Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
andy_s said:
Ah, might pick this up, I did Dragon's Back the same years he did, bumped into him a few times [we had a vague mutual] and he seemed a pleasant guy - iirc we both flunked out in 2017 and then completed in 2019??
This was published July 19 so the second attempt had not happened by this point but it does go into detail about the 1st attempt.Fair play to you for giving it a go, it's a brutal race
I am currently two thirds of the way through A Gentleman in Moscow, my mum bought it for me last Christmas and I haven't had a chance to pick it up until now. Just a fabulous read, it is apparently being turned into a TV series as well much to my surprise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
S100HP said:
andy_s said:
Ah, might pick this up, I did Dragon's Back the same years he did, bumped into him a few times [we had a vague mutual] and he seemed a pleasant guy - iirc we both flunked out in 2017 and then completed in 2019??
This was published July 19 so the second attempt had not happened by this point but it does go into detail about the 1st attempt.Fair play to you for giving it a go, it's a brutal race
geeks said:
I am currently two thirds of the way through A Gentleman in Moscow, my mum bought it for me last Christmas and I haven't had a chance to pick it up until now. Just a fabulous read, it is apparently being turned into a TV series as well much to my surprise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
Yes this was good - I put it in the category of "not much happens but I enjoyed the writing". Enough to make me want to buy The Lincoln Highway.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
Just finished the latest (for me) Robert Crais - Lullaby Town, 3rd in the series of Cole/Pike.
I read LA Requiem many years ago and remembeirng enjoying it. Prompted by PH, thought I would start from the beginning.
Like most detective series these are formulaic and light fluff, but I read something more serious/cerebral in between (currently Beevor's D-Day).
Whilst enjoyable I am starting to find his Marlowe-esque wisecracking a bit grating.
Do the characters or his style evolve at all?
I read LA Requiem many years ago and remembeirng enjoying it. Prompted by PH, thought I would start from the beginning.
Like most detective series these are formulaic and light fluff, but I read something more serious/cerebral in between (currently Beevor's D-Day).
Whilst enjoyable I am starting to find his Marlowe-esque wisecracking a bit grating.
Do the characters or his style evolve at all?
Legend83 said:
geeks said:
I am currently two thirds of the way through A Gentleman in Moscow, my mum bought it for me last Christmas and I haven't had a chance to pick it up until now. Just a fabulous read, it is apparently being turned into a TV series as well much to my surprise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
Yes this was good - I put it in the category of "not much happens but I enjoyed the writing". Enough to make me want to buy The Lincoln Highway.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
geeks said:
I am currently two thirds of the way through A Gentleman in Moscow, my mum bought it for me last Christmas and I haven't had a chance to pick it up until now. Just a fabulous read, it is apparently being turned into a TV series as well much to my surprise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
I read that recently. Absolutely loved it.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Mosco...
Just finished another James Lee Burke novel called Bitterroot, but this time completely different to the Dave Robicheaux Louisiana detective ones. We are no longer in the bayou country but Montana, the main character being Billy Bob Holland, a lawyer but one who acts more like a criminal. As usual, the writing is verbose, a number of people die violently, and women come and go. For me, not as enjoyable as the Robicheaux novels, and I'm rather content to have finished it.
Running Grave, the latest in the R Galbraith / JK Rowling detective series.
The characterisation and character development is excellent. The plot construction is very ambitious, and it's not completely clear what's going on at several stages.
The dialogue though. Oh dear. And there's pages of nothing much going on which need to be trimmed. And there are too many "a professional security firm would never behave like that" situations, for instance when the character is undercover, and they know there's an issue with the food, why are they not leaving carbs and electrolytes rather than chocolate bars. And what happens in an emergency exit? There should be a go-bag ready outside the fence with clothing and phone and money and food.
It's also very long. These things together make me think that she wrote it too quickly, didn't do enough revision, and either doesn't have or doesn't listen to an editor, because she is JKR and she knows best.
Recommended overall, on a 6.5/10 kind of level, but you can't come into it as a standalone book, you need to read the series in order.
The characterisation and character development is excellent. The plot construction is very ambitious, and it's not completely clear what's going on at several stages.
The dialogue though. Oh dear. And there's pages of nothing much going on which need to be trimmed. And there are too many "a professional security firm would never behave like that" situations, for instance when the character is undercover, and they know there's an issue with the food, why are they not leaving carbs and electrolytes rather than chocolate bars. And what happens in an emergency exit? There should be a go-bag ready outside the fence with clothing and phone and money and food.
It's also very long. These things together make me think that she wrote it too quickly, didn't do enough revision, and either doesn't have or doesn't listen to an editor, because she is JKR and she knows best.
Recommended overall, on a 6.5/10 kind of level, but you can't come into it as a standalone book, you need to read the series in order.
MC Bodge said:
Animal said:
Just started Built to Move by Kelly Starrett. Non-fiction about body mobility, joint health etc
Is there anything new to you in there?Is it similar to Movnat/Natural Movement?
Newc said:
Running Grave, the latest in the R Galbraith / JK Rowling detective series.
The characterisation and character development is excellent. The plot construction is very ambitious, and it's not completely clear what's going on at several stages.
The dialogue though. Oh dear. And there's pages of nothing much going on which need to be trimmed. And there are too many "a professional security firm would never behave like that" situations, for instance when the character is undercover, and they know there's an issue with the food, why are they not leaving carbs and electrolytes rather than chocolate bars. And what happens in an emergency exit? There should be a go-bag ready outside the fence with clothing and phone and money and food.
It's also very long. These things together make me think that she wrote it too quickly, didn't do enough revision, and either doesn't have or doesn't listen to an editor, because she is JKR and she knows best.
Recommended overall, on a 6.5/10 kind of level, but you can't come into it as a standalone book, you need to read the series in order.
Have just got this, enjoyed all the previous ones except the last.The characterisation and character development is excellent. The plot construction is very ambitious, and it's not completely clear what's going on at several stages.
The dialogue though. Oh dear. And there's pages of nothing much going on which need to be trimmed. And there are too many "a professional security firm would never behave like that" situations, for instance when the character is undercover, and they know there's an issue with the food, why are they not leaving carbs and electrolytes rather than chocolate bars. And what happens in an emergency exit? There should be a go-bag ready outside the fence with clothing and phone and money and food.
It's also very long. These things together make me think that she wrote it too quickly, didn't do enough revision, and either doesn't have or doesn't listen to an editor, because she is JKR and she knows best.
Recommended overall, on a 6.5/10 kind of level, but you can't come into it as a standalone book, you need to read the series in order.
I think we all know what expect .!
A couple recently completed.
1) The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, the only thing that keeps me returning to these books is, as mentioned by another poster, the characters. The actual story this time around was interesting enough (infiltrating a cult) but to stretch this out to about 1000 pages for what is basically a fairly simple crime novel is just plain ridiculous. 3/5
2) The Making of the Middle East by Jeremy Bowen, Jeremy is a reporter I respect and admire so I had read this as soon as it was released. A fantastic tour of all aspects of Middle Eastern flashpoints, events and key players mainly focussing on a country / event at a time. Sobering, scary and depressing given current events. Will have to reread as there's so much to pick through and ponder. 5/5
1) The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, the only thing that keeps me returning to these books is, as mentioned by another poster, the characters. The actual story this time around was interesting enough (infiltrating a cult) but to stretch this out to about 1000 pages for what is basically a fairly simple crime novel is just plain ridiculous. 3/5
2) The Making of the Middle East by Jeremy Bowen, Jeremy is a reporter I respect and admire so I had read this as soon as it was released. A fantastic tour of all aspects of Middle Eastern flashpoints, events and key players mainly focussing on a country / event at a time. Sobering, scary and depressing given current events. Will have to reread as there's so much to pick through and ponder. 5/5
"THE LIST", by Carys Jones.
Please understand me please - I tries, I tried very hard. A woman goes jogging through the forest and finds a sheet of paper with five names on it, and hers was the third. Her husband thinks it is a joke, but research shows that the first two are dead and her's is the third. I just found the prose uninteresting so I got to page 46 out of over 300 and just couldn't bear to pick up the novel again.So in the bin it has gone. Very rare that I don't finish a book, but this was one of the exceptions. Buy it and you may just have found an alternative to sleeping tablets.
Please understand me please - I tries, I tried very hard. A woman goes jogging through the forest and finds a sheet of paper with five names on it, and hers was the third. Her husband thinks it is a joke, but research shows that the first two are dead and her's is the third. I just found the prose uninteresting so I got to page 46 out of over 300 and just couldn't bear to pick up the novel again.So in the bin it has gone. Very rare that I don't finish a book, but this was one of the exceptions. Buy it and you may just have found an alternative to sleeping tablets.
Animal said:
MC Bodge said:
Animal said:
Just started Built to Move by Kelly Starrett. Non-fiction about body mobility, joint health etc
Is there anything new to you in there?Is it similar to Movnat/Natural Movement?
MC Bodge said:
I have begun reading this. A familiar style, really well written. Montgomery doesn't come out of it well, a continuation of how he was portrayed in the Normandy book.
I am now 2/3 through it. This is an excellent book, but some of the events described are terrible. Anybody who was involved was very unlucky and surviving was just a numbers game.Gassing Station | Books and Literature | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff