This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

echo beach

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Indeed, I read them one a night as well and reviewed it here months ago.

Apologies, In fact it was on your recommendation that I spaced them out. I don't think I'll ever forget the one about the old folk's home. There isn't a hope of getting me near one now, unless I am passed knowing where I am.

Wyldwood

Read The Girl on the Train and I must say I'm perplexed at the hype it got. I guess I'm in the minority when I say I'm underwhelmed.
While it's an easy read, the writing style is quite basic, I found the character's not very well developed and a bit one-dimensional and didn't really get emotionally invested in any of them. I've read better thrillers and thought at times it was a bit tedious with all the back and forth time hopping.

fruvai

Reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath after finishing Francois Truffaut's book on Hitchcock.

Callan57

Finished The Little Red Chairs ... Edna O'Brien at her absolute best

Now it's on to Dictator by Robert Harris

Callan57

Finished The Little Red Chairs ... Edna O'Brien at her absolute best

Now it's on to Dictator by Robert Harris

Dibble

Started City of Bohane by Kevin Barry yesterday.

Gonzovision

Got a couple of WW2 books for Christmas, just finished 'The War in the West 1939 - 1941 - Germany Ascent' by James Holland, I found it to be a fantastic read and a different take on the events of the first two years of the war. It dealt heavily with the operational and supply issues faced by all sides. Highly recommended.

Next up is Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, I'm about a hundred pages in and it's not disappointing.

eire4

Finished a re read of Anne Rice's Blood and Gold another very enjoyable entry in her vampire chronicles.

Swiper the fox

eire4 wrote: »

Finished a re read of Anne Rice's Blood and Gold another very enjoyable entry in her vampire chronicles.

Only two more to go before you have to read Prince Lestat, published in 2014:eek::pac:

I'll buy it for you myself if you don't have it:p

Boulevardier

Just finished Peter James's horror yarn The house on Cold Hill.

Not great. Derivative, formulaic and utterly predictable. In fact, every bit as bad as "Perfect people."

It is a pity, because his Roy Grace crime novels (the ones with "dead" in the title) are excellent. He should stick to them.

Boulevardier

Just finished Peter James's horror yarn The house on Cold Hill.

Not great. Derivative, formulaic and utterly predictable. In fact, every bit as bad as "Perfect people."

It is a pity, because his Roy Grace crime novels (the ones with "dead" in the title) are excellent. He should stick to them.

Aenaes

I finished The English Patient. It was good but still found it a bit strange.

Currently reading The Night Manager by John le Carrè as I heard the BBC have made into a mini-series and it will be airing in Spring.

Aenaes

I finished The English Patient. It was good but still found it a bit strange.

Currently reading The Night Manager by John le Carrè as I heard the BBC have made into a mini-series and it will be airing in Spring.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Aenaes wrote: »

Currently reading The Night Manager by John le Carrè as I heard the BBC have made into a mini-series and it will be airing in Spring.

I saw an add for it the other day. Think it said "coming soon" You better get a wriggle on.

eire4

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Only two more to go before you have to read Prince Lestat, published in 2014:eek::pac:

I'll buy it for you myself if you don't have it:p

Haha I love it. Outstanding:) I must say a book published in 2014 hmmm that is a scary proposition for me:) Thanks for the generous offer. Prince Lestat is not in my new books collection yet but certainly will be.


Now for the bad news before I get to Prince Lestat I still have some more Anne Rice re reads as I have her Mayfair witches trilogy to enjoy yet. But never fear I have promised at some point in 2016 I will crack open and read a brand new book!!!

Dibble

Started reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte yesterday.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Dibble wrote: »

Started reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte yesterday.

Love it, one of my favourites and so very different from what I was expecting.

Gonzovision

Finished Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, a harrowing but essential read. Found it very difficult to keep reading at times due to the subject matter and the complete hopelessness of all people involved. Highly recommended read for anyone with a passing interest of what happened on the Eastern front.

Up next is D-Day - The Invasion of Normandy, by the same author. I am a bit more familiar with this period as it has been portrayed in countless films and TV shows.

It will be interesting to see how it compares to Stalingrad.

Callan57

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

Callan57

Callan57 wrote: »

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

Brilliant read

Now its on to All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Swiper the fox

I've almost finished The trouble with Goats and sheep by Joanna Cannon, it goes from being plodding to unputdownable but it is set up for a really good finish (I hope), at the moment I would recommend it but that could change.

kam3qnwvebf4jh

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Halfway through and really enjoying it.

ahlookit

Swiper the fox wrote: »

I've almost finished The trouble with Goats and sheep by Joanna Cannon, it goes from being plodding to unputdownable but it is set up for a really good finish (I hope), at the moment I would recommend it but that could change.

Given your username should you not be kept away from sheep?

Daisy78

Just finishing Eggshells by Caitriona Lally, a very quirky read. At swim two birds after that.

Callan57

Just finished the truly brilliant All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - really, really enjoyed it.

Next off the pile is The Lives of Women by Christine Dwyer Hickey

Thomas_..

Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

secondrowgal

Just finished The House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III

http://www.andredubusiii.com/houseofsandandfog.html

The pacing is excellent, and it is told from two people's first person point of view, with a third person's story in the third person. You can empathise with all the characters and it makes you want to scream at them all each of the choices they make lead them further down a wrong path. I would recommend it.

Just started The Ice Twins, SL Tremanyne. So far so good - very different to the one above!

Arghus

Going to attempt Infinite Jest again. This is the third time I've begun the book. I've been beaten before page 300 twice before. I can tell there's something of value in the novel, it's just that length and density is so forbidding, that I've just thrown in the towel in the past... But not this time dammit!

Some of the reason why I'm willing to stick with this time is that I've read some of David Foster Wallace's non-fiction, in recent years, and it's really exceptional stuff, so I'm more inclined to hear him out, even at over a 1000 pages.

Callan57

Just starting The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle

Arghus

Gonzovision wrote: »

Finished Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, a harrowing but essential read. Found it very difficult to keep reading at times due to the subject matter and the complete hopelessness of all people involved. Highly recommended read for anyone with a passing interest of what happened on the Eastern front.

Up next is D-Day - The Invasion of Normandy, by the same author. I am a bit more familiar with this period as it has been portrayed in countless films and TV shows.

It will be interesting to see how it compares to Stalingrad.

Heartily recommend Berlin, by the same author. I'd class that and Stalingrad as amongst the best books on World War Two.I read the two a few years back. The instant I finished Stalingrad I literally walked into the nearest bookshop and bought Berlin straight away. "More of this please", said my brain. Have not read his D-Day account, so I cannot say too much about it. I will say to avoid his one volume history of WWII though: not a bad book but there's too much compression to make it all fit, so even though it's well written and voluminous, it doesn't feel like it's truly comprehensive.

His book on the Spanish Civil War is not quite as absorbing but is still highly interesting, if you have an interest in that conflict.

I don't know how responsible he is for the sheer amount of books in circulation about matters relating to World War Two. I remember, hazily, I was only a kid, about how much of a phenomenon Stalingrad was when it was first published. I think it was a bit of a rarity up until then for books on military history to sell by the bucket-load. Great and all that it was that such things reached a wide audience, I do wonder ocassionally about whether such success, in one particular area, has kind of had a warping influence ever since on popular history as a whole. I just find it a bit of a pity sometimes that WWII casts such a long shadow in the world of historical non-fiction. The history section of any bookshop I've ever been in is heavily weighted towards military history, and a good proportion of that, maybe 40-50 percent, is given over to World War.II. It sells, obviously, and there's no denying it's importance, relevance and fascination. But I do wonder, has it not been done to death at this stage: how much more that's new can really be said about it? I wonder are other areas and eras of historical research and publication being left undervalued as a result?