Books - What are you reading?

[downthepub]

Recently finished Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor; historical fiction set onboard a ship in 1847 sailing to the New World with a backdrop of the Irish Potato famine. Was a random pickup in the library and have to say absolutely loved it; had that sense of disappointment when I finished it!

Working on some Eric Ambler novels at the mo, and have reserved some recommendations from this thread - Prisoners of Geography, Station Eleven and This thing of darkness.

[brrapp]

downthepub said:

Recently finished Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor; historical fiction set onboard a ship in 1847 sailing to the New World with a backdrop of the Irish Potato famine. Was a random pickup in the library and have to say absolutely loved it; had that sense of disappointment when I finished it!

Yes, I was the same , came across that book randomly in a hotel bookcase and couldn't put it down. Not the kind of thing I'd normally choose but a pleasantly serendipitous find.

[Europa1]

I am getting towards the end of 'Sully', the autobiography of Capt Jeffery Sullenberger (the guy who successfully ditched the Airbus on the Hudson). it's pretty low key, but an interesting read. Some of the stuff about the economic realities of working for modern airlines is rather sobering.

[Stedman]

Bloody fantastic

[droopsnoot]

I've just finished "The Last Trade", a reasonably good thriller by James Conway set around a financial background, and various people trying to put a stop to a catastrophe. It's pretty good, but what annoys me is the mistakes - stuff like using "undo" when it should be "undue", and one agent starts the book working for an agency called the TFI ("Terrorism and Financial Intelligence") Task Force, which inexplicably becomes the TSI towards the end of the book. Penguin, as well, not some self-printed thing.

[Levin]

I put Christopher Clark's "The Sleepwalkers" on hold for a bit to get a bit of fiction read. It's been ages since I last read a novel, so I fancied a change and opted for this:



Cult classic it might be, but I'm not that in love with it. There are some very memorable lines ("With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels", etc.) but I'd bet everyone is familiar with those nuggets of Palahniuk's wisdom already. Those standout lines feel like the novel's greatest strength, but I still have about a quarter of the story left to go.

If anyone really loved Fight Club, I'd like to hear an alternate viewpoint.

[Goaty Bill 2]

Goaty Bill 2 said:

brrapp said:

Goaty Bill 2 said:

Beginning Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago today.

Please report back, I've heard of it but never read it.

Discovered this afternoon that my new abridged edition parts 1-5 is somewhat more abridged than I expected.
At just under 500 pages, it is (as I understand it), 1200 pages shorter than the original 3 volumes.
I think the first few chapters are safe, but looking for original 1974 edition volumes now.

Update
Used copies of the original seem quite readily available, allegedly good to new condition.
Ordered the original 1975 translation (parts 1 & 2), promised good/excellent condition, paid peanuts, will see.

Finished Hitchens "The Trial of Henry Kissinger".
It will leave one quite certain that he should be/have been indicted on several counts.
An appalling man.


As for the gulags...
I received my first editions, and 50 pages in find that I have already read an additional 20 pages more than is in the abridged version. I really wouldn't bother with the abridged version.

I find also (unlike in the abridged version), that any sympathy I may have had with the idea that; had Lenin not been assassinated the Soviet Union may have been a better place, (I have heard that postulated several times), has been banished absolutely.
He should have been killed at birth. An utterly vile human being.

Even should I find that I have had enough after several hundred pages, I will not regret having at least begun reading this.

[blindswelledrat]

Interesting Goaty. Is it a tedious read or can it keep your attention?
Based on you already thinking about giving up, I suspect the former?

[Mark Benson]

coppice said:

I have never read any Harry Potter books but I did try one of JK Rowling's Cormoran Shrike books . It was so astonishingly awful that I read another just to check that it wasn't a one off lapse in form . It wasn't , in fact it was even worse . God only knows why people buy this stuff.

I got one from the library just to see if she was any good writing for adults (never bothered with the HP books either) and came to the same conclusion.

Also disappointing was The Girl in the Spider's Web, the 4th and posthumous book in the Dragon Tattoo series written by David Lagerkrantz rather than Stieg Larssen. I quite enjoyed the first three but this one really seemed to have something fundamental missing, probably a mistake to try once the original author is no longer around but too tempting not to given the series' popularity I guess.

[Goaty Bill 2]

blindswelledrat said:

Interesting Goaty. Is it a tedious read or can it keep your attention?
Based on you already thinking about giving up, I suspect the former?

Absolutely no plan to give up at all
I am finding it gripping actually.
I checked today, it's actually nearer 1300 pages (over two volumes) rather than 1700 as I was originally led to believe.

[brrapp]

Goaty Bill 2 said:

blindswelledrat said:

Interesting Goaty. Is it a tedious read or can it keep your attention?
Based on you already thinking about giving up, I suspect the former?

Absolutely no plan to give up at all
I am finding it gripping actually.
I checked today, it's actually nearer 1300 pages (over two volumes) rather than 1700 as I was originally led to believe.

Just downloaded volume 1 to my Kindle. Looks good.

[Goaty Bill 2]

brrapp said:

Just downloaded volume 1 to my Kindle. Looks good.

I was hooked just reading the preface and the first few pages from an online pdf.
It had been previously recommended.

[marcosgt]

Girl on the Train - I liked the premise and found it in my local charity shop (a couple of quid for a good cause and something to read).

Only read a couple of pages, but liking the style.

M.

[jbudgie]

Mark Benson said:

coppice said:

I have never read any Harry Potter books but I did try one of JK Rowling's Cormoran Shrike books . It was so astonishingly awful that I read another just to check that it wasn't a one off lapse in form . It wasn't , in fact it was even worse . God only knows why people buy this stuff.

I got one from the library just to see if she was any good writing for adults (never bothered with the HP books either) and came to the same conclusion.

Also disappointing was The Girl in the Spider's Web, the 4th and posthumous book in the Dragon Tattoo series written by David Lagerkrantz rather than Stieg Larssen. I quite enjoyed the first three but this one really seemed to have something fundamental missing, probably a mistake to try once the original author is no longer around but too tempting not to given the series' popularity I guess.

Got to agree, 4th book was a real disappointment.

[EdJ]

I'm having a great start to 2017! I've also just finished a hugely gripping and mind blowing book - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. It's a page turner from the start, and the underlying concept is something I'm sure everyone with an interest in science fiction has thought about; that of multiple parallel universes where a different version of your life is taking place.

Highly recommended!

[EdJ]

epom said:

EdJ said:

I just blitzed through Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Really enjoyed it - thought provoking and gripping, switching between the run up to a devastating plague that wipes out most of the world population and how the few survivors are coping 20 years later. Absolutely recommended.

Ordered

Great - hope you enjoy it!

[RC1807]

Mutley said:

....

RC1807 said:

I can't help but read it with his accent in my head!

Reading that now, and I can't not hear his voice as I read it either.

It's funny as I think I have a Chimp too. I've not named him, yet!

[Chris Type R]

EdJ said:

I just blitzed through Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Really enjoyed it - thought provoking and gripping, switching between the run up to a devastating plague that wipes out most of the world population and how the few survivors are coping 20 years later. Absolutely recommended.

Enjoyed this, good recommendation.

[227bhp]

Inspector Banks, discovered the series by accident and am slowly working my way through them all one by one.
Quite enjoyable, Peter Robinson is a good writer.

[SystemParanoia]

SystemParanoia said:

dieselgrunt said:

SystemParanoia said:

towser said:

Ready Player 1 is a blast.

Im really looking forward to it

Didn't really enjoy it, felt like a teen kids story.

Last starfighter refrence.. im all tingly !! hehe!

Just finished.. What a ride!
Listened to and watched every reference mentioned while reading through it too.