I've read it twice; the first release and then the unabridged release which is 400 pages longer. CBS announced this year that it is making a 10 part mini-series of it.
Eddie
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I read Norse Mythology and enjoyed it so that's why I thought I'd give Circe a go and thought it was far better, I've now got very high hopes for Song of Achilles
I loved Circe, absolutely brilliant. Out of interest, had you read any Greek myths before? I grew up on them, the Odyssey etc., and I wondered if that was why I got so much out of Circe - seeing the other side of the story as it were. It’s so well written though, it stands on its own.
Not read Song of Achilles yet - I expect that will be interesting given some of the themes hinted at in The Iliad.
Not much to be honest, recognised most of the names but not really knowing the back stories I'm sure a lot of it went right over my head but it's such a good book on it's own it didn't lessen my enjoyment of it.
Think I enjoyed her writing style as much as the story, I'm sure she could make a shopping list sound interesting
Bring It On Home by Mark Blake. Bio of Peter Grant the Led Zeppelin manager. Some great stories of a time gone by...
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I love film noir and the associated books that produced it so I am reading an anthology, The Big Book of Pulps at the moment.
It's a mix of stories and authors of the '20s, '30s and '40s that featured in mags like Black Mask etc.
[QUOTE=misterzero;4992067]Just read The Drinker and Once A Jailbird by Hans Fallada.They are powerful bleak books .The author had a terrible life and wrote The drinker on scraps of paper in code whilst imprisoned in psychiatric hospital under the Nazis for trying to murder his wife under the influence of opium.
Just about to start on Alone in Berlin. I bought a copy months ago but haven’t had the time to make a start on it.
Harry's Last Stand - Harry Leslie Smith
Grim read, but sums up life in the pre-war slums, kids died of TB and other horrors, poverty hunger, and why we are heading back that way.
First Light - the autobiography of Geoffrey Wellum, left school in 1939 age 17 to join the RAF to train as a fighter pilot, an absolutely compelling story and a personal insight into the Battle of Britain.
I haven't read all 41 pages of this thread, it's a novel in itself. Apologies if this has been mentioned before.
I have just finished the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larson. My wife read them when they were first released and they have been on the book shelf ever since, I don't know why I hadn't picked one up even after watching the movie , The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
I've read them back to back and really enjoyed doing it that way. Great writing and translation, a shame he died so young and before he got recognition.
There are a couple more in the series by David Lagercrantz (?) who used the author’s notes to continue the story. Quite good but didn’t really enjoy them anywhere near as much as the original trilogy still worth a read. Also give Jussi Adler Olsen a go, very similar and a really good series
Song of Achilles was every bit as good as i hoped it would be, really enjoyed it so will give The Iliad and Odyssey a go once I've finished my current book
Laughing out loud at Michael Frayn's 'Skios'. Hilarious farce.
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Currently ripping through 'The Cartel' by Don Winslow, the second novel in his 'Cartel' trilogy (along-with 'The Power of the Dog' & 'The Border').
A brutal, thrilling, engaging account of the Mexican drug 'wars' spanning several decades.
What makes it special is the highly-researched way in which the author has woven in real-life events, persons & conspiracies - e.g. political assassinations, US support for the Contras, rumoured CIA assistance with drug-smuggling, Mexican Special Forces defection to form the 'Los Zetas' cartel - such that sometimes you have to sit-up and remind yourself this is more than just a novel of fiction.
The brutality is a bit hard to read, plots occasionally remind of other films/books, and sometimes the characterisations of Irish & Italian-American gangsters feels a bit forced compared to the main body of the books, but overall the series has been excellent so far.
Reading The Border now. Don Winslow is really a very good read.
I read these together (again after many years)
Marcus Aurelius - meditations
Epicteus - Enchiridion
The thoughts of two men; the first an emperor of ancient rome who was erudite and a thinker (and not a crazed self deifyng prat) and the second; a slave with a broken knee who rose above slavery to become a philosopher. Fascinating read if you fancy getting deep into the minds of two great men (in my view).
B
Just finished Blitzed - Norman Ohler, incredible well researched book on how the Nazi war machine ran on Methamphetamine. Hitler himself a junkie as many other Nazi leaders were. It puts a new spin on why, such disastrous decisions were made, by the Nazi leadership. The invasion of Russia for one. Up there with Antony Beevor for me!
Highly recommended
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Stalingrad - Antony Beevor
Long book and grim reading. This is why we should send our politicians and leaders into war first. A senseless waste of millions of lives, both military and civilian.
The secret life of Bletchley Park - Sinclair McKay
Interesting, if repetitive, book that was more about the people and the effects of what they were doing, decrypting messages, than the technical side of things.
I've been reading Ian Fleming's James Bond books this long weekend. I've managed Casino Royale and most of Live and Let Die so far.
I love a Kindle but not the prices on Amazon, which are at £4+ per book. Should you wish to download them for free from Canada, there is that option, although of course that may breach UK copyright, which should not be condoned.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. This was a good, in-depth read about a multimillion dollar fraudster (not of this parish).
Fear by Bob Woodward. Interesting read, which I suspect gets even more interesting as hindsight improves.
The Apprentice by Greg Miller. A Post reporter on the Russia angle, and a nice complement to the previous book.
Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer. Head copywriter at Random House. Some good stuff among the run-of-the-mill 'you should write like this, not like that' content.
If you're interested in the Nixon years, I recommend the following:
The Final Days by Bob Woodward
Nixon: A Life by Jonathan Aitken
31 Days by Barry Werth
Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall by Elizabeth Drew
Blind Ambition by John W. Dean
The Nixon Defense by John W. Dean
Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon by Fred Emery
Elizabeth Drew's book is especially interesting, as a contemporaneous account of the final year or so of the Nixon presidency.
Really interesting book about the evolution of FBI negotiating techniques from a guy at the sharp end. Excellent insight for anyone who engages in negotiation... so that makes all of us!
Just finished Ready Player 1.
What a great book, a joy to read from start to finish and totally different from the film ( which was good as well!)
I think it was the era it was based in, the pop culture references , the tech and the geek of it all.
Excellent book and now look forward to another by him.
On holiday this week so doing a fair bit of reading.
Just finished “How to be a Footballer” by Peter Crouch. Very funny but also shone a light on the less glamorous side of their lives. A constant roller coaster of massive highs followed by huge lows, especially for the younger, less established players. Well worth a read, even if you’re not necessarily a football fan. And Peter Crouch is a master of the deadpan.
I’m now a few chapters in to “A man called Ove”, a debut novel by Swedish author Fredrik Backman, and it’s shaping up nicely. I am already 100% convinced that Ove is a stalwart member of TZ UK.
Just finished "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914" by Christopher Clark. Hard going some of the time, loads of detailed information and insight; I really need to read it over again to get the best out of it. But it shows how a few extremists, in what seemed a localised dispute, set off a train of events that resulted in the Great War.
Just finished Robert Westall's 'the stones of muncaster cathedral' - two great wee supernatural novellas from the brilliant Tyneside author.
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Halfway through James ellroy's new book the storm and enjoying it .I think he is one the best "crime " writers out there .Although you have to get into his style of pared down sentences and racist swearing throughout .
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Legionnaire - Simon Murray, amazing account of a heart broken 19 year old who serves for 5 years in the French Foreign Legion. Incredible read!:eagerness:
Has anyone read any Nelson DeMille’s books??
Thoughts ?
Hi
Without going through the 40+ pages -
1. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (third reading as 'difficult')
2. The Forgotten Australians - Prank Hardy.
L-K
I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
Espionage/Jason Bourne/Bond with some great world building and no guarantees of who ends up alive.
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Vulcan 607
By Rowland White
Great story about the vulcan air raid during the Falklands.
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Have read quite a few books recently:
Iain M Banks: "Excession" and "The Hydrogen Sonata." Both excellent reads. Iain is sorely missed and has left a huge hole in British literature and in particular sci-fi.
Stephen Baxter : "Xeelee Vengeance" and "Xeelee Redemption." Great sense of wonder and awe with regards the technology, physics, science etc. Character development isn't really Baxter's forte, but he brings the sense of scale and wonder to sci-fi not seen since the old sci-fi of Clarke and Asimov. Really enjoyed them for their ideas as well as the aforementioned reasons.
Terry Pratchett : "Guards! Guards!" and "Men at Arms." Both good fun. Puts a smile on your face.
Some non Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes books. They were okay to very good. Best of the bunch was Anthony Horowitz's, "The House of Silk." Quite a shocking conclusion especially with regards all the recent stuff in the news over the past few years.
I am about to start the "Xeelee Omnibus" book. It is supposed to be harder and not a sort of summation of the series like "Vengeance" and "Redemption."
For anyone interested in what was 14 Int Sy, I have been reading books by the operators.
MRF Shadow Troop - Simon Cursey
The Operators - Inside 14 Int - James Rennie
One Up - A Woman in Action with the SAS - Sarah Ford
She Who Dared - Covert Operations in Northern Ireland with the SAS - Jackie George
All good books and recommended for anyone with an interest in plain clothes military in NI.
I have read a few good ones recently
Nelson George :To funk and die in LA .It's a crime novel based around music and part of a series .fun enjoyable reading
West of babylon by Ted Heller .novel about a band getting together for one last tour
James ellroy the storm .powerful novel with ellroy's trademark style of violence racism and swearing .it helps if you have read the previous novels in the series
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Blindness, by Jose Saramago
Wildlife Detective, by Alan Stewart
The Cow Book, by John Connell
Bring me the head of Sergio Garcia - Tom Cox. Laugh out loud funny, a must read for any golfer!:eagerness:
Read the Andaman Express by Lorne, really enjoyed it. Nice adventure tale, bit of intrigue and and load of engineering geekery behind it.
Just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Great novel about a new world order type future, well worth a read over a weekend!
Has anyone read "Ulysses" by James Joyce? My god what a difficult but interesting read. I have had to listen to the excellent audiobook on YouTube to make any sense of the section called "Proteus" even then I haven't got the majority of it 😲
Awaiting my new copy of ' As The Falcon Her Bells', by Phillip Glaisier.
I first/last read this book in the mid seventies, and it is an amazing story of falconry, his falcon use in Hollywood film and a short autobiography. Fascinating writing and totally engrossing.
Led by Donkeys
The only way that Brexit will be enjoyable is a read of this book. Fromage gets his comeuppance on more than one occasion. Laugh out loud funny, with plenty of images showing this groups guerilla tactics.
‘Twas the Night before Xmas - Adam Kay
An NHS junior doctor caring for maternity patents in a service that is being forked a little more each year. Readers should expect laugh out loud moments, tears of joy and tears of sadness.
Make the most of the service now before every hospital has the Trump logo over the front entrance, and you will need money to get a bed.