Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
"The Martini Shot" by George Pelecanos. Understand I don't buy my books, but am given loads by my journalist daughter who receives them in the hope of a mention or review. This is a collection of short stories and the first book I have deliberately thrown in the bin rather than inflicting on another unsuspecting soul. Utter rubbish, incomprehensible scribblings, and the only bright note is that neither of us paid for it.
I've recently read "Arnold Drive" by Hugh Cornwell, once lead singer and guitarist with The Stranglers. Mainly I bought it as I'm a big fan of the band and had a Waterstones voucher to use, but it's a pretty readable book. I've also read "The Devils Light" by Richard North Patterson, "Zero Hour" by Clive Cussler, and am just getting into "Backlash" by Lynda La Plante.
I really do seem to be on a bad streak at the moment. Also finished "The girl in 6E" by A R Torre.
This is about internet sex "pay per minute and have your fantasy", run by a girl who has a terrible phobia and wants to kill somebody - anybody will do, but she grits her teeth and shuts herself away in a flat and has food delivered to the door and even a neighbour who locks her in every night so she can't go out and kill someone. One of her "clients" fantasises about someone called Annie and then she hears on TV that Annie is a child who has been abducted. So she screws herself to the sticking post and leaves her flat, drives to the location, finds the abductor and realises her fantasy and kills him. There, I've spoiled it for you and you don't need to buy it now. Aren't you lucky. My second book in the bin in a week, not to be inflicted on anyone else. I do hope this terrible run finishes soon, especially since I was so spoiled by "Empty Mansions" which kept me intrigued for some time.
This is about internet sex "pay per minute and have your fantasy", run by a girl who has a terrible phobia and wants to kill somebody - anybody will do, but she grits her teeth and shuts herself away in a flat and has food delivered to the door and even a neighbour who locks her in every night so she can't go out and kill someone. One of her "clients" fantasises about someone called Annie and then she hears on TV that Annie is a child who has been abducted. So she screws herself to the sticking post and leaves her flat, drives to the location, finds the abductor and realises her fantasy and kills him. There, I've spoiled it for you and you don't need to buy it now. Aren't you lucky. My second book in the bin in a week, not to be inflicted on anyone else. I do hope this terrible run finishes soon, especially since I was so spoiled by "Empty Mansions" which kept me intrigued for some time.
coppice said:
An Officer and Spy - Robert Harris- superb account of the Dreyfus scandal in France in 1890s .
Read this last autumn and thoroughly enjoyed it, my wife bought me Dominion by CJ Sansom - recommended by the bookshop when she was looking for stocking fillers in a similar vein.It's been my unputdownable book this Christmas, a 'what if we appeased Hitler' book, full of Blackshirts, secret police and the 'Resistance' movement in the UK in a fictional 1950s. Part political thriller, part spy story with a dash of Boy's Own thrown in - well worth a read.
Also been reading the Wonderstuff Diaries by Miles Hunt, if you liked the band and their ilk in the late 80s (I was at Uni in Birmingham, it was mandatory) then it's a good rock and roll romp through the indie music scene of the time, Miles Hunt comes across as honest and very human.
Next up is Alan Johnson's Please Mr Postman.
I urge other people on here to read the following, despite the fact that when I describe it, it will sound a bit s
t and you wont really fancy it.
Do No Harm:
THis is basically a series of anecdotes chartering the life and career of a prominent brain surgeon. Each chapter is different anecdote about various patients/conditions he has encountered. Or to put it another way it is a series of snapshot days from the career of this chap. Largely written in laymans terms it is surprisingly easy to read and even more surprisingly utterly compulsive and a total page-turner. Just buy it and accept it as a promise that you will love this and I will accept untold abuse unchallenged if you don't. Also, just read the critics reviews on the amazon page if you doubt me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery...
t and you wont really fancy it. Do No Harm:
THis is basically a series of anecdotes chartering the life and career of a prominent brain surgeon. Each chapter is different anecdote about various patients/conditions he has encountered. Or to put it another way it is a series of snapshot days from the career of this chap. Largely written in laymans terms it is surprisingly easy to read and even more surprisingly utterly compulsive and a total page-turner. Just buy it and accept it as a promise that you will love this and I will accept untold abuse unchallenged if you don't. Also, just read the critics reviews on the amazon page if you doubt me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery...
blindswelledrat said:
I urge other people on here to read the following, despite the fact that when I describe it, it will sound a bit st and you wont really fancy it.
Do No Harm:
THis is basically a series of anecdotes chartering the life and career of a prominent brain surgeon. Each chapter is different anecdote about various patients/conditions he has encountered. Or to put it another way it is a series of snapshot days from the career of this chap. Largely written in laymans terms it is surprisingly easy to read and even more surprisingly utterly compulsive and a total page-turner. Just buy it and accept it as a promise that you will love this and I will accept untold abuse unchallenged if you don't. Also, just read the critics reviews on the amazon page if you doubt me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery...
Just did the 'look inside' thing, read three pages, and clicked order!t and you wont really fancy it. Do No Harm:
THis is basically a series of anecdotes chartering the life and career of a prominent brain surgeon. Each chapter is different anecdote about various patients/conditions he has encountered. Or to put it another way it is a series of snapshot days from the career of this chap. Largely written in laymans terms it is surprisingly easy to read and even more surprisingly utterly compulsive and a total page-turner. Just buy it and accept it as a promise that you will love this and I will accept untold abuse unchallenged if you don't. Also, just read the critics reviews on the amazon page if you doubt me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery...
blindswelledrat said:
I urge other people on here to read the following, despite the fact that when I describe it, it will sound a bit st and you wont really fancy it.
Do No Harm:
THis is basically a series of anecdotes chartering the life and career of a prominent brain surgeon. Each chapter is different anecdote about various patients/conditions he has encountered. Or to put it another way it is a series of snapshot days from the career of this chap. Largely written in laymans terms it is surprisingly easy to read and even more surprisingly utterly compulsive and a total page-turner. Just buy it and accept it as a promise that you will love this and I will accept untold abuse unchallenged if you don't. Also, just read the critics reviews on the amazon page if you doubt me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery...
The hardcover version is bloody expensive! Wonder why. t and you wont really fancy it. Do No Harm:
THis is basically a series of anecdotes chartering the life and career of a prominent brain surgeon. Each chapter is different anecdote about various patients/conditions he has encountered. Or to put it another way it is a series of snapshot days from the career of this chap. Largely written in laymans terms it is surprisingly easy to read and even more surprisingly utterly compulsive and a total page-turner. Just buy it and accept it as a promise that you will love this and I will accept untold abuse unchallenged if you don't. Also, just read the critics reviews on the amazon page if you doubt me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery...
I'm almost finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. It's getting better and better, it was on the Man Booker shortlist and I'm finding out why.
leglessAlex said:
The hardcover version is bloody expensive! Wonder why.
No idea but, when I first looked there was two for sale at just over £100. Just had another look and there are now three for sale at; £102.97, £466.91 and £566.91. 
ETA: Blindswelledrat, have you a few old copies floating about?
Mark Benson said:
Next up is Alan Johnson's Please Mr Postman.
Very good - but if you haven't read it This Boy is the better book and the obvious one to read first. A little too much Union minutiae in PMP and some strange gaps as well about the author's personal life. TB should be mandatory reading for anybody thinking the old days were better- it is genuinely shocking in its description of a poor working class family in the 50s 
really easy to pick up and read a few chapters but become hooked quickly... I finished the whole thing in 3 sessions!coppice said:
Mark Benson said:
Next up is Alan Johnson's Please Mr Postman.
Very good - but if you haven't read it This Boy is the better book and the obvious one to read first. A little too much Union minutiae in PMP and some strange gaps as well about the author's personal life. TB should be mandatory reading for anybody thinking the old days were better- it is genuinely shocking in its description of a poor working class family in the 50s If so, I have Touch Wood, Duncan Hamilton's autobiography to read but I was planning to save that for this year's Le Mans trip.
I have now reached the half way point of The Count of Monte Cristo. I wouldn't say it is hard going but to be 600 pages in and the main story to only really just be starting is tough. Not that the first half was boring, its very readable and enjoyable but it is sooooo long. To me it is like two seperate big stories, the first really is just setting up the second.
ali_kat said:
Currently re-reading the Odd Thomas series (& getting a bit bored!) but with the last one due, & my OCD I have to finish the series 
Really I enjoyed the last 2 in the series 
read them anyway in readiness for the final book.Currentky readng Ben Elton, Time after Time or summat like that. Not his usual stuff, I'm 1/4 way in &
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