The GF book thread

[longballs]

I have read a few books recently, mostly pretty old as I have been trying a few different authors.

 

Karin Slaughter - Skin Privilege - It was ok, nothing special though.

 

Tess Gerritsen - Vanish - Really good, this one. I will probably read a few more of hers.

 

Chris Evans autobiography - took no time at all to read this one, a simple and enjoyable read. I will certainly get the follow up.

 

I know this will be controversial, but the last one I finished today was 'catcher in the rye' and it's the biggest pile of shit I have ever read. A really frustrating read where fuck all but nonsense happened. Maybe it's one of those books that is better read when you're a kid.

 

Sticking on the controversial theme, I read about 200 pages of Homicide, Life on the streets and although I love all of David Simons work I just couldn't get in to this one.

 

Goodfellas - I flew through this one, a really interesting book with an insight in to the wiseguy culture.

 

Currently reading Gone tomorrow by Lee Child (my favourite author) and loving it. I usually give myself a bit of time between his books as they are very similar.

 

Arriving tomorrow I have Ellroys American Tabloid and also Shutter Island.

[Karl_b]

Arriving tomorrow I have Ellroys American Tabloid.

 

If you've never read it before then you're in for a treat; probably my favourite ever book.

[longballs]

If you've never read it before then you're in for a treat; probably my favourite ever book.

 

Nope, never read it, or any of his stuff. I started LA Confidential but didn't have the concentration for it at that time in my life. Heard good things about it and so thought I would give it a whirl.

[Juniper]

Just finished reading Kevin Sampson's 'Powder'

 

Charts the rise and fall of a Liverpool Rock and Roll band called 'The Grams'. Charts the band from being unsigned nobody's to superstars the world over. The book is split into two parts. Part one, The Rise. Part two, The Fall from Grace. Filled with coke induced sex and paranoia, all the things you would expect...but hardly glamorousing it all, it comes across more as a warning.

 

Was a very good book. The only downside for me was the ending. You follow each Character for such a long time it's a shame it's all wrapped up so quickly, even though you can see the way they are heading pretty soon as they get a whiff of sucess.

 

I'd definatly reconmend it to anyone into the Music or the industry itself. Plus if any of you know any young musician friends who dream of 'making it' then I'd also hand them a copy so they read about the many pitfalls around. Really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Have, this evening, read it's being released as a movie this year too.

[aws]

Nope, never read it, or any of his stuff. I started LA Confidential but didn't have the concentration for it at that time in my life. Heard good things about it and so thought I would give it a whirl.

 

 

American Tabloid is a great book but you'll need to stick with it because the style is unique and you have to adjust to it.

[Paul]

American Tabloid is a great book but you'll need to stick with it because the style is unique and you have to adjust to it.

 

Yep. You need to "Ellroy-ify" your brain. I tried to start with American Tabloid and failed miserably. I eventually read LA Confidential after having seen the film and that allowed me to get my head around the style whilst keeping a hold on the complex plotting.

 

I've now read everything of his bar Blood's a Rover which I'm struggling with again. My head has been de-Ellroyed, so I'm finding it heavy going.

[piscinin]

Yep. You need to "Ellroy-ify" your brain. I tried to start with American Tabloid and failed miserably. I eventually read LA Confidential after having seen the film and that allowed me to get my head around the style whilst keeping a hold on the complex plotting.

 

I've now read everything of his bar Blood's a Rover which I'm struggling with again. My head has been de-Ellroyed, so I'm finding it heavy going.

 

Sounds like fun. More challenging that Naked Lunch?

[Karl_b]

American Tabloid was also the first I'd read of his and it just didn't happen for me. I then went back and read everything else of his, in chronological order, to build up to the release of Blood's A Rover and to get to grips with his style. It worked as by the time I got back to American Tabloid and Cold Six Thousand I was blown away.

[Guest Dog Chaser]

Just read The Charm school by Nelson Demille, decent book with a good insight into Russian life during the cold war.

[Paul]

Sounds like fun. More challenging that Naked Lunch?

 

I've not read it mate, so I couldn't tell you. Ellroy's prose isn't completely "out there" like James Joyce's, for example, though. However, it's very clipped and terse, reflecting his uber-masculine characters, and it uses loads of jargon. When that's thrown into his, what can only be described as, labyrinthine plots, you get books which can be tough to get into.

 

That said, once it clicks in your head, it's a breeze. After LA Confidential, I rattled through his stuff in short order. However, it's a few years since I read anything by him now. I'm trying to persevere and not pick up my new Dennis Lehane that's been sitting there begging to be read for a while now. Hopefully I'll box it off in the next week or so as I've got a sweet little fortnight off work.

[Hermes]

I'd recommend:

 

How To get An All Over Bronzed Body - by Tanya Whiteside.

[Rico1304]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - absolutely amazing book.

[Karl_b]

Read the first compendium (issues 1-48 ) of The Walking Dead, a comic about a post zombie apocalypse. I really enjoyed it, it's a good take on the premise as it takes place over a long period of time so we see more about the relationships between the survivors and how they start to rebuild. The series is currently on issue 70 and I certainly don't want to wait until they get to issue 96 for the next compendium, so I'll be picking the smaller editions up.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Karl_b
god damn 8) smiley

[Yozzer]

Has anybody got any good non-fiction History books to recommend me, specialising in the era of The Russian Revolution up to Stalin and any books on the Rise of The Third Reich? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated and duly repped.

[Paulie Dangerously]

World War Z - Max Brooks

In the style of factual books with personal accounts of conflicts World War Z chronicles a fictional global outbreak of a Zombie virus told by the people who survived it.

 

Cracking book, extremely gripping and well written. Would be an ideal toilet book as it is essentially a series of short stories which follow the timeline of the worlds reaction and response to the zombie invasion.

 

9/10

[Section_31]

Been reading Churchill's The Second World war again, it's just absolutely full of first-hand gems. The absolute desperation of some of the situations in there are palpable, and some of it is genuinely funny.

 

For instance when they first started fighting the Italians in North Africa, the Italian attack formation had its motorbikes in front of its tanks and the Brits were all absolutely baffled, one of the officers said it "looked like a birthday party parade in Potters Bar."

 

Also, when the French were getting creamed by the Germans, the French government was evacuated to a seaside town on the French coast, Churchill flew over there as a sign of support but there was nobody to meet him and the whole place was deserted and locked down, so him and his generals went to a cafe which had been boarded up, knocked on the door and asked the owner if he'd do them all 'a spot of lunch' and sat there eating it while the whole place basically hid under its bed waiting for the Germans.

 

A lot of his memories also go along the lines of "while we were sailing we ate at the captain's table, Captain Smith was charm itself possessed of a sharp wit and brisk intelligence, but unfortunately months later he would find himself at the bottom of the sea with his fine ship."

 

"I ate scones with Colonel Jones on the lawn and we chatted heartily about our love for cricket, unfortunately, he was to find himself in several pieces only two weeks later."

 

You can see his absolute love for America though, but you can also see how they were manipulating him, it's incredible that the Empire he spoke so lovingly of throughout the book was being dismantled in front of him. "Roosevelt wasn't sure about our North African exploits, but he agreed to increase shipments...in exchange for basing rights in the Caribbean." There's a definite naivety there.

Edited April 18, 2010 by Section_31

[Total Longo]

Got 'Dawn of the dumb' on the way and I'm probably going to get john Leguizamo's autobiography too. Heard good things about it.

 

In terms of fiction, the only fiction I've read as an adult is American Psycho. Most other stuff completely bores me.

 

Dawn of the Dumb and American Psycho are two of the funniest books i have ever read, but for completely different reasons. Brooker embarrassed me on several occasions on the train home from work with some of his analogies in that book, I was laughing so hard, i was getting the "uh ho...Loonie" looks off the rest of the carriage.

[sloth_frattelli]

 

The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison.

 

 

Australian lad who got caught smuggling a shit load of heroin out of Thailand, got sentenced to 34 years. He ended up getting out after spending 12 horrific years after the king pardoned him, excellent book.

 

I loved this book as well. I've tried to find similar books since but none have compared to The Damage Done.

 

Recently read Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, a US Army helicopter pilot recounting his accounts of the Vietnam war. That was pretty...grim? Thoroughly entertaining none the less.

[longballs]

I read shutter Island the other week. I decided to pick up the book one some whopper on here ruined the film for me with a massive plot spoiler. Still not seen the film and although I knew the outcome, it was still a good book (it would have been much better not knowing the outcome). I enjoyed it all the same.

[Captain]

I just finished the first chapter of American Tabloid and it's looking very good so far. It's my first book by Ellroy, something tells me it won't be the last.

[Yozzer]

120 Days of Sodom - Marquis de Sade, also re-reading (yet again) The Stand by Stephen King, and finishing off by re-reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L Shirer.

 

Reading this for my History A-Level Personal Study, this better be good because it's 1000 odd pages long. A long hard slog over my holiday seems inevitable.

[Lee909]

Not sure if they have allready been mentioned

 

Conn Iggulddens Emperor Series and his newer Conquerer series both very very good

The Emperor series is about the life of Julius Cesar,the Conquerer series starts with Genghis Khan then goes on to his descendents. The next book is out in september.

 

David Gemmell Legend and follow ups on Druss the Legend, the books books on the Drenai are great aswell. I loved King Beyond the Gate, the other good charaters in my opinion are Skillganon and Waylander the Slayer.

 

Non fiction

Ghosts of Manilla was fantastic. Its the Story of the triller in Manilla 30 years or so after the fight and examins the fight game as a whole and gets away from the general public opinion of both men. I have posted the link as the revies on amazon are very long but are also very good.Ghosts of Manila: Amazon.co.uk: Mark Kram: Books

 

4 Kings George Kimball. The story of the 9 bouts between Hagler/Hearns/Leonard and Duran. It cover the decade these fights took place and the stories around them.

Highly Recomended.

 

No holds barred Clyde Gentryand

A very good book on the early days of the UFC and other MMA events.

 

A Fighters Heart Sam Sheriden.

One mans journey through martial arts. He look into why we fight and tries the training in various styles around the world. everything from Jui Jitsu with Brazilian Top Team in Rio, Thai Boxing at Fairtex,Boxing with Andre Ward prior to the olympics.

The only thing i was not keen on was there is a chapter were looks at the link between combat sports and Dog Fighting in some countries and he does a chapter on Dog/Cock fighting. It did make a interesting read but why anyone would be interetsed in such things i do not understand

[WaltonRed]

Girl with the dragon tattoo 10/10

[Captain]

I just finished the first chapter of American Tabloid and it's looking very good so far. It's my first book by Ellroy, something tells me it won't be the last.

 

Finished it some time ago, and liked it a lot.

[L19red]

currently reading Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Very interesting story about ordinary people in Germany trying in their own little way to show some resistance against the Nazi's.