The books and reading thread

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STEVE G
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Re: Books

Post by STEVE G »

..was le Carre's "The Little Drummer Girl" which was excellet.
"The Spy who came in from the Cold" is always worth reading, it's much shorter than his later books
but is one of the all time classics of cold war spy novels.
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Re: Books

Post by Chromeman »

I am currently reading on Kindle "Adventures of a Waterboy", the autobiography by Mike Scott, the man behind The Waterboys band. As with his lyrics, he really has his way with words! :D

If you don't remember the band, maybe this song might jog your memory...

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Re: Books

Post by Henry 14th »

Recently finished a brilliant book - Shantaram - a true story about an Australian who escaped from prison and ended up working for a mafia in Mumbai.

I would go so far as to say it is the best book I have read.


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Re: Books

Post by lomuamart »

STEVE G wrote:
..was le Carre's "The Little Drummer Girl" which was excellet.
"The Spy who came in from the Cold" is always worth reading, it's much shorter than his later books
but is one of the all time classics of cold war spy novels.
Definitely agree with that. Have you seen the movie with Richard Burton? It's very faithful to the book.
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Re: Books

Post by STEVE G »

Have you seen the movie with Richard Burton? It's very faithful to the book.
Yes, it's a classic.
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Re: Books

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I have recently read most of the novels by Jo Nesbo, he is from Norway. Superb plots and many diversions. The hero is a flawed detective called Harry Hole. He often mentions Thailand in the books,i wonder if anyone has met the author in Hau Hin? Be careful if you do though as most people who meet H'H' end up dead or damaged!
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Re: Books

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lomuamart wrote:I'm not usually a great lover of sci-fi but I've just finished "The Martian" by Andy Weir and enjoyed it immensely.
It's billed as a cross between Apollo 13 and Castaway which would be about right and centres on a manned mission to Mars (not the first) that goes horribly wrong on the surface during a violent dust storm. One crew member is hit by an radio antenna and is blown away with his space suit punctured. As the landing craft is in danger of toppling over due to the storm, the other crew members make the difficult decision to call off the search for him and evacuate as they believe he's dead.
Of course he isn't.
Then, in log/diary form, follows the next year and a half or so of the stranded spaceman trying to survive with limited resources and no contact with earth.
The author is some kind of scientist in his own right but read up on loads of related fields such as botany, how to produce water and oxygen etc etc and the science of a lot of the story is meant to be viable. Must admit that some of it went over the top of my head but it wasn't so technical that I was ever lost as to the general thread of what was being attempted.
The book is also dead funny in places and is sure to get you chuckling in places.
All-in-all a good read. Maybe they'll make a film out of it?
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Re: Books

Post by dundrillin »

Just downloaded The Martian, read the reviews when it first came out, meant to buy it then promptly forgot about it,thanks for reminding me.
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Re: Books

Post by lomuamart »

dundrillin wrote:I have recently read most of the novels by Jo Nesbo, he is from Norway. Superb plots and many diversions. The hero is a flawed detective called Harry Hole. He often mentions Thailand in the books,i wonder if anyone has met the author in Hau Hin? Be careful if you do though as most people who meet H'H' end up dead or damaged!
Recently finished my first Harry Hole/Jo Nesbo book - The Devil's Star - on your recommendation.
Really enjoyed it. Hole is a pretty decent detective but does lead a somewhat sad life.
Have others downloaded and am looking forward to them in due course.
If you like your detective stuff then here's a bump for one of SteveG's choices from a while ago. Phillip Kerr's "Bernie Gunther" series. Very atmospheric books set in Germany during the rise of Hitler, Second WW and afterwards,
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Re: Books

Post by Chromeman »

While we are on the topic of Norwegian crime fiction, you should also check out the books by Karin Fossum, Anne Holt and Gunnar Staalesen.
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Re: Books

Post by Frank La Rue »

Whilst at it I am currently on the 2nd book in The Red Gambit - series by Colin Gee.

If you liked Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy you'll like this. Opening Moves, his first book in the series and his first book had me hooked from the start.

His 2nd book , Break through, is equally mesmerizing, and his 3 rd and 4th book get rave reviews as well. It's about Russian attack on what's Allied Europe in June 1945. The author is now working on material for his 7th and 8th book so it will keep me going for a while!
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Re: Books

Post by lomuamart »

Just finished an excellent read - "Apple Tree Lane" by Louise Doughty.
What I tend to do these days is browse the bestseller lists every so often and then look at reviews of anything that seems interesting. The above book was one of those from a search a month or so ago.
Well, 30 odd pages into it and it seemed like it was going to be some girly romantic nonsense and I was about to give up on it. Read the reviews again and decided to persevere and glad I did as it was a very rewarding experience.
Won't give too much away about the book but it involves a married lady who embarks on a pretty heavy affair which leads to arrest and imprisonment.
A very well written book.
She's written others that were well received but unfortunately I can only find this book on Kickass. PB has nothing.
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Re: Books

Post by dundrillin »

I really like the novels of James Ellroy. He wrote LA Confidential. The film of the book was one of the few that did justice to the book. The Cool Six Thousand amongst many others is excellent. Many of his novels are set in the 60's around the time of Kennedys assassination. If you read them you will doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin! Now there's a big topic for discussion - for my part I have always been suspicious of Jack Ruby's motives.
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Re: Books

Post by Frank La Rue »

Oh, did I mention The Red Gambit by Collin Gee?

Russia attacks in Germany in June 1945 to drive to the Atlantic.

I have no vested interests, truly, just want to spread the the good word, the West in the end wins by gathering former Waffer SS soldiers under French command (Gerard - take a bow, unless you are appalled associating with them)
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Re: Books

Post by caller »

dundrillin wrote:If you read them you will doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin! Now there's a big topic for discussion - for my part I have always been suspicious of Jack Ruby's motives.
I'm not sure a piece of fiction, as good as it might be, would ever influence me on my thoughts about the Kennedy assassination!

But interesting you should raise the subject as my current book is Vincent Bugliosi's, 'Reclaiming History - The assassination of President John F Kennedy', which is without doubt the biggest and heaviest book I have ever attempted to read! Its 1600 pages, plus end notes and extra information on DVD format attached to the back cover, which equate to another 1000 pages! And that's in the special format created for the book.

It came out in 2007, but wasn't available in the UK and at the time cost well over £100 to get it from the States, but with the anniversary of JFK's death last November, it was finally available here (although not printed here) at a more reasonable price and I got a copy.

I didn't start it straight away, but have now reached page 537, which would be in excess of a 1000 in a normal format and amazingly, despite the complexity of the subject matter, it's very, very readable - although it helps if you have an interest in this to start with.

Vincent Bugliosi is a top American lawyer who prosecuted Manson and 'his family' in the Sharon Tate murders and 1st got interested in the Kennedy case in the mid 1980's and spent 20 years writing the book. He strongly advocates that Oswald was the sole assassin acting alone and the book title reflects his concern that falsehoods and lies as advocated by the usual theorists are becoming accepted as the norm, in that most Americans now believe there was a conspiracy. The aim of his book is to put the record straight and in that he uses his findings to strongly support the workings and findings of both the Warren Commission and the later HSCA (with one exception).

His view is one that I have come to share over the years so in my case, he is already preaching to the converted. But nowhere else is everything dissected in such detail and he takes head on the proponents of each of the various differing conspiracy theories and their supporters, although I haven't got to that stage yet, although he uses the evidence v various conspiracy views at every stage.

A brilliant book (so far)!
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