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This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

  • 21-06-2009 6:48am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭Sammy Jennings


    ...continued from this thread

    A Good School by Richard Yates

    Slight, but some great moments


«134567288

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 924 ✭✭✭Elliemental


    Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. It`s one of the best historical fictions I have ever read.:D


  • Registered Users Posts: 740 ✭✭✭Chumpski


    Just finished The Man who Cycled the World by Mark Beaumont (excellent read) and The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Angels Game was a bg let down after The Shadow of the Wind. The plot was no where near as compelling. It read like a giant tourist brochure for Barcelona.

    Just starting A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin this week!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    I just finished "A prayer for Owen Meany". Major disappointment and a very irritating story.

    Started "Strangers on a train" by Patricia Highsmith (she wrote the Mr Ripley stories). Seems good so far.


  • Registered Users Posts: 328 ✭✭Codofwar


    Just finished twilight,
    Very good i must say, I was expecting it to be quite feminine about the relationship between edward and bella and it was but not as bad as I expected,
    very good read, starting the second one now new moon I think its called.


  • Registered Users Posts: 299 ✭✭Donnaghm


    Murts-Rig wrote: »
    I always said the church economically and socially retarded this country. I might get that book off you some time Duna Boy. Reading it would probably pass me off a bit though.

    Unfortunately Mick I've finished it and given it to my cousin whose faith in both Fianna Fail and the Catholic Church has waned somewhat lately due to the former's apparent gross ineptitude and the latters propensity to turn a blind eye to paedophile rings who operate in their own ranks. Hopefully this book will finish the job.

    I have now turned to yet another history book entitiled " the decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997" by Piers Brendon. I just can't get enough of history lately.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 316 ✭✭callmescratch


    Just started 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

    you lucky thing

    Just read The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon. His writing is just stunning.

    I'm reading Zoo Station by David Downing now


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,260 ✭✭✭Mink


    Over 1/2 way through The Brief & Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

    It's absolutely brilliant. Very funny, heartwarming but also harrowing.
    Anyone who is/was a bit of nerdy geek would love this. It's such a mixed bag as you follow different characters in the US & in Dominican Republic over different time periods. There's tons of references to Lord of The Rings as a symbol of the oppression Dominican Republic people went through under their dictator Trujillio. There's a lot of Spanish threaded through & I don't have a clue what some of it means but it fits & adds to the atmosphere.
    I'm really enjoying it. Highly recommended


  • Registered Users Posts: 148 ✭✭Silent Partner


    I'm currently working my way through "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. I'm finding it to be beautifully written if very disturbing. I sit there reading away, admiring the beautiful language and the authors narrative only to remember the subject matter and go AGHHHH! Only half way through it right now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 316 ✭✭callmescratch


    Started The Ask and the Answer yesterday. very good


  • Registered Users Posts: 265 ✭✭not bakunin


    "The Go-Between" by L.P Hartley and "The Age of the Warrior" by Robert Fisk.

    two brilliant books, the perfect blend of classic fiction and highbrow journalism, yaaaaay.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 133 ✭✭This_Years_Love


    I've just started reading My Sister's Keeper. I was given this book by a friend about a year ago but I'm only getting around to it now. :o I want to read it before seeing the film.


  • Registered Users Posts: 328 ✭✭Codofwar


    Finished the last three twilight books, All in all I found them a brilliant read. Un put downable.
    Reading The Kings Bucannear by Raymond E Feist now. A continuation in his line of books after the magican trilogy. Very good read so far.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    We need to talk about Ross by Paul Howard. Very funny.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,260 ✭✭✭Mink


    The Devil Wears Prada by Laura Weisberger.

    It's actually fairly good. It's a very light read but it moves at a good pace & it's funny & satirical. Would be good for airplane, in bed ill or on a beach. Enojoying it quite a bit. I'd seen the movie first & wasn't pushed either way on reading the book but I'm glad I am now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,762 ✭✭✭turgon


    Brave New World

    Whats up with the title btw, "This week I are mostly reading"?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 697 ✭✭✭chocgirl


    Just finished The Book Thief this morning, best read in a long time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,686 ✭✭✭tHE vAGGABOND


    finished "A Hundred Years of Solitude" last week - very good, a bit slow at times but well worth it. His use of langauge is amazing.

    Gone a totally different direction now, and Im reading a history of the Spanish Civil War by Antony Beevor. So far its excellent, as always from Beevor.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,131 ✭✭✭ronano


    The Fight - Mailer

    Hiroshima - John Hersey

    Both reporting rather than fiction but both exceptional,i read the fight well half of it years ago and lost it (aint that the worst thingthe world


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 316 ✭✭callmescratch


    Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
    Haven't read him before, really liking this.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 316 ✭✭callmescratch


    turgon wrote: »
    Whats up with the title btw, "This week I are mostly reading"?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    ronano wrote: »
    The Fight - Mailer

    Hiroshima - John Hersey

    Both reporting rather than fiction but both exceptional,i read the fight well half of it years ago and lost it (aint that the worst thingthe world

    I love "the fight". It's so much more than just about the boxing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,131 ✭✭✭ronano


    true sir! however i can't help but feel ali is thinking one thing,mailer another,ali thinks 10 words,mailer writes 10,000. I'd love to see mailer spend a day with a housewife and write about it afterwards :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 304 ✭✭TheBandit


    Chumpski wrote: »
    Just finished The Man who Cycled the World by Mark Beaumont (excellent read) and The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Angels Game was a bg let down after The Shadow of the Wind. The plot was no where near as compelling. It read like a giant tourist brochure for Barcelona.

    Just starting A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin this week!

    I just finished Game of Throne's and thought it was great. I was gettin a bit fed up with fantasy and its cliche's but this turned me around.
    Not gonna dive into A Clash of Kings, i think i'll leave it a while but can't wait to start. Start reading dubliners in the toilet in work today, a great wait to waste time and get paid. From the reports i heard i didn't think i'd be able for Joyce but I loved The Sisters and didn't think it challenging....maybe it was Ulysses they where talking about


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,762 ✭✭✭turgon


    Been reading a lot lately, finished Brave New World and To Kill A Mockingbird in 4 days. On to The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad now. Been wanting to read more Conrad since I finished Heart of Darkness, who I rate very highly.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    About 25% through and enjoying it so far.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    I'm reading "Millenium" by Tom Holland. I loved "Rubicon" (his account of the fall of the Roman republic) and while this one isn't quite as gripping (it's a bit "all over the place" as he is covering European history around the first millenium, so goes from Byzantium, Holy Roman Empire, England, Vikings etc) but it is still impressive.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10 sestina


    Dipping into short stories by Katherine Mansfield and Chekhov, also attempting to get into Pale Fire by Nabokov, but it's a strange one.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 166 ✭✭TedB


    I'm reading "Millenium" by Tom Holland. I loved "Rubicon" (his account of the fall of the Roman republic) and while this one isn't quite as gripping (it's a bit "all over the place" as he is covering European history around the first millenium, so goes from Byzantium, Holy Roman Empire, England, Vikings etc) but it is still impressive.

    I loved Rubicon, but was very skeptical that he went on to write a book about the Pelopenessian War and then this one about medieval Europe. There's not many historians can write that broadly with any great effect. That raised my snob-dar a bit.

    So, finished it yet? What'd you think?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    TedB wrote: »
    I loved Rubicon, but was very skeptical that he went on to write a book about the Pelopenessian War and then this one about medieval Europe. There's not many historians can write that broadly with any great effect. That raised my snob-dar a bit.

    So, finished it yet? What'd you think?

    No not finished yet but I reckon it'll be done by the end of the weekend. I'll let you know.

    The one gripe I have is that he seems to be making a huge deal about people's supposed fear of the second coming linked to the year 1000 without actually providing any evidence (like saying "X's rampaging would surely have put people in mind of the Revelation of St john"), like as if his editor said he needed to have a point to looking at that period in history.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 266 ✭✭Damian Duffy


    Reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole, just over half way and loving it!


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