What book are you reading atm??

Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner (2001)
This is a re-read. It is very rude, crude, and funny.

"Perhaps the best heckle I ever received was at a club called the Red Rose in Finsbury Park, North London. There was a blind man, a regular punter, who was in one night just as I was beginning a twenty-minute set. About two minutes in, the blind man shouted. 'Get off, you Brummie bastard. (Pause) Has he gone yet?' In the end I silenced him by trumping his 'You can't attack me because I'm disabled' card by suggesting to him that he was only against me because I was Pakistani. He looked genuinely ashamed.

In My House by Alex Hourston. Not far in but enjoying it so far. It reminds me somewhat of Eleanor Oliphant - not the plot, but the main character is similarly quirky.

Red Notice by Bill Browder..
True story about a trader and his dealings in corrupt Russia.
Highly recommend...

Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.

Absolutely riveting and seriously frightening when you read how close to absolute disaster they came.

Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich. Just started it but it is such an absorbing read so far.

The fact that it is all based on eye witness accounts. So sad what happened to them + their families.

Can anyone recommend a good book about the birth of America please, say from the colonies to the 7 Year War to the end of slavery, or if that's too broad just the War of Independence? I don't want a textbook but I do want accuracy and detail. In Pharos Army by Tobias Wolfe is a good example, personal stories as well as the politics.

appledrop wrote: »

Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich. Just started it but it is such an absorbing read so far.

The fact that it is all based on eye witness accounts. So sad what happened to them + their families.

I'm just after ordering this

I'm reading Spike Milligan's World War II memoirs from the start, have just started book four. I read them years ago, so long ago that I remembered very little about them. I remember being a bit befuddled when an officer told him to behave like a Basenji, since I didn't know what that meant (and neither did Spike). *

In the first three books, it's not that serious for him: after a lot of training and waiting (military), his artillery unit is sent to Algeria in 1942 and helps with the final push in the Tunisian campaign, which ended the German occupation of North Africa. In what I remember about book four (Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall), it gets a lot more dangerous and he's wounded in action and also has something of a meltdown, but also has him getting more involved in troop entertainment (as a jazz trumpeter). The War would have a lifelong effect on Spike, both personally (PTSD) and professionally.

* the Basenji is a breed of dog that is known for not barking at all, though they are known to yodel.

Thargor wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a good book about the birth of America please, say from the colonies to the 7 Year War to the end of slavery, or if that's too broad just the War of Independence? I don't want a textbook but I do want accuracy and detail. In Pharos Army by Tobias Wolfe is a good example, personal stories as well as the politics.

I love Jill Lepore's books on American history. I read her The Story of America earlier this year and loved it. It's not a straight-up history book, so it won't give you a narrative of various events. Rather, it's a series of essays, little vignettes into various moments of American history - it would certainly fit with your 'personal stories' request. It goes right into the twentieth century. I particularly loved the essays on Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and the seventeenth-century pilgrims.

She's recently published a new 'big' history of America, These Truths. I haven't read it yet but really want to.

WrenBoy wrote: »

The Postman - David Brin

This was made in to a movie by and starring Kevin Costner, and Brin is generally happy with the result, but he's a bit unhappy at the moment since there's a new video game called Death Stranding that appears to borrow from the book quite heavily, down to lines of dialogue.

I have just finished Body Double by Tess Gerristen

Currently reading “Things In Jars” by Jess Kid.

Set in Victorian London and featuring a female Irish sleuth as its main character, it involves the supernatural, dodgy surgeons, mythical creatures and plenty more.

I’m about 70% through and it’s been a chore to read. The over descriptive narrative absolutely destroys it. If a bird appears, two pages are dedicated to what it looks like etc.

The nearest I’ve ever come to a dnf but I will persevere.

I'm really enjoying Stephen King's The Institute. I haven't been a fan of most of his stuff in recent years, but this is him back to his absolute best. It's as good as (if not better than) any of his early classics.

Foweva Awone wrote: »

I'm really enjoying Stephen King's The Institute. I haven't been a fan of most of his stuff in recent years, but this is him back to his absolute best. It's as good as (if not better than) any of his early classics.

Good to hear. Got it for Christmas, had never even heard of it. Also received Billy Connolly’s “Tall Tales and Wee Stories” which I’m looking forward to.

Have had a bit of a readers’ block for a year or two which I’m planning to remedy in 2020...a big backlog to get through.

Recently finished both Vanish and The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerristen.