What are you reading at the moment?

[Silent Runner]

I started You by Caroline Kepnes last night read about 100 pages. It's about a guy working in a book shop who becomes obsessed with a customor and who starts to stalk her. He starts off with the usual, harmless social network stalking but quickly escalates to breaking into her house and working his way into her life.

This is good fun so far. Narrated from the POV of the stalker it's kind of American Psycho-lite. Except instead of a Wall St. sociopath we have a bitter, book shop clerk as our central character. Easy to read and quite funny in places.

I finished Flash Boys last week some time and that was fantastic. The HFT stuff is insane and Michael Lewis perfectly explains just how rigged the game is.

[deerokus]

I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora (audiobook is tremendous). Fantastic novel, mixing the kind of old fashioned picaresque no one writes anymore with a fantasy* version of Mission Impossible. Can't remember the last novel I read which had such a strong sense of place - the city portrayed really feels like a living, breathing place.

* I really appreciated the lack of heavy fantasy elements, what magic exists is treated as the terrifying equivalent of nuclear weaponry and even the setting is basically a weird alternate reality version of Renaissance Venice.

Next up is either The Company by Robert Little, which is some kind of historical spy fiction about the CIA, or Consider Phlebas. Leaning towards the CIA novel for a change of scene, even though it's a pretty hefty undertaking in terms of length.

[SeanR]

Rush hour Spanish.

Going tenerife in August, so...

[lolly]

I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora (audiobook is tremendous). Fantastic novel, mixing the kind of old fashioned picaresque no one writes anymore with a fantasy* version of Mission Impossible. Can't remember the last novel I read which had such a strong sense of place - the city portrayed really feels like a living, breathing place.

* I really appreciated the lack of heavy fantasy elements, what magic exists is treated as the terrifying equivalent of nuclear weaponry and even the setting is basically a weird alternate reality version of Renaissance Venice.

Next up is either The Company by Robert Little, which is some kind of historical spy fiction about the CIA, or Consider Phlebas. Leaning towards the CIA novel for a change of scene, even though it's a pretty hefty undertaking in terms of length.

If you haven't already you could read Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner which is the history of the CIA- it reads like fiction it's that outlandish with some of the missions they have attempted to pull off. It's also massively depressing the amount of people they've either directly or indirectly caused to be killed of you consider that aspect.

[deerokus]

That's going to go on the list!

[ZOK]

If that's your bag, also read Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer. It's long (1300 pages) but stunning. It's basically a fictionalised history of the CIA wherein Mailer weaves stacks of real people and events.

It takes two hundred pages or so to get properly cooking, but by the time you finish it you will wish there was another 1300 pages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlot%27s_Ghost

EDIT: Wilfred Sheed's review is great...almost as long as the novel! http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1991/12/05/armageddon-now/

[Wickedkitten]

Finished up Black Widow by Christopher Brookmyre and whilst it was no Be my Enemy, I do love Jack Parlabane so it's all good

[OogyBoogy]

Bleak Seasons by Glen Cook. Book six in the Black Company series.

[Butters]

Finished up Black Widow by Christopher Brookmyre and whilst it was no Be my Enemy, I do love Jack Parlabane so it's all good

Did you read Dead Girl Walking, the last one? If so, how was it to that? I wasn't entirely convinced by the last one, even though I was really glad to see Parlabane back.

[Wickedkitten]

Did you read Dead Girl Walking, the last one? If so, how was it to that? I wasn't entirely convinced by the last one, even though I was really glad to see Parlabane back.

It's definitely better than Dead Girl Walking. I get that Jack is getting older and more mature, but he seemed like a side character in that one compared to the older books.

[Butters]

Agreed. It was okay, just not a patch on the other Parlabane stuff. Glad to hear Black Widow is better!

[Silent Runner]

I started You by Caroline Kepnes last night read about 100 pages. It's about a guy working in a book shop who becomes obsessed with a customor and who starts to stalk her. He starts off with the usual, harmless social network stalking but quickly escalates to breaking into her house and working his way into her life.

This is good fun so far. Narrated from the POV of the stalker it's kind of American Psycho-lite. Except instead of a Wall St. sociopath we have a bitter, book shop clerk as our central character. Easy to read and quite funny in places.

Finished You over lunch. It was quite good but way too long. Very funny in places but it gets ridiculous by the end. Everyone in the world (Steven King, Lena Dunham) loved it and I'm sure it will make a good, Gone Girl-esq, film. But I was struggling to turn the pages by the end.

There is a second book in the series but I doubt I'll bother with it.

[Naysonymous]

On 1/2/2016 at 5:01 AM, lolly said:

Blood meridian - Cormac McCarthy.  Well that was and experience - I've only read "The Road " previously and that also put me through the grinder- there's an intensity there that I think is unmatched by any other author I've read. Most people probably know the gist of the story- teenager goings a gang of mercenaries hunting Apaches on the America/Mexico border in the 1800s who themselves become hunted. Thematically there's so much going on I think I've probably missed huge swathes of it but it really comes down to man's inhumanity to man.I don't think I can articulate  it correctly  but personally  I was of the opinion that it was effectively the gang descending into hell by attempting to create it on earth, observed / overseen by the significant character who is the devil himself. Don't know if that makes sense and I'd love to hear other peoples opinions.  There is a point where you become desensitized to the violence but there are a fair few "fucking hell" moments in this.

 

I picked this up based on your post, I was aware Blood Meridian existed and I'd previously read and enjoyed The Road so I thought I'd take a punt.  Holy shit this book is intense. 

I'm not at all sure what to make of it. The basic plot is pretty straightforward, hell is other people (etc) but there is so much else going on just beneath the surface that you could probably think about it for years and not come up with anything definite about the stuff McCarthy leaves vague.  The Judge is one of the most interesting characters I've ever came across in a book, trying to figure out who he was seems to have been a huge source of debate online.  I had to go find an academic study of the book after I'd finished it just to see what people who had read and reread it thought and even there people can't really decide.  It's brilliant. 

[shirubagan]

just finished What Are You Looking At? A History Of Modern Art by Will Gompertz. It's well-written and tells you just enough about every artist and movement to build a clear idea of style and how each influenced the other. 

 

Now on to Just My Type by Simon Garfield which is a light-hearted look at the history of type, starting with Comic Sans. Should make a nice counterpoint to recently-read The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst which is pretty much the standard reference book for typographers everywhere. 

[Dynamo Nath]

I've been reading Code Breakers by Colin F. Barnes. I managed to pick the four book set on Kindle in a sale. I've made it through the first three books but I have to say I'm starting to flag a bit with it now. Next on deck is Delirium (Debt Collector 1) by Susan Kaye Quinn. I went on a bit of a cyberpunk splurge recently

[Fieldini]

Don't post much in here but I've picked up a few good recommendations. About time I recommended something - 

 

The Thicket - Joe R Lansdale - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20706257-the-thicket

 

Ended up grabbing this after reading 'The Revenant - Michael Punke' (like to read the novel before seeing a film adaptation, also recommended).

The Thicket is another story of revenge in a way, set in early 1900's east Texas. First sentence of the books gives you a good idea what you are in for - 

 

I didn't suspect the day Grandfather came out and got me and my sister, Lula, and hauled us off toward the ferry that I'd soon end up with worse things happening than had already come upon us or that I'd take up with a gun-shooting dwarf, the son of a slave, and a big angry hog, let alone find true love and kill someone, but that's exactly how it was.

 

It's dark, violent and humorous. With some interesting characters along the way. Definitely one of the best books I have read for awhile.

[Silent Runner]

Does anyone know the best version of War and Peace available on Kindle? I realise that's a very subjective question but I'm looking for a translation with at least slightly modern language.

 

Cheers.

[Danster]

Pretty sure I read this one:

 

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600

 

And didn't find it at all tricky.

[Silent Runner]

Over the weekend I read After You Die by Eva Dolan. The third book in the Zigic and Ferriera series. These are police procedurals set in a hate crimes unit in Peterborough. Two people have been murdered, a disabled woman and her mother. Was this a hate crime? Or is there a more prosaic explanation. 

 

This was a really good thriller. And easily the best in this series to date. The first two were pretty good but had some silly plot holes and the two leads weren't well drawn. But this is a league apart – a strong, pacey plot, some good twists and a couple of mysteries that come together nicely at the end. I'll be following up this series in future. Recommended for thriller fans.     

[Silent Runner]

I read a couple of books last weekend because I was in airports for a few hours. First one was Coffin Road by Peter May. This starts with a man waking up on a beech with no memory of who he is or what he's doing there. There's two other narratives that eventually tie in with this opening story.

 

This isn't very good and reads like an old story idea the writer put on paper years ago and decided to publish. It's packed with cliches and I guessed the conclusion about 100 pages from the end. 

 

Peter May has written some great books in the past, his Lewis Island Trilogy are excellent, but this was a real let down. 

 

I also read Missing by Sam Hawken. An American man living on the Texas border is visiting relatives on the Mexico side. After a night out at a concert his daughter goes missing. He teams up with a Mexican cop to try and find her.

 

 

Sam Hawken wrote a great book called 'The Dead Women of Juarez' a few years ago, about the 1000's of unsolved murders along the Mexican border. So I was looking forward to this one. It's reasonably good but feels a bit slight.

 

At times it threatens to become like that terrible film Taken, with an ex soldier scrapping against millions of narco gangsters. But it never goes into that ridiculous territory. And the last 50 pages are quite satisfying and lead to a nicely ambiguous ending.  

[lolly]

One hundred Years of Solitude -Gabriel García Márquez

 

Considered a classic- I'm only 30 pages in - seems okay

 

Have also just picked up the 1st 2 books of Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series based on the  recommended reading thread , 2nd hand for $20 , result.Have read Stormbird which was a cracking read (and not yet recommended )so these should be good.

Edited March 6, 2016 by lolly
dodgy cut and paste

[Danster]

The conqueror series is marvellous, once you've read them then it's well worth checking out the hardcore history series in the Mongols.

[ZOK]

On 6 March 2016 at 8:31 AM, lolly said:

One hundred Years of Solitude -Gabriel García Márquez

 

Considered a classic- I'm only 30 pages in - seems okay

 

 

 

I was going to add that to the recommended reading thread at some point.

 

Personally, I'd say it's the greatest novel ever written. Once you get over everyone kind of having the same name, and never really being able to remember exactly who everyone is, it's almost unbearably magnificent.

[mogawoods]

Rather vulturishly I've been tearing through the first volume of Victor Klemperer's published diaries for the past week or so. They begin in January 1933 when fiftysomething Klemperer is working as a humanities lecturer at a Dresden university and building a house with his wife. In Berlin, Hitler is elected Chancellor. From his quite domestic perspective, almost pastoral, Klemperer documents an ensuing thirteen years of ever encroaching totalitarianism.

 

Small humiliations accumulate (denied entry to the state library; forced by law to change his name to Victor-Israel) as well as (ostensibly, at least) petty persecutions (garden too unkempt, complain the neighbours; new roof's gradient not sufficiently German, reproaches the mayor) and inevitable civil violations ('redundancy' - politely, a smile, a handshake, pension in full, a favour, really; compulsory 'Registration of Assets of Jews'; curfew; arrest; eviction; seizure of property) - all this alongside, by contrast, the triviality of chores and banal social engagements, life's unceasing drudgery. The cat still needs feeding, dishes washed. He writes letters. His wife plants flowers. They drive to the dentist. Friends come for dinner. It snows.

 

Observations abound of civilised society slowly degrading itself both locally and nationally: a small swastika now embosses a tube of toothpaste in a nearby shop; hospitals everywhere struggle to cope with teenage pregnancies and rampant gonorrhoea among the League of German Girls; incessant blaring loudspeaker speeches might as well be 'silence, a foxtrot' - propaganda overexposure has deafened a population.

 

And it's a population of handwringers and shruggers very often - whispered apologies, too-easy concessions - not afraid (at first) of torture, imprisonment, death as much as the Communist alternative. At least Hitler wasn't a Bolshevik. Think of the economy! One of his Jewish friends to Klemperer: 'Hitler is a genius.' Klemperer's despair makes occasional room for guilty schadenfreude when his complacent friends eventually find their own faces at the heel of Orwell's stamping boot.

 

400 pages and six years in and surprisingly (to me, anyway) there's been no violence, no brutality - not foreground, at least. Instead, this gradual accrual of polite infringements and parochial atrocities as an autocracy digests a democracy and shits out servility, stupidity, misery.

 

Volume two already on its way.

[Illyria]

I'm battling my way through LOTR at the moment, but now that The Dark Tower film project seems to be taking off it's time I finally get on that series, so I'll probably take a Tolkien break after the first book

[ZOK]

Good luck with that! The end of the first book is a real cliff hanger.

[Darren]

I possed that thinking it was a clever joke about the first DT book, then thought it was maybe referring to the first LOTR book so retracted it. Please clear up my confusion ZOK so I can pos or not on the right basis.

[Illyria]

1 hour ago, Darren said:

I possed that thinking it was a clever joke about the first DT book, then thought it was maybe referring to the first LOTR book so retracted it. Please clear up my confusion ZOK so I can pos or not on the right basis.

I was wondering as well 

[ZOK]

Eh, I was saying that the end of FOTR is a real cliff hanger, and you'd want to crack straight on into The Two Towers. I don't know what Dark Towers is, sorry!

[Sirloin]

I'm reading David Cesarani's Final Solution which is about the Holocaust. It's pretty heavy going.