Last Book You Read....

[JamesP_81]

1 minute ago, NotThePars said:

Even the later Frank ones are a slog but worth it for how weird they get. The ones by his son try to fill in parts of the backstory but do so very poorly, imo.

Are they natural progressions from the first one to be read in order or are they more just set in the same world but stand alone novels ? 

[NotThePars]

3 minutes ago, JamesP_81 said:

Are they natural progressions from the first one to be read in order or are they more just set in the same world but stand alone novels ? 

Sequential with some massive time skips. You would need to read them in order to follow them. The ones by his son are prequels IIRC.

[BullyWeeStonehouse]

If you're into dystopian or survivalist stuff I can highly recommend the Metro trilogy. Namely Metro 2033, 2034 & 2035. 2035 was the last book I read a few months ago.

Written by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, the books are about life after a radiation disaster (a common one I know) and some of the last remaining humans who have built up a community in the Moscow metro system and in particular one guy in his early 20s named Artyom who lives in an outlying station who has to alert the other communities about threats from the deepest parts of the metro network and above ground.

They made the books into computer games which were decent, too. I believe there's a film and/or tv series coming out in 2023 also.

As it's originally written in Russian some of the translating doesn't quite work out but you can work out what they mean easily enough.

[Craig fae the Vale]

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami.

Enjoyable collection of short stories. Maybe best read rather than listened to though as the Audible narrator wasn't great.

[btb]

Marian Keyes has a new "Rachel" book out, altho most of her work is chick lit  she does adress topics like domestic abuse & addiction plus unless she's had work done or the photos have been touched up she's in good nick for 58 (same age as me)...

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by btb

[Craig fae the Vale]

Demon by Matt Wesolowski.

The sixth in the Six Stories series, which is fiction presented as a true crime podcast. Works really well on audio.

Probably the weakest of the series so far, but still a very enjoyable read.

[Florentine_Pogen]

Finished two audiobooks today.
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman. No one can make you care about their characters quite like Fredrik Backman. You care so much about every single person in every one of his books. This is another absolute triumph
Star Wars: The High Republic - The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray. The best book in the High Republic series so far. Absolutely ruthless and sets up the future really well

The movie of Britt-Marie Was Here is still on iPlayer.

[Biscuits]

The Last Colonial War - Mark Frankland.

Best book I’ve read in ages - literally couldn’t put it down

[CraigFairlie]

I mainly read autobiographies. Finished Alan Thompson's book a few days back and went straight to Jackie McNamara's autobiography.

Read Bob Mortimer's autobiography at the start of the year, absolutely fantastic stuff.

[Mr Tourette]

Just finished The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. A very good sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, and a better read imo

[Internet Citizen]

I mainly read autobiographies. Finished Alan Thompson's book a few days back and went straight to Jackie McNamara's autobiography.

Read Bob Mortimer's autobiography at the start of the year, absolutely fantastic stuff.

I’d never really got into audiobooks but had a couple of free audible credits to use.

I decided to go for autobiographies read by the person, rather than fiction books, and I’ve really enjoyed listening while I’m driving.

Bob Mortimer’s was brillint, and also enjoyed Harry Hill’s. Both were surprisingly candid about their lives, and some of their failings. It’s tempted me to carry on an audible subscription for a while to see what other autobiographies I can find.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

I mainly read autobiographies. Finished Alan Thompson's book a few days back and went straight to Jackie McNamara's autobiography.

Read Bob Mortimer's autobiography at the start of the year, absolutely fantastic stuff.

I like a good biography. And Away.. Is indeed outstanding, and very touching in places.

What I really enjoy is reading the varying memoirs of those who were in bands together - sometimes you'd think they'd never met! Good examples of this include members of The Eagles and Kiss.
I've recently read Tom Jones' memoir, Over the Top and Back Again, which was surprisingly enjoyable. Not one I'd have looked for, but at 99p I thought I'd take a stab. Just got Mark E. Smith's Renegade for the same price. Check out bookbub - you get a daily email alerting you to bargains on Amazon and Google.

[RH33]

Read the Hairy Bikers autobiography and also The Dark Remains this week.

Finished Gomorrah last weekend. 

Lucky if I usually read half a dozen books in a year and I've read that since the new year.

[CraigFairlie]

On 12/02/2022 at 10:32, Internet Citizen said:

I’d never really got into audiobooks but had a couple of free audible credits to use.

I decided to go for autobiographies read by the person, rather than fiction books, and I’ve really enjoyed listening while I’m driving.

Bob Mortimer’s was brillint, and also enjoyed Harry Hill’s. Both were surprisingly candid about their lives, and some of their failings. It’s tempted me to carry on an audible subscription for a while to see what other autobiographies I can find.

I use audible too. I mainly buy physcial books if they're footballing or music ones which aren't avaible on audible or kindle and the 3 books I mentioned in my previous posts were gifts. 

On 12/02/2022 at 16:51, WhiteRoseKillie said:

I like a good biography. And Away.. Is indeed outstanding, and very touching in places.

What I really enjoy is reading the varying memoirs of those who were in bands together - sometimes you'd think they'd never met! Good examples of this include members of The Eagles and Kiss.
I've recently read Tom Jones' memoir, Over the Top and Back Again, which was surprisingly enjoyable. Not one I'd have looked for, but at 99p I thought I'd take a stab. Just got Mark E. Smith's Renegade for the same price. Check out bookbub - you get a daily email alerting you to bargains on Amazon and Google.

Will check out Bookhub, thank you for the reccomendation. Greatly appreciated.

[Stellaboz]

I just finished A Memory of Light. The last of the Wheel of Time series.

An absolute blockbuster of a book and a series. Quite literally better than anything I've read, and I am a huge mark for The Witcher, Harry Potter and less so now, Game of Thrones.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

On 14/02/2022 at 20:11, CraigFairlie said:

I use audible too. I mainly buy physcial books if they're footballing or music ones which aren't avaible on audible or kindle and the 3 books I mentioned in my previous posts were gifts. 

Will check out Bookhub, thank you for the reccomendation. Greatly appreciated.

No worries - it is actually Bookbub, that wasn't a typo.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

On 12/02/2022 at 22:00, RH33 said:

Read the Hairy Bikers autobiography and also The Dark Remains this week.

Finished Gomorrah last weekend. 

Lucky if I usually read half a dozen books in a year and I've read that since the new year.

I quite enjoyed Si and Dave's book (assume you mean Blood sweat and tyres?). A good insight as to how they got to be the double act we've grown to love and then get to the "another themed series?" stage with. Still miss their weekly Planet Rock Show, which introduced me to the phrase "an arse that felt like I'd fallen asleep in a Turkish prison and been voted the pretty one".

I was a bit underwhelmed by TDR - felt it fell some way short of what either writer was capable of. Still a decent read, though.

[RH33]

4 hours ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

I quite enjoyed Si and Dave's book (assume you mean Blood sweat and tyres?). A good insight as to how they got to be the double act we've grown to love and then get to the "another themed series?" stage with. Still miss their weekly Planet Rock Show, which introduced me to the phrase "an arse that felt like I'd fallen asleep in a Turkish prison and been voted the pretty one".

I was a bit underwhelmed by TDR - felt it fell some way short of what either writer was capable of. Still a decent read, though.

I agree with TDR

[Clockwork]

It's very much a book of two halves.  The first half is about the establishment of a friendship, the second about the effect on it of a diagnosis of terminal illness. 
I think how you respond to the first half depends a lot on whether you were in your late teens or early 20s at around the same time as the characters in the novel, and whether you can identify with them, or at least recognise them as being like people you knew.  Folk I know who come into that category have loved the first half of the book, because it's so evocative of being a music obsessed/slightly alternative/arty youngster leading a full-on social life in the Scotland of that era.
There's a real switch in the second half as the book becomes a lot more serious. 
I know people who absolutely loved the first half but thought the second half, though well done, was a bit too bleak to be enjoyable;  also people who thought the first half was a bit so-what but the second half was deeply moving.
I've recommended it to some people and would suggest you persevere, but it does seem to be one of those books that different people can have very different reactions to.

Persevered with Mayflies and pleased that I did. Definitely in the latter group that you describe (despite being pretty much the same age as the protagonists), the second half of the book was indeed deeply moving. The writer does stir the inner most thoughts that we harbour as to what the end may look and feel like. As you say, ‘enjoyable’ might not be the word to use, but it certainly developed into a compelling read. Many thanks.

[DiegoDiego]

Ali and Nino - Kurban Said (pseudonym, author disputed).

A love story about an Azeri boy and Mingrelian girl, set largely in Baku, but also Karabakh, Dagestan, Tbilisi, Persia and Ganca. It's heavy on East vs West, as the Christian girl and Mohammedian boy struggle to create a life which suits them both, on a backdrop of the first world war and Azerbaijan's choice between Russia and Turkey.

You can see why it's regarded as the national book of Azerbaijan but it serves as a picture for the region as a whole. If you want to understand the South Caucuses then reading this short novel would be a great start, certainly[mention=198]ICTChris[/mention] should read it if he hasn't already. It's beautifully written and an easy read, but not much of a page turner.

The last time I was in Batumi they had installed an Ali and Nino sculpture, the two figures rotate and pass through each other. It's quite impressive.