Books The BOOK thread

Jippy said:
Going from Rich Osmond's The Thursday Murder Club -readable, funny here and there, but sentimal- to JM Coetzee's Waiting For The Barbarians has been quite a change of tone.
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Coming back to this, would strongly recommend. It's up there with Life and Times of Michael K.

Finally read A Streetcar Named Desire yesterday. Dark, gritty and brilliantly written, with really sharp dialogue and I like the moral ambiguity running through it.
 
Anybody read any books on Colditz POW camp during WW2?
 
The Horse by Willy Vlautin.

Absolutely loved it. Every chapter really tugged at my heartstrings. Highly recommend.
 
Finished Piranesi by Susanna Clarke yesterday. Really enjoyed it!

The way the 'house' is described is very vivid and really makes you feel like you're in that world each time you pick the book up. I really enjoyed the journal entry chapter style to it as well and it helped make the main character Piranesi very likable and although naive it's in an endearing way and obviously makes sense due to the circumstances he finds himself in.

I always enjoy books that are a little bit different and 'out there'. Especially when you're unraveling the story as you go.
 
Reading more than I ever have recently. Just finished The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre. An amazing biography of Russian KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky who was secretly spying for Britain for years and eventually needed exfiltrating from Russia. Such an interesting read and I found myself taking a second now and then to remind myself that this was not fiction. Crazy story.
 
The Devils Delusion: Atheism and it’s scientific pretensions by David Berlinski.

Picked this up almost by accident and will now read some more David Berlinski. Really good, thoughtful and pretty witty at times, take on the dance between theism and science driven atheism. So much food for thought and interesting takes, even views I struggled with were considered and really well put forward.

Will pick up another of his books.
 
I'm one chapter into Drood, by Dan Simmons, if anyone wants to start a book club with me.

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens -- at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world -- hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.

Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?

Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), Drood explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, Drood is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

https://a.co/d/5FmaD2U
 
Is Audible any good?? Really like the idea of listening to audio books when commuting or walking.

£7.99 a month for subscription is one thing but the prices to then download the audiobooks seems really expensive.
 
Heardy said:
Is Audible any good?? Really like the idea of listening to audio books when commuting or walking.

£7.99 a month for subscription is one thing but the prices to then download the audiobooks seems really expensive.
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You could try downloading stuff free off BBC Sounds to see if you take to listening. Also some local authority libraries do a selection of free audiobooks via Borrowbox, that's luck of the draw where you live. Handy way to get to sleep as well.
 
Heardy said:
Is Audible any good?? Really like the idea of listening to audio books when commuting or walking.

£7.99 a month for subscription is one thing but the prices to then download the audiobooks seems really expensive.
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You do did 1 credit a month and most books will cost 20+ so if you listen to at least one a month it's cheaper than buying individually. You can also buy credits for cheaper than buying an individual book and they often have lesser knowns for free so if you're using it a lot I'd say it's worth it if you don't have something like a local library where you can listen for free. Not sure if it works in the UK but check out Libby first
 
About to start Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic.
roadside-picnic-2.jpg
 
Sweating my arse off in Rhodes but using the opportunity to reread (for the first time surprisingly) two of my all-time faves: Suttree and The Savage Detectives :p
 
EverReddy said:
HAven't looked through this thread to see if it's been previously recommended but The Pilgrim is the best thriller I've read for a long time. Brilliantly plotted, bio-terrorist page turner.
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Thanks for the suggestion. Possibly the best thriller I've ever read. Can't put this thing down :lol:
 
Mihai said:
Thanks for the suggestion. Possibly the best thriller I've ever read. Can't put this thing down :lol:
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:+1: It's "I am Pilgrim" of course but you know that. Cracking book, eh? I believe he's published a second book this year, 10 years after Pilgrim. "The Year of the Locust". I've just bought it and am taking it on hols next week.
 
EverReddy said:
:+1: It's "I am Pilgrim" of course but you know that. Cracking book, eh? I believe he's published a second book this year, 10 years after Pilgrim. "The Year of the Locust". I've just bought it and am taking it on hols next week.
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Oh, nice. Let me know what you think about that.
 
Paul Murray - The Bee Sting

It piqued my interest in the airport bookshop. Needed something to read while on holidays. Was really surprised how good it was. It’s at times hilarious, at times tragic. I did wonder if he would stick the ending but I was genuinely left floored by the time I finished it.

10/10
 
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