New now reading

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

Postby Deebank » 27 Jan 2019, 10:49

Darkness_Fish wrote:Image

Finally getting around to this, a year later than everyone else.


Made me feel very repressed and petit bourgeois :lol:
And if you have any great regard for Gen it might shift your axis a bit.
Despite her equivocating she does make him look like a total tool for much of the time and you really have to wonder why she put up with his nonsense for as long as she did - love is blind!
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Re: New now reading

Postby Snarfyguy » 27 Jan 2019, 18:40

caramba wrote:
Darkness_Fish wrote:
caramba wrote:Excellent book. If you like that pastiche-type novels, you should really give Charles Palliser's Quincunx a go. At about 800 pages it's not only big, but very clever and addictive

Sounds interesting, I've never heard of it, strangely. I hope it's not too clever (and smug about it, if you know what I mean), but it certainly sounds my kind of thing.


Well worth a read - very Charles Dickens. If you like FIngerpost, you should love it.

I like this kind of thing so I've bought a copy.

It had better be good. :x

Meanwhile,

Image

Image

20 pages in to the Barth, I'm completely hooked. My dad gave it to me for Christmas. I gather it's out of print; Amazon will "print-on-demand" if you can wait a few weeks - so Dad gave me his copy, a 40 year-old paperback and I've already torn the cover. :oops: Must source a different copy to read, pronto!
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Re: New now reading

Postby Darkness_Fish » 28 Jan 2019, 09:32

Deebank wrote:
Darkness_Fish wrote:Image

Finally getting around to this, a year later than everyone else.


Made me feel very repressed and petit bourgeois :lol:

The story of her early life mirrors mine quite a bit. Brought up in a northern town, struggled to get my naked pictures into the higher quality pornographic magazines. It's uncanny at times.
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 rorebhoy » 30 Jan 2019, 09:56

so far this year:

Image
Just how bad is that cover? Bit of an autobiog by numbers here - more endless wire than who's next

Image
The final part of Stuart Cosgrove's soul/human rights trilogy. Despite being a big Stax and Motown fan, I probably enjoyed this one the most. Lacking a huge music story to build the book around, he instead covers a lot of ground, in a lot of topics, to tell the story of 1969. While some pieces are left hanging, or seem to be shoe-horned in, it's a great read and like all good music books has you hunting down tunes

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End of Jan, but I think I've read my music book of the year. This is a beast of a book - hardback, 500 pages, weighs a ton. A collection of essays from the 2 remaining beastie boys told in their own voice, with pieces from others associated with them or their scene. While it's a great music book telling their story, and the guys describing their music, inspirations, general goofiness in life etc., it really stands out as a paean to Adam Yauch, and is a remarkable tribute to a friend. I'm gonna miss not reading it!

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Re: New now reading

Postby The North Yorks Moors » 30 Jan 2019, 11:05

Image

Some good stuff about Traffic and the Birmingham scene. Good have done with better proof reading and the chronology is a bit haphazard in places but enjoyable nonetheless. Dan Ropek's biography of Chris Wood is loads, loads better.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jock » 02 Feb 2019, 17:18

Right folks. Looking for recommendations. Good books. Not to heavy, on American Civil War and Vietnam. All recommendations appreciated
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jock » 02 Feb 2019, 17:21

While i'm here. Reading this nowImage
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 03 Feb 2019, 03:11

Snarfyguy wrote:
Image

20 pages in to the Barth, I'm completely hooked. My dad gave it to me for Christmas. I gather it's out of print; Amazon will "print-on-demand" if you can wait a few weeks - so Dad gave me his copy, a 40 year-old paperback and I've already torn the cover. :oops: Must source a different copy to read, pronto!


I did the audio version and it was a grand story. Good value too. Seventy some hours of listening for one credit.
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Re: New now reading

Postby KeithPratt » 03 Feb 2019, 07:59

Image

Probably the first Brexit novel. It's all very zeitgeist, what with bloggers and hidden identities, a tech company taking over a small fictional town, a Nigel Farage-esque political outsider, twitterstorms, data leaks and the like. Sam Byers is a confident and talented writer, but the problem I think is that this Brexit soup of Englishness he cooks up is very London. It has the whiff of metropolitan disdain about it - his characters are too one-dimensional and unfortunately entirely predictable. It's like Alan B'stard meets Martin Amis in a Burger King.

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Re: New now reading

Postby ` » 03 Feb 2019, 10:09

Jock wrote:Right folks. Looking for recommendations. Good books. Not to heavy, on American Civil War and Vietnam. All recommendations appreciated


Vietnam - am sure there are posters here - DD? Toby? our colonial cousins? - who are experts on the American Civil War, here are a couple of personal Vietnam faves


Michael Herr - Despatches (excellent on-the-ground reportage, the like of which we will never see again because no government would ever be mad or stupid enough to give writers as incisive as the late MH such freedom)

Neil Sheehan - A Bright Shining Lie (Pretty much the definitive book on how the US got sucked in to Vietnam and what happened when it did)

Geoffrey C Ward and Ken Burns The VIetnam War (The book of KB's superb TV series from last year. Excellent overview from all sides. If you've not seen it, the series is brilliant TV)

Robert A Caro - The Years of Lyndon Johnson Book Five

If previous volumes - essentially a history of US politics in the 20th Century - are anything to go by, the long overdue - fifth and apparently final - volume in Robert A Caro's magnificent biog of LBJ will investigate Vietnam in some depth.

Don't hold your breath, though.

Given that RAC's previous book mainly covering the six weeks after JFK's assassination ran to 736 pages, there's no telling when Vol 5 will come out. In the meantime, there's an excellent PBS serial on LBJ for anyone interested in his rise and how Vietnam essentially destroyed him and his presidency.

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Re: New now reading

Postby KeithPratt » 03 Feb 2019, 10:19

The new Max Hastings book on Vietnam is, by all accounts, very good.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jock » 03 Feb 2019, 10:28

Cheers, guys
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Re: New now reading

Postby Diamond Dog » 03 Feb 2019, 11:46

Jock wrote:Right folks. Looking for recommendations. Good books. Not to heavy, on American Civil War and Vietnam. All recommendations appreciated



I'm absolutely no expert... and this doesn't really fit into your request... but the Civil War tome is this :

Image

"The Civil War" boxset by Shelby Foote.

Yes it costs.... alot....but it's a lovely present for someone to buy for you..... it's a monumental read and simply tells you all you need to know in an unbiased and factual manner, and features absolutely beautiful & poignant commentary/writing.
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Re: New now reading

Postby KeithPratt » 03 Feb 2019, 11:50

On a fictional note, EL Doctorow's The March is an excellent American Civil War novel.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jimbo » 03 Feb 2019, 11:58

Image
Question authority.

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Re: New now reading

Postby Jock » 03 Feb 2019, 12:29

Diamond Dog wrote:
Jock wrote:Right folks. Looking for recommendations. Good books. Not to heavy, on American Civil War and Vietnam. All recommendations appreciated



I'm absolutely no expert... and this doesn't really fit into your request... but the Civil War tome is this :

Image

"The Civil War" boxset by Shelby Foote.

Yes it costs.... alot....but it's a lovely present for someone to buy for you..... it's a monumental read and simply tells you all you need to know in an unbiased and factual manner, and features absolutely beautiful & poignant commentary/writing.

Pete . Thanks for that. Had a quick look on a folder of ebooks i have and vol2 and 3 are on it. It's a start :-)
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Re: New now reading

Postby Diamond Dog » 03 Feb 2019, 12:32

You should be able to buy volume one separately John.... it really needs reading in the correct order.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jock » 03 Feb 2019, 12:36

Diamond Dog wrote:You should be able to buy volume one separately John.... it really needs reading in the correct order.

I was thinking that
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Re: New now reading

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 03 Feb 2019, 13:37

James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom lacks the majesty and sweep of Foote’s books, but if you don’t want to read three books ... you could do much worse.

There are others creeping around here who are far more learned in this stuff, so if they say there’s a better option, I defer to them.
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Re: New now reading

Postby Jock » 03 Feb 2019, 14:42

Still Baron wrote:James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom lacks the majesty and sweep of Foote’s books, but if you don’t want to read three books ... you could do much worse.

There are others creeping around here who are far more learned in this stuff, so if they say there’s a better option, I defer to them.

Cheers
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