richardtheref
Well-Known Member
The Keeper - Sarah Langan. Not about Bert. About a witch and a haunted village. 4/5
Reading Challenge 2022
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
I think it was you who mentioned “Scrublands” by Chris Hammer, and I’ve got it on my list to read later this year.
stoneblue
Well-Known Member
Yes, that was me! I'm really into Aussie thrillers at the moment and I tend to read all the books of any author whose work I enjoy. That said I haven't read Chris Hammer's 3rd book yet.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Cheers. Whenever I hear of a book I'm interested in, I put it in a text file on my work PC and every so often sift through it it and come up with some kind of schedule. I don't read that many detective/crime books, but for some reason, I like reading them in the Autumn/Winter - hence why I'll read it later this year. Obviously I'll put my review up here then.
journolud
Well-Known Member
Half way through the Ruins by Mat Osman and I’ve kind of grown tired of it. One of those two narrative things and a plot that involves forging a “lost” master of Brian Wilson’s Smile ( book predates the actual release) but the ending, unless I’m pretty much mistaken is telegraphed (a developing attraction). I probably won’t find out.
Just downloaded Monkey Arkwright. Not sure it will be my usual fare but rude not to. I can always forget I mentioned it if I think it’s shite ;-)
Just downloaded Monkey Arkwright. Not sure it will be my usual fare but rude not to. I can always forget I mentioned it if I think it’s shite ;-)
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
No, you’ve got to give me an honest review! Whilst I categorise it as YA, I tried to write it in a way that anybody could enjoy. I was going for that Stephen King vibe in “The Body” (aka “Stand By Me”). Not that I’m saying I can write like him, you understand!
journolud
Well-Known Member
Wel, I started reading a Stephen King novel once, I can’t remember which one but I was hoping it would open up a new stream for me. I didn’t get too far with it.
Novels I have read that I think were YA but also universal are Alan Garners Weirdstone of Brasingamen, etc. Mind you I liked them particularly because of the local flavour to the settings
discopop
Well-Known Member
Currently reading Scrublands after the reviews on here, but as ever when on holiday I tend to do a mix of serious and a bit light hearted so Terry Pratchett it was, Guards! Guards!
Now I thought I had done the the first 15 or so books in the Disk World series but for the life of me couldn’t remember reading this.
Pretty much ultimate Pratchett, as well as being very inventive and funny there is also a lot of decent takes on the human Psyche.
A very solid 8/10 the man was a master.
Now I thought I had done the the first 15 or so books in the Disk World series but for the life of me couldn’t remember reading this.
Pretty much ultimate Pratchett, as well as being very inventive and funny there is also a lot of decent takes on the human Psyche.
A very solid 8/10 the man was a master.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
1. The Spirit Engineer - A.J.West - 7/10
2. The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 8/10
3. The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft - 5/10
4. The Forest – Michaelbrent Collings – 3/10
5. Black River – Will Dean – 7/10
6. Winter is Coming – Garry Kasparov – 9/10
No prizes for guessing why I’ve read this book by ex-World Chess champion, and current Russian opposition activist, Garry Kasparov.
It’s a well written account of Putin’s rise to power, with some shocking revelations, and Kasparov has plenty to say about why the world has, so far, failed to stand up to Putin. This book was written seven years ago, but many of the passages feel like they could have been written yesterday, such is the eerie familiarity of the events recounted.
I highlighted so many passages whilst I was reading that I could probably fill several pages on these forums covering them. But for the sake of brevity, I’ll just pick out a handful of Kasparov’s comments and thoughts, paraphrasing as necessary.
I highly recommend this book, or another like it, if you want to understand why Putin needs to be stopped. As Kasparov says: “Putin is no master strategist. He’s an aggressive poker player facing weak opposition from a Western World.” He goes on to say, “The best reason for acting to stop Putin today is brutally simple: it will only get harder tomorrow.”
With the arguments he puts forward in this book, he’s certainly convinced me.
2. The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 8/10
3. The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft - 5/10
4. The Forest – Michaelbrent Collings – 3/10
5. Black River – Will Dean – 7/10
6. Winter is Coming – Garry Kasparov – 9/10
No prizes for guessing why I’ve read this book by ex-World Chess champion, and current Russian opposition activist, Garry Kasparov.
It’s a well written account of Putin’s rise to power, with some shocking revelations, and Kasparov has plenty to say about why the world has, so far, failed to stand up to Putin. This book was written seven years ago, but many of the passages feel like they could have been written yesterday, such is the eerie familiarity of the events recounted.
I highlighted so many passages whilst I was reading that I could probably fill several pages on these forums covering them. But for the sake of brevity, I’ll just pick out a handful of Kasparov’s comments and thoughts, paraphrasing as necessary.
- Putin regularly uses the Olympics as a way of distracting the World’s attention from what he is doing – I guess we should have seen the current war coming this February, and it is indeed what various Western intelligence agencies predicted.
- Putin started off as a Russian problem for Russians to solve. When that didn’t happen, he became a regional problem and now he’s a world problem.
- The western leaders have failed because they are happy to pose for Putin with photos and turn a blind eye because of economic interests. Go and have a read about ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
- He spends a lot of time comparing Putin to Hilter and the way the west deals with him to Neville Chamberlain. He points out that “at least Chamberlain didn’t have a history book to tell him what was coming.” A sobering thought.
- The fall of the Berlin Wall was symbolic – as was the toppling of a statue in front of the old KGB building and the dismantling of the USSR. Unfortunately, nothing in Russia has changed – in fact, arguably it’s worse than it was under the old communist regime. The west failed to act when it was in a strong position.
- There is strong evidence that the FSB planted the apartment bombs as a way of justifying their bombing of Grozny and fighting a war against the Chechyen rebels when Putin first came to power. Alexander Litvinenko tried to tell the world and we all remember what happened to him.
- Putin cares as little about his own people as he does about everybody else he is bombing – see the Beslan school siege where he sent his forces in and caused the death of nearly 400 people, including 186 children.
- As a way of illustrating how crooked the Russian political system is and how hard it is to stand against Putin, consider this: an independent candidate has to collect 2 million signatures in just five weeks, but only 40,000 of those signatures may be from any single region. That means visiting 50 regions to get the required amount. And that’s before the tale of venues that you’d book to hold your talks cancelling at the last minute for mundane reasons.
I highly recommend this book, or another like it, if you want to understand why Putin needs to be stopped. As Kasparov says: “Putin is no master strategist. He’s an aggressive poker player facing weak opposition from a Western World.” He goes on to say, “The best reason for acting to stop Putin today is brutally simple: it will only get harder tomorrow.”
With the arguments he puts forward in this book, he’s certainly convinced me.
JRockBlues
Well-Known Member
Happy Doomsday by David Sosnowski
Having read and enjoyed Sosnowski’s previous two books I was quite looking forward to this one. We follow three unlikely survivors of an extinction-level event where it seems every other human being has dropped dead. One has Asperger’s, another is pregnant from a one-night stand with her gay best friend and the third a radicalised Muslim who was about to martyr himself at a school sports event.
The book deals well with the actuality of surviving such an event. With things like the smell of decomposing bodies left to rot where they drop and the parasites such things bring. Probably not a good idea to be living too near a zoo for when the animals start to miss their daily feed either. What will the house-pets locked in their homes resort to when they also get a little hungry and their owners starting to smell a little ripe.
There is quite a bit of social commentary on growing up in the (more or less) current United States (being set under Trump) but it’s of the more in-your-face variety than the author’s previous offerings. Probably best to be avoided if you’re of the die-hard Republican persuasion or an animal lover. I think it’s difficult to find originality in this section of the genre and that’s probably what saves this book a little. Having an Asperger’s character as one of the leads helped with this though it did at times feel like it was a zombie book only without the zombies. 3¼★
Having read and enjoyed Sosnowski’s previous two books I was quite looking forward to this one. We follow three unlikely survivors of an extinction-level event where it seems every other human being has dropped dead. One has Asperger’s, another is pregnant from a one-night stand with her gay best friend and the third a radicalised Muslim who was about to martyr himself at a school sports event.
The book deals well with the actuality of surviving such an event. With things like the smell of decomposing bodies left to rot where they drop and the parasites such things bring. Probably not a good idea to be living too near a zoo for when the animals start to miss their daily feed either. What will the house-pets locked in their homes resort to when they also get a little hungry and their owners starting to smell a little ripe.
There is quite a bit of social commentary on growing up in the (more or less) current United States (being set under Trump) but it’s of the more in-your-face variety than the author’s previous offerings. Probably best to be avoided if you’re of the die-hard Republican persuasion or an animal lover. I think it’s difficult to find originality in this section of the genre and that’s probably what saves this book a little. Having an Asperger’s character as one of the leads helped with this though it did at times feel like it was a zombie book only without the zombies. 3¼★