Last Book You Read....

[Ivo den Bieman]

Also just read this and I would highly recommend it also.

Yeah, it's a fantastic book,, few are as good as this author at getting across the claustrophobic pettiness of living in a dictatorship. I also read Wolf Amongst Wolves by the same author earlier this year, a similar style of writing set in the hyper-inflation year in Berlin in late 1923, and it was just as compelling.

Falladas was almost impossible to find in English translation for a long time, so it;s good to see his novels coming out in new editions.

[Scary Bear]

Joint Force Harrier - It was a birthday present and the quotes on the front were from the NotW and Zoo magazine. Hmm. It was the equivalent of the old Commando books that you got in the '70s and '80s. It was all about some Harrier jump jets, flown by service types, with their typical joyless humor (I bet these are the c***s you really avoid in the pub, who have no pals other than other forces types) killing Taliban by dropping bombs on them. A couple of years ago I purchased Sniper One, before going on honeymoon. While it was also a glorified Commando book, it was a more entertaining Commando book.

[Scary Bear]

I used to love his books when I was younger and I am pretty sure I had managed to get all of them. I think, if I remember correctly, that Legion of the Damned was the final book.

They were great books. Porta and Tiny were great characters.

[dubs]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Outstanding book, could not put it down. Any other fans of this? Would I enjoy any of his other works?

[T_S_A_R]

The thriller part of is was adequate enough, but I thought that it took unacceptable liberties with historical fact, for instance in portraying Jung as an unstable anti-Semite. Whilst that is certainly one school of opinion, and the debate over it is an interesting one, should it really be being presented as fact in a novel? I'd say not.

i also feel a bit uneasy about the historical novel fad. it just seems like a really easy way to create a connection between the reader and a character. most readers who read that novel will go into it with some information and opinions on jung and it just seems a cheap ploy for the writer to be able to expand and exploit these ideas to create an illusion of characterisation. the danger is that the fictional account overtakes the factual in the public mind something i think is happening just now with brian clough due to the damn united book and films.

obviously you can't say that writers should never use real people as characters but i think there has to be a bit of respect for the people who really lived through the incidents being fictionalised. the damned utd featured a lot of people who were still alive and some like giles and mackay were very upset by it, it must be distressing to see your own actions fictionalised and distorted for the purposes of entertainment and financial gain knowing the the fictional "you" is likely to live on longer in peoples memories than your true self.

i'm currently reading jonothan littel, 'the kindly ones'. i'm not sure what i think about it so far, but i do have about another 700 pages to go.

i've recently read:

gabriel garcia marquez 'autumn of the patriarch' which was a bit strange and seemed to be more of a prose experiment than a proper novel. the overall effect of the novel is very disconcerting but it transmits the chaos of living under a mental south american dictator very well.

robert stone 'dog soldiers': a fairly trashy novel about some beatniks trying to smuggle heroin back from vietnam. an easy read that was entertaining with some occasional depth.

andrei makine ' la testament francaise': a story about a russian and his french grandmother which crisscrosses 80 years of russian history. it's an excellent novel but i thought he did it better with reqiuem for the east which is similar but not as sentimental.

phillip roth 'the plot against america' a fake historical novel describing an alternate timeline where charles lindbergh becomes US president in the 1930s and persues a non interventionist policy towards the war in europe. the political side of the novel is secondary to the depiction of the child narrator's experiences growing up and the dynamics of the family which are superb as always with roth. a bit strange to recommening it after my rant about author's using real characters but it's pretty clear when you've finished the novel that it's a fantasy.

Edited August 11, 2010 by T_S_A_R

[KnightswoodBear]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Outstanding book, could not put it down. Any other fans of this? Would I enjoy any of his other works?

I read The Rum Diary on holiday recently and I thought it was as good as Las Vegas

[YOGI IS GOD]

Immigrants: Your country needs them - Phillipe Legrain

Really one of the best written and best researched common interest books I've ever read. Provides the perfect riposte to the current trend of right wing jingoism in British politics. Would highly recommend it.

[Mak]

i also feel a bit uneasy about the historical novel fad. it just seems like a really easy way to create a connection between the reader and a character. most readers who read that novel will go into it with some information and opinions on jung and it just seems a cheap ploy for the writer to be able to expand and exploit these ideas to create an illusion of characterisation. the danger is that the fictional account overtakes the factual in the public mind something i think is happening just now with brian clough due to the damn united book and films.

obviously you can't say that writers should never use real people as characters but i think there has to be a bit of respect for the people who really lived through the incidents being fictionalised. the damned utd featured a lot of people who were still alive and some like giles and mackay were very upset by it, it must be distressing to see your own actions fictionalised and distorted for the purposes of entertainment and financial gain knowing the the fictional "you" is likely to live on longer in peoples memories than your true self.

Would agree with most of this. I quite like a good historical novel (I'm a big fan of the works of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden, for instance), but I think that when the 'historical' period is too close to the present, and too much use is made of well-known figures, there's a danger that some will treat what's said in the book as gospel.

That was my main problem with the book that I was talking about in the post that you quoted. It basically portrayed Jung - who, like him or loathe him, was one of the most influential psychoanalytical thinkers of the twentieth century - as some deranged, anti-Semitic weirdo.

Anyway, I've finished the book that I mentioned in my last post. It was a bit...hmm. I'm glad that I read it, but I don't think that I'd read it again for the reasons that I mentioned. It's hard to take the message seriously when the author is constantly cynical about every single aspect of her existence.

Waiting on David Gemmell's Troy: Shield of Thunder turning up now. Looking forward to it, as the first book in the trilogy was really good.

[sonofjenova]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Outstanding book, could not put it down. Any other fans of this? Would I enjoy any of his other works?

It was cracking, I am looking to get more of his books, but my PSP is getting in the way. Damn you FFVII

[Napolean Dynamite]

Read a few books whilst lounging about lanzarote.

The new York trilogy - Paul auster three short stories about PI's in new York. The three stories seem to melt into each other.

When penguins stopped play harry Thompson. A really funny read about an amatuer cricket team travelling the world. Totally gutted at the end when the writers wife notifies you that the author passed away just after the tour.

The associatte - john Grisham.

[Muggy]

The Day the Voices Stopped: A Memoir of Madness and Hope

Ken Steele and Claire Berman

This book relives the harrowing story of Ken Steele, a man who began hearing voices at the age of fourteen. These voices urged Ken to kill himself and even provided detailed explanations of how to do so. Ken was a paranoid schizophrenic who was webbed in the cycle of the mental health world - a world where people are treated like criminals and animals rather than victims and the humans they are. His story vividly recalls his myriad of stays in mental institutions across America, where he was beaten and raped at the hands of evil inmates. He also served as a male hustler as a means of living. Ken Steel stopped hearing voices thirty years later through the administration of a new drug. His new life lasted five years where he was an advocate for mental health "consumers", fighting for their right to vote - a major breakthrough.

I award this book, 10/10. Unputdownable.

I don't think you'll need to read it, now.

Edited August 11, 2010 by Muggy

[ffcsam]

Target by Simon Kernick

One of the best I have read in a long time. The plot is fairly straight forward to start with then it has loads of twists and turns (one major one). Brilliant characters with them all being relevent to the story even if they were only in for a couple of chapters. The guy has done a lot of research, therefore enabling the characters to be even more believable. From guns to the official way situations are handled.

I will be going to my local library to catch some more of this guys work.

I urge you all to read this novel.

Score 10/10

[RFC1992]

Edinburgh : City Of The Dead - JA Henderson

This book is all about as you probably know is about the much sinister side of the Capital it includes the story of Major Weir a religious zealot who was burned for incest , beastiality and satanic worship in the late 17th century . It has a lot to with The Infamous Mackenzie Poltergeist and many more paranormal stories in and around Auld Reekie

In all it is a intriguing but disturbing yet a very good read .

Score 10/10

Edited August 12, 2010 by RFC1992

[.Stuart.]

Target by Simon Kernick

One of the best I have read in a long time. The plot is fairly straight forward to start with then it has loads of twists and turns (one major one). Brilliant characters with them all being relevent to the story even if they were only in for a couple of chapters. The guy has done a lot of research, therefore enabling the characters to be even more believable. From guns to the official way situations are handled.

I will be going to my local library to catch some more of this guys work.

I urge you all to read this novel.

Score 10/10

Thinking about getting this one. I read 'Relentless' last year and thought it was brilliant.

[ffcsam]

Thinking about getting this one. I read 'Relentless' last year and thought it was brilliant.

Get it Stu. Really worth a read.

Was recommended to me and I was not dissappointed

[Shawfield Stallion]

For no particular reason I've started becoming interested in fiction about the late Roman Republic. First I read a few books from Simon Scarrow's 'Eagle' series, which follows the adventures of two centurions, Macro and Cato, on the frontline of the Roman invasion of Britain. All of them were really good, enthralling and interesting reads, and that prompted me to then go out and buy 'Lustrum' by Robert Harris, which is a historical fiction which centres around real Roman politicians like Cicero, Crassus, Julius Caesar and Pompey.

While the 'Eagle' books were based on the battlefield, Lustrum was set in Rome and was based mainly on the politics and scandals of the Roman senate. Again, it was an absolutely brilliant book and I'd definitely recommend both Robert Harris and Simon Scarrow's books to anyone intrerested in that period of time. I've even started watching the HBO series "Rome" which deals with the same period in time with the same characters I've just read about (mostly Cicero, Pompey, Marcus Porcius Cato and Caesar)

All great reads which have encouraged me to try and learn a bit more about the Roman Republic/Empire

[vikingTON]

If you want an enjoyable non-fiction about the fall of the Republic, I'd recommend 'Rubicon' by Tom Holland.

[Shawfield Stallion]

If you want an enjoyable non-fiction about the fall of the Republic, I'd recommend 'Rubicon' by Tom Holland.

I'll have a look, cheers

[Mak]

Conn Iggulden's Emperor series about Caesar is excellent historical fiction. Not that I'm unearthing a hidden gem here or anything.

[Shawfield Stallion]

I'll add it to the list