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Re: New now reading

Posted: 27 Aug 2019, 13:05
by Diamond Dog
Diamond Dog wrote:Image

Arrived fresh today - looks to be a fantastic release.


I'm about two thirds through this - my, what a book!! Absolutely astonishing insight into the Irish Republican cause... the individuals within the movement....the disagreements and changes of policy... the interaction with the UK Government. Everything. It's an incredible read.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 27 Aug 2019, 21:54
by rorebhoy
Diamond Dog wrote:
Diamond Dog wrote:Image

Arrived fresh today - looks to be a fantastic release.


I'm about two thirds through this - my, what a book!! Absolutely astonishing insight into the Irish Republican cause... the individuals within the movement....the disagreements and changes of policy... the interaction with the UK Government. Everything. It's an incredible read.


That sounds really good. Have you read many other books about the troubles or those from the Republican standpoint? If so, how does it compare? Being American, does he have a more dispassionate take on the time?

Re: New now reading

Posted: 28 Aug 2019, 02:16
by Minnie the Minx
Been getting through quite a few. Finished this:

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It took an age. I did enjoy it, but the attention to detail flitted between being thrilling and exhausting. The less interested I was in a character, the more I tuned out.

Then I read this:

Image

Which was completely wonderful. I made a happy noise every time I opened it. It felt like a multi course astonishing meal where you keep getting something else just to see how much better food can get.

Then this:

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Easily one of the best books I have ever read. The hapless accounts of how ill equipped the author is for the journey ahead are laugh out loud material. I urge you all to seek it out, and then call in sick and read it in a day. It's worth it.

What I am "now" reading is Michael Palin's Python diaries, a book I started reading a few years ago then stopped for some reason I can't imagine. It's just as great as I remembered. Now if you'll excuse me I must get back to it.

Actually, also reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which is enjoyable, but I can't quite sink into yet.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 29 Aug 2019, 19:27
by Diamond Dog
rorebhoy wrote:
Diamond Dog wrote:
Diamond Dog wrote:Image

Arrived fresh today - looks to be a fantastic release.


I'm about two thirds through this - my, what a book!! Absolutely astonishing insight into the Irish Republican cause... the individuals within the movement....the disagreements and changes of policy... the interaction with the UK Government. Everything. It's an incredible read.


That sounds really good. Have you read many other books about the troubles or those from the Republican standpoint? If so, how does it compare? Being American, does he have a more dispassionate take on the time?


Yes I have but this blows the top off of the IRA/Sinn Fein and some of the principal characters within the organisation - Gerry Adams, Bernard Hughes and the Price sisters (Dolours & Marian) to name a few heavyweights. It also goes into very deep personal detail about the actual involvement of those (and others) in actual operations and how they lived their life whilst being hounded by the RUC and Army. There's some absolute amazing information regarding the double/triple agents within the IRA and how they managed to stay undetected for so long. Also... whilst being highly cynical re Adams and his protestations of innocence, it also alludes to how he really was the guy that had the vision to bring peace (much as that may stick in peoples craws) from quite some time back.

Yes the author is, I think, absolutely clinical about the motives and actions of all individuals/organisations and tells the facts without bias.

It really was the most gripping book I've read in quite some time. It was revelatory in places you did and didn't expect it to be, and chilling in others (the detail around The Disappeared is utterly frightening. And the part that the British Govt paid in turning a blind eye to known murders and atrocities is equally so ). It also has a great deal of compassion too. A stunning read.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 29 Aug 2019, 19:40
by Jumper K
Don Winslow - The Border. Last part of the trilogy starting with Power of the Dog, then The Cartel. I'm not one for fiction but there is something about Winslow that draws me in. This book is thinly veiled critique of US foreign policy and the corrupt nature of government, both sides of the border, and focusses on the present administration in the run up to the election victory and after. Names have been changed.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 29 Aug 2019, 20:55
by Darkness_Fish
Image

Re: New now reading

Posted: 30 Aug 2019, 21:36
by rorebhoy
Diamond Dog wrote:
Yes I have but this blows the top off of the IRA/Sinn Fein and some of the principal characters within the organisation - Gerry Adams, Bernard Hughes and the Price sisters (Dolours & Marian) to name a few heavyweights. It also goes into very deep personal detail about the actual involvement of those (and others) in actual operations and how they lived their life whilst being hounded by the RUC and Army. There's some absolute amazing information regarding the double/triple agents within the IRA and how they managed to stay undetected for so long. Also... whilst being highly cynical re Adams and his protestations of innocence, it also alludes to how he really was the guy that had the vision to bring peace (much as that may stick in peoples craws) from quite some time back.

Yes the author is, I think, absolutely clinical about the motives and actions of all individuals/organisations and tells the facts without bias.

It really was the most gripping book I've read in quite some time. It was revelatory in places you did and didn't expect it to be, and chilling in others (the detail around The Disappeared is utterly frightening. And the part that the British Govt paid in turning a blind eye to known murders and atrocities is equally so ). It also has a great deal of compassion too. A stunning read.


Cheers DD!

Re: New now reading

Posted: 01 Sep 2019, 09:48
by Diamond Dog
^^^^

Pleasure! Only hope it doesn't disappoint now :)

Re: New now reading

Posted: 01 Sep 2019, 09:49
by Diamond Dog
"Legacy: Gangsters, Corruption and the London Olympics" by Michael Gillard.
The title says it all...but the undercurrent of intimidation against the author (both through the real life 'underground' and legally via the courts) is what really sets this book apart.

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Re: New now reading

Posted: 17 Sep 2019, 19:42
by Minnie the Minx
I read Mao II by Don DeLillo in a few hours the other day and I’ve already forgotten it. I accept that it was interesting and I understood why people would really enjoy it, but the weighty tone of all the conversations that were really just DeLillo’s thoughts removed any realism that I needed to really get into it.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 18 Sep 2019, 19:55
by Snarfyguy
Image

It says here this is the first of the John Rebus books. I'm definitely reading them out of order, but as with most detective series it doesn't really seem to matter. Like the James Bond or Travis McGee books, they don't build incrementally on one another.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 18 Sep 2019, 21:41
by Darkness_Fish
Snarfyguy wrote:Image

It says here this is the first of the John Rebus books. I'm definitely reading them out of order, but as with most detective series it doesn't really seem to matter. Like the James Bond or Travis McGee books, they don't build incrementally on one another.

To some extent it doesn't matter, but Rebus does age in real time over the series. And those first handful of books aren't in the same league as his peak years (roughly Mortal Causes to Fleshmarket Close).

Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 02:21
by Snarfyguy
Darkness_Fish wrote:
Snarfyguy wrote:Image

It says here this is the first of the John Rebus books. I'm definitely reading them out of order, but as with most detective series it doesn't really seem to matter. Like the James Bond or Travis McGee books, they don't build incrementally on one another.

To some extent it doesn't matter, but Rebus does age in real time over the series. And those first handful of books aren't in the same league as his peak years (roughly Mortal Causes to Fleshmarket Close).

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out. I usually just pick them up used at flea markets &c. when I see them.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 08:37
by Diamond Dog
Just finished Jack Repcheck's "The Man Who Found Time : James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity".

A really incisive exploration of the life of James Hutton who, through geological study, was the first to question The Bible's view that earth was only 6000 years old and was eventually proven to be correct. His theory that geology was a constant cycle of creation and destruction was virtually heretical at the time, hence why his writings were largely ignored for the best part of a century.

It's also an interesting insight into the Scottish Enlightenment too.

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Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 08:40
by Diamond Dog
And now onto this.... Eliot Asinof "Eight Men Out".

The book that really blew the full unmitigated detail around the Chicago White Sox (forever known known now as the Black Sox) who - via 8 players 'bought' by gangsters- threw baseball's 1919 World Series.

I've read it before but just fancied it again.... only cost just under £3 and it's a second edition from 1963 in great condition, which is nice :D

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Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 08:48
by Jimbly
Diamond Dog wrote:And now onto this.... Eliot Asinof "Eight Men Out".

The book that really blew the full unmitigated detail around the Chicago White Sox (forever known known now as the Black Sox) who - via 8 players 'bought' by gangsters- threw baseball's 1919 World Series.

I've read it before but just fancied it again.... only cost just under £3 and it's a second edition from 1963 in great condition, which is nice :D

Image



The movie is very good.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 08:48
by Jimbly
Diamond Dog wrote:And now onto this.... Eliot Asinof "Eight Men Out".

The book that really blew the full unmitigated detail around the Chicago White Sox (forever known known now as the Black Sox) who - via 8 players 'bought' by gangsters- threw baseball's 1919 World Series.

I've read it before but just fancied it again.... only cost just under £3 and it's a second edition from 1963 in great condition, which is nice :D

Image



The movie is very good.

Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 08:54
by `
Jeemo wrote:
Diamond Dog wrote:And now onto this.... Eliot Asinof "Eight Men Out".

The book that really blew the full unmitigated detail around the Chicago White Sox (forever known known now as the Black Sox) who - via 8 players 'bought' by gangsters- threw baseball's 1919 World Series.

I've read it before but just fancied it again.... only cost just under £3 and it's a second edition from 1963 in great condition, which is nice :D

Image



The movie is very good.



The Murray Head song inspired by the little boy who went up to Shoeless Joe not long after is none too shabby either



Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 10:06
by Jimbly
Powehi wrote:
Jeemo wrote:
Diamond Dog wrote:And now onto this.... Eliot Asinof "Eight Men Out".

The book that really blew the full unmitigated detail around the Chicago White Sox (forever known known now as the Black Sox) who - via 8 players 'bought' by gangsters- threw baseball's 1919 World Series.

I've read it before but just fancied it again.... only cost just under £3 and it's a second edition from 1963 in great condition, which is nice :D

Image



The movie is very good.



The Murray Head song inspired by the little boy who went up to Shoeless Joe not long after is none too shabby either




and also Shoeless Joe makes an appearance in Field of Dreams

Re: New now reading

Posted: 19 Sep 2019, 11:20
by Diamond Dog
Jeemo wrote:
Powehi wrote:
Jeemo wrote:

The movie is very good.



The Murray Head song inspired by the little boy who went up to Shoeless Joe not long after is none too shabby either




and also Shoeless Joe makes an appearance in Field of Dreams


The eight baseball players are the Eight Men Out.