This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

mejulie805

Just heard an ad on the radio for 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' by David Lagercrantz- a continuation of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. Has anyone picked it up? Interesting amount of controversy surrounding the books already, and this seems to follow the pattern! Good article on it here too.

Aenaes

I started and finished "Loser Takes All" by Graham Greene last night. Beautifully written as usual.

Birneybau

'Purity' by Jonathan Franzen and 'Girlfriend In A Coma' by Douglas Coupland which is about a third re-read as girlfriend (thankfully not in a coma) is also reading it and it has been years so I thought why not?

Really enjoying both, obviously well written, trying to get 'Girlfriend In A Coma' out of the way so I can devour the Franzen.

Gonzovision

So I finished 'Post Office' by Charles Bukowski, very enjoyable book. I will certainly be checking out some more of his stuff. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

Next up for me is 'Men without Woman' by Hemingway. Again, I have read nothing by him previously.

Birneybau

Gonzovision wrote: »

So I finished 'Post Office' by Charles Bukowski, very enjoyable book. I will certainly be checking out some more of his stuff. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

Next up for me is 'Men without Woman' by Hemingway. Again, I have read nothing by him previously.

'Women' by Bukowski.

Belle E. Flops

Finished 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and really liked it. I highlighted so much from it on my kindle.
Just starting 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides which has been sitting on my bookshelves for years. I don't know what to expect from it.

minnow

Belle E. Flops wrote: »

Finished 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and really liked it. I highlighted so much from it on my kindle.
Just starting 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides which has been sitting on my bookshelves for years. I don't know what to expect from it.

If it's as good as Middlesex, you are in for a treat with "The Virgin Suicides".

I'm just starting "A Fraction of the Whole" by Steve Toltz. 40 pages in and I love it, very clever and witty.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Swiper the fox wrote: »

I read and enjoyed the Children's Act but it's not as gripping or accessible as Atonement. If you enjoy it and want to read more McEwan then I cannot recommend On Chesil Beach highly enough, it is a beautiful book, among my all time favourites.

I read a bit of it last night and I don't think I'm going to like it. Middle class high court judge who hasn't sworn out loud since she was a teenager with a husband who wants to have an affair but stay married? GET IN THE SEA!

eire4

Belle E. Flops wrote: »

Finished 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and really liked it. I highlighted so much from it on my kindle.
Just starting 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides which has been sitting on my bookshelves for years. I don't know what to expect from it.

I really liked Dorian Gray as well. Always thought it was a pity Oscar Wilde didn't write more novels.

Aenaes

I've started "Great Expectations", my first attempt at Dickens.

Callan57

Aenaes wrote: »

I've started "Great Expectations", my first attempt at Dickens.

Apparently it was Dickens favourite ... enjoy

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Aenaes wrote: »

I've started "Great Expectations", my first attempt at Dickens.

I love Great Expectations, one of the few books I've re read. I find any other Dickens I've tried quite disappointing on comparison.

Gonzovision

Just finished 'Men Without Women', didn't really enjoy it at all to be honest. I might give 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' a read before giving up on Hemingway altogether....

Next up is 'The Double' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Birneybau

Gonzovision wrote: »

Just finished 'Men Without Women', didn't really enjoy it at all to be honest. I might give 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' a read before giving up on Hemingway altogether....

Next up is 'The Double' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Read 'The Old Man And The Sea' by Hemingway, regarded as one, if not, his best.

Callan57

This morning I started The Gambler by Christine Dwyer Hickey

heathledgerlove

Just finished Us and as usual, the ending tapered a little – it’s of course hard to end on a high note especially in a supposedly realistic, wry ‘slice of life’ drama. I found it a little pretentious – all the endless references to high art and at the end, even a little map of the ‘Grand Tour’ – please – but the saving grace was the narrator Douglas who was an unbelievable square and yet the most relatable character by far. It was very comfortable to be in his company for the duration.

Again the ending

I’m not sure I buy – idealistic I suppose, cynical me: as Will observed in Hornby’s About A Boy, if two people separate / can’t be married any more, then they should at least have the good grace to hate each other. He! He!

eire4

Finished a re read of Sean McPhilemy's The Committee a stunning book revealing the emergence of an RUC inner force which colluded with Loyalist terrorists to committ numerous murders.

ivytwine

Started Americanah yesterday, loving it so far. An insight into cultures I know very little about, and beautifully written.

Fathom

The Grace of Kings, by Ken Liu

Kurtosis

I've started reading The Crossing by Colm McCarthy this week. I read All The Pretty Horses which is the first book in The Border Trilogy about 6 months ago so it took a while to get around to the second book. Really enjoying it so far, I'm a big fan of McCarthy's prose, he can really bring out the beauty in the mundane.

Mr.Nice Guy

I read American Pastoral by Philip Roth. It was recommended to me a few years back but I only got round to it now. It's excellent and I'd recommend it as well. A lot of the scenes have stayed with me after finishing it.

Jamaican Me Crazy

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

I would recommend

Belle E. Flops

I finished The Virgin Suicides this morning and I thought it was only ok.
I enjoyed it starting off but started to get bored once I got about halfway in. You are told straight off in the blurb what happens and pretty much all of the book is leading up to this. I'm quite surprised it's got such good ratings on amazon but then again it's likened to Catcher in the Rye and that's a book I didn't rate highly either.

I'm a few pages into The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and I love it already.

heathledgerlove

Belle E. Flops wrote: »

I finished The Virgin Suicides this morning and I thought it was only ok.
I enjoyed it starting off but started to get bored once I got about halfway in. You are told straight off in the blurb what happens and pretty much all of the book is leading up to this. I'm quite surprised it's got such good ratings on amazon but then again it's likened to Catcher in the Rye and that's a book I didn't rate highly either.

I'm a few pages into The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and I love it already.

Argh, Virgin Suicides drove me batty! Trying so hard to be mystical and dreamy and teenage-nostalgic but I thought the narrator and his friends were very creepy towards the Lisbons! And what happened to the sisters, well, I don't think it was explained or described well, their motives. Deified as they were by the boys, the girls, even clichéd wild-child Lux, were bereft of any human characterization and thus, reader sympathy. They reminded me of a mere novelization of that Pre-Raphelite painting of the Death of Ophelia? Where she's in the reeds or something?
Funnily enough I really liked the film. I think it was significant that the book was written by a (doe-eyed :P) man, whereas the film was directed by Sophia Ford Coppola, who showed much more insight into the plight of the sisters and their weird lives.
I love the Catcher. Feel I have to say that every time it gets slated tho I know I'm weeing in the wind!

Gonzovision

Gave up on 'The Double' by Dostoyevsky, just couldn't deal with the style of writing. The main character has to say the name of the person he's is talking to at least three times per sentence. I know it's to portray the breakdown of his mental state, but it was just too much for me. Pity as I loved 'Crime and Punishment'

Instead I read 'Tales of Ordinary Madness' by Charles Bukowski. It's the second Bukowski book I've read and I really enjoyed it, just a collection of short stories, but really entertaining. He really puts across his hopelessness in his books, my god they can be depressing. Fantastic author and will definitely be checking out the rest of his collection. I have 'Notes of a Dirty Old Man' to read also but picked up 'Dynasty - The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar' which is the follow up to the excellent 'Rubicon' by Tom Holland. Really looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Hrududu

Belle E. Flops wrote: »

I finished The Virgin Suicides this morning and I thought it was only ok.
I enjoyed it starting off but started to get bored once I got about halfway in. You are told straight off in the blurb what happens and pretty much all of the book is leading up to this. I'm quite surprised it's got such good ratings on amazon but then again it's likened to Catcher in the Rye and that's a book I didn't rate highly either.

I thought the film of The Virgin Suicides was better than the book. The book left me cold as did Catcher in the Rye.

Just finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell and was a little disappointed. It seemed to be a very uneven book. Dragged for ages then took off like gangbusters moving focus to different characters. It was well written and I enjoyed reading it but I didn't love it. I guess they can't all be Cloud Atlas.

Callan57

Doctor's appointment this morning & couldn't possibly attend sans book so picked Good Behaviour by Molly Keane as I was leaving the house. Loving it so far ...

Jijsaw

I didn't like 'The Virgin Suicides' either. I read it while I was on holidays and I just felt the entire thing had no climax or twists or anything- you're basically told in the first chapter that all of the girls kill themselves.

Finally finished 'Vanity Fair' after reading it on-and-off for more than 3 weeks. It was a good read, it's just I always think Victorian serials needed a good editor as they are generally really drawn out. If it had lost 200 or so pages it would have been a very-good novel.

Now on to an easy reread, 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'

keane2097

Got through The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Outsider by Albert Camus this week (both pretty short).

Started off with Slaughterhouse 5 last night. Don't really know anything about it other than it's meant to be good so here's hoping.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I am starting War and Peace. I shall see you all next year some time.

heathledgerlove

The Thrill of It All by Joseph O’Connor. I liked it well enough, it was no Star of the Sea though! Probably not fair to compare them because they are so vastly different, in setting and theme and style and the like. O’Connor’s range is therefore commendable; it is merely that the Thrill was okay, while Star of the Sea was outstanding – real desert island book for me. It has everything.

In saying that, The Thrill of it All did just what it set out to do, and chronicled the journey of a young early 80’s Irish-ish rock band from the mad, early, ‘hungry’ years to their wild wanton success. Bits of it were funny and there was lots to love if you are hugely into music as O’Connor clearly is, it’s just that I felt as if I had heard it all before, like this was a fictional account of stories we all know about famous pop groups and their flamboyant front-men. Maybe the fact that I read Morrissey’s Autobiography last year made O’Connor’s novel seem weaker, more fanciful for its fictionality (though for all we know Morrissey was creative with the truth in his own way.. am pretty curious about his novel coming out soon!)

So a thumbs up for a light read but for my next O’Connor I’ll most likely have a crack at Redemption Falls; his historical fiction being to my mind more his forte.

Mr.Nice Guy

I finished Harvest by Jim Crace. It was fine and there was some nice prose. I'm not sure why there is so much hype over it though.

eire4

Finsihed a re read of G W Meyer's A World undone his epic account of the first world war.

heathledgerlove

Finished Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet. It read very easily and the story flowed really well; I favour the first person narrative and so found the story both humanly engaging and adventuresome. The turn-of-the-20th century London social landscape was sketched richly, with lots of slang terms and colloquial language and detailed descriptions of period clothes, food, entertainments and the like. Plus there was a lot more sex than in Fingersmith, which I read last year!
I’ll be reading more Waters, I hear good things about Night Watch, The Little Stranger.

Jijsaw

Just started my first Sherlock Holmes-'The Hound of the Baskervilles', it's early days but I'm sure I'll enjoy it!

SarahBM

I finished Wool last night! I absolutely loved it!
I cannot wait to get the next two, Shift and Dust.

But in the meantime I cannot decide what I want to read!

Wyldwood

With my resolution to intermingle my reading with some of the classics I have been doing very well with some Austen, Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Du Maurier. I have just finished Middlemarch by George Eliot and while I enjoyed the story and the language is extraordinary, I found it a bit of a chore at times to plough through the many diversions into politics and other non relevant subject matter. There were also a lot of very long-winded descriptive passages that didn't really add to the plot.
Took me a lot longer than I expected to read so I'm now a few books behind on my Goodreads challenge.

On to Helen Dunmore's The Lie next.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Wyldwood wrote: »

With my resolution to intermingle my reading with some of the classics I have been doing very well with some Austen, Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Du Maurier. I have just finished Middlemarch by George Eliot and while I enjoyed the story and the language is extraordinary, I found it a bit of a chore at times to plough through the many diversions into politics and other non relevant subject matter. There were also a lot of very long-winded descriptive passages that didn't really add to the plot.
Took me a lot longer than I expected to read so I'm now a few books behind on my Goodreads challenge.

On to Helen Dunmore's The Lie next.

I quite liked Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. Not sure how it compares to Middlemarch or any of her others but in itself it's pretty good.

Callan57

The Diary of Mary Travers by Eibhear Walshe

Wyldwood

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I quite liked Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. Not sure how it compares to Middlemarch or any of her others but in itself it's pretty good.

Thank for that recommendation will give that one a go soon.

Finished Helen Dunmore's The Lie. It gets mixed reviews on Amazon but I actually enjoyed it. It's a cross between a ghost story and a description of post war trauma. The protagonist, Daniel, is trying to readjust to civilian life after the war but is traumatised by his failure to save the life of his friend, Frederick, during an attack on the Germans.

Callan57

Just finished The Diary of Mary Travers by Eibhear Walshe ... immensly enjoyable historical fiction.

Next is The Night Stages by Jane Urquhart

Mr.Nice Guy

I read Mr Mercedes by Stephen King. I thought it was okay, although I found some of the supporting cast of characters to be weak.

eire4

Finished a re read of Yeates Is Dead edited by Joseph O'Connor and written by O'Connor and 14 other Irish authors. A really funny and mad cap romp of a book.

Jimmy Iovine

I'm reading "I am Zlatan" at the moment. It's about the Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic and is written by David Lagercrantz (who wrote the latest Millenium series book).

It's £1.99 for the Kindle. I'd highly recommend it, even for non-football lovers. As you can see in the quotes below, it's a novel more so than a football autobiography. It's a fascinating book in comparison to other football books, most of which are complete tripe. Before you read it though, you really need to know what the ghostwriter was trying to achieve:

“I was brought up with this highbrow father so we certainly weren’t reading ghostwritten football books in my childhood. I suddenly said yes to this crazy thing and I didn’t know anything about football. Zlatan is in a way bigger than football in Sweden. I pretended when I met Zlatan that yes, of course, I know everything.

"Then I started to read ghostwritten football books and I must say I’ve never read such boring books in my whole life. I said to myself, ‘I can’t do it.’ Then – I shouldn’t really admit it – I decided to write it as a novel. I didn’t really quote him. I started to find this literary illusion of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and then I got into writing it."

“I sat with him for 100 hours and that was quite an adventure. I didn’t lie. I didn’t want to make him better or nicer than he was. I said to him from the beginning, ‘You can’t be moral. Just speak out, for God’s sake.’

“I told him I had just read David Beckham’s book and that was such a boring book, actually. And he had a good answer: ‘Who the f--- is Beckham?’”

“I think it really was his true voice. The key thing is that I was not working as a journalist. I was not quoting him. I know this – if you want to find something that sounds true and authentic, the last thing you want to do is quote. I don’t think I have any real quotes from him. I tried to get an illusion of him, to try and find the story. I tried to find the literary Ibrahimovic.”

“You can imagine the moment when I, the fake Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had to send the manuscript to the real Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He wasn’t really a book reader. He doesn’t really like journalists who take liberties and I really took liberties, so you can imagine how nervous I was. I remember he said, ‘You must come to my house and speak about the book.' I was so nervous I arrived 20 minutes early, and the police came because there were rumours there was some crazy guy walking outside Zlatan’s house.

“When my father criticised me he said things like, ‘David, I’m so proud of you, you’re such a talented guy and I like your new haircut, but…” That is not the way we do it with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The first thing he said was: “What the f--- is this? I never said this!’ But after a while I think he understood what I was trying to do. Nowadays he thinks it’s really his story.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/11630623/Zlatan-Ibrahimovic-Who-the-f-is-David-Beckham.html

Swiper the fox

That Zlatan book was a huge disappointment for me, I expected so much more. For all the hype and talk about it, it's just another footballers biography. I've read lots and it's nowhere near the top of the list. If Zlatan showed even a little humility at any time or taken responsibility for at least some of the reasons why he never had the career his talent deserved it would have been a bit better, the ghostwriter obviously never had the balls to challenge him and make the book a little bit less of a hagiography.

Recently finished a brilliant book on soccer managers called Living on the Volcano, highly recommend it for football fans.

Jijsaw

I'm halfway through 'Memoirs of a Geisha', loving it so far. Definitely one of my favourites of the year!

Fathom

Blood of Victory, by Alan Furst.

Busi_Girl08

I finished The Seventh Ms Hatfield on holidays. It started off interesting enough (an 11 year old girl suddenly aged over 20 years by a mysterious woman and sent to complete tasks for her) but it just fizzled out into a run of the mill love story. Had a lot more potential.


On The Martian now. Loving it so far. Had my first "accidentally stayed up till 2am reading because it got really good" nights in a long time last night. The humour is amazing.

Jimmy Iovine

Swiper the fox wrote:

That Zlatan book was a huge disappointment for me, I expected so much more. For all the hype and talk about it, it's just another footballers biography. I've read lots and it's nowhere near the top of the list. If Zlatan showed even a little humility at any time or taken responsibility for at least some of the reasons why he never had the career his talent deserved it would have been a bit better, the ghostwriter obviously never had the balls to challenge him and make the book a little bit less of a hagiography.

Which would you put higher?

Swiper the fox

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Which would you put higher?

Literally dozens if I had time to think about it.
Tony Cascarino, Roy Keane, Paul McGrath, Paul Lake, Puskas, Tony Adams, Robert Enke, Alex Ferguson,

I really could go on and on but that's just my opinion, I love Zlatan and expected a lot but was left really disappointed.