This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

miamee

Reading 'Poor' by Dr Katriona O'Sullivan at the moment. God it was a hard start in life for her and her brothers, it really brings home to you how some children just never have a chance. Yet she still pushed through to educate herself and make a better life for herself, something which I can only admire. Not finished it yet but I'd imagine I will fly through the rest of it.

eire4

Finished Anne Rice's Servant of the Bones. Classic Anne Rice a mixture of horror, supernatural and some historical fiction.

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121451894#Comment_121451894

It didn't meet my initial expectations, unfortunately. It was an ok book, just about, but it seemed like the plot was going to be about one thing, then another, then it ended up being something entirely different. Initially it gave the impression of being a book about people with special powers (it definitely wasn't), then the plot took a a gangster/crime turn, but it ended up being about racial issues, to a certain extent.

It was completely mis-titled, in my opinion.

Mr.Nice Guy

I read Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Might be the best book I've read on the alien invasion concept. Recommended for sci-fi fans.

eire4

Finished John Connolly's A Game of Ghosts. Really enjoy his Parker thriller series with its strong supernatural theme and this was another good one.

eire4

Finished Ken Bruen's The Ghosts of Galway. Another brilliant noir crime novel from his Taylor series. Absolutely brilliant read loved every page.

Quiet Achiever

Finished Prophet Song. I know what ot was going for, and was clearly successful in doing it, but i really didn't like the writing style. And it felt like a metaphor was being shoe horned into every section.

But if it's purpose was to help you empathise with those who are fleeing once peaceful countries, then it does a good job of that.

Xofpod

Cahokia Jazz, Francis Spufford. Loved it - it's a crime/noir book set in an alternative history 1920s in a US where the native American population wasn't decimated/wiped out and have their own cities integrated into the US. Slightly slow and drawn out in a couple of places but when it's in its swing - the Ku Klux Klan insurrection, various shoot-outs, etc. - it's absolutely brilliant.

miamee

Currently reading Demon Copperhead and I am finding it very long. I've been reading it for weeks and I'm still barely about 2/3rd of the way through. I don't dislike it but it is very slow moving, no impetus in me to see what happens cos it's like to be a) very little or b) not good for the protagonist 😄

Xofpod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121775949#Comment_121775949

Have it on the shelf and I loved The Lacuna when I read it, but given the subject matter and the fact it looks like a fairly dense read, I'm slow to pick it up. Would be interested to hear your take when you finish it.

eire4

Finished Jo Nesbo's harry Hole crime thriller Police. Another enjoyable entry in that series.

Quiet Achiever

Reading Kala by Colin Walsh. Enjoying it a lot.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121780025#Comment_121780025

Finished that last weekend. I really liked the first 3/4 of it, came off the rails a little at the end though, I thought.

_Godot_

I started reading Star Trek Voyager Homecoming by Christie Golden. I'm already at chapter 10, so it's been a quick read.

Quiet Achiever

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121782807#Comment_121782807

Just finished it, and i hear ya. Ah i loved the writing and the pace was perfect, but both were better than the story. Would still recommend, Kinlough is clearly Galway which helped visualisation for me.

Starting Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow now. I've heard great things.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785935#Comment_121785935

Yeah, it's billed as a "literary thriller" but it felt like it was literary, and then switched to thriller at the end, like reading 2 different books. I liked it alright overall though.

Quiet Achiever

"it felt like it was literary, and then switched to thriller at the end"

That's spot on, 100%

Xofpod

Read a couple of crime ones - Little Scarlet, Walter Mosely, part of the Easy Rawlins series, and Wrecked, Joe Ide, part of his IQ series. I love the Easy Rawlins series, and because I've read them out of order, I'm slowly filling in the gaps. Little Scarlet is one of the better ones, set in the immediate aftermath of the '65 LA riots. Wrecked is not quite as good, third in the series, and leaves me on the fence as to whether I pick up the remaining books.

eire4

Finished Catherine Ryan Howard's Rewind. It's the third book I have read from the Cork author and I am really enjoying her crime thrillers and liked this one a lot. Unlike some other crime writers she at least in the books I have read creates stand alone books rather then having a main character.

Mr.Nice Guy

I finished The Dark Forest, the sequel to The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I didn't like this one as much as the first one. There's a section where our protagonist uses his influence to get the authorities to help find him a romantic partner that just felt really odd. The overall story got quite messy and left me unsatisfied. Not sure if I want to finish the series.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121817840#Comment_121817840

I've enjoyed a few of her books now, really good reading. The last one I read was 56 Days which was a real page turner.

miamee

I'm still ploughing through Demon Copperhead but I took a break to read something else - The Couple at No. 9 by Claire Douglas. It was a ripping page turner with lots of twists. I think I read too many of these mystery thriller type books, it's rare that I don't guess what the 'twist' is before I get to it but still whizzed through it and enjoyed it.

eire4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121818346#Comment_121818346

I have not read 56 Days yet but for sure is on my list of books to buy.

Xofpod

Read The Secret Hours, the latest from Mick Herron. It's a kind-of standalone spy thriller, but is very related to his Slough House/Slow Horses series. I enjoyed it and would definitely recommend for fans of the main series. Lots of shenanigans in post-Wall Berlin in the 90s.

Xofpod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121817906#Comment_121817906

The first one left me fairly cold so I never read the sequels. There's a new Netflix adaptation of the first book coming shortly by the lads who did Game of Thrones. Most of the action seems to be transferred to the West rather than China though. They probably plan to adapt this one too, if the first series goes well.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121775949#Comment_121775949

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121776292#Comment_121776292

I finally finished Demon Copperhead at the weekend. It was my first Barbara Kingsolver novel, her writing is so detailed and lovely but I did find it a long slog. At points where nothing is happening the writing strings us along with all sorts of lovely descriptions of life, nature, wildlife, other people and I felt that when something interesting or exciting was happening it happened very fast with less detail. I'd recommend it if you are in the mood for a long, slow read. I read the ebook version and didn't realise what a long novel it was until I was a few hundred pages into it 😊

miamee

Currently reading The Outsider by Jane Casey - you can never go wrong with Jane Casey I find, if you like detective procedural type stories you will like these. The Outsider is a spin off from the Maeve Kerrigan series, tangentially related in that the central character is Rob Langton, Maeve's one time colleague and boyfriend.

Xofpod

Cinema Speculation, Quentin Tarantino. Film criticism/analysis of movies from his formative years - 70s and early 80s, with a focus on b-movies, exploitation films, cop/crime/action movies. I loved it - interesting insights and very strong opinions, mixed in with a sprinkle of autobiographical details. Between this and his novelisation of Once upon a Time in Hollywood, it shows that he can really write, although some slightly stronger editing might help...

Daisy78

Finishing Lessons in Chemistry. Not sure I loved it as much as everyone else.

eire4

Finished Adam Goodhearts 1861 A Civil War Awakening. The premise (which sounded interesting) being from the view of various Americans of all walks of life how the American Civil War got started. It had its moments but overall I found it uninteresting really.