[Vimto]

Wow! It's posts like that that make me wish we had a WTF! button as well as a like button.....
(Meant in a good way, of course..)

[DJW]

Just finished the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - phenomenal. One of the best sellers in the UK at the moment, couldn't recommend it enough.


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[Leadbelly]

I really enjoyed The Little Friend (that's the one I'd recommend to people), but when I tried The Secret History, I just couldn't get into it. Unsympathetic characters and I struggled to get into the meat of the story. So that's made me a bit wary of The Goldfinch.

Based on my unscientific study she has a 50% hit rate. 

It's a very long book too. I think I'll wait till I see a cheap second-hand copy on Amazon.

[L'arri]

I really enjoyed The Little Friend (that's the one I'd recommend to people), but when I tried The Secret History, I just couldn't get into it. Unsympathetic characters and I struggled to get into the meat of the story. So that's made me a bit wary of The Goldfinch.

Based on my unscientific study she has a 50% hit rate. 

It's a very long book too. I think I'll wait till I see a cheap second-hand copy on Amazon.

I haven't read Tartt but I know the synopses of several of her novels and they seem pretty intense in a good way. I was told by one avid reader that she has a habit of writing "strange endings". Intriguing.

[Leadbelly]

Does the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers omnibus count as a book?

[Joelsim]

I know it's not a book, but if you have Netflix then Clean Spirit is on there at the moment. Watched it last night and enjoyed it. Brief synopsis is it's a documentary following Argos Shimano during the 2013 TdF.

[Ram]

Strangers who came home: John Lazenby

Brilliant author and a fine book about the 1878 Australian tours of NZ & later the British Isles (their first). Possibly the most important tour in hindsight. Only criticism being, when reading a chronicle I'd like to see scorecards, and not just match reports, like Bodyline Autopsy.

[Michielveedeebee]

For the fantasyfans with a lot of time: The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson is phenomenal!

For those with less time: The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence is also a fun read.

[Leadbelly]

For the fantasyfans with a lot of time: The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson is phenomenal!

I've read the first novel, but tell me, do the same characters make reappearances further on in the series? I've bought the second part (not got round to reading it yet), but I'm led to believe that it's a completely different set of people in it.

Anyway I was lucky enough at Xmas to receive the omnibus edition of mountain travel books by Bill Tilman. There's seven in total and in later ones he goes on Everest expeditions, finds a way into the Nanda Devi sanctuary, travels the Wakhan Corridor etc etc.

However I'm only on the first one at the moment and it deals with his time in Africa after WWI. Some of the stuff he does is very much of it's time and won't be everyone's cup of tea - there's the obvious colonial factor, he enjoys hunting (including a rather disgusting/hilarious story about trying to get an elephant foetus preserved and sent back to Europe) and some of his descriptions of the native population leave a lot to be desired (his use of the phrase boys to describe his/his friends employees on the farms does grate).

His more pleasing exploits include ascents with Eric Shipton of Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, the Mountains of the Moon and to end the book he decides to cycle (on his own) all the way from Kampala in Uganda through part of the Belgian Congo, French Equatorial Africa and ending up at the coast in French Cameroon (he says they built very good roads in the Belgian Congo, much better than in the French colonies).

If you can look past the negative points, he does tell a canny tale and with a neat turn of phrase.

[stereojet]

I'm currently reading A Brief History of Seven Killings. While it's not brief, and I'm sure there are more than seven dead bodies in it, it's fantastic.

[Echoes]

I'm reading "Oui ! La Belgique existe, je l'ai rencontrée" by Jo Gérard (JM Collet, 1988) ["Yes, Belgium Exists I've Met Her"]. Jo Gérard is a famous Belgian historian who's also constantly advocated for Belgium reunion against separatists of both sides. This is a response to François Périn, a Walloon who advocated for Walloon reunion with France. Gérard showed that Belgium has had a homogenious existence that dated long before the independence of 1830. The Burgundians federalized the territory in the 15th century along with the present-day Netherlands and there had already been glimpses of it with the city revolts of the 14th century.


Because of that book I've postponed my reading of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep but it's for certain Chandler is the best novelist to ever come from the USA. I'd even say that Chandler saved American literature, which is definitely not up to par with the French, Italian or Russian literature. That's Crystal clear. Oh and also the best adaptation of the Big Sleep is the Michael Winner's, starring Robert Mitchum and not the Howard Hawks.

Also just finished the reading of Georges Simenon's "Le président". Book that Henri Verneuil magnificently adapted for the cinema, starring Jean Gabin and with the dialogues of Michel Audiard. It's amazing how many French films are based on novels by BELGIAN Georges Simenon. Simenon and Audiard really tought me how society works. 

[Michielveedeebee]

I've read the first novel, but tell me, do the same characters make reappearances further on in the series? I've bought the second part (not got round to reading it yet), but I'm led to believe that it's a completely different set of people in it.

They return, oh do they return.

[Ram]

The Dry by Jane Harper

Really promising, and only halfway through it.

[LaVelocipede]

5 MORE DAYS UNTIL THE GREATEST FANTASY EPIC OF ALL TIME COMES TO AN END.



Robert  Jordan's Wheel of Time series: The final volume, the 14th of the series will be released on the 8th of January. I have spent the last couple of months re reading the series and am now prepared for the release. I have read a wide range of fiction books and nearly all the great fantasy and sci-fi releases but this one for me tops them all.

He died in 2007 whilst writing the last of his books. His wife then chose an up and coming and generally regarded as the soon to be next thing in the world of fantasy author Brandon Sanderson to write the last book. It was so extensive though that after seeing all the notes Sanderson was forced to publish it as 3 books.

The last one entitled A Memory of Light is to be released this Tuesday. The speculation on the book has been overwhelming. Over the past couple of weeks I have immersed myself in it and I must admit that the detail which Jordan wrote with meant that the plot becomes so intriguing and bewitching as you analyse every single individual word. Sanderson has not a speck on Jordan and admittedly he does not have the unique genius, attention to detail and ability to define a character which Jordan has but he was aided by extensive notes and even written excerpts from Jordan written before he passed away.

Also what I find fascinating is the remarkable depth of the series. Specifically the characters are based on so many parallels from many different inspirations and each of them are integrated within the series so effortlessly.
Jordan ,who's real name was Oliver Rigney, wrote the last chapter and it promises to be

Spoiler (hover to show)

EPIC

Just wanted to share my WOT mania 

Here are some previews for it:

(Aware that post is three years old)
I'm on book eleven - THEY ARE SO GOOD.

[Leadbelly]

They return, oh do they return.

I returned to the (Malazan) series a few months back to give it another go and I'm glad I did. Since I couldn't remember enough from the first book, I had to go back and re-read it first, but I'm motoring my way through them now (relatively speaking) as I'm coming towards the end of Book 5.

It is a bit daunting with every new book that you get this whole new range of characters, but he somehow manages to get you interested in them in a pretty short time.

Book 5 (Midnight Tide) is a bit different from the others I have to say. Tehol and Bugg (and a few of the other characters in that arc) feel like they've stepped out of the Pratchett/Adams/Python ouevre. I'm not saying it's better or worse for that, but it feels a bit strange compared to the seriousness of the earlier (or should that be later!) subject matter.

[Drummer Boy]

It is a true lie that "everyone's got a book in them". Equally, books are very fashionable at the moment. Everyone's writing one, it seems.

If we each wrote one, what would it be?

Larry Viste, You Don't Have To Be Doping To Work Here But It Helps
How studying the effects of doping led one man to buy, sell and use dope himself in unwholesome quantities, thereby proving that one addiction begets another.

Icarus! You had it in you all along. They owe you royalties! 

[Drummer Boy]

Just finished (reading) this one:


More info here:
http://www.ellsberg.net

If you're unfamiliar with just how close, on several occasions, we've come to total, global annihilation, you might be surprised by some of the revelations contained within this book. With unprecedented access to classified information, Ellsberg delves into much more than the just the nuclear implications of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Cold War that followed, but also provides disturbing insights into the "conventional" bombing raids that preceded the use of atomic weapons, including the horrific air assaults (and the subsequent firestorms) that were suffered by Tokyo as well as the devastatingly cruel attacks on Hamburg and Dresden in the European conflict.

Given the current geopolitical climate of the Trump/Putin/Kim era, this book is as relevant as ever, as it also takes into account these contemporary leaders and the many factors of today's conflicts with which they all must contend.

Considering the vast amount of nuclear weapons in circulation today, and the hairbreadth's away from setting them in motion that we've come—on multiple occasions—the most surprising aspect of this book is the fact that any humans still exist on this planet to even read it.

Daniel Ellsberg is such an extraordinarily pivotal figure in 20th Century history, and yet the full impact of his work and contributions seems to go largely unnoticed, or at least not nearly acknowledged to the extent that it should. More than any other singular individual, his efforts weighed heavily on bringing an end not only to the Vietnam war, but the Nixon presidency itself.
This recently released documentary on his life is well worth watching:
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

You may, or may not, be able to view it for free directly from PBS here:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/mostdangerousman/video/daniel-ellsberg-the-pentagon-papers-and-the-new-york-times/

[Anchor]

I've just re read all of Irvine Welsh's Edinburgh books in the definitive order.

Glue
Skagboys
Trainspotting
Porno
Blade Artist
A Decent Ride
Dead Mans Trousers

I could not recomend a decent into the warped mind of Irvine Welsh highly enough.