Book suggestions

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Just finished two , totally different from each other .
Say Nothing about the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in Belfast . Goes into great detail and depth . Excellent book .
East of Eden by Steinbeck .
Absolute classic and rightly so . One of those that hooks you early on and keeps you there right up until the last paragraph.
Jumping right into Grapes of Wrath now
 
asgoodasitgets said:
Just finished two , totally different from each other .
Say Nothing about the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in Belfast . Goes into great detail and depth . Excellent book .
East of Eden by Steinbeck .
Absolute classic and rightly so . One of those that hooks you early on and keeps you there right up until the last paragraph.
Jumping right into Grapes of Wrath now
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Grapes of Wrath - All time favourite book. It's just brilliant. And still as relevant now as when it was written, sadly.
 
This week I've finished:

Only Child - Jack Ketchum
Remains - Andrew Cull
My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix

May start Dan Simmons's Hyperion books again. Thought they were brilliant first time I read them
 
I'm somewhere around 230 pages into the uncut version of The Stand by Stephen King about 40 years after reading the original, which I've long ranked one of my two favourite books so it will be interesting to see how I feel about it this time round.
 
Just finished Outpost by Andrew Baker. Its about some people trapped on an oil refinery in the Arctic when a virus hits the world. Part of a 4 part series. Really enjoyed it.
 
OB1 said:
I'm somewhere around 230 pages into the uncut version of The Stand by Stephen King about 40 years after reading the original, which I've long ranked one of my two favourite books so it will be interesting to see how I feel about it this time round.
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Still his best work I believe.
 
asgoodasitgets said:
Just finished two , totally different from each other .
Say Nothing about the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in Belfast . Goes into great detail and depth . Excellent book .
East of Eden by Steinbeck .
Absolute classic and rightly so . One of those that hooks you early on and keeps you there right up until the last paragraph.
Jumping right into Grapes of Wrath now
Click to expand...
Update
Finished Grapes of Wrath , a deserved classic .
Steinbeck’s writing is stunning. It just draws you in and before you know it,you’re hooked . Very descriptive without being flowery and you get attached to characters quite easily.
I then moved onto a book of his short stories . Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row and The Pearl amongst others and they were simply brilliant . Cannery Row is just sublime IMHO .
Just moving on now to Sweet Thursday , which is the sequel to it.

I used to read a lot when I was younger but simply got out of the habit . I asked my daughter, who is an avid bookworm , for a few recommendations and she put me onto Steinbeck amongst others . She did say he was one of her favourites . So glad I opted for them .
Sitting in the garden , good weather , gin and tonic and Steinbeck . Happy Days .
 
Nearly finished The Institute by Stephen King.

Not bad, certainly one of his better ones.
 
Three good rears I've had are

The Gangs of Manchester - by Andrew Davies
After Dunkirk by Saul David
The Gallipoli Oak by Martin Purdy and Ian Dawson - a must read if you are from or have links to Middleton, Rochdale or Todmorden
 
OB1 said:
I'm somewhere around 230 pages into the uncut version of The Stand by Stephen King about 40 years after reading the original, which I've long ranked one of my two favourite books so it will be interesting to see how I feel about it this time round.
Click to expand...

1961_vintage said:
Still his best work I believe.
Click to expand...


A book which gripped me right the way through (as most of Kings do) but surely one of the worst endings of any of them?
 
So far since the lockdown Ive re-read Robinson Crusoe and The Count of Monte Cristo. My two favourite books. I finally finished Heroditus' Histories which was a bit of a slog to get to the Spartans and then brushed over them like a side show! I read Michael Caine's "Blowing the Bloody Doors Off" in an afternoon, light but interesting in parts if a bit repetitive.
I'm about to start Vietnam by Max Hastings which should keep me going for a week or two.
 
This came out in paperback a couple of days ago. Got it on order.

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Review here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...rees-history-of-philosophy-ac-grayling-review

Here's a link to enable browsing:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7T2lDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ree+Witcraft&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW1430s_voAhURrHEKHbTQDaMQ6AEIQDAD#v=onepage&q=Ree Witcraft&f=false

It looks very different from one of those dry publications that whisk you through the greats.

Pages 27 (on Lady Jane Grey) through to 29 ('Do not put meat into a pisspot' - a distillation of Pythagorean wisdom?) persuaded me to make the purchase.
 
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Gelsons Dad said:
So far since the lockdown Ive re-read Robinson Crusoe and The Count of Monte Cristo. My two favourite books. I finally finished Heroditus' Histories which was a bit of a slog to get to the Spartans and then brushed over them like a side show! I read Michael Caine's "Blowing the Bloody Doors Off" in an afternoon, light but interesting in parts if a bit repetitive.
I'm about to start Vietnam by Max Hastings which should keep me going for a week or two.
Click to expand...

If you enjoyed Robinson Crusoe, read his Journal of the Plague Year. It is utterly gripping. It reads like a piece of hands-on in-your-face Kate Adie journalism on the ground. Of what's going on, day by day. The astounding thing is that it was written decades after the plague year in London (1665). It's all a reconstruction. Like Robinson Crusoe, of course, which as you know was based on his interviews with Selkirk. I've got a lot of time for Daniel Defoe. Even Moll Flanders, which I found frankly tedious when I had to it for A level, I found much more enjoyable and cunning when I re-read it decades later.
 
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