Recommend a Book

Just finished re-reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Still my favourite novel.

Starting “The Invention of Russia: The Journey from Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War” by Arkady Ostrovsky.
 
DB74 said:
Just finished The Boys In The Boat and Unbroken. Loved both. Any other similar recommendations Firefly? There's something about that period of time in the USA between 1925 - 1939 that is fascinating for some reason.
Click to expand...

I have a book called The Book Thief sitting pretty on my bookcase that's meant to be good but haven't gotten round to reading it yet. If you like that time-period in the USA how about "One Summer: America, 1927" by Bill Bryson maybe? I've read his books on Shakespeare and At Home and both were very good.

Still reading "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and it's very good but heavy going - almost like a psychology course! It has so far dealt with what the author calls System1 and System2 thinking - the former being how you can answer 1+1 without much effort, but 14x27 uses the latter. It looks at how System1 thinking will make sense of most things and that lazy System2 goes along with it most of the time. It's quite interesting really and I can see parallels with how lots of people are for Trump and his wall across Mexico!
 
The Book Thief is definitely worth reading - don't just use it as intellectual decoration!!
 
Being Alexander I loved....must admit I do know the author but recommended to enough people who also liked it.

Bought Cecilia Ahern Marble Collector. Lot of rubbish
 
I've started The Book Thief twice now but can never get into it at all, maybe it's the style of writing

Just finished The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling (her first adult novel). Brilliant book, couldn't put it down.
 
DB74 said:
Just finished The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling (her first adult novel). Brilliant book, couldn't put it down.
Click to expand...
Is it very similar to a Tolkien book or did she actually make this one up herself?
 
Last edited:
DB74 said:
I've started The Book Thief twice now but can never get into it at all, maybe it's the style of writing

Just finished The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling (her first adult novel). Brilliant book, couldn't put it down.
Click to expand...


Snap! I laboured my way through The Casual Vacancy but couldn't get past half of the book - didn't like it at all! That's the great thing about choice!
 
My summer read was Hopscotch - a Memoir by Hillary Fannin. beautifully observed childhood in the 60s/70s Ireland.
 
I'm not a big book reader, but one that I really enjoyed was Entry Island by Peter May.

Also just finished Extraordinary People by same author - 1st of a trilogy and planning to get the other 2 now.

Reginald Hill's The Woodcutter is one other that is difficult to put down.
 
Last edited:
Just finished reading Mr. stink by David Walliams to my youngest daughter. I was balling my eyes out at the end. One of the best books I've read in ages! The man has an utterly beautiful mind.
 
Tom Holland's history books. I have read Persian fire and Rubicon, am looking forward to Scourge of fire and Millennium.
 
Purple said:
Firefly, no new books in nearly a month... Is everything ok?
Click to expand...

It's TV season in our place at the moment! Still working through Thinking, Fast and Slow. It's very good but you need to be in the "learning" mood for it!
 
Firefly (& other people too I suppose ), just finished The Death's Head Chess Club by John Donoghue. Got it for Christmas and finished it already so it's a real page-turner. WW2-based, it's about a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz who was forced to play chess against Nazi guards. He then meets one of the guards at a chess tournament in Amsterdam in 1962 and the story moves between the 2 periods. Well worth getting anyway.

Going to start The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George now so I'll post up my thoughts on that soon.
 
I've been to Spain several times this year and on each Ryanair flight I came across people reading "I Am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes.

So, I bought the book. All the women characters have well endowed beautiful bodies, wear the highest of high heels, walk in painted on miniskirts, legs up to their armpits, each one God's Gift to hetrosexual men. Most characters although stinking rich and know the US President are as shallow as a puddle in a hot July. The men are good and evil as required. Terrorists are formed, anti terrorists fight back, the Twin Towers attacks feature. Every country in the Middle East is visited along with Afghanistan, Pakistan, USA, Britain and Italy. Throw in a few executions, small pox plot to ruin the world, the religion of love and blatant terrorism.

It is nearly 900 pages of rubbish. It's fast moving and attracts you always to the next page never mind the next chapter, even believable, well written and I loved it. Pure escapism.
 

Sounds good to me
 

You did well to get all that from the text in a book... is there a movie version of this???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register