[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Bring Up The Bodies by Hillary Mantel. It's the second in the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and if anything is even better than the first (Wolf Hall). Really good historical fiction.

 

[RossyG]

Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov. A 700-page collection of exquisite short stories all based on the author's 17 years in Stalin's gulags. His "crimes" were attempting to circulate writings by Lenin and describing Ivan Bunin, the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, as a great Russian writer.

 

[Icy Gull]

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena. Not read that much yet but it comes well recommended and it’s been quite interesting from the first page.

If high brow is your thing, you might want to avoid

 

[Ding Dong !]

George Best autobiography.............wow what a scallywag

 

[MJsGhost]

Purely thanks to recommendations in this thread (I can't remember which posters, but thanks!), I've been reading William Boyd novels in the last couple of months: Any Human Heart; The New Confessions; An Ice-Cream War; A Good Man in Africa and now Sweet Caress.

I was a bit worried about the very strong pattern of storylines (bordering on samey), but the fact that I've kept going tells its own story.

Maybe I got a bit unlucky with the first 3 I read: WW1 or WW1 & 2 settings, difficult relationship with father, Oxford University, awkward relationships with women & sex, main character is pretty hopeless but does alright mainly thanks to a privileged background (without really fitting in)... Not a million miles away with A Good Man in Africa either, but I think it's the characters in the books that keep me going back.

I've only just started Sweet Caress and the female protagonist makes a refreshing change already.

Update on the William Boyd fad...

I very much enjoyed Sweet Caress, then devoured Restless (also good). Just finished Trio, which is set in and around Brighton (the story revolves around the characters involved in the filming of a movie there). A good read anyway, with the added interest of familiar locations...

Just starting Love is Blind - I might get through his whole back catalogue by summer at this rate (a 'benefit' of insomnia I guess)

 

[marlowe]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Written in collaboration with Alex Haley, the author of "Roots", and published just a few months after X's assassination.
Interesting insight into X's early, pre-civil rights activist life growing up in 30s and 40s America and as a Zoot suit wearing, slick haired, Lindy Hopping, dope peddling hipster. A far cry from the image with which we associate him.
I haven't yet reached the era with which he became synonymous.

 

[Frutos]

Two on the go at the moment:

- Byzantium: The Decline & Fall by John Julius Norwich (3rd part of a superb history trilogy on the Byzantine Empire)

- Sea Wolves by Tim Clayton (about the British submarine service in WWII)

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Just finished 'The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall Of Enron'

Turns out they were a bit too smart for their own good

 

[Charity Shield 1910]

"Lords of Finance" by Liaquat Ahmed. A history of the people essentially in charge of the banking system in the aftermath of WW1. Montagu Norman (Bank of England), Norman Benjamin Strong (American Federal Reserve Bank), Hjalmar Schacht (German Reichsbank) and Emile Moreau (Banque de France). All interesting characters.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Woman in White, Wilkie Collins, after years of threatening to read it.

 

[FindonFan]

Prisoners of Geography was given to me as a Christmas present. I was not impressed!
Finally got around to reading the book and suggest you beg, borrow, steal or buy it. It will open your eyes about geopolitics and how we all fit in. Sounds boring? Not a bit of it. It’s an outstanding book.

 

[Barham's tash]

The right stuff by Tom Wolfe.

I’ve seen the film and tv series so thought I’d better pony up and read the source material.

A wonderful tour de force of what it took to be a pioneering astronaut and written in that effervescent style only Wolfe can conjure. Excellent read.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

John Grisham - A Time For Mercy

 

[Beach Hut]

Viva South America ! - Oliver Balch

 

[Weststander]

Tom Watson - Downsizing

[A nice read. Barely any politics, instead an honest autobio into his decades of overeating/boozing, then inspiring weight loss].

 

[Salty_Seagull]

Prisoners of Geography was given to me as a Christmas present. I was not impressed!
Finally got around to reading the book and suggest you beg, borrow, steal or buy it. It will open your eyes about geopolitics and how we all fit in. Sounds boring? Not a bit of it. It’s an outstanding book.

100% second this. Amazing book that I read a year or so ago and it has now been passed around my entire group of mates who also enjoyed it.

Currently ready another one by the same author (Tim Marshall) called Divided. Not quite as good as Prisoners of Geography but still an enjoyable read so far. He has also written a book on the history of football chants called 'Dirty Northern B*st*rds!' which I'll be getting hold of at some point.

Another another point, if you enjoyed Prisoners of Geography for opening your eyes on how we all fit in and you fancy something a bit more 'indepth' shall we say, then I can't recommend Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind enough. However, after finishing each chapter I did find myself staring into space questioning my very existence for quite some time!

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

100% second this. Amazing book that I read a year or so ago and it has now been passed around my entire group of mates who also enjoyed it.

Currently ready another one by the same author (Tim Marshall) called Divided. Not quite as good as Prisoners of Geography but still an enjoyable read so far. He has also written a book on the history of football chants called 'Dirty Northern B*st*rds!' which I'll be getting hold of at some point.

Another another point, if you enjoyed Prisoners of Geography for opening your eyes on how we all fit in and you fancy something a bit more 'indepth' shall we say, then I can't recommend Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind enough. However, after finishing each chapter I did find myself staring into space questioning my very existence for quite some time!

Yes,sapiens is a fantastic book.
Much more varied subject matter than I was expecting.
I always recommend this to people as one of those"if you read one book,then read this one".
Essential reading for all humans.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Bring Up The Bodies by Hillary Mantel. It's the second in the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and if anything is even better than the first (Wolf Hall). Really good historical fiction.

And now onto The Mirror and The Light, the final book in the trilogy. If it's anywhere close to as enjoyable as the first two it'll be a cracker.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Riding in the Zone Rouge by Tom Isitt...."Circuit des Champs de Bataille".

A remarkable true story of a cycling race that was held (just the once as it was so tough) around the battlefields of WWI just 6 months after the guns ceased firing....organised by a French newspaper which needed something to boost reader numbers to pre-war levels.

Over 80 riders started, but the horrendous weather and lack of proper "roads" meant many gave up en route. Many riders were also ex Belgian & French soldiers that had only just been released from service after fighting in the same areas as they were now competing.

Extraordinary to read how they went through the Somme etc. past burnt out tanks, bombed out towns, makeshift grave sites etc...basically still "no-go zones", whilst riding approx 200km stages every day that could take up to 21 hours in some cases...with no assistance allowed, and one 5 minute official break along the way each day. Just horrific.

An excellent read so far. The author rode the route himself in 2016, so you get a first hand account of his ride, the facts and records of the actual race, interspersed with "scenes" that he has imagined may have happened.

 

[Barry Izbak]

The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve.

I can't remember the last time I read a book that I had to force myself to finish. I don't know why I bother, there are hundreds of books I want to read.

So I have ten pages to go and I almost can't be bothered. The story is ridiculous. I couldn't care less about the characters.

And this is supposedly the authors debut book, and rather optimistically the first in a series.

Utter b0ll0cks