Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 846642 times)

CrazyEnglishTriathlete · « **Reply #6550 on:** 23 February, 2022, 08:50:22 pm »

The Race Against the Stasi - Herbie Sykes - an account of Dieter Wiedemann, the GDR cyclist who defected to the west during trials for the Olympics in 1964. Part cycling biography, part love story, part harrowing account of living during the formation of a police state, woven together expertly and intriguingly. I haven't sat down and read so much of a book in one go for years.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #6551 on:** 24 February, 2022, 11:54:52 pm »

Having finished Last Flight To Stalingrad* on the Tube just now I've started the same author's Kyiv. Said city is about to fall to the Nazis. Sounds familiar. What, if anything, can the plucky BRITISH double agent do to help the Soviet Union? Does she know what her boss at MI6, a Mr Harold Adrian Russell Philby, gets up to in his copious free time? Will Dieter Merz put in an appearance? Gimme a chance, I'm only on chapter two…

* Dieter Merz does appear, albeit briefly. Hurrah!

FifeingEejit · « **Reply #6552 on:** 25 February, 2022, 12:07:42 am »

I have reached the final chapter of The Great Railway Bazzar.
A journey (in reverse) of one I'd really like to do, like really really.
Sadly for the time being and probably forever unless there is a complete failure of the Russian Imperial Empire, the closest I'll get to it is watching Mr Palin.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #6553 on:** 03 March, 2022, 07:42:45 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 24 February, 2022, 11:54:52 pm

Having finished Last Flight To Stalingrad* on the Tube just now I've started the same author's Kyiv. Said city is about to fall to the Nazis. Sounds familiar. What, if anything, can the plucky BRITISH double agent do to help the Soviet Union? Does she know what her boss at MI6, a Mr Harold Adrian Russell Philby, gets up to in his copious free time? Will Dieter Merz put in an appearance? Gimme a chance, I'm only on chapter two…

* Dieter Merz does appear, albeit briefly. Hurrah!

Well, that was grim. No happy ending, and no Dieter Merz either, though MI5's Ursula Barton, the thoroughly nasty SS Standartenführer Kalb and token Good German Walter Schultz of the Abwehr all put in repeat appearances.

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #6554 on:** 03 March, 2022, 07:47:15 pm »

Reading Frederick Forsythe's "The Devil's Alternative" again as it has the subplot about Ukraine independence.

rafletcher · « **Reply #6555 on:** 03 March, 2022, 07:48:49 pm »

Another slice of Aussie outback crime fiction, The Stoning by one Peter Papanathanasiou. As good as Jane Harper’s The Dry or Chris Hammer’s Scrublands.

sg37409 · « **Reply #6556 on:** 03 March, 2022, 10:34:42 pm »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 29 November, 2020, 09:42:13 pm

I was reading Douglas Stuart’s 'Shuggie Bain’, which is excellent and brutal ...

Just finished it. Excellent, but not an easy read in many parts. A bit too close for comfort at times.

sg37409 · « **Reply #6557 on:** 03 March, 2022, 10:35:54 pm »

Quote from: rafletcher on 03 March, 2022, 07:48:49 pm

Another slice of Aussie outback crime fiction, The Stoning by one Peter Papanathanasiou. As good as Jane Harper’s The Dry or Chris Hammer’s Scrublands.

I really liked Scrublands - Might give this a try next.

FifeingEejit · « **Reply #6558 on:** 03 March, 2022, 10:52:32 pm »

Travels with a donkey in the cevennes RLS

The first chapter was oddly familiar
Then I realised I've not long read Tim Moores travels with a donkey, and that they both told of the same struggles of getting said donk to do anything.

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Legs · « **Reply #6559 on:** 04 March, 2022, 07:52:03 am »

I’m trying to read the lipogrammatic Gadsby, by Ernest Vincent Wright, but it’s quite hard going!

rafletcher · « **Reply #6560 on:** 04 March, 2022, 09:05:11 am »

Quote from: sg37409 on 03 March, 2022, 10:35:54 pm

Quote from: rafletcher on 03 March, 2022, 07:48:49 pm
Another slice of Aussie outback crime fiction, The Stoning by one Peter Papanathanasiou. As good as Jane Harper’s The Dry or Chris Hammer’s Scrublands.

I really liked Scrublands - Might give this a try next.

Also try Hammers latest, Opal Country, a stand-alone.

For earlier Aussie stuff, Peter Temple's 2 "Broken Shore" books are good too.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #6561 on:** 04 March, 2022, 11:36:51 am »

Revisiting Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, which should keep me busy for a day or two.

FifeingEejit · « **Reply #6562 on:** 04 March, 2022, 08:41:15 pm »

I've got that in a shelf sone where... I didn't realize it was 3 books, thought it would be another year long effort like war and peace was.

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Steph · « **Reply #6563 on:** 06 March, 2022, 08:01:35 pm »

Quote from: FifeingEejit on 03 March, 2022, 10:52:32 pm

Travels with a donkey in the cevennes RLS

The first chapter was oddly familiar
Then I realised I've not long read Tim Moores travels with a donkey, and that they both told of the same struggles of getting said donk to do anything.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

"Spanish Steps"?

FifeingEejit · « **Reply #6564 on:** 06 March, 2022, 08:02:34 pm »

That's the one

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fd3 · « **Reply #6565 on:** 14 March, 2022, 11:21:48 pm »

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
I picked it up from the library for #1 son to read and I'm a bit surprised that he went the distance.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #6566 on:** 15 March, 2022, 01:04:59 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 04 March, 2022, 11:36:51 am

Revisiting Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, which should keep me busy for a day or two.

Now onto volume 2. “Tifty Lamont” has to be the worst name for an organised crime boss evvah. But at least we can be grateful that the USAnian military didn’t genetically modify COVID-19 to turn a bunch of Death Row prisoners into what they thought would be super-soldiers but turned out to be ravening and near-indestructible vampires with inhuman strength and bad attitudes.

Legs · « **Reply #6567 on:** 15 March, 2022, 10:54:49 am »

Quote from: Legs on 04 March, 2022, 07:52:03 am

I’m trying to read the lipogrammatic Gadsby, by Ernest Vincent Wright, but it’s quite hard going!

Well, I got about 15% of the way through, and very little had happened, so I put it in the 'glad I've tried' pile.

rafletcher · « **Reply #6568 on:** 18 March, 2022, 09:24:17 am »

Joe Ide's The Goodbye Coast, Philip Marlowe transplanted to LA 2021. I enjoyed his "IQ" novels, but this makes a pleasant - and successfiul - change.

T42 · « **Reply #6569 on:** 18 March, 2022, 09:58:53 am »

Was ~~reading~~ trying to read The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalyse. Lovers of the late, ungreat Chic Murray would appreciate it, it's full of irritating, repetitious phrases just like his "humour" was, stuff like "I had my hat on my head, at least I knew it was my head because my hat was on it". Arseholery, in other words.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #6570 on:** 18 March, 2022, 11:31:25 am »

I am not reading Waterloo Sunrise: London From The Sixties To Thatcher by John Davis because it is Bad Form to read a bok you’re about to give someone else as a present and my own copy will be along next month. But you, Constant Reader, should read it because the author is my brother-in-law and a Sound Chap and needs cheering up because his Mum died last week. A snip at only thirty of the BRITON'S pounds.

T42 · « **Reply #6571 on:** 02 April, 2022, 10:40:13 am »

I'm reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy again. Very, very good but not to be read if you need something cheerful, not that any of his stuff is. I read this one when it first came out in 1985: 37 years on, I think I've recovered.

rafletcher · « **Reply #6572 on:** 02 April, 2022, 03:29:53 pm »

James Oswald’s latest Inspector McLean All That Lives. It’s ok, like many “series” books that’ve been going for a while.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #6573 on:** 02 April, 2022, 03:37:11 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 04 February, 2021, 02:34:36 pm

Dominion - Tom Holland

Not about Christianity per say as a religion though there is a lot in there about the history of Christianity, but more about the impact of Christianity on Western thinking. Excellent so far.

One hilarious one star review on Amazon complains that it focuses too much on religion - well yes its a book about how a religion affected society wtf did they expect it to contain?

Maybe they thought it would be about being Spiderman.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #6574 on:** 02 April, 2022, 05:43:48 pm »

Quote from: rafletcher on 02 April, 2022, 03:29:53 pm

James Oswald’s latest Inspector McLean All That Lives. It’s ok, like many “series” books that’ve been going for a while.

Ooh, a new one! Having finally got through Justin Cronin's triple-breezeblock I'd just started revisiting William Gibson, but he may have to take a back seat for a bit now.