The Book Thread

Haych

I've just finished this one, which I quite enjoyed:



And I'm now reading this one, which I am also enjoying:

kaypeejay

ennspek said:

Dead Lions - Mick Herron. Second of the Slough House series. More MI5 shenanigans, thoroughly enjoyable.

I read the first one but not got around to that one. I’ll add it to my list ta. 

ThePrettyDamned

I'm starting the prince of thorns tonight. Hope it's good, been a while since I read (last was Jews don't count. That one needs to go into the curriculum I reckon).

Philly_Q

The Leviathan - Rosie Andrews. 

I picked this up because the cover and the title caught my eye, turns out it's a historical novel set during the English Civil War, and getting into Witchfinder General territory.... which is all very promising, although nothing much has happened yet.

RocknRollDave

Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara.

Very odd to think I watched this on TV….in 1978

boogieman

I just finished The Hail Mary Project, thought it was excellent. 

Just started on The Spitfire Kids by Alasdair Cross, a history of the plane ranging through stories from the designers, the aircraft factory workers and the pilots that flew the planes in WW2. Bit of an impulse buy, as I liked the cover when I spotted it in a bookshop. 

RocknRollDave

Read these recently:

Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne. Surprisingly witty in places. 

Run Rose Run - Dolly Parton & James Patterson. Enjoyed this a lot. Laugh, if you will.


Currently ready Bob Mortimer - And Away… Quite melancholic so far. 

DonnyMac

Having never read Charles Dickens, I thought I'd give David Copperfield a go. Really enjoying it so far.

ennspek

Dickens is great.

Blueingreen

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.  Some of the early blueprint for chick-lit is here but it's a much better book than that suggests.  Good-looking, intelligent but scatty American woman in her early 20s spends a couple of years in Paris through the generosity of a rich uncle, trying to break into the bohemian arts/theatre/film scene. Very readable light comic satire. Not much of a plot but great main character and voice.  A surprising amount of sex for a book published in 1958.  Warmly recommended if it sounds like your thing.  Private Eye accused Jilly Cooper of plagiarising it in her first two novels and eventually she admitted she had, but claimed it wasn't deliberate.

Kittyfrisk

I just reread David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green'.
That story isn't perfect, but it viscerally, magically, evokes the many feelings & situations that I experienced as a 14 year old boy, like nothing else I have read. 
Read it. Immediately 

RocknRollDave

Finished Bob Mortimer’s memoir - pretty good - and now on to Mark Billingham’s most recent paperback. Have read all his others, not a single dud.

Grunfeld

A bit niche but this book came out the other day and it ticks two of my interests:  pseudoscience, and therapy.

Stephen Hupp, and Cara Santa Maria, Pseudoscience In Therapy

It's okay -- not quite as good as I was hoping for because there's a fair bit of material being re-used throughout the book.  So you'll have e.g. sections on issues people go to therapists for like depression, anxiety, compulsion etc. and if a therapy like homeopathy or acupuncture is being used for each of those then the section on the therapy is more or less cut and pasted for the different problems. 

The first chapter by Cara Santa Maria is very good though.  It's an interesting analysis of the distinctive features of research and evidence in clinical psychology and why it can't have the same methodology as research in other areas, such as medicine and pharmaceutical research. 

froglord

Kittyfrisk said:

I just reread David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green'.
That story isn't perfect, but it viscerally, magically, evokes the many feelings & situations that I experienced as a 14 year old boy, like nothing else I have read. 
Read it. Immediately 

Exactly this. He remembers my childhood better than I do.

CharlieShaw

Currently reading Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. A kind of literary horror. Recently read Third Season and Obelisk Gate by N K Jemisin and Clash of Kings, second Song of Ice and Fire novel. Also read Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Had a bit of a fantasy binge.

Offset

boogieman said:

The Different Seasons anthology by SK is excellent, it includes Shawshank Redemption and The Body (filmed as Stand By Me) which are both superb. For me SK is always better in non-horror mode as he’s just so damn brilliant at characterisation. Some of his horror/ fantasy books are good of course, but he does seem to write two shite ones for every good’un lately. I really liked the concept of his “11/22/63” and the sort of time travel dilemmas it throws up. Doctor Sleep (sequel to The Shining) is very good too. 

11/22/63 is totally brilliant.  It drew me in and kept me gripped.  I read it in two days whilst on holiday and the story stayed with me for some time after I'd finished it.  I'll freely admit I cried several times whilst reading it too.

The Stand is an awesome book.  I first read it when in my 'teens and have revisited many times since.  I couldn't resist calling the Covid pandemic 'Captain Trips' either.

King will go down as the Dickens of his time I suspect.

boogieman

Offset said:

boogieman said:

The Different Seasons anthology by SK is excellent, it includes Shawshank Redemption and The Body (filmed as Stand By Me) which are both superb. For me SK is always better in non-horror mode as he’s just so damn brilliant at characterisation. Some of his horror/ fantasy books are good of course, but he does seem to write two shite ones for every good’un lately. I really liked the concept of his “11/22/63” and the sort of time travel dilemmas it throws up. Doctor Sleep (sequel to The Shining) is very good too. 

11/22/63 is totally brilliant.  It drew me in and kept me gripped.  I read it in two days whilst on holiday and the story stayed with me for some time after I'd finished it.  I'll freely admit I cried several times whilst reading it too.

The Stand is an awesome book.  I first read it when in my 'teens and have revisited many times since.  I couldn't resist calling the Covid pandemic 'Captain Trips' either.

King will go down as the Dickens of his time I suspect.

I haven’t read The Stand for decades. Thanks for reminding me, I’ll have to revisit it. 

pigface

Kittyfrisk said:

I just reread David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green'.
That story isn't perfect, but it viscerally, magically, evokes the many feelings & situations that I experienced as a 14 year old boy, like nothing else I have read. 
Read it. Immediately 

I have that book. I don't remember reading it, but I must have at some time. I'll give it a go. Thanks for the tip 

Blueingreen

pigface said:

Kittyfrisk said:

I just reread David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green'.
That story isn't perfect, but it viscerally, magically, evokes the many feelings & situations that I experienced as a 14 year old boy, like nothing else I have read. 
Read it. Immediately 

I have that book. I don't remember reading it, but I must have at some time. I'll give it a go. Thanks for the tip 

Brilliant at evoking the atmosphere of early 80s Britain.  It's untypical for Mitchell, being a more or less conventional realist novel - his stuff is usually much more formally experimental.  As @Kittyfrisk said not perfect but a very enjoyable read.

Cranky

Grunfeld said:

A bit niche but this book came out the other day and it ticks two of my interests:  pseudoscience, and therapy.

Stephen Hupp, and Cara Santa Maria, Pseudoscience In Therapy

It's okay -- not quite as good as I was hoping for because there's a fair bit of material being re-used throughout the book.  So you'll have e.g. sections on issues people go to therapists for like depression, anxiety, compulsion etc. and if a therapy like homeopathy or acupuncture is being used for each of those then the section on the therapy is more or less cut and pasted for the different problems. 

The first chapter by Cara Santa Maria is very good though.  It's an interesting analysis of the distinctive features of research and evidence in clinical psychology and why it can't have the same methodology as research in other areas, such as medicine and pharmaceutical research. 

Looks interesting.

You ever read Knots or other stuff by R. D. Laing?

Oh, and I’m currently in book 2 of Olivia Manning’s Balkan Trilogy.  It’s one of those books I saw at a shop 15 years ago, made a mental note, and now have finally gotten around to it.  I didn’t realize it was written in the 60s until I was halfway through the first book. 

It is very good, the context and characters/relationships are very well developed, Manning is never in a hurry to move the story along, choosing depth and nuance and subtlety instead, and as a result you become deeply immersed in it.  Plus, it’s set in a part of the world I don’t know well enough.