A jolly good read?

[Tredman]

Reading JG Ballard‘ memoir and he says this, after having spent the war in a prison camp:

so I spent the holidays with my grandparents in West Bromwich, the lowest point in my life that I had by then explored, several miles at least below the sea level of mental health. I hope that I survived, though I have never been completely sure.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I recently discovered that I can rent audio books from the library straight to my phone via the RB Digital app so I now have a new book to listen to on the way to work.

The choice isn't all that great but I just picked a book at random based on the cover - The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin. I'd never heard of the book or the author before but I really like it. The narrator is very, very good too which is what I guess makes or breaks an audio book. It's set in New Orleans in 1919 and is a based on the real life Axeman of New Orleans and all the fictional characters that are trying to track him down - the police department, the Mafia and even Louis Armstrong.

I'm only part of the way through it so far but it is already up there with Fevre Dream as the best book I've 'read' this year. I really enjoy a good historical fiction novel based in the 19th or early 20th century. He's also written a follow up novel, Dead Man's Chest that I will definitely be reading too.

 

[lemonjelly]

Just seen that Irvine Welsh is releasing Dead Mens Trousers on 29 march. Gonna have to start saving for that one, as on my books to be read shelf I have virtually no fiction left!

 

[PPB]

The Innocent Killer by Michael Griesbach. Read this in a day. Now going to start watching the series about it ( Making A Murderer). Finding it fascinating.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Been raiding my local library a lot more than usual this year. Since I last posted, I think these are the ones I've got through:

The Good People by Hannah Kent - Picked this one up as she has the same name as my wife! A book based around a true story of the death of a boy in rural Ireland in 1825.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - Her debut novel. Based around the true story of the last woman to be hanged for murder in Iceland in 1829.

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood - I had only previously read The Handmaids Tale and had wanted to read more by her for a while but never got round to it. A strange book set in a post-apolcalyptic future but she writes very well. I have the sequel 'The Year of the Flood' to read too but haven't go to that one yet.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood - A fictional account of the real life of Grace Marks who was imprisoned for murder in Canada in 1843. I believe they have made a TV series of this, I'll have to check it out.

Darktown by Thomas Mullen - A fictional account of the first black police officers in Atlanta in 1948.

Paradise Sky - Joe R Lansdale - Based around the life of Nat Love, a cowboy in the late nineteenth century. I previously read Lansdale's The Thicket earlier in the year and both books are most excellent. I can highly recommend his novels. He is up there with Ray Celestin as the best new author I have read this year.

I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Linqvist - I have read most of his other novels (his most famous, Let The Right One In, being the standout novel of his) and his books get weirder and weirder. Good though. The basic plot line is that four families on a campsite wake up to find themselves removed from the world as we know it and they (and I) then try to figure out what the hell is going on. I didn't realise this was the first in a trilogy but I don't know if the other two have been translated into English yet.

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon - A novel based on a boys life in the small town of Zephyr in the 1960's. The town, the characters and some of the goings on are a bit Stephen King-esque so I was a big fan. I really want to read Swan Song by him too if I can get hold of it.

 

[nimrod]

I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Linqvist - I have read most of his other novels (his most famous, Let The Right One In, being the standout novel of his) and his books get weirder and weirder. Good though. The basic plot line is that four families on a campsite wake up to find themselves removed from the world as we know it and they (and I) then try to figure out what the hell is going on. I didn't realise this was the first in a trilogy but I don't know if the other two have been translated into English yet.

this sounds good to me, like a murakami. i'll look it up.

I've read O&C of the others. was ok, didn't bother with the sequel.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I have been reading Colleen McCulloughs Masters of Rome series again. Miles better than the Conn Iguldon stuff. A tad dry, but I love these books, and it always a delight to read them again.

 

[PPB]

Medium Raw, a memoir by Anthony Bourdain. Written in true Bourdain style.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Just finished The Marrowbone Marble Company by Glenn Taylor. I absolutely flew through it and really enjoyed it.

It is a fictional account of Loyal Ledford and his family in West Virginia covering the period from 1941 to 1969 with a backdrop of the Pacific War and the growth of the Civil Rights movement. I was hooked from the start. Great characters and great storytelling.

 

[SLA]

I'm reading To Hell on a Fast Horse: The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett

I grew up watching Westerns with my old man so I love Wild West stuff and this is great. You kind of assume that all the cowboys and Indians, gun fighting, bands of outlaws, cowardly sheriffs etc is just a cinema thing, but seems it genuinely was like that. Highly recommended.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I'm reading To Hell on a Fast Horse: The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett

I grew up watching Westerns with my old man so I love Wild West stuff and this is great. You kind of assume that all the cowboys and Indians, gun fighting, bands of outlaws, cowardly sheriffs etc is just a cinema thing, but seems it genuinely was like that. Highly recommended.

Sounds interesting. I have read several fictional books based in the West West that I loved so it would be good to read a book about the real thing. I find that whole period in American history fascinating.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

For those of you that like your Detective/crime series novels - I have just finished A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee. It is the first in a series about a British policeman working in Calcutta in 1919 and I highly recommend it. Good story, good characters and witty writing. I will definitely be continuing with the series once I have cleared the rest of my haul from the local library.

 

[lemonjelly]

Going away for a few days. Thought I'd sort some light reading.
the adventures of huckelberry finn chosen. Plus a few roald dahl books, as I realised I've never read anything by roald dahl.

 

[sycophantia]

Couple of books I've read recently that surprised me, The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix is a strange tale of a guy that decides to commit suicide on his 100th birthday and leaves his suicide note as a story of his life in which he commited a number of murders......strangely compelling.
A Painted House by John Grisham I really enjoyed, nothing like his usual courtroom drama's, its a story set in the cotton fields of 50's America in a similar style as To Kill A Mocking Bird, both well worth a read imo

 

[Langers]

People have been pestering me to read The Beach by Alex Garland for ages, so I did so over the weekend. I was extremely surprised - in a good way. It's a very easy read but it's an entertaining one nonetheless. I think I've been put off it due to how incredibly bland I found the film (scenery excepted - including Virginie Ledoyen) but this is a rare example of me using a phrase I hate - the book is WAY better than the film. So much so that I have absolutely no idea why they decided to deviate so much from the novel, when there are so many really good scenes in it.

Anyway, it's a good read and I whizzed through it in a couple of days which I never do. And it's made me want to book a holiday in Thailand.

 

[SLA]

People have been pestering me to read The Beach by Alex Garland for ages, so I did so over the weekend. I was extremely surprised - in a good way. It's a very easy read but it's an entertaining one nonetheless. I think I've been put off it due to how incredibly bland I found the film (scenery excepted - including Virginie Ledoyen) but this is a rare example of me using a phrase I hate - the book is WAY better than the film. So much so that I have absolutely no idea why they decided to deviate so much from the novel, when there are so many really good scenes in it.

Anyway, it's a good read and I whizzed through it in a couple of days which I never do. And it's made me want to book a holiday in Thailand.

Great book.

 

[lemonjelly]

People have been pestering me to read The Beach by Alex Garland for ages, so I did so over the weekend. I was extremely surprised - in a good way. It's a very easy read but it's an entertaining one nonetheless. I think I've been put off it due to how incredibly bland I found the film (scenery excepted - including Virginie Ledoyen) but this is a rare example of me using a phrase I hate - the book is WAY better than the film. So much so that I have absolutely no idea why they decided to deviate so much from the novel, when there are so many really good scenes in it.

Anyway, it's a good read and I whizzed through it in a couple of days which I never do. And it's made me want to book a holiday in Thailand.

Yeah the beach is a great read. I also really liked Coma - sat down and read it in an afternoon (its more of a novella). Alex Garland writes well.

Am currently reading Helter Skelter, which I believe you also read recently. Slow starter, but starting to get quite into it now the investigation is starting.

 

[Langers]

Awesome - Helter Skelter is one of my all time favourite books.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I agree that The Beach is a far better book than film. I don't read many books more than once but I've read The Beach about 3 times.

I wasn't impressed with Alex Garland's follow up (The Tesseract) and haven't read anything else he has written since.

 

[Johnny75]

The Beach is Danny Boyle's only mess of a film. Garland writes some great screenplays (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let me Go and Dredd) but I've not read any of his novels other than the beach.