Books & Reading Thread 2025

Just finished Japanese bestseller 'We'll prescribe you a cat' by Syou Ishia. I got this as a Christmas present and although not going to be everyone's cup of tea I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's different stories of people who might be struggling with life who get prescribed a cat.
 
Salford_Blue said:
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
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Watched the film again last night , partly because I was staying near Derwent Reservoir recently . I'm sure the book is more comprehensive but they do include that sophisticated release tool ....who knew
 
Finished Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro) over Christmas - was a bit disappointed with it overall, but appreciated the style of the author. A decent read, but I was expecting a bit more from it after reading some reviews before purchasing.

Moved straight on to Stringers by Chris Panatier. Really liked this one. Great story, some great characters and very funny. A man has knowledge about the fucking habits of insects (amongst other niche knowledge). There are entities in the universe that need some of that knowledge, and they'll do anything to get it. Chaos ensues.

Last night I finished Children of Memory (Adrian Tchaikovsky), the third book in the 'Children of Time' series. I've enjoyed all of them, probably the first one more than the others, but the last one has already got me thinking it all over, which is what I want from a hard sci-fi read.

Got Ubik by Philip K Dick to start tonight, but also got Le Guin's 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on the 'to read' shelf. Toss a coin tonight I reckon.
 
2025 Books
  1. A Lesson in Violence – Jordan Harper - 7/10
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I bought this book 18 months ago because it had good reviews and was on offer for 99p. It’s taken me this long to get around to it because gangland stuff is not really my thing.

Nate McClusky has just been released from prison but a gangland boss who’s locked up in a Supermax has put the greenlight on the murder of Nate, his ex-wife and their 11-year-old daughter, Polly.

When his ex-wife is murdered, Nate snatches his daughter and goes on the run to protect her as he seeks a way to get the contract on the two of them lifted.

Whilst I wasn’t exactly enamoured with the violence and cliched gangland tough guy acts in this book, I will admit that it was written with some style. The 11-year-old girl along for the ride gave the book a different feel, and whether you believe the transformation from innocent youngster to badass willing participant in her father’s escalating cycle of violence, this is a short book that zips along at a nice pace.

To be fair to the author, he gives his protagonist a good reason for the violence meted out as the story unfolds, and seeing both Nate’s and Polly’s points of view helps the book become more rounded. A decent start to this year’s reads.
 
ob said:
Just bought Get it on - How the 70s Rocked Football for £1.99 on kindle
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Really enjoyed this and a solid 4 out of 5. It was a bargain at £1.99 and so many memories rekindled by reading of days gone by when I first started watching football on the Big Match. Highly recommended
 
ob said:
Really enjoyed this and a solid 4 out of 5. It was a bargain at £1.99 and so many memories rekindled by reading of days gone by when I first started watching football on the Big Match. Highly recommended
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It’s showing as £5.99 on my kindle account,strange.
 
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WEMBLEY76 said:
It’s showing as £5.99 on my kindle account,strange.
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Looks like it is £5.99 at the moment. Amazon change the prices of certain books all the time.

It was a great book but I'll be waiting until the price of the sequel drops - currently £15.55 !!!!!
 
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Wasnt keen on audiobooks at first, but found I can listen to non fiction in the car on the way to and from work. It's meant I have managed to keep my "reading" numbers up whilst I don't have as much spare time as I used to.

I use the 15hrs free per month on spotify and loan some off borrowbox through the library. Currently its Scimitar into Stanley by Roger Field
 
I've done a lot more reading the last few weeks (read Al Pacino's and Matthew Perry's book) - won't seem like a lot but it is against my usual run rate of reading nothing (I am slow as fuck when it comes to reading).

Just started Flowers of the Killer Moon (which before I started I thought was fictional) and also have a biography on Rory Gallagher and auto's on Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Frazier for my holidays in a couple of weeks.

Looking forward to it.......
 
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. 7/10.

I had great expectations for one of Dickens' most celebrated novels, but alas, I was somewhat disappointed. Young Philip Pirrip's fortunes are irrevocably changed following a chance meeting with an escaped convict. The book follows Pip's life from this first encounter, and finishes when he has made his way in life as a businessman, in his thirties.

I almost gave up on the book, but it sprung into life at about the half way point, and I'm glad I persevered - partly because I can tick off another of this author's works.

A story of unrequited love, social ambition, and touching on themes of retribution and revenge, repentance and restoration. Dickens's prose is brilliant, as ever, and his characterisation is first rate. But the story, whilst eventually compelling, was a slow burner. I suppose life in the 1800s was not always lived out in the fast lane.
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