| Books 11:29 - Aug 26 with 2427 views | Phildo |
Anyone read any good ones recently?
I am 40 years late but I just read Lonesome Dove and oh my I enjoyed it.
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| Books on 11:33 - Aug 26 with 1895 views | Ranger_1969 |
Just finished Champagne and Shenanigans by Francis Peacock. A very interesting and detailed review of our club circa 1907-08. Would recommend. |  | | |
| Books on 11:38 - Aug 26 with 1854 views | Gus_iom |
I read a lot during work breaks.
I buy books from the charity shop as they are likely to get a bit mucky in my van, so definitely not the latest releases.
Anyway, just read 'time after time' by Ben Elton. Didn't have great expectations (!), but thought it was really good. Thoroughly recommend. | |
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| Books on 12:58 - Aug 26 with 1725 views | Paddyhoops |
Got the new Bob Mortimer book pre ordered. His previous two were very good . Hotel Avocado and Satsuma complex. | | | |
| Books on 13:36 - Aug 26 with 1625 views | QPRcounsellor |
What a coincidence, I just bought Lonesome Dove and will take it on holiday with me.
Some great books I've read recently:
Philip Roth, Human Stain and also American Pastoral.
Stefan Zweig: Beware Of Pity
Kundera: Unbearable Lightness of Being | | | |
| Books on 13:50 - Aug 26 with 1562 views | derbyhoop |
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. What could happen if a right wing authoritarian takes over a modern country.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Escape from a drugs cartel and head for a "safe" country to the north.
The Bee Sting - Paul Murray. When a wedding and a marriage don't go smoothly. [Post edited 26 Aug 17:50]
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| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Books on 14:30 - Aug 26 with 1501 views | dmm |
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett is social science fiction and an enjoyable and easy read. It's the first of a trilogy.
For a more serious read, The Dawn of Everything is an amazing rewriting of human history by David Graeber and David Wengrove. It took these two academics 10 years to research and write. One of the best books I've ever read. |  | | |
| Books ove on 14:38 - Aug 26 with 1457 views | lightwaterhoop |
Lonesome Dove is a great book the best by Larry McMurtry.The Last Picture Show is my next favourite by him its set in 1950's Texas and its a coming of age story.
For any history buffs The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan is second to none.
[Post edited 26 Aug 14:55]
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| Books on 14:57 - Aug 26 with 1357 views | hubble |
| Books on 13:36 - Aug 26 by QPRcounsellor |
What a coincidence, I just bought Lonesome Dove and will take it on holiday with me.
Some great books I've read recently:
Philip Roth, Human Stain and also American Pastoral.
Stefan Zweig: Beware Of Pity
Kundera: Unbearable Lightness of Being |
That's a deep selection, QPRC!
Zweig is almost unknown today, yet he is surely one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and Beware of Pity is absolutely superb. I read The Unbearable etc. years ago, I recall really enjoying it. Have yet to read any Roth. I'm sure I probably should, but you can't read everything, can you?
Recently I have been trying to work my way through some of the classics that I haven't read yet and I thought Gustave Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' was genius. Incredibly modern in its open-minded and frank treatment of female desire and aspiration for a book that was written in 1856. Not surprised the bourgeoisie were scandalised at the time! So that's a recommendation if such things appeal to you. However I admit I am struggling with Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time', it requires dedication to stick with it.
Anyway, enough of the highbrow hoo-ha, if you like unputdownable, immersive fiction, Lian Hearn's 'Tales of the Otari' series is utterly brilliant. So good in fact that when I got to the end of the five book series, I started again. The series is set in a fictionalised 16th century Japan, a time when the Japanese were starting to be impacted by European culture and technology.
If anyone wants any other recommendations, just say what genre... happy to oblige. As you can tell, I like literary threads! ;-) |  |
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| Books ove on 14:59 - Aug 26 with 1346 views | Maggsinho |
| Books ove on 14:38 - Aug 26 by lightwaterhoop |
Lonesome Dove is a great book the best by Larry McMurtry.The Last Picture Show is my next favourite by him its set in 1950's Texas and its a coming of age story.
For any history buffs The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan is second to none.
[Post edited 26 Aug 14:55]
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I loved both the book and the film of The Last Picture Show.
Stuff I've enjoyed recently
Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
And an old favourite, Stoner by John Williams |  | | |
| Books ove on 15:58 - Aug 26 with 1210 views | MrSheen |
| Books ove on 14:38 - Aug 26 by lightwaterhoop |
Lonesome Dove is a great book the best by Larry McMurtry.The Last Picture Show is my next favourite by him its set in 1950's Texas and its a coming of age story.
For any history buffs The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan is second to none.
[Post edited 26 Aug 14:55]
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Comanche Moon is a prequel to Lonesome Dove set 20 years before it, also excellent. Cormac MacCarthy’s Blood Meridian is a historical companion to Comanche Moon but it’s utterly gruesome.
I might have a new favourite non-fiction book, Julian Jackson’s biography of Charles de Gaulle, A Certain Idea of France. It’s a bit of a doorstop, but it’s completely gripping on an astonishing figure, just wonderful to read. |  | | |
| Books ove on 16:03 - Aug 26 with 1195 views | Phildo |
| Books ove on 14:59 - Aug 26 by Maggsinho |
I loved both the book and the film of The Last Picture Show.
Stuff I've enjoyed recently
Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
And an old favourite, Stoner by John Williams |
Stoner is one of my favourites- it was also a favourite of John McGahern - That they may face the rising sun is a wonderful book. | | | |
| Books (n/t) on 16:18 - Aug 26 with 1136 views | BernardOK |
[Post edited 26 Aug 16:23]
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| Books on 16:32 - Aug 26 with 1045 views | derbyhoop |
| Books on 14:57 - Aug 26 by hubble |
That's a deep selection, QPRC!
Zweig is almost unknown today, yet he is surely one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and Beware of Pity is absolutely superb. I read The Unbearable etc. years ago, I recall really enjoying it. Have yet to read any Roth. I'm sure I probably should, but you can't read everything, can you?
Recently I have been trying to work my way through some of the classics that I haven't read yet and I thought Gustave Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' was genius. Incredibly modern in its open-minded and frank treatment of female desire and aspiration for a book that was written in 1856. Not surprised the bourgeoisie were scandalised at the time! So that's a recommendation if such things appeal to you. However I admit I am struggling with Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time', it requires dedication to stick with it.
Anyway, enough of the highbrow hoo-ha, if you like unputdownable, immersive fiction, Lian Hearn's 'Tales of the Otari' series is utterly brilliant. So good in fact that when I got to the end of the five book series, I started again. The series is set in a fictionalised 16th century Japan, a time when the Japanese were starting to be impacted by European culture and technology.
If anyone wants any other recommendations, just say what genre... happy to oblige. As you can tell, I like literary threads! ;-) |
Amen for Madame Bovary.
I read it a good while ago and it is very much in line with modern female emancipation. | |
| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Books on 16:37 - Aug 26 with 1028 views | scot1963 |
I was given The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy of books by someone who might question me on whether I'd read them or not so I couldn't put them in the back of a cupboard or give them to a charity shop and forget about them. I reluctantly picked the first up to read to say that I'd given it a go, convinced I would get through a chapter at most and that would be it, but somehow I'd read all 3 books in a matter of weeks without putting them down. |  | | |
| Books on 16:47 - Aug 26 with 957 views | Goofy |
On the non-fiction side of the tracks, I really enjoyed 'Determined' by Robert Sapolsky, in which he argues that there is no such thing as free will. It's on the list for a re-read at some point... |  | | |
| Books on 16:51 - Aug 26 with 938 views | Esox_Lucius |
If epic Sci fi series interest you, The chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson are among the best. Fall of the Malazan Empire is another terrific series. [Post edited 26 Aug 17:08]
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| The grass is always greener. |
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| Books on 16:56 - Aug 26 with 911 views | slmrstid |
I've just read Ultras by Tobias Jones which is a look into the mad world of Italian ultras, particularly focused on Cosenza. Enjoyed that.
A few months ago I bought Red or Dead by David Pearce as I did enjoy The Damned United and I've given up on it. I presume (but am not old enough to know) its written in the style Shankly spoke in, but my God it is impossible to read as every sentence repeats itself multiple times and it goes round and round in circles a bit. No wonder its so long! |  | | |
| Books on 17:05 - Aug 26 with 870 views | mart_Goblin |
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers . About a father who goes out to get water and food for his family , slap
Bang in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans .
He gets picked up by police and thrown in prison because of his ethnicity.
Brilliantly describes the utter horror people went through there , the abhorrent racism still alive in the Deep South and the difficulties proving his innocence and getting out of prison to clear his name . |  | | |
| Books on 17:53 - Aug 26 with 739 views | nick_hammersmith |
If you like noir I can recommend the American Quartet from James Ellroy. He bridges the gap with fact and fiction to cover events like JFK and the bay of pigs.
Hard to read at points, but very good and probably closer to what happened than we will ever know.
I find his writing like Raymond Chandler on speed! |  | | |
| Books on 17:54 - Aug 26 with 731 views | GosportHoops |
Currently a third of the way through book three in the Wellington and Napoleon Quartet by Simon Scarow, it's been absolutely fantastic!
Waterloo by Bernard Cornwall was informative and interesting
The century trilogy by Ken Follett as well as the Pillars of the Earth series, some of his others are great as well
John Grisham books are always decent |  | | |
| Books on 18:09 - Aug 26 with 685 views | MelakaRanger |
Past few years I’ve read the entire Longmire series. Excellent
Also Danny Bakers books. Amusing mostly - he even makes light of his head cancer.
I don’t usually read non fiction but Currently reading To catch a King by Charles Spencer. Fascinating |  | | |
| Books on 18:13 - Aug 26 with 672 views | JPC |
Just finished Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan. Found it really compelling on how power seems to work in London. If only some of it is accurate it’s worrying | | | |
| Books on 18:27 - Aug 26 with 622 views | kropotkin41 |
| Books on 14:30 - Aug 26 by dmm |
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett is social science fiction and an enjoyable and easy read. It's the first of a trilogy.
For a more serious read, The Dawn of Everything is an amazing rewriting of human history by David Graeber and David Wengrove. It took these two academics 10 years to research and write. One of the best books I've ever read. |
I used to think that The Ecology of Freedom was the most important book I'd read, but The Dawn of Everything has taken its place in my estimations.
Of course, Graeber's other books: Bullshit Jobs and Debt: The First 5000 Years both very much worth looking at.
None of these are really recent reads though...I just finished a really good one, but didn't sleep last night...gaping hole where my memory used to be. |  |
| ‘morbid curiosity about where this is all going’ |
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| Books on 18:29 - Aug 26 with 610 views | ted_hendrix |
I read every war book written by Sven Hassel between 1953 and 1976.
Literally you couldn't put the book down, you had to go one more chapter. [Post edited 26 Aug 18:44]
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| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| Books on 18:49 - Aug 26 with 552 views | kropotkin41 |
The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing... fascinating. | |
| ‘morbid curiosity about where this is all going’ |
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