Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
popeyewhite said:
havoc said:
The Man in the High Castle 1962
SSGB 1978
I take your point about commonalities, the basic premise is exactly the same though interweaving plotlines may be different. My comment was more that SSGB - the series - seems to be piggybacking the popularity of TMITHC - the series.
immigrant said:
Can anybody recommend good espionage/terror thrillers?
Loved all the Fred Forsyth books as well as 'I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes. I've read 7 or 8 of Gerald Seymour's books and found them a bit hit and miss and the same with Charles Cummings. I recently finished Le Carre's 'A Delicate Truth' and found it pretty tedious. The Daniel Silva 'Gabriel Allon' series is very good but gets very repetitive much like the Jack Reacher and Baldacci type stuff.
Two spring to mind; Nomad by James Swallow (Pilgrim 'lite') and The Theseus Paradox by David Videcette.Loved all the Fred Forsyth books as well as 'I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes. I've read 7 or 8 of Gerald Seymour's books and found them a bit hit and miss and the same with Charles Cummings. I recently finished Le Carre's 'A Delicate Truth' and found it pretty tedious. The Daniel Silva 'Gabriel Allon' series is very good but gets very repetitive much like the Jack Reacher and Baldacci type stuff.
downthepub said:
Shadow R1 said:
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 
Just completed 'No One Left To Lie To' By Christopher Hitchens
Not quite what I expected in some ways.
The book having being written during the time of Clinton's impeachment (and completed shortly after), it seems, to me at least, to require that it be read in the same period.
A reasonably good knowledge of the times, the people, the accusations, and the political atmosphere at the time is almost a requirement. Or otherwise reading it on your ipad or equivalent with ready access to Google.
The sex scandals are only a small part of the story of a Democrat president implementing right wing policies and instructing criminal cruise missile attacks against countries with which they had diplomatic relations and were not at war with.
The penultimate chapter deals harshly but fairly with Mrs. Clinton, and might help explain to some why she was considered a more abhorrent presidential candidate than Trump, especially amongst the older generations in America.
'Ordinary Men' by Christopher Browning is next.
Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.
Not quite what I expected in some ways.
The book having being written during the time of Clinton's impeachment (and completed shortly after), it seems, to me at least, to require that it be read in the same period.
A reasonably good knowledge of the times, the people, the accusations, and the political atmosphere at the time is almost a requirement. Or otherwise reading it on your ipad or equivalent with ready access to Google.
The sex scandals are only a small part of the story of a Democrat president implementing right wing policies and instructing criminal cruise missile attacks against countries with which they had diplomatic relations and were not at war with.
The penultimate chapter deals harshly but fairly with Mrs. Clinton, and might help explain to some why she was considered a more abhorrent presidential candidate than Trump, especially amongst the older generations in America.
'Ordinary Men' by Christopher Browning is next.
Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.
i've just finished this
what an annoying book. Meandering story with a big plot point which literally went nowhere. One of these books where the author seems to revel in making every single character the most aloof and high brow w
ker possible. Dialogue of the type that does not exist in real life. Very unfulfilling ending.
I am sure people will ask why i did not give up on it, but I tend not to do that.
what an annoying book. Meandering story with a big plot point which literally went nowhere. One of these books where the author seems to revel in making every single character the most aloof and high brow w
ker possible. Dialogue of the type that does not exist in real life. Very unfulfilling ending. I am sure people will ask why i did not give up on it, but I tend not to do that.
French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles . I have forgotten what a brilliant writer Fowles was; you are brought up sharp after half a dozen chapters when he says 'You do know this is just a novel don't you? Yup- I made it all up and these people didn't exist except in my head. Trouble is, damn it , the narrative seems to have a life of its own; ho hum , better see what happens next.' Determined now to re read the rest,especially The Ebony Tower and Daniel Martin, if possibly not The Magus(which infuriated and enchanted in equal measure )which I consumed avidly in the 80s.
Any other Fowles aficionados ?
Any other Fowles aficionados ?
Just completed 'Ordinary Men' by Christopher Browning.
A detailed and scholarly work on the history of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in Poland during the Final Solution.
Browning's ultimate goal is to add understanding to the question 'How did ordinary Germans become mass executioners?'
For anyone who has read 'Hitler's Willing Executioners' by Daniel Goldhagen, I would suggest that this is essential reading.
The paperback Penguin 2001 edition that I have includes a new chapter titled 'Afterword' which confronts Goldhagen's conclusions, and responds to his criticisms of Browning's book.
I find Browning's arguments the more convincing, and his conclusions the more likely.
He is far from an apologist for the actions of the men involved.
Now back to The Gulag Archipelago - Volume 2.
A detailed and scholarly work on the history of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in Poland during the Final Solution.
Browning's ultimate goal is to add understanding to the question 'How did ordinary Germans become mass executioners?'
For anyone who has read 'Hitler's Willing Executioners' by Daniel Goldhagen, I would suggest that this is essential reading.
The paperback Penguin 2001 edition that I have includes a new chapter titled 'Afterword' which confronts Goldhagen's conclusions, and responds to his criticisms of Browning's book.
I find Browning's arguments the more convincing, and his conclusions the more likely.
He is far from an apologist for the actions of the men involved.
Now back to The Gulag Archipelago - Volume 2.
I have just finished Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, which I had thought I had read but clearly had not. An excellent Sci Fi action/detective story.
Staring at The Count Of Monte Cristo; at 1200+ pages it is currently pressed into service as a monitor stand. That's vital work, obviously, so I've ordered the next two in the Tak Kovacs series!
Staring at The Count Of Monte Cristo; at 1200+ pages it is currently pressed into service as a monitor stand. That's vital work, obviously, so I've ordered the next two in the Tak Kovacs series!
My plans for tonight are sorted. I've never read anything Sinclair Lewis wrote but I've seen this novel referenced umpteen times in the wake of Trump's inauguration. Whether it truly is a prescient warning about the rise of fascism or low-hanging fruit for the more vocal anti-Trump types to reference doesn't concern me too much as it should be a decent read.
The Penguin Classics version pictured above is the same as the book I bought and, while not actually related to how good a book it might be, it's remarkably nicely typeset. Whether that factors into a book's appeal for some of you, I thought it worth mentioning.
"It Can't Happen Here" is decent, but I'm not convinced it's as prescient nowadays as some of the soundbites surrounding it claim. From what I've seen many people link it to Donald Trump's presidency when it is a far more accurate diatribe against Adolf Hitler and Fascism. In ways it's remarkable just how many moves made in the Third Reich parallel the novel though, I admit, some pre-date the novel and were probably incorporated on that basis (the Minute Men make a pretty good analog to the SS, etc.)
Lewis' writing took a while to hook me, for it seemed within the first 80 pages that he focused entirely too much on familial relationships, on where characters were educated, and how they happened to know each other. I suppose it could be explained away as befitting the protagonist, newspaper editor Doremus Jessup, but it was off-putting and dates the book in a way Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World manage to avoid.
I'm not sure what I'll read next, which might be a good chance for me to check out Abe Books.
Lewis' writing took a while to hook me, for it seemed within the first 80 pages that he focused entirely too much on familial relationships, on where characters were educated, and how they happened to know each other. I suppose it could be explained away as befitting the protagonist, newspaper editor Doremus Jessup, but it was off-putting and dates the book in a way Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World manage to avoid.
I'm not sure what I'll read next, which might be a good chance for me to check out Abe Books.
I have to admit; I put it back down on the table simply because it was laying in a pile of TrumpRage books in Waterstones.
I don't see any real connection between Trump or any of the 'great' oppressors of the first half of the 20th century.
I consider myself poorly educated, but thankfully better educated than to buy into that line of facile propaganda.
Thanks for the review.
No doubt it will get read at some point, but not as a matter of any urgency.
I don't see any real connection between Trump or any of the 'great' oppressors of the first half of the 20th century.
I consider myself poorly educated, but thankfully better educated than to buy into that line of facile propaganda.
Thanks for the review.
No doubt it will get read at some point, but not as a matter of any urgency.
Goaty Bill 2 said:
I have to admit; I put it back down on the table simply because it was laying in a pile of TrumpRage books in Waterstones.
I don't see any real connection between Trump or any of the 'great' oppressors of the first half of the 20th century.
I consider myself poorly educated, but thankfully better educated than to buy into that line of facile propaganda.
Thanks for the review.
No doubt it will get read at some point, but not as a matter of any urgency.
Nor do I see any real connection between Trump and the t yrants he has been likened to. Perhaps in the future we'll revisit these posts and wonder if we got it totally wrong. As for the review, no problem: I've enjoyed reading your assessments of books you've finished in this thread as well. Others might even consider them worth reading too!I don't see any real connection between Trump or any of the 'great' oppressors of the first half of the 20th century.
I consider myself poorly educated, but thankfully better educated than to buy into that line of facile propaganda.
Thanks for the review.
No doubt it will get read at some point, but not as a matter of any urgency.
Next up on my reading list is "Atatürk", by Andrew Mango. I have Turkish-German friends and, while I am loathe to admit it, I have no knowledge at all of Turkey apart from the present-day news articles about Erdoğan and their vague assertions that Atatürk ought to be spinning in his grave. I owe it to them to have at least a basic knowledge of Turkish history (and, selfishly, it might benefit my knowledge of Russian history).
Some reviews describe it as a must-read, so it should provide a functional understanding of how, from the remains of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey came to be.
Cpt Stirling said:
immigrant said:
Can anybody recommend good espionage/terror thrillers?
Loved all the Fred Forsyth books as well as 'I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes. I've read 7 or 8 of Gerald Seymour's books and found them a bit hit and miss and the same with Charles Cummings. I recently finished Le Carre's 'A Delicate Truth' and found it pretty tedious. The Daniel Silva 'Gabriel Allon' series is very good but gets very repetitive much like the Jack Reacher and Baldacci type stuff.
Two spring to mind; Nomad by James Swallow (Pilgrim 'lite') and The Theseus Paradox by David Videcette.Loved all the Fred Forsyth books as well as 'I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes. I've read 7 or 8 of Gerald Seymour's books and found them a bit hit and miss and the same with Charles Cummings. I recently finished Le Carre's 'A Delicate Truth' and found it pretty tedious. The Daniel Silva 'Gabriel Allon' series is very good but gets very repetitive much like the Jack Reacher and Baldacci type stuff.
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