Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
leglessAlex said:
K12beano said:
grumbledoak said:
I just finished 1Q84, all three books. It's begins with a young woman stuck in traffic in a taxi in Tokyo, who has to disembark and use an emergency escape ladder to make her appointment in a hotel. Where she kills someone. It goes on to involve a religious cult and a long lost love in a parallel world that she entered on the ladder. It starts well, an intriguing situation, and there are interesting bits along the way, but it didn't really merit three books.
Three?I don’t remember it being three books!
I do recall the premise was immediately original and intriguing.... and I will give you that once it got going it did seem to coast towards the end a bit.
The first Murakami I read and certainly hooked me in for more!
I love Murakami, but he is a bit weird and I'd probably have recommended starting with Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Norwegian Wood. Still, I have to say I enjoyed 1Q84 too, and will probably read it again at some point.
I don’t know how he does it, but I find Murakami’s book so damn readable. Something about his stories just flows and you have read a hundred pages without thinking about it. 1300 pages flew by.
I really like how the weirder elements of his books do not appear too weird, so they seem grounded in that reality and entirely feasible - they are just naturally woven into the story.
He also creates such bold characters.
This was the third book of his I have read and have to say he is fast becoming my favourite author.
I've just finished "Hidden" by Casey Hill. A decent read, several bodies are found, each of which have a tattoo of what seems to be angel wings, leading to missing girls and all sorts. Although, shades of "Silent Witness" where forensics people seem to be much more involved in actual police work that you might expect them to be. Ending suggests there is, or will be, a sequel.
I'm halfway through this. And so far..
Pros - excellent writing & backstories to the victims. Great to see the context of what what happened which all too often is missing in this genre.
Cons - blatant feminist agenda and a re-writing of certain facts. The victims did not go to sleep on well patrolled police beats to be found dead minutes later. Nor did JTR randomly stumble upon Annie Chapman in the back yard of Hanbury Street. The victims were resorting to prostitution.
Mezzanine said:
I have just finished this hefty tome.
I don’t know how he does it, but I find Murakami’s book so damn readable. Something about his stories just flows and you have read a hundred pages without thinking about it. 1300 pages flew by.
I really like how the weirder elements of his books do not appear too weird, so they seem grounded in that reality and entirely feasible - they are just naturally woven into the story.
He also creates such bold characters.
This was the third book of his I have read and have to say he is fast becoming my favourite author.
I’ve read everything he’s written, even the stories that don’t really go anywhere are beguiling. Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world is a firm favourite with me. I’m re-reading some of his short story collections at the moment.I don’t know how he does it, but I find Murakami’s book so damn readable. Something about his stories just flows and you have read a hundred pages without thinking about it. 1300 pages flew by.
I really like how the weirder elements of his books do not appear too weird, so they seem grounded in that reality and entirely feasible - they are just naturally woven into the story.
He also creates such bold characters.
This was the third book of his I have read and have to say he is fast becoming my favourite author.
Just finished The Unconsoled by Ishiguro - very different to The Buried Giant I had read before!
GraemeP said:
I’ve read everything he’s written, even the stories that don’t really go anywhere are beguiling. Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world is a firm favourite with me. I’m re-reading some of his short story collections at the moment.
Just finished The Unconsoled by Ishiguro - very different to The Buried Giant I had read before!
I’ll add that to my list as a next read then, thanks.Just finished The Unconsoled by Ishiguro - very different to The Buried Giant I had read before!
GraemeP said:
I’ve read everything he’s written, even the stories that don’t really go anywhere are beguiling. Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world is a firm favourite with me. I’m re-reading some of his short story collections at the moment.
Just finished The Unconsoled by Ishiguro - very different to The Buried Giant I had read before!
I'm a fan of both Murakami and Ishiguro, I finished The Unconsoled last week and still can't decide whether it's nonsense or a work of genius, although I'm leaning towards the latter this could be only because I want it to be. Just finished The Unconsoled by Ishiguro - very different to The Buried Giant I had read before!
Derek Smith said:
I’m ready a history book that’s the most depressing horror story I’ve ever read. It is ghastly. It is haunting.
Savage Continent by Keith Lowe.
I love history books. I’ve read a fair bit on the immediate post war history of the UK, but very little on that of the European mainland. This book covers the immediate aftermath. It is something of an untold story, or at least not mentioned.
The book is scary. I stopped reading it twice, not because it is written poorly. In fact, it is just the opposite. Lowe sort of chats to you, and his matter of fact style makes it worse. It just got too much. Then it drew me back, only to be appalled again.
I had no idea what went on. I knew there was some retribution handed out to collaborators. I’d seen film of a few bodies and young women with their heads being shaved. But this goes deeper. The figures are just that; figures. If you thought 100 dead was bad, then 500 is just a bit worse. But the book highlights the hundreds of thousands who were killed, maimed, died, displaced, lost. And it has, largely, been ignored.
I recently read of the ‘missing’ in the years of Franco, and the way the government have sort of covered it up, making it an offence to mention it. He was nothing compared to what went on.
Want to sober up, for days? Then Savage Continent does it for you.
On your recommendation, I've been reading Savage Continent.Savage Continent by Keith Lowe.
I love history books. I’ve read a fair bit on the immediate post war history of the UK, but very little on that of the European mainland. This book covers the immediate aftermath. It is something of an untold story, or at least not mentioned.
The book is scary. I stopped reading it twice, not because it is written poorly. In fact, it is just the opposite. Lowe sort of chats to you, and his matter of fact style makes it worse. It just got too much. Then it drew me back, only to be appalled again.
I had no idea what went on. I knew there was some retribution handed out to collaborators. I’d seen film of a few bodies and young women with their heads being shaved. But this goes deeper. The figures are just that; figures. If you thought 100 dead was bad, then 500 is just a bit worse. But the book highlights the hundreds of thousands who were killed, maimed, died, displaced, lost. And it has, largely, been ignored.
I recently read of the ‘missing’ in the years of Franco, and the way the government have sort of covered it up, making it an offence to mention it. He was nothing compared to what went on.
Want to sober up, for days? Then Savage Continent does it for you.
Similarly to Berlin:The Downfall, it describes one atrocity after another, but in all parts of Europe. I had been aware of some of it, but not the vast scale. I recently visited Lithuania and talked to some people, who told me about some of the things that had gone on there over the years with Russians, Nazis and Russians again. WW2 didn't end until 1990 for them.
The British (especially the women) really did get off lightly in some ways, albeit not in others.
Horrific.
I wish that I'd been older when my maternal grandad died, I would have liked to have talked to him about his experiences of pushing through to Germany, although he never talked about it much.
My paternal grandad talked far too lightly imo about his war experiences, including Malta, and Italy post-liberation, which I can only assume was a cover/denial about what happened.
Edited by MC Bodge on Wednesday 28th October 20:06
Gassing Station | Books and Literature | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff