What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

ThePentagon

Just finished 'Precipice'. Another belter from Robert Harris. Highly recommended.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122616935#Comment_122616935

Saving it for a Christmas book

Tauriel

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Downfall, Giving Birth to Modern-Day Black Ops by Damien Lewis

I was inspired to read this after watching the movie of the same name. The movie is covered in the first 100 pages or so of tge book. The remainder detailing other breathtaking special forces ops, particularly in Greece and Italy during WWII.

The Fell Sarah Moss not my usual style of book it's really good.

Nigel Fairservice

Just finished Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham, a great account of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I did go to Pripyat and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power station a few years ago. I had a terrible lunch at the power plant canteen. I wish I had read the book before I went there but it wasn't long out at the time. I see Higginbotham has a new book out about the Challenger space shuttle disaster. I'll add it to my list.

Reading Under the Dome by Stephen King now. Looking forward to getting stuck in. Haven't read any Stephen King in a few years.

AMTE_21

Remain Silent by Susie Steiner.

This book was about the death of a Lithuanian. It was a sad read in a lot of ways. The way the Lithuanians are treated, by their own, being exploited as agricultural labourers is very sad. The anti immigrant issue is covered as well. It was also sad because it was her last book written before she died of cancer in 2022. The detective in the book is a good character, the author said it was made up of more than 98% of her character, a pity there won’t be more from this author.

pavb2

just finished Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett I’ve read the first 5 in the discworld series and think they are probably more suited for a Young Adult audience.

Also finished The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow it was OK and an easy read about an ex mafia guy but very cliched I had another couple of Winslow’s books on my wish list but not sure if I’ll bother after reading this.

I’m now reading Stephen Fry’s 3 books about Greek mythology,Mythos, Heroes & Troy

hoodie6029

Ask not by Maureen Callahan

I knew the Kennedys had some skeletons in their closet, JFK’s cheating, hiding Rosemary away and Ted’s less than honourable conduct at his car crash. That was obviously the sanitised version I was getting. But Good God! This book really lays it out. The vile, horrible and despicable way they treated the people in this book. How many more weren’t on record that were treated the same or worse? A lot, I’d safely wager

This article does much better justice to the book than my post can.

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/02/maureen-callahan-kennedy-family-women

AMTE_21

Take my Hand by Dolen Perkins Valdez.

This book, based on real events, was set in Alabama. It was about the sterilisation of very young black girls. They were only 10 and 13. When a nurse at a family planning clinic discovers this she sets out to stop it and discovers it is widespread among black, Hispanic and poor women, and encouraged by the Government. It was set in the 1970s and also moved to 2016 to follow up what happened to the young girls after the court case. It was a moving read.

griffin100

Was in Dubray Books on Grafton Street a couple of days ago and was browsing when I was approached by one of the staff who asked if I needed help (I must look like a confused old man). I asked if they had any Irvin Welsh in stock (I watched Filth last week and I have never read the book so was hoping to pick it up). He went off to the computer and then came back and told me he couldn't find 'it' but if I knew who the author was he might have a better chance of finding 'it'. I had to explain that Irvin Welsh was not the name of the book, he was an author. I was surprised that someone working in a bookshop didn't know that. Anyway, they didn't have Filth, but they did have his new one (Resolution) so I bought that instead!

BraveDonut

"Never" by Ken Follett - really good espionage yarn on a world stage.
It was a great holiday read

AMTE_21

Desert Star By Michael Connelly.

This is a Ballard and Bosch book. Standard Michael Connelly, Renee Ballard has been put in charge of a unit dealing with cold cases and calls on her old pal Harry Bosch to come in as a volunteer detective. There was an Irish angle in that the victims of one of the cases was a family, Gallagher whose father had come over from Ireland and set up a plant hire business, but they were brutally murdered and buried in the desert. A good read and found it hard to put it down.

bullpost

Red Menace by Joe Thomas

Second book in a trilogy. Set in Thatchers England and undercover policing in Londons racially tense estates. Interestingly Features real life musicians as characters e,g, Paul Weller.

Read the first book and am enjoying this one.

Tauriel

The Alliance of Pirates: Ireland and Atlantic Piracy in the Early Seventeenth Century by Connie Kelleher

I was inspired to take this off the bookshelf and read it after seeing the author on two episodes of a documentary titled "Pirates: Behind The Legends" on Nat Geo.

I think the majority of people would be familiar with Grace O'Malley and Anne Bonny, but there are so many Pirates that were very prolific, that used Ireland as their operating base. This book looks at those pirates and the alliance they formed to protect their trade.

_Godot_

I finished Cujo and started The Dead Zone.

Say Your Number

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig.

About a lonely old woman in England who gets left a house in Ibiza by an old friend who just died and she decides to move out there, very philosophical and wistful like his writing usually is, I enjoyed it.

Loafing Oaf

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World by Mary Beard

Feels like a culimnation of Beard's lifetime of immersion in Ancient Rome. Takes a thematic approach, which frees her from trotting out blow—by-blow accounts of familiar stories, instead she focuses on the historiography, and what archaeology tells us about these famous episodes. Ultimately emerges as an investigation of the limits of what we can know about the ancient past. Very much my kind of historical writing, combines huge breadth of knowldege with an engaging non-academic style.

KH25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122661909#Comment_122661909

I really enjoyed the Dead Zone when I read it.

Just finished Wizard and Glass, book 4 of the Dark Tower series. It took me a little bit to really get into it, but once I did I couldn't put the book down. Currently reading Different Seasons.

Dial Hard

I've two books on the go at the moment; Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson, which is nonsense brain fluff about modern-day witches working for the British establishment, and The Journey Home by Pat Barker, which is the third book in her Silence of the Girls series, and focuses on Cassandra and Clytemnestra in Mycenae after the Trojan war. I love these books, but I'm a giant Classics nerd. I suspect you'd need to have read the Iliad and the Odyssey to have any interest.

That sounded way more arsey than I intended 🤣

Tauriel

Death on the Lusitania by R.L. Graham

A historical fiction novel set around the Lusitania's ill-fated final voyage. There is a murder on board with multiple suspects, espionage, war and intrigue. I thoroughly enjoyed the setting, pace and story. One of the reviews on the cover of the book says "Perfect for lovers of Agatha Christie" and I must agree.

AMTE_21

A Shadow Intelligence by Oliver Harris.

This is a spy novel set in Kazakhstan. Elliot Kane is an agent for MI6 and when he gets a mysterious message from his girlfriend which seems to be some kind of a warning he travels to Kazakhstan to get to the bottom of it. It was a good read and gave some insights into a country you hear little about. It set out a scenario similar to what’s happening in Ukraine at the moment. The Russians threatening to invade to “save” ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan. It got a bit complicated towards the end and the technology and computer jargon was a bit confusing.

NIMAN

Small Things Like These.

Edit : good quick read, but to see it described on the cover as a masterpiece by Hilary Mantel makes me think I might take up this writing lark! Or is it just authors blowing smoke up each other? It was shortlisted for the Booker too.

AMTE_21

The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton.

This was a good psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Olive is married to a Labour MP. She was a nurse on the ward when his wife died of cancer and 18 months later, she marries him. But she had a previous relationship with a woman who disappeared without trace and she thinks he has something to do with it. It was a good read and hard to put down, would be a great beach read, you’d finish it in two days easily.

Patrick2010

Just finished the unlucky lottery by Hakan Nesser, great murder mystery

pavb2

I got the Greek myths trilogy by Stephen Fry and just finished the first book ‘Mythos.’ It detailed the evolution of the Greek gods but with so many characters and a brief anecdote about them it became a bit repetitive. I liked some of the back stories such as Sisyphus and Midas but I think it’s a book to dip in and out of rather than reading straight through. I’ll give it a few months before I read the next one in the series.

Tauriel

The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Deep-sea Discoveries by David L. Mearns

This book has been sitting on my shelf for quite sometime because of the size of the font, which is my only gripe about this book. Otherwise, I have to say that this is probably one of my favourite books that I have read this year.

The author takes us through his early education and how he came to be interested in shipwreck hunting. He also gives a brief history of the shipwrecks he discusses in this book, the method of research undertaken to identify possible wreck sites, what it means to the survivors/ families/ friends of ships that went down for the final resting place to be discovered and forevermore protected and also, the trials and tribulations of executing an operation to locate shipwrecks.

AMTE_21

Resurrection Walk by Micheal Connelly.

This book was about the Lincoln Lawyer, Mike Haller he has cleared a man who was in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. He gets loads of letters from people in jail who claim to be innocent and asks his half brother, Harry Bosch to go through them and pick out any that may have a case. He finds one, a woman who took a plea for a lighter sentence for the murder of her husband but says she only took it because the alternative was life in prison and she had a young son. They take on the case and discover corruption in the police gang squad division. Great read as usual from Michael Connelly, I don’t how he does it, every time!

Sephiroth_dude

Finished the woman in black by Susan Hill last night, I really enjoyed it and didn't see that ending coming at all.

Tonight I started Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky.

Loafing Oaf

Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell

As the title indicates, hugely expansive tour of European humanism. Thankfully doesn't really have an overarching thesis, all about the memorable anecdotes and the witty asides…

AMTE_21

So Shall you Reap by Donna Leon.

I’m a big fan of these books, set in Venice, I’ve read them all. They’re all similar, but a comfort read for me to catch up on detective Brunetti and his family. Very atmospheric books and always enjoy them. This one was about a Sri Lankan man murdered and dumped in the canal with motives going back to the eighties and the terrorist campaigns in Italy.