Ian Rankin, The Hanging Garden. A really good Rebus book. Well paced, clever and smart stuff. Recommended.
Books - what are you reading just now?
- Thread starter KhalJimbo
- Start date
Just about finished Freddie Truman’s autobiography. A tough read. Undoubtedly a world class bowler but almost every page there’s a bit about every committee/selection committee was against him, and quite often out to get him. The more i’ve read, the more I’m inclined to think, maybe, they had good reason not to favour him.
If you remember him on TMS he certainly had chips, large ones, on both shoulders. Very self centered from memory.
It is sad reading an autobiography when the individual is tough to like. It becomes a slog. I read Sam Torrance's book and really didn't warm to him. I put the book down at the end with a heavy sigh.
Fade and Die
Medal Winner
Just finished “Ready player two” a follow up to “Ready player one” by Ernest Cline, it’s pretty much the same as the 1st book but without the originality.
Also reading “This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor” Brilliantly funny and sad at the same time. Unbelievable the pressure that is put on junior doctors. It’s an insight into the best and the worst of the NHS.
Also reading “This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor” Brilliantly funny and sad at the same time. Unbelievable the pressure that is put on junior doctors. It’s an insight into the best and the worst of the NHS.
Doon frae Troon
Ryder Cup Winner
'The End of the line'
Fact based 15th century historical Nigel Tranter novel on the 10th Earl of Cospatrick.
Fact based 15th century historical Nigel Tranter novel on the 10th Earl of Cospatrick.
stefanovic
Medal Winner
Novacene by James Lovelock.
He wrote this for his 100th birthday in 2019.
I agree that prediction is very difficult especially when it comes to the future, but you have to read this one.
He wrote this for his 100th birthday in 2019.
I agree that prediction is very difficult especially when it comes to the future, but you have to read this one.
SocketRocket
Ryder Cup Winner
Just re-read after many years 'As I walked out one midsummer morning' by Laurie Lee. What a beautiful book.
D
Deleted member 1147
Guest
Just starting Berlin Game, by Len Deighton. Part one of the Game, Set & Match trilogy.
rudebhoy
Q-School Graduate
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
The story of an "unrepentant aristocrat" who is sentenced to house arrest in a Moscow hotel for the rest of his life by a Bolshevik court shortly after the 1917 revolution.
Not the type of character I would normally sympathise with, however it is really well written with a lot of humour and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
The story of an "unrepentant aristocrat" who is sentenced to house arrest in a Moscow hotel for the rest of his life by a Bolshevik court shortly after the 1917 revolution.
Not the type of character I would normally sympathise with, however it is really well written with a lot of humour and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
pendodave
Tour Rookie
Just finished this. Read it by accident really - was one of my wife's old book club subjects and I had a long journey and grabbed it on the way out.
You've described it exactly as I would have!
Weirdly relevant in some ways to the last 18 months.
toyboy54
Challenge Tour Pro
Just requested them from the local library-how many in the series?
Oh well we'll see what they come up with-also asked for a few others as mentioned on here
Going by the write-ups should be some good reading in store for me.
I so wanted to like the guy but finished, as you say, thinking he took arrogance to another level.
I read lots of autobiographies, and the odd biography. Robin Cook’s was excellent, and what a loss to the country when he was taken far too early. Tony Blair’s was very revealing, more so about Gordon Brown.
Italian outcast
Hacker
I've got the last ever Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther [Metropolis] to read - been holding off
As that is set n the late 1920s and takes place before all the rest I may then go and read all the others - in the right chronological order [not order of publication]
Some are just cracking
Can't believe I read the 1st 30 years ago - when life was all in front of me [bad then good then ...??]
As that is set n the late 1920s and takes place before all the rest I may then go and read all the others - in the right chronological order [not order of publication]
Some are just cracking
Can't believe I read the 1st 30 years ago - when life was all in front of me [bad then good then ...??]
Didn’t realise they were on the reading list for 10 year olds.
Occasionally I reread Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. It was on my O-Level reading list in the early 70’s.
Italian outcast
Hacker
Didn’t realise they were on the reading list for 10 year olds.
I was a fully licensed adult by then
When I was 10 I was already reading all my Dads books - MacLean, Deighton, Gabin Lyall etc - all in preparation for my planned career
I also read the Exorcist which my mother had stopped reading - which possibly diverted planned activities due to diabolic interventions
Lesson - sometimes you can grow up too fast
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
John Wyndham wrote lots of other really good ’present day’ sci-fi yarns - tales that work as well today as they did when written in the 50s and 60s. They are all a quick and fun read.Didn’t realise they were on the reading list for 10 year olds.
Just like the Hammond Innes books - one of which - The Wreck of the Mary Deare - I am reading at the moment. Next up another Nevil Shute (last one read - Requiem for a Wren - was excellent)
I’ve read and reread everything Shute has written. My favourite is Trustee from the Toolroom, probably Requiem for a Wren as second.
Skypilot
Assistant Pro
I love his Bernie Gunther character.
I've got Metropolis but have held back on reading it as I'm going to re-read the whole lot in order again soon.
Oddly, I haven't really enjoyed Kerr's other non Gunther books much.
Have you seen the German made TV series Babylon Berlin?
Brilliant series also set in the seedy world of pre-war Berlin.
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
Must check to see if I have Trustee…I got given about a dozen NS novels by a friend and gradually working my way through them. After recently watching A Town Like Alice (1956) - it’s still on iPlayer - I have picked up the book from Oxfam - guessing that the book will go deeper into some aspects and characterisations than was possible in the film. I find that it his portrayal of humanity and the human condition that I take so much from.
Skypilot
Assistant Pro
Very impressed with the Shardlake books by CJ Sansom.
Stumbled on one by accident and, so impressed, I searched out the rest of the series on ebay and read them all. Several great characters.
Nice thick books too averaging around 650 - 850 pages. No padding, every page engrossing.
I can't wait until a bit of time is past for me to re-read them again.
They are sort of crime/mystery fiction in Tudor times but set around historically accurate events.
I never thought I'd go for this sort of stuff but Sansom is just brilliant. At the end of each book he explains what were genuine and factually accurate characters and events.
Stumbled on one by accident and, so impressed, I searched out the rest of the series on ebay and read them all. Several great characters.
Nice thick books too averaging around 650 - 850 pages. No padding, every page engrossing.
I can't wait until a bit of time is past for me to re-read them again.
They are sort of crime/mystery fiction in Tudor times but set around historically accurate events.
I never thought I'd go for this sort of stuff but Sansom is just brilliant. At the end of each book he explains what were genuine and factually accurate characters and events.
