The GF book thread

[robbiefowler9]

Only seeing this thread now.

 

Pure by Andrew Miller - Very good read; I couldn't put it down. It's won the Costa Prize as well. It's set in Paris the year before the Enlightenment and tells the story of a young architect graduate who has been commissioned to deconstruct Les Innocents, a famous Parisian cemetary. Sounds a bit of a drag but is actually a very easy-going, enjoyable read. 8/10

 

A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - Thought this was pretty decent but (in my opinion) it's been a bit over-hyped by the critics and it was awarded the Man Booker prize. That's not to say it isn't good, as I did enjoy it. 7/10

 

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - Let it be known that prior to reading this, I was familiar with Dawkins, having seen a few of his lectures/debates. I have to say that, on the whole I think he's a grade A twat; he's very smug and aggressive in his approach. However, I thought that this book was more sensitive and balanced than his usual stuff and while he doesn't really add anything new to the debate (it's more of a reference book of anti-religious ideas), I did feel he articulated the discussion pretty well. I can see why some people think it's unreadable, but I loved it. 9/10.

[Yozzer]

Anyone got any Pilger books they'd recommend?

[mudman79]

Just finished Alone by T.R.Sullivan.

Free download onto my kindle.

Recommended.

If you don,t shed a tear on reading the final chapter,

then you truly do have a heart of stone.

[Paulie Dangerously]

Just finished The Devotion of Suspect X, By Keigo Higashino (who is described on the book as 'the Japanese Steig Larson' but I thought styles were very different) . Best thriller I've read in a long time. Full of.twists, turns and intrigue with one a Hell of an anti hero. It's only short, get it read.

[silverlining]

Bravo 2 -0 by Andy McNab. A book that actually improves with every reading.

 

The only way that piece of badly-written, half-witted bilge could "improve with every reading", is if a page fell out every time you finished it.

[Paul]

Just got the new Dark Tower book, The Wind through The Keyhole. It's very good so far - and it's also relatively short so it hopefully won't go down any of the usual Stephen King cul-de-sacs his longer tomes occasionally get lost in for a while.

[KMD7]

Anyone got any Pilger books they'd recommend?

 

Heroes is one and a classic and also hidden voices. Both well worth a read

[Anubis]

StephenKing.com - Recent News

 

 

U.S. publication date for Doctor Sleep set for 2013

 

May 8th, 2012 9:08:34 am

 

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

 

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

 

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

 

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

[Sut]

Am reading Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley - an efficient little fantasy - and We Have Always Lived in the Castle - rather excellent.

[Ian Sea]

I've recently read The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos and thought it was fantastic. Can't wait to get into some more of his book, especially those featuring the same characters.

 

I've just finished Night Passage by Robert B. Parker which was really good, Jesse Stone is a boss character!

 

Just started on Bear Grylls autobiography, half way through it already. I fucking love Bear Grylls and his book has been ace so far.

[El Rojo]

Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt. Just brilliant. Best book I've read in a long, long time. If Cormac McCarthy met the Coen Brothers in a Deadwood saloon they'd be proud of this concoction.

 

Skagboys by Irvine Welsh. Prequel to Trainspotting. 150 pages too long and unremittingly, depressingly grim despite the patches of humour. His editor should have been more assertive. Probably won't be used as a promotional tool by the Scottish tourist board.

 

HHhH by Laurence Binet. Great novelisation of the plan by the Czech resistance to assassinate Heydrich in Prague in 1942 interspersed with details of the author's struggles to research parts of it and the dilemmas of filling the gaps in a truthful way.

 

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Much hyped Australian novel revolving around the aftermath of an incident in which an adult slaps somebody else's misbehaving child at a barbecue. Entertaining but difficult to warm to any of the generally horrible characters.

 

What It Was by George Pelecanos. Decent if formulaic gangland yarn set in early 1970s DC.

[cochyn]

Sisters Brothers is the best book I've read in beards - your description of it is perfect!

 

I kept thinking who I'd have playing the main characters if it were a film. (John C Reilly for Eli, Josh Brolin for Charlie btw).

[Ian Sea]

Just ordered Sisters Brothers after reading the above reviews.

[silverlining]

Yeah, read The Sisters Brothers a few months back. It's not quite Cormac MacArthy, but unlike him, the author has a sense of humour.

 

Just finishe Skagboys - more Trainspotting 'fun' but no actual story, and also picked up Hell House by Richard Matheson at the weekend and finished it just now. Great haunted house fun. And loads of repressed sex and violence.

[L19red]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Wonderful book, the best literary fiction I've read in ages.

[El Rojo]

Sisters Brothers is the best book I've read in beards - your description of it is perfect!

 

I kept thinking who I'd have playing the main characters if it were a film. (John C Reilly for Eli, Josh Brolin for Charlie btw).

 

That's a spookily accurate prediction. Was reading an article on Patrick deWitt and this cropped up!

 

'In Hollywood, everyone claims to make movies or write something. Once Jacobs and deWitt realized neither one was fronting, their relationship took off. Jacobs shot a scene from his movie "TheGoodTimesKid" in the bar and used deWitt as the bartender; deWitt showed Jacobs some unpublished writing that eventually and after much discussion became the screenplay for "Terri." The movie stars John C. Reilly, who bought the screen rights to "The Sisters Brothers" after Jacobs gave him the manuscript and plans to star as Eli Sisters. '

[KMD7]

Any newbies to the sci fi genre should get the Amtrak wars series by Patrick Tilley. I was introduced to them by a friend as i avoided sci fi books growing up. 6 novels in all and each book is short enough no more then a couple of hundred pages if i remember rightly and easy to read but very enjoyable. They gave me the confidence to tackle much more complex stuff like the nights dawn trilogy by peter hamilton which are brilliant

[Karl_b]

I've been reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes (this year) recently and as good as many of the stories are I found it way too repetitive by the middle of the last book and had to abandon it half-way through.

 

Since moving house I haven't read nearly as much as I'd like, I think I've gone through a few Stephen King books and went way out of my usual reading comfort zone with Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. It's a long, slow-paced book about an elderly couple and their three children, dealing with the father's slide into dementia. It's terrifically written and the characters are explored in great detail as they cope with what's happening to them and their own terribly complicated lives. I'd highly recommend it, even if it may seem mundane; I have Freedom on the shelf but I don't think I'm quite ready to take the plunge again yet.

 

I'm making a renewed effort as of this week to read more and want to get back in to Sci-Fi, particularly some of the classics which I may never have read (Dune and Neuromancer for starters). I picked up American Gods by Neil Gaim, the latest Discworld and King's Under the Dome yesterday but have a shopping list which includes Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, Sisters Brothers and The Testament of Jessie Lamb. Any SF recommendation warmly received.

 

Edit - I've never read any Iain [M] Banks stuff either - am I right in thinking he uses the 'M' for his Sci-Fi work? He's been suggested to me by a few people but where to start?

[silverlining]

 

Any SF recommendation warmly received.

 

Edit - I've never read any Iain [M] Banks stuff either - am I right in thinking he uses the 'M' for his Sci-Fi work? He's been suggested to me by a few people but where to start?

 

 

SF is one genre I've never really embraced, although god knows I tried as a kid, I couldn't really ever manage it.

 

I think it's a pretty wide genre, too. Is "I Am Legend" SF? "Cloud Atlas"? They're both amazing books.

 

The only "proper" SF I have ever read is Iain Banks, and yes the "M" is used for his SF stuff, although he regrets that decision now, apparently.

 

He's got quite a few, and I've only read "Excession", "Matter" and "The Algebraist" and enjoyed them all.

 

Most are set in his "Culture" universe, although they all seem to work as stand alone books. They often feature sentient spaceships who are more entertaining than the main characters.

[Rorschach08]

Just read The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer over the last few days.

 

Cunt of a man but he's an absolutely brilliant author, Kane and Abel is still one of my favourite books ever.

[silverlining]

Just read The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer over the last few days.

 

Cunt of a man but he's an absolutely brilliant author, Kane and Abel is still one of my favourite books ever.

 

Good grief

[piscinin]

Just finished Dance with Dragons. It's still good but the guy is losing the plot, literally. Unlike Brendan I see more parallels with Jordan. Slumbering sub-plots taking a nap to let others catch up. Ridiculous backstory interjection. A Gymnast. Really? Almost as many not-quite-deads as false dragons, etc.

 

What started out as very tight and very gritty is getting a bit flabby and a bit pantomime. The next book will tell us whether he's just been resetting the pieces for the finale or whether, like Jordan, he was just stringing us along.

[Paul]

I've been reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes (this year) recently and as good as many of the stories are I found it way too repetitive by the middle of the last book and had to abandon it half-way through.

 

Since moving house I haven't read nearly as much as I'd like, I think I've gone through a few Stephen King books and went way out of my usual reading comfort zone with Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. It's a long, slow-paced book about an elderly couple and their three children, dealing with the father's slide into dementia. It's terrifically written and the characters are explored in great detail as they cope with what's happening to them and their own terribly complicated lives. I'd highly recommend it, even if it may seem mundane; I have Freedom on the shelf but I don't think I'm quite ready to take the plunge again yet.

 

I'm making a renewed effort as of this week to read more and want to get back in to Sci-Fi, particularly some of the classics which I may never have read (Dune and Neuromancer for starters). I picked up American Gods by Neil Gaim, the latest Discworld and King's Under the Dome yesterday but have a shopping list which includes Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, Sisters Brothers and The Testament of Jessie Lamb. Any SF recommendation warmly received.

 

Edit - I've never read any Iain [M] Banks stuff either - am I right in thinking he uses the 'M' for his Sci-Fi work? He's been suggested to me by a few people but where to start?

 

I love Iain M Banks' stuff. Read his Culture novels after reading the short story The State of the Art as it defines The Culture, Contact and Special Circumstances ahead of reading the more opaque books after it.

[bri]

got into my audiobooks recently as I can do other stuff whilst having it on, including taking a dump.

 

Listening to Steve Jobs biog, simply amazing to listen to and confirms light years ahead of his time. All be it a complete twat at times, I guess you might have to be at that level.

 

Profound as only now are windows starting to make product and considering opening stores along with samsung. Control of product from end to end was something apple did over 10 years ago.

 

Awesome read for anyone

[withnail71]

ok, whats this 50 shades book that all the women are on about ? If its just filth , why not just bang one out over internet porn ? women are odd fuckers.