Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 846693 times)

citoyen · « **Reply #3350 on:** 13 May, 2014, 09:33:23 am »

The new Ned Beauman, Glow. I was hooked from the description of a girl seen by the protagonist at a rave in a launderette in the opening scene.

I think that now he has his third novel under his belt, it's no longer too soon to coin the term Beaumanesque. He's not exactly a subtle writer but his metaphors are at least dazzlingly original. And funny.

I am a fan. I may have mentioned this before.

rabbit · « **Reply #3351 on:** 13 May, 2014, 11:24:34 am »

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

It's a book I read in my very early twenties, but it's taken 16 years of hard living to really appreciate the content and it makes a whole lot more sense this time around.

citoyen · « **Reply #3352 on:** 13 May, 2014, 09:41:42 pm »

Got this lined up for when I finish the Beauman...

Whitstable by Stephen Volk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D3RNVT4

Sounds intriguing!

pcolbeck · « **Reply #3353 on:** 14 May, 2014, 06:30:21 pm »

INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS the first two novells in Alison Morton's Roma Nova trilogy.

Really good fun with an interesting premise. The idea is that not some Romans survived the fall of Rome by fleeing to the Alps and setting up a small country there and that it survives to this day as a small independent state.
Its an alternate history that's nearly but not quite the same as our own. the other twist is that as they had to militarise so much to start with the Romans handed over running of the state to the women while the men concentrated on fighting to defend the state. In the end women and men join the military but by the present day Nova Roma is a matriarchal society.
The novels are thrillers set in this not quite our 21st century world.

mattc · « **Reply #3354 on:** 14 May, 2014, 07:37:46 pm »

The idea is that not some Romans survived the fall of Rome by fleeing to the Alps and setting up a small country there and that it survives to this day as a small independent state.

So basically Switzerland is a warrior state where they speak Latin? Cool! (Do they still get all the Nazi gold?)

pcolbeck · « **Reply #3355 on:** 14 May, 2014, 07:41:50 pm »

Quote from: mattc on 14 May, 2014, 07:37:46 pm

The idea is that not some Romans survived the fall of Rome by fleeing to the Alps and setting up a small country there and that it survives to this day as a small independent state.

So basically Switzerland is a warrior state where they speak Latin? Cool! (Do they still get all the Nazi gold?)

Thats the idea basically. They speak Latin and worship the old gods (they decamp Rome when the restrictions on worshipping the old gods are enforced).
No Nazis as there is no WWi or WWII. There is a "great war" lasting 10 years from 1920 to 1930 but no Nazis.
The Romans do have a silver mine though.

Ruth · « **Reply #3356 on:** 21 May, 2014, 10:46:21 pm »

Tim Moore's book 'Gironimo' about riding the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a vintage bike.

http://www.podiumcafe.com/book-corner/2014/5/19/5730500/interview-tim-moore

That's an interview with him about the book.

So far I can't put this down (except to watch the new episode of GameOfThrones). I was LOL'ing on my lunch break at work whist reading it in front of all my colleagues. I don't care, it's really funny.

tiermat · « **Reply #3357 on:** 22 May, 2014, 08:13:22 am »

After reading a couple of heavy books (in content, not weight, as all my reading is in ebooks), I turned to a bit of light relief. So I am now reading "The Rosie Project".

Despite being, essentially, chick-lit, I find it laugh out loud funny.

Nuncio · « **Reply #3358 on:** 22 May, 2014, 12:15:01 pm »

Quote from: Ruthie on 21 May, 2014, 10:46:21 pm

Tim Moore's book 'Gironimo' about riding the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a vintage bike.

I have that lined up on my iPod. It was R4 Book of the Week last week, and I enjoyed his Tour de France book 12 years ago.

I'm reading Great Expectations again. I can only read it now - especially the first few chapters - through David Lean's eyes. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Ham · « **Reply #3359 on:** 22 May, 2014, 04:19:36 pm »

I've been enjoying Ian Rankin, weaving in and out of Edinburgh reality.

andrewc · « **Reply #3360 on:** 22 May, 2014, 08:26:15 pm »

Books read recently.
"A Spy Amongst Friends", by Ben McIntyre. Kim Philby & the days when having the right background & contacts was all you needed for a job in MI6. Interesting & well written.

Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson. Ice age hokum. Entertaining, but not one of his best.

citoyen · « **Reply #3361 on:** 23 May, 2014, 07:20:06 am »

Quote from: Ruthie on 21 May, 2014, 10:46:21 pm

Tim Moore's book 'Gironimo' about riding the route of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a vintage bike.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #3362 on:** 03 June, 2014, 09:38:37 am »

Prince/King/Emperor of Thorns

A trilogy with nods to GoT. Shows at least as much willingness to kill off characters. No characters with redeeming morals, either.

Relatively short, full of action and bloody battles. Main character and narator is truly vile to start with but he grows on you.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #3363 on:** 03 June, 2014, 01:21:43 pm »

The Bees by Laline Paull. Interesting.

tiermat · « **Reply #3364 on:** 07 June, 2014, 11:17:43 am »

Just finished Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I really enjoyed it, the story of how one woman lost sight of what is important, after her mum died, then rediscovered it during a thousand mile hike California and Oregon on the PCT.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #3365 on:** 07 June, 2014, 02:15:12 pm »

Currently working my way through the Flashman novels. Somehow these had passed me by until now.
Excellent rollicking fun in the company of a Victorian cad, coward and scoundrel through some of the most famous incidents in the history of the Empire.

T42 · « **Reply #3366 on:** 07 June, 2014, 05:12:55 pm »

Just finished Tom Holland's Persian Fire: superbly-written history of the Persian empire and its conflicts with the Greeks. Moving on to Iain M. Banks' Surface Detail for possibly the 3rd time.

jogler · « **Reply #3367 on:** 07 June, 2014, 05:25:46 pm »

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Fact-based fiction written in the 1st person.

I very rarely read fiction.This novel will not encourage me to read more.

citoyen · « **Reply #3368 on:** 13 June, 2014, 10:30:50 am »

I recently had to read a short story by Philippa Gregory that was included in a "summer fiction" feature for a mag I was working on. It was ok but certainly didn't make me want to read any more of her stuff (though at least it was better than the excruciatingly bad Alexander McCall Smith effort that was also in the feature). If the subject matter interests you, jogler, try reading some Hilary Mantel instead - she might just restore your faith in fiction.

Another in the same category that I started reading this morning is Brighton Rock. By Jove, it's good. I last "read" it 27 years ago at school, though I don't think I paid much attention to it at the time. More fool me. Sublime writing. Entirely deserving of its classic status.

I finished Ned Beauman's Glow yesterday. A great read but somehow not as satisfying as his previous two novels. The writing is as dazzlingly exuberant as ever, I love his way with a metaphor, and it's very very funny, but the narrative structure seems a bit formulaic - the protagonist seems to bumble through, each new character he meets unravelling another piece of the mystery with a long expositionary flashback. Still highly recommended and better than about 99% of contemporary fiction, but ever so slightly disappointing after the genius of The Teleportation Accident.

BrianI · « **Reply #3369 on:** 19 June, 2014, 08:19:16 am »

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbot Abbot.

Discovered it while browsing Project Gutenberg!

rafletcher · « **Reply #3370 on:** 20 June, 2014, 11:16:13 am »

John Harvey's last Resnick book, not too bad as these things go. This after having stopped 1/3 of the way through Peter James' most recent Roy Grace offering as it was utter tripe. At least I skimmed the rest to see what happened to Sandy!.

Guy · « **Reply #3371 on:** 20 June, 2014, 02:41:29 pm »

Just finished "Battle for the Bundu: The First World War in East Africa" by Charles Miller, a very informative (and entertaining) book.

Am half-way through "The Journey of Man: a genetic odyssey" by Spencer Wells. A good companion to the works of Herbert Wendt, Richard Leakey and Jacob Bronowski.

And, three-quarters of the way through re-reading "War With the Newts" by Karel Čapek*. I had forgotten just how entertaining that book is, and just how much food for thought it contains.

Next will be "The Long Mars" by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, which arrived today.

*With thanks to HellyMedic for showing an utter simpleton how to find Character Map

Ruth · « **Reply #3372 on:** 21 June, 2014, 09:05:57 pm »

Idiopathy: a novel, by Sam Byers.

I'm kind of struggling with this. The main protaganists are so uniformly awful I don't know that I want to waste any more energy getting to know them. I know it's satire, but still.

Ham · « **Reply #3373 on:** 23 June, 2014, 11:24:05 am »

I'm reading The Long Mars; to me it seems really down on the Pratchett quotient, and I'm finding it a bit turgid, SF-heavy and easy to put down. Anyone else?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #3374 on:** 23 June, 2014, 12:43:39 pm »

Having just completed the reorganisation of the Library in the Great Hall, it is time to put my jbex to the test by reading the Stuffs therein which I have not yet read to completion.

The Collector Collector ~ Tibor Fischer. Just finished. Squarely in the Land of Meh.
The Trial ~ Franz Kafka. Ongoing. A bit light on explosions and killin's.

Still to come:

The Broken Bridge ~ Philip Pullman. I'm sure I had read this but apparently not.
Dream Story ~ Arthur Schnitzler. Grauniad freebie. In 1999.
Oscar Wilde ~ Richard Ellman. Got halfway through this while in the Gulag. Very academic, so not many jokes in it, but only paid a fiver for a first edition.
The Poetic Edda ~ trad. arr. Dr Larrington's 1996 translation

Have also borrowed "The Triskellion Trilogy" by "Will Peterson". The author is a fictional construct, half of which is Mark Billingham.