Last Book You Read....

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

Currently reading the wee felly Charlie and the Chocolate factory at bed time.

Fair takes you back and you realise how rubbish films are compared to reading.

[H_B]

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is a much underrated sequel I think.

It's a great book.

[banterman86]

Maus by Art Speigelman

Comic book style depicting his father's time in Poland beofre and during the War and consequently Aushwitz (which he survived).

Very cleverly done.

Fantastic piece imo, would love to see an animated version of it, becuase some of the visuals in it are brilliant. it might ruin it though...

Anyways

Recently went back to the well for some authors I had previously enjoyed

Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley was very entertaining- an unpopular president whose sole aim is to get the defict down in one term, keeps having his supreme court nominations rejected, so nominates a "Judge Judy" style celebrity Judge.

Death of a Ladies Man by Falkirk's Alan Bisset was pretty good, prbably his stringest work to date. Concerns a high school english teahcer who married and divorced young, and found, post sepration, that he was a bit of a Neil Struass style pick up artist. Very good stuff actually, combined humour and drama pretty well, althiugh soemtimes his prose feels experimental and postmodern just for the sake of it, or , more likely, I'm too dense to "get it"

I tried the second of the Millenium trilogy recently, and found I struggled with it, just didn't grip me. mat give it another bash as I go away for a bit soon, unless anyone else has any other suggestions? I'd actually fancy one of the recently released politcal memoirs but don't fancy lugging about a hardback next to the pool.

[big_bairn_1876]

Just finished Lance Armstrongs Its Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, fantastic insight into this guys life and trials. He describes in great detail about his upbringing by a single mother, not having much when growing up and how cycling changed his life. Then he discovers he has cancer and the detail the guy goes into is unreal, some people may find it hard to read, I know i did at first but after a while you just need to know what this guy went through before he even won the first of his 7 Tour De France titles. Very funny, informative and sometimes distressing book, but worth it all to see where he ends up. 9/10

[T_S_A_R]

Just finished Lance Armstrongs Its Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, fantastic insight into this guys life and trials. He describes in great detail about his upbringing by a single mother, not having much when growing up and how cycling changed his life. Then he discovers he has cancer and the detail the guy goes into is unreal, some people may find it hard to read, I know i did at first but after a while you just need to know what this guy went through before he even won the first of his 7 Tour De France titles. Very funny, informative and sometimes distressing book, but worth it all to see where he ends up. 9/10

chances are he's going to end up in jail.

he's about to be busted for one of the greatest frauds, sporting or otherwise, in history.

[big_bairn_1876]

chances are he's going to end up in jail.

he's about to be busted for one of the greatest frauds, sporting or otherwise, in history.

What for ? Is this about the blood transfusion doping claim. In all honesty i can see why people dont like him but i think when your at the top, your always going to be targeted by jealous others, especially a guy that came back from a 3% survival rate of cancer to win 7 Tours, he will always be speculated as to whether or not he was aided.

Edited September 28, 2010 by big_bairn_1876

[Gordon EF]

The Ghost by Robert Harris - 8/10

Not the best of his books and it takes a wee while to get going but it's still an excellent book.

[ICTChris]

Never Let Me Go ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

I actually originally read this about 3 years ago and became somewhat evangelical about it's brilliance. Then, having lent it to a couple of friends who were equally impressed by it, I felt compelled to re read it over the festivities and found it as moving and powerful as before.

It's set in a dystopian England in the 90's and could be regarded as a Magic Realism novel, even sci fi to some extent, which are not genre's that usually appeal to me in the slightest. However Ishiguro, who is a novelist I love, has a beautifully understated style of prose, which really makes this horrifying story completely plausible and moving. What is particularly heart wrenching is the main protagonists almost complete acceptance of the awful fate that awaits them.

A geinuinely powerful and affecting read.

I just read this, it's absolutely brilliant. You are bang on with how understated and nuanced the writing is.

[Colin M]

I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It was very enjoyable but I thought the ending was a bit too drawn out.

[Monster]

A Load Of Bull by Tim Parfitt.

This is the story of a journalist who was sent to Spain to help the locals launch Vogue in Spain in the late 80's. It's a thoroughly enjoyable memoir of great food, bad translation and pronunciation and a Londoner getting used to the culture of Spain. It's enjoyable, full of laughs and pithy observations, giving the impression of a guy who's completely different now from when he went there for a few weeks initially. It's light and well written and the author doesn't take himself too seriously, which is just as well because the magazine staff seem to be laughing at him constantly due to his failure to grasp the language.

This is an ideal holiday book. If I had just one small criticism it would be that it's just a little short in content at 250 pages. I'd have liked to read more.

A very positive 8/10

[H_B]

Just finished the last of Jo Nesbo's translated books. Absolutely brilliant - loved them.

Not sure why the first two are still Norwegian only and they jumped into the English market with the third in the series onwards. Very irritating.

[mungo]

I just read Lolita , which although very well written , was at times pretty unpleasant reading.

A bit overatted, I'd say its just an "ok" read. 6/10.

[StewartyMac]

Just finished the Chris Brookmyre book, 'Pandaemonium'.

Another good 'un by ole HP$, great characterisation again, and although the actual plot is absolute nonsense, it's an enjoyable read. Also contains one of the funniest lines I've read in ages when one of the main characters faces up to one of the demons with a crucifix, and her pal says, 'It's a demon we're up against, no' a protestant'.

7/10

[Bowers]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

Great book which was very enjoyable to read about a side of world war two you don't hear much about.

8/10

[calum_gers]

Recently have read a couple of Jack Higgins, some Steven Leather and a few Duncan Faulkner books. All of whose books i quite enjoy, especially the latter.

More recently i read Kane and Abel and First among equals - both by Jeffrey Archer, i really liked them. Kane and Abel especially was good was a 9/10, although a little bit obvious.

Also read the latest Adrian Mole, not as funny as it was made out to be, but i enjoyed it none the less.

Have moved on to a book about the 1812 war, can't remember off-hand what it's called, but it's not bad so far.

Fair to say, i've been reading a fair bit over the past month or so.

[Super Freak]

Just finished reading The Girl With The Dragon tattoo. Thouroughly enjoyed it and I will be venturing into town later to pick up the remainder of the trilogy.

[endieinreekie]

Just finished D-Day by Anthony beevor. Really well researched and written in a really accessible manner, without too much technical detail. Also a balanced point of view from both sides involved. As with the other beevor books I have read, I would thoroughly recommend this one

[Mel Hutchwright]

Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories ~ Raymond Carver

Generally speaking I'm not the biggest fan of short stories, and would usually far sooner immerse myself in a novel, but this collection is simply magnificent. Carver was a masterful writer, with a powerful, sparse prose style, who's ability to evoke so much from such brevity is really pretty awe inspiring. Some of these stories are nothing short of gut wrenching.

[T_S_A_R]

cloud atlas by david mitchell - it's a novel featuring six different characters at different points in time who's strories are discovered and rediscovered by each other the stories go 1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2,1. each section is in a different style and mimics different types of fiction and authors, there's a 'moby dick style 19th century sea story, a very dodgy, dandy 1920s composer, a 70s style corporate thriller, a modern day comedy about old age, a futuristic horror story and a post apocolyptic narrative. the mimicry and borrowing was quite frustrating at times and i often felt i'd be better spending my time reading something more original rather than a novel which seemed to be designed to pack lots of different literary elements into the one novel for less discerning readers. on the whole though it was an entertaining read and the deeper theme connecting the characters - that human nature is naturally destructive and it's up to individuals to attempt to overcome it - was rendered well.

alone in berlin by hans fallada - the story of a couple attempting to dissent against the nazi regime by making post cards criticising the war and the regime in wartime berlin. it's had a lot of praise here recently and it does a good job of portraying the paranoia and fear created by the secret police but the characters lack depth and the story is too pg-13 to seem realistic. this is obviously due to it being written for mass publication in 1946 but it comes across as book you'd have a class of 13 year olds read nowadays rather than serious adult literature. it's a shame as well as fallada had a very interesting life and could certainly have written something much more colourful than this given the correct platform.

i currently have 50 pages of a rereading of crime and punishment to go then it's into a 18 inch pile of books that arrived from amazon the other day.

[sam2304]

DEAD SIMPLE by Peter James

Quite good actually, the first book in a series of 5