What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Jasmine]

Perfect People by Peter James

Thinking of reading it based on quite good Amazon reviews? Just don't.  I don't know what book the reviewers on Amazon read, but sweet baby cheeses, that was shite. I persevered to the end, in the hope that there was an almighty plot twist that would forgive the frankly shocking writing style, stilted dialogue and stupid, irritating characters.  I was rewarded with a plot twist so obvious that a 5 year old could have guessed it - I'd seen it coming about 200 pages before it arrived.  I had, in a way, hoped that there might be a massacre at the end, given how completely un-relatable the main characters were. It was not rewarding.

I was particularly baffled by the number of times something bad happened where the solution to feel better about it was for the main characters to have sex.  An example of this includes: you find out that something has gone horribly wrong with your pregnancy. Perhaps I live on a different planet, but WTF - leave the gynae doctor, go home, sex it out? Really?

[Mr Larrington]

The whole "Enzo Files" series is pretty dire and not a little formulaic.  I think I commented on them somewhere up there ^^^^.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The Power by Naomi Alderman.

All over the world, teenage girls are discovering they have a strip of muscle across their collarbones which generates electricity, which they can use to shock people with. Eventually they realise that all girls are born with this and they teach each other how to use it. Behold, a world where men are still (generally) bigger and stronger, but women have a way to fight back. Repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia are overthrown, governments set up male/female segregated schools to protect the boys, men complain at what they see as a reversal of the natural order of things...

[T42]

We are soldiers still - Hal Moore & Joe Galloway.  Their return with others to the field of a battle in Vietnam that convinced both sides that they could win the war.  We were soldiers describes the battle.  Both fascinating.

[Paul]

I, Partridge. So many current comics/comedians these days cite it as the funniest book they have read, when I saw it in the library, I decided to give it a go.

It is very, very funny. It reminds me a little of Sue Townsend's style in the Adrian Mole books - which is entirely fitting - but it is all Partridge.

Recommended (if you find AP funny).

[rafletcher]

The whole "Enzo Files" series is pretty dire and not a little formulaic.  I think I commented on them somewhere up there ^^^^.

That's Peter May 

[Mr Larrington]

So it is.  I hereby confess to teh Stupidz.

Currently revisiting the Logan McCrae series.  I'd forgotten just how nastily DETHY they are

[T42]

Just finished Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson. Second of a trilogy beginning with Europe in Autumn and ending with Winter, only I hope he adds more.  Really excellent near-future SF/espionage, very satisfying to read - they aren't long but by the end of Midnight I felt as if I had just read a 500-page Le Carré.

[tiermat]

Stuart MacBride's 8th Logan McRae book (think it is Shatter The Bones).

It's sunny! Mostly!

This is after reading the latest Oldcastle one and then #7 of this series, as I realised I had missed a couple (I somehow managed to read 1,2,3,4,5,6,9)

As Mr L says, very deathy!

[hatler]

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

Good read.

[Gattopardo]

Finished Homicide a year on the illing streets.  What became Homicide life on the streets and then the writer wrote the Wire.

Anyone want it?

Going to start on the martian...

[T42]

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

Good read.

I read an article derived from that in Eagle, back in the 50s.  Escape to Climb it was called. It must have been inspired by the English translation of this book coming out.  Apparently there's a film, too.

[hatler]

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

Good read.

I read an article derived from that in Eagle, back in the 50s.  Escape to Climb it was called. It must have been inspired by the English translation of this book coming out.  Apparently there's a film, too.

So there was !  The Ascent

[pcolbeck]

All of Iain Bank's Culture novels again, in order. Just finished "Matter"

[T42]

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

Good read.

I read an article derived from that in Eagle, back in the 50s.  Escape to Climb it was called. It must have been inspired by the English translation of this book coming out.  Apparently there's a film, too.

So there was !  The Ascent

"Highly fictionalized" - I suppose it's inevitable.  In that line I liked North Face.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Inconceivable by Ben Elton.
I'd kind of gone off Ben Elton books for a bit, he was getting a bit insufferable.
This had me sniggering to myself.

[Riggers]

Jerusalem by Simon Teabag Monticristo (or something like that), and gosh, what a historically-weighty book! Full of foreign names (obvs!) but peppered with tons of * and subsequent ‡ and †. Doing my head in!


^ I think that endorsement should have been on the back cover.

[Kim]

All of Iain Bank's Culture novels again, in order.

+1

I'm doing a lot of reading at the moment, on account of it not involving bearing weight on my road rash.  Seems like as good a time as any to get round to the Culture series...

[Gattopardo]

Inconceivable by Ben Elton.
I'd kind of gone off Ben Elton books for a bit, he was getting a bit insufferable.
This had me sniggering to myself.

Made in to a film with Hugh laurie.  The sex scene on hampstead is funny.

[andrewc]

For fans of Charles Stross's "Laundry Files" the first chapter of "The Delirium Brief" is available at http://io9.gizmodo.com/read-the-entire-first-chapter-of-charles-stross-new-lau-1795171364


Novel released on 13/07/17

[Mrs Pingu]

Ooh!

[fuzzy]

Having just finished 'Feet Of Clay' (An good bit of writing by Ptrerry), I am now on to 'Cardinal of The Kremlin' by Mr Clancy.

[Quint]

Re reading The ragged trousered philanthropist just to remind me why I vote the way I do.   

[Quisling]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/26/landskipping-painters-ploughmen-and-places-review-anna-pavord-constable-hardy

Only just started but seems enjoyably readable so far.  It probably helps if, like me, you have a reasonable knowledge of the landscapes in different bits of the U.K.

Finally finished this last night.  It's in three sections
* The first is mainly of interest if you're fairly clued up about literature and the history of art, otherwise it's a bit of an exercise in name dropping but still interesting if you happen to know the places they painted (Scottish Highlands, Snowdonia, The Lakes etc.)
* The second is all about how farming has shaped our landscape.  Interesting to me, but the author has particular views which I didn't necessarily agree with.
* The third appears to be a dull persona diatribe about the landscape of Dorset where the author lives and how bloody wonderful it is.

Summary, 6/10.

[Ham]

Ah, Kindle, you've changed something about our relationship with books. This probably ought to be in the "feckin' div" place....

I'm in a "not much time for reading" phase atm. Last thing at night I read a little, at the moment and for quite a while I've been reading what seemed to be a very well written book, as good as stuff written by le Carre. Last night I thought I'd check to see just what it was I was reading. A most wanted man, by Le Carre 

And then I remembered, that choice was spurred on by the reading of Absolute Friends, a masterpiece of a book by  le Carre that, amongst other characteristics, presages the blurring of lines between public and private militia and quasi governmental bodies, touching on the consequences of mixing patriotism and profit.