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*What book are you reading? (part 2)

Read two classics recently:

Oisin Fagan’s Nobber: the plague in Norman Ireland leads to some right blood letting with the fucking vulture walking away unharmed. Says quite a bit about modern Ireland.

Kevin Barry’s night boat to Tangier. Kind of like Godot, but with two auld lads remembering the past while looking for a daughter. Says a lot about the nightmare of history and the weight of tradition. If you liked Beetlebone you’ll like this. The language is pure cork too.
 
flypanam said:
Kevin Barry’s night boat to Tangier. Kind of like Godot, but with two auld lads remembering the past while looking for a daughter. Says a lot about the nightmare of history and the weight of tradition. If you liked Beetlebone you’ll like this. The language is pure cork too.
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Really want to read that one, will deffo go and illegally download it now
 
Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline.

Secrets, lies and death in suburban America. It turns out that being wealthy and beautiful doesn't make you happy or moral
 
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. It popped up in conversation so we got it from the library :thumbs:

It’s awful, really badly written. He says ‘Land Cruiser’ 40 times per page during the, uhm, Land Cruiser bit :D The screenwriter for the film is a genius.
 
5t3IIa said:
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. It popped up in conversation so we got it from the library :thumbs:

It’s awful, really badly written. He says ‘Land Cruiser’ 40 times per page during the, uhm, Land Cruiser bit :D The screenwriter for the film is a genius.
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I can totally believe that. I read Timeline when I found it where I was staying in France (part of it is set there) and it was one of the most badly written books I've read. They could use it on a creative writing course for examples of How Not To And Why. Cringe. But I could see it would probably make a passable film if they had a smart scriptwriter.
 
Finished JP. Am back to Andrew Marr’s History of the World. It’s good on the transition stuff, from us (humans) becoming, and sorting ourselves out into which branch is going to win the race, and from nomadism to farming to warring to religionality to etc and so on. I love the transition stuff...like, why isn’t Fishbourne Roman Palace (near my ancestral lands) not a going concern anymore? Surely a bit of upkeep and mixed use over the years (1,974 years) could have maintained it :D
 
Just finished A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

A fantastic book. Best I've read for years.

The characters are well crafted and distinct, and it teaches the uninformed reader a lot about the political situation in India from partition to the 80s.
Furthermore i felt I learned lots about the toxic caste system and how Indian society is continuously poisoned by the horrible corruption. The poor bearing the brunt of it, of course.
I have discussed this book with various indian colleagues and shown them passages and they have confirmed it is an accurate portrayal of that time and place.
 
I was given 'Never Greener' by Ruth Jones for my holidays. I'd hoped Nessa might have something witty or original to say - nope.
 
soho-night-and-day.jpg


Bought this for 20p at the book sale. First Corgi paperback edition. Not available on Amazon. £89 upwards on Abebooks. Great selection of photos; 'of its time' commentary. Chuffed.
 
I am a bit pissed of with myself, I am still reading plenty but for about the last year I failed to maintain my list of books I have read which served a great purpose of stopping me starting the same book more than once.

It transpired largely because I had a bumper haul of books at Christmas which meant I didn't have to return to the library till about now, I had been working my way though them nicely but didn't keep tally.

:mad: :p
 
Just started Ken MacLeod's Cosmonaut Keep & loving it from the start. Has a Peter F Hamilton recommendation on the cover, which bodes well as he also introduced the last sci-fi classic I read - The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
 
Just finished A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara). One of those books where you start off thinking you're never going to be able to keep all the different characters' names straight, but by the end you're never going to be able to forget them. It's been a long time since a book has kept me up reading long into the night.
 
Struggling with A Confederacy of Dunces. Long meant to read it. Finally getting around to it, but I’m not impressed. I don’t see the humour. I’m just irritated. I’ve persevered quite a while waiting for humour, but it’s not revealing itself to me. I might dip back into my pile of Andrea Camilleris instead.
 
rubbershoes said:
Heartstone by CJ Sansom

A massive slab of medieval murder makes ideal holiday reading
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Somehow, I chanced upon a 'second-hand' paperback copy of the new(ish) latest in the Shardlake series Tombland back in June in a charity shop in Kingston. They wanted £3.99 for it, but I only had £2.50 on me and they kindly accepted what I had. Read it over the Summer and enjoyed it mutely (like all the other Shardlakes tbh). Quite epic in nature and pretty convincing on the Kett's rebellion stuff.
Found out the other day it's not been out in paperback that long; reckon I must have lucked out with a reviewers copy or summit?
 
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