Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 843107 times)

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5625 on:** 21 April, 2019, 10:42:34 am »

Just finished Matt Haig's "The Humans" which I thought I'd read before but hadn't.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5626 on:** 23 April, 2019, 11:12:06 am »

"East And West", Chris Patton's account of his time as the last Governor of Hong Kong. Interesting, especially with the benefit of twenty years of hindsight.

rafletcher · « **Reply #5627 on:** 24 April, 2019, 03:35:49 pm »

"The Day that Never Comes" by Caimh (Keeve) McDonnell, the second part of his Dublin trilogy. If you like Irish humour and a bit of Dub craic you'd enjoy them.

Ham · « **Reply #5628 on:** 25 April, 2019, 01:03:26 pm »

Not so much the books, but I've been using the highlight feature on my Kindle for a while now. Looking back through, it's quite interesting, here are a couple to share.

Benighted, by J B Priestley, writing in 1928

Quote

People wonder what’s the matter with the world these days. They forget that all the best fellows, the men who’d have been in their prime now, who’d have been giving us a lead in everything, are dead.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by thomas Friedman, 2011

Quote

Men like Assad and Saddam are dangerous and long-lasting because they are extremists who know when to stop.

Quote

All people who think they are redeeming the world don’t see the evil that they are doing every day. If your eyes are on eternity you can be blind to the person sitting next to you.

Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites

Quote

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

- Mort

Quote

He looked back like a nocturnal rabbit trying to outstare the headlights of a sixteen-wheeled artic whose driver is a twelve-hour caffeine freak outrunning the tachometers of hell.

rafletcher · « **Reply #5629 on:** 29 April, 2019, 05:32:24 pm »

The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!! I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

ian · « **Reply #5630 on:** 30 April, 2019, 08:34:43 pm »

Quote from: rafletcher on 29 April, 2019, 05:32:24 pm

The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!! I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

Oooo, that's going to be one long bath.

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #5631 on:** 30 April, 2019, 10:22:15 pm »

Having had a long pause (a year or two) about 45% through The Bickford Fuse by Andrey Kurkov because I got fed up with it, I've picked it up again to have a rest from crime fiction. We'll see if I make it to the end.

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #5632 on:** 30 April, 2019, 10:24:38 pm »

I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

sg37409 · « **Reply #5633 on:** 30 April, 2019, 10:29:35 pm »

After hearing Ishbel Holmes on R4, I bought her book "Me, My Bike and a Street Dog Called Lucy". Quite good. Pretty moving and inspiring in parts, but not as good as I hoped it would be after hearing her on the radio.

ian · « **Reply #5634 on:** 01 May, 2019, 09:39:09 am »

Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 30 April, 2019, 10:24:38 pm

I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

I don't really do crime books, and yes, they're to a degree formulaic, but the general building spook factor in the background is, I think, the actual story. The foreground is just colour. Plus the writing is generally a good class or two above the average crime writer, in places quite luminous. If it were bog-standard written detective fiction without the arc, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. And I'd have to get a bargepole first, because they're not the sort of thing you find around the house.

rafletcher · « **Reply #5635 on:** 01 May, 2019, 10:22:05 am »

Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 30 April, 2019, 10:24:38 pm

I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

The last Mclean was quite poor I thought. Ditto Val McDermid's last couple of Tony Hill/Carol Jordan's, the last (several) Scarpetta's, and Peter's James and Robinson and Tim Weaver are going the same way. Inevitable I guess. Oh, and you can add James Lee Burke to that list.

Not really found decent replacements, but enjoying Gregg Hurwitz's "Orphan" series, and have got Chris Ould's second Faroes set story waiting.

rafletcher · « **Reply #5636 on:** 01 May, 2019, 10:26:04 am »

Quote from: ian on 01 May, 2019, 09:39:09 am

Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 30 April, 2019, 10:24:38 pm
I gave up on the Charlie Parker books after finding them a bit samey. Starting to feel the same way about Chief Insp Mclean now too.

I don't really do crime books, and yes, they're to a degree formulaic, but the general building spook factor in the background is, I think, the actual story. The foreground is just colour. Plus the writing is generally a good class or two above the average crime writer, in places quite luminous. If it were bog-standard written detective fiction with the arc, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. And I'd have to get a bargepole first, because they're not the sort of thing you find around the house.

Interestingly the poorer reviews cited the relative paucity of Parker/Angel/Louis in this story. I'm enjoying so far (10% in). As for the writing, when I'd looked up the meanings of "numinous" and "algor" I though "this reminds me of reading the Morse books!"

I'd normally shy away from t books with supernatural elements (and as I said above, the Inspector Maclean stories are beginning to labour) but I manage to let it flow past in the Parker books, principally because the writing is so good.

caerau · « **Reply #5637 on:** 01 May, 2019, 01:17:42 pm »

Quote from: rafletcher on 29 April, 2019, 05:32:24 pm

The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!! I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

Ha, be thankful you're not into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre - 700 pages is trifling in that arena.

The presence of this thread just made me laugh on that front incidentally as I am technically partway through reading A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I am one of a mere 600 people who bought the first one - entitled rather famously these days 'A Game of Thrones' - in 1996 - earning me eventually a nice fat £300 on eBay when I sold it the other year (

- not bad for a book wot I bought almost at random once). It is now a gobsmacking EIGHT years since he wrote the last one and his darn* TV series of it took over. I think I'll finish it when the next blue moon coincides with a month of Sundays

*Still the TV series is rather spiffing - despite knowing everything that was going to happen in the early series. This of course may now reverse since the TV series has long ago gone way past where it is at in the books - though with rather drastic changes to personnel, timelines and plot at times.

So currently that's at about 5 books of 800+ pages. If you REALLY want to go for it, try Robert Jordan't Wheel of Time which finally ended up at 14 volumes at about 800 pages each on average. He did a GRRM and never finished it mind you - took him so long he actually died before he finished it - they had to get someone in to finish it.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5638 on:** 01 May, 2019, 02:03:35 pm »

How I Wonned Thee Tour Ov France¹ by G Thomas. Very standard ghostwritten potboiler but it was only £2.99.

Bethany (9):	Well, we liked it!
5:	Oh yes! (Sighs like someone sitting on a punctured spacehopper)

1: Or something like that

rafletcher · « **Reply #5639 on:** 01 May, 2019, 03:02:04 pm »

Quote from: caerau on 01 May, 2019, 01:17:42 pm

Quote from: rafletcher on 29 April, 2019, 05:32:24 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!! I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

Ha, be thankful you're not into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre - 700 pages is trifling in that arena.

A bit of a change from when I last read sci-fi, which (discounting HHGTTG) was probably Asimov's Foundation trilogy!

caerau · « **Reply #5640 on:** 01 May, 2019, 03:09:03 pm »

Even he got the bug with his latter Foundation sequels

ian · « **Reply #5641 on:** 01 May, 2019, 03:31:07 pm »

Quote from: caerau on 01 May, 2019, 01:17:42 pm

Quote from: rafletcher on 29 April, 2019, 05:32:24 pm
The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker tome “A Book of Bones”. It’s some 700 pages!! I have a feeling it may be the ultimate one too, given its size. It may take me some time to find out.

Ha, be thankful you're not into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre - 700 pages is trifling in that arena.

I won an entire £10 for writing one. I had assumed it was probably awful and let it stew for a while, but I'm idly re-reading on the train at the moment and it isn't as bad as I feared. I did think to myself that it could lose a few 100k words in the edit, but then I remembered to stop being silly, it's SF. Robots. Aliens. Stuff that Blows Up (up to and including entire planets). All breathlessly packed into a mere several hundred thousand words.

caerau · « **Reply #5642 on:** 01 May, 2019, 03:48:59 pm »

You should see if you can get a writers spot on the next Marvel movie

ian · « **Reply #5643 on:** 01 May, 2019, 03:55:28 pm »

I think I'll invent Sleepy Man for DC. He defeats his nemesis, Captain Wakeful, with the power of extended exposition. Every film in my Sleepverse will begin with at least 20 minutes of laboured exposition of how Sleepy Man got his narcolepsis-inducing powers and no new character will be introduced without a twenty minute preamble, including the pizza delivery guy.

It may be hard to believe, but I'm not the person who wrote Batman vs. Superman: Bedtime of Justice.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5644 on:** 03 May, 2019, 11:44:52 am »

I have had to put Anthony Beevor's "Arnhem" to one side following the unexpected acquisition of "Their Little Secret", the latest Mark Billingham. No-one's been murdered utterly to DETH yet, which is a bit off.

ElyDave · « **Reply #5645 on:** 05 May, 2019, 05:57:07 pm »

havent read his Arnhem yet, did his Ardennes last year.

Reading Consider Phlebas to my son at the moment, and for myself started reading Under Western Eyes by Joseh Conrad, picked up for 25p in the penguin edition on the market a few weeks ago

rafletcher · « **Reply #5646 on:** 07 May, 2019, 02:02:17 pm »

Well, that's "Book of Bones" dispensed with, and I skipped less than 10 pages of the 707 it totalled, so it can't have been too bad!

Now onto something a lot less literary, Tony Parsons' latest Max Wolfe adventure "#taken". And I've just reserved a copy of Mick Herron's next "Slough House" installment, "Joe Country" due out in June.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #5647 on:** 07 May, 2019, 05:10:13 pm »

Question for the panel: I either heard or read a month or two ago about a book which, was highly recommended,, by a doctor about alternative medicine. The only precise thing I can remember was when he said something like this to a patient: "I have a plant in my garden that if you sat underneath it for 10 minutes you would be dead." He was referring to the waterlilies on his pond.

Can someone come to my rescue please and identify the book and the author?

woollypigs · « **Reply #5648 on:** 07 May, 2019, 05:14:47 pm »

That quote is in this book : This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, Adam Kay - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hHGHDgAAQBAJ&source=gbs_slider_cls_metadata_7_mylibrary

Wowbagger · « **Reply #5649 on:** 07 May, 2019, 05:51:54 pm »

Thanks.