This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

HalloweenJack

Just finished Novellist as a profession by Haruki Murakami. Nothing too exciting, though some good insights into his personality and approach.next up iw Brave New World.

Kirby Puckett

So far in 2021 I have finished Crime & Punishment, Pedro Páramo and I have about 100 pages left in Henry Kamen's "Empire".

Crime & Punishment is a simple story but it's told in such a tense and disconcerting way that it has definitely whet my appetite for more Russian classics, although I know Anna Karenina and War & Peace will be different prospects entirely.

I find it hard to judge Pedro Páramo. I read it in my second language which normally isn't a problem but magic realism presents second language issues that other genres don't. Then again I may have been equally as confused reading it in English.

Empire is a book that I came across while reading up on the Age of Exploration. The sections about the "discovery" of America are fascinating because I feel everything else I've read on this topic has either glossed over the brutal facts or incorporated a lot of disputed information. However, Kamen's overly detailed accounts of European power dynamics get boring quickly.

HalloweenJack

Kirby Puckett wrote: »

Crime & Punishment is a simple story but it's told in such a tense and disconcerting way that it has definitely whet my appetite for more Russian classics, although I know Anna Karenina and War & Peace will be different prospects entirely.

I love Russian epics but Anna Karenina was just too much. It was one of those books I just couldn't wait for it to end. It wasn't bad but I was left frustrated at the end. Granted, I read it about ten years ago so a re-read might not be a bad idea.

Kirby Puckett wrote: »

Empire is a book that I came across while reading up on the Age of Exploration. The sections about the "discovery" of America are fascinating because I feel everything else I've read on this topic has either glossed over the brutal facts or incorporated a lot of disputed information. However, Kamen's overly detailed accounts of European power dynamics get boring quickly.

1491 was a fascinating insight into pre-Colonial America if you want to read more about it.

Kirby Puckett

HalloweenJack wrote: »

I love Russian epics but Anna Karenina was just too much. It was one of those books I just couldn't wait for it to end. It wasn't bad but I was left frustrated at the end. Granted, I read it about ten years ago so a re-read might not be a bad idea.

I think I'll leave Anna Karenina and War & Peace until I've read a bit more of Dostoevsky, Turgenev and such. I know a lockdown might be a good time to tackle huge reads but I feel like they would swamp the various genres I'm trying at the moment.

HalloweenJack wrote: »

1491 was a fascinating insight into pre-Colonial America if you want to read more about it.

In hindsight, I should probably have gone for this book rather than "Empire". I like that Kamen tried to incorporate both European and Indigenous perspectives but, unlike Kamen, I will always be more fascinated by Taki Unquy than what King Ferdinand had for breakfast.

neris

Finished Driving over Lemons yesterday. Enjoyable quick read

eire4

Finished Malcom Gladwell's David and Goliath. Interesting but not really on a level with his previous books at all.

Wyldwood

Liz Moore's Long Bright River is a good mystery/thriller, worth a read. One of those ones you read slowly as you don't want it to end.

miamee

Reading Stardust Baby at the moment, it's quite sad in a lot of ways.

cee_jay

I am reading The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain. It is due for release in May, but I got an advance copy through NetGalley.

neris

Dark Towers : Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, And An Epic Trail Of Destruction by David Enrich. Really good read for any one into business/finance/markets and the whole implosion of the banking sector in Europe and the States

eire4

Finished book 8 of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series Personal Demon. Another fun supernatural thriller type of read with a whole host of different supernaturals involved in this one.

Busi_Girl08

Started Recursion by Blake Crouch.

adox

Read Stephen Kings latest “Later”.

If you are an early King fan I’d say you’d love it. A very short novel for him at 250 pages but I thought it was the perfect form.

He may now be in his 70s but he still has his moments.

I loved it.

HalloweenJack

Just started God's bits of wood by Sembene Ousmane. Its about a strike by railway workers in colonial Senegal. It has a lot in common with Strumpet City, though it focuses more on the people directly affected as opposed to the more general reach of Strumpet City.

Finished Kafka on the Shore by Murakami a few days ago. It nearly killed me. I enjoyed it and it was a nice story but he fits a lot of stuff into it and some of it was hard to get my rlhead around.

Xofpod

I'm nearing the end of my struggle with Byzantium Endures. Although I have a general principle of finishing a book once I start it, if I'm really not getting into something I put it down, either to pick up again at a later date or in acceptance that it's just not for me.

This book is different because I am enjoying it but I've been struggling to make any progress. I usually have a few books on the go at a time and was reading some non-fiction at the same time as this. Anyway, going to focus my attention on this for the next couple of days and then have a complete change of pace with my next fiction book.

eire4

Finished John Perkins The Secret history of the American Empire. A follow up to his earlier Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Nothing short of stunning as the author exposes and lays bare the utterly evil foreign policy that the US has largely followed since after World War 2 with the integration of the powerful US multinational corporations alongside the military industrial complex and US Government combining and interfering in so many countries around the globe with the goal of US domination.

HalloweenJack

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Just started God's bits of wood by Sembene Ousmane. Its about a strike by railway workers in colonial Senegal. It has a lot in common with Strumpet City, though it focuses more on the people directly affected as opposed to the more general reach of Strumpet City.

This was a brilliant read. Some lovely metaphors and fantastic imagery while giving numerous POVs and a good insight into the society of the time.

Next up is the Sea by John Banville.

Busi_Girl08

Really really enjoyed Recursion.

I flew through Blue Salt Road which was a fun little novella.

Onto The Quickening now. Haven't read a good gothic horror in a while.

Xofpod

Strange Flowers, Donal Ryan. Good book by a great writer.
Absolutely hate, hate, hate the cover though...

Wyldwood

Finished Helen Cullen's The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually. I enjoyed the first half very much, the descriptive writing is beautiful and it's easy to get engaged with the characters as they develop. However, I felt the second half of the book lost its way,

giving Murtagh a new role as a gay man didn't fit with the character that had been developed in the first half of the book

.

Wyldwood

The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean. It's a horrific topic but very well executed.

eire4

Finished Kelley Armstrong's Living With The Dead book 9 in her Otherworld Supernatural series and another fun read.

branie2

Rereading Angels & Demons

OldRio

Agent Running in the Field by John LeCarre.

Amazing to find out that LeCarre, that quintessential English author, died an Irish Citizen.

Although Nat, the main character in the book also detests Brexit and the way Britain has become.
The novel is typical of his later work. I'm really enjoying it.

eire4

olvias wrote: »

Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, love them

Have read them multiple times. An absolute classic series up there with the best sci fi of all time IMHO.

_Godot_

I just bought To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini on kindle for 91p. Figured I would give it a chance.

KJ

The Tao of Wu by The RZA

eire4

Finished Anne Cadwallader's really important book Lethal Allies which details the collusion between loyalist terrorists and the British security forces in the murders of 120 Irish people during the 1970's in mid Ulster mostly Armagh and Tyrone but also includes the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Names are named and much of the more recent Historical Enquiries Teams work is brought out. Very disturbing but also very important.

Busi_Girl08

Finished The Quickening by Rhiannon Ward, it was ok. A bit dull.

Onto Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown, really liking it so far. Not one I would pick up off the shelf myself, but one of the benefits of a book club!

Gwildor

Hi all, new to this forum... I’m currently on book 23 for the year.

Echo In Time by Michael Thomas

Here’s the blurb;

The future of humanity is ours to decide. The past is set in stone. What if neither of these statements were true?

When Detective Matt Keegan investigates a string of bizarre murders in New York city, he struggles to comprehend the startling truth behind them and is drawn ever deeper into a dangerous fight for the survival of mankind.
The visions of a young man, Zach Leandros, drag him from reality and immerse him in a world very different from his own. What does it all mean and who is Atos? When Zach meets Patas Danumata everything begins to make sense and then no sense at all as his perception of reality is turned on its head.

As opposing forces collide, humanity faces it greatest threat that stretches back through time to the realms of legends and myths.

Alex86Eire

I just finished reading Blood Orange and really wasn't a fan.. at all!
I read American Dirt before it and really enjoyed it!

Just started The Dressmakers Gift and so far so good.

Xofpod

The Lost Man, Jane Harper. Brilliant stuff. I was worried it was going to be a retread of her earlier book The Dry but despite sharing many of the same elements (outback! dead body! family secrets!), it's a unique, character-driven book. Well worth a read.

Wyldwood

Xofpod wrote: »

The Lost Man, Jane Harper. Brilliant stuff. I was worried it was going to be a retread of her earlier book The Dry but despite sharing many of the same elements (outback! dead body! family secrets!), it's a unique, character-driven book. Well worth a read.

I like Jane Harper, I'm listening to her latest book The Survivors and it's also good albeit a slow burner.

Busi_Girl08

Starting Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King.

Xofpod

White Butterfly, Walter Mosley. One of the Easy Rawlins series. I started reading these all out of sequence (there are 14 in total) and after loving the first few I read, I was suffering from diminishing returns and was about to call it a day with the series.

I had this one in my pile however and picked it up on a whim. One of the earlier entries, I absolutely loved it - it's the strongest of his books I've read so far. Gritty LA noire, set in the 50s. Rekindled my interest in reading the rest (just as well I have three more in the TBR Pile of Doom...)

eire4

Finished book 10 of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series Frostbitten. A return to the werewolf characters of the first 2 books in the series and another enjoyable read.

eire4

Finished Ken Bruen's The Magdalen Martyrs. The third book in the Galway authors Jack Taylor crime series set in Galway also and nothing short of brilliant. At times dark at times witty and funny always brilliant. Loved this one.

Wyldwood

Away With the Penguins by Hazel Prior, a nice easy read. An eccentric eighty-six-year-old millionaire with no family doesn't know who to leave her money to when she dies. Then she makes a strange decision.

Up next Black Widows by Cate Quinn

Xofpod

The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen, the follow-up to the brilliant The Sympathiser.
Good so far but doesn't appear to be in the same league as the first one.

HalloweenJack

Started Girl, Woman, Other today and I haven't had a book make my stop and think so much in such a short space of time. Loving it so far.

I've had a copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" in a box of school books (property of the school library:eek:), since renting it for a school report, 16 years ago. At that time, I got through about 12 pages, got bored, read the blurb, flung the book, and faked the report.

Picked it out of the box last sunday and, like a fine wine, it has come along very well. I can hardly put it down. The gradual spinning together of seemingly minor plots into a single thread is brilliantly done, so exciting when it happens — just found out that the brother, Solomon, of Lucie's maid is Mr. Barstad, the spy!

I'm assuming these links will become less coincidental as the novel reaches its conclusion.

When I am finished, i will be good, I will send the book back. The fine may be heavy, but the book will be worth it.

A Tyrant Named Miltiades!

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I've had a copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" in a box of school books (property of the school library:eek:), since renting it for a school report, 16 years ago. At that time, I got through about 12 pages, got bored, read the blurb, flung the book, and faked the report.

Picked it out of the box last sunday and, like a fine wine, it has come along very well. I can hardly put it down. The gradual spinning together of seemingly minor plots into a single thread is brilliantly done, so exciting when it happens — just found out that the brother, Solomon, of Lucie's maid is Mr. Barstad, the spy!

I'm assuming these links will become less coincidental as the novel reaches its conclusion.

When I am finished, i will be good, I will send the book back. The fine may be heavy, but the book will be worth it.

I forget exactly, but dickens has coincidences all over the place.The house Oliver ends up in as an example.

eire4

fvp4 wrote: »

I forget exactly, but dickens has coincidences all over the place.The house Oliver ends up in as an example.

Finished book 11 of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series Waking the Witch. As the title suggests this one is focused on the witches in the series and is another fun and enjoyable read.

Busi_Girl08

Started the Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. First physical book in a while too.

I am Pilgrim.

Quite a shocking opening chapter but am loving it so far. I don't read many thrillers.

Paddy Samurai

Deleted User wrote: »

I am Pilgrim.

Quite a shocking opening chapter but am loving it so far. I don't read many thrillers.

A top notch thriller well worth reading.

Busi_Girl08

Reading Pachinko at the moment and to be honest I'm struggling a bit. Hoping it kicks off a bit soon.

Xofpod

Just read The Nothing Man, Catherine Ryan Howard. Not my normal type of read but my wife recommended it and I absolutely loved it.
A serial killer-type story set mainly in Cork, the plotting and the structure were great (multiple time periods & POVs, story-within-a-story, potentially unreliable narrator), but it was the attention to and correctness of detail (90s/'00s Cork - those halcyon days...) that nailed it for me.

miamee

Xofpod wrote: »

Just read The Nothing Man, Catherine Ryan Howard. Not my normal type of read but my wife recommended it and I absolutely loved it.
A serial killer-type story set mainly in Cork, the plotting and the structure were great (multiple time periods & POVs, story-within-a-story, potentially unreliable narrator), but it was the attention to and correctness of detail (90s/'00s Cork - those halcyon days...) that nailed it for me.

That's great, I just bought it on Kindle the other day but have yet to read it. Looking forward to it now

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

Reading Pachinko at the moment and to be honest I'm struggling a bit. Hoping it kicks off a bit soon.

I'm reading it too. I'm enjoying it so far but I'm 100 pages in and it's only just gotten to where was already established by the blurb on the back