This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

pavb2

Shogun by James Clavell - 200 odd pages in and the story really holds the interest.

Paddy Samurai

pavb2 wrote: »

Shogun by James Clavell - 200 odd pages in and the story really holds the interest.

Great read IMO,and still one of my favourite's.
I watched the TV series a couple of years back for the 3rd time and that still holds its own as well.

pavb2

I read King rat many years ago but what are the rest of Clavells books like? Are they a continuation of Shogun.

Hrududu

Callan57 wrote: »

Little Friend is superb, I loved it & have no hesitation in recommending it.
I was also somewhat disappointed in Goldfinch but I did finish it so I wouldn't reject it totally & I happen to know a few readers who absolutely loved it.

I loved The Secret History. I thought The Little Friend started off really strong but the rest of the book didn't live up to the opening. Still really liked it. Loved The Goldfinch but know its flawed.

Paddy Samurai

pavb2 wrote: »

I read King rat many years ago but what are the rest of Clavells books like? Are they a continuation of Shogun.

No , Shogun is a stand alone Novel.

He wrote six books ,all top notch IMO,at the time I read them .Not sure how well they have dated now.All were epic novels apart from King Rat (WW2 Japanese POW camp) which was made into a film.

The other 4 books revolve around the Struan family ,bur cover different countries and generations.

Gai-jin 1800's Japan

Tai-Pan and Nobel House set in China.

Whirlwind Shah's downfall in Iran.

Callan57

Under Major Domo Minor by Patrick DeWitt

IvyTheTerrible

I'm reading The Martian at the moment and loving it so far! As a science nerd, I love all the technical detail.

SarahBM

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I'm reading The Martian at the moment and loving it so far! As a science nerd, I love all the technical detail.

Dying to read that!!! I loved the film!!

GLaDOS

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I'm reading The Martian at the moment and loving it so far! As a science nerd, I love all the technical detail.

Naturally, I enjoyed it too :pac:

fruvai

Finished Brighton Rock (was decent) and am now reading A Confederacy of Dunces

kirk buttercup

IvyTheTerrible wrote:

I'm reading The Martian at the moment and loving it so far! As a science nerd, I love all the technical detail.

Its a very good book you should listen to the audiobook too its brilliant

Belle E. Flops

Finished Star of the Sea last night. Really enjoyed it. It's a great story and loved his writing style. Also completed my good reads challenge!
Onto the Deathly Hallows now. I love reading HP at anytime but I always think it's especially nice around winter time. I'm glad that I spread the books out over the year rather than powering through them one after the other.

eire4

Belle E. Flops wrote: »

Finished Star of the Sea last night. Really enjoyed it. It's a great story and loved his writing style. Also completed my good reads challenge!
Onto the Deathly Hallows now. I love reading HP at anytime but I always think it's especially nice around winter time. I'm glad that I spread the books out over the year rather than powering through them one after the other.

It is a good read isn't it. I enjoyed it a lot and an interesting context for a novel based around the great hunger.

Wyldwood

Was lent a copy of A Song for Issy Bradley and was not enthused about reading it as it features the death of 4 year old Issy but I really liked it.

It's the story of a Mormon family who lose their youngest child suddenly to meningitis and the way each of them reacts. I was totally invested in each character as they are well developed by Carys Bray. While the central theme of the child's death is devastating there is actually a lot of humour in the book and it's quite a quick, easy read.

Am way behind in my Goodreads challenge thanks to Follett and Mantel so won't make it this year, will lower my sights next year.

Callan57

Finished off Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick DeWitt .... beyone weird but loved it!

ivytwine

I'm struggling with Us. I do get sucked into the writing when I do pick it up but I don't want to pick it up. I get that Douglas is a bit stuffy and pompous but it does warrant how his wife and son treating him with the contempt they do. It all feels a bit nasty.

I dunno, maybe because I've been through a few romantic trials of late, I'm just over sensitive!

EoghanIRL

Ordered 4 books off Amazon which are arriving on Thursday. Christmas will probably be the only time I will get a chance to read so I am really looking forward to them.

The psychopath test - Edit-- Jon Ronson.
God delusion - Dawkins
Do no harm - Henry Marsh
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacs

Also I am planning on making my way through some of the books in my collection and maybe some of my national geographics seeing as I have 12 months worth to read :P Damn you bargains!

I was also tempted to buy Neurotribes but will wait for a while. Even though it has good reviews..

ivytwine

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Ordered 4 books off Amazon which are arriving on Thursday. Christmas will probably be the only time I will get a chance to read so I am really looking forward to them.

The psychopath test - Ron Jonson
God delusion - Dawkins
Do no harm - Henry Marsh
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacs

Also I am planning on making my way through some of the books in my collection and maybe some of my national geographics seeing as I have 12 months worth to read :P Damn you bargains!

I was also tempted to buy Neurotribes but will wait for a while. Even though it has good reviews..

Psychopath Test and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat are definitely two of the most interesting books I've ever read. Enjoy

ahlookit

EoghanIRL wrote: »

The psychopath test - Ron Jonson
God delusion - Dawkins
Do no harm - Henry Marsh
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacs

I've read the first two, the other two are on the list to get round to.

BTW, its Jon Ronson, and his other books are excellent too. Really enjoyed this year's one "so you've been publicly shamed". He's a very interesting and humorous writer.

Kurtosis

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Ordered 4 books off Amazon which are arriving on Thursday. Christmas will probably be the only time I will get a chance to read so I am really looking forward to them.

The psychopath test - Ron Jonson
God delusion - Dawkins
Do no harm - Henry Marsh
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacs

Also I am planning on making my way through some of the books in my collection and maybe some of my national geographics seeing as I have 12 months worth to read :P Damn you bargains!

I was also tempted to buy Neurotribes but will wait for a while. Even though it has good reviews..

I can vouch for Do No Harm, the best book I've read this year. Enjoyed it so much that I'm giving several copies of it as Christmas presents.

EoghanIRL

ahlookit wrote: »

I've read the first two, the other two are on the list to get round to.

BTW, its Jon Ronson, and his other books are excellent too. Really enjoyed this year's one "so you've been publicly shamed". He's a very interesting and humorous writer.

Oops. The perils of posting in the morning.
Lol, thanks for the correction!

Also glad to hear the books received a good reception from the readers around here! Can't wait for Thursday now

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I'm happily making my way through We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, wondering what the mystery is, slowly getting sucked in and then BAM!

Fern is a f**king chimp!

. It's kind of killed the entire mood for me. I shall read on because I'm guessing it's an entirely different story than I thought it was.

Fathom

Notes from the Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

alex.middleton

Once again American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

heathledgerlove

alex.middleton wrote: »

Once again American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Was reading away happily (!) enough at that; but at some point or other it started to make me feel ill - think there's a threshold for withstanding the level of eugh!! But made it through heroically to the end, Which was worth it. Some bits were hilarious, like the name- cards, and in the loos

eire4

alex.middleton wrote: »

Once again American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Loved that book. You should true Glamorama by Ellis if you liked it.

eire4

Finished a re read of Anne Rice's The Body Thief. Following on brilliantly her Vampire series focusing on the ultimate anti hero Lestat.

Manach

Masters of command by Barry Strauss. Classical military campaigns.

Callan57

The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes

Dibble

Just started The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman last night.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Just finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Wouldn't go so far as to say it was rubbish, but it was fairly poor.

Callan57

Dear Life by Alice Munro

Huzzah!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Just finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Wouldn't go so far as to say it was rubbish, but it was fairly poor.

Agree wholeheartedly with this. It gets so many good reviews, though, that I thought I was on my own in my dislike for it!

Belle E. Flops

Finished the Deathly Hallows and I'm quite sad to be done. I'll leave it a few years again before I start the series off again.

Started ' The Clothes They Stood Up In' by Alan Bennett. I'd never even heard of him until I saw The Lady in the Van a few weeks ago but I'm really enjoying the way he writes.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I found a copy of The Secret Garden in a box in my room the other day that my mum got me for Christmas one year when I was a nipper. I'm fairly sure I read it back then but don't remember that much of it so I said I'd give it another read. About half way through and must say I'm really loving it.

GeneralC

I picked up a copy of The Power of Now and A Short History of Nearly Everything

Thanks to all on here for recent suggestions.

Best,

minnow

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon. I loved "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" so am checking out his past books.

ivytwine

minnow wrote: »

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon. I loved "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" so am checking out his past books.

Great book!

Callan57

In The Name of Love by Patrick Smith

Fathom

Light Between Oceans, by Stedman

Callan57

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Belle E. Flops

Just starting Under Major Domo Minor by Patrick DeWitt. I loved the Sisters Brothers so I have high hopes for this.

SarahBM

Finished Birdsong. A bit over hyped IMO.

Started Shift, the second book in the Silo trilogy.

I read the Happy Prince and a few other short stories by Oscar Wilde too.

Dial Hard

Cloud Atlas, in the very brief reading-for-pleasure break I allow myself over Christmas, before heading back into the endless merry-go-round of college assignments in January :-(

bnt

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. It doesn't get much more apocalyptic than this ... :eek:

Daisy78

Eggshells by Caitriona Lally

Callan57

Finished The Silver Linings Playbook .... superb.

Now it's Sebastian Faulks Where My Heart Used To Beat

Wyldwood

Finishing up my 2015 reading with Louise O'Neill's Asking for It. It's an uncomfortable read, the subject matter is so controversial and she constructs the protaganist, Emma, as a particularly unlikeable character which makes it difficult to sympathise with her plight. However, I must say that O'Neill has done a wonderful job of getting into the heads of all those involved and describing the way Emma and her family are treated after the events.

Recommended reading for all young adults I would say in order to highlight the issue of consent/rape

Unfortunately, I failed my Goodreads challenge this year for the first time, I'm 5 books behind thanks to some mighty tomes by Follett and Mantel.

Happy New Year and good reading to all.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Wyldwood wrote: »

Finishing up my 2015 reading with Louise O'Neill's Asking for It. It's an uncomfortable read, the subject matter is so controversial and she constructs the protaganist, Emma, as a particularly unlikeable character which makes it difficult to sympathise with her plight. However, I must say that O'Neill has done a wonderful job of getting into the heads of all those involved and describing the way Emma and her family are treated after the events.

Recommended reading for all young adults I would say in order to highlight the issue of consent/rape

Unfortunately, I failed my Goodreads challenge this year for the first time, I'm 5 books behind thanks to some mighty tomes by Follett and Mantel.

Happy New Year and good reading to all.

I think it was a deliberate decision to make Emma hard to like (let's call it that). It shines a light on the fact that we do let things like that influence our thinking when it comes to feeling sympathy/empathy. It's far easier to feel sympathy for the kind sweet girl that everyone loves than for a self centred selfish stuck up bitch (for want of a better word). Even if it's the exact same thing that's happened to them.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I read The Green Road by Anne Enright over two days there to try and get it into my 2015 Goodreads, still missed my target though

Anyway, it was rubbish. A collection of really horrible people being selfish and then it's all very loosely ties together with some rubbish about a house. I've lost track of how many books I've read this year that feel like someone had a bunch of short stories and tried to tie them together and make them a novel.

Bad end to my 2015 reading.