What book are you reading atm??

Mam of 4

Just finished the Grapes of Wrath.

My god, I loved this book, actually made you (me) feel as if I was living the story, the amount of detail in every page made everything so real. what I personally got from it was the undying strength of the human spirit and the will to live. Imo.

would recommend

Custardpi

Wonderful story, a timeless American classic (that sounds clichéd but actually deserved in this case) with almost flesh & blood characters. Read it & several other Steinbeck books years ago & he's still one of my favourite writers, with an amazing gift for description & the presentation of political/social themes without ever being preachy. Tom Joad is one of the great American literary heroes. Folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song inspired by the character which is a great little addition to the novel.

Mam of 4

Custardpi wrote: »

Wonderful story, a timeless American classic (that sounds clichéd but actually deserved in this case) with almost flesh & blood characters. Read it & several other Steinbeck books years ago & he's still one of my favourite writers, with an amazing gift for description & the presentation of political/social themes without ever being preachy. Tom Joad is one of the great American literary heroes. Folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song inspired by the character which is a great little addition to the novel.

Thanks, will definitely get more of his books now

GLaDOS

Just started Donna Tartt's The Secret History, enjoyable so far.

Merkin

Mam of 4 wrote: »

Thanks, will definitely get more of his books now

East of Eden is in my top five favourite books, an absolute masterpiece, would highly recommend it.

beano345

Evasion - author unknown

Tipsy McSwagger

The Count of Monte Cristo

Never realised how much backstory there was. I love Dumas's style of writing and the book is really good, even though some of the French names/places can be hard to understand.

Custardpi

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

The Count of Monte Cristo

Never realised how much backstory there was. I love Dumas's style of writing and the book is really good, even though some of the French names/places can be hard to understand.

Only if you're a dumas!* :pac:












*joke shamelessly pilfered from Shawshank Redemption

FouxDaFaFa

Just finished "How To Be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran.

I found the first half a bit of a drag but enjoyed the second half much, much more.

I've seen it compared to Tina Fey's "Bossypants" a lot, which I kind of get. They're both memoirs by female comedians with a feminist slant. I found Bossypants much funnier, fwiw.

Birneybau

FouxDaFaFa wrote: »

Just finished "How To Be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran.

I found the first half a bit of a drag but enjoyed the second half much, much more.

I've seen it compared to Tina Fey's "Bossypants" a lot, which I kind of get. They're both memoirs by female comedians with a feminist slant. I found Bossypants much funnier, fwiw.

Femoirs you might say.

*copyright me (21/7/14)

Collie D

Just started Autobiography by Morrissey. About fifty or sixty pages in and first impression is he could use more paragraphs and/or chapters. Interesting writing style for an autobiography though. Reminded me of a George Eliot novel for some reason.

Just finished Match Fixer by Neil Humphreys which I was disappointed to find was actually a novel rather than an expose/non-fiction work. Should read the reviews on Amazon next time. Enjoyable enough but not brilliant. Would probably recommend to anyone with an interest in Asian gambling syndicates or football.

Before that Niccoló Machiavelli's The Prince. Have been meaning to read this for years. Some great lines such as "At this point one may note that men must be either pampered or annihilated. They avenge light offenses; they cannot avenge severe ones; hence, the harm one does to a man must be such as to obviate any fear of revenge." However, I would recommend some knowledge of Renaissance Italian or classical history. I struggled with a lot of the references and was depending on my Junior Cert History knowledge (more years ago than I care to admit) and watching The Borgias.

EDIT: Agree with the poster a few posts above about Dumas. Have posted this before but have read both The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers and loved both. Classic literature by right. Must read more.

Merkin

The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger

cloudatlas

The History of the world in 100 objects by Neil McGregor

It's a kind of bedside table book which you can pick up and read about one object at a time. At 700 odd pages I assume it's going to take a while. There's photograph of the object, it's dated, then the social, economic context is discussed, then an authority makes a comment on how it may have been used and it's significance. Really interesting so far.

Lou.m

NightWatch by Lyschenko AMAZING :-)

coffee_cake

Lou.m wrote: »

NightWatch by Lyschenko AMAZING :-)

Do you mean this one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Watch_%28Lukyanenko_novel%29

it's amazing, I read the series

Vojera

Lou.m wrote: »

NightWatch by Lyschenko AMAZING :-)

I love those books. I must pick up The New Watch.

coffee_cake

Vojera wrote: »

I love those books. I must pick up The New Watch.

I didn't know there was a new one!!! yoink

mrsWhippy

Reading 'The Siege' about the Taj attack- struggled to get through the first half but it's picking up now.

Vojera

bluewolf wrote: »

I didn't know there was a new one!!! yoink

I know! I thought The Twilight Watch wrapped things up nicely, but I'm still excited to read the new one.

smellmepower

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Only about halfway through and its easily one of the best books that I've ever read.

py2006

smellmepower wrote: »

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Only about halfway through and its easily one of the best books that I've ever read.

I bought this a few months ago as it is highly recommended but completely forgot about it.

Huzzah!

py2006 wrote: »

I bought this a few months ago as it is highly recommended but completely forgot about it.

Me too, must make a start on it when I get my coursework out of the way

TPD

Just started rereading the adventures of huckleberry finn, a fancy leather bound version I got for Christmas.

Ilyana 2.0

I started The Kite Runner today. I've already been reduced to tears and I'm only a couple of chapters in

Joya

just downloaded to my kindle and started a novel from Haruki Murakami, What i talk about when i talk about running, and started it : ) i love his easy style. and Norwegian wood is one of my fav books ever... movie too : )..

Merkin

I adore Murakami! A lot of hardcore Murakami fans don't rate Norwegian Wood and I also love it, beautifully written! Is the film Japanese?

Joya

Merkin wrote: »

I adore Murakami! A lot of hardcore Murakami fans don't rate Norwegian Wood and I also love it, beautifully written! Is the film Japanese?

yes it is, filmed few years ago, i'll try to find a link to it : ) it must be on imdb..


edit: here it is (is it okay to give links like this?)

imdb.com/title/tt1270842/

Merkin

Thanks a million for link, I must watch it, it's a great story

Merkin

Thanks a million for link, I must watch it, it's a great story

Joya

Merkin wrote: »

Thanks a million for link, I must watch it, it's a great story

its a great movie too - if you like that kind of stories / atmospheres : ) i will watch it again these days, even i watched it two times in IFI at the time : )..

as of your other question sorry i missed it, i just started the runner so i will say when i read a little more.. so far it took my attention : )..