Last Book You Read....

[StewartyMac]

Mark Billingham - Lifeless

After a wee break, I returned to Billingham's 'Tom Thorne' series, and it was like revisiting an old friend. The previous book in the series, 'The Burning Girl' was a pretty poor affair, nowhere near as good as the earlier ones, so I didn't quite know what to expect with this one, but I felt it was a cracking return to form. As with all Thorne books, there's not a great deal of action, but Billingham gives his characters terrific depth, and half the fun of his novels are finding out how Thorne copes from one situation to the next. Almost like a London version of Rebus in many ways.

Good stuff though, I'll be on to the next one soon.

8/10

[H_B]

I don't really like Mark Billingham's stuff, but if you do, you will probably like Simon Kernick's books.

If you have a few hours to kill, they are pretty enjoyable.

[StewartyMac]

Aye, I've read a few Kernick stuff. 'Relentless' was pretty good in a 'park your brain at the side' type of way.

Different style altogether from Billingham though. Kernick's stuff is pretty non stop action, whereas the Thorne novels are normally more slow burning affairs.

[M0rtonfc]

Just finished Angels and Demons last night for the first time.

Cracking.

[An Sionnach]

If there's such a thing as required reading it ought to be nestled firmly in the centre. Like a cock made of words between some metaphorical tits... Or something.

© Henry Miller, circa 1934

[AyrshireTon]

The Munroist's Companion, by Robin N Campbell.

[Cowden Blue]

The Rum Diaries - Hunter S Thompson

10/10

Fantastic, an absolutly stonking book. I've been meaning to read this for ages, and finally picked up a copy last week. I read Fear and Loathing when I was 15 or 16, it didn't really do anything for me, but this book blew me away.

The writing style is superb, and Thompson manages to create such a strong, vivid image in your head that you really feel the heat of the sun on your back and the rum sliding down your throat.

This book is basically a fictional account, although it's easy to see that it is based on Thompsons own experiences, of a travelling journalist who finds himself in San Juan working for the local English language paper. Drinking rum from breakfast into the wee small hours, watching stunning women on the beach, fighting with the police and diving for lobsters for lunch. God, I wish I was there!

Read it. Now. What are you waiting for?

[StewartyMac]

Not long finished another Mark Billingham 'Tom Thorne' book, this one was called 'Buried'.

Another good, solid, Thorne novel, this one certainly has quite an unsettling, twisted climax, and the narrative is, as always, excellent. There's not as much depth of background of the main protagonist, but anyone who's read previous works will now most of Thorne's backstory anyway.

8/10

[Shawfield Stallion]

The Rum Diaries - Hunter S Thompson

10/10

Fantastic, an absolutly stonking book. I've been meaning to read this for ages, and finally picked up a copy last week. I read Fear and Loathing when I was 15 or 16, it didn't really do anything for me, but this book blew me away.

The writing style is superb, and Thompson manages to create such a strong, vivid image in your head that you really feel the heat of the sun on your back and the rum sliding down your throat.

This book is basically a fictional account, although it's easy to see that it is based on Thompsons own experiences, of a travelling journalist who finds himself in San Juan working for the local English language paper. Drinking rum from breakfast into the wee small hours, watching stunning women on the beach, fighting with the police and diving for lobsters for lunch. God, I wish I was there!

Read it. Now. What are you waiting for?

I read this recently as well. Brilliant book, although the sheer madness of Fear and Loathing just pips it for me

[Mel Hutchwright]

I've kind of gone completely Richard Yates daft of late, and can't get enough of his oppressive American suburban ennui. The last couple of his I read were Young Hearts Crying and Cold Spring Harbor, and I'm currently the best part of the way through A Good School. It's a commonly held opinion that these later novels are of a lesser calibre than both Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade (my personal favourite of his) but, for all that there is certainly some truth in this, they are still very fine books.

Most of his novels are pretty much variations on the same theme, essentially the unfulfilled lives and corroded ambitions of people who feel trapped by their relationships and the suburbs, but what a theme.

[Colin M]

I read Shutter Island last week by Dennis Lehane. First one of his I've read, it was good stuff, nice psychological crime thriller. Can imagine it translating well to the big screen. 7/10

I had to interrupt my reading of The Secret History by Donna Tartt which I was thoroughly enjoying but due to a misprint there were 50 pages missing. I have a library copy now to get back into it. It's about a group of classic Greek studying American college students who commit murder (revealed at the beginning) and the tale of how that comes about. Thoroughly enjoying it, it's interesting the way the students seem out of time with contemporary(ish) American college life.

[footiechick]

Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer. I shouldn't have liked this and was getting slagged rotten whilst reading it but I must admit to really enjoying it.

Started The Kite Runner last night.

[Colin M]

Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer. I shouldn't have liked this and was getting slagged rotten whilst reading it but I must admit to really enjoying it.

Started The Kite Runner last night.

The Kite Runner is superb.

Spookily I just started reading Kane and Abel last night.

[miko]

The Rum Diaries - Hunter S Thompson

10/10

Fantastic, an absolutly stonking book. I've been meaning to read this for ages, and finally picked up a copy last week. I read Fear and Loathing when I was 15 or 16, it didn't really do anything for me, but this book blew me away.

The writing style is superb, and Thompson manages to create such a strong, vivid image in your head that you really feel the heat of the sun on your back and the rum sliding down your throat.

This book is basically a fictional account, although it's easy to see that it is based on Thompsons own experiences, of a travelling journalist who finds himself in San Juan working for the local English language paper. Drinking rum from breakfast into the wee small hours, watching stunning women on the beach, fighting with the police and diving for lobsters for lunch. God, I wish I was there!

Read it. Now. What are you waiting for?

I've got that sitting right here but have been reluctant to start it as he kind of annoys me, might do now though

[JeffStelling]

Stephen Leather - Nightfall.

Picked this up from the library as his stuff is usually decent - mistake!

Utter tosh from start to finish - one of those I stuck with in the vain hope it would improve. Even worse, it finishes with the clear option for a sequel.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this like the plague.

[footiechick]

The Kite Runner 10/10

What a fantastic book, best read I've had in ages. Had a wee greet at the end too.

A must read !!!

[archie guevara]

I read Shutter Island last week by Dennis Lehane. First one of his I've read, it was good stuff, nice psychological crime thriller. Can imagine it translating well to the big screen. 7/10

I had to interrupt my reading of The Secret History by Donna Tartt which I was thoroughly enjoying but due to a misprint there were 50 pages missing. I have a library copy now to get back into it. It's about a group of classic Greek studying American college students who commit murder (revealed at the beginning) and the tale of how that comes about. Thoroughly enjoying it, it's interesting the way the students seem out of time with contemporary(ish) American college life.

The Secret History is good, but Miss Tartt has put so much into it that her long delayed second novel, The Little Friend is far inferior.

Still better than the book that I have just stopped reading, which was my first ever PD James - The Private Patient. It was complete bollocks and obviously written by an 88 year old woman. Quite nicely written but jaw droppingly snobbish and unintentionally hilarious in places. The best was a female detective getting an urgent call to a murder scene and stopping to change into her tweed trouser suit because it was what she wore in the country.

[WendyWho?]

Just finished And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave.

Quick capsule review: "Holy f**k, that man can write."

[RCR]

I was 115 pages into "a big boy did it and ran away" on a long haul flight, and I left the book on the plane by accident. Gutted! Its not exactly the easiest thing to find in this hemisphere.

[HeartsparkDollarsign]

I was 115 pages into "a big boy did it and ran away" on a long haul flight, and I left the book on the plane by accident. Gutted! Its not exactly the easiest thing to find in this hemisphere.

It was published Down Under, and is to my knowledge still in print there. If you root around some second-hand bookshops, you might be able to track down the original Australian version. It was published in August 2001, a few weeks before the book came out in the UK, and carried the tag-line "Terrorism. It's the new rock n roll". As the UK publication was about a fortnight after 9/11, this was swiftly removed and the book re-jacketed.