Read any good books lately?

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  • I've read a book by Murakami (Kafka's Shore?) but found it a bit too odd for me.

    It seemed overly-obsessed with incest... image

    Still it might be interesting to read about his running. I'll look out for it in the library.

    Have made it to P26 of TBK. He likes long paragraphs with, as it were, in a way, so it would seem, lots of commas,,,

  • just back from holiday so here are y holiday read reviews:

    The echo maker by richard powers - i have read a couple of his books and liked them bth although the plots were a bit tangled, this one i really liked.  its about a bloke who has an accident and then thinks his sister is an imposter - written from his and her pov's

    the world according to bertie by alexander mccall smith  - fluffy and funny and i enjoyed this

    what was lost by catherine o'flynn - too short!!! but i liked this too although i guessed the ending so down points for that

    notes from an exhibition by patrick gayle - i love his writing - i could have read this on and on but it finished all to quickly, really well written - it's about a family after the death of thier mother, who was a difficult woman to live with

    the rain before it falls by jonathon coe - i love jonathon coe - only discovered him recently, this one is alos written after the death of the main character, excellent book and had descriptions of my running club when it used to be a posh pavilion so that made it even more interesting

    rebecca - daphne du maurier, i was amazed to find that i had never read this.  i liked it,

    devil feather by minette walters (found in the holiday house and i needed something to read on the plane) it was ok

  • and

    slummy mummy - can't remember who wrote it - i have lent it to my friend's daughter to read.  i found the main character really annoying and her husband a tosser and the school stuff did not relate tot he school my kids go to where talk is of tattoo's rather than violin lessons

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    Cheers Lurks, will look out for them.

    Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
    Someone on this forum somewhere had read this and said they enjoyed it - I was sure it was Beebs but she denied it when I mentioned it to her! So, anyway, got it out of the library and it is an excellent book.  It has a superb dry humour.  Written from the perspective of each of the key players in the form of e-mails, diary notes and interviews it's really very, very funny.  Highly recommended.

    The Pirate's Daughter
    I've seen this advertised on a poster and is on The Times reading list but I couldn't engage with it and didn't make it through the second chapter.

  • "the rain before it falls by jonathon coe - i love jonathon coe - only discovered him recently, this one is alos written after the death of the main character, excellent book and had descriptions of my running club when it used to be a posh pavilion so that made it even more interesting"

    i quite enjoyed this one as well image

  • i have that salmon fishing book somewhere but i just can't find it!!

  • Wahey! The thread is alive!

    I read 'To Kill A Mockingbird' when I was in Scotland - very well written, if a little patronising on the racial front through modern eyes.

    Just finished 'Crusade' by Robyn Young. It was the second of a trilogy set in Palestine at the end of the Crusades, focussing on a Templar Knight and his attempts, with like-minded comrades and potential enemies, to try and work for peace. It was a good read, with plenty of accurate historical details (and an explanation of which bits weren't at the end), but I wished I'd read the first book. There were lots of references to previous events, sketchy enough to not give the full flavour of the previous story, yet detailed enough to give the whole plot away. Other than that it was a good read and I'd look out for the third part of the trilogy.

    Off to the library tomorrow for the first time in a year or so. I may well look out for The Brothers Karamazov, as I feel in need of educating myself with more classics (I've been having a break since War and Peace, which ultimately left me feeling a bit disappointed).

  • I've just finished Marley and Me....a complete departure from my usual reads....I absolutely loved it.  It had me laughing and crying and interested the whole way through.  I got it because we just got a new pup!  I'd highly recommend it.
  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭
    SVT - with some of the stuff you're reading you should be doing a literature degree with the OU!
  • Mouse - hardly! I've not been reading much highbrow stuff. But if I ever get bored I do fancy an A-Level or some such thing in English Lit ( I did Language instead).
  • SVT - to kill a mockingbird is one of the best books ever written and, as with any book you have to relate to the time it was written

    but actually - that is something i have never noticed
    the bit where the preacher says "stand up miss emma louise, your father is passing" makes me cry every time i read it, and i have read it abut 8 times

  • although now i am doubting that that is scout's real name, but it is something like that
  • I've been trying to get my 13 year old son to read To Kill a Mockingbird, but he refuses.

    Anyone read any of Japser Fforde's stuff? I'm not a sci fi/fantasy fan usually, but thought they sounded fun.

    I'm back to my historical fiction with Philippa Gregory's The Other Queen about Mary Queen of Scots, only started it a couple of nights ago, and been really tired so not read lots of it yet.

    I just ordered 2 books from Amazon, but they're both instruction/inspiration for my quilting not fiction. Maybe I could find fabric inspiration from fiction...

    <goes off to search for a mockingbird block pattern>

  • No Karamazovs of any description at the library, so I got 'The Idiot' instead.
  • Kwilter, I love the Jasper Fforde books, definitely worth a read. I gave myself a break from BK while I was on holiday and read a Thursday Next book instead. Much lighter and funnier, just the right thing for beach/pool.

    I have about 150 pages left of BK and haven't made my mind up about it yet. Some bits are great and you get really immersed in the story and the people. Other bits seem to be the writer doing an essay about religion. Also everyone seems so over-the-top with their emotions, it's a bit exhausting to be honest. Sometimes it's nice to have someone with a stiff-upper lip and a bit of restraint...

    I'd be interested in how you find The Idiot, SVT.

  • Just had a little lurk to see if anyone has read The Book Thief as I'm on page 160 and can't decide if his style is annoying or original.  Thanks Little Nemo, he gets a reprieve

  • dunno if any of you are into crime novels? if you are i'd recommend dennis lehane's kensie and genarro books and james patterson's alex cross books.

    and even quintin jardine's bob skinner series for stuff set in edinburgh.

  • thanks chris, my mum loves stuff about edinburgh and crime books so just the job now that whatsisname has beenk illed off

  • I've read a few Alex Cross ones. As with any long-running series of novels, it's difficult to distinguish them after a while. They're all well written if more than a touch formulaic - Alex will have some sort of family issues playing out in the background, there'll be a fiendish mastermind who will possibly also be part of the investigation, and the first person caught/killed won't be the real killer. But there are definitely worse ways to spend time.
  • lurker - 'The Reluctant Investigator' by Frank Lean is a decent crime novel. I particularly like it because it's Manchester-based so I know some of the locations, and because I could use it to show my southern brother-in-law that 'ginnel' is a real word.
  • sorry cba to read back and see if anyone else has suggested the Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

    13 is a bit young for TKAMB imho - give is a couple of years and don't push?

  • I love crime books too. At the moment I'm reading A Quiet Vendetta by RJ Ellory. It took me a little while to get into it as it has a false starts in it. Annoyingly, a friend just told me the end is quite carp but I'm going to persist anyhow.
  • and another vote for Patrick Gale

    also Alice Hoffman The Ice Queen

  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭
    WTF happened to nick Hornby?  About a boy had me in tears, hi fidelity- great; how to be good, fantastic, then 2/3 of the way through A long way down  he just decided to pack it in and become a crap writer.  Even the Blurb writer couldn't make Slam sound worth buying.
  • What Mr Puffy said.  I don't bother with Hornby's books any more for fear of losing the will to live.

    Just finished re-reading Bill Brysons 'Short History of Nearly Everything'.  I love his style of prose.  It's like sitting in a comfy armchair with a cup of hot chocolate passing the time with an old friend.  It has the unique distinction of being the only science book ever to make me laugh out loud.

    Now working on Nick Cranes Two Degrees West, A Walk Along England's Meridian. 

  • I bought The Eyre Affair before Little Nemo posted, and am enjoying it so far. Best bit is spotting the cross references in it. I loved that the investigators in Thursday's Swindon office are named after the shipping forecast areas.

    TKAMB is sitting on the hallway bookshelf for whenever B decides he fancies picking it up

  • i read TKAMB at primary school - but am sure my understanding of the plot was pretty basic

    i find new things in the story every time i read it and at every age in my life different bits mean something to me

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