What are you reading?

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

Recently I've become an admirer of Robert Harris's writing - especially his historical novels - so I opened 'Imperium' with great expectations, but somehow this superb book surpassed even those high hopes.'Imperium' (a term which we may translate as something like 'absolute power') is a semi fictional account that charts the career of that intellectual titan of the Roman Republic Cicero as recalled by his devoted slave/secretary 'Tiro'.

 

The first half of this book is principally concerned with one of the most famous criminal trials of all antiquity when Cicero prosecutes the corrupt former Governor of Sicily, the venal Gaius Verres. The Governors aristocratic birth and ill-gotten gains have garnered him a huge fortune and powerful friends in the Senate, so to take him on our hero must not only overcome the inbuilt corruption of the legal system, but also amass a case so watertight that even a thoroughly biased jury of Roman nobles dare not acquit Verres for fear of how the mob will react. After the dramatic conclusion of this historic trial we move on to chart Cicero's rise through the Republic's complicated electoral system towards his ultimate ambition - to become Consul and achieve his very own Imperium.

 

If you reading this thinking that you don't really care about Cicero (or the power struggles of the late Roman Republic for that matter) then think again, because Harris spins his tale with such consummate skill that you soon become immersed in this world to the extent that (terrible old cliche that it is) I found it's almost impossible to put this book down. So allow the author take you on a journey of the mind, along the way marvel at the vanity of Pompey the Great and the reckless ambition of the young Caesar. Witness the horrific cruelty of Marcus Licinius Crassus as he crucifies the remnants of Spartacus's defeated slave army along the Appian Way. But above all wonder at just why every now & then history brings forth men of the caliber of Marcus Tullius Cicero.

[Hamilton Saint]

Who I Am by Pete Townshend. Excellent (he really knows how to write) autobiography. Searingly honest. Very informative. A must-read for any Who fan.

[ecuk268]

"I Am The Secret Footballer".

 

Interesting account of the life of a recently retired Premiership player (no one appears to know who he is) who has written a weekly column in the Guardian.

[alpine_saint]

Still struggling with Return of the King. Wanted to get through the Trilogy and read The Hobbit in preparation for the film.

 

But Tolkien's books are so hard going that target is looking a bit forlorn...

[ohwhenthesaints]

Still struggling with Return of the King. Wanted to get through the Trilogy and read The Hobbit in preparation for the film.

 

But Tolkien's books are so hard going that target is looking a bit forlorn...

 

The Hobbit is much easier going if you do manage to finish ROTK. If you then fancy a real challenge afterwards try The Silmarillion.

[ecuk268]

The Hobbit is much easier going if you do manage to finish ROTK. If you then fancy a real challenge afterwards try The Silmarillion.

 

Agreed.

 

Did The Hobbit at school in the 60's, read Lord of the Rings in the early 70's but found The Silmarillion pretty hard going.

[dinger]

Still struggling with Return of the King. Wanted to get through the Trilogy and read The Hobbit in preparation for the film.

 

But Tolkien's books are so hard going that target is looking a bit forlorn...

 

They are hard work. I don't think it would be too controversial to say that he was not a great writer, but was possessed of a great imagination. The Hobbit is much more brisk and fun though.

 

For me, The Silmarillion (and the rest of the middle earth stuff) was a step too far. An extended history and mythology in the hands of anyone except a really top quality prose stylist is always going to feel like an academic exercise.

[Hamilton Saint]

I'm half-way through an excellent biography of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons. It's called I'm Your Man. A must-read if you're a fan!

[Turkish]

The new Irvine Welsh one, Skag Boys, trhe prequal to Trainspotting.

[Pugwash]

Recently I've become an admirer of Robert Harris's writing - especially his historical novels - so I opened 'Imperium' with great expectations, but somehow this superb book surpassed even those high hopes.'Imperium' (a term which we may translate as something like 'absolute power') is a semi fictional account that charts the career of that intellectual titan of the Roman Republic Cicero as recalled by his devoted slave/secretary 'Tiro'.

 

The first half of this book is principally concerned with one of the most famous criminal trials of all antiquity when Cicero prosecutes the corrupt former Governor of Sicily, the venal Gaius Verres. The Governors aristocratic birth and ill-gotten gains have garnered him a huge fortune and powerful friends in the Senate, so to take him on our hero must not only overcome the inbuilt corruption of the legal system, but also amass a case so watertight that even a thoroughly biased jury of Roman nobles dare not acquit Verres for fear of how the mob will react. After the dramatic conclusion of this historic trial we move on to chart Cicero's rise through the Republic's complicated electoral system towards his ultimate ambition - to become Consul and achieve his very own Imperium.

 

If you reading this thinking that you don't really care about Cicero (or the power struggles of the late Roman Republic for that matter) then think again, because Harris spins his tale with such consummate skill that you soon become immersed in this world to the extent that (terrible old cliche that it is) I found it's almost impossible to put this book down. So allow the author take you on a journey of the mind, along the way marvel at the vanity of Pompey the Great and the reckless ambition of the young Caesar. Witness the horrific cruelty of Marcus Licinius Crassus as he crucifies the remnants of Spartacus's defeated slave army along the Appian Way. But above all wonder at just why every now & then history brings forth men of the caliber of Marcus Tullius Cicero.

 

Totally concur with this. I seem to recall reading it in two sittings a few years back. The Verres storyline is brilliantly conceived and written with so many hopes dashed along the way, right up to the final vindication. Can't recommend this book highly enough, together with its follow-up Lustrum.

[Pugwash]

Berlin & Normandy are better than Stalingrad and that was a quality tomb.

 

Normandy is the best military book I've ever read and I'm a WW1 / WW2 geek.

 

I'll have to get around to reading some of Beevor's books. Have you read any by Theodore Plievier?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Plievier

He was a German author who wrote books on Stalingrad, Moscow and Berlin, which were translated into English in the 50's. Copies available on Ebay. Don't know if Beevor drew on these for his books of the same names.

 

I read Stalingrad in the 70's and it's a well-written, stark, often visceral and chilling account; a documentary-novel described 'as the most important work of literature to emerge from the Eastern Front'. 40 years after reading it, I can still recall the miserable and chaotic scenes he describes at the snow-bound Pitomnik airfield as the Russians are closing in.

Edited 14 November, 2012 by Pugwash
Checked Ebay

[pap]

Picked up Beevor's book on the Second World War myself. Fascinating read. Some argue that the Second World War really began in 1931, when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. Though Beevor doesn't explicitly come down on the subject one way or the other, the fact that he spends so much time exploring them speaks volumes to the relevance of the Far Eastern situation in the early 1930s.

 

I'm only halfway through right now, but the impression I get is that with the possible exception of de Gaulle, Beevor really doesn't have a lot of time for the French. He backs up his points, and I've seen a lot of them made before, but it is still difficult to believe that the French were quite so sh!t, the Germans and Japanese so brutal and that the US was so opportunistic in using the war to achieve a favourable post-conflict geo-political scenario.

 

Another huge point, which Beevor makes subtly and leaves the reader to do the implications, was the Nazi plan for Russia. Surround cities and starve them to death on order to achieve the lebensraum that Hitler so desired. The number of people killed in the Russian campaign dwarfed the number that died in the Holocaust.

 

Godwin's law is not an accident. I think that the reason that so many of us are fascinated by it is that it represents a truly perilous time. Literal hell on earth for many parts of the world. We also see a lot of the same pre-cursors happening again. Global depression, massive indebtedness of nations, the politics of division, people subscribing to widely spun half truths. Same sh!t, different century.

 

Beevor's book is definitely worth checking out.

[Jonnyboy]

Still struggling with Return of the King. Wanted to get through the Trilogy and read The Hobbit in preparation for the film.

 

But Tolkien's books are so hard going that target is looking a bit forlorn...

 

Limited intellect alert.

[Polaroid Saint]

Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test.

 

Should be compulsory reading for anyone who posts on internet forums.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

Totally concur with this. I seem to recall reading it in two sittings a few years back. The Verres storyline is brilliantly conceived and written with so many hopes dashed along the way, right up to the final vindication. Can't recommend this book highly enough, together with its follow-up Lustrum.

 

Naturally I went straight from Imperium to Lustrum and loved that too - I wonder if it is possible to read one without wanting to get hold of the other? As Cicero's story ends so very badly, I kinda hope Harris leaves the great man alone now as I don't think I could bare reading of his 'decline and fall' as it were.

 

Still on my Robert Harris fix, I've just finished 'Archangel' where the action moves from the late Roman Republic to Soviet/contemporary Russia. The drama of the concluding chapters seems a bit too 'Hollywood' perhaps, but another great (and brilliantly researched) novel nevertheless.

[SuperMikey]

Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test.

 

Should be compulsory reading for anyone who posts on internet forums.

 

 

Re-read this the other day. Found out last year that one of my friends from Uni is Colin Stagg's niece - certainly put that section of the book into an odd light...

[Saint137]

Reading the Master & Commander series (what the Russell Crowe film was based on) at the moment and alternating with sci-fi. Really enjoying Charles Stross' books at the moment - he does a mix of hard sci-fi and a strange mashup of HP Lovecraft, Cory Doctorow, and Alistair McLean in his Laundry series.

Fave book I've read in the last 12 months is "Ready Player One" - if you grew up in the 80s playing computer games you'll love it.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I'm half way through the novel 'Super-Cannes' by the late JG Ballard.

 

On the beautiful French Mediterranean coast a luxurious self contained business park for the new elite of European industry 'Eden Olympia' has a vacancy for a new doctor. A young British medic (with her disabled husband in tow) arrive to take up the post. On the surface this place has everything you could possibly ask for, ideal working conditions, its own housing and even private security/medical care all laid on.

 

But just like that 'Other Eden' beneath the glossy surface of the complex sinister forces are at work. Why did the previous doctor seemingly go berserk and gun down several people in a apparently motiveless spree killing? In this utterly inhumane and sanitized world how do the career obsessed staff at the complex obtain any release from the relentless (self imposed) pressures of their working lives?

 

I can hardly wait to find out ......

[Saint Luke]

Whispers Underground

[Saint Luke]

Un Lun Dun by China Mievelle

[View From The Top]

Just finished Song of Achilles which won the Orange Prize. It was utter gash BUT it did encourage me to dig out my copies of the Iliad & Odyssey.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I've just finished yet another Stuart MacBride crime story 'Broken Skin' in which Detective Sergeant Logan 'Lazarus' McRae (Aberdeen's finest) investigates a star footballer suspected of being a serial rapist, and the death of a young porno star who dies in a cruel S&M related sex attack. What I love about these sometimes savage, sometimes funny, tales is the 'no holes barred' very non-PC banter between the coppers involved and the richness of the characters who inhabit this seedy Hibernian world. Especially the two senior officers Logan is forever bouncing off, bull lesbian 'DI Steel' and the perennially sweety munching 'DI Insch' - imagine if you can a jelly baby filled volcano constantly on the verge of a HUGE eruption ...

 

I often tend to have two books on the go, so away from the world of Scottish crime fiction I'm also dipping in and out of 'French Battleships 1922-1956' by Robert Dumas. I love heavy duty reference books and this is a goodun, combining plenty (but not too much) of technical detail, operational history, and a stunning collection of beautiful photographs/line drawings of these interesting old battlewagons. What a shame that the fall of France in 1940 meant none of these fine ships ever got to fulfill their potential.

 

Next up on my reading list is a Cold War USSR set story 'Child 44' by Tom Rob Smith - a new author to me but it certainly looks most intriguing.

[pap]

I am still reading Antony Beevor's Second World War, as recommended by View From The Top. Very well written book, but given the subject matter, is really hard going, according to Kindle, I am 57% through the book, and am now reading about events in 1944.

 

One of the interesting things about the book is Roosevelt's dismissiveness toward Churchill in the later stages of the war, and how much US distrust of Britain's motives laid the groundwork for the Iron Curtain to fall. Churchill wanted to send western Allied forces to open up a new front on the east. Roosevelt was having none of it, effectively ceding all those territories to their Soviet allies.

 

If you measure that war in terms of long-term gains, most European Allies came last. West Germany had money pumped into it, as did Japan. Until recently, both had very strong economies. One still does. The USSR massively increased its sphere of influence; from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, as Churchill defined it. The US became a world superpower in every respect. The Chinese communists eventually won their internal struggle and now have the strongest economy in the world.

 

European countries lost their empires; they really had no choice. The dismantling of empires was a US objective from the start. We and the French got a bit stiffed, although I'd argue that independence for former Imperial assets has created a lot of instability. I agree with self-determination, but would India and Pakistan have nukes pointed at each other if they were still part of a British Empire? I doubt it. We played divide and rule there. The dismantling of empire was divide and rule on a global scale.

 

I suppose we have the consolation of being permanent members of the UN Security Council.

[Ex Ringwood Saint]

Reading the Baroque cycle by Neal Stephenson and then have Berlin and Stalingrad to keep me going ...been enjoying Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series too...

[Essruu]

Two Brothers, by Ben Elton.

 

Well, not 'actually' reading it yet: got it for Christmas and it's still by the side of the sofa. I'm sure it's good though.

[mcjwills]

Just started on the Game of thrones series am impressed how the TV series has followed the book. Was hard going for the first fifty pages but OK now.

[dinger]

Reading the Baroque cycle by Neal Stephenson

 

I bloody love that!

[Ex Ringwood Saint]

I bloody love that!

 

It's very interesting.i am a scientist so love the whole origins of the process of modern research, and the characters are great..lots of pages to get through though!!

[saintbletch]

I've just finished yet another Stuart MacBride crime story 'Broken Skin' in which Detective Sergeant Logan 'Lazarus' McRae (Aberdeen's finest) investigates a star footballer suspected of being a serial rapist, and the death of a young porno star who dies in a cruel S&M related sex attack. What I love about these sometimes savage, sometimes funny, tales is the 'no holes barred' very non-PC banter between the coppers involved and the richness of the characters who inhabit this seedy Hibernian world. Especially the two senior officers Logan is forever bouncing off, bull lesbian 'DI Steel' and the perennially sweety munching 'DI Insch' - imagine if you can a jelly baby filled volcano constantly on the verge of a HUGE eruption ...

 

I agree. It's a great series CHAPEL END CHARLIE. As I think I've said elsewhere in this thread, it would make a great TV cop drama. The characterisation and dialogue is wonderful.

 

Next up on my reading list is a Cold War USSR set story 'Child 44' by Tom Rob Smith - a new author to me but it certainly looks most intriguing.

 

It's part of a trilogy that follows the same character. Child 44 is superb and was justifiably longlisted for the Man Booker which is when I first read it. I have to say though that the other two books aren't quite up to the same high standard. Still worth a read though.

 

Personally I've taken a break from my second reading of Joyce's Ulysses. First time took me 5+ months and as soon as I finished I started again. But after a quarter of the way through my second time I need a break. So I'm currently right in amongst some excellent Jeeves and Wooster stories that I haven't read before. Wodehouse was a genius.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I am still reading Antony Beevor's Second World War, as recommended by View From The Top. Very well written book, but given the subject matter, is really hard going, according to Kindle, I am 57% through the book, and am now reading about events in 1944.

 

One of the interesting things about the book is Roosevelt's dismissiveness toward Churchill in the later stages of the war, and how much US distrust of Britain's motives laid the groundwork for the Iron Curtain to fall. Churchill wanted to send western Allied forces to open up a new front on the east. Roosevelt was having none of it, effectively ceding all those territories to their Soviet allies.

 

If you measure that war in terms of long-term gains, most European Allies came last. West Germany had money pumped into it, as did Japan. Until recently, both had very strong economies. One still does. The USSR massively increased its sphere of influence; from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, as Churchill defined it. The US became a world superpower in every respect. The Chinese communists eventually won their internal struggle and now have the strongest economy in the world.

 

European countries lost their empires; they really had no choice. The dismantling of empires was a US objective from the start. We and the French got a bit stiffed, although I'd argue that independence for former Imperial assets has created a lot of instability. I agree with self-determination, but would India and Pakistan have nukes pointed at each other if they were still part of a British Empire? I doubt it. We played divide and rule there. The dismantling of empire was divide and rule on a global scale.

 

I suppose we have the consolation of being permanent members of the UN Security Council.

 

I haven't gotten around to reading this book (as yet) but Anthony Beevor is certainly counted among the foremost Military Historians of this generation - Max Hastings is another. Modern writers of this caliber have a fine way of combining clear historical analysis of why things happened the way they did, while never forgetting to capture the awful consequences of war on the ordinary people who inevitably get caught up in the tide of history.

 

Beevor's brilliant books on the Battles of Stalingrad and Berlin are required reading for anyone even remotely interested in the subject.

[tpbury]

Thanks for this thread - I am cutting and pasting titles into my local libraries reservation site as I speak.

 

I like Peter James and Mark Billingham's detective series (Grace and Thorne), so the Macbride series interests me. However, I have a fear of not beginning at the beginning and he seems to have written a few. Do all his books feature the same characters and thus require reading in sequence? Which is the first in the series Chapel and Bletch are discussing.

 

I really like Richard Harris'stuff, but struggled with Lustrum - never finished it - maybe give it another go!

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

Thanks for this thread - I am cutting and pasting titles into my local libraries reservation site as I speak.

 

I like Peter James and Mark Billingham's detective series (Grace and Thorne), so the Macbride series interests me. However, I have a fear of not beginning at the beginning and he seems to have written a few. Do all his books feature the same characters and thus require reading in sequence? Which is the first in the series Chapel and Bletch are discussing ...

 

I shouldn't worry too much about reading Stuart MacBride's 'Logan' series in strict chronological order because you soon get to know the charterers and there is little 'carry over' from one book to the next. Having said that I suppose you might as well start with the first book in the series 'Cold Granite' - but I must warn you now although this novel is a compulsive read (and you will find a rich vain of humour throughout all his work) the subject matter itself is a emotionally difficult one - to put it mildly.

 

These books are as hard as the granite Aberdeen is made from, and MacBride seldom pulls his punches.

[ecuk268]

Just finished Dominion by CJ Sansom.

 

Alternative history story based on Britain signing a peace treaty with Hitler in 1940.

 

Churchill goes on the run and forms a resistance movement while Beaverbrook is head of a puppet government. Some interesting themes on how Britain could have divided between the Hitler admirers (Lloyd George, Mosley, The Daily Mail and sections of the aristocracy) and the opponents (Churchill, Bevin, MacMillan, Attlee and the unions.

[dubai_phil]

Lee Child

 

A Wanted Man

 

Possibly his best for a long while. Gripping, Tight, neat canvas to paint the pictures on. It's Jack Reacher, it's conspiracies or are they? Just perfect.

 

Now just feck off Tom Cruise

[dinger]

Just started Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Lord alone knows how old I'll be when I finish it.

[Monk]

Barca by Graham Hunter.

 

Then moving on to Balague's Pep book.

[Thedelldays]

Just read a book called "why should britain tremble..?"

 

very very funny....if you have served in the RN

[sotonjoe]

Just read a book called "why should britain tremble..?"

 

very very funny....if you have served in the RN

 

Presumably it's all about sausage and how to hide it.

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

The Ukraine January 1933: the time of Stalin's great 'Terror-Famine'

 

Two starving boys - Andrei and his older brother Pavel - find themselves alone deep in the frozen forest, stalking the last cat left from the village. Catching this poor bag of skin and bones being their only hope of enduring for a while longer. As Pavel's carefully laid snare finally tightens around the terrified pets leg, his sense of triumph is brutally cut short as both he, and little Andrei, soon come to learn that in these woods cats are not the only living creatures capable of being hunted ...

 

From the consequences of that terrible day in the forest a whole tale of state terror and brutal murder is skillfully hung in Tom Rob Smiths quite brilliant 'Child 44' - a novel I can't recommend highly enough by the way.

[Gingeletiss]

Just started on the Game of thrones series am impressed how the TV series has followed the book. Was hard going for the first fifty pages but OK now.

 

I also watch Game of Thrones on TV, even though I am not normally into this sort of stuff. So before Christmas, knowing I was going to Australia for three weeks, I bought all five books for my I-pad. A few shocks there along the way, I am just starting book four, can't put it down, so not much DIY getting done at the mo.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Reading The Great Gatsby at the minute.

 

I have started it a few times before, and just never seemed to finish it, but I want to have read it before the film comes out.

 

It's slightly distracting know Leo is going to be Gatsby, as he is all I can picture now.

 

Enjoying it though, even if it is slightly odd/slow.

[saintbletch]

Just finished Dominion by CJ Sansom.

 

Alternative history story based on Britain signing a peace treaty with Hitler in 1940.

 

Churchill goes on the run and forms a resistance movement while Beaverbrook is head of a puppet government. Some interesting themes on how Britain could have divided between the Hitler admirers (Lloyd George, Mosley, The Daily Mail and sections of the aristocracy) and the opponents (Churchill, Bevin, MacMillan, Attlee and the unions.

 

I'm a big fan of CJ Sansom - Winter in Madrid and the Shardlake series of novels, but this wasn't him at his best.

 

I enjoyed the book for its interesting spin on an alternative post-war Britain - similar to Robert Harris' Fatherland. But it never quite made me feel for, or believe in the characters. Also many of the twists and turns were signposted and a little too obvious. Hope he gets back to writing about Matthew Shardlake soon.

 

Reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel at the moment. Only just started but loving the writing style and can see why it is so acclaimed.

[pap]

Ender's Game. Loving it.

[Redbul]

What is the what - Dave Eggers

[View From The Top]

The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Jumped Out Of A Window & Disappeared.

 

'Tis very enjoyable.

[Winnersaint]

I'm a big fan of CJ Sansom - Winter in Madrid and the Shardlake series of novels, but this wasn't him at his best.

 

I enjoyed the book for its interesting spin on an alternative post-war Britain - similar to Robert Harris' Fatherland. But it never quite made me feel for, or believe in the characters. Also many of the twists and turns were signposted and a little too obvious. Hope he gets back to writing about Matthew Shardlake soon.

 

Reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel at the moment. Only just started but loving the writing style and can see why it is so acclaimed.

 

Big fan of the Shardlake series too. Would make great TV or film(s). Currently reading Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh. A fascinating insight into his doubts about Lance Armstrong and his 7 TdF wins. He saw through it way back and no-one cared to listen.

[Redbul]

The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Jumped Out Of A Window & Disappeared.

 

'Tis very enjoyable.

 

Loved that book!

[Frank's cousin]

Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre

 

Bit of a departure this; most of his writing to date has been crime/thriller laced with biting satire and black humour - have read them all as they appeal to my sense of humour. But Bedlam is SciFi - still comic at times and there is the usual sinsiter nasty corporate at work. The bastart love child of Tron and Total Recall, combined with an ubergeek infatuation with gaming, it produces several 'best mind f*** yet' moments as it deals with the concept of conciousness in a digital environment. The premise to consider is Swedish Philosopher Nick Bostroms 'Simulation Hypothesis' - but to go into it is brain frying so, will leave that up to any reader to discover - Good yarn, excellent twists and well crafted... typical Brookmyre in that sense.

[timebomb]

As a new film is due soon - The Great Gatsby.

One of those books I felt I ought to read but never bothered.

[View From The Top]

Ready Player One.

 

Very good.