What are you reading?

[KelvinsRightGlove]

As a new film is due soon - The Great Gatsby.

One of those books I felt I ought to read but never bothered.

 

I've been reading this on/off for a while. About my 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

I just always seem to lose interest. How you finding it.

[Gingeletiss]

Finished book five of 'A Game of Thrones', very disappointed. Books one and two were OK, but then it got really silly. There will be a book six

[ZepSaint]

For about the 4th or 5th time :-

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hobb#The_Farseer_Trilogy

[timebomb]

I've been reading this on/off for a while. About my 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

I just always seem to lose interest. How you finding it.

 

I do a lot of driving fairly long distances so I download talking books - only the unabridged ones.

The Great Gatsby was quite tough due to style of writing, quite a distant style never really finding out much about the characters until well into the book, made it tough going but worth it in the end.

[Bearsy]

I do a lot of driving fairly long distances so I download talking books - only the unabridged ones.

The Great Gatsby was quite tough due to style of writing, quite a distant style never really finding out much about the characters until well into the book, made it tough going but worth it in the end.

 

get p.g.wodehouse read by this one guy called Jonathan Cecil. They is hilarious! i've been doing more driving since i moved up to birminghams and they make long journeys fly by with lols!

 

My favourites is Right Ho Jeeves and The Code of the Woosters thought they is all good. Make sure you get the ones narrated by Jonathan Cecil tho cos they'll try and sell these other ones by some guy called Martin Something but he is not nearly so lols!

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I'm currently reading this:

 

Although the other Tudor monarchs are all popular subjects, the man who founded the Tudor dynasty - Henry VII - is perhaps less well known to the general public. So this book should be of interest to any serious student of British History.

 

The backstory is all based in the long and complicated history of the 'Wars of the Roses' of course, but the main thing you need to remember about Henry is that he had no real right to ever be king. Henry had to wrench the crown off the mutilated skull of Richard III at Bosworth Field (himself a monarch of dubious legitimacy) and this problem of getting a viciously divided nation to accept him as their true king would dominate the rest of his life. But aside from the record of plots and political maneuvering what type of man was Henry Tudor?

 

Rather unlikable in many respects, an ambitious and mean spirited king who because of his shaky claim to power was deeply suspicious of those around him and not in the least afraid to shed the blood of his (many) political enemies if he felt it advantageous to do so. But he was a man of his (violent) times, and had he been some sort of 'soft touch' he wouldn't have lasted ten minutes I suppose. So a hard man who is pretty hard to like, but the deeply traumatic - and very human - impact the disasters of 1502 had on him, a year in which his 15 year old son (Arthur Prince of Wales) and his beloved wife (Queen Elizabeth) would both die unexpectedly within months of each other, show to my way of thinking that for all his many faults Henry was at least still a recognizable human being, rather than the veritable monster his second son (Henry VIII) would become.

 

The only criticism I have of the book is that I would have preferred much more attention to have been paid to Henry's early life and the climatic events surrounding the Battle of Bosworth - the author chooses instead to concentrate his story on subsequent events. For all that however this is a fascinating, and very readable 'modern style' history book that I can recommend wholeheartedly to all those who love studying the long and remarkable history of this old nation.

[timebomb]

get p.g.wodehouse read by this one guy called Jonathan Cecil. They is hilarious! i've been doing more driving since i moved up to birminghams and they make long journeys fly by with lols!

 

My favourites is Right Ho Jeeves and The Code of the Woosters thought they is all good. Make sure you get the ones narrated by Jonathan Cecil tho cos they'll try and sell these other ones by some guy called Martin Something but he is not nearly so lols!

 

I will be sure to try these as I dash up and down the M40!

[Saint Luke]

Ender's Game is awesome. Unfortunately the rest of the Ender books disappoint for me.

Currently reading Up Pohnpei a book about an Englishman trying to become an international football manager in lieu of a failed football career on a small island in the Pacific.

Nearing the end now - amusing at times.

[pap]

Ender's Game is awesome. Unfortunately the rest of the Ender books disappoint for me.

Currently reading Up Pohnpei a book about an Englishman trying to become an international football manager in lieu of a failed football career on a small island in the Pacific.

Nearing the end now - amusing at times.

 

I finished Ender's Game a little while ago. Really enjoyed it. Apparently, there is a film out this year. The only real surprise is that it took them this long. Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley are in the big adult roles.

[Kingsland Nick]

Ender's Game is awesome. Unfortunately the rest of the Ender books disappoint for me.

Currently reading Up Pohnpei a book about an Englishman trying to become an international football manager in lieu of a failed football career on a small island in the Pacific.

Nearing the end now - amusing at times.

 

From Amazon:

 

After one too many late night discussions, football journalist Paul Watson and his mate Matthew Conrad decide to find the world's worst national team, become naturalised citizens of that country and play for them - achieving their joint boyhood dream of playing international football and winning a 'cap'. They are thrilled when Wikipedia leads them to Pohnpei, a tiny, remote island in the Pacific whose long-defunct football team is described as 'the weakest in the world'. They contact Pohnpei's Football Association and discover what it needs most urgently is leadership. So Paul and Matt travel thousands of miles, leaving behind jobs, families and girlfriends to train a rag-tag bunch of novice footballers who barely understand the rules of the game.Up Pohnpei tells the story of their quest to coach the team and eventually, organise an international fixture - Pohnpei's first since a 16-1 defeat many years ago. With no funding, a population whose obesity rate is 90 percent and toad-infested facilities in one of the world's wettest climates, their journey is beset by obstacles from the outset. Part travelogue, part quest, Up Pohnpei shows how the passion and determination of two young men can change the face of football - and the lives of total strangers - on the other side of the world.

[pap]

I'm a big fan of CJ Sansom - Winter in Madrid and the Shardlake series of novels, but this wasn't him at his best.

 

I enjoyed the book for its interesting spin on an alternative post-war Britain - similar to Robert Harris' Fatherland. But it never quite made me feel for, or believe in the characters. Also many of the twists and turns were signposted and a little too obvious. Hope he gets back to writing about Matthew Shardlake soon.

 

Reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel at the moment. Only just started but loving the writing style and can see why it is so acclaimed.

 

I finished reading this book last night. First and only CJ Sansom I have read. I've read Fatherland as well, but enjoyed the Brit-centric setting that Dominion has. Though I enjoyed it, have to say that ultimately, the actions of the main characters are largely meaningless with respect to the larger world that Sansom created. Resolution is brought not by their actions, but by something external - and even if our heroes had failed, little would have turned out differently.

[timebomb]

get p.g.wodehouse read by this one guy called Jonathan Cecil. They is hilarious! i've been doing more driving since i moved up to birminghams and they make long journeys fly by with lols!

 

My favourites is Right Ho Jeeves and The Code of the Woosters thought they is all good. Make sure you get the ones narrated by Jonathan Cecil tho cos they'll try and sell these other ones by some guy called Martin Something but he is not nearly so lols!

 

Just finished The Code Of The Woosters. Very good Bearsy thanks.

I cant get the image of Terry Thomas out of my head with Jonathan Cecil narrating.

[saintbletch]

I finished reading this book last night. First and only CJ Sansom I have read. I've read Fatherland as well, but enjoyed the Brit-centric setting that Dominion has. Though I enjoyed it, have to say that ultimately, the actions of the main characters are largely meaningless with respect to the larger world that Sansom created. Resolution is brought not by their actions, but by something external - and even if our heroes had failed, little would have turned out differently.

 

Yep, I agree with your assessment pap. Not his finest. But I hope your average experience doesn't unduly colour your view of CJ Sansom. He is a fine writer of historical fiction and, to my eye, his attention to historical detail is excellent.

 

I might recommend his Matthew Shardlake series of novels, but I'm not completely sure that they'd be to your taste. It's a retelling of the police procedural genre set in the 16th century. Shardlake is a morally and ethically strong, hunchback lawyer who tries to balance his questionable work for Henry VIII's Thomas Cromwell, against his own morals, troubled faith and his sense of duty; whilst at the same time fighting the prejudice that his lowly birth and twisted back visits upon him.

 

But, as the ideologue I know you to be, I would recommend you try Sansom's Winter in Madrid.

 

It details the many political protagonists and their vested interests and ideologies that led to the Spanish civil war. I learned an awful lot about the involvement of individual British citizens whose ideologies led them to head to Spain to fight in a struggle involving republicanism, nationalism, socialism, communism, and fascism. And all of this whilst chronicling the lives of 3 British public school friends who get caught up in spying and the war. Oh and there's a little bit of love interest thrown in. It's a good, if not a truly great book, but I enjoyed the history lesson that it provided.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I just rediscovered (from nether reaches of my book collection) '73 North' by the distinguished naval writer Dudley Pope. This is a eminently readable - and probably definitive - account of the crucially important 'Battle of the Barents Sea' in WWII.

 

December 1942 and the arctic convoy JW 51B is making painfully slow progress towards the Kola Inlet in northern Russia. Comprising 14 merchant ships (heavily loaded with war cargo for the Russian Front) and a close escort of 5 Royal Navy destroyers, this tempting target proves too much for Hitler to resist and a overwhelmingly superior force of Kriegsmarine heavy warships and destroyers are dispatched from their Norwegian bases to destroy the apparently hapless convoy.

 

What follows is a truly remarkable tale of courage and victory against the elements and the odds that seems so improbable looking back on it now that you have to constantly remind yourself that this is a work of fact, not fiction. See Captain Sherbrook fearlessly position his handful of puny destroyers between the convoy and the mighty heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper - and learn of the fearful price he and his men would have to pay for their devotion to duty. Wonder at how, with the convoy at their mercy, the Germans somehow managed to let if slip between their fingers. Above all understand the role that confusion and human error always plays in warfare. I won't tell you how this awesome tale ends, but just imagine if you will one of those old cowboy films where the cavalry arrive just in the nick of time to save the day ...

 

While innumerable dramatic stories would emerge from World War II, I dare say few of them are quite so perfectly formed as the one Dudley Pope weaves for us here. Highly recommended to all.

 

[View From The Top]

I just rediscovered (from nether reaches of my book collection) '73 North' by the distinguished naval writer Dudley Pope. This is a eminently readable - and probably definitive - account of the crucially important 'Battle of the Barents Sea' in WWII.

 

December 1942 and the arctic convoy JW 51B is making painfully slow progress towards the Kola Inlet in northern Russia. Comprising 14 merchant ships (heavily loaded with war cargo for the Russian Front) and a close escort of 5 Royal Navy destroyers, this tempting target proves too much for Hitler to resist and a overwhelmingly superior force of Kriegsmarine heavy warships and destroyers are dispatched from their Norwegian bases to destroy the apparently hapless convoy.

 

What follows is a truly remarkable tale of courage and victory against the elements and the odds that seems so improbable looking back on it now that you have to constantly remind yourself that this is a work of fact, not fiction. See Captain Sherbrook fearlessly position his handful of puny destroyers between the convoy and the mighty heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper - and learn of the fearful price he and his men would have to pay for their devotion to duty. Wonder at how, with the convoy at their mercy, the Germans somehow managed to let if slip between their fingers. Above all understand the role that confusion and human error always plays in warfare. I won't tell you how this awesome tale ends, but just imagine if you will one of those old cowboy films where the cavalry arrive just in the nick of time to save the day ...

 

While innumerable dramatic stories would emerge from World War II, I dare say few of them are quite so perfectly formed as the one Dudley Pope weaves for us here. Highly recommended to all.

 

 

It is an excellent book & as an ex-Jack I read the exploits of my predecessors with awe.

[dinger]

Just started Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Lord alone knows how old I'll be when I finish it.

 

About this much older. Strewth, what a tremendous, hardcore mindfukc.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I'm sad to see that the noted British horror writer James Herbert has passed away.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21870413

 

I can't claim to have read all his (many) books, but those I did were pretty good.

[Pugwash]

Yep, I agree with your assessment pap. Not his finest. But I hope your average experience doesn't unduly colour your view of CJ Sansom. He is a fine writer of historical fiction and, to my eye, his attention to historical detail is excellent.

 

I might recommend his Matthew Shardlake series of novels, but I'm not completely sure that they'd be to your taste. It's a retelling of the police procedural genre set in the 16th century. Shardlake is a morally and ethically strong, hunchback lawyer who tries to balance his questionable work for Henry VIII's Thomas Cromwell, against his own morals, troubled faith and his sense of duty; whilst at the same time fighting the prejudice that his lowly birth and twisted back visits upon him.

 

But, as the ideologue I know you to be, I would recommend you try Sansom's Winter in Madrid.

 

It details the many political protagonists and their vested interests and ideologies that led to the Spanish civil war. I learned an awful lot about the involvement of individual British citizens whose ideologies led them to head to Spain to fight in a struggle involving republicanism, nationalism, socialism, communism, and fascism. And all of this whilst chronicling the lives of 3 British public school friends who get caught up in spying and the war. Oh and there's a little bit of love interest thrown in. It's a good, if not a truly great book, but I enjoyed the history lesson that it provided.

 

Just finished Dominion. Quite readable but could probably have shaved 100 pages off with little loss and, as you say, not his finest. I actually thought some of his best writing was in the historical notes at the end, where he makes a very passionate argument against Nationalism in general and the SNP in particular. I don't follow Scottish politics, so was unaware of how the SNP was funded. Bearing in mind this was written last year and the date for the Scottish referendum was announced this week, it makes for a slightly chilling prophecy.

 

Must pick up Winter in Madrid.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

There's no point in me describing the plot of this novel because I dare say you've already seen the film - and that fine effort is a unusually faithful adaption by the Coen Brothers. So I'll just tell you that Cormac McCarthy is a author I admire more than I can say and I'll leave you with just a little taste of his truly remarkable prose style:

 

 

Wells looked out at the street. 'What time is it?' he said. 'Eleven fifty seven' Chigurh replied. Well the hell with it. I think I saw this coming a long time ago. Almost like a dream. He looked at Chigurh 'I'm not interested in your opinions' he said. 'Just do it you goddamned psychopath'.

 

He did close his eyes. He closed his eyes and he turned his head and he raised one hand to fend away that which could not be fended away. Chigurh shot him in the face. Everything that he had ever known or thought or loved drained slowly down the wall behind him. His mothers face, his first communion, all the women he had known. The faces of men as they died on their knees before him. The body of a dead child in a foreign country. He lay half headless on the bed with his arms outflung, most of his right hand missing.

 

Chigurh rose and picked the empty shell casing up off the rug and put it in his pocket. He looked at his watch. The new day was still a minute away.

 

 

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

"Sanity is what everyone else is doing"

 

I've moved on from Cormac McCarthy - temporally - and I'm now engrossed in Trinity's Child by William Prochnau. Set in the early 1980's long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this story falls into a fascinating little sub category of war fiction that has long held a kind of morbid fascination for me as a child born during the tense years of the early 1960's - World War III.

 

Think of films such as Dr Strangelove, or its even better counterpart 'Failsafe', and you'll soon get into the (now dated of course) mindset. Under enormous internal pressure to match US defence spending, the USSR launches a major, but limited, nuclear strike on the USA with the aim of evening up the odds. As a result of the devastation inflicted at ground level the narrative of this gripping book soon becomes concentrated on the all too fallible crews aboard three aircraft:

 

A lone B-52 bomber 'Polar Bear One' committed to the Grand Tour - a nuclear counter strike on targets within the Soviet Union.

The EC-135 'Looking Glass' plane tasked to control the remaining US Strategic Forces once SAC HQ in Omaha is destroyed.

The huge 'E-4' Airborne Command Post that must desperately tour the US trying to find any politician authorized to assume legal command in all this chaos.

 

Can the crews of these aircraft perform their missions and remain rational human beings under a level of stress that is well nigh intolerable? Imagine if you dare trying to perform a suicidal one-way penetration on the Soviet Air Defence system in a lumbering old bomber when you know for certain that everyone you love in the world has just been turned into ash. Can 'Alice' in the Looking Glass reestablish control of the USA's terrible nuclear might when nearly all his communications are knocked out and know one knows who is in charge? Above all can anyone persuade the new president that ideas about 'winning' a nuclear war such as this is now a meaningless concept and what he needs to do is stop it getting even worse?

 

I may be guilty of overusing the word 'awesome' on here from time to time, but in this instance that term really is justified.

 

[Saint Luke]

Warhorse

[DuncanRG]

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Wonderfully accessible and engaging look at the two 'systems' of thought; active, conscious thinking (eg when you're facing a maths problem) and unconscious 'invisible' thinking (eg looking at a maths problem and deciding that you need to think about it). Full of examples and studies - sometimes he'll describe the way we react to something on a page and you can actually feel yourself doing it. I've never read a psychology book in my life but I'm really enjoying it and it's changing the way I think already. Highly recommended!

 

I also bought Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk and Hopes & Prospects by Chomsky yesterday, looking forward to getting into them.

[ecuk268]

The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee.

 

About a man and boy who arrive in a new land with little memory of what went before.

 

It's the first of his books that I've read. Trouble is, it ends just as it's getting interesting.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

A Simple Act of Violence by R J Ellory

 

Miller and Roth are overworked Washington DC Homicide detectives assigned to investigate the murder of Catherine Sheridan - the latest victim of a serial killer known as 'The Ribbon Killer' because he uses a ribbon to tie a tag around the necks of his brutalised victims. But they soon discover that nothing to do with this intractable case is quite what it first appears to be ...

 

A powerful book that blurs the line between the crime novel and a conspiracy thriller so plausibly that it leaves you asking all kinds of questions about the nature of government and the terrible price we paid to win the cold war.

 

 

[Convict Colony]

Anyone check out the list about what books Footballers recommend for Kids and Adults in the Times today.

 

Sadly it was as expected from footballers apart from a few surprises and Clint Dempsey demonstrating his thickness by thinking the Hobbit was a Adults book.

[revolution saint]

NOS4R2 by Joe Hill. I'm just over half way through and it's brilliant so far. Probably unfair to draw a comparison between Stephen King and his son but this really is right up there with the best of early King novels. It's not a homage or pastiche but it has the same voice. It's a big old novel too at about 700 pages but so far it's not dragged at all. If you like Stephen King and haven't tried any Joe Hill stuff before then give it a go - you really won't be disappointed.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

Halsey's Typhoon by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin

 

The Pacific Theater of war, December 1944:

The enormous US 3rd Fleet under the command of Admiral William "Bull" Halsey is supporting General MacArthur's invasion of the Japanese held Philippine Islands. Halsey's Carrier Task Force mercilessly pounds the Japanese defences, but all too soon his fleet is forced to temporarily break off the attack in order that it can be refueled and resupplied.

 

Via a unholy mixture of bad luck, poor forecasting, and human error, what should have been a routine operation soon becomes a veritable disaster as the Fleet is struck by a ferocious pacific typhoon. If mountainous seas and 100+mph winds soon make conditions aboard the Admiral's flagship, the huge 60,000 ton battleship New Jersey, uncomfortable, then the effect this storm has on the smaller ships of his fleet is nearly indescribable.

 

Aboard the aircraft carrier USS Monterey planes break loose from their ties and crash violently into each other - the resulting explosions setting off an inferno that endangers the ship. Just as the Captain is considering ordering his crew to abandon ship, a young officer - Lieutenant Jerry Ford - manages to lead a fire fighting party onto the hanger deck and the blaze is eventually brought under control. The Monterey would survive to fight another day, Ford would go onto to become the 38th President of the United States.

 

But it is the Destroyers that bare the worst of it. Low on fuel, and overloaded with extra AA armament fitted to defend themselves against Kamikaze attack, these unstable ships are in no state to safely ride out a storm of this magnitude. As the huge seas start to overwhelm them, young crews look towards their Captains and realise, to their horror, that the man in command may not be a good enough seamen to get them out of this fearsome situation ...

 

I have long devoured this kind of thing, but naval history may not be everyones 'cup of tea' I suppose. But I've often found that sometimes a well written history book can read like a thriller. Three destroyers would flounder and 790 men would lose their lives on that terrible December day, so 'Halsey's Typhoon' is no work of fiction alas. It is however as thrilling a tale as you'll ever read shipmates.

[dubai_phil]

It's a lousy job but someone's gotta do it.

 

Dan Brown.

 

Inferno.

 

Yes, THE most awaited book of since forever, the sequel to the Da Vinci Code (not Bearsy's version of 50 shades unfortunately)

 

We both took a copy with us on honeymoon (we travelled almost 10,000 kms on planes trains buses cars & boats so did have SOME downtime to fill).

 

Critically? As a piece of Literature? It is utter garbage. The plot is paper thin. The characters are created using Primary School Literature techniques. The twists are so visible it's like watching permanent re-runs of an F1 race, you so know what is coming.

 

Some of the detail is on the edge of being just WRONG. The prose at times goes off on such a tangent it makes my rambling posts seem articulate.

 

It is RUBBISH.

 

But, and here is the problem, once you pick it up, you can picture every moment, you can see Tom Hanks in every location (because like many people you will have been there or seen them on TV). Your mind is picturing who will play the other roles in the film and what parts will be cut to make it a 120 minute story.

 

And, the WORST thing, is you cannot put the bloody thing down.

 

Whatever Dan Brown's actual Literary failings are, the ONE thing he does is make you keep turning the pages. As the now Mrs D_P said, what was he smoking for some of the plot ideas?

 

So, unfortunately, it IS the book you need to take to the beach this summer, it can be happily read inbetween cans of ice cold beer or Pina Coladas by the Pool.

 

In fact I'd go so far to say that it is THE only book to read this summer (kind of like when Jurrasic Park the book came out)

 

Oh and the movie will be meh but make a zillion

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

Recent Reads:

 

'Admirals' by Andrew Lambert.

This is not a book I can really recommend to the general reader, but if naval history does interest you then methinks you will find this an informative and scholarly biography of the officers who did much to make the Royal Navy the superlative force on the worlds oceans that it once was.

From Lord Effingham's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 to Admiral Cunningham's role in steering the Royal Navy through the perils of it's darkest hour during WWII we learn again that the Human element in war is always key - for without good men and outstanding leadership to guild them then surely nothing much worthwhile can be achieved.

Be aware that the author has deliberately excluded Lord Nelson's stellar career from this book on the (perfectly reasonable) grounds that the great man has overshadowed the achievements of other notable admirals, and in any case he has already written a history devoted to him.

 

'The Crucible of War' by Barrie Pit.

A old, but extremely readable, account of the ebb and flow of warfare in the western desert during 1941. The story of the 8th Army's long struggle against Rommel's Afrika Korps is well known, but what I found particularly interesting here is General O'Connor's stunning (but almost forgotten now) victory against a numerically much superior Italian army earlier in this long and bloody campaign.

With Mussolini's hopelessly ill-equipped, unwilling, and poorly led force routed, cut off, and utterly destroyed during the Battle of Beda Fomm there was perhaps a fleeting opportunity during January 1941 for our Western Desert Force to push on and evict any remaining Italian presence from their Libyan colony months before the highly professional 'Afika Korps' arrived on the scene to save their hapless allies and teach the British Army a lesson in how mechanised warfare is conducted. Instead Churchill's impossibly over ambitious dream of creating a new Balkan front led us to strip O'Connor of his best divisions at the key moment and send them off in a (futile) attempt to save Greece.

In would be over two years later in May 1943 before we (with much US assistance) did finally manage to clear North Africa of the Axis forces - a grim reminded of the high price paid in blood and treasure for a politicians folly in time of war.

 

'The Red Coffin' by Sam Eastland.

After so much military history I felt like some fiction might be in order so I've just started on this novel. A kind of detective story set in Stalinist Russia, this book has worked its way under my skin already and I look forward to seeing where this ride will take me ...

Edited 14 July, 2013 by CHAPEL END CHARLIE

[OldNick]

SS.General by Sven Hassel

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

'The Red Coffin' turned out to be a more than decent novel I thought - to the extent that I'm now on the look out for more from Sam Eastland. Setting any story in such a utterly different time/place from the mundane world of the here and now (Stalinist Russia in this case) always requires much more intellectual effort from the writer if it is to come across as truly convincing. The added interest all this work generates for the reader however is invariably rewarding.

 

A ripping yarn I can recommend to all without hesitation.

 

 

In a similiar vein the Tartan Noir tale 'The Hanging Shed' by Gordon Ferris is nae bad either. Douglas Brodie is struggling to cope with life on civvy street after active war service with the Highland Division during WWII. Then he receives a letter from a childhood friend pleading for help as he has just been convicted of murdering a young boy and is sentenced to hang in a few weeks. What follows is a sordid story of organised crime, pedophilia and corruption set amid the grim slums of post war Glasgow as Brodie learns that human evil didn't end with the fall of Nazi Germany ...

 

I can make no claim that Ferris is yet quite the equal of more established Scots crime writers (such as Stuart McBride or Ian Rankin) but for a first effort this mix of 'boys own' adventure and hard edged crime story satisfied this reader more than he was expecting and is proving to be something of a (bloody) success I see. This is the type of book you can easily imagine being turned in a TV series or even a film one day.

 

PS - I understand this title first saw the light of day as a highly popular E-Book before making it into 'print' as it were. A sign of the times methinks.

 

 

Edited 2 August, 2013 by CHAPEL END CHARLIE

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I thought 'A Simple Act of Violence' was such a bloody good read that when I saw another RJ Ellory title - 'A Quiet Belief in Angles' - on the shelf of the local charity shop the other day I snapped it up without a moments hesitation. A good decision as it turns out because 'Angles' is yet another stunningly good novel. The standard of Ellory's insightful and elegant prose is a cut above the normal stuff I read, indeed writing of this caliber is in grave danger of elevating the crime novel into the whelm of proper literature.

 

With my interest in this writer growing by the book, I decided to check his wiki page out and what a eye opener it is. First off I was shocked to learn that this author - a man who writes so convincing of the American south - is actually a Englishman. Coming from Birmingham is no crime of course, but it would seem that RJ is something of a rogue because he was caught using something called a 'sockpuppet' account to write rave reviews of his own books, slag off his rivals efforts, and then posting the lot on Amazon.Com!

 

This is bad behavior in anyone's book and it (quite understandably) earned him the wrath of his fellow authors in the prestigious Crime Writers Association. Cad that he undoutably is then, his writing is so good I shall probably continue to read him.

 

It all does go to show however that the old adage that a man should 'never meet his hero's' is a wise one.

 

[View From The Top]

The Universe Versus Alex Woods.

 

Best book of the year and best debut novel I've read in many a long year.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Universe-Versus-Alex-Woods/dp/1444765892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376777497&sr=8-1&keywords=the+universe+versus+alex+woods

[View From The Top]

It's a lousy job but someone's gotta do it.

 

Dan Brown.

 

Inferno.

 

Yes, THE most awaited book of since forever, the sequel to the Da Vinci Code (not Bearsy's version of 50 shades unfortunately)

 

We both took a copy with us on honeymoon (we travelled almost 10,000 kms on planes trains buses cars & boats so did have SOME downtime to fill).

 

Critically? As a piece of Literature? It is utter garbage. The plot is paper thin. The characters are created using Primary School Literature techniques. The twists are so visible it's like watching permanent re-runs of an F1 race, you so know what is coming.

 

Some of the detail is on the edge of being just WRONG. The prose at times goes off on such a tangent it makes my rambling posts seem articulate.

 

It is RUBBISH.

 

But, and here is the problem, once you pick it up, you can picture every moment, you can see Tom Hanks in every location (because like many people you will have been there or seen them on TV). Your mind is picturing who will play the other roles in the film and what parts will be cut to make it a 120 minute story.

 

And, the WORST thing, is you cannot put the bloody thing down.

 

Whatever Dan Brown's actual Literary failings are, the ONE thing he does is make you keep turning the pages. As the now Mrs D_P said, what was he smoking for some of the plot ideas?

 

So, unfortunately, it IS the book you need to take to the beach this summer, it can be happily read inbetween cans of ice cold beer or Pina Coladas by the Pool.

 

In fact I'd go so far to say that it is THE only book to read this summer (kind of like when Jurrasic Park the book came out)

 

Oh and the movie will be meh but make a zillion

 

Read it as well. It's utter, utter, utter gash.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

 

This is one of those novels that mixes fiction with actual historical figures to produce a kind of amalgam - and a very successful one too. The beginning and end of this long book deal with the fictional story of Joshua, a 15 year old Colorado boy destined for a disastrous 'coming of age' as he falls under the influence of Bob Ford the (very real) killer of Jesse James. Alienated and dangerously headstrong, Joshua soon earns a little money working for Ford and spends the lot on the second hand revolver of his adolescent dreams. When his drunken father learns of it he tries to wrestle the loaded gun away from his son, the result of this action proving to be disastrous for them both.

 

The middle section (fairly accurately I believe) tells the story of Jesse James from his roots in rural Clay County Missouri, to his death at the hands of Ford in St Joseph many years later. The Jesse James depicted here is not the iconic outlaw-hero of Hollywood myth, but rather a brutal psychotic killer who will stop at nothing to get his way. With the US Civil War raging the teenage Jesse flees the persecution of the Union army to join up with his brother Frank and ride under the command of the notorious Confederate guerrilla leader 'Bloody' Bill Anderson. I must warn you now the violence depicted in this part of the book is both extreme and very graphic in nature. When Anderson's band raid the Union held town of Centralia they capture a train full of unarmed Union soldiers going home on leave - whom they promptly forced to strip naked before mercilessly executing the lot. War and crime have become one and the same it seems, with precious little room left for the outdated 'chivalry' of the old south.

The Confederacy might have surrendered in 1865, but Jesse's bloody career was far form over. He goes on to form the so called 'James-Younger Gang' who conduct a series of violent train and bank robberies in the post war south before the infamous raid on Northfield Minnesota proves to be a step too far. Escaping with his life and not much else, the increasing paranoid Jesse is forced to recruit new gang members which (by a roundabout route) is how he comes into contact with Robert Ford. The rest as they say is history.

 

I loved both sections of this wonderful (debut) novel, but as fascinating as the story of Jesse James is I found Joshua's tale to be even more compelling if anything. With the boy now on trail for his life, such was the tension this reader was experiencing that when I got to the page when the jury foreman stands to deliver the verdict I could feel my pulse racing with the sheer stress of it - a rare experience indeed when merely reading a book. So if you only read one tale of the wild west in your lifetime then this one would be a pretty good choice I reckon.

 

.

Edited 4 September, 2013 by CHAPEL END CHARLIE

[Smirking_Saint]

Currently a 'dance with dragons' the fifth game of thrones book, good reads, much better than the Tv series, it is a pain trying to remember all the characters.

 

Also reading Pep Guardiolas auto biography, for obvious reasons, also a good read, Ill report at the end..... (Nb - Ill probably forget)

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Need a new book.

 

Any recommendations chaps and/or chapettes?

 

Maybe the wrong place for me, not a sci-fi, fantasy or crime fiction fan.

 

I like people like Nick Hornby or Murakami. Think book forms of Woody Allen movies.

 

Thanks in advance.

[dinger]

Need a new book.

 

Any recommendations chaps and/or chapettes?

 

Maybe the wrong place for me, not a sci-fi, fantasy or crime fiction fan.

 

I like people like Nick Hornby or Murakami. Think book forms of Woody Allen movies.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Ever read any Peter Carey? Try his first novel, Bliss. Successful businessman led by his neuroses to believe he lives in Hell. Has a bit of the Allen and the Murakami about it, I reckon. Also worth a try would be a book called Gould's Book of Fish, by Richard Flanagan.

 

I'm currently reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell (not that one). Set in the still-closed-off Japan of the late 18th century, Dutch traders are allowed a limited foothold on an artificial island, where they cheat each other and seek to culturally cross-pollenate over the divide. Kind of a study in degrees of purity and how much they matter. Also a cracking historical thriller. He never lets up with the colour of place in his books.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Ever read any Peter Carey? Try his first novel, Bliss. Successful businessman led by his neuroses to believe he lives in Hell. Has a bit of the Allen and the Murakami about it, I reckon. Also worth a try would be a book called Gould's Book of Fish, by Richard Flanagan.

 

I'm currently reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell (not that one). Set in the still-closed-off Japan of the late 18th century, Dutch traders are allowed a limited foothold on an artificial island, where they cheat each other and seek to culturally cross-pollenate over the divide. Kind of a study in degrees of purity and how much they matter. Also a cracking historical thriller. He never lets up with the colour of place in his books.

 

Cloud Atlas David Mitchell? Despite what I did say above, I really loved that book.

 

Also, thanks for the tips friend. Will defo have a look into them. Much appreciated.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

 

 

Tutankhamen: the life and death of a boy king by Christine El Mahdy.

 

I suspect that the title of this fascinating history was a (commercially attractive) one chosen by the publisher rather that the author because this book is much more than yet another examination of the 'boy king', Harold Carter and a famous archaeological discovery. For in order to tell the story of 'King Tut' in a evidence-based and objective manner the author decides to take a fresh look at ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty in its entirety - especially the key role the 'heretic' Pharaoh Arkenaten and his royal consort Nefertiti played at that time.

 

As you no doubt already know Tutankhamen's ("The Living Image of Amun") tomb is the only virtually intact royal burial to be discovered in the Vally of the Kings to date. But for all the unparalleled splendor and richness of the finds unearthed by Carter and Lord Carnarvon there was actually remarkably little hard evidence found that sheds much light on who Tutankhamen Nebkheperure really was. For instance who were his parents? Why was his 'Great Royal Wife' Ankhesenamun apparently absent form either the ceremony or her husbands tomb? What was the relationship between Tut and his immediate predecessor the deeply mysterious Smenkhare? Above all, was in reality Arkenaten's religious revolution quite all that it is often made out to be?

 

Casting aside the mistaken interpretations of past Egyptologists and getting to the bottom of these ancient mysteries is kind of like a complex detective story - and just as exciting. The author comes to a series of conclusions that may well be controversial, and recent DNA testing has certainly improved our understanding of the period, but El Mahdy knows what she is taking about and it is hard to resist the thought that her conclusions are probably close to the truth of the matter.

[manji]

Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe. You will never view WW11 in the same way again. Astounding.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

Trafalgar: The Men, The Battle, The Storm. By Tim Clayton & Phil Craig.

 

All the general reader could possibly want to know about what remains arguably the Royal Navy's greatest ever victory, told in a easily accessible and hugely entertaining style. After briefly setting this particular round of the ongoing (and seemingly endless) Anglo French rivalry for world domination in context, this book goes on to examine both the battle itself and the brave men who fought it.

 

What strikes you now is how very keen the men of the Royal Navy were to force this engagement. In our knowingly cynical post 20th Century mindset it seems strange somehow that men should ever have actually sought battle with such apparent enthusiasm. But by all accounts that's exactly how most of the navy viewed the prospect at the time. This bloodthirsty attitude is more than an excess of patriotic zeal, because there is little doubt the prospect of every sailor in the fleet receiving a share of the 'Prize Money' on offer if they captured enemy ships and returned them to safe harbour played a part. This 19th Century style incentive scheme could amount from 3 years pay for a ordinary seaman, all the way up to a absolute life changing fortune for the senior officers. Then as now it seems, men can indeed be motivated by money.

 

As for the battle itself, as every school boy used to know Admiral Nelson decided to abandon the usual tactics of the day and instead of forming a parallel line with the enemy and shooting it out all day, he divided his fleet into two squadrons and forcibly drove them both across the line of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet. The idea behind this was to split the Combined Fleet into separated unsupported parts, deprive Admiral Villeneuve of his ability to control his force, and allow our ships to cross behind enemy vessels and 'rake' them from close range - raking meaning firing a broadside into the (quite unprotected) stern of the enemy. Rest assured this was an especially effective way of causing absolute bloody carnage aboard any ship unfortunate enough to find itself in this perilous position.

 

Villeneuve actually predicted Nelson would try this, but his disparate and ill trained fleet was utterly incapable of countering the maneuver effectively and Nelson's plan succeeded after a fashion. Nevertheless in the intense fighting that ensued all sides fought bravely and the casualties suffered were horrendous. At one stage even Nelson's mighty flagship, the Victory, was in grave danger of being boarded by the French 74 Redoutable laying close alongside her, only for the famous 'Fighting Temeraire' to intervene at the crucial moment and save the day - too late for England's greatest ever sailor alas. Tragically for our surviving crews (not to mention those poor souls left aboard) the fruits of their hard won victory were snatched away from them when nearly all the captured enemy ships subsequently floundered in a great storm that arrived with hours of the battle ending. Had Nelson lived the authors argue that he had intended to anchor the fleet and thus might well have saved many a ship from the full fury of the storm.

 

A 'ripping' yarn this ... ripping in every sense of the word that is.

 

Edited 6 December, 2013 by CHAPEL END CHARLIE

[OldNick]

Trafalgar: The Men, The Battle, The Storm. By Tim Clayton & Phil Craig.

 

All the general reader could possibly want to know about what remains arguably the Royal Navy's greatest ever victory, told in a easily accessible and hugely entertaining style. After briefly setting this particular round of the ongoing (and seemingly endless) Anglo French rivalry for world domination in context, this book goes on to examine both the battle itself and the brave men who fought it.

 

What strikes you now is how very keen the men of the Royal Navy were to force this engagement. In our knowingly cynical post 20th Century mindset it seems strange somehow that men should ever have actually sought battle with such apparent enthusiasm. But by all accounts that's exactly how most of the navy viewed the prospect at the time. This bloodthirsty attitude is more than an excess of patriotic zeal, because there is little doubt the prospect of every sailor in the fleet receiving a share of the 'Prize Money' on offer if they captured enemy ships and returned them to safe harbour played a part. This 19th Century style incentive scheme could amount from 3 years pay for a ordinary seaman, all the way up to a absolute life changing fortune for the senior officers. Then as now it seems, men can indeed be motivated by money.

 

As for the battle itself, as every school boy used to know Admiral Nelson decided to abandon the usual tactics of the day and instead of forming a parallel line with the enemy and shooting it out all day, he divided his fleet into two squadrons and forcibly drove them both across the line of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet. The idea behind this was to split the Combined Fleet into separated unsupported parts, deprive Admiral Villeneuve of his ability to control his force, and allow our ships to cross behind enemy vessels and 'rake' them from close range - raking meaning firing a broadside into the (quite unprotected) stern of the enemy. Rest assured this was an especially effective way of causing absolute bloody carnage aboard any ship unfortunate enough to find itself in this perilous position.

 

Villeneuve actually predicted Nelson would try this, but his disparate and ill trained fleet was utterly incapable of countering the maneuver effectively and Nelson's plan succeeded after a fashion. Nevertheless in the intense fighting that ensued all sides fought bravely and the casualties suffered were horrendous. At one stage even Nelson's mighty flagship, the Victory, was in grave danger of being boarded by the French 74 Redoutable laying close alongside her, only for the famous 'Fighting Temeraire' to intervene at the crucial moment and save the day - too late for England's greatest ever sailor alas. Tragically for our surviving crews (not to mention those poor souls left aboard) the fruits of their hard won victory were snatched away from them when nearly all the captured enemy ships subsequently floundered in a great storm that arrived with hours of the battle ending. Had Nelson lived the authors argue that he had intended to anchor the fleet and thus might well have saved many a ship from the full fury of the storm.

 

A 'ripping' yarn this ... ripping in every sense of the word that is.

 

I visited a customer and she had a letter that Nelson wrote 1803 and it ended saying, can't wait to take on the Frenchies, I hope you will be with me'

[saintbletch]

Well, I haven't posted on here for such a long time that I'm not sure what I've read since my last update. Anyway...

 

Wolf Hall, and Bring Up The Bodies - both by Hilary Mantel...Two absolutely stunning books. A completely consuming and all enveloping telling of the life of Thomas Cromwell and his rise from slum-dweller to Henry VIII's right-hand man. If you appreciate the art of novel writing and enjoy historical accounts/fiction, then read these first two books of the trilogy. As I said, stunning.

 

The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald...Had never read it, and I thought I should as I was going to see the film with a mate, and wanted to read the book first. You can see what all the fuss is about. It is very well written, and it's easy to see how it was genre defining.

 

An Officer and a Spy - Robert Harris...Read it. Probably the best book of its kind that I've read in a while. It has an average review of 4.7 (300+ votes) on Amazon. That's very high. It examines the true story of Captain Alfred Dreyfus and his exile to Devil's Island for spying against the French state. Set around the turn of the 20th century, for many reasons his conviction and sentence are questionable and appear to have an anti-semitic motive. The story follows a young officer in the intelligence corp as he investigates other cases that lead him to question the safety of Dreyfus' conviction. It's such an amazing story, and so brilliantly dramatised, that it's difficult to comprehend that it is a true story that nearly brought down the French state.

 

Nor Will he Sleep - David Ashton...I have a soft spot for David Aston and I stay in touch with him on email. I really love his grumpy Scottish detective Inspector James McLevy. It's a good series with well drawn characters, but this novel was a little baggy to be honest. Still enjoyed it, but the other books in the series are better.

 

The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton...It's a mammoth book. You can see why it won the Man Booker this year, because it is a work of genius especially when you consider it's a debut novel by a 28 year old author. The book follows a series of events in New Zealand around the gold rush in the mid-19th century. There are lots of characters and it's not easy to keep track of them all, in fact the opening scene introduces you to 13 men whose stories and lives are examined in the next 800+ pages. By the end of the book, each character is real to you and has an individual personality. [MILD SPOILER ALERT] The spoiler concerns the structure and not the plot. My only criticism is that the book has two denouement. The main story comes to an end, and then the author summarises the story again from the point of view of the main protagonists. You carry on reading expecting to hear something new, but you just have the same facts presented, but this time from a different perspective. Still a great read. [/MILD SPOILER ALERT]

 

The Brothers Karamazov, and Crime and Punishment - both by Fyodor Dostoyevsky...Two wonderful, wonderful novels, each with a real depth of insight into the human mind and the role of belief and spirituality. And if the writing is superb, then the translation from Russian is genius. Hard to believe they weren't written in English.

 

The Hundred Year old man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson...Lots of friends had told me that they were reading it, so I thought I better had. It's OK. It's fun, but it didn't change my life.

 

A Wanted Man - Lee Child...More or the same - a big bloke, a big mystery and a single woman. By the end you're left with a big bloke, a solved mystery and a $hagged single woman. Still entertaining.

 

I'm reading the Cuckoo's Calling at the moment, by Robert Galbraith (AKA J K Rowling). About half way through and it's very interesting to see Rowling writing a different genre (Police procedural). Difficult to reconcile the creator of Harry Potter putting the F and C words into her characters' mouths.

 

Toke's a ****.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I much admired the 'The Hunger Games' film so when I was lent the Suzanne Collins novel upon which the movie is (very faithfully) based I was happy enough to give it a go, despite the fact I'm not really in its supposed youth orientated target audience. I must add that as a rule I don't much like teen fiction (such as Harry Potter for instance) as I prefer books aimed at what you might call a more mature readership - as is befitting a man in his early fifties!

 

I won't bother recapping the plot here because I dare say most of you already know something of it. But do try to overcome any preconceptions you may hold and read this book with a open mind because I reckon that you (like me) will be hard pressed to spot many signs of immaturity in it. A book about the future that is not really a work of true Science Fiction. A book with its fair share of action, but yet is far more than just another adventure story. 'The Hunger Games' is a subtle and nuanced novel that has much to say about modern society, the indomitable nature of the Human spirit, and the grave danger a return to the totalitarian style state of the last century would represent to us all.

 

Whether you happen to be a spotty Californian teenager, or a grumpy old man in Dorset, this is a book that anyone and everyone should be able to enjoy because good writing is not only timeless - it's ageless too.

[dinger]

Just finsihed Spike Island, by Philip Hoare, a history of Netley's Military Hospital. Wonderful mix of personal history and global sweep, his childhood in Sholing and a century of war, Empire, medicine and madness. A really terrific book.

[Saint Luke]

Nearly half way through Cloud Atlas.

Just finished the Sonmi section.

A bit different to the film.

Other sections quite true to the film.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

The Battle of Hamburg - by Martin Middlebrook

 

Nearly 70 years after the bombing finally stopped both the morality and the effectiveness of the Allied Strategic Bombing Offensive against Nazi Germany during WWII remains as intensely a controversial subject as it ever was. Needless to say people are entitled to hold any view they like, but perhaps in order to express an truly informed opinion it is desirable to first learn at least something of the matter you are talking about. With that in mind I can think of no better guide to the bomber offensive than Martin Middlebrook because this author takes the trouble to examine the subject in all its innate complexity and from all perspectives, whether that be the viewpoint of the allied bomber crews, the Luftwaffe's efforts to counter them, or even what it was like for those civilians unfortunate enough to find themselves underneath the bombing.

 

The Battle of Hamburg (Operation Gomorrah) was just one battle among many in a long war of course, but it was fated to become a exceptional example of just how destructive allied bombing could become when a set of circumstances came together to favour the attack over defence. This particular battle also illustrates admirably the differing approaches the British and American bomber forces took, the USAAF firmly believing that the daylight precision bombing of selected military and industrial targets would win the war, while the RAF was committed to the systematic destruction of whole cites in the belief that the resulting loss of life would undermine the moral of the German people, sap their will to resist, and ultimately prove more effective. I should also add that at night it was very difficult for Bomber Command aircrews at the time to find small targets such as a factory or shipyard, therefore bombing something harder to miss, such as a large urban area, was (to a degree) forced upon the RAF by circumstance.

 

It was to be the second RAF raid on the night of July 27th 1943 that was to raise this battle from the whelm of the ordinary into the extraordinary. It was a hot summers night, Hamburg's fire fighting resources were out of position attempting to extinguish the earlier fires. The cities radar directed night fighter and Flak defences were again badly effected by 'Window' (aluminium coated strips that rendered radar ineffective) and the bombing that night was also both unusually accurate and concentrated. Over 700 RAF bombers (most of them now heavy Lancaster, Halifax and Stirling types) pounded the densely populated residential districts of eastern Hamburg without effective opposition.

 

I don't propose to recount in detail here the terrible effects of the 'Firestorm' that developed that night in Hamburg because Middlebrook describes it infinetly better than I ever could, and in any case the horror is almost beyond mere words. Suffice it to say that significant sections of Germany's second largest city were devastated and with temperatures reaching 800 oC some who tried to flee the inferno were incinerated alive while their hands and feet were fused to the melting asphalt of the roads - as perfect a vision of 'Hell on Earth' as this reviewer cares to imagine.

 

A immensely thought provoking book written by a author at the very top of his game.

 

[Monk]

Andrea Pirlo 'I think therefore I play':

 

Due to be started this week. Cannot wait.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Nearly half way through Cloud Atlas.

Just finished the Sonmi section.

A bit different to the film.

Other sections quite true to the film.

 

Interesting book that.

 

Not ordinarily my thing, but i really loved it. Whereas some friends of mine hated it.

 

Thought the film was trash.

 

 

 

Andrea Pirlo 'I think therefore I play':

 

Due to be started this week. Cannot wait.

 

Looks interesting that one, let us know how you get on, please.