What are you reading at the moment?

[Naysonymous]

Aaaaand finished.  Took a month, it's a hell of a journey isn't it?  I agree with @Miner Willy in that it starts off in absolutely sensational fashion, the whole bit from the opening page to immediately before the extended section in Rome is as good as anything I've ever read or watched.  It definitely gets bogged down in the middle with the introduction of a lot of new characters, old characters having aliases and hugely changed social standings (it's over 20 years later so obviously things have moved on) but I think once I got a grip on everything then it ticked along nicely. It's interesting that there is an actual flow chart on the Wikipedia page to simplify what relationships people have with each other.   The end is great too. For me I don't think I found it as thrilling as the opening but it was still very good, I understand that some of the movie adaptations have given the end the "Hollywood" treatment and I'm glad Dumas didn't go with what you'd expect but still conjured up something which made sense.  I'm on the fence about watching a movie adaptation too, I can't see how they can fit the story into two hours without cutting out entire characters and sub plots and I figure that seeing whatever a studio conjours up would piss me off.  However, if you are in the mood for an enormous book that is really really good you could do a lot worse than The Count of Monte Cristo.  

[Miner Willy]

It's so worth the effort. One of my very favourite books.

[Silent Runner]

The first few hundred pages of The Count.....

Spoiler

from the frame-up, being taken to prison, meeting Fariah, the escape and the treasure find

are as good as anything I've ever read. You can see why people were hanging on every word waiting for the new sections to be released. I love it so much. 

[Droo]

Started “Recursion” last night and haven’t been able to put it down. 

 

[Garwoofoo]

On 17/06/2020 at 18:00, Naysonymous said:

And that it's a translation from the original French. Whoever translated it did a stellar job, I've barely noticed. 

 

There are many translations though. The first time I tried to read The Count of Monte Cristo, it was a free Kindle version I downloaded and I could barely get through the first chapter: the translation was all technically correct but without any flair to the writing at all, just incredibly dry and consistently a bit off in its phrasing. I decided to splash out the princely sum of four quid on the Penguin Classics version and it was night and day, I raced through the book after that. It really is an incredible page-turner considering its age.

[Timmo]

On 13/07/2020 at 09:17, Silent Runner said:

The first few hundred pages of The Count.....

  Reveal hidden contents

from the frame-up, being taken to prison, meeting Fariah, the escape and the treasure find

are as good as anything I've ever read. You can see why people were hanging on every word waiting for the new sections to be released. I love it so much. 

 

I couldn't recover from the dip it takes after the exciting opening. It has major pacing issues.

[Droo]

So I read Recursion and Dark Matter back to back. 
 

both were fairly good, but both struck me as a book I feel like I could have written, if that makes any sense?  
 

can anyone recommend me something in the same vein?

[Stopharage]

On 19/07/2020 at 16:09, Droo said:

So I read Recursion and Dark Matter back to back. 
 

both were fairly good, but both struck me as a book I feel like I could have written, if that makes any sense?  
 

can anyone recommend me something in the same vein?

I've read both of those and some other Blake Crouch stuff. None of which seemed that great behind some decent central ideas. Dan Brown sci-fi, if you will. Maybe give One Word Kill, Do You Dream of Terra-Two, Sleeping Giants or Wool a go. All interesting premises, with accessible writing which makes you think you could have written them. 

[Droo]

37 minutes ago, Stopharage said:

I've read both of those and some other Blake Crouch stuff. None of which seemed that great behind some decent central ideas. Dan Brown sci-fi, if you will. Maybe give One Word Kill, Do You Dream of Terra-Two, Sleeping Giants or Wool a go. All interesting premises, with accessible writing which makes you think you could have written them. 

I read Sleeping Giants before. It was just okay. Didn’t feel like reading the sequel. 

[grounded_dreams]

On 19/06/2020 at 09:38, grounded_dreams said:

Has anyone read The Chain by Adrian McKinty? Just seen that it is being adapted into a screenplay by Jane Goldman and will be directed by Edgar Wright.

The reviews have been very polar in their views.

 

Just seen that this has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020 award, at the Harrogate International Festival.

Previous winners include s Val McDermid and Lee Child.

 

The shortlist was:

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Worst Case Scenario by Helen Fitzgerald
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Joe Country by Mick Herron
Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee

 

Of these I have only read The Lost Man, which was superb. Jane Harper next book, The Survivors, is out this September, loved all her work so far.

[Naysonymous]

Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard.  Really really really liked it.  When I was a kid I had some home video which had a trailer to the movie on it, I probably saw that trailer dozens of times growing up (oddly I forget what video it was on) but I didn't know anything about it beyond it was set in China during the war.   I've spent the last few years devouring a ton of 20th century history (especially WW2/Cold War) and from somewhere I found out it was largely based on Ballard's own experiences of growing up in a POW camp during the second world war and not at all like most of his other work, so I took a punt on it.   I'm glad I did because it's really really good. I'd presume there's a good chance a lot of people are familiar with the story as it was a blockbuster movie but it follows the life of a young boy who grew up living quite a privileged life in colonial Shanghai during the China vs Japan part of WW2 having his world turned upside down when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and invaded Western strongholds in Asia-Pacific. He gets split from his parents during a skirmish and spends the next few years pretty much on his own.  It's interesting to see how conflicted he feels about the whole war as the Japanese are nicer to him than the Chinese, British or Americans even though they are officially his enemy. It goes off into some stuff about how quickly society can crumble, the shit we take for granted, desensitisation to violence & cruelty and what PTSD can do to a human.  Really interesting stuff, totally recommended. 

[Sirloin]

On 24/07/2020 at 11:07, grounded_dreams said:

 

Just seen that this has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020 award, at the Harrogate International Festival.

Previous winners include s Val McDermid and Lee Child.

 

The shortlist was:

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Worst Case Scenario by Helen Fitzgerald
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Joe Country by Mick Herron
Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee

 

Of these I have only read The Lost Man, which was superb. Jane Harper next book, The Survivors, is out this September, loved all her work so far.

Thought The Chain was an interesting gimmick but that’s about it. The Lost Man is amazing and should have won. Lots of good Australian crime stuff at the moment, the Chris Hammer book that came out recently was very good. Liked Smoke And Ashes a lot as well, that entire series is good. Very different.

[Stevie]

I’m currently reading Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L Trump. Just finished the prologue and it’s already making me feel uneasy.

[Stevie]

.....and I've finished it. 

 

I bought the book because I figured it would be "fun" to learn about the worst president in American history, but reading it wouldn't be the experience I first imagined it to be. For some reason I thought it would be like watching a trashy reality show but instead Trumps niese Mary L Trump tells the story of a severely dysfunctional family ruled by a cold, heartless patriarch who most certainly was a sociopath. Fred Trump, Donalds father, had five children who were all subjected to neglect and emotional abuse something that had an impact on their development as human beings and ultimately their personalities.

 

As for Donald Trump himself, I've gone from viewing him as a despicable clown to a deeply damaged individual who is extremely dangerous because he didn't develop properly as a human being due to the circumstances he grew up in. Dangerous as in hes really not "there", hes all cerebellum and lacks both the ability to learn and reason. 

 

God save us if he gets reelected. 

 

 

 

 

[Naysonymous]

Clarissa Oakes by Patrick O'Brian which is book 15 in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels.  I've waxed lyrical about these before and this one is off to a strong start too. I think it's probably been 18 months since I read book 14, and as is the case with all of the series so far this one picks up mere moments after the last one ended and it's incredible how quickly and easily I got back into it.  The overall plot still doesn't matter that much as the books have always been more about conveying a sense of time and place than anything else. O'Brian is such a good writer that he doesn't need to create suspense and mystery to keep you going, the quality of the prose and the strength of the characters are more than enough to go by. I just love the gentle humour in the series and I've already laughed out loud despite only just picking it up.  Again, the series is a hard sell (18th century naval fiction with a high emphasis on accuracy) but once you realise it's about people and relationships then it's as good as anything out there.  I think O'Brian might just be my favourite author. 

[Sabreman]

I need to get back on those. I'm about ⅔ through The Surgeon's Mate, and every one so far has been magnificent.

[Mikes]

Reading Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock on dead tree. Book two of the Mythago cycle. The first, Mythago Wood, really grabbed me so I'm hoping this does the same. Only just started it so can't comment yet.

 

And I'm listening to The Aeronauts Windlass by Jim Butcher, the first in a new series from him. It's steampunkish in what appears to be far future post apoc earth where the surface is uninhabitable and everyone lives in massive spires.

 

So far it's OK. Competently delivered as you'd expect from someone of Butcher's ability, but there's little in the story to actually grab you, and the ensamble protagonists are too disparate and unconnected o draw you emotionally, but I am only haldway through. 

[Silent Runner]

Anthony Horowitz has a new one out called Moonflower Murders. It's a follow-up to Magpie Murders and has the same, meta novel-in-a-novel stricture. A young woman has gone missing, her parents recruit the editor of a series of Poirot-esq books to look into her disappearance. If you've read the first one this will make sense. The book follows her investigation into the disappearance then switches to the novel she edited years earlier. 

 

I'm about 100 pages in and it's really good. Horowitz is such a skillful writer, he introduces tons of characters and a lot of plot but it's easy to follow and the pages turn quickly. It's quite long, over 600 pages, but I know I'm going to fly through it. 

 

This kind of meta stuff is really hard to pull off and this is his 4th book where he attempts it. It feels like one of his strongest. Recommended for sure. 

[Silent Runner]

Finished Moonflower Murders absolutely superb piece of work from start to finish. It's really two books in one because about half way though it switches to the Poiret-style whodunnit that holds all the clues to the missing person story. And this is another full length book right in the middle of the main story. It took some skill to pull this off and even when I was sure I had it all worked out there were more twists to come. One of those rare books you want to drag out but also that you find yourself zooming through.

 

Horowitz has two meta-series, the Susan Ryland books and the Danial Hawthorn series, and I hope we see more from them in future.

 

Next up I have either the new Ann Cleeves or Richard Osmans book that is getting good reviews. 

[lolly]

finished   The Crow Road , loved it and can see the inspiration for some of tge settings in use of weapons as well, but i might be imagining that.

 

On to the great gatsby at the moment because its supposedly  a classic  and its super short at about 150 pages, its not a subject or a time period I'm Imparticularly interested in but it's  wonderful  so far.

 

 

[ZOK]

It is wonderful.

 

If you dig that, have a crack at The Beautiful and Damned, and a must read is Tender is the Night. Both quite a bit more melancholy than Gatsby (which itself is fairly melancholy!), but extremely rewarding.

[lolly]

Yeah, loved it, appreciate  the recommendations  too.

 

on to The Day of the Jackal, love the movie  and just getting into it,  I'm usually wary of authors who churn out lots of the same sort of book , ends up being a repetition  of the same thing( hello clive cussler) but its decent so far

[Silent Runner]

On 07/09/2020 at 22:26, Silent Runner said:

Next up I have either the new Ann Cleeves or Richard Osmans book that is getting good reviews. 

 

I read both of these last week. The Ann Cleeves, The Darkest Evening, is excellent. It's the 9th or 10th in that series and they are a little formulaic but it's a winning formula. A murder in the countryside, Vera and her team investigate and everything gets neatly resolved 300 pages later.  

 

The Richard Osman, The Tuesday Murder Club, was good fun. A group of friends in a retirement home meet every Tuesday to discuss famous murders. But they soon find themselves involved a real murder case. This was very easy to read but maybe not as clever as it thought it was. And it did resort to some massive info-dumps to wrap things up. I will look out for future books from him in future though. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Silent Runner

[deerokus]

Listening to the audiobook of Rage by Bob Woodward. It's fascinating. What's most notable is that Trump does have some very smart and competent advisors around him, it's whether he actually takes heed of them that's more alarming. 

 

For example, he had close advisors in January ringing all the alarms about covid. Politicians keep pretending we didn't know how bad it would be until March but that's obviously nonsense. 

[Thwomp]

I've just finished the Terminator 2 novels and loved them from start to finish. They're probably the only acceptable canon ending to the story in my mind.

[Thwomp]

I'm currently reading Iain Banks' Complicity. The Wasp Factory is one of the best books I've read, so I thought I'd give his other stuff a go too. I'm enjoying it so far.

[Thwomp]

Has anyone else read Complicity? I read a comment about it which said "the gorilla with the syringe will haunt me forever", so I got to that bit and I really didn't understand what it was suggesting. It doesn't seem like it'll revisit that part to explain. 

 

What it said was:

Spoiler

A man, wearing a gorilla mask, used one of those Victorian syringes with the two finger holes to inject someone with a liquid that looked like clotted cream.

 

Edit: The book explained later on.

[the_debaser]

Currently reading The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, I’ve been meaning to give it a crack for a while. 
 

And I’m glad I did as it is absolutely brilliant. 

[Naysonymous]

I've been hitting the Aubrey-Maturin series up some more.  Just finished book 18 (of 20) The Yellow Admiral and I'm not entirely sure what to say about it, obviously this deep in I'm going to finish the series and there were some wonderful scenes contained within, the bare knuckle boxing match was a fun set piece, and as ever I feel O'Brian just serves up wonderful prose which is entertaining even when not much happens.  Not much does happen here, I know the basic premise of the entire series is that Jack falls into a bucket of shit and comes out smelling of roses but there's a bit where it looks like his marriage is in jeopardy but the stakes are so low that it really doesn't serve for much other than to act as filler for a few dozen pages.  When his wife apologises to him for being annoyed that he had an affair I absolutely rolled my eyes, but that's the first time in 18 books so I guess I can't complain too much.

[little che]

On 26/10/2020 at 17:36, the_debaser said:

Currently reading The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, I’ve been meaning to give it a crack for a while. 
 

And I’m glad I did as it is absolutely brilliant. 

One of my favourite books.  It’s heart wrenchingly brilliant.