New now reading

in reality, all of this has been a total load of old bollocks
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mentalist (slight return)
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Re: New now reading

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 16 Dec 2018, 23:18

Loving this book. Two brothers travelled the Oregon trail a few years ago with mules dragging a covered wagon. A pleasant, none too stressful read, which is what I need.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 17 Dec 2018, 01:55

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Crusty old western characters (not to mention alternative country music) seem to fit my entertainment bill these days. This, the first in a series is a bit too bandwagony, too much like James Lee Burke's characters for me to not notice it but it is so far entertaining nonetheless. Not sure I'll go on in the series however.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 17 Dec 2018, 09:27

mission wrote:Murray is good and Skippy Dies in particular is great, but there is bloat. The words sometimes get in the way of the laughs. It becomes theoretically funny.

Yeah, I finished it last night, I entirely get where you're coming from, he can over-egg the prose quite a bit. Whilst I thought it was excellent, I like my characters and narrative to be strong, and I'm not a fan of extraneous plot lines and motivations that are left dangling and incomplete. Felt like it could've been a punchier beast with more judicious editing.

Having said that, when Skippy does die, it feels like a proper punch in the guts. It's a good trick to open a book with the character dying, call the book "Skippy Dies", and it still feel like a shock when it comes to pass.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 25 Dec 2018, 20:06

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Didn't really fancy this one, but it was the last thing on my shelves unread on the 23rd. I knew I'd get a mountain of stuff I want to read today, too, but I'm persevering anyway.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: New now reading

Postby mission » 26 Dec 2018, 03:48

You read like a fucking machine, Fishy. How do you do it? (This is a serious enquiry. I am after specifics. Do you buy paperbacks, go to the library, steal them off the internerd? Where do you read? How is time found?)
Goodness gracious me.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 26 Dec 2018, 09:36

mission wrote:You read like a fucking machine, Fishy. How do you do it? (This is a serious enquiry. I am after specifics. Do you buy paperbacks, go to the library, steal them off the internerd? Where do you read? How is time found?)

Hah, I feel bad this year because I've read fewer books than normal due to wasting time on the PlayStation! I get most of my books from charity shops and the local bookswap, which has a much better selection than when it was a proper library. As to how I read so much, I'm an insomniac, so I don't even attempt to sleep without reading something every night. And I don't really watch TV at all, other than for football. When everyone else discovered box sets, I gave up on the medium.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Diamond Dog » 26 Dec 2018, 15:02

Diamond Dog wrote:"Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon".
Does what it says... a detailed biography of the man who beat the Americans hands down in space for a decade or so....

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A fine read (even if it did get a bit 'technical' at times). If you have any interest in the Space Race.... this is worth seeking out.

Now onto :

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Which is good (dealing with one individual per year during 55-94) but I can't help but feel that is was an exercise in filling a gap for Hepworth, with very little depth in any of the chapters (because there are so many of them). A good enough read but I'm not sure it would tell any of us on BCB one single thing we weren't already aware of.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Brickyard Jack » 26 Dec 2018, 15:18

I have just finished reading H G Wells's The war of the worlds, and god it is crap. Sure the imaginative ideas may be interesting, but the plot is ridiculous and the actual writing is so bad it becomes a boring read. Jeff Wayne's summary version is far superior.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Graham Murakami » 27 Dec 2018, 21:23

Snarfyguy wrote:Image

I find his work by turns exasperating and captivating.


If you managed to get through #1 and #2, the third and fourth ones should be a treat - much more of a linear story and loads of music references that you just don't get in any of the other possible best authors in the world.

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Re: New now reading

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 29 Dec 2018, 11:46

I just finished re-reading Wuthering Heights. It’s a crazy book and I really didn’t remember at least half of it!

On to Mary Barton, which I hope to finish before we fly home as I want to read some crime fiction Kid P hipped me to on the flight ...
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Re: New now reading

Postby Belle Lettre » 29 Dec 2018, 11:56

"Broadsword Calling Danny Boy". I laughed a good deal.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 29 Dec 2018, 20:40

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A book which is trying to capture the essence of daily existence in Berlin during WWII.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Diamond Dog » 01 Jan 2019, 12:51

Diamond Dog wrote:Now onto :

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Which is good (dealing with one individual per year during 55-94) but I can't help but feel that is was an exercise in filling a gap for Hepworth, with very little depth in any of the chapters (because there are so many of them). A good enough read but I'm not sure it would tell any of us on BCB one single thing we weren't already aware of.


And when it has blazing historical inaccuracies throughout (Led Zeppelin's debut album was apparently one of the musical highlights of 1968...which is interesting as it wasn't released until 1969, for instance) I gave up on it as lazy, copy-and-paste 'journalism'.

Just started this :

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Which has this as its blurb:

If you thought Wall Street was about alpha males standing in trading pits hollering at each other, think again. That world is dead.

Now, the world's money is traded by computer code, inside black boxes in heavily guarded buildings. Even the experts entrusted with your cash don't know what's happening to it. And the very few who do aren't about to tell - because they're making a killing.

This is a market that's rigged, out of control and out of sight; a market in which the chief need is for speed; and in which traders would sell their grandmothers for a microsecond. Blink, and you'll miss it.

In Flash Boys, Michael Lewis tells the explosive story of how one group of ingenious oddballs and misfits set out to expose what was going on. It's the story of what it's like to declare war on some of the richest and most powerful people in the world. It's about taking on an entire system. And it's about the madness that has taken hold of the financial markets today.

You won't believe it until you've read it.


And it's all true besides that last sentence, because it's all too believable to most of us, I'm sure.

A really great read so far. I like Lewis' style, and his varied topics (his book on American Football phenom Michael Oher is a fantastic write up of the subject).
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 03 Jan 2019, 01:42

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Re: New now reading

Postby harvey k-tel » 03 Jan 2019, 13:56

Just started this last night:

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Re: New now reading

Postby Six String » 03 Jan 2019, 20:33

harvey k-tel wrote:Just started this last night:

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One of my favorite books of 2018. Rebecca has said several times that it has changed her life, particularly chapter five. I'm a big fan of the author anyway and he did something here I wasn't sure would be possible.
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Re: New now reading

Postby KeithPratt » 04 Jan 2019, 08:03

On my list to read that one.

Just started on this behemoth

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And along with that, a resolution in 2019 to start at the beginning of English literature..

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Re: New now reading

Postby Minnie the Minx » 04 Jan 2019, 12:02

Over December:

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A very personal and moving account of how the author dealt with the deteriorating health of her parents in a society that doesn't care to discuss the inevitable path of growing old and the decisions that humans make, or are allowed to make in the face of medicine. Heart stopping at times, laugh out loud at others.

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Adam Kay's hilarious and poignant diaries of the life and career of an NHS doctor. I recognised almost everything he discussed, in particular the emotional labour and burnout to exhaustion in a system ill equipped to deal with the mental health of its staff.

Finally, a book I didn't expect to enjoy:

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I picked this up in a rush to read on the flight. Snobbily, I tend to avoid anything recommended by any "book club" for reasons I would struggle to explain but I had heard a lot of people saying how much they enjoyed it. I opened it on the plane and was still staring at it as the bags came round on the carousel and finished it in one sitting. What an extraordinary book - brimming over with gentle detail and a wonderful tribute to the power of kindness. Reading back what I have written just now, I can see that it doesn't do the book any justice at all. It is an amazing piece of work.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Six String » 04 Jan 2019, 18:19

Rebecca is reading the Gail Honeyman book now.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Minnie the Minx » 04 Jan 2019, 21:59

Six String wrote:Rebecca is reading the Gail Honeyman book now.


I will be really interested to know what she thinks of it! It’s actually very ‘British’ in that a lot of the minor details are in the mundanity of everyday life and there are a lot of British brands and customs discussed so if you need a translator just holler!
You come at the Queen, you best not miss.

Dr Markus wrote:
Someone in your line of work usually as their own man cave aka the shed we're they can potter around fixing stuff or something don't they?


Flower wrote:I just did a google search.


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