What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

bullpost

The Wheel of Doll by Jonathan Ames

Second book in this entertaining Crime series set in Los Angeles.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576773#Comment_121576773

Is each book in that quartet standalone? Or do you need to read them in sequence?

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121591031#Comment_121591031

Probably better to read them in sequence though I started with the Big Nowhere .

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121591381#Comment_121591381

Yeah, The Black Dahlia is more stand alone. I read the other three in a combo book that was sold as The Dudley Smith Trio.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121569697#Comment_121569697

There was a pilot made with kiefer Sutherland for a tv series version. It’s on YouTube or some of it is. didn’t get the green light.

i didn’t finish the book personally. **** love the movie though.

HalloweenJack

Iirc, there's a few secondary characters from the Black Dahlia that pop up in other books in the series but it is somewhat self-contained. It also only has one POV whereas the others have multiple POVs (except for the last one).

BD is more focused on the single murder whereas the other ones spread out into greater conspiracies.

The American Tabloid series is a far more polished version of what he was working towards in the LA Quartet but its different too, more focused on CIA/FBI/Government conspiracies.

He is working on a second LA Quartet mostly based around Dudley Smith in LA during WWII but he's only got through two of them so far, iirc.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592341#Comment_121592341

There were actually two pilots, yer man from Justified was in the second one.

As for the second LA Quartet, I wouldn't expect a repeat of the first. The first book wasn't bad, I just thought he tried to to tie people from the first book together for the sake of it and I don't think it made sense. His writing style got more into the short sentences since the Cold Six Thousand, which can grate after a while.

dee75

Just finished Exiles by Jane Harper which I really enjoyed.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599007#Comment_121599007

I’ve read all her books, definitely recommend them.

Mam of 4

The Poet -Michael Connolly, quite enjoyed it.

bullpost

A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind: The Life Of William Dampier

Never heard of him before but its a good read so far. Buccaneer turned explorer and scientific writer.

Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe.

Introduced common words , such as avocado, barbecue, breadfruit, cashew, catamaran, and chopsticks , into the english language.

Tauriel

Bram Stoker's Dracula

First time reading it, was inspired to do so after visiting Bran Castle at Halloween a few years ago, but was not expecting it to be written in the form of diaries and letters. It took a while for me to get use to that.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121610226#Comment_121610226

I love a good epistolary novel. It's the casual sexism in Dracula I found most jarring - it was actually hilarious at times which obviously the book is *not* meant to be - but one must remember these things are a product of their time when reading them!

I've just finished John Connolly's The Land of Lost Things. Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as The Book Of. The protagonist was a bit of a pain in the hoop. Total change of scene next with Billy Connolly's Rambling Man.

Tauriel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121610268#Comment_121610268

Ah yes and the irony is not lost on me that despite the obvious sexism in the novel, it's the men who are oversensitive and over emotional as they regularly burst into tears for very little reason.

I did quite a bit of eye rolling when reading Dracula.

Tauriel

Vasa by Fred Hocker

I picked up this book in the gift shop when I went to visit the Vasa Museum last year (by the way, it is truly amazing to see in person and I was not disappointed to see this bucket list item).

The book charts the history of the Vasa, detailing the conditions in Sweden and wider Europe which led to the King's demand for a ship with two gundecks, the building of said ship, her sinking and subsequent efforts to raise and conserve her. There are some stunning pictures of the internal lower decks which is not possible to see from walking around her in the museum.

Lefty2Guns

Currently 120 pages into The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

Really enjoying it so far and haven't a clue what way it's going to go. I'm enjoying Paul's style of writing.

NIMAN

Just finished My Father's House by Joseph O'connor.

Very good. Maybe didn't think it was as good as the excellent Star of the Sea, but that takes some beating imho.

Started on Falling Animals by Sheila Armstrong.

Tauriel

Ghost Ships of the Baltic Sea by Carl Douglas

This stunning book provides snippets of the numerous and various shipwrecks that lie at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, and of which only a small number of divers ever get to visit.

Images include famous and unknown wrecks, wooden sail ships, submarines steam ships and everything else in-between.

ngunners

Neither here nor there by Bill Bryson. Dated but laugh out loud funny at times.

NIMAN

Bit disappointed by Falling Animals, after the hype it received.

Good enough, but nothing special.

mariaalice

Old gods time by Sebastian Barry, it's alright a bit hard to follow.

nachouser

The Deluge (Stephen Markley)

A fictional novel about the various aspects of climate change that we are going through right now and might face in the future. It's pretty intense and the author doesn't dumb anything down but it's good reading. I'm about half-way through.

K-9

Half way through Anatomy of a Scandal by Sara Vaughan, very addictive.

Finished Ireland's secret war by Marc McMenamin about the hunt for Nazi spies in Ireland during WW11. Very interesting read about lesser known historical figures in Ireland.

bullpost

City - By Clifford Simak.

Sci-Fi from the classic era. Problem is a lot of the tech predictions have not dated well, but an interesting tale so far.

pjordan

Just finished reading Small things like these by Claire Keegan. Short novellette and a quick read. Good, but a bit formulaic and cliched in places and the world described seems to belong more in the 60's or 70's than the mid 80's that I was a teenager in (Think the almighty power of the convent and the Mother Superior projected here was definitely well on the wane in 1985) . Also the ending was a bit abrupt, almost like it all had to be wrapped up and completed by midnight on Christmas eve ,and you are left wondering what happened next, which is likely both a good and a bad thing. Beautifully described and conveyed depiction of the hero's love and protective attitude for his daughters though and really looking forward to Cillain Murphys portrayal of him in the upcoming film adaption.

Just before Christmas I finally finished Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman based around an extended families experiences round the siege of Stalingrad in 1941-42. I actually took so long to read it that, after finishing it I went back and started about half way in again, partly because there are so many significant characters who you only gradually come to appreciate as the novel goes on, and also they are frequently referred to by the various patronymics in the Russian style so you get confused. Think I was led to this by recommendations from Anthony Beevoir and Ann Applebaum amongst others and also in the contest of Putin's Russia of today, it gives a fascinating insight into how little has changed in terms of the awesome destructive power of the state and an all powerful dictator to influence the minutae of individuals lives.

I'm now, amongst other reads, re-engaging with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig 32 whole years after I initially started reading it and never finished (My kids have a great laugh to hear I've been reading one book for 32 years!)

RoboRat

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

Hard to describe the book - it's very long and very complex. It has multiple characters at multiple points in time and they all have unique stories but each is interlinked to the next in some way. It's a bit like a Russian doll, you get half of each story until you come to the story in the distant future (the middle) which is the final point on the timeline - you get that full story. Then it goes backward again and finishes each story.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but you need to persevere with it. Each story is written in the style of the time, and it takes time to adjust to the writing style. I thought initially it was artistic for the sake of it, but the more I read, the more I understood why it's written in this way. It's not going to be my favourite book, but I am almost finished and I have to say, it was a very enjoyable read. Truth be told, initially, I didn't think I would finish it but I am very glad that I persevered.

Say Your Number

Topographica Hibernica by Blindboy Boatclub.

Love the weird and surreal stuff he comes up with, Covert Japes is my favourite story, about this fella buying a bass guitar off a mad f*cker in a pub and is convinced it's an RTE candid camera show.

NIMAN

Just started on Secret History by Donna Tartt. Comes highly recommended.

Goodigal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633148#Comment_121633148

Am a little further but want to find out what happens as quickly as possible. No idea why I'm trying to race through it!

K-9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121653514#Comment_121653514

The Church was still very powerful in the mid 80's and the mother and baby homes were still going. The unmarried mother stigma was still strong, though starting to change. Keegan evoked the claustrophobia in 80s Catholic Ireland well.

I remember the missions, my altar boy days and my mother getting the house blessed in the mid 80s. The priest who did the blessing got convicted of child abuse years later and I can remember him having his favourite boys and girls.

Agree the book could have been longer but I liked the ending, leaves the rest to the imagination.