Books & Reading Thread 2025

[WEMBLEY76]

Just ordered the last 5 Dick Francis books I haven’t yet read,do like a good racing related story.

 

[RobMCFC]

Rounding out 2024''s reads:-

1. Fairy Tale – Stephen King - 5/10
2. Wolf Pack – Will Dean - 7/10
3. A Small Death in Lisbon – Robert Wilson - 6/10
4. A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman – 8/10
5. Tomorrow's Children – Daniel Polansky – 3/10
6. The Mobster’s Lament – Ray Celestin – 8/10
7. Priest of Crowns – Peter McLean – 9/10
8. Get It On: How the ‘70s Rocked Football – Jon Spurling – 9/10
9. The Effigy Engine – Scott Lynch – 7/10
10. The Ferryman – Justin Cronin – 8/10
11. Catch a Wave – Peter Ames Carlin – 8/10
12. Sunset Swing – Ray Celestin – 7/10
13. When Giants Walked the Earth: 50 years of Led Zeppelin - Mick Wall – 7/10
14. A Year and a Day in Old Theradane – Scott Lynch – 6/10
15. You Like It Darker – Stephen King – 8/10

This is a great collection of stories from Stephen King. They range from short to novella length and the most engaging are the longer stories.

Two Talented Bastids tells the tale of how two men went from nothing to being household names seemingly overnight. This occurred after they got lost in the woods one night. This story has a preposterous explanation, but the build up and slow unspooling of the tale is so good that it makes the whole thing enjoyable.

Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream is the longest story in the book. Danny has a single psychic flash that reveals the location of a dead girl’s body, and soon he is the prime suspect pursued by a relentless cop. The cop is a great character here and his bizarre obsession with numbers gives the story a fascinating dimension.

The Dreamers is a terrific piece of Lovecraftian horror, and I also enjoyed Rattlesnakes and The Answer Man too.

 

[ob]

Rounding out 2024''s reads:-

1. Fairy Tale – Stephen King - 5/10
2. Wolf Pack – Will Dean - 7/10
3. A Small Death in Lisbon – Robert Wilson - 6/10
4. A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman – 8/10
5. Tomorrow's Children – Daniel Polansky – 3/10
6. The Mobster’s Lament – Ray Celestin – 8/10
7. Priest of Crowns – Peter McLean – 9/10
8. Get It On: How the ‘70s Rocked Football – Jon Spurling – 9/10
9. The Effigy Engine – Scott Lynch – 7/10
10. The Ferryman – Justin Cronin – 8/10
11. Catch a Wave – Peter Ames Carlin – 8/10
12. Sunset Swing – Ray Celestin – 7/10
13. When Giants Walked the Earth: 50 years of Led Zeppelin - Mick Wall – 7/10
14. A Year and a Day in Old Theradane – Scott Lynch – 6/10
15. You Like It Darker – Stephen King – 8/10

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This is a great collection of stories from Stephen King. They range from short to novella length and the most engaging are the longer stories.

Two Talented Bastids tells the tale of how two men went from nothing to being household names seemingly overnight. This occurred after they got lost in the woods one night. This story has a preposterous explanation, but the build up and slow unspooling of the tale is so good that it makes the whole thing enjoyable.

Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream is the longest story in the book. Danny has a single psychic flash that reveals the location of a dead girl’s body, and soon he is the prime suspect pursued by a relentless cop. The cop is a great character here and his bizarre obsession with numbers gives the story a fascinating dimension.

The Dreamers is a terrific piece of Lovecraftian horror, and I also enjoyed Rattlesnakes and The Answer Man too.

Really struggling with Fairy Tale by Stephen King. About half way through and not sure how many times I've stopped then gone back to it since about April/May

 

[RobMCFC]

Really struggling with Fairy Tale by Stephen King. About half way through and not sure how many times I've stopped then gone back to it since about April/May

Yep. See my 5/10 from the start of the year. A really good start became a long, dull, tedious read.

You Like It Darker is far better and as it's a series of short stories, is easier to pick up and put down.

 

[richardtheref]

1. The Liar by Steve Cavanagh 4/5
Enjoyed the previous 2 in the Eddie Flynn series but this is my favourite so far

 

[stoneblue]

I’m afraid I’ve neglected to update my reads as frequently as I should have done last year (for me that was the challenge element of the former thread heading!) and I will do better this year. I read 30 books in 2024 plus 1 audiobook. I mainly played safe with the usual thrillers, mostly Australian.

The best book that I read in 2024 was “You Like it Darker”, a collection of short stories by Stephen King; “Holly” by the same author was an enjoyable if macabre read and I’m looking forward to the next in the series “Near Flinch” due out later this year. There were no real duds.

After enjoying “Billy Summers” a couple of years ago and the two mentioned above, I will be looking to read some of Stephen King’s back catalogue this year.

2024 Books

1. The Way it is Now - Gary Disher 7
2. Kicking Back Nedum Onuoha 7
3. Into the River - Mark Brandi 8
4. The Secret Hours - Mick Herron 6
5. Kill for Me, Kill for You - Steve Cavanagh 6
6. Holly - Stephen King 8.5
7. A Man called Ove - Fredrik Backman 7
8. Cover the Bones (The Seven) - Chris Hammer 8
9. 1979 - Val McDermid 7
10. Prisoner - S R White 8
11. The Torrent - Dinuka McKenzie 8
12. Dissolution - C J Sansom 7
13. The Shadows of London - Andrew Taylor 7
14. Taken - Dinuka McKenzie 7
15. The Accidental Footballer - Pat Nevin 7
16. The Man in the Bunker - Rory Clements 7
17. Even Dogs in the Wild - Ian Rankin 8
18. Rather be the Devil - Ian Rankin 7
19. The Crocodile Hunter - Gerald Seymour 7
20. You Like It Darker - Stephen King 9
21. The Best Revenge - Gerald Seymour 7
22. The Pep Revolution - Marti Perarnau 6
23. The Dark Remains - William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin 7
24. Runaway - Peter May 7
25. White Ash Ridge - S R White 8
26. Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connolly 7
27. The War of the Worlds - H G Wells 8
28. Wedding Guest - Jonathan Kellerman 8
29. Opal - Patricia Wolf 7
30. Toast on Toast - Steven Toast (Audiobook) 8
31. The Ghost Orchid - Jonathan Kellerman 7

 

[PinkFinal]

I find it very hard to read fiction nowadays but one of the last fiction books I read was by Mark Hodkinson (who's from Middleton / Rochdale) who wrote an excellent and darkly funny novel The Last Mad Surge of Youth which is basically satire about an aging indie rocker . He's now written a memoir called No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy about growing up in a working class area in the 70s and 80s and being a high brow reader.