Last Book You Read....

[Duszek]

I read Joseph Heller’s Something Happened as a student and it made little impression on me. This time I was blown away. Life has caught up with me and the narrator (Bob Slocum) is now all-too relatable.

Kurt Vonnegut thought SH was better than Catch-22, calling  it ´astonishingly pessimistic’. I can see why readers would find it an ordeal. Without giving away too much, the thing that happens occurs at page 550 out of 560.

A brilliant book from a superb writer.

[Craig fae the Vale]

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Sci fi on the surface, but at it's core a book about grief, acceptance and the inner workings of the human psyche. A good read.

[Tight minge]

On 02/03/2021 at 05:58, Lofarl said:

Read this in three nights.  Utterly captivating.  The only Victoria cross awarded to someone from Northern Ireland was on this mission in WW2.  
 

He was pretty much shunned because he was catholic.  

Finally got round to reading this. 

A very good book indeed. With the the strait and port being about 10 minutes from my house and other places familiar having lived/worked nearby it was very interesting.

If anything, the previous raid (alluded to at the start of the book) would have been more captivating. Then again as all were killed in that there wouldn’t be much source material.

Lead me on to ‘Trojan Horse’ which is about the BA flight that landed in Kuwait at the start of the first gulf war. A little ‘flowery’ but certainly an interesting read.

Both not overly long and interesting  enough to keep turning pages.

[Lofarl]

I can’t recommend Mark Feltons YouTube channel enough.  You can learn so much ww2 content from it.  A lot of it the small hardly known interesting stories.  The last video he put up was about the British built German Panther tanks at the end of the war.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Lofarl
Known. I forgot the word known. Was kinda what I was alluding to anaw.

[Duszek]

Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. When I read this as a youth I totally missed the point. I thought it was absurdist for the sake of it. Second time around, I get it. Magnificent.

There’s a 1970s film version with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. f**k knows what they were thinking.

[coprolite]

The Picts, a history, by Tim Clarkson. 

This is supposed to be a narrative history overview of 600 years of the Picts. The author never really commits to the narrative form though, so it ends up as more of a chronological overview of the sources with some evaluation of their reliability. I was quite glad he did that- it wasn't a hugely gripping story but i feel like i got a lot of information. It's not an exhaustive and detailed survey though, still readable if a bit on the dry side. 

Because of the sources, it's very focused on royalty and battles. There's little about who the Picts were and how they lived. Maybe we just don't know and need to do more digging. 

There's also a good bit covered about other early mediaeval people in what's now Scotland and nearby, but only to the extent they interacted with the Picts. 

I would recommend this if you want to know stuff but not if you want entertainment. 

[scottsdad]

V2 by Robert Harris.

Let me just say that Robert Harris has, as far as I know, never written a bad book*. V2 is another good one, set towards the end of 1944 it centres on two characters. One, a German scientist with qualms whose job it is to make sure that they work whilst being watched by the SS, and the other a WAAF officer who is part of a team trying to work out where they are being launched from, so they can attack it. Excellent page-turner. 

*I said the same thing about Gene Hackman movies. Then I saw The Chamber. 

[Craig fae the Vale]

The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. The fourth and final book in the Wayfarers series and I think my favourite one. Just a perfect little character study, I didn't want it to end. Highly recommended the series for anyone who enjoys character driven sci-fi.

[scottsdad]

Just finished To The Eastern Seas by Julian Stockwin. Over the last year I've read almost the entire Kydd series. Just one or two to go. 

This book was a good one but, being based in the Indian Ocean, my own geography knowledge let me down. When set in Europe, I'm fine with the story going to Lisbon, Gibraltar and the like as I know in my mind's eye where they are. My Indian geography is terrible, so the travels in and around Calcutta had no real impression on me.

Next up is a coin toss. My neighbour recommended two books, so it'll be one of these. Geoffrey Jenkins, A Twist of Sand, or Glenn Meade, Snow Wolf. 

[gmca]

20 hours ago, Craig the Hunter said:

The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. The fourth and final book in the Wayfarers series and I think my favourite one. Just a perfect little character study, I didn't want it to end. Highly recommended the series for anyone who enjoys character driven sci-fi.

Thanks for this. Was looking for something along these lines. 

[Paul Kersey]

On 10/12/2020 at 13:50, Bairnardo said:

Couple of questions. 

Firstly I am halfway through Sapiens, and looking for another similarly sort of historical/educational book which offers a kind of overview level. I dont have time to read loads of different books about one particular historical subject but history does interest me. 

 

 

I just picked up a digital copy of Sapiens on Google play store for £1.99.

I've just read the first chapter and I'm loving it so far. The guy writes in a way that is both entertaining but also makes complex stuff easy to understand.

[Craig fae the Vale]

His & Hers by Alice Feeney.

Thought I had it figured out, I did not. Full of twists and turns, a very good read.

[Tight minge]

On 23/08/2021 at 21:17, scottsdad said:

V2 by Robert Harris.

Let me just say that Robert Harris has, as far as I know, never written a bad book*. V2 is another good one, set towards the end of 1944 it centres on two characters. One, a German scientist with qualms whose job it is to make sure that they work whilst being watched by the SS, and the other a WAAF officer who is part of a team trying to work out where they are being launched from, so they can attack it. Excellent page-turner. 

*I said the same thing about Gene Hackman movies. Then I saw The Chamber. 

Enjoyed this like all Rober Harris a books, but thought something was missing. Reading laterly that it was written in a short period of time during lockdown which may explain it. Still good.

On 25/08/2021 at 21:53, scottsdad said:

Just finished To The Eastern Seas by Julian Stockwin. Over the last year I've read almost the entire Kydd series. Just one or two to go. 

This book was a good one but, being based in the Indian Ocean, my own geography knowledge let me down. When set in Europe, I'm fine with the story going to Lisbon, Gibraltar and the like as I know in my mind's eye where they are. My Indian geography is terrible, so the travels in and around Calcutta had no real impression on me.

Next up is a coin toss. My neighbour recommended two books, so it'll be one of these. Geoffrey Jenkins, A Twist of Sand, or Glenn Meade, Snow Wolf. 

Added this to my list go read as the area, as I see, spans from India to Indonesia sounds interesting for myself. Will see how it goes

[HK Hibee]

I am a big fan of Michael Lewis ( non-fiction ) but his latest book on the pandemic - The Premonition- was disappointing. It felt slightly rushed and he is someone who needs time. For those who have not read him then he is best known for Moneyball and The Big Short. I would heartily recommend ‘Losers’ which is about the US primary elections in 1996. Obscure but one of my favourite books. 

[RH33]

On 14/04/2021 at 21:03, Moomintroll said:

Anti-social, a book by a guy called Nick Pettigrew about working as  a Housing Association ASB Officer. Dark humour throughout & a terrible indictment of the lack of mental health services in a lot of areas in this country for people who really need help that they will never receive.

I bought this back in may when I read your above quoted. In isolation with the kids so have just read it.

@Richey Edwards think you'd nod along especially.as you embark on your career.

Sad insight into the poverty and dispair those on the edge of society live with.

[Cosmic Joe]

Looking for some Scottish fitba books for taking on holiday. 

I see there is a new Third Lanark book due out in a couple of weeks. Also a Morton book from a few years back that seem to be impossible to purchase on Amazon or Ebay. 

I've got all the ground hopping, recent Daniel Gray/ Steve Finan stuff. 

[Jimi Shandrix]

6 minutes ago, Cosmic Joe said:

Looking for some Scottish fitba books for taking on holiday. 

I see there is a new Third Lanark book due out in a couple of weeks. Also a Morton book from a few years back that seem to be impossible to purchase on Amazon or Ebay. 

I've got all the ground hopping, recent Daniel Gray/ Steve Finan stuff. 

 "Hunting Grounds" by Gary Sutherland was fairly decent. "Pointless" by Jeff Connor was imo magnificent.

[Paul Kersey]

Sea State by Tabitha Lasley

An unusual book this. It's the autobiographical memoir of a female journalist who travels up to Aberdeen to interview oil rig workers about life offshore. However, she kinda goes off the rails, quits her job and then spends the next six months in Aberdeen drinking, taking drugs and shagging a married man.

She's a good writer and there is fair bit of self depreciating humour on display. It's kinda weird though that one minute she's discussing the safety failings that led to the Piper Alpha disaster, then suddenly she gives a graphic description of sex in a hotel room.

An interesting read.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Paul Kersey

[Richey Edwards]

On 30/08/2021 at 20:00, RH33 said:

I bought this back in may when I read your above quoted. In isolation with the kids so have just read it.

@Richey Edwards think you'd nod along especially.as you embark on your career.

Sad insight into the poverty and dispair those on the edge of society live with.

Thanks for the @. I just started reading this, as it looked interesting. 

[Craig fae the Vale]

Pine by Francine Toon.

Took a while to get there, but ended well and I ended up relatively enjoying it. Can tell the author is a poet as a lot of the writing feels quite poetic. Not my favourite thing I've ever read, but wasn't a bad read.