Stickied What are you reading right now?

[Red]

A rose without a thorn. Story about the life of Katherine Howard. Reyt into Tudor historical fiction.

 

[Aber gas]

Every Rose has a Thorn - the story of Poison.

 

[Techno Natch]

Can anyone recommend some good young adult books? Friends asked for their 10 year old. Doesn't have to be suitable for right now. His dark materials and Joe Abbercrombie's half a king spring to mind.

 

[mowgli]

Caesar's Sword by David Pilling.
A trilogy of novels about Coel the alleged Grandson of King Arthur related by Coel after he becomes a monk after years of being a lord fighting to defend his land from invaders,he relates his story on his deathbed as he wants his story to be known before he dies. I've read several trilogies of Pilling but this is by far his best yet.

 

[Lance Stoe]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. Good book and well written but it's not really caught my attention like it should have. It's taking me ages to finish.

 

[Lance Stoe]

Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh. My favourite author so definitely looking forward to this one.

 

[Lance Stoe]

Finished The Blade Artist in one day. Although not as good as Trainspotting, Glue or Porno it is still a very good read. Now onto Murder Rap which is The Untold Story of The Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations.

 

[Lance Stoe]

Going to start Tor- The History Of German Football

 

[mistermagic]

Going to start Tor- The History Of German Football

Good choice. The part straight after WWII is fascinating. Makes Union Berlin the most interesting club in the world.

 

[mowgli]

Blood Forest by Geraint Jones.
In 9 AD a useless General Varus who was more of a politian than a leader of men lead 15,000 Ronan Legionaries into the forests of Germania where thousands of Germanic tribesmen lay in wait in a perfect trap. Can't put this down because of it's fast pace and brutal scenes it's the best book i've read this year.

 

[lordofthepies]

Blood Forest by Geraint Jones.
In 9 AD a useless General Varus who was more of a politian than a leader of men lead 15,000 Ronan Legionaries into the forests of Germania where thousands of Germanic tribesmen lay in wait in a perfect trap. Can't put this down because of it's fast pace and brutal scenes it's the best book i've read this year.

I hope he's better at writing than he was at wicket-keeping.

 

[Jockney]

HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulu and other Weird Stories.

Most stories 4-5 pages long, alternating in an A-B format:

A: unsettling and/or horrifying tale that details Lovecraft's hopeless, cosmic despair.

B: schlocky 'contamination of the blood' plot twist that gives Lovecraft an excuse to wax pseudo-scientific about race and eugenics.

That every other short story is an antediluvian allegory about race-science and 'good breeding' might actually be a point in its favour. A lot of his aesthetic in some of the more straight-forward stories trades on flagrant and grotesque impropriety, and I can't think of anything more repugnant to 21st century social sensibilities than comparing interracial marriage to bestiality.

 

[Aber gas]

HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulu and other Weird Stories.

Most stories 4-5 pages long, alternating in an A-B format:

A: unsettling and/or horrifying tale that details Lovecraft's hopeless, cosmic despair.

B: schlocky 'contamination of the blood' plot twist that gives Lovecraft an excuse to wax pseudo-scientific about race and eugenics.

That every other short story is an antediluvian allegory about race-science and 'good breeding' might actually be a point in its favour. A lot of his aesthetic in some of the more straight-forward stories trades on flagrant and grotesque impropriety, and I can't think of anything more repugnant to 21st century social sensibilities than comparing interracial marriage to bestiality.

Weird old Nazi wasn't he.

 

[Abertawe]

Yuval Noah Harari is doing a new book. Enjoyed Sapiens but haven't read the future one but some I know weren't all that keen. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...k-to-cover-global-warming-god-and-nationalism

 

[mowgli]

Swords Of Good Men by Snorri Kristjansson.
First of 3 Viking novels and the fight between the old gods and the Christ followers.gory battles with a bit of fantasy thrown in so what's not to like?

 

[Lance Stoe]

Just For One Day- Adventures in Britpop by Sleepers Louise Wener

 

[Lance Stoe]

Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

 

[mowgli]

The Flame Of Resistance :The Lost King Book 1 by Martin Lake.
Edgar Atheling is the last living descendent of Alfred The Great and heir to the throne of England after Harold's death at Hastings,this series of novels tells the story of the uprising against William The Bastard's rule.I'd never heard of the author before starting this but it's a superb read so i've ordered the next 3 books.

 

[Gilly?]

Jonathan Pie - Off the Record

 

[mowgli]

Viking Fire by Justin Hill.
A novel on the life of the last true Viking Harald Hardrada detailing his journeys to Sicily,Jerusalem,Bulgaria and joining The Varangrian Guard in the Byzantine Empire,superb and hard to put down.

 

[Son of Cod]

I joined The Idea Store, which is a Tower Hamlets chain of libraries and their fiction selection is way better than the standard public libraries. I'm currently reading 'Alasdair Gray: Every Short Story from 1951-2012'. It's bloody massive. I'd previously only read 'Ends of Our Tethers', but that had some really good stories in and having recently finally gotten round to reading 'Lanark' I was keen to read more of this stuff. I also got out the David Peace Bill Shankly book and 'Perfidia' by James Ellory. Both of those are massive too. I noticed they had the Bruce Robinson Jack the Ripper one in, has anyone read that? Might get that out and give it a go before the David Peace one.

Can anyone recommend some good young adult books? Friends asked for their 10 year old.

Might be a bit dated now, but The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler is a pretty good one. Probably one for now as opposed to the future, in terms or reading level.

 

[mowgli]

Shieldwall by Justin Hill.
A novel about the aftermath after the death of King Ethelred in 1016 and the Viking invasion led by Jarl Knut,the resistance is led by Ethelred's son Edmund and his friend and fellow warrior Godwin. I'm really getting into this author and must look up more of his novels as the two of his i've read were a superb read.

 

[Veggie Legs]

Can anyone recommend some good young adult books? Friends asked for their 10 year old. Doesn't have to be suitable for right now. His dark materials and Joe Abbercrombie's half a king spring to mind.

Only just seen this thanks to SoC's quote...

Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness is excellent. John Green is very popular, I found his books a bit of a mixed bag but thought Looking For Alaska and The Fault In Our Stars were excellent. I also quite liked Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I agree with your ideas too, if you wanted other fantasy then maybe The Hobbit or the Earthsea series.

I read all of the above as an adult so not sure exactly whether they'd have the same appeal to a child, but in my opinion a good book is a good book. I don't think any of them would be suitable for a ten year old, some of them probably by early teens.

 

[Techno Natch]

Yeah thanks to you both. I passed them on and might check them out myself.

 

[mistermagic]

Reading Millenium #5. The 2nd book following the Stieg Larsson trilogy written by fellow Swede David Lagercrantz. It's ok.

 

[Lance Stoe]

A Season With Verona by Tim Parks

 

[mowgli]

Day Of The Caesars by Simon Scarrow.
This is the 16th book in the series abour Roman soldiers Macro and Cato,this one is set in 54 AD after the death of Emperor Claudius and his stepson Nero becomes Emperor with resistance from his stepbrother Britannicus with Rome on the verge of a civil war.

 

[mowgli]

Hero In The Shadow by David Gemmell.
Another cracking book by my favourite fantasy author.

 

[mistermagic]

Philip Kerr's Prussian Blue. Kerr is writing novels based on a character named Bernie Gunther. Gunther is a Berlin policeman who will go through the depression, WWII and now the Cold War. The story deals with a mission given to Gunther by the Stasi that he doesn't want to do (killing a French woman living in London). He escapes and, while on the run, reminisces about a mission he did just before WWII (solve a mystery murder in Hitler's lair at Berchtesgaden in early 1939). It's interesting when the author compares the past and the present and you are waiting for him to join both stories.
Good book so far. I'm halfway through.

 

[mowgli]

Troy - Lord Of The Silver Bow by David Gemmell.
First in a trilogy of novels about the fall of the city. I have over 30 of Gemmell's books which are fantasy but this is more historical with just a little bit of fantasy thrown in,the 3rd novel was Gemmell's last as he died halfway through writing it in 2006 and was finished by his wife.