Books & Reading Thread 2025
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Glad you found us again! I thought the tag was the best idea but maybe I'll send you a PM next year.
A few people have expressed an interest in the communal read idea so I'll have a think about how we can best go about this and post something in the next few weeks.
Just finished Rob Burrows Too Many Reasons To Live. Thought it was absolutely outstanding. One of the best sport books I've read. Highly recommended. Got a set of Bob the Cat books for Christmas so now reading 'Bob no ordinary cat'
stoneblue
Well-Known Member
1. Star of the North - D B John
My first read of the year is an unusual political thriller. The story starts when a young girl and her boyfriend disappear from a South Korean beach not far from North Korea.
The narrative picks up 12 years later and focuses around 3 characters; Jenna Williams, the missing girl’s twin sister who has never accepted the explanation (drowning) for her sister’s disappearance. The 2nd a high ranking North Korean official, Cho, who fears he may be descended from a traitor. In North Korea the sins of parents and grandparents are visited on their children.
The 3rd is an old woman who lives and works on a penal farm - she uses items she finds from an International Aid Balloon to her advantage. The story arcs of these 3 characters are separate initially but weave together as the book progresses.
I enjoyed this book, the story is engrossing and the North Korean elements harrowing in parts.
The author is one of few Westerners to have visited North Korea and co-authored "The Girl with Seven Names" with a woman who escaped North Korea and so can speak with some authority about the regime.
My first read of the year is an unusual political thriller. The story starts when a young girl and her boyfriend disappear from a South Korean beach not far from North Korea.
The narrative picks up 12 years later and focuses around 3 characters; Jenna Williams, the missing girl’s twin sister who has never accepted the explanation (drowning) for her sister’s disappearance. The 2nd a high ranking North Korean official, Cho, who fears he may be descended from a traitor. In North Korea the sins of parents and grandparents are visited on their children.
The 3rd is an old woman who lives and works on a penal farm - she uses items she finds from an International Aid Balloon to her advantage. The story arcs of these 3 characters are separate initially but weave together as the book progresses.
I enjoyed this book, the story is engrossing and the North Korean elements harrowing in parts.
The author is one of few Westerners to have visited North Korea and co-authored "The Girl with Seven Names" with a woman who escaped North Korea and so can speak with some authority about the regime.
Reading Mike shackle 3 series fantastic reading if you like fantasy books! 5/5
Half way through the Novel by Colleen Hoover called Verity very good something different to what I usually read..
Mike Shackle
Author Mike Shackle's list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
www.fantasticfiction.com
Half way through the Novel by Colleen Hoover called Verity very good something different to what I usually read..
Verity by Colleen Hoover
Verity by Colleen Hoover - book cover, description.
www.fantasticfiction.com
richardtheref
Well-Known Member
Pine by Francine Toon. 4/5
You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce 4/5
Good start to this years reading.
You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce 4/5
Good start to this years reading.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Mike Shackle's books sound interesting - comparisons have been made to Joe Abercrombie and Ed McDonald.
Joe Abercrombie is my all-time favourite author, and I've read Ed McDonald's books, so this might be up my street.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
For the fourth year in succession, I’ve read one of Will Dean’s Swedish-based thrillers. The fourth in the Tuva Moodyson series, Bad Apples, sees reporter Tuva taking on more responsibility and covering news stories for another town up the hill from her home in Gavrik. The residents of Visberg are another bunch of eccentric characters. They like to celebrate something called Pan Night – which seems like Halloween on steroids - and when a man is found decapitated in the woods (nothing to do with Pan Night as it’s at the start of the book), there’s no shortage of suspects. There’s the woman and her oddball son who run the self-storage depot, the twins who run a gaming café, the Bosnian who is rumoured to have killed may during the Balkans war, the town’s dentists, the Austrian clockmaker and various others. As ever, the story is well written and moves at a brisk pace. It’s a fairly easy read, but I enjoy the author’s first-person style and the characters and locale depicted in this series. I’ll definitely be back for more, especially as it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.
2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
For the fourth year in succession, I’ve read one of Will Dean’s Swedish-based thrillers. The fourth in the Tuva Moodyson series, Bad Apples, sees reporter Tuva taking on more responsibility and covering news stories for another town up the hill from her home in Gavrik. The residents of Visberg are another bunch of eccentric characters. They like to celebrate something called Pan Night – which seems like Halloween on steroids - and when a man is found decapitated in the woods (nothing to do with Pan Night as it’s at the start of the book), there’s no shortage of suspects. There’s the woman and her oddball son who run the self-storage depot, the twins who run a gaming café, the Bosnian who is rumoured to have killed may during the Balkans war, the town’s dentists, the Austrian clockmaker and various others. As ever, the story is well written and moves at a brisk pace. It’s a fairly easy read, but I enjoy the author’s first-person style and the characters and locale depicted in this series. I’ll definitely be back for more, especially as it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.