Last Book You Read....

[Guest Longbottom Leaf]

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. 

Thriller/Mystery/Romance

Widower brings new bride back to family estate in Cornwall. Their new lives are overshadowed by his deceased wife Rebecca. 

Some nice twists and unexpected turns.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Longbottom Leaf

[expatowner]

End of Watch - Stephen King

 

[madwullie]

Stumbled ona video on here posted by @MixuFruit of Lindsay Ellis talking about JK Rowling, and she mentioned she had her debut novel coming out (sci-fi). Ended up sending for it and destroyed it in 3 days. Would heavy recommend. If conspiracy theories and first contact are your thing, just dae it. Axiom's End

Edited August 1, 2020 by madwullie

[bishopburn boy]

Just finished “Eastern Approaches” by Fitzroy Maclean , fantastic , in 3 parts , first his time in Russia before the war , then his time in the Desert with the SAS , and finally his years with Tito having parachuted into Nazi held Yugoslavia.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

The Long Good-Bye by Raymond Chandler

A fine line between madness and brilliance, superior to the previous five Marlowes minus the somewhat rushed and unsatisfying ending.

[Stellaboz]

Soul Music- a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. 10/10.

Death is one of my favourite characters in the series and this is probably the best of the lot, although Mort comes close. 

[coprolite]

Not long finished a frank herbert two-novels-in-one-book book. Due to absence of commute it took months to read them. 

Dosadi Experiment. Sort of interstellar CIA man with a foot in each of two main powerblocks goes to investigate an isolated planet. Interesting, but a bit shapeless and contrived. I did find the vastly different moral codes at play intriguing. 

The Eyes of Heisenberg. Tens of thousands of years in the future a master race has taken control of procreation. A small resistance led by emotionless cyborgs takes them on. I really liked this. The plot is a bit ropey but it actually has some engaging characters and the detached, fatalistic style perfectly suits how events unfold. 

Over the 3 of his books i've read (Dune, obvs) there's a recurring theme about toughness and weakness of character from deprivation and decadence that i don't entirely buy into. 

[The Other Foot]

Romola by George Eliot. Not her most famous work, but the one that brought her the most wonga. By far my favourite of her novels, though still haven't got round to Middlemarch. 

[scottmcleanscontacts]

Folklore by Stuart Maconie.

It's the history of James from their inception until about 2000.

How they ever managed to achieve anything is beyond me.

[Deanburn Dave]

Just read "I am Pilgrim" written by Terry Hayes. A genuine page turner. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[spud131]

Just read "I am Pilgrim" written by Terry Hayes. A genuine page turner. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's a great book, read it on holiday a few years ago. I've been waiting for his follow up Year of the Locust to come out but it's had several release dates that keep getting pushed back.

[Academically Deficient]

Blessed, the George Best autobiography.

Footballer's books were something I chucked years ago due to their boring, formulaic nature.

Read this on a whim when a guy at work left it.

Surprised to learn:

He supported Wolves and Glentoran;

He was in the Orange Lodge;

Ron Atkinson tried to get back at Man Utd. IN THE 80s!!

He was eligible to play for Scotland (I'm sceptical about this);

6/10

Edited August 27, 2020 by Academically Deficient
Spelling

[saint dave]

Che by Jon Lee Anderson

Birth to death biography of the Argentinian revolutionary. From growing up in Buenos Aires and travelling around the Americas during his Motorcycle Diaries phase discovering the hardships of the peasants being basically used by large American companies to getting involved with Fidel and fighting in the Sierras.

He certainly doesn't seem to have spared himself any hardship and was a extremely difficult and tough leader and foe . His revolutionary auditors/judges and his willingness to use firing squads seem to be passed over now and are discussed in detail in the book.

The later days of The Congo and then finally Bolivia show how his ideas about sparking revolution with just raising peasant armies didn't work well enough without buy in from the local left wing parties. Essentially betrayed by the local Communist party and finally tracked down and assassinated with help from the CIA , it certainly leaves a bad taste regarding the USA's attitude to aiding regime change in the Americas to aid business and build a bulwark against the threat of communism. 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by saint dave

[paul-r-cfc]

To Hell or Sligo - Angus Cactus

Stumbled across this by accident on the kindle store. Some provos overhear someone talking about buried Vietnamese gold in sligo and go off to find it, closely followed by some INLA gunmen. Basically becomes a daft cat and mouse chase across the west coast of Ireland with different republicans chasing each other, with some interesting side characters.

Very weird book but funny and worth a read. My family are from sligo so it was nice recognising some of the pub names.

[Miguel Sanchez]

On 27/08/2020 at 14:13, Miguel Sanchez said:

The Long Good-Bye by Raymond Chandler

A fine line between madness and brilliance, superior to the previous five Marlowes minus the somewhat rushed and unsatisfying ending.

I've gone back to the passages I took a note of as I was reading. 

Quote

'We live in what is called a democracy, rule by the majority of people. A fine ideal if it could be made to work. The people elect, but the party machines nominate, and the party machines to be effective must spend a great deal of money. Somebody has to give it to them, and that somebody whether it be an individual, a financial group, a trade union, or what have you expects some consideration in return. What I and people of my kind expect is to be allowed to live our lives in decent privacy. I own newspapers, but I don't like them. I regard them as a constant menace to whatever privacy we have left. Their constant yelping about a free press means, with a few honourable exceptions, freedom to peddle scandal, crime, sex, sensationalism, hate, innuendo, and the political and financial uses of propaganda. A newspaper is a business out to make money through advertising revenue. That is predicated on its circulation and you know what the circulation depends on.'

Quote

'There's a peculiar thing about money,' he went on. 'In large quantities it tends to have a life of its own, even a conscience of its own. The power of money becomes very difficult to control. Man has always been a venal animal. The growth of populations, the huge cost of wars, the incessant pressure of confiscatory taxation - all these things make him more and more venal. The average man is tired and scared, and a tired, scared man can't afford ideals. He has to buy food for his family. In our time we have seen a shocking decline in both public and private morals. You can't expect quality from people whose lives are a subjection to a lack of quality. You can't have quality with mass production. You don't want to because it lasts too long. So you substitute styling, which is a commercial swindle intended to produce artificial obsolescence. Mass production couldn't sell its goods next year unless it made what it sold this year look unfashionable a year from now. We have the whitest kitchens and the most shining bathrooms in the world. But in the lovely white kitchen the average American housewife can't produce a meal fit to eat, and the lovely shining bathroom is mostly a receptacle for deodorants, laxatives, sleeping pills, and the products of that confidence racket called the cosmetic industry. We make the finest packages in the world, Mr Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk.'

This from a book published in 1953. Chandler was fond of a pontificating paragraph or two but you don't even notice as you're reading because of how tersely engaging it is.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Playback by Raymond Chandler

After The Long Goodbye, I really don't see the point. It seems that Chandler didn't either.

[tongue_tied_danny]

Skinhead - Richard Allen

This trashy tome was published in 1970 and subsequently gained a cult following and provoked a bit of a moral panic as, like A Clockwork Orange, it supposedly glorified delinquency.

The basic plot of the story is about a teenage West Ham fan in London making a nuisance of himself at every opportunity.

It's easy to see what side the author's bread is buttered on. Pretty much every chapter turns into a rant about either the Labour Party, immigrants, young offenders, "do gooders" or the welfare state.

Obviously gammons in 1970 droned on about the same bollocks as their modern counterparts. Kinda makes me think that there has never actually been this golden age that they all hanker for.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by tongue_tied_danny

[WhiteRoseKillie]

On 27/08/2020 at 14:16, Stellaboz said:

Soul Music- a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. 10/10.

Death is one of my favourite characters in the series and this is probably the best of the lot, although Mort comes close. 

Love almost all of Terry Pratchett's output - the thought that he's not around anymore sometimes blindsides me, and I feel proper bereft. I like to think Death (and, hopefully, the Death of Rats) treated him well when they finally met.

I loved Death (more of a concept than a character, imho) as Bill Door in Reaper Man. Especially his efforts to help the Cockerel.

I've just finished The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, which turned out to be much more than the light fantasy I initially expected. Multi-layered and non-linear, I really enjoyed it. Might read more of her stuff.

Currently devouring Cowboy Song, a biography of Phil Lynott. One of the greatest rock frontmen I've ever seen (and met), and so far there's been no exposition of any character flaws I wasn't already aware of. For some reason, I've had Live and Dangerous on in the car today..

[Detournement]

17 hours ago, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

700 pages into this now and after a slowish start have got right in to it. Highly recommended. 

The best bits are when Dimitry goes on the sesh. 

 

[Stellaboz]

21 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Love almost all of Terry Pratchett's output - the thought that he's not around anymore sometimes blindsides me, and I feel proper bereft. I like to think Death (and, hopefully, the Death of Rats) treated him well when they finally met.

I loved Death (more of a concept than a character, imho) as Bill Door in Reaper Man. Especially his efforts to help the Cockerel.

 

I went back and read Reaper Man on the back of it, just brilliant story telling. Want to get back into Hogfather but will wait until nearer that time of year.