What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Gattopardo]

Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.

Now a chicken or pork parmo, bar the deep fried breadcrumb bit, sounds like a meal that I love. The al' pizzalaio.

Not sure how I felt about the book.  Think it was what was going on in my life.

[Jack Standish]

Getting into Dostoevsky.
How very Russian everything is.

[T42]

Like Chris Froome, according to one cycling comic's "Climb and Punishment" headline.

[L CC]

Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.

WTF. Parmo is the manna provided by Teh Lord to make living round here bearable.

Anti-Parmo snobbery at work. I need to read the original to see if I disagree with you both on this.

[Gattopardo]

Gatto, I really enjoyed the Tim Moore. There is a moment where he takes a parmo (only a lady parmo) down to Billingham, and finds the smell from the poison works to be preferable to that of the parmo. I can understand that.

WTF. Parmo is the manna provided by Teh Lord to make living round here bearable.

Anti-Parmo snobbery at work. I need to read the original to see if I disagree with you both on this.

Did sound like an awful version of a parmo.

[Gattopardo]

Ken Follett - Triangle

Would it be an easy read in French?  Is the original book a low reading age?

[Wowbagger]

Natives, by Akala.

[Canardly]

The railway navvies by Terry Coleman. Have discovered an ancestor was in Paris in the 1840s doing railway things. Most interesting. These guys built the wealth of GB and were generally despised, nothing new there then.

[T42]

Because they were generally Irish.

When my future Inlaw Maw was told that her daughter was going to marry an Irishman they had to send out for smelling-salts.

[Mr Larrington]

Careless Love ~ Peter Robinson.  The latest Banks.  Very annoying ending, because I'll have to wait a year for the denouement.

[Quint]

Because they were generally Irish.

When my future Inlaw Maw was told that her daughter was going to marry an Irishman they had to send out for smelling-salts.

       When my (now) wife told her parents she was seriously involved with me (Seamus) they thought it  was an Asian name,

[Peter]

The railway navvies by Terry Coleman. Have discovered an ancestor was in Paris in the 1840s doing railway things. Most interesting. These guys built the wealth of GB and were generally despised, nothing new there then.

A very good book.  There are all the canals, too.  The civil engineering in the era of the industrial revolution was stupendous and must have been slightly frightening to have lived through (see "Dombey and Son") - and that's before you consider the navvies!  A fascinating period.

Peter

[Jakob W]

Various holiday books: just finished re-reading McPherson's magisterial _Battle Cry of Freedom_ and whizzed through Mark Miodnowik's _Stuff Matters_. Found a hardback of SS-GB in the local charity shop, so am halfway through that; though I watched the Beeb's recent adaptation, it's been years since I read the novel.

[ElyDave]

Trying to read more non fiction at the moment, so recently

The Haynes Manual to the Chieftain Main Battle Tank
Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927, quite fascinating
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, took this on my Scottish tour

On the go right now
South by Shackleton
H is for Hawk
A book on the Vikings by Neil Oliver - not really got into ths one yet

and ficton - Rule Britannia by Daphe Du Maurier

[T42]

Fell off the end of James Ellroy's Underworld Trilogy and started From Here to Eternity, but the style of the latter was such a contrast I baled out and found J.E.'s Perfidia. Once that's done I'll be stuck until the sequel comes out. Hope the man doesn't die first.

[Mr Larrington]

Finally got hold of a copy of "Terminal", the fifth novel in Marshall Karp's Lomax & Biggs series.  Approximately 1/10 as good as "The Rabbit Factory".  Spend a few years churning out potboilers in collaboration with James Patterson and this is probably to be expected

[Legs]

Trying to read more non fiction at the moment, so recently

The Haynes Manual to the Chieftain Main Battle Tank
Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927, quite fascinating
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, took this on my Scottish tour

...

I heard BB talking on the radio about 1927 a few months back and it sounded really interesting...

[ElyDave]

Trying to read more non fiction at the moment, so recently

The Haynes Manual to the Chieftain Main Battle Tank
Bill Bryson's One Summer America 1927, quite fascinating
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, took this on my Scottish tour

...

I heard BB talking on the radio about 1927 a few months back and it sounded really interesting...

I can't give you my copy I'm afraid, I've left it with my dad, along with "Don't Tell Mum I work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse"

[citoyen]

Monsieur Pamplemousse On The Spot by Michael Bond

Number three in the series. I fancied something light, started reading Pratchett's Mort but found it irritating, so downloaded another Monsieur Pamplemousse to the Kindle. It's reassuringly exactly the same as the two I've already read. Thanks again to Ham for tipping me off to the existence of the Sûreté's leading gastronome.

[Von Broad]

[complete fraud coming to this thread, but..]
Prompted by the 2018 TDF thread I've just read [the first book in what must be 15 years or so] - David Millars 'Racing Through the Dark'
Meeting Brailsford obviously had a big impact on him, he was still doping at the time, but ready to come clean, then he got nicked. He starts the book brilliantly - the opening chapter reads like a novel.
Ironic is the fact that had he not been lured over to the murky world of doping this book would not have come about, and had it been written, would probably have been utterly dull. Not sure exactly why, but I'm very drawn to the whole history of doping in cycling.
Enjoyed it immensely.

[mrcharly-YHT]

New York 2142 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Excellent

[essexian]

I have got about 10 minutes of "Not Alone" by "Craig A Falconer" left and frankly, unless there is a major twist, this has got to be one of the worst, most predictable and overlong book I have read since I once read a..... embarrassed to say this... a Dan Brown book.


God...what a pile of rubbish although it started off okay but then just went on, and on, and on. Indeed, at 730 pages long, a good editor would have deleted at least 400 pages and cut out all the guff. And... I have no doubt that the author has seen "Close Encounters" and most episodes of the X Files....the crap ones.... as they nicked the the story lines from there.

Strangely, most reviewers on Amazon seemed to like the book so I am likely to be wrong but I really think this is rubbish.

[citoyen]

Prompted by the 2018 TDF thread I've just read [the first book in what must be 15 years or so] - David Millars 'Racing Through the Dark'
...Enjoyed it immensely.

Next up you should read The Secret Race, Tyler Hamilton's story. It's even more jaw-dropping than Millar's account.

[T42]

New York 2142 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Excellent

Now that sounds like a good idea... 

[ElyDave]

Prompted by the 2018 TDF thread I've just read [the first book in what must be 15 years or so] - David Millars 'Racing Through the Dark'
...Enjoyed it immensely.

Next up you should read The Secret Race, Tyler Hamilton's story. It's even more jaw-dropping than Millar's account.

Thanks for the tip, I've read David Millars book a while ago now

I'd also recomment Fallen Angel about Fausto Coppi

and non-cycling, The Ghost Runner.