What book are you reading atm??

Shenshen

Grapes of Wrath by Jon Steinbeck.

Good read, lovely characters, with chapters trying to give the bigger picture thrown in.
the political philosophy is of its time, but the basic conundrum the book describes has not yet been answered let alone resolved. Some aspects seem spookily up-to-date, if you transposed the location.
I would definitely recommend it, it puts a human face to global tragedy without being tragic itself.

Birneybau

mfceiling wrote: »

Timur Vermes "look who's back"

Basically Hitler comes back today and can't fathom what is happening in the world. Quite funny.

Film available on Netflix now.

As for myself, been reading heavy stuff so for a change started 'It' by Stephen King, a long haul but mostly find his books very readable.

Also reading 'The Song Machine: Inside The Hit Factory', about the centralisation and industrialisation of modern day pop music to very few people churning out all the hits for the big stars.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/04/john-seabrook-song-machine-review-pop-music

HistoryMania

Dying to Survive
By Rachael Keogh.

Great eye opener. Grew up in an area plauged by addiction. Makes you think different when seen it from the addicts point of view. And she is brutually honest.

pumpkin4life

buried wrote: »

'Jerusalem' by Alan Moore. Moore's own love letter to his hometown of Northampton, and its absolutely brilliant. Moore tells various stories of characters, ghosts and centuries intertwined from a neglected part of England throughout this magical book in such a vivid magical way. I've been waiting over five years for this book to drop and I'm trying to slowly savour it all, which is difficult, as its so hard to put this book down. 1200 pages of this thing and nearly finished after a week. Perfect winter reading material, highly highly recommended.

I've read the first 200 pages. So far, it's a number of short stories, very stream of consciousness heavy which only tangentially relate to each other. It's fine I suppose, but does it get better, does it actually lead up to anything?

The writing so far has ranged from astonishing to amateurish, which can be irritating. It's interesting and original though, I'll give it that.

buried

pumpkin4life wrote: »

I've read the first 200 pages. So far, it's a number of short stories, very stream of consciousness heavy which only tangentially relate to each other. It's fine I suppose, but does it get better, does it actually lead up to anything?

The writing so far has ranged from astonishing to amateurish, which can be irritating. It's interesting and original though, I'll give it that.

Stick with it!

towards the whole of Book 1 'The Boroughs' all the different character and narrative 'angles' will start to seam into each other

the evasion_kid

HistoryMania wrote: »

Dying to Survive
By Rachael Keogh.

Great eye opener. Grew up in an area plauged by addiction. Makes you think different when seen it from the addicts point of view. And she is brutually honest.

Her arms were some state,dead drunk by Paul Garrigan is another in the same vein,pardon the pun.Well worth a read!

MRnotlob606

Stephen King by Stephen King. Stephen King accidentally creates a time machine with a walkman and a vic inhaler and his transported back to his teenage years, Where he creates a self portrait of himself in a mirror with shaving cream. At this point he realizes he has as an irrational fear of clowns and decides to fill his colon with blue tac. True story xoxoxo

HS3

'Lost' - Sharon Bolton

Book 3 in the Lacy Flint series. Holy feck they are brilliant. Can be a bit teenagey in parts, but Bolton ' talent at being graphically gruesome, yet subtly mind melting makes for a total page turner. They are a fantastic set of books!!

Stiff The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

smurfette2212

'The Boy Who Could See Demons' by Carolyn Jess-Cooke

appledrop

appledrop wrote: »

Just finished 'Tender' by Belinda Mckeown. It was going ok but just got stupid from about 2/3rds of the way through. Don't really get the hype about her books at all.

Just started Bringing up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel. Loved Wolf Hall + this seems to be even better.

I've just started Tender. I loved Solace, but am finding that characterJames really irritating. Is he supposed to be quirky and likeable?

yellowcandle

Graham Norton Holding. Really enjoying it. Am surprised at how good it is

Autosport

Just finished reading The couple next door by Shari Laspena and it was a good read and for a suspense debut novel I can only hope that anymore books she writes will be equally as good:)

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Africa (A biography of the Continent) by John Reader. History from the formation of the earth, through evolution to humans, anthropology, sociology, political history, climate change, geology ......

An easy read broken into concise chapters and packed with interesting facts.

Grandeeod

One of Robbie Keanes (the footballer) biographies. Four years old. So we may see another one.

appledrop

Deleted User wrote: »

I've just started Tender. I loved Solace, but am finding that characterJames really irritating. Is he supposed to be quirky and likeable?

Who knows what she is trying to achieve but he definitely doesn't get any better as the novel goes on. I hated him by the end of the book.

gigantic09

Shenshen wrote: »

Grapes of Wrath by Jon Steinbeck.

Good read, lovely characters, with chapters trying to give the bigger picture thrown in.
the political philosophy is of its time, but the basic conundrum the book describes has not yet been answered let alone resolved. Some aspects seem spookily up-to-date, if you transposed the location.
I would definitely recommend it, it puts a human face to global tragedy without being tragic itself.

Take a listen(if u haven't already),to Springsteen's 'ghost of Tom Joad',he basically says what you alluded to there regarding the books relevance today.

appledrop

yellowcandle wrote: »

Graham Norton Holding. Really enjoying it. Am surprised at how good it is

I have heard its a good read. Think I'll buy this during the week.

I'm reading Jason Byrnes book 'Adventures of a wonky eye boy'. It's about growing up in the 80s in Dublin. I think it's hillarous. A real light hearted read. I only started it yesterday + nearly finished it. It might not be for everyone but I love it.

gutenberg

Reading Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies at the moment, and feeling frustrated that I can't get to swim more often myself, as it's a beautiful read.

gutenberg

Reading Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies at the moment, and feeling frustrated that I can't get to swim more often myself, as it's a beautiful read.
EDIT: apologies for the double post. Boards experienced a connection error and when it came back online the post had repeated itself...

McChubbin

Deleted User wrote: »

Stiff The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Oooh, I've been thinking of getting this one. What is it like?
I'm currently half-way through Specticles by Sue Perkins. A very funny, leisurely read.

McChubbin

McChubbin wrote: »

Oooh, I've been thinking of getting this one. What is it like?
I'm currently half-way through Specticles by Sue Perkins. A very funny, leisurely read.

I enjoyed it very interesting read. If you've read and enjoyed the book smoke gets in your eyes then you should like this one

Ush1

The Housekeeper: Love, Death, and Prizefighting. Autobiography of an MMA fighter, John Samman, who died recently at age 28.

Interesting so far.

Keyzer

The Twelve, second book in Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy.

Not as good as the first book but hopefully the last book improves.

heathledgerlove

On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks, set in 1960 before the election and during McCarthy era. Not as brilliant and striking and original as Birdsong but wonderfully written all the same.

gormdubhgorm

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889 by Jerome K. Jerome.

It is basically a very humorous travel guide. I have it on Kindle it was free on it when I got it
Ironically I have only read bits of it on and off when travelling!

But there is lots of humour and wit in it so far and plenty of the things in it are still applicable today

bonzodog2

The Crossing by Michael Connelly. Very good, a Harry Bosch tale.

Daisy78

An Edgar Allan Poe anthology, for the season that's in it.

madmaggie

Precious and Grace, by Alexander McCall Smith. A bit ho-hum so far.

brinty

Final finished the century trilogy by Ken Follett
Great read at +3000 pages but the third one felt rushed and could've been split in two with more time dedicated to the events in 2ND half of the century