Book thread: what are you reading?

[marklaspalmas]

Anybody read either of Amos Towles's novels. I'm halfway through Rules of Civility. Excellent writing. I'm really enjoying it.

[marklaspalmas]

Has this thread..

http://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php?/topic/325612-first-world-problems/

replaced this one?

#sadday #signofthetimes #TRLaintwhatitusedtobe

[Futtocks]

Jack London - White Fang. Re-reading it for the first time in at least 10 years. Still good.

[JonM]

I've been working my way through the 2014 Booker Prize shortlist. Read so far How to be Both (Ali Smith), We are all Completely Besides Ourselves (Karen Joy Fowler), To Rise Again At A Decent Hour (Joshua Ferris) and J (Howard Jacobson). The latter two about Jewish identity.

Still to go,  The Lives of Others (Neel Mukherjee) and  the eventual winner, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan.)

Edited May 21, 2018 by JonM

[DavidM]

‘The King’s Justice’ by EM Powell . History is my passion and I like historical murder mysteries . This is the first in a new series set under Henry II

[timtum]

I am currently in the middle of the Weeping Women Hotel by Alexei Sayle.  Thought I would hate it.  Instead I find it hilarious.  A few easy punches landed but very funny nonetheless. 

[marklaspalmas]

Hurray! We're back. This thread had dropped off page 1

[ckn]

19 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

Has this thread..

http://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php?/topic/325612-first-world-problems/

replaced this one?

#sadday #signofthetimes #TRLaintwhatitusedtobe

Nah, that one is meant to be a random place people can stick their first world problems.  We're just such a sociable and friendly lot that people can't help chat about stuff.

[DavidM]

I’ve nearly finished James Holland’s second volume on the Second World War . Fascinating , and the amount of detail and insight he has just amazes me . He must be challenging the paramount authorities now , and loses nothing alongside Hastings ,Roberts and Beevors tones 

[marklaspalmas]

4 hours ago, ckn said:

Nah, that one is meant to be a random place people can stick their first world problems.  We're just such a sociable and friendly lot that people can't help chat about stuff.

[Copa]

I started watching the recent X-Files series and it prompted me to drag out an Indonesian language edition of an X-Files novel. It’s good fun.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Copa

[Futtocks]

On 5/21/2018 at 5:09 PM, Futtocks said:

Jack London - White Fang. Re-reading it for the first time in at least 10 years. Still good.

I also recently found a very cheap Kindle download of a Jack London collection of other stories.

White Fang shows an unexpected mastery of pacing for such an allegedly no-nonsense author. While much of the plot moves along with swift bluntness, he can still have interludes where he stretches things out and indulges in some more descriptive or philosophical passages.

And anyone interested in martial arts could learn a lot from the titular wolf's blood-curdlingly practical approach to combat.

[DavidM]

Great news today for us Shardake nuts . After three years waiting it’s announced on amazon that the new novel TOMBLAND will be out on October 18 !

Edited May 23, 2018 by DavidM

[getdownmonkeyman]

The Secret Barrister. If this book is remotely accurate about the current court system, be very afraid.

[ckn]

 

On 5/23/2018 at 12:33 AM, Futtocks said:

I also recently found a very cheap Kindle download of a Jack London collection of other stories.

White Fang shows an unexpected mastery of pacing for such an allegedly no-nonsense author. While much of the plot moves along with swift bluntness, he can still have interludes where he stretches things out and indulges in some more descriptive or philosophical passages.

And anyone interested in martial arts could learn a lot from the titular wolf's blood-curdlingly practical approach to combat.

49p for the entire collection in a reviewed version.

Or you could pay a massive £0.00 for an unreviewed version.

Never read any of his stuff but I'm sure I can afford to fork out nothing for the chance .

[Futtocks]

3 hours ago, ckn said:

 

49p for the entire collection in a reviewed version.

Or you could pay a massive £0.00 for an unreviewed version.

Never read any of his stuff but I'm sure I can afford to fork out nothing for the chance .

His output is variable, based on what I've read, but 'White Fang' and 'The Call of the Wild' are worth having in your library, at the very least.

[Oxford]

On 5/24/2018 at 12:12 PM, ckn said:

Never read any of his stuff but I'm sure I can afford to fork out nothing for the chance .

"Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free ....."

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

by

Heather Morris

[Copa]

Sepuluh Anak Negro by Agatha Christie.

It’s the Indonesian language version. The original English title is now considered very offensive.

I’ve never read Agatha Christie before and am really enjoying it.

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, Copa said:

Sepuluh Anak Negro by Agatha Christie.

It’s the Indonesian language version. The original English title is now considered very offensive.

I’ve never read Agatha Christie before and am really enjoying it.

I think it goes by Ten Little Soldier Boys these days.

There was a decent radio adaptation by Joy Wilkinson not that along ago. She's done a few now and, personally, I think they work better than the books.

[Dunedan]

Book 2 at our book club is The Remains of the Day.

I kept saying throughout reading it that it was rubbish and I didn't like it, but I read it in about 4 days (some kind of record for me), so it can't have been that bad. The image I had in my head, though, was of Grandpa Simpson and his rambling stories...

[DavidM]

Despite loving the Agatha Christie dramatisations and being a Poirot nut I’ve never actually read any of the books !

[Futtocks]

Just finished 'Solo' by Roald Dahl, which is a collection of short stories centred on the subject of flying. 

Currently about 1/3 of the way through a long overdue re-read of 'Consider Phlebas' by iain M.Banks. It was the first of his books I ever read, sci-fi or otherwise.

Both of the above are excellent; the Banks being a more straightforward and less labyrinthine Culture story than some of his later work.

[Bigal02]

I now do almost all of my reading through audiobooks and occasionally find new (to me) authors by watching the credits of films I've enjoyed, to see if it was ‘Based on the book by’ whoever.  I’ll then find out if there are any more books from that author and try them.  In this way I’ve found David Baldacci, Jeffery Deaver and others.  I recently watched the film ‘The Foreigner’, liked it and saw it was based on ‘The Chinaman’ by Stephen Leather.  I got a couple of his other books and now can’t get enough!  What a great writer IMHO.  Strangely though, I’d seen his name both online and in my library, and for some unfathomable, preconceived reason, I’d decided that I wouldn’t like his books!  I do admit though, with a lot of things, I’m firmly in the camp of ‘Haven’t tried it – Don’t like it’, although I am trying to broaden my outlook.

[Phil]

Just finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, a very strange but unputdownable book 

[Futtocks]

7 hours ago, Phil said:

Just finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, a very strange but unputdownable book 

Some of Murakami's books just don't do it for me (possibly down to the translation?), but 'Kafka' is one I do like a lot.

I am currently re-reading 'Robin Ince's Bad Book Club', and trying to stop myself from buying some of the more terrible examples of literature that he's discovered. Sadly, Don Estelle's 'Sing Lofty: Thoughts of a Gemini' cannot be found anywhere, such is the demand for what is considered one of the worst autobiographies ever penned: http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-worst-book-in-world-don-estelle.html