Stickied What are you reading right now?

[mente captus]

Mir selber seltsam fremd ( a stranger of myself?) - Reese

hardest stuff ive ever read.

its a war diary of an german soldier from the eastern front. it starts in the summer of 1941 and ends 3 years later in the summer of 1944 as it is supposed he lost his life ( official status: mia) at this time.

no glorious stupid bullshit or propaganda, just the war in all his cruelty.

he describes how the war is when you dont take any pows (at both sides). the russian ( partisan) attack at a german hospital train where they fought in underwear or how they defended a runway with their 8.8 against infantry.

the book ends with the Operation Bagration. the biggest defeat in german war history. after the end of the operation (6 weeks later) 300,000 germans were dead ( a small comparsion: total losses on the western front were 110,000). 38 of the 41 divisions of the Heeresgruppe Mitte ( each division consists of 10000 soldiers) ceased to exist. 28 of them were total losses.

he describes the first days, as they tried to escape and were walking over 10000s of dead german soldiers on their stampede and his thoughts before he finally lost his life.

 

[mowgli]

Strategos - Island In The Storm by Gordon Doherty.
Last in a trilogy of novels set in the late 11th century about the wars between the Byzantium and Seljuk armies, another superb read.

 

[Craig]

One of the most horrifying books I've ever read. It's the only book I've read on Srebrenica so I have nothing to compare it to, but it was a very difficult read. My knowledge of the massacre was minimal really, I knew around 7k Bosnian men and boys were murdered in the space of a couple of weeks by Serb paramilitaries, but reading this was a real eye opener, everything about it from the folly of the safe zone, through the incompetence of the UN and Nato forces and the sheer evil brutality of the men who carried out the killing was shocking. Highly recommended.

Also, does anyone have any further reading suggestions for the Balkans conflicts?

 

[mowgli]

Eagles Of The Empire:Britannia by Simon Scarrow.
The 15th book in a series about 2 Roman soldiers Cato and Macro, in this one they are in Wales fighting the western tribes who are fired up bt Druids as the Romans intend to destroy them and their base on the island of Mona. Damn fine read, i thought his last novel wasn't up to his usual standard but this one has him back to his best.

 

[mistermagic]

Not Balkans but I'm currently reading Philip Kerr's The Lady From Zagreb and the main character - Bernie Gunther, a smartass non-Nazi policeman which I like a lot - is ordered to go to the Balkans right in the middle of WWII. Apparently the Croats and the Serbs were already making atrocities to each other in those days.
This period of history is of interest to me though, Craig. I enjoyed watching this BBC documentary:

. Good stuff.

 

[Stagat]

Sorry to bring the intellectual level down but have you seen Once Brothers, Craig ?

 

[Craig]

Yes I have, I thought it was great, as are most of the 30for30's.

 

[Max]

It's All In Your Head - a book by a neurologist called Suzanne O Sullivan, about psychosomatic illness. Or, in other words, illnesses that look like typical diseases, but actually don't have a physical cause. Interesting examples of people who have seizures, pain and even paralysis, but with psychological causes rather than physical causes. It has quite a lot of bad reviews from people who have ME, as the book states that ME is partly driven by psychological factors, which obviously pisses people off. Nonetheless, if you're a bit of a hypochondriac or are interested in 'mind over matter', it's well worth a read.

 

[epic73]

http://www.amazon.com/Penguin-science-fiction-omnibus/dp/0140031456

Better than it looks. The copy of the book itself is 40 years old and somehow staying together.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Better than it looks? :-O That's a classic David Pelham cover. Probs most famous for this:

I really like the Ballard in that, anyway. Maybe the first thing I ever read by him, and a (very) early intimation of an unhealthy obsession with the intersection of sex and death and technology.

> his obsession, not mine

 

[shane]

The Girl with All the Gifts by Mike Carey. Airport reading but enjoyable. Spent the entire book thinking it was written with a film adaptation in mind and I've just found out there is one coming out later this year.

Been reading a lot of fiction lately so whatever I read next is going to have to teach me something. Saying that, this might be the Summer I finally re-read Monte Cristo.

 

[mowgli]

Leader Of Battles - Artorius by David Pilling.
the 2nd book in a trilogy set in Britain 20 years after The Romans pulled out to fight wars nearer home. It's a new take on the legends of King Arthur which is interesting and different with some great battles and political intrigue in the late 5th century.

 

[Oaf]

I've been getting through The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass as of late. It's been good, but I don't think I've enjoyed it anywhere near as much as the previous 3. It's been kind of cool seeing Roland back in his early days as a gunslinger but I couldn't help just want to get back to the regular dudes and continue the main story again. And to be honest, when Roland started telling the backstory early on in the book I assumed it'd be a short little chapter or so detailing it... not 90% of the actual book Perhaps if I'd gone in knowing what to expect I'd have enjoyed it more, rather than just kind of wishing it was over to get back to the good stuff.

Saying that, it's not as if it wasn't decent enough of its own accord.

 

[Destruction]

Has anybody read Sophie's World? And if so would you recommend?

TIA.

 

[smat]

Has anybody read Sophie's World? And if so would you recommend?

TIA.

Tried to read it as a kid but couldn't get into it. Was possibly too young. HTH.

 

[Veggie Legs]

I haven't posted in here for ages, so here are some things that I've read recently.

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. It's young adult (probably the younger end of that, too) dystopian fantasy, set in a world where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts all the time. All three books are pretty action packed and relentless, I enjoyed them a lot, but I have a feeling that the writing might annoy some people.

The Humans by Matt Haig. This is brilliant, it's about an alien from a very advanced race who has to come to Earth and pretend to be human in order destroy a proof of the Riemann hypothesis. Features lots of funny observations about humans.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, book one of the Mistborn trilogy. Epic fantasy; the plot isn't anything incredibly original, but the world-building is among the best I've ever read. I didn't think the writing was great, but this didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the book. (I actually listened to this as an audiobook, but I'm fairly sure it was the writing rather than the narration that I didn't like).

 

[Max]

I haven't posted in here for ages, so here are some things that I've read recently.

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. It's young adult (probably the younger end of that, too) dystopian fantasy, set in a world where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts all the time. All three books are pretty action packed and relentless, I enjoyed them a lot, but I have a feeling that the writing might annoy some people.

The Humans by Matt Haig. This is brilliant, it's about an alien from a very advanced race who has to come to Earth and pretend to be human in order destroy a proof of the Riemann hypothesis. Features lots of funny observations about humans.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, book one of the Mistborn trilogy. Epic fantasy; the plot isn't anything incredibly original, but the world-building is among the best I've ever read. I didn't think the writing was great, but this didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the book. (I actually listened to this as an audiobook, but I'm fairly sure it was the writing rather than the narration that I didn't like).

I read the first Chaos Walking book and really liked it, but the style really started to grate on my in the second book and I gave up. Quite a novel concept and I did enjoy parts of it, but it's quite hard to sustain, I think. Great idea though, and executed a lot better than I had thought it would be.

I am currently reading Gin, Glorious Gin, which is a history of gin-drinking in London. It is interesting if you like gin. Five stars.

 

[mowgli]

Gladiator - Fight For Freedom by Simon Scarrow.
First in a series of 4 books about Marcus Cornelius Primus a 10 year old boy taken into slavery and is sent to a gladiator school and his mother is a slave in Greece and Marcus as he gets older tries to escape and free his mother,a well written story by an author who knows his history.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

One of the most horrifying books I've ever read. It's the only book I've read on Srebrenica so I have nothing to compare it to, but it was a very difficult read. My knowledge of the massacre was minimal really, I knew around 7k Bosnian men and boys were murdered in the space of a couple of weeks by Serb paramilitaries, but reading this was a real eye opener, everything about it from the folly of the safe zone, through the incompetence of the UN and Nato forces and the sheer evil brutality of the men who carried out the killing was shocking. Highly recommended.

Also, does anyone have any further reading suggestions for the Balkans conflicts?

I'm not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but there are some excellent books on the history of the Balkans which give a lot of background to the more recent conflicts. Misha Genny's The Balkans: 1804-2012 is a detailed whilst accessible look at the dangerous balancing game European powers have played in stoking up (and subsequently failing to contain) ethnic and religious conflict in the region as part of securing their own geopolitical interests. Its a hefty thing covering a lot of ground, but its good to just dip in and out of if you don't fancy slogging the whole thing (you might not be that interested in the politics of nineteenth century Serbian pig farming, for example). There is also an epilogue which brings the account from 1990 up until the near present, which seems pretty fair and balanced (though my old edition only goes up to 1999, the newest edition goes up to 2012).

Glenny is, however, a journalist of international politics so whilst the political history is pretty good you're only gonna get a very one-dimensional view of the region. For a different and more personal perspective it is a good idea to read some of the fiction from the region. The obvious place to start is The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric, a look at the history of a town in the east of Bosian near the Serbian border through the eyes of successive generations of different families. The relationship between the Muslim and Orthodox communities during periods of Ottoman and later Austro-Hungarian rule is a key theme, but instead of focusing on conflict it captures its complexities and nuances by building up the shared history of these families embedded in a mesh of personal, economic and cultural connections going back generations. Like Glenny, there is also the overriding sense that the natural balance of these communities, the settlements according to which they 'get by' even when relations are fractious, is frequently upset and interrupted by outside forces as the town sporadically appears on the radar of regional and global politics. It only goes up to the First World War, but it still feels pretty relevant reading it today. And irrespective of the history or politics or whatever its just a really good novel.

There's plenty of other good stuff too. I'm just about to start reading Girl at War by Sara Novic which is set in the midst of the Bosnian-Croat conflict, which is pretty interesting in itself as most of the literature so far (or at least that translated into English) has been generated by conflicts involving Serbia/Yugoslavia.

 

[Techno Natch]

Read a few books recently.

The Hollow Man (Oliver Harris)

I started this series with the second book (deep shelter) by accident and this is the first in the series. It follows a detective who is only to happy to break the rules and has also has a healthy drug and alcohol addiction. In this story he is investigating the suicide of a Russian oligarch who very few people have met and had recently moved to London to set up a new business. While investigating he figures that it might not do any harm to try to make some money out of the situation to start a new life if he can.

It was pretty good although I reckon the second book is better. Like the second book though it's fast paced and I never once found it boring.

Confessions of a sociopath (M.E. Thomas)

This is written by a woman who set up a forum for sociopaths several years ago and she herself is a sociopath all be it one that has managed to keep on top of things. It was a bit of a let down really as a lot of the claims are a bit inaccurate and obviously she has a massively high opinion of herself which gets a bit dull after a while. I didn't learn anything really.

Half A War (Joe Abercrombie)

The final book in the fantasy series from JA and it was a decent end. I didn't feel the characters it follows were as good as in previous books. It felt like they were there so we could keep in touch with the main characters but as always JA builds a compelling world and it has some great twists along the way. He's hinted he's not finished with this world yet.

Kingmaker : Broken Faith (Toby Clements)

The second in the series of books from Toby Clements set in England during the war of the roses. It follows two people that escaped the priory Thomas and Kathrine who get caught up in the civil war. The first book was excellent but this one was a bit of a drag. The author decided that it would do a full swing and the two main characters ended up in the exact same situation as before at the start of the book. Eventually it got going again but it did spoil the book a bit for me.
The Author apparently said he feels that was a mistake now but I still look forward to the next installment. The war scenes are epic and overall I like the story and character. The author clearly knows his stuff too.

How I lost you (Jenny Blackhurst)

Pretty rubbish. A woman who was sectioned after killing her child but has no recollection of it receives a letter from an unknown source saying her child is still alive. I was expecting a good psychological thriller what I got was a crap storyline with some really crap romance thrown in.

Currently reading Master of War by David Gilman. Made a mistake picking this up as I've had my fill of historical and fantasy war epics at the moment. The books actually pretty good but at 700 pages it's a slog and I've got Orwells : Wigan Pier waiting for me.

Have added a few books from the last few pages to my wish list too.

 

[Gilly?]

Just finished this...

It was very good, first book I'd read in a long time and I'm glad I did. Incredibly grim, I can see why it it caused some much controversy.

In the mood to watch the film again now.

 

[Martw25]

I've recently raided eBay for a few collections of books

I have the Robin Hood series by Angus Donald

The generals by Simon scarrow
The emperor by conn iggulden
A few different books by Bernard Cornwall

 

[mowgli]

I've recently raided eBay for a few collections of books

I have the Robin Hood series by Angus Donald

The generals by Simon scarrow
The emperor by conn iggulden
A few different books by Bernard Cornwall

I'm on the 4th book of The Robin Hood series and love it so far,another 3 after i've finished this one.

 

[Martw25]

Glad your enjoying them I actually haven't read them yet got a pile of books I'm going through slowly, currently on the 3rd book in the emperor series which I am enjoying. I'll upload a pic later.

 

[mowgli]

Glad your enjoying them I actually haven't read them yet got a pile of books I'm going through slowly, currently on the 3rd book in the emperor series which I am enjoying. I'll upload a pic later.

I see you're reading Simon Scarrow as well,have you read The Eagle Series? There's 14 books so far with the 15th out in September and for me they're the best books he's written.

 

[silkyman]

Just finished this...

View attachment 3714

It was very good, first book I'd read in a long time and I'm glad I did. Incredibly grim, I can see why it it caused some much controversy.

In the mood to watch the film again now.

I was very disappointed in the film having read the book. There's a reference to Macclesfield in the book. Not important, but rare!

 

[silkyman]

I've also been reading a few Jack Reacher books. Written by an English Villa fan for an American audience, so it's quite funny that every now and again there's a character clearly named after a footballer. One protagonist was Graham Taylor, there was a cop called Podolski...

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2011/10/08/celebrity-author-child-the-master-of-villa-thrillers

 

[Gilly?]

I was very disappointed in the film having read the book. There's a reference to Macclesfield in the book. Not important, but rare!

I can imagine the film not being all that if you read the book first. Luckily I saw it first before I'd read it.

Definitely one of the best books I've read, apparently it caused a lot of uproar.

 

[Stevencc]

Just finished this...

View attachment 3714

It was very good, first book I'd read in a long time and I'm glad I did. Incredibly grim, I can see why it it caused some much controversy.

In the mood to watch the film again now.

Did you like the rat and the tube part?

 

[Gilly?]

Did you like the rat and the tube part?

I'm gutted it wasn't in the film, along with the ripping the slags throat out from the inside. Awesome.