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A jolly good read?

Read a few jolly good reads lately,he's a few of them.

In The Garden Of Beasts - Erik Larson
The Devil In The White City - Erik Larson
Thunderstruck - Erik Larson
Dead Wake - Erik Larson
Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson

Jennie, The Mother Of Winston Churchill - Anita Leslie

The One And Only Ivan -Katherine Applegate
Crenshaw- Katherine Applegate ( both kids books)

Torn Trousers - Andrew St Pierre & Gwynn White



All jolly good reads, even the two kids books which are about a silverback gorilla and the other one a cat, an imaginary cat/ friend.
 
Second Best- My Dad & me by Calum Best. Not sure i'd say ' a jolly good read ' more like ' heartbreaking '

In a way, I wished i'd never picked the book up.
 
A few books I've read recently:

Alex Ferguson's autobiography - very enjoyable. Well worth a read - interesting to hear his version of the countless sagas during his career. Though he lets himself down when talking about Darren Ferguson being 'comfortably the best player at the club' when he was with us. Fergie - you're an utter legend and one of if not the greatest manager in English football history but that's fucking bullshit. I did laugh when I thought back to all the headlines this book made when it was being serialised - it's hardly a sensationalised gossip-ridden tirade against all and sundry. It's an autobiography FFS, and TBH I thought he came across as quite humble and always wanted to bury the hatchet with players. He even speaks well of Beckham, Wenger, Van Nistelrooy etc despite various run-ins with them during his career. Roy Keane and Rafa Benitez don't come out of it particularly well, but neither of those are a surprise. Keane is a nutcase and Rafa is just a cunt.

Survival on the River Kwai by Reg Twigg - I am fascinated by the accounts of those who suffered so badly on the Burmese railway in WW2 and although this isn't the best book I've read on the subject (that would be The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart) it's still very very good and incredibly harrowing.

Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre - a biography of British war time double agent Eddie Chapman. An astonishing story - Chapman sounds like a fantastic character, a real life James Bond if you like. Certainly a lovable rogue - I'd love to see a film made of this story.
 
Langers said:
A few books I've read recently:

Alex Ferguson's autobiography - very enjoyable. Well worth a read - interesting to hear his version of the countless sagas during his career. Though he lets himself down when talking about Darren Ferguson being 'comfortably the best player at the club' when he was with us. Fergie - you're an utter legend and one of if not the greatest manager in English football history but that's fucking bullshit. I did laugh when I thought back to all the headlines this book made when it was being serialised - it's hardly a sensationalised gossip-ridden tirade against all and sundry. It's an autobiography FFS, and TBH I thought he came across as quite humble and always wanted to bury the hatchet with players. He even speaks well of Beckham, Wenger, Van Nistelrooy etc despite various run-ins with them during his career. Roy Keane and Rafa Benitez don't come out of it particularly well, but neither of those are a surprise. Keane is a nutcase and Rafa is just a cunt.

Survival on the River Kwai by Reg Twigg - I am fascinated by the accounts of those who suffered so badly on the Burmese railway in WW2 and although this isn't the best book I've read on the subject (that would be The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart) it's still very very good and incredibly harrowing.

Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre - a biography of British war time double agent Eddie Chapman. An astonishing story - Chapman sounds like a fantastic character, a real life James Bond if you like. Certainly a lovable rogue - I'd love to see a film made of this story.
Click to expand...

I really should read more books about the Second World War. I have read a few, mainly about Dunkirk and the battle of Britain, but sadly I have not read anything about the horrors on the Burmese railway.
 
FrankMunro-371 said:
I really should read more books about the Second World War. I have read a few, mainly about Dunkirk and the battle of Britain, but sadly I have not read anything about the horrors on the Burmese railway.
Click to expand...

Do you when reading about War reach the conclusion that its a game played by the upper classes which sends the lower classes to their graves. Just because they can, rather than finding a diplomatic resolution.
 
FrankMunro-371 said:
I really should read more books about the Second World War. I have read a few, mainly about Dunkirk and the battle of Britain, but sadly I have not read anything about the horrors on the Burmese railway.
Click to expand...

The two I mentioned in my post are both very good indeed. As is The Railwayman by Eric Lomax (they made the film of this a couple of years ago starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman). But The Forgotten Highlander is certainly the most fascinating. How on earth the author survived is quite beyond me, seeing as he got through the sack of Singapore, the journey to the railway site (including being cooped up in a truck for several days followed by a few death marches), subsequent conditions in the jungle, Cholera, malaria, being transported in a hell ship that was subsequently torpedoed and sunk by an America submarine, then - after being picked up by a Japanese boat after floating on the sea for 5 days following the sinking - he was on the outskirts of Nagasaki when the 2nd atomic bomb hit.

Quite ridiculous how he survived all that.
 
Lord Knows said:
Do you when reading about War reach the conclusion that its a game played by the upper classes which sends the lower classes to their graves. Just because they can, rather than finding a diplomatic resolution.
Click to expand...

In my opinion, that is exactly what happened in the First World War, though I am not too sure if the same mindset applied in the Second World War.
 
Langers said:
The two I mentioned in my post are both very good indeed. As is The Railwayman by Eric Lomax (they made the film of this a couple of years ago starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman). But The Forgotten Highlander is certainly the most fascinating. How on earth the author survived is quite beyond me, seeing as he got through the sack of Singapore, the journey to the railway site (including being cooped up in a truck for several days followed by a few death marches), subsequent conditions in the jungle, Cholera, malaria, being transported in a hell ship that was subsequently torpedoed and sunk by an America submarine, then - after being picked up by a Japanese boat after floating on the sea for 5 days following the sinking - he was on the outskirts of Nagasaki when the 2nd atomic bomb hit.

Quite ridiculous how he survived all that.
Click to expand...

Thank you Langers. I now intend to get the Forgotten Highlander. Can I get it on my kindle?
 
A second World War book I recommend is Moral Combat by Michael Burleigh., it gets to the truth of it.
 
Lord Knows said:
Do you when reading about War reach the conclusion that its a game played by the upper classes which sends the lower classes to their graves. Just because they can, rather than finding a diplomatic resolution.
Click to expand...

Try The Long Walk and that may well change your thinking.

I can also recommend a trip to the Topography of Terror Museum in Berlin if you hadn't been which puts everything you think you know about the Nazi's in it's place. A harrowing place which will permanently banish your class war theory.
 
Langers said:
Do let us know what you thought of it when you've finished it.
Click to expand...

I certainly will. As I said, the Second World War, and in particular the horrors in Burma and Japan are areas I have sadly neglected. I intend putting that right.
 
FrankMunro-371 said:
What is the Long Walk about?
Click to expand...

It's the story of a Polish PoW who escapes from a Gulag in Russia (Siberia). They made a film of it called The Way Back but the book is way more harrowing. I think you might like this one.
 
Johnny75 said:
It's the story of a Polish PoW who escapes from a Gulag in Russia (Siberia). They made a film of it called The Way Back but the book is way more harrowing. I think you might like this one.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Another to put on my list, the good lady will be "delighted" that I am expanding my library to include WW2...
 
Johnny75 said:
It's the story of a Polish PoW who escapes from a Gulag in Russia (Siberia). They made a film of it called The Way Back but the book is way more harrowing. I think you might like this one.
Click to expand...

I've read this too - it's a great read, although I think the author stretches the truth on a number of occasions throughout it.

I didn't think much to the film of it TBH but the book is really good.
 
Lunar Park - finally finished this the other night, after struggling to find time for it.

Thought it was a fantastic book, and a real return to force for Ellis as a writer. There were some really great passages of thought, especially in the first section and towards the end. I'll have to catch up with his other novel now after falling out with his work after Glamorama
 
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