Books & Reading Thread 2025

[ob]

Finished Shadow of the Wind (eventually). To be honest struggled with it and lost my way a few times while reading it. Not sure it down to the book and it just didn't catch my imagination or just too busy to read recently. Certainly preferred the Bob Mortimer one out of the 2 books. Next on agenda is On Wings of Eagles

 

[RobMCFC]

Finished Shadow of the Wind (eventually). To be honest struggled with it and lost my way a few times while reading it. Not sure it down to the book and it just didn't catch my imagination or just too busy to read recently. Certainly preferred the Bob Mortimer one out of the 2 books. Next on agenda is On Wings of Eagles

That's a shame and apologies if me bigging it up set your expectations too high.

I've read it three times and it never fails to suck me into the author's world.

 

[ob]

That's a shame and apologies if me bigging it up set your expectations too high.

I've read it three times and it never fails to suck me into the author's world.

No need to apologise at all. I enjoyed the start and the concept of the book think maybe spoilt a little as I was stop/start when reading it

 

[RobMCFC]

2023 Books

1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
3. The Winter Road – Adrian Selby – 6/10
4. The Dark Place – Damian Vargas – 9/10
5. Act of Oblivion – Robert Harris – 7/10
6. The Tyranny of Faith – Richard Swan – 7/10
7. The Game – Micah Richards – 8/10
8. The Ticket Collector from Belarus – Mike Anderson and Neil Hanson – 8/10
9. The Satsuma Complex – Bob Mortimer – 6/10
10. Notes on an Execution – Danya Kukafka – 9/10
11. And Away … – Bob Mortimer – 7/10
12. Dead Man's Blues - Ray Celestin – 8/10
13. On Wings of Eagles – Ken Follett – 8/10

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while. My Dad read it in the 80s, and he recommended it to me. But the paperback remained unread on my shelf for many years until it eventually got discarded during a clear out.

It was worth the wait. Outside of sport, the Iranian Revolution was one of the first major world events that I remember being reported on the TV. I read Mark Bowden’s excellent Guests of the Ayatollah years ago, so it was good to finally read this account of another international incident that took place a few months before the US hostage crisis.

I'll withhold most of the review until others have read it, but I enjoyed it.

 

[JRockBlues]

Time once again for another of those catchup posts.

The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross

The continuing adventures of Bob Howard, IT Specialist and field agent for the British Secret Service section dealing in the occult. This time around there’s some very cultish behaviour for Bb & the gang to deal with and we get to to learn some back-story to a supporting character as well as Mo’s violin. Get the feeling there’s going to be some fallout from this instalment further along in the series. 3½★'s


Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

4th book in the Ender’s Game series continues in an interesting way but is not a great story. There’s a mix of credible science mixed with the more fantastical and the author seems to shy away from the questions this work could be asking. I still intend to get to the Shadow series at some point. 3★'s


Absolute Sandman Overture by Neil Gaiman

This collection brings together the 6 volumes of the Sandman prequel series about what happened to Dream of the Endless to leave him in the state where he could be captured and bound by a human at the start of the main series. As well as cameo’s from his siblings we also get to meet mummy & daddy this time along.

Packaged in faux leather binding and the oversize pages showcase the art of [[J. H. Williams, III]] beautifully with some even displayed on 4-page spreads. Additional material provided includes: The Artist’s Edition, every age of Williams’ painted artwork before the addition of final colouring and digital effects. Script for issue 1, Interviews with the principals involved in making this book, variant covers and other artwork and short biographies. 4★'s


Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

Having read some of the authors comic books I thought it was time to see how he transitioned to the novel form. It translates into a gritty, dark, crude and depraved look at the seedier side of life by way of a private detective searching for a book for the Vice-President of the United States which could help turn the tide of moral decay spreading in the country and worldwide. His search starts of with macroherpetophilia (don’t look this one up in work) and gets progressively worse with each step. For me, it was a helluva lot of fun. 4★'s


The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Collection of short stories ranging from the opening chapter of a novel to little snippets of ordinary lives. A lot of these deal with the sense of loneliness that can creep into the everyday life. Well written as ever from the author but short stories are just not my favourite form of prose. 3½★'s


Every Dead Thing by John Connolly

Dark and grisly thriller with a touch of the supernatural about it. Opens with a brutal murder which sends the main character, Charlie Parker, into a spiral into darkness. Quits his job on the police force so that he can follow any lead no matter how tenuous and do the things that cops aren’t supposed to be able to do to find any scrap of information that will eventually lead him to the killer. To try and end his descent a former colleague and friend asks Parker to look into the disappearance of a young woman with links to a charitable trust.

There is a lot of violence in this book and it’s usually described quite graphically. It features mutilation, flayed victims and other traumatic scenes throughout. It’s also very much a first book and not without some of the problems that can occur. The dialogue is a bit clunk, it’s a book very much of it’s time and I doubt very much it would pass the Bechdel test as although there is a strong female character she is used primarily as a love interest/plot device. Some of the other background characters are interesting though and hopefully they recur in later books of the series. It’s not often that you get a gay black couple who are both strong and capable people in their own right. Yes, that does mean I intend to continue with the series as, despite it’s faults, this was an enjoyable read. 3½★'s

 

[richardtheref]

The Rise & Fall of D.O.D.O - Neale Stephenson & Nicple Gallard 2/5

The Defence - Steve Cavanagh 3/5

 

[SWP's back]

1. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch. 7/10.
2. The Racketeer - John Grisham. 5/10.
3. Orphan X - Gregg Hurwitz. 9/10.
4. The Longest Kill - Craig Harrison. 8/10.
5. Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka. 8/10.
6. The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer. 7/10.
7. The Garderobe of Death - Howard of Warwick - 6/10.
8. A Village in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd, Angelina Patel - 9/10.
9. Three Days in June - James O'Connell - 9/10.
10. The Guv'nor - Lenny McLean - 10/10.

Superb book (audiobook version) finished in about five days. I kept finding more and more gardening jobs, and errands to run, so that I could continue to listen to Lenny's life story. Or stories. He seemed to have endless anecdotes and tales from an adventurous life. An excellent autobiography - never a dull moment.

Lenny's is a life and lifestyle totally alien to me. Brought up by a physically abusive step-father, who married his mother when his father died young, Lenny learned at a very early age to absorb physical pain such that it never bothered him. The system was never really for the likes of Lenny, so in adult life, he pretty much entered the underworld of protecting, avenging, street fighting, bare knuckle fighting and unlicensed boxing. He became the undisputed Guv'nor of his manor (in London), then London, then probably the UK. He even went to New York to fight and beat the Mafia's own champion.

What makes Lenny endearing though is that he wasn't a bully. He was never abusive or violent towards his family. He claims he didn't pick on innocents or "straights". He did dispense his own violent form of justice though, towards those who didn't recognise the authority of the Old Bill. He hated the police, but he tells how he rescued a young police woman who was being unfairly bullied by a gang of yobs.

His violence sometimes went too far, and he would end up in trouble with the law. He was no stranger to the inside of a prison cell or a hospital ward.

A lovable rogue. He died before his 50th birthday from cancer.

A rare 10/10 from me. Not a book of epic ambition, but a really absorbing life story, and a genuine page turner (or audio equivalent).

I read this a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I even went as far as watching footage from some of his unlicensed boxing bouts on YouTube. He was a scary scary man to fight against, no doubt.

 

[RobMCFC]

Books

1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
3. The Winter Road – Adrian Selby – 6/10
4. The Dark Place – Damian Vargas – 9/10
5. Act of Oblivion – Robert Harris – 7/10
6. The Tyranny of Faith – Richard Swan – 7/10
7. The Game – Micah Richards – 8/10
8. The Ticket Collector from Belarus – Mike Anderson and Neil Hanson – 8/10
9. The Satsuma Complex – Bob Mortimer – 6/10
10. Notes on an Execution – Danya Kukafka – 9/10
11. And Away … – Bob Mortimer – 7/10
12. Dead Man's Blues - Ray Celestin – 8/10
13. On Wings of Eagles – Ken Follett – 8/10
14. Priest of Gallows – Peter McLean – 8/10

This is the third book in the War for the Rose Throne series that follows the story of ex-soldier, Thomas Piety, and his ascent from gang leader to the higher echelons of the Queen’s Men (a fantasy version of MI5).

I think the writing is improving with every book, and I enjoyed this immensely. The plot centres on the political shenanigans that put a young princess in line for the throne, but as Thomas discovers, not all is right with the Queen to be.

The series concludes with a fourth book, which I’ll save for a holiday next year.

 

[stoneblue]

20/23 The Rebel’s Mark - S W Perry



21/23 The Sinner’s Mark - S W Perry



These are the 5th and 6th books in The Jackdaw Mysteries series, featuring Dr Nicholas Shelby and his wife Bianca and several other regular characters.

The first story is set in 1598 where Shelby and Bianca have returned to Court from Padua.
Shelby works as a reluctant spy for Robert Cecil and when Cecil receives an enigmatic letter from England's greatest living poet in Ireland (Edmund Spencer), he dispatches Nicholas to meet with him. Accompanied by Bianca he travels to Ireland but is soon finds himself drawn into the Irish Rebellion and Cecil's powerplay with Robert, Earl of Essex.

In the second story it’s now 1600 and sees the arrival in London of an old friend of Doctor Shelby but his wife Bianca soon begins to suspect all is not what it seems behind his reasons for being in London. The backdrop to the story is the turbulent period towards the end of Elizabeth I’s reign and Shelby has found himself owing Robert Cecil a favour and he gets drawn into a plot to overthrow the state.

Perry is a good author of historical fiction and cleverly weaves real characters and events alongside fictional equivalents. For me, C J Sansom is the best author of this genre/period but Perry isn’t too far behind.

Although each could be read as a standalone story, you’d likely get more out of them by reading the series from the beginning.

 

[JRockBlues]

The Dark Heart of the Nightside by Simon R. Green


Omnibus edition which contains books 5 & 6 of the series.

Paths Not Taken is the first of these and continues pretty much from where the previous one ended. Now that John Taylor, the Nightside’s resident private detective, has discovered who his mother is and seen a future devastation that she causes John decides he needs more information and plans a trip back in time to the very creation of the hidden city within a city. He knows such a journey won’t be easy so enlists some help to deal with the perils that are bound to occur. Shotgun Suzie is again along for the ride and they are accompanied by Tommy Oblivion, an existential detective. After dealing with some local unpleasantness they’re off to see Father Time to see if he’ll be willing to send them on their way and that’s when the fun really begins.

Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth is the 2nd part of this duology and deals with the consequences of what they found in the first and concludes the Lilith arc in an epic confrontation.

Despite being so far into the series I still have no real affinity for the characters. The lead is still pretty much the same person he was at the outset despite all that’s happened to him and the supporting cast are almost just cardboard cut-outs to use as cannon fodder or bounce plot points off. The stories themselves are okay though with plenty of action and imaginative use of varying magical implementations to get through some sticky situations. This is probably the end of this series for me though as I’m not looking to seek out the next book and it’s as good a place as any to leave.

 

[Paladin]

1. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch. 7/10.
2. The Racketeer - John Grisham. 5/10.
3. Orphan X - Gregg Hurwitz. 9/10.
4. The Longest Kill - Craig Harrison. 8/10.
5. Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka. 8/10.
6. The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer. 7/10.
7. The Garderobe of Death - Howard of Warwick - 6/10.
8. A Village in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd, Angelina Patel - 9/10.
9. Three Days in June - James O'Connell - 9/10.
10. The Guv'nor - Lenny McLean - 10/10.
11. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - 7/10.

I won't bore you with an appraisal. Suffice to say that I love dipping in to English classical literature from time to time, so I turned to this novel for the first time, and enjoyed it.

My favourite author by far, is Charles Dickens, and I'm looking forward to my annual reading of A Christmas Carol in a couple of months.

I have to confess to being very far behind with On the Wings of Eagles, so don't wait for me with your reviews. I'm freeing up some time and my bookshelf for the fourth group read though.

 

[Paladin]

1. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch. 7/10.
2. The Racketeer - John Grisham. 5/10.
3. Orphan X - Gregg Hurwitz. 9/10.
4. The Longest Kill - Craig Harrison. 8/10.
5. Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka. 8/10.
6. The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer. 7/10.
7. The Garderobe of Death - Howard of Warwick - 6/10.
8. A Village in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd, Angelina Patel - 9/10.
9. Three Days in June - James O'Connell - 9/10.
10. The Guv'nor - Lenny McLean - 10/10.
11. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - 7/10.
12. The Brief - Simon Michael - 6/10.

This came up in my recommended list on Audible, after I finished The Guv'nor, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was ok, nothing special. A solicitor is framed for murdering his wife, and has to prove his own innocence.

Did cardboard coffee cups exist in the early 1960s? I don't remember seeing branches of Costa back in the day on Dixon of Dock Green or ZCars. Or The Sweeney, for that matter.

SOCOs weren't used in the MET until 1968, so this book was ahead of its time on this matter too. These little inaccuracies irritate me.

 

[RobMCFC]

1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
3. The Winter Road – Adrian Selby – 6/10
4. The Dark Place – Damian Vargas – 9/10
5. Act of Oblivion – Robert Harris – 7/10
6. The Tyranny of Faith – Richard Swan – 7/10
7. The Game – Micah Richards – 8/10
8. The Ticket Collector from Belarus – Mike Anderson and Neil Hanson – 8/10
9. The Satsuma Complex – Bob Mortimer – 6/10
10. Notes on an Execution – Danya Kukafka – 9/10
11. And Away … – Bob Mortimer – 7/10
12. Dead Man's Blues - Ray Celestin – 8/10
13. On Wings of Eagles – Ken Follett – 8/10
14. Priest of Gallows – Peter McLean – 8/10
15. Quantum Radio – A.G.Riddle – 3/10

It’s hard to give this book an objective score. It was a good idea that started well (for about 10 pages) and then went downhill faster than Franz Klammer.

An American physicist is working at CERN in Geneva when he makes an amazing discovery. Soon he becomes the target for unknown assassins and has to escape Switzerland and find out why he is being marked for death.

The thing that really put me off was the horrible writing. I mean, the author can string sentences together and his grammar is OK, but he seems to have set out to prove that one of the cardinal rules of writing: “Show, don’t tell”, doesn’t apply to him.

This book is full of characters telling each other things they already know, just for the reader’s benefit and it’s possibly the clunkiest exposition I’ve ever read. Two characters talk to each other in an abandoned museum, reading sentence after sentence from a display plaque that explains what’s happened for the last 80 years or so. Does this sound tedious to you? Well, you’d be correct, it is.

The characters themselves are pretty thin. The author seems to have made and effort the put some meat on the bones, but I still didn’t care because the writing was so dull and once again, he just tells us about their emotions rather than showing us.

Whilst I was fine with the wildly speculative plot in general, some of the resolutions were akin to parachuting into Nazi Germany, telling Hitler there was a better way to solve the world’s problems, and Hitler saying “Right-oh, I didn’t think of that. Let’s try it your way!” Really dumb, lazy and stupid storytelling.

The author is obviously doing something right because he has sold over 5 millions books? This book gets one 4- or 5- star review after another on Amazon and his Goodreads average is 4.2. WTF? Trawling both the Amazon and Goodreads review pages for long enough did reveal a few dissenting voices that pretty much summed up how I felt about the book, so I don’t feel too odd now. On Goodreads, there were quite a few readers who reported this book as a DNF, and I can quite understand why.

 

[stoneblue]

My favourite author by far, is Charles Dickens, and I'm looking forward to my annual reading of A Christmas Carol in a couple of months.

Like you I enjoy reading one of the classics from time to time but to my everlasting regret/shame I’ve never really got on with Dickens. Perhaps it was studying Barnaby Rudge at school! I’ve always really loved the BBC dramatisations of his work, they seem to do Dickens really well and I think the opening sentence to A Tale of Two Cities must be one of the greatest opening lines to a novel.

I’ve never read A Christmas Carol so perhaps I’ll give that a go over the Festive period and maybe have a stab at one of the others.

My favourite classic author is Wilkie Collins, a close friend of Dickens.

@RobMCFC, perhaps one of the classics for the Q4 read?

 

[RobMCFC]

Like you I enjoy reading one of the classics from time to time but to my everlasting regret/shame I’ve never really got on with Dickens. Perhaps it was studying Barnaby Rudge at school! I’ve always really loved the BBC dramatisations of his work, they seem to do Dickens really well and I think the opening sentence to A Tale of Two Cities must be one of the greatest opening lines to a novel.

I’ve never read a Christmas Carol so perhaps I’ll give that a go over the Festive period and maybe have a stab at one of the others.

My favourite classic author is Wilkie Collins, a close friend of Dickens.

@RobMCFC, perhaps one of the classics for the Q4 read?

I must be a philistine because every classic I've tried to read, I'm just bored to tears by them. 1984, Tom Sawyer and Dracula spring to mind. I haven't tried Dickens, and I may like some of his work, who knows?

I'm more than happy if people want a classic as the shared read in Q4, but depending on the time I may have to commit to it, I may opt out!

 

[Berts Neck]

1. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch. 7/10.
2. The Racketeer - John Grisham. 5/10.
3. Orphan X - Gregg Hurwitz. 9/10.
4. The Longest Kill - Craig Harrison. 8/10.
5. Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka. 8/10.
6. The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer. 7/10.
7. The Garderobe of Death - Howard of Warwick - 6/10.
8. A Village in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd, Angelina Patel - 9/10.
9. Three Days in June - James O'Connell - 9/10.
10. The Guv'nor - Lenny McLean - 10/10.
11. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - 7/10.

I won't bore you with an appraisal. Suffice to say that I love dipping in to English classical literature from time to time, so I turned to this novel for the first time, and enjoyed it.

My favourite author by far, is Charles Dickens, and I'm looking forward to my annual reading of A Christmas Carol in a couple of months.

I have to confess to being very far behind with On the Wings of Eagles, so don't wait for me with your reviews. I'm freeing up some time and my bookshelf for the fourth group read though.

Mine too..Lived and worked in Rochester for a while..so Dickens is a big presence there..Now if you love Dickens and are in Kent visit Cooling Church..Pips Graves from the start of Great Expectations are there, very sad to see..nearly bought the house over the road but had been a cattery and can be allergic to some cats so declined..Had I done so Jools Holland would have been my neighbour at Cooling Castle..Cool for Cats !!

 

[Paladin]

Mine too..Lived and worked in Rochester for a while..so Dickens is a big presence there..Now if you love Dickens and are in Kent visit Cooling Church..Pips Graves from the start of Great Expectations are there, very sad to see..nearly bought the house over the road but had been a cattery and can be allergic to some cats so declined..Had I done so Jools Holland would have been my neighbour at Cooling Castle..Cool for Cats !!

Thanks for the recommendation. We like to get around the country, but haven't ventured as far as Kent yet. It's on my list of places to visit.

Northumberland, Yorkshire, Devon, Cotswolds and Norfolk have all received us this year. All with no accommodation costs. [emoji846]

 

[Berts Neck]

Thanks for the recommendation. We like to get around the country, but haven't ventured as far as Kent yet. It's on my list of places to visit.

Northumberland, Yorkshire, Devon, Cotswolds and Norfolk have all received us this year. All with no accommodation costs. [emoji846]

Well Cooling Church borders the Kent Marshes where Great Expectations starts..Rochester is nice but the Medway Towns in general are not great..if in that area and interested in the history great but not much else there..Lived in Hollingbourne over the way from Leeds Castle..possibly thought of as the most beautiful castle in the UK..Coastal Kent, Whistable, nice but now very busy and expensive..Margate Ramsgate not worth it..The Weald has beautiful villages.. Darling Buds of May types..can always PM and will advise.

 

[RobMCFC]

Well Cooling Church borders the Kent Marshes where Great Expectations starts..Rochester is nice but the Medway Towns in general are not great..if in that area and interested in the history great but not much else there..Lived in Hollingbourne over the way from Leeds Castle..possibly thought of as the most beautiful castle in the UK..Coastal Kent, Whistable, nice but now very busy and expensive..Margate Ramsgate not worth it..The Weald has beautiful villages.. Darling Buds of May types..can always PM and will advise.

My brother-in-law lived in Kent for 15 years, so we had many visits down there.

Leeds Castle, Hever Castle and Whitstable were great.

We even went to the short-lived Dickens World, which was an indoor "theme park" based on Dickens' works, including the Great Expectations Boat Ride - a real one-of-a-kind place and a shame it shut down.

 

[Paladin]

I must be a philistine because every classic I've tried to read, I'm just bored to tears by them. 1984, Tom Sawyer and Dracula spring to mind. I haven't tried Dickens, and I may like some of his work, who knows?

I'm more than happy if people want a classic as the shared read in Q4, but depending on the time I may have to commit to it, I may opt out!

Philistine! I tried and didn't complete 1984 and Tom Sawyer. I thought Dracula was ok. Thomas Hardy tends to have sad endings, so I gave up on him after The Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

@stoneblue Barnaby Rudge is one Dickens novel I've not read.

Oliver Twist is a great book to start with IMO. Not too long, and contrary to any musicals and screen versions you may have witnessed, it is full of social comment, villainy, melancholy, and wonderfully colourful characterisation.

Bleak House might be the only novel ever written to contain the death of a character by spontaneous combustion.