The GF book thread

[Pidge]

Started reading The Missing Lynx by Ross Barnett. Highly recommended for anyone with a passing interest in natural history. The guy is in the field and includes some really interesting scientific background alongside the well written descriptions and insights into Britain's extinct wildlife. 

[SasaS]

On 10/06/2023 at 01:09, Captain Turdseye said:

In today’s day and age, in the English speaking world, maybe we’re overdue one. Sometimes these things could be for the greater good. 

 

Like, when?

[Captain Turdseye]

7 minutes ago, SasaS said:

 

Like, when?

Thatcher would have been a good start. 

[Babb'sBurstNad]

On 10/06/2023 at 00:09, Captain Turdseye said:

In today’s day and age, in the English speaking world, maybe we’re overdue one. Sometimes these things could be for the greater good. 

 

These things gotta happen every 5 years or so, 10 Years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood.

[SasaS]

30 minutes ago, Captain Turdseye said:

Thatcher would have been a good start. 

 

I thought there were actual cases when assassinations proved to have been for the greater good.

[VladimirIlyich]

I have read the first four books by The Secret F**tballer and they were excellent. A must read for anybody on here who thinks footballers have any loyalty to their employers and all get on together in a team.

[polymerpunkah]

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (audio)

 

George V. Higgins

 

One of my favourite movies, and the book is just as good.

 

It's a great story, but on top of that it's mostly dialogue, and he does a fantastic job telling the story while keeping the dialogue perfectly natural.

 

A real gem, IMO.

[Em City]

'Age of Extremes' by Eric Hobsbawn.

 

This was my first Hobsbawn book and it was excellent. It's a comprehensive yet still extensive socio-economic based history of the world from the October revolution to the fall of the U.S.S.R covering everywhere from Latin America, North America, Europe to Asia. Highly recommend this to any history buffs.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

1 hour ago, polymerpunkah said:

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (audio)

 

George V. Higgins

 

One of my favourite movies, and the book is just as good.

 

It's a great story, but on top of that it's mostly dialogue, and he does a fantastic job telling the story while keeping the dialogue perfectly natural.

 

A real gem, IMO.

 

Picked that up a while ago and never got round to reading it. Cheers for reminding me.

[NoelM]

This is sad news, a brilliant writer.

 

 

[SasaS]

His last two titles felt like he knew he was writing his last book.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Any good horror books I feel like reading a horror, not stephen king I've just read one his books are too formulaic to be read close together.

[NoelM]

2 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Any good horror books I feel like reading a horror, not stephen king I've just read one his books are too formulaic to be read close together.

 

This is an interesting enough series, if you like world building type books. I listened to the audible version which was very well narrated by David Rintoul.

The Devil's Detective https://amzn.eu/d/d8IL3SH

 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Unfortunately it's not on kindle.

[Sugar Ape]

2 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Any good horror books I feel like reading a horror, not stephen king I've just read one his books are too formulaic to be read close together.

 This is from the last roundup I did last year if any of them catch your fancy:

 

 

Horror

 

Cunning Folk by Adam Nevill

Probably the best British Horror author around. He wrote The Ritual which Netflix made into a film. This is his latest one. 

 

Cunning Folk

 

Quote

 

Money's tight and their new home is a fixer-upper. Deep in rural South West England, with an ancient wood at the foot of the garden, Tom and his family are miles from anywhere and anyone familiar. His wife, Fiona, was never convinced that buying the money-pit at auction was a good idea. Not least because the previous owner committed suicide. Though no one can explain why.

Within days of crossing the threshold, when hostilities break out with the elderly couple next door, Tom's dreams of future contentment are threatened by an escalating tit-for-tat campaign of petty damage and disruption.

Increasingly isolated and tormented, Tom risks losing his home, everyone dear to him and his mind. Because, surely, only the mad would suspect that the oddballs across the hedgerow command unearthly powers. A malicious magic even older than the eerie wood and the strange barrow therein. A hallowed realm from where, he suspects, his neighbours draw a hideous power.

 

 

Dark Country by Monique Snyman

 

Dark Country

 

Quote

Too often people mistake monsters for gods. When a ravaged corpse is discovered in Pretoria, South Africa, Esmé Snyder―an occult-crime expert―is called in to investigate. But she doesn't know the scope of what she's up against. Esmé is the target of a cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer who uses the paranormal to do his bidding, with the intent of becoming a god on Earth. With assistance from her team―a brusque detective, eccentric millionaire, stoic priest, hawkeyed secretary, and handsome British forensic criminologist―Esmé hopes to find the killer before he strikes again. But the clock isn't all that's working against them. The media catches wind of the threat against the citizens of Pretoria, and their reported speculations promise a post-Apartheid Satanic Panic. As the body count grows, Esmé must figure out who is behind the heinous crimes before she ends up the final sacrifice. Dark Country highlights the multicultural mythologies, magic, histories, beauty, and horror of living in pseudo-modern South Africa.

 

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi

Heard nothing but good things about Malfi's books. Going to start with these two.

 

Black Mouth

 

Quote

 

For nearly two decades, Jamie Warren has been running from darkness. He's haunted by a traumatic childhood and the guilt at having disappeared from his disabled brother's life. But then a series of unusual events reunites him with his estranged brother and their childhood friends, and none of them can deny the sense of fate that has seemingly drawn them back together.

 

Nor can they deny the memories of that summer, so long ago – the strange magic taught to them by an even stranger man, and the terrible act that has followed them all into adulthood. In the light of new danger, they must confront their past by facing their futures, and hunting down a man who may very well be a monster.

 

 

Come with Me by Ronald Malfi

 

Come With Me

 

Quote

 

Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence―and her ghost―Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country. Piloted by grief and an increasing sense of curiosity, Aaron embarks on a journey to discover what Allison had been doing in the weeks prior to her death.

 

Yet Aaron is unprepared to discover the dark secrets Allison kept, the death and horror that make up the tapestry of her hidden life. And with each dark secret revealed, Aaron becomes more and more consumed by his obsession to learn the terrifying truth about the woman who had been his wife, even if it puts his own life at risk.

 

 

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

 

Quote

 

The Burning Girls

 

500 years ago: eight martyrs burned
30 years ago: two teenagers vanished
Two months ago: a vicar died mysteriously

Welcome to Chapel Croft.

For Rev Jack Brooks and teenage daughter Flo it's a fresh start. New job, new home. But in a close-knit community old superstitions and a mistrust of outsiders mean treading carefully.

Yet right away Jack has more frightening concerns.

Why did no one say the last vicar killed himself? Why is Flo plagued by visions of burning girls? And who is sending them threatening messages?

Old ghosts with scores to settle can never rest. And Jack is standing in their way . . .

 

 

From Below by Darcy Coates

 

From Below

 

Quote

 

Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course...a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean's surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.

Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia's rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.

But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.

 

 

Commodore by Philip Fracassi

Short story at about 90 pages but looks good and the author has got a couple of interesting looking books due out in the next year or so.

 

Commodore

 

Quote

There is a legend in the town of Sabbath that tells of a haunted car lost somewhere in the local junkyard. Young Jim Honeycutt and his friends have decided that they're going to find it today.

Unfortunately for them, they do.

And the ghost stories of that old Commodore can't even touch the horrors they are about to experience...

 

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed

I like Lovecraft themed stuff so I'll check this series out.

 

Beneath the Rising

 

Quote

 

Nick Prasad has always enjoyed a quiet life in the shadow of his best friend, child prodigy and technological genius Joanna ‘Johnny’ Chambers. But all that is about to end.

When Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity.

From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they will need to trust each other completely to survive…

 

 

 

 

I've also got my eye on this and will probably make this my next horror read after I finish the Star Wars books I'm reading. It's out mid-July and I fancied it anyway but seen Stephen King praising it after reading an advance copy.

 

Boys in the Valley

 

Quote

St. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys. Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania.

Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future. . . a family.

Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, occult symbols carved into his flesh. His death releases an ancient evil that spreads like sickness, infecting St. Vincent's and the children within.

Soon, boys begin acting differently, forming groups. Taking sides. Others turn up dead. Now Peter and those dear to him must choose sides of their own, each of them knowing their lives - and perhaps their eternal souls - are at risk.

The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies, by way of Midnight Mass, Boys in the Valley is a chilling folk horror set in a remote orphanage in turn of the century Pennsylvania.

 

[bossy]

If you have a kindle with kindle unlimited and enjoy police procedurals, a surprisingly enjoyable read is the Detective Sergeant Cross series by Tim Sullivan. Cross is on the autistic spectrum and so has a highly methodical approach towards investigating. Sounds a bit meh but I took a chance as they’re free, and they’re good.

[CapeRed]

Just finished Shoe Dog the story of Nike. Very enjoyable read.

[Elite]

Breaking Bones by Robert White. Gritty story about a small crime gang in Preston in the 80's. It's very, very good. Definitely going to read more of the authors stuff.

[Bruce Spanner]

'This Other Eden' By Paul Harding.

 

Beautiful and very, very sad.

[CapeRed]

1312 Among the Ultras - James Montague

a lot of stuff in this book that, as a football fan, i knew nothing about. Very interesting.

[SasaS]

Listened to an audio book of  Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel which several people mentioned on here, pretty good 7/10 - literary ambitious post-apocalypse eerily reminiscent of Covid epidemic (it's from 2014). It has probably ruined the TV adaptation for me now.

Also finally listened to the daddy of them all (I guess) The Day of the Triffids 8/10. It is a bit like with  Alien, the film, in the sense it has been copied so much you can no longer fully appreciate and enjoy it's ingenuity.

OK, Alien was also just the The Thing (the original) in space and the serious version of Dark Star, but still, highly influential.

I will stop now.

[polymerpunkah]

I read "Day of the Triffids" for the first time a few months ago.

 

I thought it was great; as you say, you can see how influential it was for so many books/movies. 

 

At this point, it's all been done before, it's just a question of how well any particular work executes/adapts the blueprint. It's good to have read one of the originals.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

 

Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis

 

In a word, disappointing.  The blurb and all the notes on the cover would make you think it was a comprehensive programme of well-reasoned and evidenced social and economic innovations for building a better world.

 

It isn't.

 

Instead, it's a poor attempt at sci-fi, with a load of semi-formed political and economic ideas stuffed into it.  It doesn't work as a political treatise, because none of the ideas are supported by facts or properly challenged. It doesn't work as a novel, because the characters are just shallow archetypes to hang those ideas on and there's no plot or character development to speak of.

 

Just don't bother with this book.

 

He should have listened to Ron.

[Elite]

City of Dreams by Don Winslow is absolutely fantastic. I listened the audiobook and the narrator has that Ray Liotta Goodfellas vibe. One of my favourite ever books this one.

 

@NoelM knocking it out of the park with his last few suggestions.

[NoelM]

3 hours ago, Elite said:

City of Dreams by Don Winslow is absolutely fantastic. I listened the audiobook and the narrator has that Ray Liotta Goodfellas vibe. One of my favourite ever books this one.

 

@NoelM knocking it out of the park with his last few suggestions.

Austin Butler has bought the rights to the film version and he is going to play Danny. Not sure how I feel about that, I think he's too "pretty"?

https://www.thewrap.com/austin-butler-city-on-fire-don-winslow-elvis/