Recommend a book (2 Viewers)

Marty

Well-Known Member
Fatherland (Robert Harris) and The Man In the High Castle (Phillip Dick). Both very interesting stories set in timelines where the Axis won WW2.

Just finished reading 'The man in the high castle', its excellent.

HMV do modern classics at 2 for £7.
 

Kneeza

Well-Known Member
Just finished Rankin's Heart full of Headstones - finishing with Rebus being incarcerated.
Going to have to buy the next (final?) one now - at full price no doubt!
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Agree, very good book. He did another which i really enjoed called Where Men Win Glory, about an NFL star that gave itball up to volunteer for service in the US military after 9/11
I'm moving onto 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' by Richard Rhodes but after that may get 'Into the Wild' also by Krakauer about someone who tried living on his own in the Alaskan wilderness.
 

Razzle Dazzle Dean Gordon

Well-Known Member
I'm moving onto 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' by Richard Rhodes but after that may get 'Into the Wild' also by Krakauer about someone who tried living on his own in the Alaskan wilderness.
Not read it but heard of it due to the film adaptation they made, im sure it'll be good. I've been listening to a few podcasts around the Manhattan project, predominantly the Al Murray/James Holland ones that focus on the military side and why they decided to use it. It's a fascinating and frankly scary chapter in history, really did change the world forever when they figured out how to make one work.

On the book side ive started My Father's House which im hoping will be good. Part of a trilogy set in Rome during the Second World War.
 

DawlishSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Read a few recently. Going through Pulitzer prize winning books that I'd not read before. Read Underground Railroad (superb) and Nickel Boys (good) by Colson Whitehead. Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch (great but not sure it needed to be 800 pages). Currently about 30 pages into The Sympathiser, which is think is gonna be great
 

Joe King

Fairly well known member from Malvern
"Pater Noster" by Barry Adams. Autobiography dealing with the cruelty of life in children's homes during the 1950's and 1960's in Coventry and other areas.
 

DT-R

Well-Known Member
Just recently comes across an author called Scott Mariani. Anyone who enjoys Andy McNabb, Dan Brown, or Lee Child should enjoy these. First of the series is the Alchemists Secret.

Sent from my SM-S711B using Tapatalk
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
He’s changed his user name
I didn't know you could do that. 🤔 I guess it makes sense if you created an account using the name of a player that goes from hero to zero. 🤭
 

Farmer Jim

Well-Known Member
Reading Blood Meridian at the moment. Interesting book.

Easily gets in my top ten books, but it`s without doubt one of the darkest books I`ve ever read. At no point in the book, is there a moment of lightness, it`s just non stop, brutality, darkness, depravity and bleakness.

It`s crying out to be made into a film, but from what I`ve read, everyone that`s attempted to make it into a film, just can`t find a way around keeping the film true to the book and somehow getting it through the sensors.


Have you read McCarthy`s - Border Trilogy ?

Probably his " lightest " work, but some of his most beautiful writing.

Once you read these three books and in particular - All the Pretty Horses, it`s easy to see why his books are already being studied at degree level in the States.
 

Ccfcisparks

Well-Known Member
Easily gets in my top ten books, but it`s without doubt one of the darkest books I`ve ever read. At no point in the book, is there a moment of lightness, it`s just non stop, brutality, darkness, depravity and bleakness.

It`s crying out to be made into a film, but from what I`ve read, everyone that`s attempted to make it into a film, just can`t find a way around keeping the film true to the book and somehow getting it through the sensors.


Have you read McCarthy`s - Border Trilogy ?

Probably his " lightest " work, but some of his most beautiful writing.

Once you read these three books and in particular - All the Pretty Horses, it`s easy to see why his books are already being studied at degree level in the States.
Its the first Cormac McArthy book I've read, but I have watched the Road and no country for old men

What else do you reccomend out your top 10? That I can read next
 

DawlishSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Easily gets in my top ten books, but it`s without doubt one of the darkest books I`ve ever read. At no point in the book, is there a moment of lightness, it`s just non stop, brutality, darkness, depravity and bleakness.

It`s crying out to be made into a film, but from what I`ve read, everyone that`s attempted to make it into a film, just can`t find a way around keeping the film true to the book and somehow getting it through the sensors.


Have you read McCarthy`s - Border Trilogy ?

Probably his " lightest " work, but some of his most beautiful writing.

Once you read these three books and in particular - All the Pretty Horses, it`s easy to see why his books are already being studied at degree level in the States.
I've read the border trilogy and thought it was brilliant, the first two books especially. My favourite part was the first 100 or so pages of The Crossing (Billy and the wolf). I haven't really come across anyone else who writes like Cormac does
 

DawlishSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Its the first Cormac McArthy book I've read, but I have watched the Road and no country for old men

What else do you reccomend out your top 10? That I can read next
10 books i recommend, not necessarily my top ten but first 10 great reads that popped in my head

The Road - Cormac McCarthy
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh
The Bridge - Iain Banks
For Whom the Bell tolls - Hemingway
The Siege- Helen Dunmore
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Big Nowhere - James Elroy
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
 

Farmer Jim

Well-Known Member
10 books i recommend, not necessarily my top ten but first 10 great reads that popped in my head

The Road - Cormac McCarthy
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh
The Bridge - Iain Banks
For Whom the Bell tolls - Hemingway
The Siege- Helen Dunmore
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Big Nowhere - James Elroy
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

Some crackers there, read a good few of them too.

Do you like well written horror ?

The Passage - Justin Cronin ( he`s a professor of English Lit in the States ) and is just a magnificent book ) It sounds like it should be absolute rubbish, but it was that good, I was carrying the book around with me everywhere I went - if McCarthy did horror, this would be the book. ( there are two books, but they don`t have the depth or the writing of the first )

Let the Right One in - John Adjvide Blomquist.

A master piece and as much of a social comment about poverty and isolation, as it is about horror.

The writing is out of this world, as the two desperately lonely " children " bond with each other, only for the author to bit by bit, waken the reader to what`s really going on. I genuinely felt like I`d been punched in the stomach when I finished the book and it stayed with me for a long long time after reading it. ( the original uncut Swedish film of it, does a very good job )

Sadly the author was never able to capture the masterpiece he`d created with this book, as the books he`s written since then, have been pretty standard horror tbh.
 

DawlishSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Some crackers there, read a good few of them too.

Do you like well written horror ?

The Passage - Justin Cronin ( he`s a professor of English Lit in the States ) and is just a magnificent book ) It sounds like it should be absolute rubbish, but it was that good, I was carrying the book around with me everywhere I went - if McCarthy did horror, this would be the book. ( there are two books, but they don`t have the depth or the writing of the first )

Let the Right One in - John Adjvide Blomquist.

A master piece and as much of a social comment about poverty and isolation, as it is about horror.

The writing is out of this world, as the two desperately lonely " children " bond with each other, only for the author to bit by bit, waken the reader to what`s really going on. I genuinely felt like I`d been punched in the stomach when I finished the book and it stayed with me for a long long time after reading it. ( the original uncut Swedish film of it, does a very good job )

Sadly the author was never able to capture the masterpiece he`d created with this book, as the books he`s written since then, have been pretty standard horror tbh.
I've not really read any horror since I was a kid when I read loads of James Herbert and Steven King but wow that's a hell of a recommendation so ill check it out for sure
 

Farmer Jim

Well-Known Member
Its the first Cormac McArthy book I've read, but I have watched the Road and no country for old men

What else do you reccomend out your top 10? That I can read next

100% read The Road, as the film bottles it due to the content ( I suppose they wouldn`t have got a cert of they`d stayed true to the book )

With the book, there`s non of the stupid and pointless beginning, with Charlize Theron, it`s just a man and a boy of the road, following the collapse of humanity. ( The first time I read it, I was crying that hard, I had to leave the house and go for a walk to get my head together ! )

Another McCarthy I`d highly recommend, is All the Pretty Horses - to me, it`s McCarthy`s finest work, as the writing is just sublime and although there is violence in it, it`s not as bleak and brutal as some of his other books.

Also two books I`ve mentioned above :

The Passage - Justin Cronin ( don`t be put of by the fact that it`s a 1000 pages long, ! )

Let the Right One In - John Ajdvide Blomquist.

More mainstream - Stephen Kings - The Stand is a very good book too.
 

Farmer Jim

Well-Known Member
I've not really read any horror since I was a kid when I read loads of James Herbert and Steven King but wow that's a hell of a recommendation so ill check it out for sure

The Passage had all the ingredients to be one of the all time horror greats to be transferred to the screen, but it needed to be done properly, which would`ve cost a lot of money.

They went for a condensed version instead, which was absolute rubbish and not worthy of being associated with the book.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
New strike novel if it’s allowed as Jk rowling wrote it
I may have made an error of judgement, I thought I would get the Strike novels to read. Got 1 to 7 in hardback 2nd hand for about £23 but the stack is 14" high, that'll keep me busy. I hope they read well cause I've never read any Rowling work so far just seen the films or Tv productions of her work. 🤭 20250913_115830.jpg
 

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