What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

Denis Lehane is a terrible writer. Good at plot conception, absolutely terrible at execution. Shutter Island is by far his best work and even that was a mess.

Brothers In Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War From D-Day to VE-Day by James Holland

A brilliantly researched and detailed account of the exploits of The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, which were a regiment of part-time troops during WWII. They were a tank regiment and ended up being one of the most decorated units in British Army history.

I read this to coincide with a trip to the D-Day Landing Beaches in Normandy and it really set the scene for me.

The losses suffered by the SRY were shocking and the details of what they had to endure harrowing, but it also highlights what remarkable men (and in many instances very young men) they were, the enormous responsibility on their shoulders to liberate Europe and to push through the horrifying deaths of their comrades to slowly but surely march into Germany.

This is definitely one of my reads of the year so far.

Just finished "John Lennon - A Restless Life"

An excellent "warts and all" account of the Beatle but a deeply flawed person.

For someone who preached about "peace and love", the way he treated his first wife and son was despicable.

His period from when he hooked up with Yoko Ono is fascinating and bizarre in equal measure.

Overall, he comes across as a nasty piece of work despite his "icon" status amongst the Beatles fanbase.

I don't know if anyone remembers the Point Horror books for young adults from the 90s but I got one second hand that I read a million times as a child. The nostalgia is lovely. The plot is so ridiculous though, it's about a girl who falls in love with....a cave 😁 It's called The Stranger for anyone who wants to look it up 😋

Read that myself a few months back, found it very interesting and revealing, but then anything Berlin Wall and Cold War behind the Iron Curtain, and I'm hooked.

A few I've read over the last while:

Cumann Na mBan and the Irish Revolution by Cal McCarthy. Just an interesting read on the part played by women in the Rising, anti-conscription campaign, the War of Independence and the Civil War.

Borstal Boy by Behan. Don't know if it was as good as all the hype led me to believe, but he has a great turn of phrase.

The International by Glenn Patterson. Really liked it, it looks at the troubles in Northern Ireland from the viewpoint of a barman who works in a hotel in Belfast in 1967, just before the Civil Rights Association was founded. It is an alternative way of looking at it, cover a relatively quiet time before everything kicked off and the reader can compare it to the 30 years that followed.

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black. Didn't know these are actually by John Banville until recently. It's the Quirke detective series set in 50's Dublin. Looking forward to reading the others.

Foster by Claire Keegan about a young girl sent to a foster family in rural Ireland.

Small Things Like These by Claire. She's a very talented writer, I was back in 80's Ireland growing up again.

The Barracks by John McGahern. Just another lovely book about life in a rural Irish town, touching.

The Anarchy by William Dairymple. The history of the British East Indian Company in India. Jaw dropping the level of plundering, corruption, and just the scale of it, from what was basically a private company and army.

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard about a serial killer who comes back to haunt a survivor gain. Think she's a great thriller writer.

Champagne Football by Paul Rowan, John Delaney and the FAI. Wow, just Wow.

Still working through Empire of Pain but took a break for something lighter. The Ross O’Carroll Kelly.

These are always an enjoyable read. Only disappointing part is that it is still 2019 for Ross. These books are normally set about 2 years in the past when they are published so I had expected Ross to have faced lockdown and not being able to get to his favourite boozer by this book in the series.

Finished Empire of Pain. Should’ve been called Empire of Evil. The Sacklers put Pablo Escobar in the ha’penny place with their deviousness, corruption and suffering that they inflicted across the world.

Anyway, on to something new.

Very handsome illustration. Is it Chris Wormell?

Sourcery Terry Pratchett working my way through discworld !

I nearly bought that the other day, would you recommend it?

I was working my way through the booker nominees.

Tbh I haven't been blown away by any of the books that I've read so far. I think Birnam Wood by Elenor Catton was better than any of them.

I finished Prophet's song. I didn't really buy the breakdown in society that he portrayed. It seemed to happen too fast, the exact nature of the causes wasn't touched upon. It left the first half of the book kind of weightless for me. I thought the creep of totalitarianism into a society would have made for a more interesting novel: but that aspect of it seemed undercooked, glossed over.

Until the second half of the book which becomes a pretty decent and vivid account of a society in total collapse - but I think the first half doesn't really convince.

The Killers Of.... Was a pretty great read.

Would also endorse The Wager by the same author. Takes a while to get going, but eventually becomes a scarcely believable story of survival. I'm sure it's eventually going to get adapted for the screen too.

People who enjoyed - if that's the right word - Empire of Pain should also check out Rouges and Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. He's just a first rate non-fiction writer.

Finished ‘Episode Thirteen’ by Craig DiLouie there. It’s a haunted house story about a team of ghost hunters and their escapades of filming the 13th episode of the first season of their show.

Has elements of both ‘Haunting of Hill House’ and ‘House of Leaves’ about it. Think I wanted to like it more than I did but it was still enjoyable.

Will start into ‘All Hallows’ by Christopher Golden soon, for the season that’s in it.

Just finished Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith.

It has been sitting on my library ever since it's release date but the sheer size of this absolute unit of a book always put me off reading it until now.

I have to say that this is my favourite so far of the Strike series and moves along at a great pace. Dunno why I was so worried about starting into all these years.