What books are we reading at the moment ?

[coops456]

Not reading , but I've read most of these in the distant past when I was a small person.   https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/set-14-slightly-foxed-cubs-ronald-welch/

Ronald Welch's stories of the military Carey family. 

Superior "Boys Own" stuff as I recall.  Though however fond my memories are,  I doubt I'll be splashing out £££ for the re-issued set!

These are great books, with real historical detail. As a geeky 9 year-old, I was fascinated to learn about armour and surcoats, helms and lances. As a geeky 40 year-old, I was far more aware of the absence of female characters, of the graphic but not gratuitous violence.

Hurrah for public libraries!

[fd3]

I managed the first and called it a day, it was basically a ream of nerd jokes that had some superficial charm but rapidly got tired and tedious.

I liked the first book better than the second.  I think many of the nerd jokes are not accessible enough to even a nerdy audiences as you need to score highly in Maths, Physics, Computers AND Great Old Ones to get them.

[rafletcher]

Ive just started the latest (pair of) Charlie Parker offerings from John Connoloy, The Sisters Strange and The Furies. So far, so good.

[The Family Cyclist]

I needed a book a few weeks back ahead of an 8 hour ferry ride, no bookshops near where we were staying so raided the charity shops and got the secret race by Daniel Coyle/Tyler Hamilton for the princely sum of one pound

I'd finished it by the time I got off the ferry, really well written and showed a sad state of cycling where it was who could dope best really and how riding clean wasn't an option especially in the Grand Tours

[Canardly]

Just arrived, Treacle Walker by Alan Garner.

[TheLurker]

Sailplanes, 1920-1945 by Martin Simons.  I say "reading", but it's more looking at the three-views and pondering which one to scratch a plan together for the next model.

[T42]

Re-reading Neal Stephenson's Anathem.  Already read it a couple of times but the last time was a good few years ago and there's a lot in it.

[Mr Larrington]

Re-reading Val McDermid's 1979 prior to taking on the next volume in the series, the imaginatively-titled 1989.

[rafletcher]

I enjoyed The Sisters Strange but The Furies not so much. Now reading the usual police procedural trash, in this case Carnival Blues by Damien Boyd.

[Nuncio]

Re-reading Val McDermid's 1979 prior to taking on the next volume in the series, the imaginatively-titled 1989.

It was published in August last year. Good to see that I'm not the only one with a memory like a thingy.

[Mrs Pingu]

I'm reading the latest Inspector Mclean book, but even I'm starting to get a bit tired of the whole 'he works too hard, oh dear something odd has happened to Emma again' thing, and if I have to read the name Jane Louise Dee again I might have to poke my eyeballs out with a pencil.

I think this happens with these series, I get too fed up with the same character foibles being rehashed every book. Same with Rona Mcleod, etc.

I expect there'll be yet another new JD Kirk book out by the time I'm finished this one though. I could read something more worthy in the pile, but I probably won't. Maybe another Ann Leckie.

[rafletcher]

I have the same issue, plus the same with Peter James' and Peter Robinson's characters - and to a certain extent McDermids Hill/Jordan series - inevitable, as you say.

I seem to have gravitated to antipodean authors - Jane Harper (ignore the second in her ouevre), Chris Hammer, Shelley Burr, Emma Viskic, Peter Papathanasiou.

[T42]

I felt the urge to read The Sotweed Factor by John Barth again, but found that neither Google Books nor Kindle offer it, although Amazon do have it on pre-order  at 17€80 (gulp).  Curiously, though, both offer, at prices up to 8€50, a long hudibrastic poem of the same name, supposedly by one Ebenezer Cooke.  Now Cooke is a character from the novel, who writes the poem in question, which figures in the novel. That got me head-scratching for a bit until I realized it's probably a text for students so that they don't have to wade through the book and risk learning some decent English, poor dears.

Anyway, our paper version dates from the 60s and is loose-leafed from re-reading, so I'm pissed off.

[FifeingEejit]

Started on Hide and Seek, I should probably have read Noughts and Crosses first, but meh!

[rafletcher]

Dirt Town a debut from Australian Hayley Scrivenor, again set in a slowly dying outback town (a common trope it seems in modern Australian crime fiction), examining the events around the disappearance of a young girl, but seen from the perspective of other children and adults in the town, as opposed from an outsider.  Surprisingly (for me) engaging.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Wizardry Quested by the late Rick Cook.  It was published in 1996 and I have finally succumbed to a second hand copy, having read the other highly entertaining books in the series that explore how a Silicon valley programmer would cope in a world of magic.

[Mr Larrington]

The newspaper magnate in Val McDermid's “1989” in no way is intended to resemble Robert Maxwell and I'm sure it's just a coincidence that she’s chosen to name his daughter “Genevieve”.

[Mr Larrington]

o goody sa mr larington sounding for all the world like wet-weed fotherington-tomas. o goody there is a new rebus out.

“A Heart Full Of Headstones”.  Title implies killin's

[T42]

Mr N. Stephenson's opus Termination Shock, which had me yawning and carping "travelogue" for the first 200pp but fortunately has >700pp and livened up considerably before the middle.  Nearing the end now and still don't know if the goodies or the baddies are going to win, nor yet who are the really good goodies and vv, since he makes you like both sides.  When I do find out I'm not going to tell you.

[Mr Larrington]

I already know.  It's the C@#£&*()’ NO CARRIER

[Mr Larrington]

(click to show/hide)

Slightly unsatisfactory ending, Mr Rankin, though I suppose it means at least one more outing for the increasingly decrepit Rebus.  Also, don’t you dare have Siobhan join The Complaints

[The Family Cyclist]

A shadow above which is about the return of ravens, reallzybgood so far. Did a little service in the shop as was on a stand on the shelf as a promoted book. Replaced it with crow country by mark cocker as a similar book which I've previously read

[ian]

Encouraged by this very thread, I'm giving Wolf Hall another chance – it's discursive; nay, very rambling, she said, he said, they said, style; verily, did annoy me last time. I did leave with the impression that even people who weren't call Thomas back then were in fact actually Thomases. Even the women.

Seems to be flowing a bit easier this time. Perhaps you need to be in the mood. Mind you, I'm only 5% in.

Books I won't be re-reading:

The Martian.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

[TheLurker]

Just finished Silverview, Le Carré.
If you've read any of his stuff you won't find it surprising.  Usual story of untrustworthy types doing things from shady to downright illegal for motives varying from venal to altrusitic. Won't re-read it, but it was a pleasant diversion.

[Mr Larrington]

A cheerful chap from the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia has just handed me a shiny copy of Russell “RussInCheshire” Jones' magnum opus “The Decade In Tory”.  Should keep me busy for a day or two.  Mr Jones has already been commissioned to produce Vol. 2