Have yourself a merry little readmas 2019 reading challenge thread

[Pickman's model]

2. georges simenon, "maigret's anger"

3. georges simenon, "maigret gets angry"

 

[colbhoy]

01/20 - The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth

 

[ringo]

1/30 Travels With Charley - John Steinbeck
2/30 A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush - Eric Newby

 

[neonwilderness]

1/24 War of the Wolf - Bernard Cornwell
2/24 I Am Legend - Richard Matheson

 

[nogojones]

1/45 Ursula LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness
2/45 Edward Bunker - No Beast so Fierce

3/45 Frederick Engels - The Peasant War in Germany
4/45 Stephen King - Nightmares and Dreamscapes

 

[kropotkin]

1. Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari
2. The Kaiser goes: the generals remain - Theodor Plivier
3. The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi- David N. Schwartz
4. The Third Policeman - Brian O'Nolan

 

[yield]

1. The Stone Sky by Nora K. Jemisin

 

[Pickman's model]

3. georges simenon, "maigret gets angry"

4. georges simenon, "maigret's secret"

 

[kropotkin]

1. The Stone Sky by Nora K. Jemisin

Pretty good, eh?
Each one of the three books in the series won the Hugo

 

[Threshers_Flail]

1. The Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers
2. Girl in a Band - Kim Gordon

I've been trying to read Petersburg by Andrei Bely for what must be the fifth time and failing. Anyone read it?

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Minette Walters - The Ice House
2/70 - Joe Hill - Strange Weather

3/70 - Donna Tartt - The Little Friend (re-read)

 

[iona]

1/35 Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

 

[yield]

Pretty good, eh?
Each one of the three books in the series won the Hugo

Well deserved the recognition. Best sci-fi I've read in years.

 

[ringo]

1. The Stone Sky by Nora K. Jemisin

Pretty good, eh?
Each one of the three books in the series won the Hugo

They look good. Downloaded, thanks for the heads up.

 

[PursuedByBears]

The first one was amazing, the other two are on my reading list. Anyone read any of her other series?

 

[yield]

The first one was amazing, the other two are on my reading list. Anyone read any of her other series?

Read the Inheritance trilogy last year. It's quite good mind but very different. High fantasy and a tiny bit Mills and Boon in places.

 

[nogojones]

1/45 Ursula LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness
2/45 Edward Bunker - No Beast so Fierce
3/45 Frederick Engels - The Peasant War in Germany
4/45 Stephen King - Nightmares and Dreamscapes

5/45 G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday
6/45 Tibor Fischer - Good to be God

 

[DotCommunist]

1/25 Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre
2/25 Blackfish City by Sam J Miller

finished today, started on the weekend, so counts in my list.

3/25 Shadow of All Night Falling by Glen Cook
4/25 Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

 

[Shirl]

1/25 Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz
2/25 Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham

 

[billy_bob]

1/50 Mark E. Smith/Austin Collings - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith
2/50 Richard F. Thomas - Why Dylan Matters
3/50 Shaun Bythell - The Diary of a Bookseller

4/50 William Melvin Kelley - A Different Drummer

I'm going to go all evangelical now. This is without question the best novel I've read since Steinbeck's East of Eden in 2014. It was written in the early 60s and just republished last year. The pull quote on the cover - 'The lost giant of American literature' - I didn't pay too much attention to when I was buying it, just the kind of hyperbole promoters drum up for most books. But seriously, it might be a fair description in this case.

 

[kropotkin]

Wow, that's quite a plug! Thanks, it's on the list

 

[BoatieBird]

Yep, it's on my list too.
Cheers billy_bob

 

[ringo]

On my list now, thanks billy_bob

 

[marty21]

1/65 The Fire Maker - Peter May
2/65 I'll Keep You Safe - Peter May

****

3/65 Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-75 - Max Hastings.

 

[billy_bob]

Wow, that's quite a plug! Thanks, it's on the list

Yep, it's on my list too.
Cheers billy_bob

On my list now, thanks billy_bob

I'll be interested to know what you all think. I've read so much on 'race', fiction and non, that it's rare to find something with a way of illuminating the subjet that really takes you by surprise. Colson Whitehead's Underground Railway did so to some extent, this more so (I suspect Whitehead's very familiar with Different Drummer...). I wonder how much it'll strike other people that way.

 

[kropotkin]

While I enjoyed underground railroad , I found the magical realist device of an actual underground railroad completely superfluous to the plot and added nothing

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "In a House of Lies" - Ian Rankin. Excellent as his books generally are

 

[billy_bob]

While I enjoyed underground railroad , I found the magical realist device of an actual underground railroad completely superfluous to the plot and added nothing

OK, well the central event of the plot in Different Drummer is fantastical, but it's more speculative fiction than magic realism, I'd say. It's more a 'what if' device to show how people react and what that says about them.

(I thought the device in Underground Railroad worked quite well, though, so you may not want to trust my judgement!)

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Minette Walters - The Ice House
2/70 - Joe Hill - Strange Weather
3/70 - Donna Tartt - The Little Friend (re-read)

4/70 - Joe Hill - 20th Century Ghosts (re-read)

 

[kropotkin]

1. Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari
2. The Kaiser goes: the generals remain - Theodor Plivier
3. The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi- David N. Schwartz
4. The Third Policeman - Brian O'Nolan
5. The Book of Hidden Things - Francesco Dimitri