A jolly good read?

[nimrod]

Just finished 'Fevre Dream' by George R R Martin.

A book that has absolutely nothing to do with Game of Thrones (he wrote it in 1982, I think). It is a most enjoyable tale of vampires set on the Mississippi River in 19th century America. Once I got about halfway through I found it very hard to put down. I do like a good vampire story, though.

great book. I remember reading it on holiday and having a similar ‘can’t put it down’ experience. finished it at about 4am.... about 25 years ago though! love it.

 

[Parkins left foot]

'Cabinet's Finest Hour' - David Owen

The period in May 1940 when Belgium had capitulated, France was on the point of doing so & British forces in France were desperately trying to get back to the channel to be repatriated

War Cabinet papers re discussion as to what we would do next - fight on or negotiate.

Blurb on the book indicated that it was a close run decision, but having read it, it really wasn't. Only Lord Halifax (Foreign Sec) was pushing the 'negotiate' option & once he lost the support of Chamberlain (who was still in the War Cabinet though not PM now) then the die was cast. We fought on & we know how that panned out.

What would have happened if we had gone the other way is unknowable (even though I doubt that Hitler would have offered terms that would have been acceptable). He would otherwise have had a free hand in the east & to him a treaty was merely a piece of paper to be torn up when it suited.

Interesting read though

 

[t3ch]

I just killed the Red Rising series in about a week. Not exactly high brow writing, but entertaining and with a very driven pace. I usually don't binge my reading but these were rather easy to do so with. kind of a hunger games meets enders game.

 

[arklowolf]

'Once A Pilgrim' by James Deegan. Great story, gritty, violent, New author, ex-SAS.
Got my copy 30th Jan, 296 pages done already.

 

[PPB]

The Secret Life Of Mrs London. About Jack's wife Charmain, their marriage, and her passionate affair with Harry Houdini.

Not bad for a Kindle Unlimited freebie.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

In an attempt to up my reading game this year, I've made an effort to fit more books in and finished a few this month...

Artemis by Andy Weir - A book set on the first city to be built on the moon. The first 2/3's of the book were good but I thought it got a bit far fetched towards the end. He brought it back with a decent final ending though.

Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray - As recommended by Langers. I found it a bit strange to start with reading about such famous film characters in a book, and I thought the beginning was a little bit too political for my liking but after about page 150 it got really, really good. I definitely want to read another of her Star Wars books.

Strange Weather by Joe Hill - A collection of 4 short novels. I haven't actually finished this one but have read the first two stories so far. With the first story in particular you kind of feel like you are reading Stephen King but not quite (as you would expect) but they were good. I've read a couple of his novels and I think he is better at short fiction than longer stories.

The Thicket by Joe R Lansdale - Just finished this one tonight. A western set in turn of the century Texas. A boy goes off to rescue his kidnapped sister and recruits several characters to help him along the way. I've not read anything by Joe Lansdale before but really liked this. It was well written and funny and I will definitely be checking out more of his books in the future. Apparently Peter Dinklage has signed up to a film adaptation of this which would be most excellent.

 

[t3ch]

anyone read comics/graphic novels?

organized my collection over the weekend, looking forward to catching up on a few series. Ms Marvel and Saga mainly. Have a few I've been meaning to get to, like Preacher and Squirrel Girl.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Just a bit!

I have loads

British - I have the Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson, Nemesis the Warlock, Rogue Trooper and Slaine GNs from 2000AD

Marvel - I have tons of Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spidey, Captain America, Wolverine, that sort of thing. Absolutely love Avengers. Also Doctor Strange.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

The Girl With All the Gifts by M R Carey - This was the audiobook I was listening to on my walks to work. Took a little while to get used to listening to a book (I had to work hard to keep my concentration up as my mind has a natural tendency to wonder off into daydream mode!) but I actually enjoyed it. The woman narrating it (Flinty Williams) was really good which helped a lot. As for the book itself, I was impressed. A post apocalyptic book where the human race has been infected my a fungal virus that turns them into zombie like creatures but it had a bit of a twist to the usual zombie type books. I believe there is a film of it too so I may have to check that out.

I had one more free audiobook downloaded to my phone (Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell) but I couldn't get past the first few minutes of it because the guy narrating it was really hard to listen to. I guess the secret to a good audiobook is how good the narrator is. It's a shame because I was looking forward to that one. I guess I'll have to try and get hold of the book instead.

 

[SLA]

There should be a law that all audiobooks are narrated by women called Flinty.

And Cloud Atlas is fantastic.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

And Cloud Atlas is fantastic.

I was really looking forward to it. Annoyingly none of my local libraries have it either so I'll have to see if I can buy it. I haven't read any of his books before, any others you would recommend?

 

[SLA]

I was really looking forward to it. Annoyingly none of my local libraries have it either so I'll have to see if I can buy it. I haven't read any of his books before, any others you would recommend?

He's probably my favourite author currently writing and I don't think he's written anything I haven't really enjoyed. Somewhat difficult to recommend one over the others as they're all quite different. If you like out-and-out fantasy stuff, The Bone Clocks is excellent. If you like to have your head messed with Ghostwritten and No.9 Dream are probably the ones to go for. Black Swan Green is bit more of a straightforward semi-autobiographical tale of English teenage life in the 80s. Thousand Autumns is like nothing else - a historical novel set in Japan.

And he's a year younger than me which makes me very cross.

Edit: actually, he's 13 days younger than me, which makes me even crosser for some reason.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Having finished the Tom Hanks collection Uncommon Type (thoroughly enjoyable by the way), I have now started on The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It has been recommended as one of the best novels in a sports setting ever written. First couple of chapters in and it is very promising.

 

[Wombat del combate]

Started reading Nutshell by Ian McEwan. Problem is I can't stop reading it in Stewie Griffin's voice.

 

[t3ch]

Just a bit!

I have loads

British - I have the Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson, Nemesis the Warlock, Rogue Trooper and Slaine GNs from 2000AD

Marvel - I have tons of Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spidey, Captain America, Wolverine, that sort of thing. Absolutely love Avengers. Also Doctor Strange.

looks like just us then. :icon_lol:

found a few more series to check out, been running through "best of 2017" lists. will post up if anything is particularly good.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I love Marvel mate. Always have done. Just started reading Civil War again (for about the eightieth time) and then reading straight on into the Death of Captain America and going forward through the issues again from there of Cap. It's amazing stuff and I love it.

I really cannot recommend Avengers from issue #500 onwards when they did the reboot from Avengers Disassembled enough. MAGNIFICENT.

btw - I forgot from my original list to put in Iron Man. I have tonnes of it. Tony Stark is a superb character, and Pepper isn't far behind.

And I forgot to put in The Watchmen as well. And V for Vendetta. Both INFINITELY superior to their cinematic counterparts.

 

[t3ch]

I really liked Disassembled-- read awhile ago though, wasn't that the prequel to House of M? which I also really enjoyed.

edit -- yeah looks like the precursor to that and Secret War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication_history_of_Marvel_Comics_crossover_events


did you see the new Thor movie? World War Hulk was a super fun series, sad to see it sorta rushed through with Thor. Would've been a good place for Hulk to to have a solo movie.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Sequel to it. Scarlet Witch goes batshit mentalist and then carnage ensues. Avengers disbanded, and then it starts up with the New Avengers title. The art is insanely good and the plotlines are just epic. And then Ultron turns up about thirty issues later to fuck with it. Brilliant.

Oh - I also have some really good Ms Marvel stuff. Carol Danvers is a good character as well. And World War Hulk which is fantastic too.

Did I mention I love comics?

 

[t3ch]

I never got into Carol. Nothing against her, just never really followed the series outside of crossover events. The Ms Marvel I previously mentioned reading is the newer version with Kamala.

I'm not exactly the target demographic for that series but I really like it all the same.

 

[PPB]

Dame Daphne Sheldrick and her memoirs, Love, Life and Elephants.

If you love animals, enjoy hearing about people who save them, or just love elephants then you'll enjoy this one.

What a lovely lady who has had a remarkable life saving orphaned baby elephants. Makes me wish I'd done something half as remarkable with mine.