.

Almost finished The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle….. Its fun 😉 in a 1912 sort of way.

I bought “the age of madness” trilogy after seeing it mentioned on here. I’m about 3/4 way through the first book and I’m loving it!

It’s got everything I’m after!

Swashes are buckled! Chests are being puffed! And magic is skirting around…

Cheers for the recommendation!

Just picked up two muso autobiographies in the charity shop – always manage to buy something when I’m supposed to be getting rid of stuff.

Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink by Elvis Costello and Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young

Just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 

Deceptively simple and a bit ‘yeah and?’  but grows in your mind after reading till you realise it’s brilliant.

The Shining Mountain. Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman on Changabang. Awesome.

Just finished the Dark Defiles, last part of Richard Morgan’s fantasy trilogy (Altered Carbon guy). Loved the first in the series, quite liked the middle, the last one’s a kind of catastophic mess tbh, just feels like he lost all control of the book but still all in all worth the read. If you like the blade itself, it’s definitely worth a look, Ringil would get on with Logen Ninefingers like a house on fire. Screaming, breaking glass, that sort of thing

Started into Hopeland by Ian Macdonald- absolutely loving his Luna series so decided to try this even though it’s a bit outside of my tastes. And it’s good, it has this wonderful twist on the fairly trad Neil Gaiman-ish “person discovers an alternative weird world parallel to our one” but with the twist that the person discovering it is also from another alternative weird world parallel to our one. Maybe it’s been done before, it seems obvious once you’ve seen it done, but it’s new to me and it’s lovely. Plus, I love his writing- not sure he’s really got the voices of the characters right here though but the rest is fantastic.

The Sleepwalkers; Christopher Clark. It’s a study of how and why the Europeans stumbled their way into WW1. In essence it expands on the ‘Princip shoots Archie Ferdinand, and it all goes off’ story that we’re all familiar with. It looks at the start and reasons of the Balkans War that preceded the Great war, and the exposes the machinations of the Aristos desperately trying to hold onto power in the sense it allowed them to shape either/both internal and external policies of the countries that they found themselves “In Charge” of. and the politicos either trying to support them or wrest power from them (or sometimes both) and how that led to the sorts of decision making that caused them all to stumble into war when none of them really wanted to, understood more or less fully what it would mean, but went ahead anyway because it was not in their interests not to. Its depressing because you can see the same sorts of national decision making going on now. Plus ca change, plus la meme chose…Or something.

Its very dense and I can’t decide whether its so dense that its unreadable, or that because there’s just so much stuff it really should’ve been a couple of volumes but for some reason it’s crammed into a single volume, or I’m too stupid. My money is on the last one. 

The Savage Storm – the Italian Campaign 1943-45 – James Holland – he does a good job of weaving in personal accounts from all sides into the big picture of the campaign itself.

And I thought the weather  in West Yorkshire was bad…………