This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Half way through the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I cannot put it down.
I was down home for the weekend and I found A Brief History of Time starting at me down off my book shelf. I really want to read it again. Despite the fact that there are 3 piles of books on my locker screaming "READ ME!!!" LOL

Wyldwood wrote: »

Have got through 3 books in the last few weeks thanks to the awful weather.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, this was a Man Booker nomination and I must admit to not usually liking Man Booker books (a bit of a generalisation, I know). I liked it but didn't love it. A lot f it read like a psychology text book and while the theme was interesting and unusual I didn't quite take to the main character, Rosemary.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, I only picked this out of curiousity to see haw Rowling handled adult themes and must say I was pleasantly surprised. It's pretty run of the mill detective stuff with all the stereotypical characters expected but an enjoyable who-done-it all the same.

Then I decided to give Wolf Hall another go since I failed last year and gave up after 100 pages. It's coming on BBC2 this week as a 6 part series which includes Bring up the Bodies, I think, and really wanted to read it first and I'm delighted to say I finished it today. It was a bit of a struggle at times as there are so many characters to keep track of and I had to keep jumping to the family tree at the start of the book and I found the use of the pronoun instead of the Cromwell's name very annoying but I really liked the book and am glad I read it. Don't know if I'll have time to read Bring up the bodies before the BBC get to that part but I'll try.

I recently finished Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, the latter was the book for my book club and I just had to read the first one first! Wolf Hall was definitely a slog at times, I found the writing to be a bit clumsy and annoying at times, the style is definitely refined in Bring up the Bodies, I found it much easier to get through. I really did enjoy both though!

I was surprised by how much I liked The Cuckoo's Calling, again it was another book club read that I would normally not have picked up but I ended up really enjoying it! I read the sequel, The Silkworm, as well and liked that even more! The series isn't going to win any prizes for originality and they still have the annoying little faults in Rowling's writing (particularly the way she latches onto a certain word or words and uses the repeatedly to describe EVERYTHING) but it's an easy read with a decent story and they're perfect for an easy holiday read.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was one of my standout books of 2014, I adored every minute of it!

In the last few weeks I've gotten through a few books, as well as the two Hilary Mantel novels I read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I needed a bit of an easy read after the heaviness of historical fiction and it did the job wonderfully. I really enjoyed it and all of its twists and turns, the characters were horrible people but really captured my attention and I couldn't put it down. Not the best book in the world by a long shot but certainly a fun read.

Next was David Mitchell's Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse. He's one of my favourite comic actors and Peep Show is one of my favourite shows of all time. It was a collection of his columns for the Guardian, his wit gets me every time and I really liked it!

I also read What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, typical weird horror but I love that sort of thing so I really liked it.

Currently reading the Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, about halfway through and loving it so far, very difficult to put down, proven by the fact that I'm currently barely surviving on coffee and sugar at work right now between the book and the McGregor fight last night! :P

On the recommendation of Callan57 I bought the Kindle version of The Universe versus Alex Woods and loved it.

I will admit to glossing over the science bits as they meant nothing to me but it's a great book. My emotions were running high and I found myself wanting to listen to Mozart's 21st while reading the last chapter

On an aside, and slightly off topic, did anyone watch Wolf Hall on BBC last night? I've only recently read it and thought it was well done but I wonder if you hadn't read the book would it be easy to follow the story as it seemed to hop all over the place.

Finished The Secret Place by Tana French ... enjoyable and gripping read

Next is a reread of The Captains and the Kings by Jennifer Johnston

Finished Henrietta Lacks this morning and started the Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas. has anyone read any of her books? I picked it up in London in Hatchards and it had a staff pick blurb on it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

It doesn't.

Well, I liked it :P

Finished 'Ghostwritten' by David Mitchell the other day, mostly enjoyed it, a good debut, good to see the beginnings of some characters that pop up in his other books.

Reading 'Driven' by James Sallis at the mo, nice and short existential pulp, sequel to 'Drive', not bad.

Birneybau wrote: »

Well, I liked it :P

Finished 'Ghostwritten' by David Mitchell the other day, mostly enjoyed it, a good debut, good to see the beginnings of some characters that pop up in his other books.

Reading 'Driven' by James Sallis at the mo, nice and short existential pulp, sequel to 'Drive', not bad.

I love all David Mitchell's books with The Thousand Autums possibly being my absolute favourite. Haven't got to The Bone Clocks yet but it's looking at me from the shelf

Just finished JR by William Gaddis. Although it's an undoubtedly difficult book (700+ pages of unattributed dialogue,no chapters and a myriad of different characters), I think it's an absolute masterpiece. It's a giant farce stuffed with bawdy humour,witty repartee, malapropisms,misundertandings & miscommunications but peppered with beautiful moments of tenderness and melancholy. To say it's prescient would be quite an understatement - Gaddis gets the business of Wall Street,burgeoning PR-speak, commodification of education and art's relationship with commerce spot on years (decades) before anyone else even thought to broach such topics.

Have started Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test, seems like it'll be a nice, comfortable read :pac:

Birneybau wrote: »

On to 'The Girl On The Train' by by Paula Hawkins, very intriguing, enjoying it so far.

Got the free sample and it's amazing so far, so I take it it goes on this way?

zyanya wrote: »

Got the free sample and it's amazing so far, so I take it it goes on this way?

Having read 40% of it (so far) today, I can confirm that it does. : )