What books are we reading at the moment ?

[interzen]

I'm revisiting William Gibson on the Kindleslab - just finished "Neuromancer" (for the nth time) and have started on "Mona Lisa Overdrive". The 'middle' book of the trilogy, "Count Zero", doesn't appear to be available for the Kindle 

He spins a good yarn, to be sure, but I don't think he's nearly as good as people make him out to be - once I've got "Mona Lisa Overdrive" out of the way, there's Neal Stephenson's new one to start ...

[tiermat]

Just finished Clive Barker's Imajica

Hmmmm, dunno what to think, part of me says it was a tad too long (could have ended after a certain point and it wouldn't have hurt the story)

Onward now, dunno what is next as it has taken me so long to read Imajica I have forgotten what I currently have on the ebook reader

[Mr Larrington]

While waiting for my replacement Kindle to I can finish the Inspector Rebus novels, The Fear Index ~ Robert Harris.  Right at the start someone beats a hedge fund manager over the head with a fire extinguisher

[fuzzy]

I have given up on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for the time being- too slow to get going and too involved (though the passages I have read that deal with TGWTDT herself were more involving for me so far).

I have just commenced Embedded by Dan Abnett.

Literally just started (10 pages in) so no comment yet.

[pcolbeck]

A Great and Terrible King - Marc Morris

A biography or Edward I

A proper medieval King he was, not to be messed with.

[Quint]

The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom, quite good I thought

[Gus]

Mountaineering - Training and Preparation by Carlton B. Cooke

[Quint]

Could have done with that in Catalonia 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

One Day by David Nicholls. If it had been written by a woman it would have a pink cover and be marketed as chick-lit. 

[AndyK]

Day By Day Armageddon by J L Bourne. It's not half bad.

[Feline]

I've just finished Patrick DeWitt's 'The Sisters Brothers' and agree with HW it is a definite contender for the Booker prize.
I've now started Half Blood Blues.
They announce the winner on the 18th, I might not manage to read all of the remaining 4 books by then!

[her_welshness]

I've just finished Patrick DeWitt's 'The Sisters Brothers' and agree with HW it is a definite contender for the Booker prize.
I've now started Half Blood Blues.
They announce the winner on the 18th, I might not manage to read all of the remaining 4 books by then!

Am so glad you enjoyed The Sisters Brothers Feline, its just brilliant

Right, have finished reading all of the shortlisted books.

'The Sense of an Ending' - in a nutshell, for me much much better than Atonement - the twist at the end is devastatingly brilliant.

Rating: 9.0/10

'Snowdrop' by A.D. Miller. Felt very John Le Carre but that is no bad thing. Not convinced by the narrator himself but its description of Russia felt authentic.

Final prediction:

Heart says: The Sisters Brothers
Head says: Pigeon English

[RJ]

At the Loch of the Green Corrie - Andrew Greig - highly recommended.

[DaveJ]

Finished all the shortlisted books.  I wouldn't have thought of reading them if it hadn't been for this thread.  For a cycling forum, yacf has a broad influence.

I enjoyed reading them all.  I did struggle a bit at the begining of Half Blood Blues.  I think thats about the language.  Strangely I didn't find that with Pigeon English which had similar use of slang.

While I enjoyed reading them all, I couldn't say that any of them were outstanding.  There were bits of both Snowdrops and Jamrach's Menagerie that thought were excellent, but only bits.  The Sisters Brothers was the least involving.  Silly without being funny.  The descriptions of jaz in Half Blood Blues were evocative.  I've never heard that much in it, but the descriptions make me think I'm missing something.

Something in The Sense of an Ending feels like its trying too hard, beautiful, but no passion.  Pigeon English feels a bit like being lectured at, I can see that as a set book in future GCSEs.

I wouldn't normally have read any of these.  Reading through the covers in a bookshop, I don't think any would have appealed and I would have headed back to my normal diet of SciFi/Fantasy, but its been a rewarding experience.  I might do it again next year.  Will it make me read more fiction in the meanwhile.... I'm not sure.  I assume that since they made the shortlist, these books are some of the better writing this year.  Given that none of them had the overall "wow" factor for me, how appealing will other books be that didn't make the shortlist?  Or maybe the judges are clueless.  Probably though, I'd be more inclined to give something different a try now.  I might not think "wow", but I'll probably enjoy reading it.

Overall, I think the one I most enjoyed was Jamrach's Menagerie.

Dave

[interzen]

Just finished a couple of PTerry's books - "I Shall Wear Midnight" and "Unseen Academicals".

Dunno if it's just me, but it seems to me that his writing has really kicked up a gear since he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. I like all of the Tiffany Aching books, but "Academicals" is a definite return to form for the 'regular' Discworld novels.

[her_welshness]

Finished all the shortlisted books.  I wouldn't have thought of reading them if it hadn't been for this thread.  For a cycling forum, yacf has a broad influence.

I enjoyed reading them all.  I did struggle a bit at the begining of Half Blood Blues.  I think thats about the language.  Strangely I didn't find that with Pigeon English which had similar use of slang.

While I enjoyed reading them all, I couldn't say that any of them were outstanding.  There were bits of both Snowdrops and Jamrach's Menagerie that thought were excellent, but only bits.  The Sisters Brothers was the least involving.  Silly without being funny.  The descriptions of jaz in Half Blood Blues were evocative.  I've never heard that much in it, but the descriptions make me think I'm missing something.

Something in The Sense of an Ending feels like its trying too hard, beautiful, but no passion.  Pigeon English feels a bit like being lectured at, I can see that as a set book in future GCSEs.

I wouldn't normally have read any of these.  Reading through the covers in a bookshop, I don't think any would have appealed and I would have headed back to my normal diet of SciFi/Fantasy, but its been a rewarding experience.  I might do it again next year.  Will it make me read more fiction in the meanwhile.... I'm not sure.  I assume that since they made the shortlist, these books are some of the better writing this year.  Given that none of them had the overall "wow" factor for me, how appealing will other books be that didn't make the shortlist?  Or maybe the judges are clueless.  Probably though, I'd be more inclined to give something different a try now.  I might not think "wow", but I'll probably enjoy reading it.

Overall, I think the one I most enjoyed was Jamrach's Menagerie.

Dave

I really enjoyed reading your post Dave. I loved the earlier section of Jamrach's Menagerie but the middle section I just found dire. In fact, I kept skipping through the pages. Thats not good 

I agree with you about The Sense of an Ending - beautiful but cold. To me this was the most shocking of the books. The main character could not have been any more average, but that was a brilliant ploy by the author. Cannot say any more (like yourself) as it would give it away.

I think Pigeon English is an important book - I had not thought of it as lecturing to us, will have to read it again. It does demonstrate what is wrong in our society. I liked the little boy and his outlook on life.

Overall my favourite was The Sisters Brothers - firstly, the front cover was just cracking. Secondly, it was a refreshing change for myself to read and a genre which has not appeared on the shortlist. Thirdly, the plot, the characters and the two brothers was ace and I thought it was the funniest book since Then We Came to the End, another book which is brilliantly funny and so desperately sad.

We shall see on the 18th!

[itsbruce]

Finished "Born to Run" a couple of days ago.  On the one hand, I read it in under 3 days and it would have been 1 only I kept finishing a chapter and then going for a run, or doing something else active, from the sheer inspiration it provided.  On the other hand, it's a melodramatic and sentimental piece of gonzo hackwork with such a cavalier attitude to scientific method and so lacking in intellectual rigour that any copy would, I'm sure, burst into flames as soon as Ben Goldacre tried to pick it up.

None of which will dissuade me from running barefoot.

[her_welshness]

Yay!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/8834464/Julian-Barnes-wins-the-2011-Man-Booker-Prize.html

Am really pleased for Julian Barnes, although my favourite did not win.

 

[GruB]

Eragon by Christopher Paolini - again.

[tiermat]

Just finished a couple of PTerry's books - "I Shall Wear Midnight" and "Unseen Academicals".

Dunno if it's just me, but it seems to me that his writing has really kicked up a gear since he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. I like all of the Tiffany Aching books, but "Academicals" is a definite return to form for the 'regular' Discworld novels.

I agree, Academicals is class, isn't it?

Incidentally it appears that there might not be a TP book out this year, not a new one anyway, Amazon is all over "Making Money" which came out last year in hardback.

EDIT: I am wrong, a new Sam Vimes book was released on 11/10, oooo that's Mrs T's Xmas pressy sorted then

[Efrogwr]

What I read on my holidays:
Rocket Boys – Homer H. Hickham
Growing up in West Virginia in the 50's with a focus on amateur rocketry. Contains the line ' the best I had ever done was a kiss on a girl's front porch after a dance...' and is consequently a work of genius. After all, that's pretty good going isn't it? Especially for the 1950s. Brilliant story, cracking book, read it!

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Mr Larrington]

Having had my fill of Neal Stephenson for the moment, I turned to Alistair Coleman¹'s Tales Of Mirth And Woe.  I should not have started reading this when late and in wine, as the laughter turned to coughing, which in turn led to a sneezing fit which threatened to turn me inside-out.

He is not mad.

1 - Perhaps better known as Scaryduck

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Armageddon by Max Hastings.

Being a perspective of the last months of the 2nd World War in Europe it is a harrowing account but it usefully describes the affair from many viewpoints showing how different the war was for a Russian compared to a soldier of the Western Allies.

Very hard to believe this was all quite recent.

[mike]

the Idiot by Dostoywhatsit.  Fantastic, really.

[LindaG]

The Road – Cormac McCarthy 
Those poor Americans, it's the end of the world again. A man and his young son travel on foot through a blasted, frozen lanscape; nothing grows, everything is covered in ash – it's worse than my back garden. They are heading for the coast to find... who knows? They live by scavenging and have to avoid others that have resorted to cannibalism. So, not terribly upbeat but a terrific book all the same – fantastic writing and short enough to be read at a single sitting. Demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit I suppose but best avoided if you are affected by the gloomy as frankly there are few jokes.

Wasn't this one made into a film recently with Vigo Mortensen as the dad?

Yes thats the one. I really enjoyed that book.

Just finished this.  I'm not sure what to make of it, tbh.  I dislike the worldview that places depravity and bestial behaviour as the default position of the human spirit in extremis.  I just don't think it's true.

And yet people do resort to cannibalism, as proved repeatedly in the experience of marooned seafarers.  And those young people in the plane crash dramatised in 'Alive'. 

I dunno.  Maybe reading Pollyanna in my childhood has scarred me.

Would this be the legacy of our species when we had destroyed our environment, once and for all?  Where goodness and love are the exception, not the rule?  I prefer to think Not.

On the whole I think I prefer the Stephen  Baxter models of post-apocalypsis, they're just more fun.  And now I need to read a Terry Pratchett, it's either that or buy up all the big bottles of water in town and start hoarding tinned peaches, what with white papers on water security and the Vatican lobbying the G12.

Hm.