New now reading

in reality, all of this has been a total load of old bollocks
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BlueMeanie
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Re: New now reading

Postby BlueMeanie » 05 May 2010, 18:40

Kinkhurt wrote:Image

best book I've read in ages


I was a bit of an Iain Banks nut, so read this as soon as it was released. Anything that starts 'It was the day my grandmother exploded' is going to draw you in!

As I recall, the TV mini series was pretty good too.
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Carl's Son
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Re: New now reading

Postby Carl's Son » 05 May 2010, 19:42

martha wrote:Image


I'm reading that one too. It's so long and there are so many characters!! Still, I'll be sorry when it's finished and I have to leave those characters behind.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Bungo the Mungo » 05 May 2010, 19:48

Image

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Magilla
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Re: New now reading

Postby Magilla » 06 May 2010, 05:55

BlueMeanie wrote:
Kinkhurt wrote:Image

best book I've read in ages


I was a bit of an Iain Banks nut, so read this as soon as it was released. Anything that starts 'It was the day my grandmother exploded' is going to draw you in!

As I recall, the TV mini series was pretty good too.


Grandfather, actually. :ugeek:

That's a stone classic - that and Whit are his best non sci-fi works. Espedair St and Complicity are also very, very good.

The TV series of The Crow Road was indeed fine viewing. I think Banks' went off the boil as a writer about 10 years ago, however. A Song Of Stone and The Business were both poor and I've read mainly luke-warm reviews at best of anything he's done since. Still, his best stuff is outstanding.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Carl's Son » 06 May 2010, 08:46

I've not read much of Banks' stuff so I don't know how it compares to the stuff you list as his best but I really, really enjoyed The Steep Approach to Garbadale
I can just about handle you driving like a pissed up crackhead and treating women like beanbags but I'm gonna say this once and once only Gene, stay out of Camberwick Green!

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Re: New now reading

Postby Mozz » 06 May 2010, 09:06

Currently reading C.V. Wedgewood's The King's Peace, the first volume in a trilogy about the English Civil War. I can't find a picture (it's over 50 years old), but I can say it's a great narrative history of the years leading up to the Civil War itself.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Django » 06 May 2010, 11:27

Magilla wrote:That's a stone classic - that and Whit are his best non sci-fi works. Espedair St and Complicity are also very, very good.


I thought Whit was very poor - any sensible discussion of his best works has to include The Wasp Factory. ;)

Carl's Son wrote:I've not read much of Banks' stuff so I don't know how it compares to the stuff you list as his best but I really, really enjoyed The Steep Approach to Garbadale


It's an enjoyable read, but the problem with it, as with much of his more recent stuff, is that it is Banks by numbers. Garbadale is a pale imitation of The Crow Road - a brief synopsis of the plot of each would be difficult to tell apart - so as much as I thought it was a likeable novel, I couldn't help but feel that Banks is treading water creatively.

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Re: New now reading

Postby the hanging monkey » 06 May 2010, 11:35

The Crow Road is probably Banks' best non sci-fi book, it's excellent. Complicity is also very good.

Whit is ok, The Business and Song Of Stone are both poor.

I think he's improved a bit with Dead Air and The Steep Road To Garbadale but as Django says, you get the feeling that it's been done before and done better. Both enjoyable enough reads still.

I felt the same way about Matter, the last sci-fi book. Nice enough, but been done better before. I hope this won't be permanent. Still, The Algebraist was excellent and that wasn't too long ago.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Penk! » 06 May 2010, 16:02

I thought The Bridge was really good, alongside The Crow Road the one of his non-sci-fi books I've read and really liked. The Wasp Factory was technically good, I suppose, I just found it far too unpleasant.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Django » 06 May 2010, 16:18

pnek wrote: The Wasp Factory was technically good, I suppose, I just found it far too unpleasant.


Too close to home? :(

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Re: New now reading

Postby Lemon Yoghourt » 09 May 2010, 17:01

Just finished...

Image

I enjoyed it although not of the same class as Leviathan, Brooklyn Follies or New York Trilogy

Just started...

Image

The second in Pelecanos' DC quartet.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Corporate whore » 09 May 2010, 17:37

Image

I inherited my Grandads copy (it was written in 1954, and my Grandad on my mothers side is probably where I get my love of history from).
The book concentrates on Hitlers rise to power and takeover of Germany, WWII only gets about 100 pages, and they are about Hitler rather then the war.

Frighting what one man can get away with by riding his luck. In the end, Churchill was right, if France and the UK had stepped on Germany when Hitler reoccupied the Ruhr, we would almost certainly have been spared WWII.

Image

Good, although I find McEvoy his least interesting of characters.

Also, beacuse it touched upon what I do (Data Centres etc) I was a little anoyed by the innacuracies, but there you go.

Now reading;

Image

And very good it is proving. More on this one when I finish it.
Image

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Re: New now reading

Postby Corporate whore » 09 May 2010, 17:40

Forgot to mention....

Image

I bought this in a clearence book shop years ago, and it just sat on my 'to be read' bookshelf.

Anyway, I pulled it down because I fancied something light, and its hilarious. I would never have guessed he was a scouser.

Recomended.
Image

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Re: New now reading

Postby the hanging monkey » 09 May 2010, 17:44

corporate whore wrote:Forgot to mention....

Image

I bought this in a clearence book shop years ago, and it just sat on my 'to be read' bookshelf.

Anyway, I pulled it down because I fancied something light, and its hilarious. I would never have guessed he was a scouser.

Recomended.


I've read that. It's very, very good.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Livet » 11 May 2010, 16:27

Image

A friend lent me this and I'm liking it so much, I just ordered a copy. It's a memoir (with lots of recipes) from a Chinese American journalist working in Beijing who decides to go to cooking school there. She's got a humorous and informative style, so it's a nice way to learn more about the food and the culture.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Kinkhurt » 11 May 2010, 16:42

Image

an easy read, despite it being written recently it has a 30's/40's feel to it
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Re: New now reading

Postby funky_nomad » 11 May 2010, 16:52

Magilla wrote:
BlueMeanie wrote:
Kinkhurt wrote:Image

best book I've read in ages


I was a bit of an Iain Banks nut, so read this as soon as it was released. Anything that starts 'It was the day my grandmother exploded' is going to draw you in!

As I recall, the TV mini series was pretty good too.


Grandfather, actually. :ugeek:

That's a stone classic - that and Whit are his best non sci-fi works. Espedair St and Complicity are also very, very good.

The TV series of The Crow Road was indeed fine viewing. I think Banks' went off the boil as a writer about 10 years ago, however. A Song Of Stone and The Business were both poor and I've read mainly luke-warm reviews at best of anything he's done since. Still, his best stuff is outstanding.

No, it is definitely Grandmother. Trust me.

Anyway, you must be the only person I know to defend Whit - it's possibly his worst book. In fact, anything post-Complicity of his mainstream stuff is pretty dispensable, particularly when compared against his early stuff. The Iain M Banks stuff is untouchable, though.

Anyway, I've recently finished this:

Image

which was excellent. Haven't cried so much reading a book in years.

I'm now onto:

Image

which has started really well.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Carl's Son » 11 May 2010, 17:02

I'd be interested in seeing how Frey's sales figures are doing now he's more open about his fiction writing.
I can just about handle you driving like a pissed up crackhead and treating women like beanbags but I'm gonna say this once and once only Gene, stay out of Camberwick Green!

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http://thatidiotchrischopping.blogspot.com

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Re: New now reading

Postby Carl's Son » 11 May 2010, 17:02

I'd be interested in seeing how Frey's sales figures are doing now he's more open about his fiction writing.
I can just about handle you driving like a pissed up crackhead and treating women like beanbags but I'm gonna say this once and once only Gene, stay out of Camberwick Green!

www.chrischopping.virb.com

http://thatidiotchrischopping.blogspot.com

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Re: New now reading

Postby Snarfyguy » 11 May 2010, 17:31

Carl's Son wrote:I'd be interested in seeing how Frey's sales figures are doing now he's more open about his fiction writing.

I wouldn't have thought he'd even be able to get anything published at all after the scandal.
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