What books are we reading at the moment ?

[andrewc]

Dead Lies Dreaming, the latest from Charlie Stross.  If it wasn’t intended as a metaphor for Brexit, it certainly reads like one to this Unit.

Although promoted by the publisher as a Laundry File, it isn’t one, or at least no-one from the Laundry has appeared so far.

Finished it a while ago. Not quite sure of its 'fit' into the series; I suspect it is a placeholder/means of introducing some characters he wants to use later. One of the aspects some people miss about the Files is that he consciously wrote the initial ones in  different styles, so one was an Ian Fleming book, another Len Deighton, another Peter O'Donnell.

(click to show/hide)

Charlie is a rather solid supporter of trans rights, and has shoehorned a character into DLD. Not quite sure it works that well, but the community appreciated the gesture.

I don't think it's intended as a "Laundry Files" novel , it's the first of a parallel trilogy set in the same universe but with totally new characters.  I think his publishers wanted to keep the association though.


From Charlie's blog http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/10/the-laundry-files-an-updated-c.html#more


"New spin-off series, new starting point! The marketing blurb describes it as "book 10 in the Laundry Files" but by the time this book is set—after CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN and the end of the main Laundry story arc (some time in 2015-16) the Laundry no longer exists. We meet a cast of entirely new characters, civilians (with powers) living under the aegis of the New Management, ruled by his Dread Majesty, the Black Pharaoh."

[Steph]

Ta!

[PeteB99]

If anyone has read The Flame Trees of Thika can you pop over to the KWC answers thread?

Ta

[woollypigs]

I'll put this here.

How many legs does the monster have the War of the Worlds ? When you have come up with the answer click on the link below to see the coin celebrating H.G.

https://twitter.com/HolBolDoTweet/status/1346119804474810370?s=20

[citoyen]

I'll put this here.

How many legs does the monster have the War of the Worlds ? When you have come up with the answer click on the link below to see the coin celebrating H.G.

https://twitter.com/HolBolDoTweet/status/1346119804474810370?s=20

This is at least the third time this has been posted in yacf today!

I did check, though - I haven't read the book, so I wasn't entirely sure if they were actually referred to by a name that specified the number of limbs, had a feeling it might just have been 'war machines' or something. But my brief research suggests Wells did indeed use that term.

[ian]

It actually took me a second to notice what was wrong.

[fuzzy]

Failure is not an option by that Gene Kranz bloke.
I am really struggling.......  to put it down.

[citoyen]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

[T42]

I'll put this here.

How many legs does the monster have the War of the Worlds ? When you have come up with the answer click on the link below to see the coin celebrating H.G.

https://twitter.com/HolBolDoTweet/status/1346119804474810370?s=20

This is at least the third time this has been posted in yacf today!

I did check, though - I haven't read the book, so I wasn't entirely sure if they were actually referred to by a name that specified the number of limbs, had a feeling it might just have been 'war machines' or something. But my brief research suggests Wells did indeed use that term.

It's also the term Frank Hampson used in Rogue Planet.  But his war machines had four or even six.  Stable guy, old Frank.

[Ruthie]

Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig.

Lots of people have raved about this book.

I might just be ‘not in the right place right now’ but I don’t love it. It’s a kind of stream of consciousness account of Matt’s experience of depression.

I’m a depressive, and have been throughout my adult life. Perhaps I did this level of processing earlier in my disease trajectory.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

Didn't make me cry. Love wasn't really present, for me.

Gut wrenching story.

[Nuncio]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

In my pile, along with Troubles, which I meant to read a long time ago, but forgot about until you mentioned it a couple of pages back, and the new ones form Jonathan Coe, Don DeLillo and William Boyd. A Christmas book bonanza.

[Ruthie]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

Didn't make me cry. Love wasn't really present, for me.

Gut wrenching story.

The very last thing I want right now is my guts wrenched.

The Chronicles of St Mary’s were great. Any recommendations for something similarly lighthearted and silly?

[citoyen]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stunning. This is a book that will stay with me for a while - so much food for thought. Although the ending is heartbreaking, it didn’t make me sob uncontrollably in the way The Remains Of The Day did.

In my pile, along with Troubles, which I meant to read a long time ago, but forgot about until you mentioned it a couple of pages back,

Troubles is another that will stay with me. And no doubt will be re-read. Wonderful book. Very glad to finally get round to both of them - long overdue!

Didn't make me cry.

I was discussing Ishiguro a while ago with a colleague and she said Never Let Me Go made her cry, which is why I mentioned it. Didn't have quite the same effect on me. But The Remains Of The Day had me in pieces. I've seen the film a few times and read the book twice and it gets me every time.

[citoyen]

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I can't remember who it was OTP who first recommended her to me (Peter?), but I do remember that it was on the back of me mentioning how much I like EF Benson. This is by far the most EF Benson like of her books that I've read so far. And I adore it. So funny. So beautifully written.

[Peter]

Excellent!

[Redlight]

Since my wife was given it at Xmas, I've just speed through Diary of an MP's wife by Sasha Swire. The funny, gossipy, bits have already been in the newspapers and most of the rest isn't worth buying the book for, but there was one part that caught my eye. Having lost his junior ministerial job, her husband is out and about raising funds for the party. He and Raab have a meeting with a potential donor who is offering "a large donation", then it's casually mentioned that it will have to be in his wife's name as the actual donor is not British.

A similar comment is made later about another donor.

I thought that was illegal. 

[Mr Larrington]

The Coffinmaker's Garden ~ Stuart MacBride.  On the down side, all the killin's are historical thus far, but there have been, at a conservative estimate, about twenty-five of them.  And none of the victims was a parakeet either.  Even though it's set in the fictional town of Oldcastle, the weather is just like it is 99% of the time in Logan McRae's version of Furryboottoon.

[citoyen]

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Story of a brutal triple murder in a remote crofting community in the Scottish Highlands in 1869. Incredibly dark and gruesome but utterly compelling. And very clever. The bare facts of the case are set out right at the start - the cleverness is in how the details are gradually revealed as it goes on. Quite brilliant.

(tenuous cycling content: the plot includes an ascent of Bealach na Ba, albeit by Highland pony rather than by bike)

[Canardly]

Stephen King 11.22.63 Well written so far.........early days.

[tiermat]

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Story of a brutal triple murder in a remote crofting community in the Scottish Highlands in 1869. Incredibly dark and gruesome but utterly compelling. And very clever. The bare facts of the case are set out right at the start - the cleverness is in how the details are gradually revealed as it goes on. Quite brilliant.

(tenuous cycling content: the plot includes an ascent of Bealach na Ba, albeit by Highland pony rather than by bike)

Loved this book when I read it as part of my Booker Prize challenge.  Think I'll have to get back to that this year.  The basic premise is that as soon as the long list comes out you download/buy/borrow all 13 books.  You then have until the prize announcement to read all 13.  The time between longlist publication and final is 13 weeks. 1 book per week is doable if they are His Bloody Project or the like.  All goes to Hell in a handbasket if Hilary Mantell or the like have a book in the list!

[citoyen]

The basic premise is that as soon as the long list comes out you download/buy/borrow all 13 books.  You then have until the prize announcement to read all 13.  The time between longlist publication and final is 13 weeks. 1 book per week is doable if they are His Bloody Project or the like.  All goes to Hell in a handbasket if Hilary Mantell or the like have a book in the list!

I started His Bloody Project yesterday afternoon and could happily have finished it in a single sitting if not for having other things to do. Looking forward to reading the last section, the report of the trial, tonight. If only all Booker nominees were like this, I could read an awful lot more of them. I finished Bring Up The Bodies in a matter of a few days but that's only because it was holiday reading and I had nothing better to do. I've still got A Brief History of Seven Killings on my 'to read' pile but haven't worked up the appetite for it yet.

[ian]

As a spoiler, it's not brief.

[citoyen]

As a spoiler, it's not brief.

Not original either - Marlon James nicked that gag off Stephen Hawking.

[ian]

Shame that no one, to the best of my knowledge, added the option of a Jamaican patois to Hawking's speech synthesizer.