What books did you read in 2021?

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

 

1. Cibola Burn by James S A Corey - 4/5

2. How Not To Be a Professional Football by Paul Merson - 1.5/5

3. The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor - 4/5

4. Ian Wright - A Life in Football: My Autobiography by Ian Wright - 4/5

 

 

5. Straight Outa Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human by Romesh Ranganathan

 

This is very funny indeed.  I've always liked Romesh's stand up and travel shows and his life story is well worth reading as he's excellent at anecdotes.  This took me about 2 days to read as it isn't the longest but his self-deprecating sense of humour makes it difficult to put down.  Great stuff.

 

4/5

 

6. My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen

 

I have absolutely no interest in Lily Allen's music, and I've never cared one iota about celebrity culture but someone recommended this to me, saying it's very well written and eye opening.

 

They were right - she's actually a very good writer, and her life story is one that's well worth telling.  There are many important feminist messages as well as insights into industries that need to up their fucking game.

 

I think that Kindles can be a bit like the Game Pass of books because there's no way I'd have picked this up otherwise, but it was in the 99p sales a few months back.  I'd recommend anyone read this due to how well written it is, and the messages Allen tells us.  It's very interesting indeed.

 

4/5

 

 

[lolly]

D-Day through German eyes Volumes 1&2 - Holger Eckhertz

 

Edit ; Sirloin has pointed out that this book has been largely discredited as an accurate account as some of the contributors did not exist or were assigned to units  that are not detailed in the book. As such it can be classed as fiction and upon further investigation so can at least a few other books from the same publisher in regards wartime accounts . My thanks to Sirloin for being a lot more discerning and thorough than I was.

 

Eyewitness accounts from the German side during the D-Day landings in France over two volumes of about 160 pages each. Was originally by the author's father who was a German reporter during the war reporting for Military publications  but never published , his son released them in 2015. There's a variety of different soldiers including Luftwaffe pilot , military policeman, engineers and regular troops on the ground at the beaches. Some obviously come across better than others,one actually seems like an out and out sociopath  and the lack of empathy was frightening.

The other theme prevalent throughout is the amount of firepower brought to bear by the allies , they really managed to make that part of France a living hell , the descriptions on phosphorous bombs and grenades plus the "flame tanks" are as terrifying as any horror movies. Added to this the death from above granted by the allied air power and  it's just not a nice situation for anyone to be  in. Death is arbitrary and sudden and there's a real sense of that in this , moreso than in some other war books I've read.

4.5/5

 

Spoiler

1.best served cold -Joe Abercrombie

2. Ancillary Justice- Ann Leckie

3.the 5th Season - N.K. jemisen

4. All you need is kill-

5 To kill a mockingbird- Harper lee

6. Pompeii- Robert Harris

 

[little che]

Set my Heart to Five by Simon Stephenson.  In 2035 bots, almost entirely indistinguishable from humans are used to do the jobs that humans don’t want, in the main protagonists case that means being a dentist who in spite of his programming , starts to develop human emotions and goes on the run before he can be incinerated for unbot like behaviour.  I really fancied this because of the concept and also because Edgar Wright is developing it , but it was fairly average.  The writing style is annoying and it’s hard to root for a character that has no real emotions.  It’s worth a read but it certainly won’t be in the top tier of books I’ll read this year.

[lolly]

8. There Is No Antimemetics Division

 

Picked this up on Kindle after recommendations in the Sc-Fi thread where it was described as X-com meets Memento. I'd disagree with that slightly as my experience of X-com is that it's a pretty straight down the line alien invasion(I was never very good so never got far enough into the games to reveal any deeper plot)  whereas this has elements of Control (the game), the Thing, some Lovecraftian themes as well as the aforementioned Memento. There's a palpable sense of tension  and building dread through the first 3/4 which only slackens slightly towards the end. I'd actually class it as Sci-fi horror and absolutely recommend giving it a read.

 

4.5/5

 

Previously

Spoiler

1.best served cold -Joe Abercrombie

2. Ancillary Justice- Ann Leckie

3.the 5th Season - N.K. jemisen

4. All you need is kill-

5 To kill a mockingbird- Harper lee

6. Pompeii- Robert Harris

7.D-Day through German eyes Volumes 1&2 - Holger Eckhertz

 

[Miner Willy]

16. A Month in the Country by JL Carr. A simple story very well written. I liked it.

 

17. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Blyth. I keep reading books to try to understand economics better, but am always left feeling I'm not smart enough, or lack a foundation level of knowledge, to really absorb them fully.

 

18. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey. This sounded great but I was a bit disappointed. An interesting premise, but I didn't love the story.

 

19. Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I thought this was great. It's a follow-up to Dogs of War, which I liked rather than loved, but I think this is much the better book. It's full of ideas and has many strong characters. Probably my second favourite Tchaikovsky book, after Children of Time.

 

20. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors by Dan Jones. An interesting enough account, but I kind of spent the whole time wishing Dan Carlin were telling their story.

 

Previously:

 

Spoiler

1. Piranesi

2. The Devil and the Dark Water

3. I Love the Bones of You

4. Feral

5. Melmoth

6. The Beekeeper of Aleppo

7. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
8. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

10. The Deficit Myth

11. Butcher's Crossing

12. Schismatrix

13. There is no Antimemetics Division

14. Lost at Sea

15. The Assault on Truth

16. A Month in the Country

17. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

18. The Mermaid of Black Conch

19. Bear Head

20. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors

 

[lolly]

9.Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk

 

I'm not going to talk about "fight club "the book.  The movie ,however, is quite good and a faithful adaptation of the literature it's based on.

 

3.5/5

 

Previously

 

 

 

Spoiler

.best served cold -Joe Abercrombie

2. Ancillary Justice- Ann Leckie

3.the 5th Season - N.K. jemisen

4. All you need is kill-

5 To kill a mockingbird- Harper lee

6. Pompeii- Robert Harris

7.D-Day through German eyes Volumes 1&2 - Holger Eckhertz

8. There is no antimemetics division

 

[little che]

Later by Stephen King .  Undoubtedly influenced by the sixth sense which it has the good grace to reference, this is a very old fashioned King book, which I absolutely  mean as a compliment. It’s lean and pared back like Carrie and he’s resisted the urge to turn it into a 600 page opus.  An unqualified recommendation.

[Vimster]

Really need to up my reading game this year, it's all been a bit slack, not helped by what feels like a deterioration in my eyesight, can't sit and read for hours on end any more. Anyway:

 

05. Coming Up For Air by George Orwell

Must say I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially as I'm pushing 50. It's about a 45 year-old man whose life isn't particularly inspiring, deciding to go back to the small market town he grew up in to relive some of the magic. A lot of it still struck a chord, about how things change and we live in a very personal version of the past, how you can't go back. It was published in 1939 and the book mentions the impending war which the main character believed would start in 1941 and end in Britain becoming a fascist state.
 

Spoiler

 

01. Timescape by Gregory Benford

02. The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

03. From Elephant To Hollywood by Michael Caine

04. The Assault On Truth by Peter Oborne 

05. Coming Up For Air by George Orwell

 

 

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

 

1. Cibola Burn by James S A Corey - 4/5

2. How Not To Be a Professional Football by Paul Merson - 1.5/5

3. The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor - 4/5

4. Ian Wright - A Life in Football: My Autobiography by Ian Wright - 4/5

5. Straight Outa Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human by Romesh Ranganathan - 4/5

6. My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen - 4/5

 

 

7. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

 

I'm a huge fan of the magnificent 1970's BBC adaptation of this book, but I'd never read it before.  I've missed a treat TBH - this is clever, beautifully written and hugely interesting, with or without any prior knowledge of the Julio-Claudians or the TV series.

 

I can certainly see why the novel is so highly regarded and would recommend to anyone interested in the history of Ancient Rome.

 

4/5

[Miner Willy]

26. Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain's Battle with Coronavirus by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott. While there's not much here that you wouldn't be aware of if you've been reading a lot over the past 15 months, it is nevertheless an incredibly powerful and detailed account of mistake after damning mistake made by the government, with Johnson, Hancock and Sunak (unsurprisingly) all coming out especially badly. There are some truly dystopian threads to this in terms of the scoring system used to determine access to ICU support, continual blatant misinformation for political gain, and obviously the care home debacle.

 

This and the Windrish Betrayal are the most damning indictments of Tory policy over the past few years, and yet Theresa May recovered from Windrush so comfortably that she actually became PM, while Johnson is apparently again leading the polls, somehow saved by the vaccine. It's incomprehensible.

 

A note on the Audible narrator, who does a very good Johnson, but tries to accent any quotations throughout, some of which are pretty distracting.

 

25. Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Enjoyable if slight Tchaikovsky novel.

 

24. The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai. Lots about bees and some about religious extremism. I thought this was pretty great.

 

23. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. Interesting enough, but overall not as great as it sounded.

 

22. 24 Hours in Ancient Rome. Picked up on Ausible's recent sale. Interesting enough to learn about life in that world, but not something particularly memorable.

 

21. Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Another slight Tchaikovsky 99p Kindle deal. I enjoyed it, but it's not Children of Time.

 

Previously:

 

Spoiler

1. Piranesi

2. The Devil and the Dark Water

3. I Love the Bones of You

4. Feral

5. Melmoth

6. The Beekeeper of Aleppo

7. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
8. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

10. The Deficit Myth

11. Butcher's Crossing

12. Schismatrix

13. There is no Antimemetics Division

14. Lost at Sea

15. The Assault on Truth

16. A Month in the Country

17. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

18. The Mermaid of Black Conch

19. Bear Head

20. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors

21. Walking to Aldebaran

22. 24 Hours in Ancient Rome

23. The Memory Police

24. The Ardent Swarm

25. Firewalkers

26. Failures of State

 

[Sirloin]

On 16/03/2021 at 09:29, lolly said:

D-Day through German eyes Volumes 1&2 - Holger Eckhertz

 

Eyewitness accounts from the German side during the D-Day landings in France over two volumes of about 160 pages each. Was originally by the author's father who was a German reporter during the war reporting for Military publications  but never published , his son released them in 2015. There's a variety of different soldiers including Luftwaffe pilot , military policeman, engineers and regular troops on the ground at the beaches. Some obviously come across better than others,one actually seems like an out and out sociopath  and the lack of empathy was frightening.

The other theme prevalent throughout is the amount of firepower brought to bear by the allies , they really managed to make that part of France a living hell , the descriptions on phosphorous bombs and grenades plus the "flame tanks" are as terrifying as any horror movies. Added to this the death from above granted by the allied air power and  it's just not a nice situation for anyone to be  in. Death is arbitrary and sudden and there's a real sense of that in this , moreso than in some other war books I've read.

4.5/5

 

  Reveal hidden contents

1.best served cold -Joe Abercrombie

2. Ancillary Justice- Ann Leckie

3.the 5th Season - N.K. jemisen

4. All you need is kill-

5 To kill a mockingbird- Harper lee

6. Pompeii- Robert Harris

 

Just as an FYI this has been widely discredited and should be viewed as a work of fiction. A lot of the individuals mentioned didn’t exist, or didn’t serve in the units he mentions.

[lolly]

12 hours ago, Sirloin said:

Just as an FYI this has been widely discredited and should be viewed as a work of fiction. A lot of the individuals mentioned didn’t exist, or didn’t serve in the units he mentions.

Cheers for the heads up, I feel like a bit of an idiot  for being taken in so easily without checking the sources a bit more closely. Turns out there's term for the glorification of the Wehrmacht - Wehrabooism which I wasn't aware of and is a tool of far right groups to soften the image of the German army during WW2. Amazon keeps recommending other books by the same publishing house which appear to also claim to be actual accounts  from other theaters which are also works of fiction.

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

 

1. Cibola Burn by James S A Corey - 4/5

2. How Not To Be a Professional Football by Paul Merson - 1.5/5

3. The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor - 4/5

4. Ian Wright - A Life in Football: My Autobiography by Ian Wright - 4/5

5. Straight Outa Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human by Romesh Ranganathan - 4/5

6. My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen - 4/5

7. I, Claudius by Robert Graves - 4/5

 

 

8. The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan

 

I've read a few accounts from North Korean defectors which shed some light on the awful living conditions suffered by millions under the Kim regime, but this is the first one by a survivor of a North Korean concentration camp.  It's very powerful and in places, incredibly disturbing.

 

It's very well written - Kang's description of life in the camp is almost poetic at times, which is perfectly balanced by the chaotic depiction of his eventual escape.

 

Definitely worth a look.

 

4/5

[Sirloin]

I’ve been reading right wing dickhole Jonathan Sumption’s massive ongoing history of the Hundred Years’ War. I’m through the first two volumes and just about to start the third. I hate his politics, but this is pretty great. Insane detail to it, covering just about every skirmish, but it’s such a fascinating period and he’s actually an engaging writer.

[lolly]

Mortal Engines -Philip Reeve

YA fantasy with large cities turning into roving tanks across Europe and devouring other cities for resources in the far future. Interesting fantasy steampunk vibe to it and it licks along at a decent pace.It's a bit simplistic in the storytelling as it's YA  but there's a reasonable amount of mur-diddly-urder, some of which were a little, but not very, surprising.Some decent set pieces, indistinct cast of bad guys , predictable good guys and nice ideas.

 

Also,I didn't mind the movie though I understand a lot of people hated it , it makes a fair few changes from the book but the aesthetics are decent.

 

3/5 for the buke at any rate.

 

 

 

previously:

Spoiler

1.best served cold -Joe Abercrombie

2. Ancillary Justice- Ann Leckie

3.the 5th Season - N.K. jemisen

4. All you need is kill-

5 To kill a mockingbird- Harper lee

6. Pompeii- Robert Harris

7.D-Day through German eyes Volumes 1&2 - Holger Eckhertz

8. There is no antimemetics division

9 Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk

 

[little che]

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky.  

I picked this up in the daily deal. Alternative Earth timelines , advanced Neanderthal civilisations and immortal, hyper-intelligent, space faring giant wood lice . If you’ve ever read any of his books then you know he possesses a prodigious imagination and whilst this book is ostensibly set on earth,it still has his usual vat full of ideas. Recommended .

[Vimster]

06. The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards - More analysis then profiles of PMs since Wilson, it jumps about, drawing comparisons in various areas. It's obvious Steve Richards has favourites but at least makes an attempt to keep it balanced. 

 

07. Beneath The Bleeding by Val McDermid - Finished watching all six series of Wire In The Blood recently and wanted more of Dr Tony Hill. Found the first four of the 11 books were adapted for the series so skipped to book 5, and whilst it's obvious I've missed a few plot lines it wasn't enough to ruin my enjoyment of this quality easy read. 

 

Spoiler

 

01. Timescape by Gregory Benford

02. The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

03. From Elephant To Hollywood by Michael Caine

04. The Assault On Truth by Peter Oborne 

05. Coming Up For Air by George Orwell

06. The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards

07. Beneath The Bleeding by Val McDermid

 

 

[The Fox]

Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan

 

Crime thriller set in a remote, decaying seaside town. Has a very foreboding, oppressive atmosphere, to the point that it feels like a horror at times. Definitely not an easy read - partly because of the subject matter and partly the relentlessly grim, often unnerving prose - but I ploughed through it in two days, so I guess it overcame that hurdle. It appears to have been picked up for TV, which I'm not at all surprised about.

[Darren]

9. The Talisman - Stephen King & Peter Straub

 

In between other books I'm gradually reading all of Stephen King's novels in publication order. There have been a few so far that I'd read previously, but this is the first of those where the re-read was much less fun. I remember really enjoying this first time round, but this time I found it all pretty dull. There are good bits but they're spread thin, and without the surprise of finding out what happens next the rest just isn't interesting enough. But worst of all is the fact that most of the characters are more caricatures than the believable people that usually populate King's books.

 

Spoiler

1. Circe - Madeline Miller

2. Star Wars: The Destiny Path - Charles Soule & Jesus Saiz (graphic novel)

3. Darth Vader: Dark Heart of the Sith - Greg Pak & Raffaele Ienco (graphic novel)

4. Star Wars: Shadow Fall - Alexander Freed

5. Immortal Hulk: The Keeper of the Door - Al Ewing & Joe Bennett (graphic novel)

6. Doctor Aphra: Fortune and Fate - Alyssa Wong & Marika Cresta (graphic novel)

7. Bounty Hunters: Galaxy's Deadliest - Ethan Sacks & Arif Prianto (graphic novel)

8. Star Wars: Operation Starlight - Charles Soule, Ramon Rosanas & Jan Bazaldua (graphic novel)

9. The Talisman - Stephen King & Peter Straub

10. Immortal Hulk: The Weakest One There Is - Al Ewing & Joe Bennett (graphic novel)

11. Darth Vader: Into the Fire - Greg Pak & Raffaele Ienco (graphic novel)

12. Bounty Hunters: Target Valance - Ethan Sacks & Arif Prianto (graphic novel)

 

[Miner Willy]

27. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. No idea how this ended up on my Kindle - I guess a deal of the day impulse purchase. Not really my sort of thing, but enjoyable enough.

 

28. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapon, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Scholsser. This was brilliant - couldn't stop listening to it. The Audible version is narrated by the same chap who did Moneyball, who I really like.

 

29. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. It's probably about as well written, but for me not as enjoyable as Normal People. I didn't identify with the scenario as much, or warm to the characters in quite the same way.

 

30. The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money. Fantastic book - felt a bit like a modern version of All the President's Men in terms of following reporters as they work towards breaking a huge story.

 

31. The Premonition by Michael Lewis. I expect anything Lewis writes is worth reading. I thought this was great - it made me look at the pandemic from a different perspective, and there are the usual series of fascinating Lewis characters.

 

32. Contact by Carl Sagan. I saw the film years ago but couldn't remember a thing about it. There were parts of this I loved. I thought the science vs. religion bit was  interesting, and the way the alien contact played out was surprisingly good. But I did think overall it was a bit slow and overlong in some places.

 

Previously:

 

Spoiler

1. Piranesi

2. The Devil and the Dark Water

3. I Love the Bones of You

4. Feral

5. Melmoth

6. The Beekeeper of Aleppo

7. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
8. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

10. The Deficit Myth

11. Butcher's Crossing

12. Schismatrix

13. There is no Antimemetics Division

14. Lost at Sea

15. The Assault on Truth

16. A Month in the Country

17. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

18. The Mermaid of Black Conch

19. Bear Head

20. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors

21. Walking to Aldebaran

22. 24 Hours in Ancient Rome

23. The Memory Police

24. The Ardent Swarm

25. Firewalkers

26. Failures of State

27. West with Giraffes

28. Command and Control

29. Conversations with Friends

30. The Panama Papers

31. The Premonition

32. Contact

 

[Stopharage]

Just realised I haven't updated this in a while and it's nice to have a reading record you can look back on. 

 

6. Malorie by Josh Malerman. I really didn't think much of Bird Box - book or film. Thought this was a lot better, although I continue to find the central character pretty grating. However, her role is stripped back so it gives the book a bit more room to breath. 

 

7. We Are Bellingcat by Elliot Higgins. There's some hugely interesting and important stuff crammed in here. Some of the investigative work and the strategies they use to burrow down to the truth are hugely impressive. Well worth a read although Higgins is a bit too focused on himself at times. 

 

8. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A.Cosby. Grubby bit of crime noire, populated by inept and charismatic characters. Engaging plot and worth a read.

 

9. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. Decent slice of magic realism. Doors appear around the world which allow people to move from one place to another immediately. This is used as an effective device to make links with the immigration issues that have arisen in recent years. A couple decide to escape a war zone and its looks at the implication for the world when migration becomes instantaneous. 

 

10. Step by Step by Simon Reeve. Autobiography of the travel presenter. Found this a really surprising read; having had no idea of his background or upbringing. It's a great read and he's a really personable, engaging, yet flawed writer. That last part isn't a criticism, it makes his writing far more interesting as a result. 

 

11. Wallking to Alderbaran by Adrain Tchaikovsky. My second slice of Tchaikovsky and it just serves to demonstrate what a great ideas man he is. He's also capable of some surprisingly funny and gritty prose at times. Quite slight novella but crams a lot of content in there. 

 

12. Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Third slice..again engaging and intriguing post-apocalyptic world deals with increasing temperatures, a growing division between rich and poor and the potential for off-planet survival. Another interesting read. 

 

13. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener. A publishing employee decides to work in Silicon Valley. An interesting memoir although you get the feeling that she was far-removed from the more-interesting figures and events.

 

14. Press Reset by Jason Schreier. I did really enjoy this but felt it wasn't quite as good or engaging as Blood, Sweat and Pixels. Also felt that I already knew quite a few of these tales as well. 

 

15. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. He's an eminently likeable writer and has done some fantastic work on discussing and supporting mental health issues. This novel touches on a lot of this and whilst its an easy read, there are some interesting philosophical topics going on and reference to key thinkers. 

 

16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Fourth book of his this year. I know others have enjoyed this on here but I bounced off this and it took me a fair while to read. Thing it's time to give him a break..

 

Spoiler

 

1. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. 

2. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

3. Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

4. Doggerland by Ben Smith. 

5. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.

6. Malorie by Josh Malerman

7. We Are Bellingcat by Elliot Higgins.

8. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A.Cosby

9. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

10. Step by Step by Simon Reeve

12. Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky

11. Wallking to Alderbaran by Adrain Tchaikovsky

12. Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky

13. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

14. Press Reset by Jason Schreier

15. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

 

[Miner Willy]

I thought Bear Head was much better and more interesting than Dogs of War.

[Mercury]

6. Going the Wrong Way by Chris Donaldson

 

Still loving my books about people travelling around the world on a motorbike. This one is about Chris who left Belfast in the 1970's on his Moto Guzzi Le Mans to ride to Australia. He never makes it but has some incredible experiences in the Middle East and Africa and later in North and South America.

 

Previously:

Spoiler

1. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

2. Believe Me by JP Delaney

3. The Secret Barrister by Anon

4. The Sentinel by Lee and Andrew Child

5. Heartburn by Nora Ephron

 

[Miner Willy]

33. Zone One by Colson Whitehead. Interesting to see a brilliant, 'serious' author take on the zombie genre, though in reality I didn't think this quite worked for me.

34. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.  I'm sure this was recommended on here ages back and has been in my Audible library for years. It wss interesting and thought provoking, though the narration felt dull and dated.

35. Creativity by John Cleese. Recommended by a work colleague. A sort of creativity self-help book, in reality it was very short and not especially insightful, I thought.

36. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Never read any Haig before, but I really enjoyed this. I liked the premise and thought the first half was especially good.

37. A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley. As a rediscovered classic, this has been compared to (the brilliant) Stoner. It has a memorable set-up (below is stolen from Wikipedia):

 

One afternoon, in the backwater town of Sutton in a imaginary Southern state located between Mississippi and Alabama, a young black farmer, Tucker Caliban, matter-of-factly throws salt on his field, shoots his horse and livestock, sets fire to his house and leaves with his pregnant wife, starting an exodus of the entire African-American population from the state. The novel gives background and context to Caliban's act across a dozen chapters, each told from the perspective of different white townspersons.

 

Very much recommended.

 

38. Sunburn: The Unofficial History of the Sun Newspaper by James Felton. A 99p Kindle impulse purchase. It's a fairly amusing and frequently shocking retelling of 99 times Sun journalists behaved like cunts/bigots/idiots etc.

 

Previously:

 

Spoiler

1. Piranesi

2. The Devil and the Dark Water

3. I Love the Bones of You

4. Feral

5. Melmoth

6. The Beekeeper of Aleppo

7. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
8. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

10. The Deficit Myth

11. Butcher's Crossing

12. Schismatrix

13. There is no Antimemetics Division

14. Lost at Sea

15. The Assault on Truth

16. A Month in the Country

17. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

18. The Mermaid of Black Conch

19. Bear Head

20. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors

21. Walking to Aldebaran

22. 24 Hours in Ancient Rome

23. The Memory Police

24. The Ardent Swarm

25. Firewalkers

26. Failures of State

27. West with Giraffes

28. Command and Control

29. Conversations with Friends

30. The Panama Papers

31. The Premonition

32. Contact

33. Zone One
34. Guns, Germs and Steel
35. Creativity
36. The Midnight Library
37. A Different Drummer
38. Sunburn: The Unofficial History of the Sun Newspaper

 

[Exidor]

Bit of a late start this year, for one reason and another. This is from May onwards.

 

Things the Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Oliver Everett
A laid back memoir from E out of Eels, covering massive amounts of family tragedy and his gradual rise to MTV icon. The music biz stuff in the second half is an interesting time capsule because it stops short just before streaming completely shafted the industry. It's the earlier family stuff that I liked though. He's very matter of fact about it all, which somehow makes it more effective.

 

There is no Antimemetics Division - qntm
Picked this up because of all the raves in the sci fi thread and they weren't wrong. A great brain melter of a sci fi concept executed very cleverly so that you're always just ahead of the characters (although it took me far too long to work out that the Vegas room they use wasn't just called that because it sounded cool but actually had a very obvious meaning). Not 100% sure about the personification of the threat toward the end but otherwise it rattles along and presents a potentially very confusing idea as a rip-roaring race against time.

 

Noriko Smiling - Adam Mars-Jones
A longform essay about Yasujiro Ozu's film Late Spring. Mars-Jones takes the contrarian view that the established film school view of it is a bit too reverential and steeped in orientalism, and that there's mileage in looking at the film on a more basic level as a social/family drama. All well and good, but he also proudly declares that he knows nothing about Japanese society or history and so all the book can really offer is a shot-by-shot breakdown that often resembles an Arnold Schwarzenegger DVD commentary, just describing the action and character motivation without adding any broader context or critical perspective beyond what you can pick up just by watching the thing. There's a stunner of a review of it by David Cozy in The Japan Times that sums it up well: "I can hardly be accused of being an expert on Japanese film," Adam Mars-Jones assures us early in "Noriko Smiling". Such protestations at the beginning of a work are not, in an age that distrusts expertise and celebrates ignorance, unusual. In most cases, though, a writer who makes this move goes on to demonstrate, however obliquely, that he or she is not, in fact, ignorant at all. Mars-Jones takes a different approach.

 

The Art of Space Travel - Nina Allan (short)
A tidy little short about a woman working in a hotel where the crew of a Mars mission are staying the night before their trip. Nominally science fiction but really just a character study that draws parallels with the Mars stuff to talk about dealing with family, abandonment and whatnot.

 

The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (audiobook)
Carter reinterprets and modernises various fairy tales, usually switching the point of view to the female characters, and makes them sexy and grown up. Pretty much a modern classic, and source for the film The Company of Wolves.

 

The Rift - Nina Allan
More nominal sci fi from Allan. Selena's sister went missing as a teenager and was never seen again. She's lived her life in the shadow of this event, so when the sister reappears years later with a story about how she was almost abducted by a creepy guy in a van but accidentally fell through a hole in space/time and ended up spending 20 years living a whole other life on a completely different world, it kind of knocks her for six a bit. I loved this - it does a great job of weaving the personal with the ambitious sci fi world building, looks at identity, loss, what makes us who we are, etc.

 

Any Way the Wind Blows - Seanan McGuire (short)
I need to stop downloading stuff just because it's free. This is a distinctly nothingy in-joke short story for the folk at tor.com. If you work for them or know one of the staff it's probably fun but as a casual reader it's just a bunch of sentences.

 

The Cabin at the End of the World - Paul Tremblay
OK, I guess. It's a home invasion story "with a twist", the twist being that maybe the invaders aren't bad guys at all. Sounds interesting on paper but in order to keep that ambiguity going, the invaders can't present that much of a threat and you end up feeling like if everyone had just sat down and had a bit of a chinwag they could have figured out a solution to the central mystery fairly easily. By the end, a bunch of stuff has happened but I had no idea what, if anything, Tremblay actually wanted to say with his story.

 

The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood (audiobook)
What if tales of old weren't written for men by men about men? Atwood looks at what was going on with Penelope at home while Odysseus was off fighting/shagging. Hard not to measure it against Circe, which is a more thoughtful take on a similar idea, especially when the audiobook is read by a narrator who leans a little too far into the archness of the writing so that Penelope ends up sounding like Lucille Bluth a lot of the time.

 

Roadmarks - Roger Zelazny
On a road that spans all of time, a man and his sentient book have to deal with robot assassins, ninja monks and a mind controlled dinosaur while searching for an ineffable something that none of them really understands. Does it have things to say about the human condition? Not particularly. Does it read like a western and have the maddest ending? Absolutely. Ripped through it in a day.

 

Paper Girls - Brian K Vaughan & Cliff Chiang (graphic novel)
Cracking good read from Brian K Vaughan. 80s kids-on-bikes sci fi time travel shenanigans with a lot of heart and plenty of loopy twists and turns. Like good 2000AD.

 

The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays - Elisa Gabbert
A book of essays on the tricks our brains play on us to keep us sane in a bewilderingly complex and deadly world. Takes in the nature of "the self", empathy and its limits, how we process the inevitability of disasters, our concept of time, all sorts. Perfect pick for the beach this summer.
 

[Mercury]

7. WIN by Harlan Coben

 

As a self-confessed Harlan fanboy, his annual novel is a reading highlight of the year. This year particularly so as it's the first novel to be dedicated to Windsor Horne Lockwood III. Windsor (Win) has appeared as Myron Bolitar's sidekick in over ten novels but here he gets centre stage. We find out a lot more about Win's family and past and in particular a dark secret involving his Father, Uncle and Cousin. As usual for Harlan's books, it rattles along at pace with a twist every few chapters. I finished it in a couple of sittings. Roll on Harlan 2022.

 

Previously:

 

Spoiler

1. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

2. Believe Me by JP Delaney

3. The Secret Barrister by Anon

4. The Sentinel by Lee and Andrew Child

5. Heartburn by Nora Ephron

6. Going the Wrong Way by Chris Donaldson

 

[Sun Tze]

On 01/06/2021 at 18:48, Stopharage said:

9. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. Decent slice of magic realism. Doors appear around the world which allow people to move from one place to another immediately. This is used as an effective device to make links with the immigration issues that have arisen in recent years. A couple decide to escape a war zone and its looks at the implication for the world when migration becomes instantaneous.

 

I really liked this one although probably not as much as some of his earlier works. I've seen some reviews mention it wasn't set anywhere specifically but i could've sworn Nadia and her friend are from Syria? I think i read it during the hight of the civil war over there but the refugees, the Isis types playing football with severed human heads...it felt pretty actual. I also found that the book provided a refreshing perspective on the global refugee crisis and helped me understand certain aspects of it a little better.

 

Just finished White Tears (H. Kunzru) and The Nickel Boys (C.Whitehead). I found White Tears the more enjoyable book but then i'm quite fond of Kunzru's writing style. Nicely flowing story about two audiophiles in '90's New York with some unexpected plot turns at the end. Nickel Boys was entertaining enough but didn't leave me feeling anything (special) after finishing it. Reminded me of some David Vann's books i read last year, entertaining but nothing that raises an eyebrow. 

 

Ordered:

Peripheral (W.Gibson), War with the Newts (K.Capek), V (T.Pynchon), Intimacies (K.Kitamura), Moonglow (M.Chabon) and Red Pill (H.Kunzru). Bring on the summer. 

 

 

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

 

1. Cibola Burn by James S A Corey - 4/5

2. How Not To Be a Professional Football by Paul Merson - 1.5/5

3. The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor - 4/5

4. Ian Wright - A Life in Football: My Autobiography by Ian Wright - 4/5

5. Straight Outa Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human by Romesh Ranganathan - 4/5

6. My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen - 4/5

7. I, Claudius by Robert Graves - 4/5

8. The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan - 4/5

 

 

9. A Time To Kill by John Grisham

 

First time I've ever read a John Grisham book - this asks a lot of very interesting moral questions, exploring civil rights in Mississippi.  Great characters and a really thought provoking conundrum provide an engaging, dramatic plot.

 

This did drag a bit and I can't help but feel that it would be a must read if it could be trimmed by a 1/3.

 

I'll have a look at the sequels and will watch the film adaptation of this starring Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson and Sandra Bullock, but I don't think I'll be doing either for a little while as I was pretty exhausted by the end!

 

3.5/5 

[Stopharage]

17. The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism by Peter Oborne

This was an interesting and utterly unsurprising critique of what a rogue Johnson is. For someone supposedly in awe of the history of Parliament, Oborne shows how Johnson has disrespected the heritage, traditions and conventions in his thirst for power. As with Trump, Oborne gives ample evidence to suggest history will not look kindly on Johnson. 
 

18. The Premonition by Michael Lewis. I enjoyed this but think I’m going to have to I read it, as I listened to the Audible version and didn’t get on with the narrator. It’s Lewis’ tale of how a disparate band of scientists prepared the US for a potential pandemic and were then largely gobsmacked when the US bungled their COVID response. 

Spoiler

 

1. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. 

2. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

3. Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

4. Doggerland by Ben Smith. 

5. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.

6. Malorie by Josh Malerman

7. We Are Bellingcat by Elliot Higgins.

8. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A.Cosby

9. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

10. Step by Step by Simon Reeve

12. Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky

11. Wallking to Alderbaran by Adrain Tchaikovsky

12. Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky

13. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

14. Press Reset by Jason Schreier

15. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

17. The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism by Peter Oborne

18. The Premonition by Michael Lewis

 

 

[Talvalin]

On 29/04/2021 at 10:14, lolly said:

Mortal Engines -Philip Reeve

YA fantasy with large cities turning into roving tanks across Europe and devouring other cities for resources in the far future. Interesting fantasy steampunk vibe to it and it licks along at a decent pace.It's a bit simplistic in the storytelling as it's YA  but there's a reasonable amount of mur-diddly-urder, some of which were a little, but not very, surprising.Some decent set pieces, indistinct cast of bad guys , predictable good guys and nice ideas.

If you enjoyed it, then I strongly suggest you continue with the remaining three books in the main series. Things get more hairy as time goes on and every decision has its consequence, sooner or later. The second book is a direct sequel, and the third and fourth books are set about 15 years later following Tom and Hester's kids.