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Read any good books lately?
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Thought I'd ping this thread up again... will go alongside the 'what are you reading' thread and might give folk a few more ideas!
Just finished the final Larsson - The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. Very good, but I enjoyed the 2nd one better. Shame he's dead and can't write any more
Also read over Christmas:
Colin Bateman - I Predict a Riot - very good.
Audrey Niffenegger (of 'The Time Travellers Wife' fame - Her Fearful Symmetry - really enoyed it.
Kate Atkinson - Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Nothing about a museum, loved it and laugh out loud stuff.
About to finish Kate Atkinson's Emotionally Weird.
BOING!
What's everyone reading at the mo?
I'm about a third of the way through Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and I'm really enjoying it. It surprised me as I wasn't that keen on another book by her (Beyond Black) but this is quite different.
More Victorian drama:
I've just finished reading a little book called 'The Crossing', about Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel. He was a local lad, and the pub about 250 metres from my house is even named after him. But I've never read the whole story until now.
It is the tale of a fairly ordinary lad who went to sea in his teens, worked his way up to ship's master, all the while working on his natural talent which was swimming. During the late Victorian age there were contests aplenty for all kinds of athletic feats and swimming was no exception, becoming fashionable, with new baths being erected up and down the land. Wagers between competitors were commonplace, rivalries were fierce.
So I've kind of set the scene. Captain Webb turns himself into a mighty, but very slow swimmer who is able to see off all comers because he's such a hard, tough man. He turns his hand to the challenge of the Channel, and after an aborted attempt, he just about succeeds in getting across, swimming close to double the distance between Dover and Calais in the process (due to the tides, not poor navigation!) . It takes him nearly 22 hours to do it. He becomes extremely famous and for a time, wealthy. But he cant handle the fame, the money disappears and he's just a one-trick pony, a simple country boy at the mercy of unscrupulous promoters. He tries a number of swimming related stunts to keep in the public eye, but fails and eventually ends up as a side-show at an exhibition. In one last desperate grab for glory (and money), he throws himself at the challenge of swimming the Niagra Falls Rapids. It ends in disaster. His young widow is left to bring up her two children on her own.
It was a great but tragic true story, classic Hollywood material. It would probably make a great film.. if I had the cash.
Actually squishy, Larsson's live-in partner Eva is in possession of his laptop, which is supposed to contain half of another book and outline plots for several others. Rumours are she helped him write the books anyway - he worked out all the plots, gathered all the info and background stuff, she turned his terrible prose into readable manuscripts. Hope it's true, then we'll get some more great books to read.
I've just finished the 4th of C. J. Sansom's Tudor mystery novels, great portrayal of life in England in the middle ages under King Heny VIII. Much historical fact interwined with a well written mystery story. the books are Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, and Revelation. Glad I didn't live in Tudor times!
Highly recommended.
I just finished Wolf Hall, brilliant, and recommended if you like CJ Sansom. I made a point of going to the Tudor section in the National portrait Gallery over London Weekend to look at the portraits.
Currently enjoying The Last Child, good thriller.
Does anyone else listen to audiobooks when they're running? I had a bit of a wibble recently when I was left without one because I'd finished two days before my new ones were available (audible.co.uk are fab, btw).
I've recently read The Help (Kathryn Stockett) which was excellent, and Stephen King's The Dome kept me going for a couple of weeks!! It rekindled my former love of his work, and luckily I have many of his books to catch up on.
Colm Tobin's Brooklyn was good, but a bit ... depressing. Has anyone else read it?
[pads off to look up Cake's book]
I've just finished John Le Carre's George Smiley 'The Complete Smiley' which was recently broadcast on R4 - all 9 hours of it!
Simon Russell Beale playing Smiley quite brilliantly... as good as Sir Alex Guinness?... possibly
It's relaxing enough UI...makes a change from ploughing through law books which I have to do full time...
.....I quite like Ian Rankin also....
Just reporting back on Wolf Hall - I loved it!
Some people have complained about the confusing conversations about working out who said what but I rarely found this a problem. I think it probably helps having a rough idea of what happened before you read the book - mine came from the trashy TV series The Tudors
Some beautiful, evocative descriptions, a good dose of humour and a real feeling of time and place. Hope she writes a follow-up.
Currently reading Seven for a Secret by Mary Webb. It's like most of her other books - slightly mystical countryfolk who all have a deep connection with the land. It's good once you get used to the dialect but I think the woman in it might come to a bad end!
Happy reading everyone
Just read Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach and The Help by Kathyrn Stockett, discussing them both at book club tonight. Very different books but both were excellent.
I think I've got my reading mojo back
Feet in the clouds- Richard Askwith (fell running)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox- Maggie o'farrell - I must say I can't put it down
Just finished 'seven dragons' - michael Connelly- usual excellent detective novel
I think I've got my reading mojo back too and its grrrrrrrrrreat
I DO enjoy a asylum/ill treated woman yarn I do.........
(The Secret Scripture; Sebastian Barry has similar themes)
apparently Maggie O'Farrell's latest is mean't to be truely superb as well
lol, I must admit its the first time I've read such a book, well no, I lie, I've read it twice
What is the new one called?
It inspired me to take Esme from my TBR shelf
I'm in the middle of (the huge) The Passage by Justin Cronin - so far I'm finding it unputdownable!
Just finished "The Perfect Distance" by Pat Butcher about the rivalry between Coe and Evett. Good fun and an interesting insight into how athletes prepare. Fascinating to read how nervous even the best runners get and how winning isn't always a great feeling. I feel guilty about how I took their performances for granted especially when we've had no really good middle-distance runners for years now.
I've also read the first part of the Border Crossing trilogy by Cormac McCarthy. Hard to understand what's going on to begin with as he doesn't use a lot of punctuation and doesn't spend a lot of time explaining who is who. There are also quite a few conversations in Spanish which aren't always translated. But if you stick with it it's v. rewarding and you'll learn loads about horses!
I'm off on holiday soon and I'll be taking the last part of the Millennium Trilogy with me.
Happy reading!