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Post by Tibidabo on Apr 28, 2017 9:21:09 GMT
Biggest problem with the third novel of the Knightsbridge series will be that I don't remember much about the first two books anymore, and I must admit that I'm not too keen on re-reading 2x1200 pages. But I guess I'm not the only one, so hopefully it won't require too much background knowledge. I will admit to having read both of them twice! (You could get the DVD - they made a reasonable attempt with some great actors - Hayley Atwell, Matthew MacFadyen, Sam Clafin, Ben Chaplin, Miranda Richardson, Cynthia Nixon and a young Eddie Redmayne.) (Pillars of the Earth; World Without End for anyone not sure and wondering where to find all these actors (and many, many more!) in one place!) However, I wouldn't think it necessary to re-read - the second book had moved on a couple of generations, only occasionally making any reference to ancestors who had played a big role in the building of Kingsbridge. I'm sure it will all standalone nicely. The Century trilogy had so many characters I got fed up with sometimes waiting hundreds of pages to re-visit some of them. I got bored. I have read every other book in existence by Ken Follett and actually felt bad disliking these ones! |
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Post by Tibidabo on Apr 28, 2017 9:26:27 GMT
marvellous Mark Billingham That was me. New Tom Thorne novel out in June. Can't wait! Nobody's mentioned the fabulous Karin Slaughter yet have they? I've recently read Pretty Girls and it's put me off as it's extremely graphic with its scenes of rape and torture. I felt it went over the top. I do like Will Trent and Sara Linton though. (They're not in that one.) And if you like theatre books, have you read Antony Sher's Year of the King documenting his Richard 3rd in the eighties? Loads of laugh-out-loud moments and also full of the angst he felt at the enormity of playing the role. |
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Post by Michael on Apr 28, 2017 9:39:34 GMT
I have read every other book in existence by Ken Follett and actually felt bad disliking these ones! The only Ken Follett book I didn't like and where I had to force myself to finish it is Whiteout. The Century trilogy had so many characters I got fed up with sometimes waiting hundreds of pages to re-visit some of them. If I remember correctly, the only thing I didn't quite like about the Century trilogy is that the third book covered too many years and rushed through many important historic events - if they were mentioned at all. |
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Post by anita on Apr 28, 2017 9:41:43 GMT
I've always been a real bookworm. Got lots of theatre books but read a lot of crime especially Ian Rankin, Stephen Booth, Peter Robinson, Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series, Ben Aaronovitch & Edward Marston's railway detective series & his home front series. Also read physical geography books.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 10:12:39 GMT
I am currently half way through "Everything was possible: The birth of the musical Follies" Thoroughly enjoying it!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 10:42:37 GMT
marvellous Mark Billingham That was me. New Tom Thorne novel out in June. Can't wait! Nobody's mentioned the fabulous Karin Slaughter yet have they? I've recently read Pretty Girls and it's put me off as it's extremely graphic with its scenes of rape and torture. I felt it went over the top. I do like Will Trent and Sara Linton though. (They're not in that one.) And if you like theatre books, have you read Antony Sher's Year of the King documenting his Richard 3rd in the eighties? Loads of laugh-out-loud moments and also full of the angst he felt at the enormity of playing the role. Oh I have Pretty Girls in my pile to read. Ms Slaughter is always fairly gruesome, has she got moreso? Was going to take that on my New York trip. Mind you can't beat my first trip to New York when I was reading the 'hot' new novel on the plane - American Psycho. Frightened the pants off my poor innocent self. I have read one of Mr Sher's books, might have been his straight autobiography which I really enjoyed, I think someone put me off his Dickie 3 diaries saying they were very pretentious actor in style. I did see the production thus starting my love affair with Richard III so perhaps should look again |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 10:48:38 GMT
I am currently half way through "Everything was possible: The birth of the musical Follies" Thoroughly enjoying it! This is a book I have convinced myself I've read but don't think I actually have! When you've finished could you submit a 500 word book report and synopsis please in an easy to read font, double line spaced? 😄 I read Song of Spiderman and The Making of Big The Musical which were fascinating |
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Post by Tibidabo on Apr 28, 2017 11:11:15 GMT
Oh I have Pretty Girls in my pile to read. Ms Slaughter is always fairly gruesome, has she got moreso? Well, it's a longish book and the first half is unputdownable. It's not the gruesomeness but the repetition of the gruesomeness that I found too much. And rather than it being full of over-zealous descriptions of dead bodies it was more the repeated descriptions of torture that tipped it over the tolerance balance for me. I find Karin Slaughter doesn't really give us any let-up in her books. There's none of the banter and pub-chat humour used by Mark Billingham with his Thorne/Hendricks duo; or the underlying sizzling love/hate hilarious one liners Jane Casey puts into her Kerrigan/Derwent books to lighten the grizzliness for me. I think someone put me off his Dickie 3 diaries saying they were very pretentious actor in style. Well, I know some on here are not Sher fans but I happen to like him a lot. Pretentious actor style? I suppose if you're not a fan you could say that. But he suffered from a crippling lack of self belief in himself in the role and right up to the very end had absolutely no idea which way the critics were going to go, so I suppose it could be seen as a very self centred tome. I'm not sure if that could be construed as pretentious though. Personally I found it both enlightening and humorous. (And I am now putting it on my pile for a re-read!) |
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Post by mistressjojo on Apr 28, 2017 11:17:17 GMT
I have just finished 'The Witchfinder's Sister' by Beth Underdown.
Everyone knows of the Salem witch trials, but 50 years earlier in Essex the Witchfinder General causes the deaths of over 100 people he labels as witches. This is a fictional thriller based on real people and events in the 1640's.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 11:22:49 GMT
I am currently half way through "Everything was possible: The birth of the musical Follies" Thoroughly enjoying it! This is a book I have convinced myself I've read but don't think I actually have! When you've finished could you submit a 500 word book report and synopsis please in an easy to read font, double line spaced? 😄 I read Song of Spiderman and The Making of Big The Musical which were fascinating Consider it done! please ensure you have a sticker ready and space on the wall to put it so the rest of the class can see my hard work after!
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Post by peggs on Apr 28, 2017 11:43:09 GMT
'Pretty boy guyliner bloke' is OK by me as Uhtred, though all those 'oops I've forgotten to put my shirt on again' scenes are perhaps starting to stretch credibility. ;-)  |
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Post by viserys on Apr 28, 2017 11:56:35 GMT
Yes, the amount of rape and sexual assault in Bernard Cornwell is really annoying. People tend to plead 'historical accuracy' when you complain about it but when an author features in it in almost every book I think it's less historical accuracy and more lazy plot device Indeed! I've found there's a certain subgenre which I call "the lazy male's beach read" - apart from Cornwell, I found Wilbur Smith and James Clavell two particularly annoying authors of that genre. Their male hero is always incredibly cool, usually clashes with authority (but is always right of course) and they always have damsels in distress swooning at their feet. There's usually one innocent damsel who ends up sexually assaulted in some form (but still swoons for the hero) and one bitchy female who appears cool and haughty but can't wait to tear the hero's clothes off and ravish him. If men want to read that kind of thing, well, alright, but I can't stand it. GRRM takes the rapey stuff to some disgusting extremes, though in fairness, he also gives many of his male characters a rough deal, while he has great female characters like Arya and Brienne, that (somewhat oddly) make it through their adventures unmolested. but many people start with The Warrior's Apprentice - about their son, Miles. Bujold was inspired by the Hornblower series and follows Miles throughout his career Right, Miles was the guy that had been mentioned to me before. I've put the Warrior's Apprentice on my "to buy list" now. If this wonderful thread continues, my list will be twice as long soon! The Century trilogy had so many characters I got fed up with sometimes waiting hundreds of pages to re-visit some of them. I got bored. I have read every other book in existence by Ken Follett and actually felt bad disliking these ones! Ugh. I loved the first two parts of the Century trilogy, but hated the third part. It seemed to me he had lost interest at the time with far too many unreasonable coincidences and far-fetched characters who were always at the right time at the right place. I ended up skimming through big parts of it. But I still applaud his attempt to wrap the entire 20th century into a huge trilogy. I loved the Pillars of the Earth adaptation. Wonderfully free of gratuitious nudity for a Starz-production and full of great actors indeed. You forgot to mention Ian McShane as the evil bishop and the ever-dashing Rufus Sewell. Hrm, now I think I'll dig my DVD box set out for the long weekend. |
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Post by mallardo on Apr 28, 2017 12:19:07 GMT
I have just finished 'The Witchfinder's Sister' by Beth Underdown. Everyone knows of the Salem witch trials, but 50 years earlier in Essex the Witchfinder General causes the deaths of over 100 people he labels as witches. This is a fictional thriller based on real people and events in the 1640's.
If the subject interests you have a look at "John Saturnall's Feast" by Lawrence Norfolk. A heady mix of witchhunting, class warfare and cooking (recipes included) set in and around the Civil War. Norfolk is a serious novelist, one of this country's finest. His earlier work, "Lempriere's Dictionary", (set in 18th century Jersey and London with great scenes in the Royal Haymarket Theatre) may be the best historical novel I've ever read.
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Post by Jan on Apr 28, 2017 13:40:24 GMT
Just because I vaguely wondered if I should see the stage adaptation I read Paul Auster's "City of Glass", I found it tedious and unrewarding but I can see that I would have loved it when I was an adolescent - existential obscurity. The genre it is being so archly post-modern about is so much more entertaining played straight, the works of Raymond Chandler in particular.
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Post by peelee on May 4, 2017 16:15:24 GMT
'Front Row' by novelist and former actress the late Beryl Bainbridge's is about her evenings at the theatre reviewing for 'The Oldie' magazine. About a hundred such reviews drawn from the individual years between 1992-2002 combine what I'll call interesting facts, her intriguing asides, witty comment and neat novelistic turns of phrase, and remind them reader why she so often got Booker Prize nominations for her novels. Enjoyable bedtime reading.
Daytime reading at present is 'The British Dream' by David Goodhart about 'successes and failures of post-war immigration'. Founder of Prospect magazine, and later the director of think tank Demos, he has a pleasant writing style which is just as well because he draws from a wide range of sources and covers a lot of ground and wants to retain his readers. It is fascinating, a mine of information and displays both international awareness and a keen sense of the national context of countries abandoned and fast-changing country arrived-in, and why it has become such an important issue. He draws from official reports on housing, employment, education, etc., and proposals from party manifestos down the years, as well as newspapers and novels and the hundreds of interviews he has had done for the book. It's got lots of big ideas and much straight-talking, and represents his leading-spokesman place in this field.
I'll also second or third the mentions upthread for Philip Kerr's series of novels about 1930s Berlin detective Bernie Gunther, being asked to solve murders under a criminal regime, and his adventures in postwar decades operating well beyond Germany. There is a new such novel just published, I see, but anyone wanting to start at the beginning might look out for his first few novels 'March Violets', 'The Pale Criminal' and 'A German Requiem'.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 17:32:07 GMT
I'm about to start reading the new Bernie Gunther thriller Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr, one of my favourite series, among the Harry Bosch series from Michael Connelly, the David Baldacci thrillers and the Jack Reacher books from Lee Child. Other favourite authors are Ian Rankin, Peter James, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen and Glenn Meade. Oh, and I'm really looking forward to reading the new Ken Follett novel that'll be released this September. Currently, there are eight books in my shelf waiting to be read, and quite a few are pre-ordered on Amazon. Also been getting into thrillers recently. I am Pilgrim I found enjoyable once I could commit to it, and two Orphan X books. |
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Post by vdcni on May 4, 2017 21:40:39 GMT
I've been going heavy on biographies in the last few weeks.
Stalin's Daughter by Rosemary Sullivan; Kick by Paula Byrne which is about JFK's sister Kathleen and now Stalin's Englishman by Andrew Lownie which is about Guy Burgess.The double Stalin wasn't planned and they are about very different lives.
All good reads though the problem with biographies is they always end with death so not particularly cheery!
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Post by anita on May 5, 2017 9:25:16 GMT
Recently read a book from the library about the falling out of Frank Sinatra & JFK. Very interesting.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2017 10:46:28 GMT
I'm a huge crime fiction reader. My favourite author is Harlan Coben. I highly recommend you read the Myron Bolitar series of books. Great plots, funny, interesting characters and even lots of musical references. I've read them all at least twice.
Jeffrey Deaver is also excellent. He created the character of Lincoln Rhyme. Again, lots great plot twists and interesting characters. Can't wait for the new book next month.
I've also read all of Karin Slaughter's books. The Will Trent and Sara Linton series are excellent, though as others have said, sometimes it can rely too much on rape and sexual assault.
Lisa Gardener is also very good. Easy reads and great page turners. Check out the Pierce Quincy FBI profiler series.
I also read alot of David Baldacchi, though his books can be hit and miss.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2017 11:01:22 GMT
I've been lurking on this thread since it started and lapping up all the suggestions- I'm in a total book lull at the minute, everything I read seems a bit 'meh' so I'm taking note!
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Post by joem on May 6, 2017 20:10:45 GMT
I read history, biographies, modern fiction, some science-fiction and detective novels, plays, poetry, politics/current affairs etc.
At present reading:
"The Albigensian Crusade" by Jonathan Sumption (who has for the past 20 years been writing the defnitive history of the 100 Years War, 4 down and 1 to go)
"Gods, Demons and Others" br RK Narayan - a retelling of some Hindu legends
4321 - Paul Auster, his latest novel which is about three times the length of all his others
"Collected Poems" Tennyson
"Earthly Remains" Donna Leon - the latest instalment in tne Brunetti detective series set in Venice (one of my weaknesses)
I just finished reading "Gulliver's Travels" some parts of which were brilliant
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Post by hal9000 on May 18, 2017 8:58:57 GMT
On the pomo/(fan fiction) front, I am reading ELIGIBLE (Pride and Prejudice) by Curtis Sittenfeld and THE GAP OF WINTER (Winter's Tale) by Jeanette Winterson.
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Post by Jan on May 18, 2017 13:51:58 GMT
I read history, biographies, modern fiction, some science-fiction and detective novels, plays, poetry, politics/current affairs etc. At present reading: "The Albigensian Crusade" by Jonathan Sumption (who has for the past 20 years been writing the defnitive history of the 100 Years War, 4 down and 1 to go) "Gods, Demons and Others" br RK Narayan - a retelling of some Hindu legends 4321 - Paul Auster, his latest novel which is about three times the length of all his others "Collected Poems" Tennyson "Earthly Remains" Donna Leon - the latest instalment in tne Brunetti detective series set in Venice (one of my weaknesses) I just finished reading "Gulliver's Travels" some parts of which were brilliant I think Gulliver's Travels is the greatest work of fiction in English. I have read it many times. The greatest work of non-fiction (sort of) is Aubrey's "Brief Lives" (with the Oliver Lawson Dick introduction being a close second) |
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Post by Tibidabo on May 20, 2017 21:46:24 GMT
I have just finished the best book I've read in ages. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Not my usual genre, this is a debut novel by a British author and it blew me away. Its central theme is loneliness - Eleanor is 30 and wears her loneliness like a blanket - only interacting with others when completely necessary and when she speaks she's odd and pedantic. She lives for routine. (There's a vile mother and a childhood we get drip-fed to us.)
I read 2 chapters of this on The Pool website (take a look - there are now 5 chapters on the 'bedtime bookclub' section) and went straight out and bought the hardback as I couldn't wait to see what happened. I loved Eleanor and felt desperately sad for her and her funny ways.
A chance incident gives cause for an old man to thank her by taking her hand in both of his. This simple action makes Eleanor realise how nice human interaction can be and we watch her painful and often hilarious journey where she tries to change inside and out in order to become accepted into society.
The more I read, in my mind I saw it filmed starring Jessica Hynes, Rory Kinnear as the kind but dull, grubby IT worker who befriends Eleanor, Katherine Kingsley as the glamorous hairdresser and a much younger Sheila Hancock as the horrid mother. I was actually a bit disappointed to discover that Reece Witherspoon has been lined up. (I like her ok, but she's American and too pretty in my mind. The book is set in Glasgow, though any city would actually do.)
But it's heart-rending, poignant and funny (occasionally a little OTT perhaps) with wonderful characters.
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Post by Tibidabo on Jun 27, 2017 14:32:45 GMT
At the risk of being carted off to the tower for even mentioning his name but.... I have just seen a trailer for Dan Brown's new book, "Origin" and am excited beyond excited as it is set in Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid and Seville. So few books are set in my old stomping ground and I lived for years in 3 of those cities. I cannot wait! It's out in October (in case anyone else is interested but doesn't want to admit it!)
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