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This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Sammy Jennings

...continued from this thread

A Good School by Richard Yates

Slight, but some great moments

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[Deleted User]

Just finished Night Boat to Tangier.

I thought I was being quite apt, if a little obvious, when I described it to someone as a cross between In Bruges and Waiting for Godot. I then discovered it was publicised as the same!

Anyway, it was excellent even if I did become slightly tired of some of the prose towards the end.

It also included this line which is now one of my favourites

"He sat alone with his ghosts at a crowded table"

Tell me how

A man called Ove by Frederik Backman.

Could see this being a marmite book somewhat depending on the readers overall personality type but also, what's going on your life when you read it.

I loved it. Thought it was well written and flowed nicely. Thought in first chapter or 2 that it was going to be a Gran Torino/About Schmidt type story but there was much more to it than that.
Will check out more of his work.

Xofpod

Just started the Book of Strange New Things, Michael Faber.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Been reading Oh My God What a Complete Aisling.
Initially I found it quite funny but I'm about half way through it now and its feeling a bit repetitive. It feels like something you should be reading a chapter a week of in a Sunday newspaper pullout, rather than something you'd read multiple chapters of at a time.
That said, its genuinely funny and I get a good giggle at least once every (short) chapter.

Paddy Samurai

Finished Priest of Lies by Peter McLean

Tomas Piety has been many things: soldier, priest, gangster...and spy. As Tomas's power grows, the nobility better watch their backs, in this dark and gritty epic fantasy series.People are weak, and the poorer and more oppressed they are, the weaker they become--until they can't take it anymore. And when they rise up...may the gods help their oppressors.

When Tomas Piety returned from the war, he just wanted to rebuild his empire of crime with his gang of Pious Men. But his past as a spy for the Queen's Men drew him back in and brought him more power than he ever imagined.

Now, with half of his city in ashes and the Queen's Men at his back, the webs of political intrigue stretch out from the capital to pull Tomas in. Dannsburg is calling.

In Dannsburg the nobility fight with words, not blades, but the results are every bit as bloody. In this pit of beasts, Tomas must decide once and for all whether he is truly the people's champion...or just a priest of lies.

Meant to post this in fantasy.

New Home

Tell me how wrote: »

A man called Ove by Frederik Backman.

Could see this being a marmite book somewhat depending on the readers overall personality type but also, what's going on your life when you read it.

I loved it. Thought it was well written and flowed nicely. Thought in first chapter or 2 that it was going to be a Gran Torino/About Schmidt type story but there was much more to it than that.
Will check out more of his work.

"MY grandmother sends her regards and apologizes" isn't as good, IMO. But I'm only a third of the way through.

batgoat

New Home wrote: »

"MY grandmother sends her regards and apologizes" isn't as good, IMO. But I'm only a third of the way through.

I'd highly recommend his more serious book, Beartown and its sequel Us Against You. Very different but superb reads.

Wyldwood

A Prayer for Owen Meany. Enjoyed the first third or so but really struggling to finish it now at nearly 500 pages in. I like Owen and his philosophising but Johnny has too many rambling passages for me. I guess I'm in the minority here since it gets such rave reviews.

I have Catherine Kirwan's Darkest Truth waiting in my library ebook account so hopefully that will be a better read for me.

New Home

batgoat wrote: »

I'd highly recommend his more serious book, Beartown and its sequel Us Against You. Very different but superb reads.

Thank you, good to know!

Wyldwood

Wyldwood wrote: »

A Prayer for Owen Meany. Enjoyed the first third or so but really struggling to finish it now at nearly 500 pages in. I like Owen and his philosophising but Johnny has too many rambling passages for me. I guess I'm in the minority here since it gets such rave reviews.

Quoting myself for clarity.
I think I owe John Irving an apology for preempting my verdict of Owen Meany. Having now finished it I must say it really picked up again in the last 100 pages or so and I found it quite moving.

Have 2 more on the go now, Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick and Darkest Truth, a who-done-it set in Cork.

eire4

Finished Frank Herbert's science fiction classic Dune. Been on my to read list for some time and was worth the wait enjoyed it a lot.

otnomart

Finished As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
One of the saddest books I have ever read.

_Godot_

I've finished both The Secrets of Drearhall Grange School and Nevermoor. Now I'm waiting for the local library to get in the copy of Wundersmith I ordered.

Callan57

Just getting into Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

bobbyss

Started reading that book by Martin Sixsmith about Philomena Lee but soon discovered it was full of invented conversations between people. I had thought it was going to be a straightforward narrative. Dropped it by about chapter 3.

miamee

Currently reading The Good People by Hannah Kent and enjoying the language in it a lot.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

miamee wrote: »

Currently reading The Good People by Hannah Kent and enjoying the language in it a lot.

I loved her previous book but really struggled to get through that one.

miamee

I'm enjoying it, it's very slow-paced though which took me a while to settle into. Chapters are quite long too. I haven't read The Herbalist Burial Rites yet but I'll be adding it to my tbr list after this.

Edit: I had typed The Herbalist yestreday which is of course, Niamh Boyce - I just read Her Kind before I started The Good People and also enjoyed that. I might need to slow down in my reading or have a break between books, lol.

Wyldwood

Burial Rites is my favourite Hannah Kent book.

Finished Darkest Truth by Catherine Kirawan, a thriller set in Cork. Didn't work for me I'm afraid. The premise was good and could have made a great novel but execution wasn't well done. I'm in the minority as it got some good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

miamee

Doh, thanks Wyldwood, you've just made me realise the mistake in my post

jamesbil

The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham

Things to come....

New Home

I've just finished reading "Island" by David Almond. I really liked it. It's a teenager/young adult book, but I love how he writes. In fact, I think his books aimed at adults aren't half as nice as his children's stuff. It's the story of a girl who goes on a trip with her father to Lindisfarne, where they spent lots of time when her mother was still alive.

Then yesterday I started "The Weight of Water" by Sarah Crossan, which was shortlisted for the Clip Carnegie Medal in 2013. Very touching book, it's a teenage/YA book, too. It's the story of a Polish girl who moves to England with her mother (who's trying to track down her husband who deserted them a few years before to move to the UK), but she finds it difficult to settle into their rented, run-down studio in a bad part of town, and she's being bullied by her schoolmates, too.

[Deleted User]

Reading The Unauthorized Biography of Ezra Maas.

Not far in. To describe it, it would sound like a very difficult way to tell a story about an intriguing artist but it actually reads quite well and is a page turner.

This is a new book with a lot of recommendations.

quickbeam

jamesbil wrote: »

The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham

Things to come....

Great book! Love his stuff!

Xofpod

Xofpod wrote: »

Just started the Book of Strange New Things, Michael Faber.

Absolutely brilliant, cannot recommend highly enough.

It also has one of the most beautiful covers I've seen in years.

Paddy Samurai

pavb2 wrote: »

Constantinople: The Last Great Siege - Roger Crowley

This is one of the best works of historical fiction which gives an account of the fall of the Byzantine capital Constantinople. The narrative is engaging and the characters, political subterfuge, sub-plots such as the miners, the navies, the walls, construction of the massive guns and the sheer effort and methods employed by Mehmet, the Ottoman Sultan to capture the city makes it a real page turner.

+!
I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it big time .Its funny how time plays tricks on you. I have recommended this book on many occasions telling people it was historical fact.:o
Just goes to show how well written and researched the whole book was .

Xofpod

From a Low and Quiet Sea, Donal Ryan.

Callan57

Finished Her Kind by Niamh Boyce ... superb, really enjoyed it

Now I'm listening to The Cardinal's Man by M G Sinclair from Borrowbox & reading Address Unknown by Kressman Taylor

A Shropshire Lad

'The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman' by Bruce Robinson

Robinson is probably best known as the writer and director of cult movie 'Withnal and I'

LionelNashe

Just finished three books in the last week. I think they're the first books I've managed to finish in 6 months.

'Bleeding Hearts' (a hitman/assassin story) & 'Fleshmarket Close' (a Rebus novel full of unlikely coincidences), both by Ian Rankin. I read them probably 12 to 15 years ago but had completely forgotten the stories.

'The Trespasser' by Tana French. I had listened to 2 or 3 of hers on Audible, but this one is the first hard copy I've read. Pretty good. Have ordered another one online.