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McB, it's a great book and yes, I need the next read lined up, too.
Dean Koontz, Your Heart Belongs To Me, odd, nothing much happening but the character is absorbing and the sense of menace almost palpable.
After that I have the entire Clan Of The Cave Bear series to read, my partner loaned me all 5 huge books.
Nearly got that out on talking books today, purp - but then changed my mind and got 'The Spy's Wife' by Reginald Hill instead. Funny thing with Reginald Hill - I cannot for the life of me get into Dalziel and Pascoe (it's a character thing - I don't like them at all), but love his writing generally speaking, and am especially fond of his 'Sixsmith' series.
I get talking books for walking the dog purposes!
just started A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin...the prologue is really long... unfortunately i still haven't managed to get hold of the first book... but hopefully this one will make sense to me
I've started listening to The Pirate's Daughter- half way through disc 1.
Bought another Katie Fforde yesterday, 'Wedding Season', and the last in a series of historical romances I've been reading over the last two-three years.
Will start them this week probably.
This is a fascinting book which aims to explain why we behave like we do. It unravels the mystery of inner-self and most importantly helps to explain why people react to circumstances in their own, unique way.
We cannot change how people react to us, but understanding that reaction allows us to not be bogged down with other people's emotional problems - whatever they might be. How often have you worried about what someone's said to you, or how they've behaved? It's not about putting yourself in their shoes - that's impossible. It's more to do with realising what values they apply to a situation.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who regularly finds themself being emotionally bogged down or intimidated by confrontation.
Well, Probie... see August 5th above... I finished The Recruit while on holiday. It held me well until James qualified, around page 200. I think I can see why you would love Robert Muchamore's books: he gets right in amongst the teenagers, doesn't he. You can sense the rivalries, the feelings of injustice and the self-doubt and you can almost smell the underarm BO. I liked this as well. But Probie, why does Robert keep repeating first names instead of using pronouns? I've just opened the book at page 37 and counted, and he uses James eight times. There are five paragraphs on this page and four of them start with James. How annoying is that! In the end I got used to it, but felt that I was suffering. His editor should be shot.
Although the book started brilliantly, I have a couple of gripes. I feel Robert would have been better stopping when James qualified for Cherub, and making that the point of his first story in the series. The mission they go on to strikes me as 'added on', apart from the fact that I lost interest rapidly in the mission. The tension had gone, and James' purpose had changed. It became a book with two goals, one after the other. As with The Da Vinci Code, the last 100 pages should be taken off and replaced with a proper ending.
And the other thing I wasn't happy about was that the book seemed to glorify vandalism. And even physical violence in young people. That snagged with me.
But I'm glad I read it, Probie. I should read another Muchamore book, shouldn't I, or I will be condemning them all after reading one... and in any case, you think they are brilliant. I'll try again.
I must admit Dwight, I read the mission part on a cold wet sports day. It was a good read, I must admit, but I find that it wasn't the best book in the world. Class A, The Fall, Mad Dogs are much better, and gripping. The one I'm reading now is good, but I don't find enough time to finish it, since I'll bet getting right into the best bit soon.
I know what you mean about the vandalism, some of the things he writes about is very deep, especially in The Fall. That's when the books became 'unsuitable for younger readers'. Very good reason for that.
I don't know about the name problem, but I find that the one I'm reading, The General, it has a lot of adverbs in it, and I don't know if that's right or wrong, but I'm slowly getting used to ignoring them back again.
I read the second one, Class A, before the first one. That was a very enjoyable read for me. It also has a progression type thing in Mad Dogs. But I must admit, the first one was a bit bland action wise compared to the others. But I'm glad you read it though Dwight.
I'm reading as research at the moment, trying to decide how to go about my next novel. I read Stuart Mc Bride -Dying Light Tues/Wed this week and now I'm reading Jeffery Deaver - The Bone Collector. At the start of theweek I read Michael Connelly - Lincoln Lawyer. Next will be Michael Dibdin - Rat King.
Mutley, will be interested to know how you get on with Michael Dibdin's book. I abandoned Blood Rain 1/4 of the way through as being utterly boring and pointless.
As we keep saying, good job we are all different. I was SO disappointed with the book it was untrue. Nothing like the blurb, no sense to the story, padding and more padding and nonsensical talk of going here and there which appeared to have nothing to do with the plotline. I got thinking he had run out of ideas before he got going. I won't touch any more of his.
Whereas, I wanted to go to bed last night but was involved in the life and death struggle in The Clan Of The Cave Bear like you would not believe. Hated to put it down.
I'm about to start Murakami's 'Sputnik Sweetheart' and am quite excited about it. I bought 3 new Murakami books at the fringe, kind of a bold move considering I had only read one of his (After Dark), but on reading it I sensed he may become one of my favourite authors.
I'm 28 chapters into War and Peace. It's been an ambition of mine to read it for 30 years or so. It's actually very promising so far. Only another 4,500 pages to go.
what is War And Peace actually about. I used to see it on the shelf at my local library in SA when i was looking for Tolkien books... but it looked too big for me to tackle back then
So far Jemma it has been about the relationship between several members of Russian society who are preparing to join the fight against Napoleon. One of the main characters got drunk and took a pet bear into town where he tied it back to back to a policeman and threw them both in the canal? I found that a bit far fetched, otherwise it is good so far.
Finished 'Rumours of a Hurricane' by Tim Lott today, which has been very enjoyable. It's the second book I've read by him and I've enjoyed them both. I've also read one or two articles in the new edition of Granta today and my new fiction read is 'Distant Star' by the magnificent Roberto Bolano - a Chilean writer who was living in Spain for most of his later years before he died in 2003.
I've read several of Bolano's other works and this is the next one I've bought. The ones I've read so far are;
2666
Amulet
Last Evenings on Earth
By Night in Chile
There's something about his writing, the style of it. He was quite individual and he wrote in a beautiful poetic way, which isn't a surprise as he was a poet before he wrote fiction.
Almost finished 'The Accidental Time Traveler' by Sharon Griffiths. Reminds me a little of the film 'Back to the Future'. It's just a light read, but I'm really enjoying it. A good book to take on holiday. It almost makes me wish that I'd been brought up in the fifties. Things seemed better then in many ways.
I'm reading 2666 by Roberto Bolano which is, no doubt whatsoever, the best book I have ever read. Already I feel that I want to read it again, for a third time. But I'll leave it until I finish 'The Savage Detectives'....also by Bolano.
I loved the time traveler's wife. Let us know what you think, BB.
I just finished Haruki Marukami's Sputnik Sweetheart. Got to say I was a little disappointed, the way it ended it let you decide a lot for yourself - I could have done with another ten or twenty pages.
I'll probably start 'The other hand' by chris cleave tonight. I always thought it looked good, then someone on this thread said they really enjoyed it, so I went out and bought it.
adding to comment above.
My partner loaned me the Earth Children series. I said something about Earth Children and he said he had never heard the books referred to that way. It is on the front AND the spine of every book. His books.
I bought Time Traveller's Wife a year or two ago and stopped after fifty pages. It was awful. None of it grabbed me, the characters were lame and sounded like people I'd like to punch.
However I saw a few people on here praise it so gave it another go last night. I'm a hundred pages in and loving it. What has happened to me over the past year ors so?
It was the characters that put me off The Time Traveller's Wife - I didn't like either of the main protagonists so didn't really care what happened to them or when it happened. (I did persevere to the end so I certainly won't be re-reading.)
Finished 'Wizard and Glass', now on to 'Wolves of the Cala' -- I do so love 'The Dark Tower Series'. Also, reading King's afterwords makes me happier about how long I'm taking with my novel/s.
Nope. He wrote all of it.
Legend has it he started with a sheet of green paper in a left over box, typed something about the gunslinger strapping on his guns and setting out, as I recall, and the rest is history. We've all been looking for that magic box of green paper ever since. I wonder if it would work if I had a green background to my screen instead of blue????
I am rapidly losing interest in the book I am currently reading...I think I'll put it to oneside and read something else...come back to it at some point
I have loads of books to replace it! Thanks to Waterstones and their 3 for 2 offers! :rolleyes:
Comments
Dean Koontz, Your Heart Belongs To Me, odd, nothing much happening but the character is absorbing and the sense of menace almost palpable.
After that I have the entire Clan Of The Cave Bear series to read, my partner loaned me all 5 huge books.
It wasn't bad - the way it was reviewed I thought it would be more of a fictionalised account of what happened but it was more fact than fiction.
I'm just about to start reading 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I get talking books for walking the dog purposes!
Bought another Katie Fforde yesterday, 'Wedding Season', and the last in a series of historical romances I've been reading over the last two-three years.
Will start them this week probably.
This is a fascinting book which aims to explain why we behave like we do. It unravels the mystery of inner-self and most importantly helps to explain why people react to circumstances in their own, unique way.
We cannot change how people react to us, but understanding that reaction allows us to not be bogged down with other people's emotional problems - whatever they might be. How often have you worried about what someone's said to you, or how they've behaved? It's not about putting yourself in their shoes - that's impossible. It's more to do with realising what values they apply to a situation.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who regularly finds themself being emotionally bogged down or intimidated by confrontation.
Although the book started brilliantly, I have a couple of gripes. I feel Robert would have been better stopping when James qualified for Cherub, and making that the point of his first story in the series. The mission they go on to strikes me as 'added on', apart from the fact that I lost interest rapidly in the mission. The tension had gone, and James' purpose had changed. It became a book with two goals, one after the other. As with The Da Vinci Code, the last 100 pages should be taken off and replaced with a proper ending.
And the other thing I wasn't happy about was that the book seemed to glorify vandalism. And even physical violence in young people. That snagged with me.
But I'm glad I read it, Probie. I should read another Muchamore book, shouldn't I, or I will be condemning them all after reading one... and in any case, you think they are brilliant. I'll try again.
I know what you mean about the vandalism, some of the things he writes about is very deep, especially in The Fall. That's when the books became 'unsuitable for younger readers'. Very good reason for that.
I don't know about the name problem, but I find that the one I'm reading, The General, it has a lot of adverbs in it, and I don't know if that's right or wrong, but I'm slowly getting used to ignoring them back again.
I read the second one, Class A, before the first one. That was a very enjoyable read for me. It also has a progression type thing in Mad Dogs. But I must admit, the first one was a bit bland action wise compared to the others. But I'm glad you read it though Dwight.
Whereas, I wanted to go to bed last night but was involved in the life and death struggle in The Clan Of The Cave Bear like you would not believe. Hated to put it down.
I've read several of Bolano's other works and this is the next one I've bought. The ones I've read so far are;
2666
Amulet
Last Evenings on Earth
By Night in Chile
There's something about his writing, the style of it. He was quite individual and he wrote in a beautiful poetic way, which isn't a surprise as he was a poet before he wrote fiction.
Thanks Richard.
I've just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner). It was heartrending, wonderful and left me an emotional wreck.
I just finished Haruki Marukami's Sputnik Sweetheart. Got to say I was a little disappointed, the way it ended it let you decide a lot for yourself - I could have done with another ten or twenty pages.
I'll probably start 'The other hand' by chris cleave tonight. I always thought it looked good, then someone on this thread said they really enjoyed it, so I went out and bought it.
My partner loaned me the Earth Children series. I said something about Earth Children and he said he had never heard the books referred to that way. It is on the front AND the spine of every book. His books.
Did really enjoy Chris Cleave's "The Other Hand".
However I saw a few people on here praise it so gave it another go last night. I'm a hundred pages in and loving it. What has happened to me over the past year ors so?
Maybe I should try Lord of the Rings again, after only making it about a third of the way through a few years ago.
It was the characters that put me off The Time Traveller's Wife - I didn't like either of the main protagonists so didn't really care what happened to them or when it happened. (I did persevere to the end so I certainly won't be re-reading.)
Yes, I love the Dark Tower series, what an imagination!
Legend has it he started with a sheet of green paper in a left over box, typed something about the gunslinger strapping on his guns and setting out, as I recall, and the rest is history. We've all been looking for that magic box of green paper ever since. I wonder if it would work if I had a green background to my screen instead of blue????
I have loads of books to replace it! Thanks to Waterstones and their 3 for 2 offers! :rolleyes: