• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

What book is everyone reading at the moment?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Richard Morgan's The Dark Defiles He does grimdark quite amusingly. I strongly recommend starting with The Steel Remains, which is the first book in the trilogy,.

Here's a review of that book, which is pretty accurate (I have posted it here before)

This is a good book. It may very well be part of a really great series. It's an extreme book, a challenging book in all kinds of ways – themes, content, and style. It reaches the parts most epic fantasies don't reach and many fantasy readers may not want to have reached. Morgan seems to say to them (RULE10) and you've got to greatly admire (RULE10) in doing so. No-one could accuse him of moving into fantasy in order to take the easy commercial path. NO-ONE.
Click to expand...
 
After the elegant, magisterial disdain of V.S. Naipul (_Beyond Belief_), it comes as a bit of a goof to read _Boston Mob_.

True Crime is often written by hacks. This is hack writing, with that lovely frisson of gangsterese. Sort of like listening to your black sheep uncle -- who's still lucid after three drinks -- who was there in the bar when Frank MacCallen broke the bottle on Wimpie's head, leading to a feud that left dozens dead, if you will.

It's in that sweet spot -- bad writing, but still entertaining.
 
Reading a collection of letters and diary notes of a "Danish"* soldier in the Imperial Germany Army during WW1. Apart from a slight bemusement at how efficient the German postal service was running, even during a time of war, it's incredible much detail the letter writer could get away with. Location names as well as local details is mentioned freely. Then again, I'm only up to the summer of 1915, so maybe it'll change along the way.

During the course of the war, the writer, Thyge Thygesen, fought at Nouvron on the Aisne during 1915, and during 1916 he fought at both Verdun and on the Somme. At the latter, he was buried alive when his dugout collapsed. This led to two years of recovery before he was finally released from duty and returned home.

* "Danish" in the sense that he was living in area that had been Danish prior to the war of 1864, and which would return to Denmark following the 1920 plebiscites.
 
Ian Osborne said:
I'm reading Cornerstone: Raising Rook by KA Krisko, also known as our very own Tiktaalik. If you've ever complained the fantasy genre is too mired in its swords and sorcery tropes, this book is for you. It's really well written, and excellently paced. The main character is initially as ignorant as the reader about what's going on, but you both learn at just the right speed - fast enough avoid frustration, but slow enough not to lose its sense of intrigue.
Click to expand...

Just saw this, thanks!
 
Ian Osborne said:
No problem. When's the sequel coming out?
Click to expand...

I'm about two-thirds done with it, but took a little hiatus because I retired, bought a house, moved, and got a new job. I'm beginning to settle down a bit now, and should be back at work wordsmithing. I have an editor lined up and will likely go with the same cover artist (Howard David Johnson) who created the original castle cover. In other words...I don't know, exactly. But I am working on it!
 
Tiktaalik said:
I'm about two-thirds done with it, but took a little hiatus because I retired, bought a house, moved, and got a new job. I'm beginning to settle down a bit now, and should be back at work wordsmithing. I have an editor lined up and will likely go with the same cover artist (Howard David Johnson) who created the original castle cover. In other words...I don't know, exactly. But I am working on it!
Click to expand...

Let me know when it's out. I'm keen to find out where Rook came from, what he actually is and what his motivations are. :-)
 
My wife took the lad to the local library and came back with "Killing Patton" off the "most wanted" non-fiction rack.

It is hilariously awful
 
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Coming from a charismatic, non-denominational, fundamentalist christian background, I keep thinking; 'Man, I am so going to burn in hell". :eek:;)
 
I've been trying to figure out why A. M. Holmes' writing bothers me so much. After all, she's a better writer by several orders of magnitude than, say, Stephen King. A couple of reviews of _May We Be Forgiven_ have helped me understand.

The best explanation is by John Waters, from this review:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/19/may-we-be-forgiven-am-homes-review:

Originally posted by John Waters: If Oprah went insane, this might be her favourite book.
Click to expand...

It would be wise for me to simply stop reading -- I'm maybe 80 pages in. These aren't dark truths about the way people live now, that I must be open to. This is just spiritual dry-rot. Whatever my despair amounts to, I'll learn nothing about it by reading more.

I could go on, but won't.
 
Calebprime - I see that you've linked to a Guardian review. May I recommend John Crace's "Digested read" column in the gruan? Not, exactly a review, but a digested version of a book in 600 words in the style of the original. Some of them are quite harsh...
 
The Sicilian, by Mario Puzo. Not as good as The Godfather, but definitely entertaining.

Also, just finished up the Wayward Pines trilogy (supposed to be a Fox show). Was very good pulp fiction.
 
calebprime said:
I've been trying to figure out why A. M. Holmes' writing bothers me so much. After all, she's a better writer by several orders of magnitude than, say, Stephen King. A couple of reviews of _May We Be Forgiven_ have helped me understand.

The best explanation is by John Waters, from this review:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/19/may-we-be-forgiven-am-homes-review:



It would be wise for me to simply stop reading -- I'm maybe 80 pages in. These aren't dark truths about the way people live now, that I must be open to. This is just spiritual dry-rot. Whatever my despair amounts to, I'll learn nothing about it by reading more.

I could go on, but won't.
Click to expand...
I am not surprised by this. I have read some of Homes's short stories, and thought them enjoyably zany, but I don't think her brand of craziness can hold up for too long at a time. The kind of imagination we see in The Safety of Objects and Music for Torching is good fun but can only go so far. It's been a long time since I read any of her stuff, but it sounds as if she has not quite figured out where to go from where she was.
 
fuelair said:
One Summer: America 1927,
http://www.amazon.com/One-Summer-Am...309&sr=1-1&keywords=summer+1927+-+bill+bryson
Click to expand...
One of my readers is reading that one to me at the moment. We are both finding it so very interesting and learning so much we'd never heard of before! She comes once a week for an hour, so it takes a while to complete a book, but it's really such a pleasure to have things read to me that I can't get in a talking book or braille. This one is probably available in TB I suppose, but we discuss it too of course.

I'm browsing a few of these pages because I really need another TB to last me over the next couple of weeks so I'm hoping to find something just right..
 
Just finished No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. The same mesmerising prose, but while good, not nearly as good as Blood Meridian. And jesus wept it was depressing. I have zero desire to see the film.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom