Books & Reading Thread 2025

Just finished Faith of my Father's bully Samuel Sargeant. I really enjoyed it and was disappointed I couldn't give it the time I think the book deserved. So busy with work and personal stuff kept having to go back to it. I'd recommend it and glad got mention on here as another book I wouldn't have read if this thread didn't exist. Also disappointed I read so little this year and hoping to put that right in 2025 and looking forward to the 2025 reading thread for more recommendations. Cheers
 
ob said:
Just finished Faith of my Father's bully Samuel Sargeant. I really enjoyed it and was disappointed I couldn't give it the time I think the book deserved. So busy with work and personal stuff kept having to go back to it. I'd recommend it and glad got mention on here as another book I wouldn't have read if this thread didn't exist. Also disappointed I read so little this year and hoping to put that right in 2025 and looking forward to the 2025 reading thread for more recommendations. Cheers
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So glad you enjoyed it.
If you are able to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, that would be amazing and really helpful.
Sam is actually spending Christmas with me, so I will let him know you enjoyed his debut novel.
His next book is titled ‘Crimes Of Their Brothers’ and is available for pre-order from Feb 2025, with an actual release date set by the publisher, of Feb 2026!
Sam is currently writing the third book titled ‘Songs Of Their Sisters’ and he has the outline of a fourth book to follow that.
 
Happy New Year folks. I tried to get one final book into my list for the year, but it will have to go in 2025 instead. Great Expectations (the book, not my ambitions for the year), not quite completed.
 
ob said:
Just bought Get it on - How the 70s Rocked Football for £1.99 on kindle
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I'll be interested to know how you get on with it. I loved it and I'll be reading the 80s follow-up this year.

Note that I've renamed the thread to: Books & Reading Thread 2025

I think the "Challenge" part might have put some people off from getting stuck in to this thread. If you remember, somebody started the "Reading Challenge" thread in, I think, 2022. I then just kept this part of the title when I started a new thread and kept it going in 2024.

It's not really a challenge, it's just a great thread for reviewing what we've read and recommending stuff to others.

I finished a book over Christmas and I'll be adding it as my last 2024 book before resetting for the new year.

Happy reading in 2025 everybody.
 
Seeing as I didn't feel much like reviewing my reads last year I thought I'd start this one off with a summary as I at least did track what I read. Hoping that will change for this year and that I get back to at least occasionally keeping things updated.

Year end stats and summary for 2024:

Total books read: 47 (inc. several novella's)

Primary Tag:
Mystery/Thriller 14
Urban Fantasy 6
Science Fiction 12
Non-Fiction 4
Fantasy 9
Horror 2

Original Language:
English 47
Others 0

Author Gender: (repeats not counted, multiple authors and pseudonyms counted separately)
Male 19 different authors, 29 books read
Female 6 different authors, 19 books read

Least favourite book of the year
The Game by Micah Richards – About as intereszting as his level of punditry

Favourite book of the year
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Once again concentrating on series had an effect on my reading diversity with no books at all translated from languages other than English. Though at least I narrowed the gender gap a little this year. Total numbers increased from last year but this was due to the inclusion of several novella's and no real chunksters to slow me down.

Although I didn't keep a journal of my own this last year, I have kept a list of what I read in my 2023 thread on LT for my own records at least (handily linked here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347865#8042569). Hoping that will change for this year and that I get back to at least occasionally keeping things updated.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year.
 
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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
Darker.jpg

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.
 
RobMCFC said:
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
View attachment 141965

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.
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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
 
ob said:
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
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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.
 
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
 
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.
 
Morning all,

Thought I would put a review of a book I'm halfway through, called 'Dambusters' by James Holland.

I normally read murder mysteries but every time I follow the missus into Waterstones, I find myself drawn to the history section, so though I'd take a dip.

Exceptionally well written and detailed and also focussed on the personal lives of the squadrons and main characters, Barnes Wallace and pilot Guy Gibson.

The book appears to be in three main segments, the intro containing the struggles that Barnes Wallace had to get support for his proposal; the testing and bringing the squadrons together; and I'm assuming the final section will be all about the actual attack and subsequent results.

I'm up to May 1st 1943, so just 15 days until the assault and they are still having issues with the bombs breaking up and still working out speeds and flying heights.

Whilst expert pilots, these guys had few hours training to fly huge Lancaster bombers at less than 100 feet, at 250mph...in the dark.

These planes were made to fly at 30,000 feet but they were practising flying that low, that some were returning with tree branches in the the under carriage.

Absolutely jaw dropping bravery.

There are a lot of acronyms and titles of people involved from the RAF, which bamboozled me, as I'm not well up on them, but you got to know and recognise the main players in the hierarchy, so I just read past the rest.

And the gadget, if you could call it that, that they used to work out exactly when to release the bomb, was made from two pieces of wood and two nails...who needs the interweb!

Looking forward to the last segment of the actual events and I may even try and watch the film.

But great book so far and I expect it to keep going. The build up to the event from the author is superb.

Really enjoying it.

FYI, and not to teach people how to suck eggs, but just to make people aware of a second hand site called ABEBOOKS.

I got this book in good condition in hardback for £4. Worth a look if nowt else.

Cheers
 
RobMCFC said:
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
View attachment 141965

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.
Click to expand...
What is Priest of Crowns like mate? The reviews suggest a cross between Wolf Hall and Game of Thrones. Is it one of these you have to read the series to make sense of it?
 
Saddleworth2 said:
What is Priest of Crowns like mate? The reviews suggest a cross between Wolf Hall and Game of Thrones. Is it one of these you have to read the series to make sense of it?
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It's the fourth book in a series that starts with Priest of Bones, so definitely start there if you are interested.

Overall, I thought that it was a really good series. I've never read the two books you refer to but I know that the writing style is highly praised in these cases. I found this series to be written at a "lower" level but as the series went along, I realised that this was probably deliberate because of the character. Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly readable and I think the author hones his writing skills as he goes through the series.

In fact I've just dig out my review from earlier in the thread:-

Second fantasy on the bounce and another enjoyable tale. This is the first book in the War for the Rose Throne series, and I’ll definitely be buying the next one. This book sat for so long on my “to buy” list and I’d put it off for years because I was in the middle of multiple other fantasy series.

The story concerns Thomas Piety, a man returning from war with his comrades to find that his various underworld businesses have been taken over by a rival gang. Naturally, he sets about taking them back and rebuilding his empire, a task that becomes all the more complicated when he is approached by a Queens’s Man who tells him exactly what he must do and when in order to save his home city of Ellinburg from falling to an enemy force.

The main draw of this book is the voice of the lead character. It is written in first person in the voice of Thomas Piety, who doesn’t use big words and basically tells it like it is. Very similar to the voice of Warden in the Low Town books by Daniel Polansky, if you’ve read them. This approach is a strength, in that the author gets things across easily and I did enjoy reading the narrative, but at times I found that things seemed to happen a little too easily or quickly. e.g. in one part of the story where they are fighting his rivals, he basically says that his crew turned up and it was butchery – you don’t get much more than that. Arguably, given that this seems to be a written account by Piety (there is frequent use of “as I have previously written”) it just about works.

The other strength is the cast of characters – again, we’re only seeing them through Piety’s eyes, but some strong personalities do come across, and I’d like to know a bit more about Billy the Boy, Old Kurt, Cutter and Bloody Anne in the upcoming instalments.
 
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