Anyone read any good books recently ?

[pacifichrono]

Can't recommend...

I just finished James Patterson's The Russian. Was disappointed with the plot and action, plus the ending just kind of fizzled out with a whimper. Not terrible, but not an urgent page-turner, either.

[Taxboy]

For WWII non fiction. I've just finished Burma 1944 by James Holland, which moves along at a cracking pace. Certainly filled a gap in this less well known aspect of the war in the Far East.

Also by James Holland Fortress Malta looks at the seige from the perspective of civilians as well as all branches of the forces / merchant navy. Written with a strong focus on how the conflict impacted on individuals rather than a detailed technical analysis. To put things in perspective Malta (about the size of the Isle of Wight) was bombed more than all of Britain during the first year of the blitz


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[Harry Smith]

I've got a load of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe up to Sharpe's Tiger if anyone wants to do a swap for anything. I prefer Sci-fi. I would be interested in The Expanse series for example. However if anyone wants the Sharpe books just pay me the postage as there are quite a few of them lol.
Most of them are paperback btw

[eagletower]

A third of the way through this , and this is excellent .

[Templogin]

The Man in the Tent - My Life Under Canvas - The First Four Years.
Tony Beardsall

Lose your job, your wife and your house. Realise the rat race may not be for you.

One Long Night concentration camp history book was hard going, so I stopped at 90 pages, intending to pck it up later, read stuff on the internet and came across The Man in the Tent.

What a fantastic book. Tony finds himself living in a grotty flat, drunk every night and decides that he needs to change his life. He buys a tent and goes camping and walking instead of sitting in front of the TV every night. Paul and Sue offer him a place to stay and he uses that as a base to go camping from. Gradually his trips get longer, until he is doing it full time. I am not doing the story justice here. It really has to be read. My book arrived in the post at 6pm, and by 1am I had read it cover to cover. It certainly reinforced the perspective that those who live unusual existences have more fulfilled lives, with less possesions than the 9-5 office workers with their commuting slog at each end of the day.

Rather then let books gather dust on my bookshelf I give them away free of charge once read. If you would like to be the next person to read this book then leave a note of interest in the thread, then PM me your details so that I can put the book in the post to you. UK only please due to postage costs.

Next on the reading list is:

How to be a Brit
George Miles
Kindle eBook

[snowman]

Been reading mostly Bosch, Reacher, Milton, Hope and Orphan X novels recently, but I always have a non-fiction book on the go on my Kindle app, too.

The current one is "Written In Bone" by Sue Hill, who is a Forensic Anthropologist (I think I got that right) - The book talks about the skeleton (part by part - Head, limbs, hands, torso, etc), how it develops and how it can tell an expert things about the person it was, where they lived, their background, their identity.

It might sound a bit gruesome, but she does it with some humour (although not excessively or dark) and even when describing some harrowing crimes, she manages to do so in a way that I (at least) didn't find sensational and her sense of professional detachment is communicated well to the reader.

A very interesting read.

M

[Go Big]

The Man in the Tent - My Life Under Canvas - The First Four Years.
Tony Beardsall

Lose your job, your wife and your house. Realise the rat race may not be for you.

One Long Night concentration camp history book was hard going, so I stopped at 90 pages, intending to pck it up later, read stuff on the internet and came across The Man in the Tent.

What a fantastic book. Tony finds himself living in a grotty flat, drunk every night and decides that he needs to change his life. He buys a tent and goes camping and walking instead of sitting in front of the TV every night. Paul and Sue offer him a place to stay and he uses that as a base to go camping from. Gradually his trips get longer, until he is doing it full time. I am not doing the story justice here. It really has to be read. My book arrived in the post at 6pm, and by 1am I had read it cover to cover. It certainly reinforced the perspective that those who live unusual existences have more fulfilled lives, with less possesions than the 9-5 office workers with their commuting slog at each end of the day.

Rather then let books gather dust on my bookshelf I give them away free of charge once read. If you would like to be the next person to read this book then leave a note of interest in the thread, then PM me your details so that I can put the book in the post to you. UK only please due to postage costs.

Next on the reading list is:

How to be a Brit
George Miles
Kindle eBook

I'd like this if still available please.

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[Templogin]

It’s yours. PM me your postal address and I will get it in the post to you in the week.

[Go Big]

PM'd

Thank you.

[dkpw]

I've just finished and enjoyed "Depth Charge" by Jason Heaton. If some of you recognise the name, he's a watch journalist and has written about diving.

The book is an exciting adventure and features plenty of watch references. The main character sports one of these interesting creatures.

[whatmeworry]

Currently reading (belatedly it must be said), Helter Skelter. So far it seems to deserve its rep as one of the best true crime books.


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[Tatters]

I recently read "Erebus: The Story of a Ship" by Michael Palin, which documents the evidence for the ill-fated Franklin expedition to find the North West Passage, as well as the earlier history of the "Erebus". If you enjoyed the recent BBC drama "The Terror", then Palin's book is the real story, as far as we can tell.

[Jubal]

The Martian - Andy Weir

Just read it. It doesn't matter if you aren't particularly a fan of sci-fi.
I could not put it down,and if the planned film is anything like the book it will be a spectacular film.

I have just read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. More unputdownable stuff. It read like a cross between Children of Time and The Martian. But you’ll see why I thought that. Lighter stuff than Adrian Tchaikovsky and heavy on science / biology / engineering but I loved all that. I have no clue if it’s accurate but I’ll bet it is! A return to form for Andy IMO.

[greenandblack]

Thought I'd share a plug for my friend's mum's book - it is a crazy true story following her divorce about a whirlwind romance with a conman who ended up stealing everything from her. Every time she got suspicious the lies became bigger and bigger to insane levels. Some bits sound unbelievable, but I think when you trust someone and they're lying to you to quite that extent it's hard to take a step back and recognise what's happening.

The police were useless, it was only after she went public (against police advice, but frustrated by a year of inaction) that a European warrant was issued but by then he'd finished a term in a Spanish prison and bolted. So this is one way she's trying to recover some of money.

TZ might not be the target audience so possibly more for the wags - though the title really doesn't encourage it being given as a gift to your other half!!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Ps.../dp/B082BKLCYT

[Chicken Pox]

Just thought I'd drop this in here in case anyone missed it:
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...highlight=book

Will do an update on my recent reads but to be honest most are from you guys suggestions, been some top books that I wouldn't have known about- so thanks anyway.

[Go Big]

The Man in the Tent - My Life Under Canvas - The First Four Years.
Tony Beardsall

Lose your job, your wife and your house. Realise the rat race may not be for you.

One Long Night concentration camp history book was hard going, so I stopped at 90 pages, intending to pck it up later, read stuff on the internet and came across The Man in the Tent.

What a fantastic book. Tony finds himself living in a grotty flat, drunk every night and decides that he needs to change his life. He buys a tent and goes camping and walking instead of sitting in front of the TV every night. Paul and Sue offer him a place to stay and he uses that as a base to go camping from. Gradually his trips get longer, until he is doing it full time. I am not doing the story justice here. It really has to be read. My book arrived in the post at 6pm, and by 1am I had read it cover to cover. It certainly reinforced the perspective that those who live unusual existences have more fulfilled lives, with less possesions than the 9-5 office workers with their commuting slog at each end of the day.

Rather then let books gather dust on my bookshelf I give them away free of charge once read. If you would like to be the next person to read this book then leave a note of interest in the thread, then PM me your details so that I can put the book in the post to you. UK only please due to postage costs.

Next on the reading list is:

How to be a Brit
George Miles
Kindle eBook

I was kindly sent the book and have just finished it. It's a great read.

If anyone would like to read it, I will post it on. Just PM me your details.

[gerrudd]

Roger Moore's The 007 Diaries: Filming Live and Let Die a fun read from a very different time. Some great anecdotes, some that you couldn't imagine a modern actor sharing.

[Linocut]

Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro, an Artificial Friend wants to save her "owner" from serious illness...The Dirty South, John Connelly, Charlie Parker prequel that that hints at the supernatural content of the later books, Blacktop Wasteland, not finished it yet but a real page turner about a one-last-job getaway driver in Florida.

[Templogin]

The Man in the Tent - My Life Under Canvas - Getting Started in Spain.
Tony Beardsall

Lose your job, your wife and your house. Realise the rat race may not be for you was the premise of Tony's first book. This is the second in the series.

Tony's daughter is in Spain teaching English, and he likes the idea of a better climate than the one in England that he left behind. He falls in with a wealthy family who pay him a monthly stipend. He oversees the old man looking after the goats and sets about bringing a property up to a better standard in the hope that the family can attract one of their offspring back to the fold. With few outgoings and moderate incomings Tony seems to be finding a life more fulfilling than most of us. Another good book, but with considerably less camping and hardship than the last in the series, but worth a read nonetheless.

Rather then let books gather dust on my bookshelf I give them away free of charge once read. This one has already been claimed by one of the forum, who read the first in the series and enjoyed it.

Next on the reading list is continuing with:

How to be a Brit
George Miles
Kindle eBook

[pacifichrono]

I'm half way through John Sandford's new bestseller, Ocean Prey. Excellent, which is par for the course for Sandford!

[williemays]

Not a book, but this 1925 hardboiled crime story by Dashiell Hammett is excellent:

The Gutting of Couffignal
https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2021/...ouffignal.html

It is moody, surreal, sexy, and funny.

[whatmeworry]

Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro, an Artificial Friend wants to save her "owner" from serious illness...The Dirty South, John Connelly, Charlie Parker prequel that that hints at the supernatural content of the later books, Blacktop Wasteland, not finished it yet but a real page turner about a one-last-job getaway driver in Florida.

I really loved Blacktop Wasteland.


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[gerrudd]

Not a book, but this 1925 hardboiled crime story by Dashiell Hammett is excellent:

The Gutting of Couffignal
https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2021/...ouffignal.html

It is moody, surreal, sexy, and funny.

Great recommendation. I've read a fair bit of Chandler but no Hammett. I added this to my Kindle (wife's really) and read 10 pages over breakfast.

[Neil.C]

Not a book, but this 1925 hardboiled crime story by Dashiell Hammett is excellent:

The Gutting of Couffignal
https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2021/...ouffignal.html

It is moody, surreal, sexy, and funny.

Brilliant.

I am a massive pulp fan and have many of the Black Mask reprints.

Hammett and Chandler are superb. Also love Cornell Woolrich, James M.Cain and many others.

[whatmeworry]

Recently finished:
The Girls by Emma Cline - coming of age tale mixed with a fictionalised account of the Sharon Tate murder. Beautifully written but lacking in impact given the subject matter. I can’t help feeling she left out the most interesting things about the whole horrible incident.
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn - the first of the Bridgerton books. Just as fun and frothy as the Netflix show.
Death in the Dordogne (aka Bruno, Chief of Police) by Martin Walker - richly atmospheric but not very tense mystery set in rural France.
The Offing by Benjamin Myers - wonderful period piece set in post-war Yorkshire with a beautiful depiction of the English countryside, a moving story and a lot of say about class in the modern age.

Now reading: Six-Gun Samurai by Patrick Lee - a very enjoyable 80s pulp about a Samurai in the Wild West. Sex, violence and cool Ninja stuff aplenty.


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[Linocut]

I really loved Blacktop Wasteland.


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I finished it late last night, really enjoyed it. I see the author has another out in July.

[whatmeworry]

I finished it late last night, really enjoyed it. I see the author has another out in July.

Yep. I think the film rights for Blacktop Wasteland have been sold as well


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[halfpasttwothirty]

Notes From A Dead House - Fyodor Dostoevsky

[williemays]

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz. This is fiction from 1938 about a Jewish businessman trapped in Nazi Germany. Similar to dark, psychological suspense novels of the same period by Hans Fallada and Hans Keilson. Boschwitz wrote The Passenger when he was 23. He was killed a few years later when his transport ship was torpedoed.

[misterzero]

Iam re-reading some favourite russian novels ,
Dostoyevsky :Notes from underground
Gogol :Diary of a madman
Bulgakov :The master and the margarita
And something more modern and leftfield
Venedikt Erofeev :Moscow to the end of the line about a alcoholic on a railway journey and dreaming of cocktails made of polish and glue etc


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[Eoin]

I am finishing up "Fellside" which was recommended here; I'll definitely be reading more from the author.

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz. This is fiction from 1938 about a Jewish businessman trapped in Nazi Germany. Similar to dark, psychological suspense novels of the same period by Hans Fallada and Hans Keilson. Boschwitz wrote The Passenger when he was 23. He was killed a few years later when his transport ship was torpedoed.

Added to my list - you might like "Alone in Berlin" if the era and location interest you (it's not really a psychological story though).

[misterzero]

Iam a big fan of Hans fallada his books are very bleak but powerful .

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[williemays]

Iam re-reading some favourite russian novels ,
Dostoyevsky :Notes from underground
Gogol :Diary of a madman
Bulgakov :The master and the margarita
And something more modern and leftfield
Venedikt Erofeev :Moscow to the end of the line about a alcoholic on a railway journey and dreaming of cocktails made of polish and glue etc


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These sounds good. I read The Overcoat by Gogol for the first time recently. Have you seen the new book by George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life?

[williemays]

I am finishing up "Fellside" which was recommended here; I'll definitely be reading more from the author.



Added to my list - you might like "Alone in Berlin" if the era and location interest you (it's not really a psychological story though).

I read Every Man Dies Alone years ago, but had not heard about the movie. I will try to watch that. Thanks!

[Eoin]

I read Every Man Dies Alone years ago, but had not heard about the movie. I will try to watch that. Thanks!

I hadn't remembered the author's name, so I didn't realise I was recommending a book by the same author you'd just referenced!

[jeepie]

I read Shuggy Bain.

Some of the booker prize winners I’ve read have been something that required real commitment to get through.

This on the other hand was an incredible read. I can’t say I enjoyed it (as the themes are very sad) but I found it a brilliant book and very captivating. Definitely right up there with the best.

[MrLion]

Elmore Leonard was a great author... From gritty westerns (which he wrote in the 50s/60s) to modern crime/thrillers... Known as the Dickens of Detroit, great dialogue and many books made into movies... Like Jackie Brown, a Tarantino special

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[Harry Smith]

Halfway through The War Lord by Bernard Cornwell. Love the Uhtred of Bebbanburg series and this doesn't disappoint. I wish I didn't read so fast.

[OldHooky]

I’’d second Shuggie Bain

I’’ve also reread 1984 and Brave New World. Many aspects of both that are worryingly evident in the world today.

[Linocut]

I've just read "Utopia Avenue" by David Mitchell, took me a little while to "buy in" but I really enjoyed it, a sixties rock group on the rise, lots of clever references to the likes of David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix, but what really kept me reading was the story of the guitarists psychosis, I began to understand a little of what it is.

Currently reading "London, burning" by Anthony Quinn, the seventies... IRA, Met corruption, Unions, really interesting, i was in my teens then and looking back as an adult I have a very different perspective from the one I had then.

[wildheart]

Abbadons Gate - James SA Corey, book 3 in the Expanse saga. Great read... love the story telling. Already well into book four!

[jeepie]

Just read the Nothing Man by Eve Black. Highly recommended! Compulsively read it.

[williemays]

After seeing this Guardian article about Frederick Augustus Voigt, I started his First World War memoir, Combed Out, from 1920. The full text is available online for free at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16355 and https://archive.org/details/combedout00voiguoft. Voight was a conscript in the British Army on the Western Front, and his book is based on his diaries and letters home. This is some of the most remarkable nonfiction war writing that I have ever read.

[number2]

Just finished "Berlin Noir".
A complex detective novel set amidst WW2 Germany.

[gerrudd]

Just finished "Berlin Noir".
A complex detective novel set amidst WW2 Germany.

It’s a cracking read. Sone of the sequels are good, but not as good as the original trilogy.

[whatmeworry]

Just finished "Berlin Noir".
A complex detective novel set amidst WW2 Germany.

Been meaning to read those for years. I must get to them.

I’ve been continuing my read through of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct books. Up to number 49 now and still loving them.


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[Jubal]

Just read the Nothing Man by Eve Black. Highly recommended! Compulsively read it.

It’s a good easy read agreed. But it’s by Catherine Ryan Howard. Eve is the character.

[Linocut]

The Godmother. Utter crap.


Just starting a biography of Thomas Cromwell


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[whatmeworry]

Now reading Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby. Fantastic so far, just as good as Blacktop Wasteland


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[jeepie]

Now reading Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby. Fantastic so far, just as good as Blacktop Wasteland


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Really loved blacktop wasteland so will pick this up.