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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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Callan57

Finished The High Mountains of Portugal .... odd but oddly enjoyable read with lots of laughs

Next is Academy Street by Mary Costello - just got it on Kindle

Swiper the fox

Callan57 wrote: »

Finished The High Mountains of Portugal .... odd but oddly enjoyable read with lots of laughs

Next is Academy Street by Mary Costello - just got it on Kindle

Glad to hear you got the laughs out of the way so. You'll do well to crack a smile for the next few days.

Aenaes

I finished The Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling, was grand. The notes from Dumbledore seemed a bit childish but I guess that can't really be a criticism.

I've started Exit Wounds by J.A. Jance. It was meant to be just an easy murder mystery/thriller, I didn't realise it's part of the Joanna Brady series/ It's pretty bad and annoying, I think I'll be giving it up soon.

Callan57

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Glad to hear you got the laughs out of the way so. You'll do well to crack a smile for the next few days.

You got that right

Callan57

Wrung out like a dishcloth after Academy Street so now I anticipate some good clean fun as I pick up Ablutions by Patrick deWitt - it it's anything like The Sisters Brothers and Undermajordomo Minor it should be an enjoyable weekend

Belle E. Flops

I adored 'Wise Man's Fear'. Finished it the other day. I actually spent a whole day last week just reading and it's been a very long time since I've done that.

I've just moved on to 'Slaughterhouse 5'. I'm only a chapter in so I don't really know what to expect.

SarahBM

I finished the Lovely Bones which I thought was very good. Now I am debating what to start as I am going holidays next week. I don't think I will have too much time to read, but I am not sure. I don't want to be stuck there with nothing to read if I end up finishing a book.
I was going to bring Sapiens and two Jane Casey ones. Im going to start the Burning which is #1 in the Maeve Kerrigan series. I read the Reckoning which is #2 without realising it was the second one LOL
I also have Chris Hadfield's book. Has anyone read that?

Jijsaw

I also finished The Lovely Bones a couple of days back. I thought it was great. I'm now onto 'Brooklyn' and I'm about a hundred pages in, I'm enjoying it so far, it's been a light enough read.

Aenaes

Aenaes wrote: »

I've started Exit Wounds by J.A. Jance. It was meant to be just an easy murder mystery/thriller, I didn't realise it's part of the Joanna Brady series/ It's pretty bad and annoying, I think I'll be giving it up soon.

Yeah, that's gone.

I've started The Martian by Andy Weir. Enjoying it, looking forward to watching the movie afterwards.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I'm reading HHhH by Laurent Binet.

It is about Reinhard Heydrich who was the head of the Nazi secret service and by all accounts the brains behind Himmler. In 1942 two Czechoslovakian parachutists were sent on a mission by London to assassinate him in Prague.
It's written in a really strange style... it's basically a history book but it reads almost like a conversation... if that makes sense. Imagine you have a friend who knows a lot of history and is very good at telling it so it sounds like the most interesting thing in the world and you can understand and keep track of it all. That's what this book is like.

There's loads of background information on Heydrich himself but also on key points in the lead up to the outbreak of WW2 and the parts played by Britain and France in basically giving Hitler free reign over most of Europe. I'm finding it fascinating.

Callan57

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I'm reading HHhH by Laurent Binet.

It is about Reinhard Heydrich who was the head of the Nazi secret service and by all accounts the brains behind Himmler. In 1942 two Czechoslovakian parachutists were sent on a mission by London to assassinate him in Prague.
It's written in a really strange style... it's basically a history book but it reads almost like a conversation... if that makes sense. Imagine you have a friend who knows a lot of history and is very good at telling it so it sounds like the most interesting thing in the world and you can understand and keep track of it all. That's what this book is like.

There's loads of background information on Heydrich himself but also on key points in the lead up to the outbreak of WW2 and the parts played by Britain and France in basically giving Hitler free reign over most of Europe. I'm finding it fascinating.

I loved it once I got used to the unusual style of writing ... Enjoy

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Callan57 wrote: »

I loved it once I got used to the unusual style of writing ... Enjoy

Yeah... I just read a bit where it describes one of the parachutists meeting with some old army friends and them discussing the German's being in Prague and how he sets off for Poland to join the resistance. Next paragraph is basically "I made all that up, some research tells me this is what happened....."

It's almost like he's "live tweeting" the book as he writes it. It's bizarre, but I like it.

Gonzovision

Still on a WW2 theme, I'm about half-way through Roger Moorhouses 'The Devils Alliance'. It's about the "alliance" between the Nazis and Soviets during the first two years of the war. A fascinating read so far. Lot's of information that was new to me, even though I've read a lot about the period.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I've started to get the feeling that at the end of HHhH he's gong to reveal he made the entire thing up.

Callan57

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood is lined up for today's commute

Xofpod

Callan57 wrote: »

Wrung out like a dishcloth after Academy Street so now I anticipate some good clean fun as I pick up Ablutions by Patrick deWitt - it it's anything like The Sisters Brothers and Undermajordomo Minor it should be an enjoyable weekend

It's a very different book to the other two as I'm sure you've found. I have the feeling that his style has settled a lot more after the Sisters Brothers.

makeandcreate

The Governor by John Lonergan, enjoying more than I expected. He has a lot of empathy and respect for both for prisoners and prison staff. Quite dry but still quite compelling reading.

Callan57

Xofpod wrote: »

It's a very different book to the other two as I'm sure you've found. I have the feeling that his style has settled a lot more after the Sisters Brothers.

Finished it last night & I agree it's not at all in the same league as Sisters & majordomo but I finished it nonethelesss.

Xofpod

Callan57 wrote: »

Finished it last night & I agree it's not at all in the same league as Sisters & majordomo but I finished it nonethelesss.

I thoroughly enjoyed it myself, it's just a very different beast to the other books. He's shaping up to be a fantastic writer though.

Fathom

Stranger & Friend, by H Powdermaker

Joe_ Public

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I've started to get the feeling that at the end of HHhH he's gong to reveal he made the entire thing up.

Co-incidentally I read this book last week. Enjoyable enough but I did find the author's style a bit exasperating and pretentious at times. His ability to write well is the saving grace and it is, of course, a fantastic story that only the greatest dolt could manage to mess up. Quite a clever title too!

Birneybau

Callan57 wrote: »

Wrung out like a dishcloth after Academy Street so now I anticipate some good clean fun as I pick up Ablutions by Patrick deWitt - it it's anything like The Sisters Brothers and Undermajordomo Minor it should be an enjoyable weekend

Actually about 30% read on my Kindle, put it on the back burner about a year ago, wasn't doing much for me.

Having finished 'Olive Kitteridge' (loved it) and put 'Gold Fame Citrus' back on the shelf (tough read) have began 'Maestra'. Would never, ever be my type of book but thought fcuk it.

Washington Irving

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I'm reading HHhH by Laurent Binet.

It is about Reinhard Heydrich who was the head of the Nazi secret service and by all accounts the brains behind Himmler. In 1942 two Czechoslovakian parachutists were sent on a mission by London to assassinate him in Prague.
It's written in a really strange style... it's basically a history book but it reads almost like a conversation... if that makes sense. Imagine you have a friend who knows a lot of history and is very good at telling it so it sounds like the most interesting thing in the world and you can understand and keep track of it all. That's what this book is like.

There's loads of background information on Heydrich himself but also on key points in the lead up to the outbreak of WW2 and the parts played by Britain and France in basically giving Hitler free reign over most of Europe. I'm finding it fascinating.

Are you reading the original or the translated version?

Been hesitating on it for a while, think you've convinced me to start now.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Washington Irving wrote: »

Are you reading the original or the translated version?

Been hesitating on it for a while, think you've convinced me to start now.

It's in English, so I assume that's the translated one?

It's really very interesting but I am finding some of his asides pretty annoying. It's like he's telling the story of writing the book in among the actual book. Sometimes it's fine and other times I'm yelling internally at him to just get back to the damn story!!

There's two films based around this event coming out sometime this year. There's 3 Irish actors playing the Czech and Slovak parachutists

Joe_ Public

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

It's in English, so I assume that's the translated one?

It's really very interesting but I am finding some of his asides pretty annoying. It's like he's telling the story of writing the book in among the actual book. Sometimes it's fine and other times I'm yelling internally at him to just get back to the damn story!!

There's two films based around this event coming out sometime this year. There's 3 Irish actors playing the Czech and Slovak parachutists

I took it as just his way of justifying why he should be writing the book at all, given the numerous accounts that already existed. He mentions one book that comes out while he's still at the research stage and seems pretty miffed at the good reviews it was getting. You need a lot of chutzpah as an author to insert yourself into an historical narrative and the talent to pull it off. I think Binot just about manages it with quite a few reservations and no little hollering at him when he goes off on another self-serving tangent.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I took it as just his way of justifying why he should be writing the book at all, given the numerous accounts that already existed. He mentions one book that comes out while he's still at the research stage and seems pretty miffed at the good reviews it was getting. You need a lot of chutzpah as an author to insert yourself into an historical narrative and the talent to pull it off. I think Binot just about manages it with quite a few reservations and no little hollering at him when he goes off on another self-serving tangent.

Some of it's fine, quite interesting actually and it will probably change how I read these kind of historical books in the future. Just at certain times I'm getting really into the actual history part of it and he takes a little break to tell us how he went back to double check with his ex what colour the car in the museum was

The good thing is there's never a chapter more than about 2 pages so even when he does go off on one he comes back pretty quickly.

I would definitely recommend it if anyone was thinking about reading it.

eire4

Finished a re read of Anne Rice's second Mayfair chronicles book Lasher. Carries on directly from the first book The Witching Hour and where that ended. In classic Anne Rice fashion she delves into the history of the being that Lasher is before bringing things to an abrupt and dramatic conclusion.

Aenaes

I finished The Martian and I really enjoyed it. Then I read The Arraignment by Steve Martini. It was an alright legal crime thriller, not much to be said.

I've started The Well And The Mine by Gin Phillips. It's set in 1930's Alabama and nine-year old Tess sees a woman dump a baby into her family's well.

Callan57

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

Xofpod

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.