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What book(s) is everyone reading at the minute?

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  • Imagine your favourite Bruce song, how it pulls you into the lyric with the simplicity and beauty of the words and how the music makes your soul roar with a desire for living or how the chords can make you weep with their pain.

    That's how the book reads.
  • Just 'Googled' Sarah Pinborough. Now on my reading list!!
  • Just 'Googled' Sarah Pinborough. Now on my reading list!!
    My wife and I met her at a 'ghost story festival" in Dublin last autumn. She is as mad as a hat full of foxes. And a delight.
    Follow her on Twitter for a slice of life ala Pinborough.

    :-*
  • Bird Brain by Guy Kennerway. My brother asked me to buy it thro Amazon cos he doesn't buy online, and told me to read it first!
    A man is killed on a pheasant shoot, possibly murdered, and is reincarnated as a pheasant. Presumably somehow to unmask his killer.
    Quite fun so far after 5 chapters.
  • Hope he doesn't run out into the road in front of traffic like many pheasants seem to do, Lizy
  • My friend Gerard Benson (now, sadly, deceased) wrote the pheasant plucker's song. i know he'd be quite happy for me to reproduce part of it here. Even in his 80s he could sing this in his beautiful baritone (and it's ages long) without missing a beat or getting any of it, er, mixed up.

    I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son
    I'm only plucking pheasants 'till the pheasant plucker comes.

    Me husband is a keeper, he's a very busy man
    I try to understand him and I help him all I can,
    But sometimes in an evening I feel a trifle dim
    All alone, I'm plucking pheasants, when I'd rather pluck with him.

    I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's mate
    I'm only plucking pheasants 'cos the pheasant plucker's late !

    I'm not good at plucking pheasants, at pheasant plucking I get stuck
    Though some pheasants find it pleasant I'd rather pluck a duck.
    Oh plucking geese is gorgeous, I can pluck a goose with ease
    But pheasant plucking's torture because they haven't any grease.

    I'm not a pheasant plucker, he has gone out on the tiles
    He only plucked one pheasant and I'm sitting here with piles !

  • edited January 2017
    :-))
    Great, liz, thank you! And you quoted it without Spoonerising!
  • Just 'Googled' Sarah Pinborough. Now on my reading list!!
    Just 'Googled' Sarah Pinborough. Now on my reading list!!
    I have just seen a link to an interview with Sarah Pinborough.

    http://bestsellerexperiment.com/ep18-sarah-pinborough/
  • No, Kramer, I Googled it only once!!
    Ta for the link!!
  • Bruce Springsteen?
    Publisher; Penguin Classics
    Author; Thucydides
    Title; 'The Peloponnesian War'
    I'm, currently, reading the above title because the text is lucid. After reading a book by Jon McGregor for Reader's Group the need was dire. Also reading;
    Publisher; O.U.P
    Title; Palgrave's Golden Treasury of Songs and Poems
  • Just finished 'Lords and Ladies' by Terry Pratchett. Was brilliant!
  • Finished 'The Many'.
    Wouldn't recommend.
  • Just finished 'Lords and Ladies' by Terry Pratchett. Was brilliant!
    I love his books, and do so wish there were some i hadn't read yet!

  • Don't want to put any spoilers PM, but largely down to the ending.
  • I finished The Book Thief yesterday and today have started Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven
  • Now reading a book called 'Shut UP!' He explained.
    It's about writing dialogue properly, and is great so far! Very helpful
  • I'm reading The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright.
    She's a wonderful writer - a bit like an Irish Anne Tyler in subject matter, but I think her writing has the edge on Tyler.
    I've never read any of Anne's work, Claudia, but I've heard her read twice at literary festivals and really enjoyed her style, so I must do so. She read a novel extract when Paul Muldoon brought his 'Muldoon's Picnic' to Northern Ireland from New York for the first time last November and it was hilarious. (In fact, might have been from your book - the protagonist (Constance?) was doing her Christmas food shop?)
  • edited February 2017
    I finished The Book Thief yesterday and today have started Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven
    Sorry, Jenny, I hit thanks instead of quote for some reason! I started The Book Thief a few years back but I just couldn't get into it. I did read quite a few chapters, but couldn't warm to it at all. Perhaps I ought to give it another go as everyone raves about it...

  • Just re-read 'Outer Space' by Cathal McCabe, a poetry collection from a local writer who I hadn't seen for decades as I moved to England and he went off to lecture in Poland then came back and set up The Ireland-Poland Cultural Foundation with Seamus Heaney in Dublin. It is a beautiful, sometimes quite humorous, collection of work.
  • Just started reading "The Accident" by Chris Pavone.
  • So far this year:

    Flight Behaviour - Barbara Kingsolver. (OK, but she's written better)

    Sweet Caress - William Boyd. ( My first time with Boyd, great stuff)

    A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson (A great follow -up after 'Life after Life', with a twist at the end)

    Now reading Olivia Manning's 'Balkan Trilogy', on Clive James' recommendation. So far so good.

    Also dipping in to 'SPQR' by Mary Beard. A history of Ancient Rome. I now know my Romulus from my Remus
  • I've just started re-reading "The Flight" by M.R. Hall.

    I've also recently read "Writing: A users manual" by David Hewson who provides constructives tips on researching, organising and managing novel material as well as other areas like what software to use and how to change the options to keep you from being distracted. He also starts off with an idea and gradually builds it through the book including a synopsis for each act.

    I am currently reading "Write to get published" by Nichola Morgan who provides an insight into the publishing industry (it is a profit making business), advice on why agents and publishers reject manuscripts and how to overcome it. Nichola has an archived blog (http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.co.uk/) which she no longer managers but left it for people to look at.
  • Paris for One by JoJo Moyes, as soon as I heard it was out I was down to Waterstones pronto, so far so good.

  • 1) Publisher; One World
    Author; Williams, W.
    Title; The Horse A Biog. of Our Noble Companion
    2) Publisher; Biteback Publishing
    Author; Ashcroft, M. & Oakeshott, I.
    Title; Call Me Dave The Unauthorised Biog. of David Cameron
    3) Publisher; Bloomsbury
    Author; Moorcroft Wilson, J.
    Title; Edward Thomas From Adlestrop to Arras
  • I've just started The Husband who Refused to Die by Andrea Darby, a Gloucester journalist. Intriguing so far; about her character's husband who dying wish is to be cryogenically frozen until science can restore him.Shaping up well!
  • I'm reading that too!
  • That title could be about a would-be and inept murderess!
  • I'm reading The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright.
    She's a wonderful writer - a bit like an Irish Anne Tyler in subject matter, but I think her writing has the edge on Tyler.
    I've never read any of Anne's work, Claudia, but I've heard her read twice at literary festivals and really enjoyed her style, so I must do so...
    I was delighted to discover that she's going to be at the Cork Literary Festival this year. I shall definitely be attending!

    (I loved The Book Thief so much I will never watch the film.)
  • Oooh, I have the Book Thief and haven't read it. Atm have to read Americanah for book group but putting it off because the print is too small...
  • I'm still playing catch up with the copies of Writing Magazine that were waiting for me when I returned from my trip.
  • Reading Mrs Bear's book, Mrs Calcott's Army. So glad she explained what a quarterjack is!
  • This came in the post today, I'm over the moon with it.

    Reaching The Stars

    Glad I ordered the 'real' book and not the Kindle version.
  • Just finished Anne Tyler 'A Spool of Blue Thread'. Liked it a lot.
    Now starting Maggie O'Farrell 'This Must be the Place'.
  • Really? *feels proud* I wish I could sign the ones you all have. Maybe in the future when we meet for coffee and cake.

    I have started reading Americanah, found the print wasn't so bad if i put on my reading glasses. (I do have reading in the bottom of my varifocals, but my readers are just for reading and the computer.) Am hooked.
  • Just finished Anne Tyler 'A Spool of Blue Thread'. Liked it a lot.
    Now starting Maggie O'Farrell 'This Must be the Place'.
    Love Anne Tyler - the fact that nothing much happens and a good book is just about the journey is really encompassed in her books.

  • "Friday Night Lights" by H. G. Bissinger.
    An account of a small Texas town and their high school football team during the season in 1988.
  • Currently "The death of a mafia don" by Michele Giuttari
  • Publisher: Tate Publishing
    Author: Haycock, D.B
    Title: Paul Nash
    I've an invitation to attend the Press view of the Paul Nash Exhibition at UEA and SNL editor has accepted a feature proposal!
  • We saw a Paul and John Nash early works exhibition at a gallery here in Bristol last year. Really enjoyed it. Prefer Paul to John.
  • Hi Liz in Bristol, That's interesting. I'm biased as was acquainted with
    John: a part-time tutor at my art school. I think Paul's war art was more, imaginatively, conceived and executed than his though. Paul's 'The Menin Road' and 'We are Building a New World' are such expressive and chilling scenes of the front aren't they. They reflect some of the continental Post-Impressionism of the time.
  • Still trying to catch up with my Writing Magazines. I'm up to the issue with Phots Moll and Mutley in it. :)
  • Also in 'catch up' mode, I've just started Rosamund Lupton's, Sister. Published in 2010 and written well in 2nd person it tells of 'Bee' trying to track down her sister's (presumed) killer. The initial police investigation treats the death in a toilet block as suicide. Extremely descriptive writing presents an enjoyable read.
    Anyone read her follow ups?
  • Good morning all-long time no see ;;) thought I'd pop in before continuing the WIP as I've just finished reading The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff. I picked it up with it's original jacket on a book stall without realising it was the book they based the film on (I'm so out of the loop!). I loved it-the style, the flow, the theme but was slightly miffed at the ending, but I suspect that's just my preference for 'endings'. I'm also reading non-fiction 'Venice' by Jan Morris. It's so beautifully written it could be a novel.
    Back to the WIP before heading off to the 'day' job. What to read next? Well I have a pile of books here on my desk so it will probably be The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru, has anyone read it? I'm actually up to date with Writing Magazine which is a first. Hope you are all well.
  • We watched Gone Girl the night before last and last night (we were both too tired to watch the whole thing). Now i have to go back to the book to elucidate a plot point right at the end which we couldn't work out.
  • Morning, red-lucy - nice to hear from you. Good luck with the WIP. :)
  • Whenever I see "how to" books discussed, Stephen King's "On Writing" seems to be mentioned favourably so I recently bought it. I'm rather disappointed so far. I hadn't realised that it's partly autobiography and I find that part of it annoying, so skipped some of it. He has a foul-mouthed way of explaining himself and not always in plain English. For instance he talks pretentiously about "truth" when he means realism. I'll carry on with it, though.
  • edited March 2017
    Having just tried and failed to write a humorous short story I'm re-reading PG Wodehouse. Finished Heavy Weather at the weekend and have now started Summer Lightning. The plots of both have eccentric nobility, secret relationships, the theft of a pig and concern about the publication of scurrilous memoirs. I find them amusing but certainly not rib-ticklers.
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