Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
Stan the Bat said:
Just read 'Never' by Ken Follett.
Very good .
Quite a few of us have read it in the past few pages! I think my favourite section involved the mine in the middle of the desert.Very good .
The ending is different to what I expected too. I mentioned it before but I liked how the stakes were continually raised throughout... culminating in the President's husband having so little love for her that he wanted to gamble with annihilation.
andrewcliffe said:
Just finished listening to "Holy Island" by LJ Ross - the first of her DCI Ryan stories. Enjoyed it, so lined up books 2 and 3 which are currently free on Audible.
I rather like these and have read them all. Look out for The Infirmary which is a prequel and can be read out of publication order.DoctorX said:
I rather like these and have read them all. Look out for The Infirmary which is a prequel and can be read out of publication order.
Thanks. It's also included as a freebie on Audible at the moment, so I'll download that too.The narrator who seems to have done all the series on Audible is quite good too - sometimes that can make or break an audio book.
Edited by andrewcliffe on Tuesday 21st March 23:17
I saw the film The Dry. I think the Australian film industry produces some cracking stuff. I decided to read the book, by Jane Harper; the opposite way round to normal for me. Enjoyed her writing. Brought the outback and the drought into sharp focus. It's the first in a trilogy about the lead, Aaron Falk. As is my norm, I bought the second, Force of Nature and then the third, The Exiles.
Three different locations by way of countryside.
They are simple enough who-done-its, but in the first two the guilty party is obscure. The third it is rather obvious after about halfway, and I reckon it's the weakest of the three for plot.
Overall: the books won't change your life. However, they do introduce parts of Australia and the ways of life there. I like her writing style, to the extent that I've just bought a non-series book, The Lost Man.
Recommended. That's the books and the film. I seem to remember that Force of Nature is being, or about to be, filmed. Hope so.
Edited to add: Force of Nature is shown as post-production.
Three different locations by way of countryside.
They are simple enough who-done-its, but in the first two the guilty party is obscure. The third it is rather obvious after about halfway, and I reckon it's the weakest of the three for plot.
Overall: the books won't change your life. However, they do introduce parts of Australia and the ways of life there. I like her writing style, to the extent that I've just bought a non-series book, The Lost Man.
Recommended. That's the books and the film. I seem to remember that Force of Nature is being, or about to be, filmed. Hope so.
Edited to add: Force of Nature is shown as post-production.
Edited by Derek Smith on Friday 24th March 18:28
glazbagun said:
Are there any recommendations of good WWI diaries or collections of letters home?
I enjoyed the churchill 6 books but not sure if thats what you're looking for?Also if i remember right the longest day was a collection of diary entries or similar about d day. I enjoyed.
Edited by jimwilli on Friday 24th March 18:32
jimwilli said:
It just didn't interest me and became a chore after so long. There were some laugh out loud bits though. Id never really heard of him before the recommendation here. I did enjoy the travel book where they attempted to climb that mountain i forget the title already nuristan?
You'd never heard of Matthew Parris - finger not on the pulse of current affairs and politics then ? coppice said:
You'd never heard of Matthew Parris - finger not on the pulse of current affairs and politics then ?
Not really. I mute the news on tv and radio. Pick up the odd snippet here and there but don't think the 24hr news cycle is good for the brain. Did Parris not also agree with this?coppice said:
I don't think he ever thought it was a good idea to deliberately cut oneself off from current affairs. It is his stock in trade as a journalist and commentator.
I am curious - do you vote , and if so what criteria do you apply if you avoid current affairs ?
I think it's perfectly healthy to take a step back from the "news".I am curious - do you vote , and if so what criteria do you apply if you avoid current affairs ?
Although, I don't think this is the thread to go down that particular rabbit hole.
CardinalBlue said:
Having read the excellent ‘Prisoners of Geography’ and ‘The Power of Geography’ - by Tim Marshall, both of which are well worth a read and in my top five reads for 2022, I’m continuing along the non-fiction theme and currently reading ‘Savage Continent’ by Keith Lowe.
The end of the Second World War saw a terrible explosion of violence across Europe. Prisoners murdered jailers. Soldiers visited atrocities on civilians. Resistance fighters killed and pilloried collaborators. Ethnic cleansing, civil war, rape and murder were rife in the days, months and years after hostilities ended. Exploring a Europe consumed by vengeance, Savage Continent is a shocking portrait of an until-now unacknowledged time of lawlessness and terror.
I have finished this now - taking me much longer than normal to finish a book (I probably do a book a week in normal times). Part of that was due to life getting in the way (a lot on at work, young family, moving house...) but as other have said there are parts which are horrific and as such I found I had to be in the right 'mood' (for lack of a better term) to pick it up. I'm glad I've read it, but it is not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination - and I learnt a lot. The end of the Second World War saw a terrible explosion of violence across Europe. Prisoners murdered jailers. Soldiers visited atrocities on civilians. Resistance fighters killed and pilloried collaborators. Ethnic cleansing, civil war, rape and murder were rife in the days, months and years after hostilities ended. Exploring a Europe consumed by vengeance, Savage Continent is a shocking portrait of an until-now unacknowledged time of lawlessness and terror.
I go on holiday next week and as you'd be expect I'd prefer a very different type of book to enjoy whilst relaxing. First on my list is The Binding Room by Nadine Matheson. Going into it totally blind as I've not read anything by her before, or really have any other idea what it is about other than a recommendation from a colleague that I'll enjoy it.
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