What are you reading

[Reynard]

About to start the sixth and last book of "The Lost Fleet" series.

Need to get hold of the second series of this. I love military sci-fi.

 

[Venod]

Wild Tales: A Rock and Roll Life by Graham Nash, just read the first chapter so can't give a review, but Joni Mitchell, David Crosby and Stephen Stills have made an appearance.

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

Contact - Carl Sagan.

I'm finding this stodgy and slightly self-indulgent, which is making it a bit of a slog to get through.

One of the few instances where the film is probably better than the book, and the film isn't that good.

Graham

 

[Reynard]

I read "Contact" years ago and am not inclined to pick it up again.

Am currently reading "Deadliest Waters" by Sig Hansen and Mark Sundeen. Yep, I have a "thing" for Deadliest Catch.

 

[MiK1138]

After all the hype generated by the TV series, I am reading The Handmaids Tale, its bloody boring

 

[Yellow Fang]

I am reading Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem. George Gissing is a character. Didn't know when I started it, but there's a film coming out next month.

 

[Doseone]

I've just finished The Train to Pakistan by Kushwant Singh. I find the whole thing about the Partition very harrowing and a largely ignored part of our history.

I've now got two books on the go; Etape by Richard Moore and Seven Short Lessons in Physics by Carlo Rovelli. Really enjoying them both.

 

[Tin Pot]

A Divided Spy
Charles Cummings
https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-divided-spy/charles-cumming/9780007467549

A best seller apparently.

I'm liking it, but it's not very subtle - certainly nothing like Le Carré. Surprised it's a best seller, I suppose I expected more.

That said, I am enjoying it. I suppose I'm on the fringes of some of what it's fictionalising, and what I know of espionage and ISIS - personally I think he's laying it on a bit thick. I don't think this is how any of the parties involved operate in the real world, so it's the suspension-of-disbelief that's getting me.

Take the opening chapters, no real spoilers, but using gambling debt to leverage an officer in charge of approving passports is a bit hackneyed, and in any case he wouldn't have sole authority - it's a bit 60s in concept.

And ISIS sending in terrorists under fake passports, that's happened precisely never. The whole point of this new paradigm is that terrorists don't need to hide their identity.

I don't sound like I like it, but I do really.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Anyone read any Justin Cartwright? I've read a couple of his recently; White Lightning and Leading The Cheers, really enjoyable, excellent writer. Recommended.

 

[John the Monkey]

Harold Larwood (Duncan Hamilton)
An impressive biography of one of England's best fast bowlers, whose career was, pretty much, ended by the "Body Line" test series. Hamilton comes across, occasionally, as a little too much of a fan, but it's his affection for Larwood, and dudgeon at his treatment that makes this so readable.

Free Fall (Robert Crais)
Very readable PI novel, the fourth in Robert Crais' "Elvis Cole" series. They get a bit samey if read in a block, but I like one of these once in a while.

Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
Brilliant.

Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, The Walking Dead and Other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds (Darren Oldridge)
A look at supernatural belief, and why it made sense to the people of the medieval/renaissance eras (arguing that it was, in effect, the science of its day). Readable, and with some good stories.

 

[Reynard]

"The Shape of Water" by Andrea Camilleri - one of the Inspector Montalbano books.

As luck would have it, it's the book that introduces a recurring character who popped up in "As per procedure", last night's episode.

The books are light reading, with a sense of the macabre.

 

[Stephenite]

Has anyone here read The Game Of Thrones books?

 

[Yellow Fang]

The Old Man and the Sea - don't know really. My old man said it was really good.
Some old toffee by Henry James - don't see what the fuss was about.
Some book about geo-engineering.
What color is my parachute? - self help book about finding another job.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, made a start on Game of Thrones (bought some of the books years ago), but kind of finding it hard to get in to it. Tbh there's other epic fantasy out there that's better e.g. Janny Wurts' "Wars of Light and Shadow" and Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time".

 

[Profpointy]

Capital in the 21st Century - Thomas Piketty

Is this any good? Specifically does it have real substance to it rather than (presymably) lefty platitudes? Is it readable? For what it's worth I have read several of Galbreiths (popular) books if that's any guide.