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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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TICKLE_ME_ELMO

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

The Death of Bees.
Excellent, quite harrowing novel about two neglected children in a Glasgow estate.

Read that a few weeks ago, loved it.

IvyTheTerrible

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Read that a few weeks ago, loved it.

I thought the author got the "voice" of the teenager Marnie spot on, it's something that has put me off reading novels where the narrator is a teenager, sometimes it's so awkward.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I thought the author got the "voice" of the teenager Marnie spot on, it's something that has put me off reading novels where the narrator is a teenager, sometimes it's so awkward.

So true, nothing worse than someone trying to write as a teen or opposite sex and getting it so wrong. I did find the younger sister a bit hard to take but I figured she had a mild touch of Autism or something, she was quite amusing at times too.

IvyTheTerrible

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

So true, nothing worse than someone trying to write as a teen or opposite sex and getting it so wrong. I did find the younger sister a bit hard to take but I figured she had a mild touch of Autism or something, she was quite amusing at times too.

Yes, that was the point of her character.

Hrududu

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Started off promising but quickly became disappointing.

Slattsy

Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan.

It seems im awesome at alliteration after all, apparently!

crustybla

I've gotten a lot of good books from reading this thread over the past few months so thanks to all!

At the moment I'm reading Some Girls by Jillian Lauren. It's about a girl who at sixteen becomes a stripper and whatnot but goes to 'work' for one of the brother's of the Sultan of Brunei in his harem. It's a true story. It's an easy read but interesting.

eire4

Finished a re read of Peter Beresford Ellis' Celtic Myths and Legends. A fun read and I liked how he split the book up into a section each for each of the 6 Celtic nations.

Callan57

Finished A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride ... once I got into it I really found it the most gripping, absorbing & emotionally charged book I have read so far in 2014. A superb original book

Huzzah!

Callan57 wrote: »

Finished A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride ... once I got into it I really found it the most gripping, absorbing & emotionally charged book I have read so far in 2014. A superb original book

I'm surprised it didn't make the Booker longlist

MagicMarker

Finished Stoner by John Williams, thought it was fantastic.

Dial Hard

Well, The Goldfinch was only ok. I found Theo unbelievably irritating and dislikeable as a character and at points was actively rooting for him to get caught.

I re-read John Connolly's The Unquiet and Stephen King's Just After Sunset after that, and am now reading The Secret History, mostly because pretty much everyone who saw me with Goldfinch told me to. Oly a chapter or so in, but I'm sensing another supremely annoying protagonist in the offing..

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Dial Hard wrote: »

Well, The Goldfinch was only ok. I found Theo unbelievably irritating and dislikeable as a character and at points was actively rooting for him to get caught.

Agreed. I liked him until he went to Vegas then he became increasingly annoying and the story line became increasingly unbelievable.

a0ifee

Finished The Picture of Dorian Gray, wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. What a book, already want to re read it.

Tom Joad

Just finished Skippy Dies by Paul Murray and really didn't like it. I found it contrived and just not believable and really struggled to finish it.

Started on Norman Mailer The Executioners song

Wyldwood

Half way through That they May Face the Rising Sun and am enjoying it. There is no great story but it is a snapshot in time of a rural Ireland that I'm sure exists in some remote areas still.

My grandmother was from a farming family in rural Cork and I can remember very similar conversations to those in the book taking place when we visited her family home as children. The main talking point always seemed to be the local goings on and which 'Yank' was home and what stories he told. Very different way of life.

Wyldwood

Tom Joad wrote: »

Just finished Skippy Dies by Paul Murray and really didn't like it. I found it contrived and just not believable and really struggled to finish it.

Hated that book, can't see why it got so much hype

crustybla

Gonna start Wolf by Mo Hayder tonight. Don't know much about it so don't know what to expect. Heard good things about it.

Aenaes

Aenaes wrote: »

I started The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick last night. It's started off promising giving pretty in-depth and seemingly knowledgeable background information of events before the famous battle.

It's one of a number of topics I would like to know more about so I'm excited to be learning about it. I've already learned that Little Bighorn is, in fact, a river.

I finished this last night, a fantastic book. It's descriptive and informative but still manages to flow nicely as a story with insightful anecdotic passages of events prior to 1876 thrown in. A seemingly very well-researched project with the author even travelling to Co. Carlow and visiting the birthplace of Myles Keogh, one of the captains of the Seventh Cavalry. Did you know that 17% of the Seventh Cavalry in 1876 was Irish?

Some detective work was needed in trying to make sense of the battle by piecing together differing accounts from varying sources and while it's not completely definitive, the author provides the most logical assumptions while leaving the reader to have their own opinions towards the motives and actions of the people involved.

A great author and historian. After reading, it makes me want to visit the battle/memorial site.

On to something slightly different now, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

It's VERY descriptive, it reads like a fastidious person's diary. His hygiene products, everyone's clothes, they're all detailed. I supposed it's to highlight the consumerism/shallowness of the Bateman circle. Another thing to jump out at me is how self-absorbed they are.

Swiper the fox

I absolutely loved Skippy dies when I read it a few years ago, also love that they may face the rising son, good post on that Wyldwood.

I read fight club last week, couldn't wait for it to be over, not my cup of tea but not bad enough to quit on either, I suppose knowing the "twist" may have taken somewhat from it.

Picked up "Room" by Emma Donoghue last night from the bookshelf, my wife read it when it came out and thought it was very good, never really appealed to me but she has banned me from buying new books for a while so I'll give it a go. The language annoyed me for a while at the beginning but I'm getting used to it and will see how it works out.

chasmcb

Aeneas, if you enjoyed the Little Big Horn book, another very good book in that vein is S.C. Gwynne's 'Empire of the Summer Moon' all about the Comanches, with special reference to their most famous war chief Qanah Parker whose mother was kidnapped as a kid from white settlers ( her story inspired John Ford's film 'The Searchers'). They were fearsome boyos the Comanches and absolutely the last thing you'd want to see coming over the horizon toward you if you were plodding across the prairie in your wagon or tending to your frontier farmstead -it was sure to end very, very badly for you! The book's a great read.

Dial Hard

Tom Joad wrote: »

Just finished Skippy Dies by Paul Murray and really didn't like it. I found it contrived and just not believable and really struggled to finish it.

Awful, awful book. I chucked it out two-thirds of the way through. I've said it before and I've said it again, life is too short to force yourself to finish shite books.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I felt like Skippy Dies had a decent short story in it somewhere but there was just way too much going on around it.

eire4

Finished a re read of Brett Easton Ellis Less Then Zero.

Zeek12

Tom Joad wrote: »

Started on Norman Mailer The Executioners song

It's always been my intention to read that some day, sounds like a fascinating read, but I'm intimidated by the 1,000+ pages

Maybe you could post your thoughts on it here later? I'd be interested to learn how accessible and readable it is....(or isn't)!!

vepyewwo

Tyler Hamilton's The Secret Race about his time cycling with Lance Armstrong and the US postal team. I've never followed cycling but I'm interested in doping in sport and the science behind it. This book was a real eye opener and a great read but I'm afraid it will make me extremely cynical when watching any sport from now on!

City of Women by David R Gillham. I saw this recommended by Stephen King in his best reads of 2012. Set in Berlin in 1943 about a woman who becomes involved in helping to hide Jews in the city. I would recommend.

Just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman last night. I've never read anything by him before. About 100 pages in and not sure about it yet.

Zeek12

Currently re-reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night.

I'd forgotten just what a truly brilliant writer he is.

Ice Storm

eire4 wrote: »

Finished a re read of Brett Easton Ellis Less Then Zero.

Now I want to re-read it (again!)

Any key?

Reading Winter's Tale. It is ruining my Summer. Beautifully written but the story has lost me at this stage. I don't really care about any of the characters either. I can't stand not finishing a book though

Callan57

Finished Longbourn, more or less Pride & Prejudice the servants story, an entertaining light read.

For the weekend it's my favourite author Joyce Carol Oates & Carthage