What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Steph]

The book IS camping related!

[jogler]

The book IS camping related!

 

[geraldc]

Parts of the book are spent under canvas.

I think this book appeals to audaxers/long distance cyclists. One of my non cycling mates thought it was basically young adult fiction and therefore hated it. In my opinion it's a bit like if Adrian Mole audaxed in space, but in a good way.

[Vince]

The book IS camping related!

[Mrs Pingu]

I ran out of new books on the plane this morning so started re-reading Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.

I have just purchased The Martian having read about it on the thread, and the new book by Auður Ava Olafsdóttir, Butterflies In November, as I quite enjoyed the greenhouse.

Have just finished the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey which I enjoyed, not particularly hard SF but a good read and nice strong female characters too.

[Quint]

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, bought on a whim in the Cancer Research shop in Banbury, tis riveting, I think some of our recent political leaders have read about his discovery that the way to destroy opposing opinion is to attack and deride it (Blair possibly?)

[Dibdib]

I started on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the other day.

Probably not my best choice for a bedtime book - reading when I'm tired, I'm struggling to figure it out... 

[Quint]

A brilliant read but does need concentration, thoroughly enjoyed it 

[Peter]

Don't worry too much about figuring it out.  John Le Carre has said he can't follow it either!

[Quint]

The tv version was very good I thought 

[spindrift]

The early Smiley novels are jolly good. In one Smiley suspects someone's broken into his house, knocks on his own door and asks for Mr Smiley. The man replies "He's not here, come in". Smiley demures, walks around the corner and writes down the number plates of the ten cars parked on the road, quiet street in Chelsea.

[Canardly]

A re-read of Ragged trousered Philanthropists. A must read for anyone connected with the construction industry.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

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.

Just finished this and really liked it. I had spotted one half of the twist as soon as the character was introduced, but not the other half. I wasn't enamoured of the chapters set abroad, or the ending, but apart from that it was good.

[Nuncio]

I've just finished 'The Martian', or ('Watneys's Red Peril' as I've been calling it to myself').  Not really my type of book.  The science was beyond me so there were large parts of the book that I zoomed through with little interest other than the outcomes.  Epistolary and diary novels  tend to drag after a while for me anyway, so I looked forward to the Hermes crew and Nasa bits, only to find them so flatly written and implausible I wanted to get back to Mars.  The Watney character at least was a bit fleshed out, but I got fed up with him telling me to 'Remember' stuff I'd forgotten or not understood in the first place.

I can see it making a cracking film.  It seems almost written with that in mind with the cliche of people - relatives, colleagues, strangers - dotted round the world looking on and rooting for the protaganist.  And they'd have to develop the minor characters and provide a few sub-plots too.  I wonder if Tom Hanks has been approached yet.   

[tiermat]

Just finished "Cockroaches" by Jo Nesbo, and have moved onto "The Long Road to Freedom"

[billplumtree]

A Camera in the Hills: The Life and Work of W.A. Poucher.  Poucher was Wainwright's predecessor, in fell-walking guidebook terms, though he published photographs and type rather than sketches and hand-lettering.  I've had his guide to the Lakes since, oh, forever (actually, since 1985 according to the date I wrote on the flyleaf) and, whiile it doesn't have the same delights as Wainwright's guides, it has still been well-used and evokes fond memories of days on the fells. 

The photo of the author on the dustjacket made a big impression on me, a grizzled, stubbly, scruffy old bloke in a woolly bobble hat, just as a man-of-the-hills should look:

So, it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn from his biog that he was Head Perfumer at Yardley for 30 years, was known as The Father of Modern Perfumery, and published what is still known as the perfumers' bible, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps in 1923.  What's more, he apparently had a penchant for "wearing his wares", there being "many apocryphal tales of walkers who met this vision of loveliness on the hill - an immaculately turned-out hill walker complete with mascara, blusher, eye-shadow and lipstick."

I'm lovin' it so far, absolutely fascinating.  And I've not even got beyond the introduction, apart from a quick browse through the pics of a rather dapper and dashing chap.  Wonderful.

[Ham]

Just finished another Andy Straka book, got sucked in from the Kindle Freebie http://www.amazon.co.uk/Witness-Above-Pavlicek-Mystery-Series-ebook/dp/B0045JK2XM/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398289393&sr=1-2&keywords=straka

Quite good slightly formulaic detective books, the thing that makes them different is that they all have a very strong thread of falconry woven into the plot. Kept me amused, anyhow.

[Dibdib]

Not for the first time, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - mostly because the BBC are currently repeating the Primary and Secondary phases of the radio series on Radio 4Extra and I'm trying to stop myself buying the enormous CD box set of the rest.

It won't work of course, but forcing myself to read the books first will, at least, delay the inevitable.

[andrewc]

I'm currently on the last volume of Ian Tregellis's "Milkweed Triptych" Bitter Seeds, The Coldest War & Necessary Evil.

Alternate History/Fantasy hokum, but very well done.   It starts in the late 1930's with a German mad scientist experimenting on orphaned children to produce a small group of people with scientifically augmented psi powers, who are then recruited into the SS and used to help destroy the British armed forces prior to invading the UK.

The British fight back by recruiting the islands remaining Warlocks, who can negotiate miracles with a pan dimensional race of nasties who don't like humanity very much & demand blood sacrifices for each favour.

If you enjoyed Tim Powers "Declare" or Charles Stross's "Laundry" series you'll probably get on with these.  Unremittingly bleak though, and the American author doesn't quite write British English like wot it should be spoke....

[billplumtree]

he [Poucher] was Head Perfumer at Yardley for 30 years, was known as The Father of Modern Perfumery, and published what is still known as the perfumers' bible, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps in 1923.

I suspect, however, that the editor of his biog was more into mountains than cosmetics.  Apparently, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps contains sections on

lip slaves and rogue sticks

[T42]

The Wind in the Willows.

[T42]

If you enjoyed Tim Powers "Declare" or Charles Stross's "Laundry" series you'll probably get on with these.  Unremittingly bleak though, and the American author doesn't quite write British English like wot it should be spoke....

Judging from the Internet, neither do most Brits.

[Deano]

I'm currently struggling with the Berlin-Baghdad Express by Sean McMeekin.

It's a fascinating story of German expansionism towards the latter days of the Great Game, but the book is a curious mismatch of in-depth scholarly history and derring-do populist history. Bloody stodgy prose, too.

It's an interesting enough thing to persist with, but could do with a bit more focus. He seems determined on including every detail of every treaty and every implication of every treaty and all the politicians who played the merest part. He's a bit keen on larding it with his own opinions of all of it, too, in a less-than-subtle way.

He's just not a good enough storyteller to get away with the scope of the tale he's trying to tell.

[mark]

I just started "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" by Robert S. McNamara. Yes, that Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968. Should be an interesting read.

[Exit Stage Left]

Unlikely Warriors, by Richard Baxell. About the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. The unlikeliest thing revealed is that a group of Republican Spaniards spent time as POWs in a camp near Chorley.



https://www.academia.edu/3002553/Spanish_anti-fascist_prisoners_of_war_in_Lancashire_1944-46