What books are we reading at the moment ?

[ian]

On the subject of detective thrillers and devil worshipping, I just finished Falling Angel, the book the movie Angel Heart is based on (recently reappeared on Kindle, hard to get hold of before). Very good. Everyone knows the twist, but the book doesn't rely on it, it's more a case of it approaching like a distant freight train, as it steadily builds towards the inevitable. Some nice prose to boot, he does a good Chandler turn of phrase.

[red marley]

Big Brother.

Interesting.

In a good way? I quite fancy reading it, although I found We Need to Talk About Kevin such a grim experience. I'm glad I read it, but felt somewhat bruised afterwards.

[citoyen]

Our Mutual Friend.

I've started it before but never finished it. I'm determined to see it through this time. Boy, it's long though. And feels it. But I'm enjoying it.

[tiermat]

I finished Nightfall by Stephen LEather last night, and moved onto Midnight by the same author.

The books are books 1 and 2 in the "Jack Nightingale" series, about a former Police negotiator turned private eye who inherits a country house and estate under unusual circumstances.  In the first book he has to come to terms with the fact that his biological father sold his soul to a devil.  In the second he has to find his half sister and try and save her from the same fate that threatens him.

Well written, there are one or two timeline issues, but that doesn't, really, affect the overall story.

Now onto Nightmare, the third in the series.

As you can maybe tell, these detective thrillers with a devil worshipping sideline are gripping me...

And now onto Nightshade.

Not sure what to make of this one, it starts with a Dunblane style shooting in a Primary school in Berwick, and the abduction, for rape and murder, of a 9 yr old girl in Southampton.  Light reading it is not!

[L CC]

Big Brother.

Interesting.

In a good way? I quite fancy reading it, although I found We Need to Talk About Kevin such a grim experience. I'm glad I read it, but felt somewhat bruised afterwards.

A proper book, for me, is as much about me, as the book. (This doesn't apply to froth of a SF/fantasy/detective fiction/chicklit nature, but proper books that make you think).
As such, We Need To Talk About Kevin was absolutely horrific in its battering, as a parent the similarities and differences in parenting styles and opinions were fascinating and terrifying.
In the same way, Big Brother is about obesity.

I haven't finished it yet.

[Si]

Prachet and Baxter's 'Long Earth' followed by the sequel "Long War".  Have to say that I was rather impressed, especially with The Long Earth.  Sort of book that you can just read for reading's sake rather than worrying about what is going to happen in the end.  Not read any Baxter stuff before but read most of the Prachet stuff....in some ways it's a bit of a departure for him, but his unmistakable style is always bubbling along just below the surface.  The Long War was also good but the end was a bit strange - partly predictable and partly as though they'd suddenly discovered that they'd run up to their word limit.  Worth reading though.

[mcshroom]

Just finished my first Iain M Banks book - 'Feersum Endjinn'. For the first half of the book I was sure the sections in phonetic text speak alike was going to put me off but it got much more readable a it went on

[L CC]

Big Brother.

Interesting.

In a good way? I quite fancy reading it, although I found We Need to Talk About Kevin such a grim experience. I'm glad I read it, but felt somewhat bruised afterwards.

I'm not sure I can recommend it. I don't think, in the end, it told me anything new or interesting (by which I don't mean facts, but theories and opinions and attitudes). Going into it knowing the author's brother died young at 300+lbs makes you read it through those glasses.

[citoyen]

Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory

Started on it myself this morning. It's getting on for 25 years since I last read it so I've forgotten most of the detail of it, but I'm enjoying rediscovering it. Funnier than I remember.

Interesting reading a story from the point of view of someone who is amoral.

I'm thinking about this one. Is Frank truly amoral? Or does he have some kind of highly individual moral code, albeit one that's at odds with conventional morality? Hmmmm...

[tiermat]

Started to read "Wheelmen", but got bored, it's just not that much of interest to me.

So switched to "Empty Mansions", the story of Hugette Clark and why she left 2 large mansions, one in New Jersey and one in California, and a huge apartment on Park Avenue, empty for over 20 years.

Fascinating reading.

[Quint]

Just finished Standing in another mans grave by Ian Rankin, while good it felt as though he got to the last few chapters and thought "bugger, running out of space best finish", a shame really as most  of the book was very good.

[Nuncio]

Started to read "Wheelmen", but got bored, it's just not that much of interest to me.

Oh dear.  That's on the bedside table waiting for me to finish with The Little Friend (not a euphemism).  Hope it's just 'you' tiermat.

[interzen]

"Cycling The Great Divide", 2nd edition (now with added Canada, eh?)

Research, innit?

[tiermat]

Started to read "Wheelmen", but got bored, it's just not that much of interest to me.

Oh dear.  That's on the bedside table waiting for me to finish with The Little Friend (not a euphemism).  Hope it's just 'you' tiermat.

I hope so, too, I may return to it at a later time, but it starts with a LOT of background about cycling in the US, some of it completely irrelevant (as far as I can see) and some of it relevant (like the sports cold war between the US and Russia in the 1980's etc)

[T42]

Hillary Mantel, Bring up the bodies.  Title sounds like ghouls losing their stomach contents, but it ain't.

[citoyen]

Breakfast Of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

On the train this morning, it got so I couldn't carry on reading because I was laughing so much it hurt. My fellow commuters must have wondered what was up.

[Ham]

Proulx's Shipping News, again, on my kindle this time. It's one of those books you have to read aloud to yourself in bits, even if you can't actually be heard. Unfortunately I don't know what a Newfie accent sounds like, so they're all bloody northerners in my head.

[tiermat]

Finished "Empty Mansions" and was disappointed, it felt like the end was "Oh shit, we need to get this out to the publisher, now, lets just tie up loose ends and leave it at that".

Now reading "Inside Team Sky"

[rogerzilla]

Morrissey's Autobiography.

There are no normal chapter divisions and he is very fond of adverbs, adjectives and metaphors.  He really didn't like school.

[citoyen]

He really didn't like school.

Have you heard "The Headmaster Ritual"?

[red marley]

With his insistence on being elevated to a Penguin Classic before anyone had read what he had to say and that smug 'what a sensitive soul am I' cover photo, I think that has to be the most punchable book this Christmas.

[rogerzilla]

That's Mozzer for you; his whole career is built around being an irascible arrogant twat, but it works.

[T42]

I keep a copy of James Branch Cabell's Jurgen (one of my favourite books) in my phone to read in waiting-rooms. Glad to say that's it's taking a long time to get through it.

[citoyen]

Never go back.

That's not the name of a book I'm reading but a bit of general advice.

Started on The Secret History this morning, which I first read as an impressionable teen many years ago and loved it...

Oh my god, it's awful. Really comically bad.

"She, I thought, was very beautiful, in an unsettling, almost medieval way which would not be apparent to the casual observer."

LOL!

I shall persevere with it out of morbid fascination, but I may end up throwing my kindle across the room in disgust.

[fuzzy]

Never go back.

That's not the name of a book I'm reading but a bit of general advice.

Started on The Secret History this morning, which I first read as an impressionable teen many years ago and loved it...

Oh my god, it's awful. Really comically bad.

"She, I thought, was very beautiful, in an unsettling, almost medieval way which would not be apparent to the casual observer."

LOL!

I shall persevere with it out of morbid fascination, but I may end up throwing my kindle across the room in disgust.

Oh I don't know-

I first read Starship Troopers, Space Cadet, Rendevous With Rama and others as an impressionable yoof and loved them.

I read them again occasionally and still get the same joy from (re)discovering them as I did then.

Perhaps I didn't grow up