chuckles Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sunset Song for Uni. Quite good, better than the other books we've had to read (e.g. Waverley) Good stuff, first book of an excellent trilogy. If you like it , then you'll enjoy, " The Land O The Leal", by James Barke . 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nessies long lost ghost Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Mary, Queen of Scots - A Sudy in Failuire - Jenny Wormald - 8 / 10 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Henry Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Just finished The Great American Novel by Philip Roth, a genuinely funny satire based in an imaginary baseball league which was expunged from the history books due to a Communist plot. A savage attack on McCarthyism combine with a piss take of the egos in baseball. Brilliant, and at times surreal and dark. 9.2/10 Next' I'm going to attempt to finally read all 1100 pages of The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by William L Shirer. Despite my memories of SYS History, it's actually a very dryly witty read. It's just so damn long though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nessies long lost ghost Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Just finished The Great American Novel by Philip Roth, a genuinely funny satire based in an imaginary baseball league which was expunged from the history books due to a Communist plot. A savage attack on McCarthyism combine with a piss take of the egos in baseball. Brilliant, and at times surreal and dark. 9.2/10 Next' I'm going to attempt to finally read all 1100 pages of The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by William L Shirer. Despite my memories of SYS History, it's actually a very dryly witty read. It's just so damn long though. I read the Shirer book last year. It's long but it's a very good read. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundermonkey Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 by Alan Moore A disappointment to be honest. There are lots of nice touches and references to popular culture. Deep down though the story is basically crap. The artwork is exceptional though, treading the fine line bewtween faithful 60's homage and Austin powers parody. The firdt Moore that I've been disappointed in 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet Pete Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I read the Shirer book last year. It's long but it's a very good read. I've started it so many times, but just can't get through it. The sheer size of it is partly the reason, but also I tend to flit from book to book or have more than one on the go at a time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chico Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Giles Kristian - Raven: Blood Eye and Sons of Thunder. I haven't read much in past year, so good to get reading again. 7/10 for both, decent historical fiction with a good crack at the Viking period. Both Robert Low and Bernhard Cornwell are probably better with their oath sworn and Uthred series, but I liked what Kristian did. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty meadow Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Read this last week. Quite disturbing story of an Aberdonian man conscripted into the army during World War 2 and his treatment as a prisoner of the Japanese. Onto something completely different now ... Really enjoying this touring diary type book by the brilliant James Yorkston. Would have finished it today but alas I seem to have lost it. Hopefully I have left it in work yesterday, if not I'll need to buy another copy just for the last chapter 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banterman86 Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I finished this years Pultizer winnger A Visit From The Goon Squad it didn't strike me as instantly brillaint, but i think I'd want to reread it to appreciate it. Biggest compliment i can play just now is that I wanted to spend more time with the characters,a nd the stories were pretty enagaging Staying with "Great American novels" I'm thinking about reading Jonathan Franzen's last two books, but should i do The Corrections or the more recent Freedom first? I have the latter on my kindle already. I'm currently reading How I Became A Famous Novelist by Steve Hey, which is shaping p well 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmothecat Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Outlaws Inc. by Matt Potter. It's about former Red Army soldiers who transport cargo (from Aid to Weapons and everything in between) on massive Soviet Warplanes to war zones and places that are often considered inaccessible. Not really the kind of thing I'm normally interested in, but quite enjoyed the book. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mak Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 (edited) <i>Marie Stuart</i> by Stefan Zweig: a biography of Mary, Queen of Scots by a German historian. Which, for some reason, I read in French.<div><br></div><div>Don't read it. Utterly biased, inaccurate tosh which continually makes specious arguments before going on to refer to the point argued for as fact. Also full of laughably bad attempts at psychology.</div><div><br></div><div>In the last chapter, James VI is referred to (in comparison with his mother) as 'unintelligent'. Um, right.</div> Edit: what the f**k is going on with this post? Edited November 25, 2011 by Mak 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Mongo del Fantastico Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Snuff by Terry Pratchett. Cracking book, as all featuring Sam Vimes generally are. Next up is Colditz: The Full Story by Pat Reid. Had read both The Colditz Story and The Latter Days At Colditz many years ago, so this should be good, being more serious in tone than those two. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Maturin Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 midshipman fury by G S Beard. nautical tale set in 1790's . a bit similiar in genre to the hornblower series but a very good read. next up is our man in havana which i am looking forward too 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chico Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Really dislike people posting jpegs of the cover image. Tell us what the name of the book is, who it's by and what you thought of it. mhak, if you posted that elsewhere first it's retained formatting from that site. P&B doesn't use the same coding for bold, italics and smilies. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itzdrk Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 me and this guy darren watched lord of the rings last night does that count 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K.T Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 I've been going through a Philip K Dick phase recently. In the last couple months I've read - The Man In The High Castle, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, The Divine Invasion, Valis and Now Wait For Last year. Strayed away after that re-read Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas and No Country For Old men. I'm now on the 4th book in Stephen Kings Dark Tower series "Wizard and Glass". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drs Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 by Alan Moore A disappointment to be honest. There are lots of nice touches and references to popular culture. Deep down though the story is basically crap. The artwork is exceptional though, treading the fine line bewtween faithful 60's homage and Austin powers parody. The firdt Moore that I've been disappointed in its freakin gash - still better than Wildcats though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drs Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Well afte 2 years sitting on the shelf I finally read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I'm just not buying into the hype. Its a 530 page book and it takes 150 pages for anything approaching a plot to turn up and then thats wrapped up 100 pages before the end so we can concentrate on some exceedingly dull business journalism. The main twists in the plot can be seen coming a mile off and dare I say it that the plot falls apart when our hero suddenly discovers all of these new clues and then manages to track every single one of the them down, despite it being 46 years later. And for a book that is supposedly lecturing on feminism I found it slightly disturbing that they start off by letting a rapist get away with his crimes, her "guardian" and then end the book, except its not the end, with a "look she already did it once this book, so whats the difference between a sadist who takes pleasure from molesting his clients and a powerful businessman who kills hookers and illegal immigrants in his basement" - she'll cover it up and use it to her advantage. I dont know, I just find that kind of message leaving a nasty taste in the mouth. Readable enough but more Thomas Harris than Thomas Hardy. Not sure I want to read Book 2 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nessies long lost ghost Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 God is not Great :How Religion poisons everything - Christopher Hitchens - 10 / 10 I prefer this anti religion book than the Richard Dawkins one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mak Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Really dislike people posting jpegs of the cover image. Tell us what the name of the book is, who it's by and what you thought of it. mhak, if you posted that elsewhere first it's retained formatting from that site. P&B doesn't use the same coding for bold, italics and smilies. Weirdly, I actually didn't. I know that it can also be an issue when using Internet Explorer...but I didn't. Ah well. Reading Christopher (or 'Chris', as he now apparently likes to be known. Can't help but think that this is the kind of thing he'd have slaughtered back in the day) Brookmyre's Pandaemonium now; a book which I've been meaning to read for so long that he's had time to bring out another! Enjoying it so far, although I've not read a great deal of it yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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