What book are you reading atm??

HS3 · 15-07-2016 9:50am

Just finished 'Now You See Me' by Sharon Bolton. Got it as one of those 3 for one deals in a glorified pound shop so wasn't expecting much from it. It was excellent! A very nice twist that I talked myself out of seeing coming. Edge of your seat creepy, but very flaming good!

fro9etb8j5qsl2 · 15-07-2016 2:44pm

I took my little boy up to join the library last week and joined myself while I was there. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm having trouble getting used to reading physical books again :eek: I normally read on my kindle in the dark in bed but can't do that with a real book. Tried a booklight but it wakes my OH up. I keep trying to find time during the day but I can't. Aaargh!

On topic, after watching The Five, I'm trying to read Harlan Coben again and am halfway through 'Tell No One' but it literally puts me to sleep when I start reading it.

Mars Bar · 15-07-2016 5:31pm

Addisyn Agreeable Seeker wrote: »

I took my little boy up to join the library last week and joined myself while I was there. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm having trouble getting used to reading physical books again :eek: I normally read on my kindle in the dark in bed but can't do that with a real book. Tried a booklight but it wakes my OH up. I keep trying to find time during the day but I can't. Aaargh!

On topic, after watching The Five, I'm trying to read Harlan Coben again and am halfway through 'Tell No One' but it literally puts me to sleep when I start reading it.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to do this!

Birneybau · 16-07-2016 4:53pm

Finished Emma Cline's 'The Girls' which kind of left me a bit cold to be honest.

Currently reading 'War Of The Encyclopaedists' and really loving it so far.

razorblunt · 16-07-2016 8:26pm

FunLover18 wrote: »

I finished it out of curiosity but it was slog, surprised it was so successful in these progressive days when all the lead character were women whose lives revolved around men and having babies.

My thoughts exactly.

Strangely enough the hotel room I was in last week had a bookshelf working a "take a book, leave a book" policy. Picked up The Missing by C.L. Taylor and it had similar device in using blackouts to drive the story and I actually found it a better read wit better characters.

Crumpets · 16-07-2016 9:59pm

py2006 wrote: »

You can't pop in here and say that without telling us what you got...

Haha true :pac:

The Year of the Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota
The Light Between Oceans - M.L Stedman
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul - Deborah Rodriguez

just to mention a couple of them.

Also bought Me Before You because...well I wanna read it before watching the film. :pac:

eviltwin · 16-07-2016 10:07pm

HS3 wrote: »

Just finished 'Now You See Me' by Sharon Bolton. Got it as one of those 3 for one deals in a glorified pound shop so wasn't expecting much from it. It was excellent! A very nice twist that I talked myself out of seeing coming. Edge of your seat creepy, but very flaming good!

Her books are excellent. I'm on A Dark And Twisted Tide from the same series. Really enjoying it. You should also check out the M J Arlidge books as well, very similar and just as addictive.

py2006 · 17-07-2016 12:00am

Crumpets wrote: »

Haha true :pac:

The Year of the Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota
The Light Between Oceans - M.L Stedman
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul - Deborah Rodriguez

just to mention a couple of them.

Also bought Me Before You because...well I wanna read it before watching the film. :pac:

And...

Are you somebody who can read more than one book at a time? Not sure I can but lots of folks do.

denis160 · 17-07-2016 12:11am

eviltwin wrote: »

Her books are excellent. I'm on A Dark And Twisted Tide from the same series. Really enjoying it. You should also check out the M J Arlidge books as well, very similar and just as addictive.

Loved MJ arlidge books , Anglea Marsons, Detective Kim stone series is good too.

eviltwin · 17-07-2016 12:14am

py2006 wrote: »

And...

Are you somebody who can read more than one book at a time? Not sure I can but lots of folks do.

I have about seven books on the go at any time

gutenberg · 17-07-2016 12:18pm

Decided to re-read Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a Geisha' after I saw it in a charity shop and picked it up for 2 euro. I loved it as a teenager (and refused to watch the film in case it spoiled it for me), so I was a bit scared that it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. I'm about 130 pages in and loving it

Qiaonasen · 17-07-2016 1:18pm

Currently reading two books.

Night shift by Stephen King
Real World by Natsuo Kirino.

Starting to much prefer reading short stories to novels. I like the quick interesting and to the point read these days.

py2006 · 17-07-2016 1:34pm

Qiaonasen wrote: »

Currently reading two books.

Night shift by Stephen King
Real World by Natsuo Kirino.

Starting to much prefer reading short stories to novels. I like the quick interesting and to the point read these days.

King is at his best with his short stories

branie2 · 17-07-2016 2:00pm

A Wanted Man, a Jack Reacher novel

Summer wind · 17-07-2016 2:23pm

On paperback I'm reading What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. It's about a woman who falls and hits her head and when she wakes up she's forgotten the last ten years of her life. On my phone I'm reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. I've never read it before and love it so far.

carefulnowted · 17-07-2016 2:28pm

Flew through To Kill A Mockingbird, I couldn't put it down. It was very easy to read which I wasn't expecting and I loved the story and characters.

Similarly, found Wuthering Heights very enjoyable to read; another one I was expecting to be a slog.

Reread Catch-22 because I adore that book. It made me laugh and cry just as much the second time through!

Halfway through Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood now. I love Atwood's writing style and her dark humour; her descriptions can be very disturbing and very accurate.

Qiaonasen · 17-07-2016 8:15pm

py2006 wrote: »

King is at his best with his short stories

Yeah. I have "Full Dark No Stars" on audiobook also. It is very good. What really got me into short stories was recently was the story collection "Young Skins" by Colin Barrett. Then I read Kevin Barry's "Dark lies the Island". Both are really good short story collections. As someone who lives abroad reading Irish short fiction takes me home.

I am looking forward to reading "There are little kingdoms" but haven't bought it yet. Also I've read half of the Sherlock Holmes Canon which is mostly short stories and they are all excellent. Will finish the rest of them before the year is out. It was great to discover Sherlock Holmes. I was in Taiwan and they had all the stories in 2 books for about 5 euro and it was among the only English language titles they had.

Anyone know any other good short story collections similar to the above.

eviltwin · 18-07-2016 9:15am

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I hope its a better read than American Gods.

mikhail · 18-07-2016 10:20am

eviltwin wrote: »

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I hope its a better read than American Gods.

It's shorter, but I don't think any better for it. Anansi Boys is better, but the best of his books I've read is the short story collection Smoke and Mirrors.

Deedeemazzy · 18-07-2016 10:46am

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

sadie06 · 19-07-2016 2:54pm

Reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Enjoyable so far and I love the idea of Shakespeare surviving when most other writers have fallen away.

Daisy78 · 20-07-2016 7:24pm

eviltwin wrote: »

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I hope its a better read than American Gods.

I think I preferred American Gods to Neverwhere. The Ocean at the end of the lane is still his best though imo.

GLaDOS · 22-07-2016 10:44am

I've just started Neil Gaiman's latest collection of short stories, Trigger Warning. Enjoying them so far. First time I've read any of his short fiction, though I've enjoy several of his novels.

Personally

American Gods > Anansi Boys > Neverwhere > Ocean at the End of the Lane

Keyzer · 22-07-2016 11:44am

Just finished The Passage - Justin Cronin. Very enjoyable, couldn't put it down...

eviltwin · 22-07-2016 12:24pm

Keyzer wrote: »

Just finished The Passage - Justin Cronin. Very enjoyable, couldn't put it down...

My all time favourite book. I still get chills thinking of the chase in the shopping mall. The Twelve, the second in the series, isn't as good but The City of Mirrors, the final one is back on form.

Widdershins · 22-07-2016 12:29pm

The Red Moth, an Inspector Pekkala story, and The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

kazamo · 22-07-2016 12:37pm

Reading After the crash by Michel Bussi atm.
The dust jacket has a review referring to a Stieg Larsson comparison and I am usually wary of this pedestal as often a failed comparision, but nearly halfway through and still a pleasure.

gutenberg · 22-07-2016 3:15pm

Reading Lynne Cox's \Swimming to Antarctica, about all her long-distance ocean swims: she was the first person to swim the Strait of Magellan, and the Bering Strait, among others. I'm a swimmer too (though not open water) and I'm loving it, so much. I really don't think you need to be a swimmer to enjoy it, or even like sports - parts of it read like a thriller

Rosie Rant · 22-07-2016 3:52pm

I'm currently reading Schindler's Legacy - True Stories of the List Survivors by Elinor J. Brecher. Brilliant book, I highly recommend it.

josip · 22-07-2016 3:53pm

Bob Bug

Ilyana 2.0 · 22-07-2016 4:14pm

I'm currently reading The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's beautifully written but not terribly slow like some period novels tend to be (IME).

Previous to that, I gave up on The Girl on the Train about halfway through. Didn't get the hype around it, I didn't care for any of the characters. It felt more like a novel that was written to be a film than a novel for its own sake.

PowerToWait · 22-07-2016 4:33pm

John Healy's The Grass Arena. Recounts his time as a homeless chronic alcoholic in London's parks.

It's an eye-opener.

pumpkin4life · 22-07-2016 4:33pm

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin. Big brick of a thing, 900 pages long.

I think its a step down from the first book. A Game of Thrones was a big brick of a thing as well, but its a fast paced novel with very little filler and excellent character development; few problems getting through that one. In contrast, I could wipe three/four hundred pages off of this thing and very little, if anything really would be lost tbh.

Also, the quality of the writing is poorer than then first book. Reading A Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings back to back, you see the same sentences, same turns of phrase and same metaphors coming up again and again. Martin's a sparse enough writer; his strength lies in character development rather than world creating and this book suffers for it. Some naff things about Westros tbh.

Having said that

the Tyrion Lannister chapters

are fantastic and I'd still recommend it if yous like the first one. Moving on to book three now.

GLaDOS · 22-07-2016 4:36pm

pumpkin4life wrote: »

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin. Big brick of a thing, 900 pages long.

I think its a step down from the first book. The first book was a big brick of a thing as well, but its a fast paced novel with very little filler and excellent character development; few problems getting through that one. In contrast, I could wipe three/four hundred pages off of this thing and very little, if anything really would be lost tbh.

Also, the quality of the writing is poorer than then first book. Reading A Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings back to back, you see the same sentences, same turns of phrase and same metaphors coming up again and again. Martin's a sparse enough writer; his strength lies in character development rather than world creating and this book suffers for it. Some naff things about Westros tbh.

Having said that
the Tyrion Lannister chapters
are fantastic and I'd still recommend it if yous like the first one. Moving on to book three now.

Always felt the second book was the weakest of the series (so far!)

pumpkin4life · 22-07-2016 4:39pm

GLaDOS wrote: »

Always felt the second book was the weakest of the series (so far!)

That's really good to hear. I've heard a few horror stories about A Feast for Crows alright!

Rubberlegs · 22-07-2016 7:04pm

30 odd pages into Stephen King's End of Watch, the last of a trilogy. I love it when you follow the characters lives through a series of books, the feeling of familiarity with them when you pick up the next book. I'm enjoying it very much so far, I'm very interested to see how it all ends:)

diomed · 22-07-2016 7:14pm

Mr Darley's Arabian by Christopher McGrath

Lisha · 22-07-2016 7:41pm

Ilyana 2.0 wrote: »

I'm currently reading The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's beautifully written but not terribly slow like some period novels tend to be (IME).

Previous to that, I gave up on The Girl on the Train about halfway through. Didn't get the hype around it, I didn't care for any of the characters. It felt more like a novel that was written to be a film than a novel for its own sake.

I felt the same about the girl On the train
. Am delighted to hear it from someone else

Ilyana 2.0 · 22-07-2016 8:29pm

Lisha wrote: »

I felt the same about the girl On the train
. Am delighted to hear it from someone else

Glad I'm not the only one! Really don't know what the fuss was about. I still don't know how it ends and I couldn't care less!

FunLover18 · 22-07-2016 8:51pm

Ilyana 2.0 wrote:

Previous to that, I gave up on The Girl on the Train about halfway through. Didn't get the hype around it, I didn't care for any of the characters. It felt more like a novel that was written to be a film than a novel for its own sake.

I'm sure you're aware theyre making a movie of it but I don't how it will work. Ideally it would have been made in the 90s with Ashley Judd in the lead role and would have gone on to be one of RTE's go to midweek movies.

mariaalice · 27-07-2016 6:29pm

I am planning to read Europe in Autumn and Europe at Midnight by
Dave Hutchinson.

Both books sound very interesting, looking at what is happening in the world at the moment. Has anyone read them.

Zxclnic · 27-07-2016 8:17pm

'Cricket's Strangest Matches' by Andrew Ward.
Marvellous.

cloudatlas · 27-07-2016 9:11pm

Lisha wrote: »

I felt the same about the girl On the train
. Am delighted to hear it from someone else

I guessed it would just be a rush job written load of dross just like 'Gone Girl' so stayed well clear.

Ulysses Gaze · 27-07-2016 9:15pm

Conan The Barbarian : 20 Tales by Robert E Howard.

Widdershins · 27-07-2016 9:21pm

mariaalice wrote: »

I am planning to read Europe in Autumn and Europe at Midnight by
Dave Hutchinson.

Both books sound very interesting, looking at what is happening in the world at the moment. Has anyone read them.

They're both enjoyable reads. There's another good one by the same author , called ''The Villages ''.

Bergmann · 28-07-2016 9:00am

Just started "The Girl Who Played with Fire", sequel to "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely recommend!

ablelocks · 28-07-2016 10:33am

currently, re-reading The Passage, then will re-read The Twelve, in advance of reading City of Mirrors - trilogy by Justin Cronin.

pumpkin4life · 29-07-2016 9:41am

A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin.

Here's the thing. What is an absolute head**** about the first three books is that with a bit of tinkering and editing, you would have an outright classic.

What's going on with the editor, lads? Was he asleep at the wheel?

Part One is a meandering ****ing bore of a thing, but then Part Two is absolutely fantastic and is chock full of twisty, turny fast paced story telling. You cut down part one by about half, then you rewrite a few parts ("you know nothing Jon Snow", how many bleeding fecking times does that phrase occur in the book?) that don't seem to be well written (get rid of all that Bran stuff as well, its arse) at all; leaving yourself with a 900 page masterpiece; rather than a very good 1200 page book with 300 pages of waffle and some strange, oddly repetitive, sloppy writing. He's a damn good writer;

The Red Wedding

is testament to that. But then, some of the other parts of the novel feel like they didn't get past the first draft.

Maybe the guy is just a giant twat to work with in terms of editing.

Still, I recommend it. Feast, supposedly the nadir of the series, be the next one for me.

PowerToWait · 29-07-2016 9:56am

Finished 'One Second After ', William Forstchen, an enjoyable post apocalyptic vision. Maybe just slightly too reminiscent of '80s movies like 'Red Dawn, but definitely worth a read.

Started 'The Stand '. As a sometime Stephen King fan I really don't know how I missed this. Shaping up really well. He really is one of the greats.

Widdershins · 29-07-2016 11:20am

Just read The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins which was great

What book are you reading atm??

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