What books are we reading at the moment ?

[clarion]

Understanding A Photograph, a collection of essays by John Berger.  It's quite gripping.  I took time out to read Christian Bouqueret's introduction to the Thames & Hudson book of Surrealist Photography, but I'm back into the Berger right now, in the middle of a reflection on Susan Sontag's On Photography.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Anyone here read The Cuckoo's Calling?

I quite liked it.

[Ruth]

Women Who Run With The Wolves.

I don't know what I think of it yet, but it's nice to have your femaleness affirmed.

[clarion]

Wolves run pretty fast, you know.  Shouldn't it be, 'Women Who Ride Their Bikes With The Wolves'?

[L CC]

Anyone here read The Cuckoo's Calling?

I quite liked it.

As did I:

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert JK Rowling Galbraith. I was just finishing the second Game of Thrones book when the library emailed to say my reservation for The Cuckoo's Calling was ready for collection, so I'm taking a break from swords and incest. I started it last night, read three chapters, so far, so good.

It saw me round our route check 300 this week: 14 annabit hours for each of them. I liked it, apart from the extended reveal at the end, I found that a bit unconvincingly 1930s/Agatha Christie. Good narrator, which is important for those of us who can't DIY.

(But y'know, I like True Blood novels, and read all of Twilight  )

[woollypigs]

The Martian, Andy Weir

Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe.

I love this book. It's getting rave reviews everywhere, and praise for it's scientifc accuracy, but the story is gripping.

A lot of it is written in the first person. Features a lot of solo long distance travelling,  rationing of food, and repairing faerie visitations, so it really is like a ride report.

Worth £2 of anyones money on kindle. Author initially self published, but it did so well, it's been picked up by proper publishers.

Thanks for the heads up, just my kinda read, really enjoyed it.

[Vince]

The Martian, Andy Weir

Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe.

I love this book. It's getting rave reviews everywhere, and praise for it's scientifc accuracy, but the story is gripping.

A lot of it is written in the first person. Features a lot of solo long distance travelling,  rationing of food, and repairing faerie visitations, so it really is like a ride report.

Worth £2 of anyones money on kindle. Author initially self published, but it did so well, it's been picked up by proper publishers.

Thanks for the heads up, just my kinda read, really enjoyed it.

Me too. At one point I was convinced that Ian OTP was the author, but there were no bears involved in the plot.

[Auntie Helen]

Thanks for the Martian recommendation - I've just bought the hardback version (currently just a fiver on Amazon) as Uncle James will want to read it too and he doesn't have a Kindle. Plus sometimes I prefer real paper books!

[tiermat]

I might move onto The Martian after my current read.

I have just finished "Killer - An Alex Delaware Novel" by Jonathon Kellerman and have moved onto "The House Girl" by Tara Conklin, the two books couldn't be more different, really, but I enjoyed the last one and am enjoying this one, so far.

[citoyen]

No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

Cor! I like this. A lot.

[Auntie Helen]

Thanks for the recommendation of The Martian by Andy Weir - I loved it!

[tiermat]

D'oh! I forgot about The Martian, I'll queue it up for reading next.

I have finished "The House Girl", very interesting, it is 3 stories in one, all of which intersect.

Once I had finished that I moved onto "Skunk Works" by Ben R. Rich, about his time at Lockheed's Top Secret research and development centre in Burbank, California.  He particularly concentrates on the Stealth project.  I didn't know that the first stealth plane flew in 1975 and the developed it after reading a paper written by a Soviet scientist.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I've just started The Merman by Carl-Johan Vallgren (a translation, not in the original Swedish). I was in tears in the first few pages, with a very distressing description of cruelty to a kitteh. I think it's going to be good.

[fuzzy]

Just finished Wheel Men.

Nothing new revealed but a very readable synopsis of the deception.

[redshift]

"Circles of confusion" by Alan Roberts.  50 years of Vision engineering knowledge distilled into 450 or so pages.  I suspect I'm in a small minority of people who find this interesting.

Also contains: matrix mathematics, digital sampling, CCDs, optical transfer functions and colorimetry.  I think that may be a really small minority.

[Vince]

Just finished As the Crow Flies by Damian Boyd - currently free on Amazon.
A Police/Crime thriller involving an ex-met DI who has moved back to Somerset (and who wouldn't). An easy read with a good plot.

Started Dangerous Pursuits by Quentin Jardine. I gave up after reading the author's foward (4% of the book) where he explained that this wasn't really the same as an earlier book he had written although that might seem to be the case or something. It was another freebie, so no loss.

[Redlight]

Am about half way through Babbit by Sinclair Lewis.  Published more than 90 years ago and set in mid-western USA but many of the attitudes and behaviours of the characters (a thoroughly unpleasant lot, so far) could easily be found in some elements of British society today. The eponymous character appears to be verging on a mid-life crisis so it will be interesting to see what happens in the second half and whether Babbit has some kind of Damascene conversion or the author's dislike for his own characters prevents any of them changing their ways.

[billplumtree]

Longbourn, Jo Baker.  Pride & Prejudice retold from the servants perspective. By 'eck, it's ingenious the way it intertwines with the original, with a wonderful twist which Cannot Be Revealed.  I often felt, when ploughing my way through P&P and other classics of the ilk, that there was another story going on 'downstairs', with a whole other cast of characters, which was never told - so this one was a must-read.  And it was well worth waiting for.

Granted, Jo Baker is no Austen (but then, who is?), and the tone of "look how hard our lives are compared to them upstairs"  is sometimes a bit shrill.  But still, it's very entertaining both in itself and in spotting the events in the original.  And even if it didn't have The Twist, I'd still be glad it had been written.

[L CC]

Longbourn, Jo Baker.

Ooo 13hr 29 minutes. Perfect for The Dean this weekend. 

[Steph]

Just finished 'The Martian'. Two opinions:

The reader: Damned good book, proper hard SF where someone understands that the Tim Robbins "Mission to Mars" shit is just that. The science is there, and it works, and because the PoV is a self-deprecating geek with a wonderful sense of humour, the whole thing works. Standard shout as I read it: What the fuck NOW?

The writer: abrupt ending. Cardboard cut-out supporting cast largely delineated by hook peccadillo.

The overall opinion: Yeah! Good shit, man!

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The Tartan Special One by Barry Phillips. Proper laugh out loud till you cry funny.

[jogler]

A biography of Sir Walter Ralegh.
Much more to this bloke than throwing his best bib&tucker* over a water filled pothole at the feet the Virgin Queen's spdees.

The most interesting part of his life is that after the death of Elizabeth I when he was no longer a court favourite.Framed for treason,found guilty,repreived,imprisoned,released,framed by the Spanish & finally beheaded.
That James I was,by this account, a right nobber.

I'm left wondering how much different our history might have been if James' son Henry Prince of Wales had succeeded his father instead of James II.Charles I.
We may not,for instance,have endured the English Civil War.

* It seems that it was not Ralegh's cloak in that he had borrowed/hired it from an Elizabethan Moss Bros,thus  allowing a IDGAF perspective on his part.

edited.see Steph's post below

[Steph]

James II succeeding James I? A couple of generations out, surely...

[jogler]

James II succeeding James I? A couple of generations out, surely...

oops,my bad.
thanks for pointing out my error.
I'll edit my post

[jogler]

D'oh! I forgot about The Martian, I'll queue it up for reading next.

Co-incidentally I ummed&aared about buying this in Tesco's a couple of hours ago.Two reasons why I didn't

I prefer not to have hard back books

I decided to buy something camping related instead