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What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

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    #272
    gutenberg
    Registered Users Posts: 983 ✭✭✭gutenberg


    bladespin wrote: »
    A tale of two cities, going through the classics.
    Barna77 wrote: »
    It started it some years ago. I'm no fan of Dickens but gave it ago.
    Nope. I gave up after a few chapters.
    quickbeam wrote: »
    No problem with classics, but I gotta lot of problems with Dickens.
    Arghus wrote: »
    The only Dickens I ever read was Bleak House and I found it an absolute chore.

    The only Dickens I've ever finished was A Tale of Two Cities. Everything else I've tried of his, was a big fat nope.


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    #273
    EmmetSpiceland
    Registered Users Posts: 10,527 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    Barna77 wrote: »
    It started it some years ago. I'm no fan of Dickens but gave it ago.
    Nope. I gave up after a few chapters.

    Would you say...it was the worst of times?

    The tide is turning…



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    #274
    completedit
    Registered Users Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    I heard the News today- Paul Howard.


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    #275
    ClydeTallyBump
    Registered Users Posts: 258 ✭✭ClydeTallyBump


    Now onto Renia's Diary by Renia Spiegel.


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    #276
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Brief Answers to the Big Questions - Stephen Hawking.

    Some answers aren't that brief in this short little book, but it's thought provoking and easy to read. One for the curious rather than the scholars.


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    #277
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,073 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Fourteen Byzantine Rulers by one Michael Psellus writing in the 11th century so a contemporary account of life in the Byzantine court and beyond. For someone so far back in time you get a real sense of the man and his world.

    We Have Capture by Tom Stafford. Astronaut, test pilot and more. Flew on Gemini and Apollo, commanding Apollo 10 and got within 10 miles of the surface. Then he was commander of the Apollo Soyuz joint US/Soviet mission, came up with the original specs for the B2 stealth bomber on a cafe napkin and was an unofficial ambassador to the Soviet union space guys.

    Just finished The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann DFC. Free French pilot who flew with the British RAF during World war two, flying Spitfires and then Tempests in ground attack missions. He kept a daily dairy in case he was killed so his family left in France may one day read them. Scary numbers of his fellow fliers didn't come back. Flying a Spitfire across the English channel at wave top height under the German radar at 300 mph, through mist, where the slightest misfire from the engine meant instant oblivion and emerging from said mist to face at the level of the deck a German anti aircraft ship, open fire and pull up and hit a cable with his wing. Unreal.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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    #278
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I remember reading about that guy. It's hard (for a devout coward like myself) to conceive of such bravery.

    I've a bio of Audie Murphy on my reading list - To Hell And Back - another amazing person who was at the front in the bravery queue.


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    #279
    Tauriel
    Registered Users Posts: 30,340 ✭✭✭✭Tauriel


    Wibbs wrote: »
    Just finished The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann. Free French pilot who flew with the British RAF during World war two, flying Spitfires and then Tempests in ground attack missions. He kept a daily dairy in case he was killed so his family left in France may one day read them. Scary numbers of his fellow fliers didn't come back. Flying a Spitfire across the English channel at wave top height under the German radar at 300 mph, through mist, where the slightest misfire from the engine meant instant oblivion and emerging from said mist to face at the level of the deck a German anti aircraft ship, open fire and pull up and hit a cable with his wing. Unreal.

    RTÉ aired a very good documentary during the week called Spitfire Paddy about an Irish man who joined the RAF at 17 in the late 1930s. I found it very interesting.


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    #280
    appledrop
    Registered Users Posts: 5,790 ✭✭✭appledrop


    Just finished 'Pull of Stars' by Emma Donoghue.


    To be honest I've very mixed feelings on it.



    I bought it based on premise of it being about Spanish Flu outbreak in Dublin hospitial set over 3 days.


    However what it actually was was 3/4 pregnant women's experience of Spanish Flu in tiny maternity ward + way too graphic childbirth scences+ I say that as a woman!


    However parts of it were enjoyable but didnt like ending as too rushed without giving it away.


    Anyway I then started 'Conversations with Friends' by Sally Rooney. Sweet Jesus it seems like a load of pretentious nonsense like something a college student would write thats in Dramsoc. Ill give it another go but not right now. Has anyone else read this does it get better?


    So my current choice is new Kathleen Mac Mahon book ' Nothing but blue sky" My god its a powerful book. Basicially about a man dealing with grief after death of his wife. Ive already cried twice!


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    #281
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,073 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    mustang shelly wrote: »
    RTÉ aired a very good documentary during the week called Spitfire Paddy about an Irish man who joined the RAF at 17 in the late 1930s. I found it very interesting.
    Probably Brendan "Paddy" Finucane? 30 "kills" shot down by ground fire IIRC.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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    #282
    Tauriel
    Registered Users Posts: 30,340 ✭✭✭✭Tauriel


    Wibbs wrote: »
    Probably Brendan "Paddy" Finucane? 30 "kills" shot down by ground fire IIRC.

    That's the one.


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    #283
    farmerval
    Registered Users Posts: 647 ✭✭✭farmerval


    Just finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
    OK read, very dystopian future for the setting. Far from the best Atwood book I've read.

    Also finished History of the rain by Niall Williams. Lovely read, very lyrical prose and all very Irish. Lots of long flowery ways of saying things, long descriptive sentences and still a story slowly but surely going somewhere. Really enjoyed it.


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    #284
    Barna77
    Registered Users Posts: 3,271 ✭✭✭Barna77


    quickbeam wrote: »
    No problem with classics, but I gotta lot of problems with Dickens.
    I do love the classics, but Dickens is an absolute yawn fest

    Maybe his books could help me sleep better ...
    EmmetSpiceland wrote: »
    Would you say...it was the worst of times?
    Hard times


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    #285
    Tauriel
    Registered Users Posts: 30,340 ✭✭✭✭Tauriel


    The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors by Dan Jones. This is a fascinating insight into the Templar Knights, from their foundation, successes, losses in the numerous Crusades in the Holy Land and eventual downfall orchestrated by King Philip IV and Pope Clement V.


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    #286
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,358 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    mustang shelly wrote: »
    The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors by Dan Jones. This is a fascinating insight into the Templar Knights, from their foundation, successes, losses in the numerous Crusades in the Holy Land and eventual downfall orchestrated by King Philip IV and Pope Clement V.

    Its a fascinating story. I read Piers Paul Reads account and its long but well worth it


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    #287
    JasonStatham
    Closed Accounts Posts: 548 ✭✭✭JasonStatham


    The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.

    Some cool characterisation in there. The main villain is called Morgoth.

    Man you know you're really Goth, when you have Balrogs guarding treasure, your main mode of public transport is a huge spider, and your main man is Sauron.

    Gangster.


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    #288
    Mars Bar
    Registered Users Posts: 31,817 ✭✭✭✭Mars Bar


    I'm just starting "52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn't Get Taught At School". I really hope it lives up to its title. From reading the reviews it seems to have upset some precious Brits so that's a good sign.


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    #289
    EmmetSpiceland
    Registered Users Posts: 10,527 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    JasonStatham wrote: »
    The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.

    Some cool characterisation in there. The main villain is called Morgoth.

    Man you know you're really Goth, when you have Balrogs guarding treasure, your main mode of public transport is a huge spider, and your main man is Sauron.

    Gangster.

    That’s really something you should keep to yourself.

    The tide is turning…



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    #290
    TheRepentent
    Registered Users Posts: 1,082 ✭✭✭TheRepentent


    Mars Bar wrote: »
    I'm just starting "52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn't Get Taught At School". I really hope it lives up to its title. From reading the reviews it seems to have upset some precious Brits so that's a good sign.
    Yeah with that name alone you'd have to give it ago


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    #291
    Autosport
    Registered Users Posts: 22,229 ✭✭✭✭Autosport


    The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard, sounds good so hopefully it is :)


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    #292
    Lisha
    Registered Users Posts: 8,693 ✭✭✭Lisha


    Autosport wrote: »
    The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard, sounds good so hopefully it is :)

    I’ve seen the nothing man being recommended so I think I’ll give it a go too. I’m currently reading Charity Norman’s Freeing Grace, it’s excellent. I just finished listening to the Secrets of Strangers By Charity Norman And oh my word that was excellent.


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    #293
    Buford T. Justice XIX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,633 ✭✭✭✭Buford T. Justice XIX


    Mars Bar wrote: »
    I'm just starting "52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn't Get Taught At School". I really hope it lives up to its title. From reading the reviews it seems to have upset some precious Brits so that's a good sign.

    First of a series?:D

    I must give that a look over.


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    #294
    Kewreeuss
    Registered Users Posts: 744 ✭✭✭Kewreeuss


    Picked this thread up at page 15, and have downloaded already 14 Byzantine Rulers. Looking forward to it. I've just finished Terry Brankin has a GUN by Malachi O'Doherty. I was disappointed, it had so much promise. Ex giustiziere of the IRA now a solicitor, apparently plagued by guilt that he gave the go-ahead to bomb the wrong target. It wasn't a monotonous read, there were quite
    a few threads to the story but it felt as if half way through the author ran out of steam and wrapped the whole lot up very quickly. Or maybe he was told edit edit edit and he did but what was left wasn't succinct. So yeah, premise is great but I wasn't satisfied.


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    #295
    alchemist33
    Registered Users Posts: 10,969 ✭✭✭✭alchemist33


    The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. The real-life story of Allied (mostly Norwegian) attempts to sabotage the Norwegian hydro-electric plant producing heavy water for the Nazis' atomic weapons programme. This is the story the old film The Heroes of Telemark is based on and it's a great story, well told. Highly recommended for anyone interested in history, war, real-life heroism.


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    #296
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,358 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Tigerbaby wrote: »
    A, Just finished my ( 3rd or 4th !!) re-read of all the discworld books, and I also loved the Night Watch and Death books.

    However, as a stand-alone book, I found "Small Gods" one of his best.

    On a similar seam of writing, I am in the middle of reading Walter Moers Zamonia series of books. Buy the actual books, not kindle, as the illustrations within are essential to the stories.

    Moers is ( almost) up there with Pratchett for inventiveness, fun and sheer craziness.

    enjoy

    Small God's might be his best book in the series standalone or otherwise.

    Unrelated to Prachett I would highly recommend the recently deceased Carlos Ruiz Zafons series Cemetery of Forgotten Books which begins with "Shadow of the Wind" outside of a cracking story the man had a real love for books


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    #297
    Kewreeuss
    Registered Users Posts: 744 ✭✭✭Kewreeuss


    Couldn't sleep last night, finished the City that we Became by NK Jemisin.
    Great story, Fantastical, thoroughly engaging and very contemporary about New York developing avatars and a consciousness. Looking forward to reading the next part when it comes out.
    Neil Asher's The Human is calling now.


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    #298
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Kewreeuss wrote: »
    Couldn't sleep last night, finished the City that we Became by NK Jemisin.
    Great story, Fantastical, thoroughly engaging and very contemporary about New York developing avatars and a consciousness. Looking forward to reading the next part when it comes out.
    Neil Asher's The Human is calling now.

    Recommend reading her Broken Earth trilogy as well. She's a pretty amazing writer.


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    #299
    TheRepentent
    Registered Users Posts: 1,082 ✭✭✭TheRepentent


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Recommend reading her Broken Earth trilogy as well. She's a pretty amazing writer.
    Second this..great series


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    #300
    Kewreeuss
    Registered Users Posts: 744 ✭✭✭Kewreeuss


    I'll check them out. Thanks


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    #301
    gutenberg
    Registered Users Posts: 983 ✭✭✭gutenberg


    Started Philippe Sands' 'The Ratline' about the Nazi Otto van Wachter, his wartime career and his escape after the end of WW2. I'm a few chapters in and it's already gripping.

    I loved Sands' East West Street so couldn't wait for this one (had to wait for husband to finish it first, grrr!).


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