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Reading Challenge 2021
- Thread starter I'm With Stupid
- Start date
SWP's back
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 29 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 89,064
- Golf is not a game of perfect - Bob Rotella 9/10 for golfers
- What the hell did I just read - David Wong (book 3 in the John Dies at the End series - very funny) 8/10
- The Reversal - Michael Connelly (book 3 in The Lincoln Lawyer series. It’s ok but he’s running out of ideas with that series) 7/10
- Accidental Hitman - A W Wilson 7.5/10
- Horrorstor- Grady Hendrix (not bad) 7/10
- Sooley - John Grisham (meh) 7/10
- The Dispatcher - John Scalzi (very enjoyable) 8/10
- Futuristic Violence in Fancy Suits - David Wong (he’s a very funny author but this isn’t as good as his series mentioned above) 7.5/10
- The Trident Deception - Rick Campbell (very Clancyesque) 8.6/10
- Empire Rising - Rick Campbell (hmmm got a bit samey) 7/10
- The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman 9/10 (lovely, very English, very funny)
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
I must be out on my own with the Richard Osman book. I'm absolutely baffled by all the praise and awards. Some of it reads like a Mr Men book. I agree that it's very English, but that doesn't mean that it has to be so poorly written (and reference a real TV show every page).
SWP's back
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- Joined
- 29 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 89,064
Yeah I’d say I certainly don’t agree with it. I thought it was very charming. The characters were wonderful and I can see it working very well with an English ensemble cast. My favourite book of the year so far.I must be out on my own with the Richard Osman book. I'm absolutely baffled by all the praise and awards. Some of it reads like a Mr Men book. I agree that it's very English, but that doesn't mean that it has to be so poorly written (and reference a real TV show every page).
I'm 50:50 whether to bother with it, having seen some reviews. I think I'll skip it though.I must be out on my own with the Richard Osman book. I'm absolutely baffled by all the praise and awards. Some of it reads like a Mr Men book. I agree that it's very English, but that doesn't mean that it has to be so poorly written (and reference a real TV show every page).
Currently on part 2 of The Stand. It's long!
Been some great recommendations on here especially of books I'd never have thought to read. Thanks to everyone. I'm still undecided re the Richard Osman book, it's on my list and will get to it eventually I guess. Read 13 books so far this year and target is set 20
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Fair enough. It' s good that not everybody sees it in the same way.Yeah I’d say I certainly don’t agree with it. I thought it was very charming. The characters were wonderful and I can see it working very well with an English ensemble cast. My favourite book of the year so far.
@Paladin @ob - Despite what i said, don't let me put you off reading it. I'd like to find out whether it is genuinely just me that feels that way! It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, and my views may be coloured by the writing in the first half of the book because it did improve (slightly) as it went along.
It's not just the reviews. Just not really my cup of tea.
My best books this year have been The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Prophecy by C J Parris. My favourite genres are to do with the war, spies, espionage, as well as the Victorian classics. I might give Osman a go at some point, but there are a lot of books higher up on my list.
My best books this year have been The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Prophecy by C J Parris. My favourite genres are to do with the war, spies, espionage, as well as the Victorian classics. I might give Osman a go at some point, but there are a lot of books higher up on my list.
ell
Well-Known Member
Glad to see im not the only one unsure whether to give Thursday Murder club a go. Best read so far this year has been Under our skin by Donald McRae
"Don McRae grew up in a South Africa where his father would call the black men he met 'boy' and where his mother insisted that their black servants used tin mugs, plates and cutlery as they ate the family's left-over food in the backyard of their grand suburban property. The McRaes, like so many white people, seemed oblivious to the violent injustices of apartheid. As the author grew up, the political differences between father and son widened and when Don refused to join up for National Service, risking imprisonment or exile overseas, the two were torn apart.
It wasn't until years later that the author discovered that the father with whom he had fought so bitterly had later in his life transformed himself into a political hero. Risking everything one dark and rainy night Ian McRae travelled secretly into the black township of Soweto to meet members of Nelson Mandela's then banned African National Congress to discuss ways to bring power to black South Africa. He had no political ambitions; he was just a man trying to replace the worst in himself with something better.
Under Our Skinis a memoir of these tumultuous years in South Africa's history, as told through the author's family story. It offers an intimate and penetrating perspective on life under apartheid, and tells a story of courage and fear, hope and desolation and love and pain, especially between a father and his son."
"Don McRae grew up in a South Africa where his father would call the black men he met 'boy' and where his mother insisted that their black servants used tin mugs, plates and cutlery as they ate the family's left-over food in the backyard of their grand suburban property. The McRaes, like so many white people, seemed oblivious to the violent injustices of apartheid. As the author grew up, the political differences between father and son widened and when Don refused to join up for National Service, risking imprisonment or exile overseas, the two were torn apart.
It wasn't until years later that the author discovered that the father with whom he had fought so bitterly had later in his life transformed himself into a political hero. Risking everything one dark and rainy night Ian McRae travelled secretly into the black township of Soweto to meet members of Nelson Mandela's then banned African National Congress to discuss ways to bring power to black South Africa. He had no political ambitions; he was just a man trying to replace the worst in himself with something better.
Under Our Skinis a memoir of these tumultuous years in South Africa's history, as told through the author's family story. It offers an intimate and penetrating perspective on life under apartheid, and tells a story of courage and fear, hope and desolation and love and pain, especially between a father and his son."
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Richard Osman would weep tears of inadequacy if he read a book like "The Lies of Locke Lamora".It's not just the reviews. Just not really my cup of tea.
My best books this year have been The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Prophecy by C J Parris. My favourite genres are to do with the war, spies, espionage, as well as the Victorian classics. I might give Osman a go at some point, but there are a lot of books higher up on my list.