What books are we reading at the moment ?

[mattc]

My dear old thing, you are merely well-upholstered!

Anyway, N has called my bluff and bought a charity-shop copy for £1.50.  That's about 200 pages per penny.

In the meantime I have started Alex Woods vs The Universe - partly due to the recco over in the SF thread (it's not SF). Splendidly funny & engaging opening chapter 

[fuzzy]

I have just started It's all about Treo, a book about Arms and Explosives Search Dog Treo and his handlers experience during a tour in Sangin, Afghanistan.

I have a worrying feeling that, before the book is done, I will be sitting in the corner blubbing like a good un

[Lady Cavendish]

I absolutely loved that book. I've just given it to my mum actually who is loving it too.

[fuzzy]

I absolutely loved that book. I've just given it to my mum actually who is loving it too.

I wish I could find the picture of Treo in his doggles to post on here, a happy enducing image if ever I saw one

[her_welshness]

Just finished A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

This is about a novelist who goes to live on a remote island with her convalescing husband. Whilst she is walking along the shore one day she fishes out some flotsam (or is it jetsam?) and brings it home. It turns out to be a bag with some diaries inside: the main section is by a 15 year old Japanese girl called Nao, who wants this diary to go to someone because she will be committing suicide pretty soon and she wants to leave her story behind to just one person. She also wants to venerate her great grandmother Jiko who became a Buddhist nun after her son died in World War 2.

This book elicits some very strong feelings - anger about Nao's school-life, pity about her father's depression and hope with Ruth (the novelist) discovering the diary and the great-grandmother who tries to help the family out. There were a couple of times in this book when I was close to putting it to one side as it was so bleak, but am glad that I stuck with it because this is a wonderful book.

So I am nearly there! Just 600 pages left of The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. For now its like Deadwood but set in New Zealand. Its a good yarn!

[fuzzy]

I have just started It's all about Treo, a book about Arms and Explosives Search Dog Treo and his handlers experience during a tour in Sangin, Afghanistan.

I have a worrying feeling that, before the book is done, I will be sitting in the corner blubbing like a good un

I was very right 

A lovely book in most places though.

It is books and relationships like this that a) make me wish I was a dog owner for the devotion and companionship and b) make me glad I'm not due to the absolute love that goes both ways in this type of relationship. If I owned a dog and we interacted in the way that Treo and Dave Heyhoe do, I would be devestated when my dog died.

[Peter]

Whatever you do, don't tell us how it ends.........

[interzen]

Still ploughing my way through REAMDE ...

About three-quarters of the way through now, according to the Kindle app at any rate, and I suspect it's just about to get very interesting ...

[fuzzy]

Whatever you do, don't tell us how it ends.........

Fear not, I won't.

[Peter]

 

[mattc]

Whatever you do, don't tell us how it ends.........

Fear not, I won't.

Phew!

(I'm still scarred from watching Tarka The Otter as a kid - not gonna risk that experience again, no Sir. I even find Silent Running pretty traumatic. Sorry, this is the book thread, isn't it  )

[Gus]

http://www.blurb.com/b/4628035-i-must-be-mad

Well not really, I just looked at it and ordered it  on the spot

[her_welshness]

Man Booker Update:

Finished The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Like I said, a long book! Set in 19th Century New Zealand, a man called Walter Moody arrives at Hokitika eager to escape his old life in Scotland and earn his fortune from the gold-rush. He comes into a private meeting between 11 gentleman who are all anxious to solve a series of misfortunate events: a man is found dead, a woman is found stumbling in a drugged out haze and is deemed to have been suicidal whilst a digger has mysteriously disappeared. Their own accounts include their loathing and distrust belong to one Francis Carver who had captained the boat on which Moody travelled on.

Out of all 6 books this is the one that is a proper story and is a well written piece of crime fiction. However it peters out rather drabbly in the end.

I have really enjoyed it this year but I hope that the bookies favourite, Harvest (Jim Crace) does not win. I think it should go to The Testament of Mary. Watch this space!

[her_welshness]

Wow, the Man Booker Prize 2013 goes to the book that I finished this morning 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton.

[tiermat]

Finished "Happy Hour in Hell" by Tad Williams last night and started "Ghost Wars" by  Steve Coll (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Wars-Secret-History-Afghanistan/dp/0141020806) this morning.  It might take me a while to read this one, it's nearly 800 pages long!

[L CC]

Finished The Returned last night on the way home.
I think not having lost anyone close to me made it a little less relevant than it might be to others. I also think that any book that requires a chapter of explanation from the author afterwards is not well enough written. 

It didn't get me all the way home so I started (for the nth time) The Dispossessed as reminded by jo in wunja's thread the other week.

Ahh, that's better.

[Peter]

I've started The Dispossessed several times.  I'm not sure that I've ever finished it, but I tend to read more than one book at a time.  I never finished Lord Of The Rings, either......

[Nuncio]

Thanks for the review service again her_welshness.  I'll be starting with Harvest  for reasons stated above, but will review your reviews to help me decide with the next one.  But that won't be for a while because I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

[citoyen]

Out of all 6 books this is the one that is a proper story and is a well written piece of crime fiction. However it peters out rather drabbly in the end.

Hmmm, makes me wonder if the judges actually finished it. 

[citoyen]

I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.

[Wascally Weasel]

Still ploughing my way through REAMDE ...

About three-quarters of the way through now, according to the Kindle app at any rate, and I suspect it's just about to get very interesting ...

From memory, you suspect wrong 

[Nuncio]

I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

Good luck with that. I remember thinking it was one of those books that felt like it was never going to end. It certainly lacks the pace of The Secret History. There are some passages of brilliance in it, but it's about 200 pages too long.

Her new one is supposed to be better.

OK. I'll skip the next 200 pages.  That should do it.

[her_welshness]

Thanks for the review service again her_welshness.  I'll be starting with Harvest  for reasons stated above, but will review your reviews to help me decide with the next one.  But that won't be for a while because I've just embarked on Donna Tartt's The Little Friend.

My pleasure! I think that you will get a lot from it. Like I said, beautifully written and very original in parts, it just didn't grab me.

Good luck with The Little Friend. I had been put off by its reviews and also that The Secret History is in my top 5 books of all time. I got the opportunity to go to a Q&A of Tartt talking about her latest work, but its on my late night at the library.

[simonp]

Just finished Dust (third in the Wool trilogy) by Hugh Howey. Best SF I've come across in years.

Now I've just started on Complicity.

[andrewc]

Just finished Charles Stross's latest entry in his "Laundry" series. A novella called  "Equoid"    I think I need a unicorn chaser....