Books - What are you reading?

[ali_kat]

Justayellowbadge said:

Anyone read 'Tuesday Falling'?

Picked up as a freebie on Kindle last night and read it in a sitting.

Not my usual fare, but absolutely loved it.

Back up to 99p now, but undoubtedly worth paying for. I've read several hundred free books on Kindle and this is easily the best. Helped by the fact it's published by Harper Collins so has pro editing and proofing, but it's also bloody good, in a cartoonish yet noir kind of way.

If you like dragon tattoo, Kickass or just London, I strongly urge you give it a go.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tuesday-Falling-S-Williams...

ali_kat said:

I'll be demanding my 99p back from you if it's ste

I'm 30% through, it's keeping me entertained on the train - I'll not be claiming my 99p back Although it's a bit early for me to 'love it'

[shirt]

not my usual thing but very well written, absorbing and enjoyable.

next up is:



huge vonnegut fan but so far haven't read this, his first novel. it'll be interesting to see the development of style between his short stories and later works.

[KaraK]

droopsnoot said:

Tony Angelino said:

http://www.peterjames.com/book/dead-simple




Just starting this, first of the series. Decent enough so far, enjoying it.

I've enjoyed all of them. Generally not essential to read them in order, with the exception of the background story that doesn't really intrude much.

I've read all of them bar the latest (which this has reminded me about - must pick it up) and they are generally a pretty good read. The slow burning secondary plot (trying not to spoil here) has perhaps been dragged out a touch for my liking but that's only a minor quibble really. I've also read a couple of his other non-Roy Grace books and they have been pretty decent too

Currently I'm reading the xkcd book "What if?" and rather loving it so far - highly recommend it to any other xkcd fans, or people interested in science in general really.

[5potTurbo]

On an earlier recommendation from other PHers in this thread, I've started reading Stuart McBride's books about an Aberdeen rozzer/detective, called Logan McRae.

So far I've read,
- Cold Granite
- Dying Light
- Broken Skin
and now I'm about 1/2 way into Flesh House

They're gritty, for sure, must stronger than Rankin's Rebus, and now I need to buy some more as I've a long haul trip coming up.

Actually, I'm reading slower in 2016 than I was in 2015, when I'd already gone through 6 or so novels by this time last year. 38 novels was my 2015 total!

[Don]

So far it is, undoubtedly, the most "WTF" book I have read in the last five years. This not in a good way, I fear.

The characters are all extraordinarily unlikeable. (Deliberate, I think...)

I bought it as I quite enjoyed the movie "Cloud Atlas" based on Mitchell's book of the same name. I'll read it to the end before final judgement but it isn't looking good.

[droopsnoot]

I've just finished "Damaged" by Simon Conway. A bit too much jumping forwards and backwards for me, not great. Before that was "Private LA" by James Patterson, which was better than I expected it to be. The "Private" series is a bit hit or miss, though the main one I didn't like (and I forget which one it was) might just have been because it came over a bit anti-British.

[ali_kat]

ali_kat said:

I'm 30% through, it's keeping me entertained on the train - I'll not be claiming my 99p back Although it's a bit early for me to 'love it'

Okay, loved it!

Thank you



Now reading the Wildfire Chronicles, not brilliantly written, but entertaining in a 'zombie' post apocalypse way, there's a real feel to some of the characters that draws you in & some are free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D4XVR8O?keyw...

[Chris Type R]

Nom de ploom said:

finished the ocean at the end of the lane by nial gaiman.

what a terrible book.

cannot recommend this lowly enough.

I was underwhelmed as well.

[perdu]

I tried McBride and although I liked the first one I picked up, some cop in thrall to a nasty crooky lady, I just couldn't maintain it

Shame 'cos it wasn't awfy bad just a bit slow

I tried three or four, the Bones one last I think

Just taken myself back into the Lucas Davenport John Sandford series and working myself up from the start

I liked them 'Then' and still do, to the extent that I'm traipsing the long halls of the interweb to find my missing soldiers

Good, thinking cop and rather nasty (in a good for a reader way) baddies

Finished Dragon Tattoo last spring, a bloody shame we lost Steig Larsson

A very intensive trilogy, I will re read them soon too

[DUMBO100]

I like factual books and have just started Steve Jobs' autobiography, it is interesting to understand the beginning of the San Francisco computer culture, but he is a difficult personality to like.

[droopsnoot]

I read an Apple one some time back, which going by the photo I found of the cover is the now-out-of-print Infinite Loop, as I recall it was a good read. I bought "I Woz", but I must admit I've never read it.

[cherie171]

Just started this. Too early to decide if it'll live up to the first book.

[E24man]

After a gap of over 12 years I decided to start again with John D MacDonald and his stories of Travis McGee.

[Welshbeef]

Just finished reading the entire Tim Weaver series and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Good pace decent plot and main character is good.


Now have a dilemma of what to read next (which is on the book shelf)
I've the entire collection of Jo Nesbo
Probably 10 Lee Child
The 3 most recent Lynwood Barclay
Out of order Mo Hayder 3 (Gone, poppet and birdman)
Plus another dark Nordic noir which I cannot spell authors name Grishentham


I'm looking to try to read 3 over the next month but struggling. I've now not read a Lee child in 12 books and am thinking maybe after very good plot lines it will be a letdown?
Mo Hayder is brutal depraved killers
Jo Nesbo complex layered plots but they are long books.

[Patch1875]

Not long started but really enjoying.

An Astronauts Guide to life on Earth by Chris Hatfield.

Edited by Patch1875 on Sunday 21st February 17:33

[gregd]

Just finished Fast And Louche by Jeremy Scott as recommended by several PHers. Wow! What a life he has had and a brilliant book. Reminded me of a real life "Any Human Heart", another favourite of mine.

[TheJimi]

Justayellowbadge said:

Anyone read 'Tuesday Falling'?

Picked up as a freebie on Kindle last night and read it in a sitting.

Not my usual fare, but absolutely loved it.

Back up to 99p now, but undoubtedly worth paying for. I've read several hundred free books on Kindle and this is easily the best. Helped by the fact it's published by Harper Collins so has pro editing and proofing, but it's also bloody good, in a cartoonish yet noir kind of way.

If you like dragon tattoo, Kickass or just London, I strongly urge you give it a go.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tuesday-Falling-S-Williams...

Picked this up on kindle, after your recommendation.

Just finished it at lunchtime. Very entertaining.

Makes Lisbeth Salander look a bit limp by comparison!

Edited by TheJimi on Friday 26th February 15:46

[Shadow R1]

George Orwell 1984, about 50 pages in.

Just finished 2nd hunters by Chris Kuzneski, I have ordered the 3rd in the series its out on the 10th March.

[g3org3y]

g3org3y said:

havoc said:

Finished this a couple of weeks ago...took me 2 days to read it...not a long book, but so easily/beautifully written I just didn't want to put it down...if I hadn't been working it'd have been done in a day.



One of those books that you enjoy with your heart as much as your mind, and which stays with you after you've finished it. Don't even worry about what genre to categorise it as and whether it's "your" sort of book - just buy it, particularly if you've still got a spark left in you of your 7y.o. self...

This is next on my list based on your recommendation.

Finally got round to reading this (while on honeymoon). Enjoyed it, quite unlike anything I've read before. Great imagination and writing style. Certainly would be keen to read more of the author's work.

Patch1875 said:

Not long started but really enjoying.

An Astronauts Guide to life on Earth by Chris Hatfield.

Another of my honeymoon reads, really enjoyed this. Very insightful. I was staggered at the depth and breadth of knowledge that astronauts require. I bought his photography book a while back and completely forgot about it. Reading this inspired me to locate it and give it a good thumb through. Glad I did.

Final book was this:


Overall worth reading. Some parts I had myself thoroughly agreeing with, some less so. I suppose I'd consider myself one of the 'partisan' atheists/supporters of science he mentions in his opening chapter so likely to have reservations. I preferred his 'Consolations of Philosophy'.

[havoc]

g3org3y said:

Finally got round to reading [The Ocean at the End of the Lane] (while on honeymoon). Enjoyed it, quite unlike anything I've read before. Great imagination and writing style. Certainly would be keen to read more of the author's work.

Patch1875 said:

Not long started but really enjoying.

An Astronauts Guide to life on Earth by Chris Hatfield.

Another of my honeymoon reads, really enjoyed this. Very insightful. I was staggered at the depth and breadth of knowledge that astronauts require. I bought his photography book a while back and completely forgot about it. Reading this inspired me to locate it and give it a good thumb through. Glad I did.

Neil Gaiman - I'd say so - I'm going through the stuff of his I've not read before:-
- Trigger Warnings is a collection of random short stories. Slightly mixed bag but overall pretty good, some interesting themes and a couple of beautifully dark endings.
- Neverwhere is currently on BBC Radio - couple of big names doing the characters (Benedict Cumberbatch, James MacAvoy, Natalie Dormer, Bernard Cribbins). Dark fantasy-esque set in the London sewers. Not sure why I've not read this before.
- American Gods is being made into (already has?) a series on one of the streaming channels - NetFlix or Amazon, I think. Shadow Moon (the main character) makes an appearance in Trigger Warnings.
...plus there's Anansi Boys (still to read so can't comment), Stardust (already a film...and IIRC Coraline was a NG script), and then Good Omens with Terry Pratchett (Book-of-Revelations-gone-wrong style comic romp set in 1980s Home Counties - dated references but very funny - was also on BBC Radio last year).
...and if you do graphic novels then his Sandman series is still pretty much the yardstick for the genre, and won a literary award on its own merit.


Chris Hatfield - thanks - will give that a go. Already read Mullane's "Riding Rockets" and liked that...