Books & Reading Thread 2025

69FACUPfinal said:
Small world. I'm going on to the follow ups, an easy lighthearted read. Amazing how much has changed since 1995 - what we refer to as a mobile now was a 'portable phone' in the novel.
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Ha. Big knickers haven't changed though ...enjoy . I recently read Gilgi - One of us / Irmgard Keun which is a version of the same story but written in Weimar Germany in 1931. It's just as fresh, funny and tender as Helen Fielding and was a huge bestseller , launching the young author into fame and fortune before she crossed swords with the Nazis , schlepped around Europe with her Jewish lover , faked her own death and returned to Cologne in anonymity . She drank heavily but was rediscovered before she died. Some story . I read all her novels back to back last year and they are among my favourites . Isn't it great when a writer leaps out from the past and grabs you by the throat . Like watching Colin Bell on You Tube. .
 
14. The Morning Star - Karl Ove Knausgaard. 5/5.
1st in a series. Bit of horror, bit of sci fi. 666 pages where it doesn't seem a lot is happening but my god he brings it together at the end and makes you want to read the next one. Think there is 8 characters and each chapter is written from a different character. Absolutely brilliant
 
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EVERY SECOND COUNTS

Orphaned with no prospects, Charlie Matters’ life has always been a fight for survival. He miraculously emerges unscathed from the Blitz, but there’s no telling when the next bomb will fall, and whether it will be the one to end his life.

Molly Wakefield’s dreams of a joyful homecoming are all she’s had to hold on to after being evacuated to the countryside five years before. But when she finally returns, Molly faces a London changed beyond recognition, and the devastating news that neither of her parents are there.

Charlie and Molly’s paths converge at ‘The Book Keep’, where they find an unexpected ally and protector in the bookshop’s owner, widower Ignatius Oliver. But the trio’s newfound peace is jeopardized as past secrets catch up with them. Can they help one another survive this turbulent time? Or will they be ripped apart from the last people they hold dear?
 
Anyone else here read War and Peace ? I'm currently taking a year to read it , a chapter a day, and it's only just got interesting ....most of the characters have been driving me mad ...
 
surprisedbygrass said:
Anyone else here read War and Peace ? I'm currently taking a year to read it , a chapter a day, and it's only just got interesting ....most of the characters have been driving me mad ...
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What is it around 1500 pages?

Longest book I read was It was around 1400 pages loved it took me 3 months
 
waspish said:
What is it around 1500 pages?

Longest book I read was It was around 1400 pages loved it took me 3 months
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I think so . What was the book you enjoyed I've read a few chunksters myself , including The Bible three times on the bounce, which sounds odd for an atheist but there was so much I needed to understand about it and it's impact . A different translation each time kept it interesting and read the Old Testament in the order of The Jewish Bible , which made it feel very different .
 
15. The Lantern Of Lost Memories- Sanaka Hiiragi.
Very short novel at 199 pages. Not something I would normally read but the manager at Waterstones, who often supplies me with freebies, recommended it. It's about a man who helps people pass on once they are dead. Basically, you arrive in his photo development office and have to choose a picture from each year of your life.
Cannot really say much more. Very clever and very good. 5/5
 
Read I Am Pilgrim a few weeks back. Since discovered I’m a bit late to the party and everyone else seems to have read it years ago!
Are any of his other books worth a read?
 
Halfway through book two and I’ve never read anything like it. I was hooked on it pretty much from the 1st chapter. Reading what the book’s about before starting it and knowing what’s coming for me was a spoiler that shouldn’t be in there, but I suppose the photo on the book points you to that..

Am loving it and so looking forward to reading the series!

www.fantasticfiction.com/t/dennis-taylor/[/URL]

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Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.
 
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waspish said:
Halfway through book two and I’ve never read anything like it. I was hooked on it pretty much from the 1st chapter. Reading what the book’s about before starting it and knowing what’s coming for me was a spoiler that shouldn’t be in there, but I suppose the photo on the book points you to that..

Am loving it and so looking forward to reading the series!

www.fantasticfiction.com/t/dennis-taylor/[/URL]

86bc7d9583c0549b5140fc762e6e3b2a.jpg



Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.
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Love that series. Does start to drop off in quality as it reaches the later books though. But still decent reads anyway.
 
JRockBlues said:
Love that series. Does start to drop off in quality as it reaches the later books though. But still decent reads anyway.
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Yeah it’s what I expect with all long series..

probably Terry goodkind the sword of truth series is one for me anyway didn’t seem to drop of any. Fantastic series
 
waspish said:
Halfway through book two and I’ve never read anything like it. I was hooked on it pretty much from the 1st chapter. Reading what the book’s about before starting it and knowing what’s coming for me was a spoiler that shouldn’t be in there, but I suppose the photo on the book points you to that..

Am loving it and so looking forward to reading the series!

www.fantasticfiction.com/t/dennis-taylor/[/URL]

86bc7d9583c0549b5140fc762e6e3b2a.jpg



Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.
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All the books in this series are brilliant. I'm not a fan of audiobooks, but the guy who does these (Ray Porter) nails it.
 
As a massive fan of Don Winslow I’m somewhat late to the party for this IMG_1171.jpeg

He’s done a variety of crime stuff from surfer blow outs to the most disturbing but brilliant Mexican cartel trilogy

This book is living up to the usual Winslow style, good character development and a slow burner plot

As an aside I’ve completely junked music and radio when in the car or out for a walk with the pooch and the last month I’ve been burning through some classic war/spy/thrillers and I have to say the Eagle has Landed narrated by Peter Noble is a quite marvellous thirteen hours of a listen.
 
  1. A Lesson in Violence – Jordan Harper - 7/10
  2. The Silverblood Promise – James Logan 9/10
  3. Exiles – Jane Harper 9/10
  4. Palace of Shadows – Ray Celestine 6/10
  5. The Wager – David Grann 8/10
  6. Grimdark Magazine Issue #40 – 6/10
  7. Grimdark Magazine Issue #41 – 6/10
  8. The Trials of Empire – Richard Swan – 7/10
  9. George Harrison - Philip Norman – 8/10
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This is an exhaustive account of the life of George Harrison, the “quiet one” in the Beatles. As you might expect, a lot of the page count is taken up with George’s time in Beatles, but I wanted to read this book because there were a few other elements of his life that I was interested in – his fascination with India, the Concert for Bangladesh, his involvement with the Monty Python team as a film producer and as part of the all-star line-up in The Travelling Wilburys. On all those points, this book delivered.

It seems that all the fame and fortune that came with the success of the Beatles wasn’t enough to make George happy. When you hear the songs he wrote, you know what a brilliant songwriter he was, and it’s a shame to hear that he had no confidence in himself, stating that “Paul McCartney ruined me as a guitar player”. It’s staggering that “Something” was the first song he’d written that was released as the A-side of a Beatles single with the Lennon-McCartney compositions generally taking precedence.

Whilst George comes across as a good bloke in general, his treatment of his first wife, Pattie Boyd was appalling. Not content to simply have affairs, he wasn’t against bringing women back to his house right under her nose. Then there was the love triangle with the two of them and one of George’s best friends, Eric Clapton. George didn’t seem bothered that Clapton was in love with his wife (the song “Layla” was about her), and it seems that the two of them even agreed that Clapton would take her off his hands.

I was more pleasant to read about George’s love for his home, Friar Park, a large gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames that featured a lake, caves and a grotto. He loved nothing more than tending to the garden and the cover of his classic solo album, All Things Must Pass, features a shot of him on the lawn with some of the garden’s gnomes.

Harrison often said that Monty Python saved his sanity during the bleakest days of the Beatles breakup, and he even staked his beloved house to secure a loan for the Pythons to make Life of Brian simply because he wanted to see the film get made! The Pythons said that he’d bought the most expensive cinema ticket in history.

As I said, this book covers a lot of ground and despite its 557-page length, I found it absorbing throughout.
 
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