Best reads - Club Together Book Club?

12467…32

Comments

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
    1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2017 #92

    Thanks,WN. Will have to let daughter know a as she's my librarian!!

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2017 #93

    Yes, that's the one, W. It's waiting for me to pick it up this week, saving it for our trip away next week. I've just started The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye, the latest addition to the Millenium series. Well up to the usual standard.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2017 #94

    Had an email yesterday that new Le Carre is in so will be picking it up this week. Yahoo.

    M - Have read the first three Larsen "Girl with..." books and enjoyed them. Is this follow up with a new writer really worth it? Not always found new authors taking over a character or series to be that good although Mrs.WN gives the thumbs up to Anthony Horowitz for the Conan Doyle story.

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2017 #95

    I know what you mean about new writers. I gave up on the Ludlum books ages ago, still read the Bond books which have good authors but it's not the same as the originals. 

    But the two follow up Millenium books are pretty good - the language, characters and storyline stay pretty true to the originals, so worth a read, I think. smile

  • PATMAU
    PATMAU Forum Participant Posts: 250
    edited October 2017 #96

    After a visit to Leicester to the Richard III tomb and visitor centre, I purchased  The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman.  A novel of the Plantagenets.   A rollicking good read.  I now have another of her novels called Lionheart.  No prizes for guessing who that is about, lol.   By the way whilst at the visitor centre I discovered I am a Ricardian because I have long held the view that RIII was not the murderer of his nephews.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #97

    Will look that one up Patmau. Ta.

    The new Le Carre is keeping me entertained. I re-read The Spy that came in from the Cold whilst awaiting this one and had forgotten what a great book it was. Must dig out his other ones over the winter, although not too enamoured with The Constant Gardener.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
    1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #98

    Don't know if there are any Phil Rickman fans out there, but today, the day that his latest novel, All in a Winter's Night, came out in paperback, it can be bought on Kindle for 99p....a real bargain, but it may be just there for one day only at that price.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #99

    I see the next Jack Reacher book will be short stories, I think it's called No Middle Name, (as in Jack no middle name Reacher).

    A while since I've read a book of short stories. 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
    1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #100

    I've just finished Jeffrey Deaver's 3rd book of short stories....Trouble in Mind....as good as ever!! His first two are Twisted and More Twisted.

  • norab
    norab Forum Participant Posts: 64
    First Comment
    edited November 2017 #101

    I recently discovered the Clifton chronicles and became hooked . If you haven’t read then just try the first one . I bought it in a car boot sale recommended by someone . 

    I have been reading anything about the war of the roses and the tudors. Also Owen Tudor and then jasper Tudor . 

     

  • robsail
    robsail Forum Participant Posts: 1,441
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2017 #102

    Read "Charlotte Gray" by Sebastien Faulks. A very thought provoking yarn especially at this time of remembrance as it tells of a girl who is recruited into the SOE in a minor capacity and what she experienced in France. It is fiction but based on fact.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #103

    I agree Robsail. Read it a few years ago. I think it was either turned into a film or dramatised for TV but not certain on that as didn't watch it.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
    1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #104

    brue, don't know if you read crime thrillers, but I've just started the 4th of a series by Damian Boyd which are all set in Somerset around the Taunton/Bridgewater area, using actual locations. Easy reading, but do need to be read in sequence, really, to understand what's going on.

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2017 #105

    Will look out for those Nellie, I do sometimes read thrillers etc but I'm into non fiction at the moment. Goodness I wonder what might be happening around Taunton!? wink Just reading Monty and Sarah Don's "Jewel Garden" about their lives from meeting up, running a business, bankruptcy and the move to gardening (not your usual tale of woe and penury, slightly buffered by an inheritance at one point..!) A swift read with nice photos.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
    1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #106

    brue, I'm now reading the 5th one and it's taking place during the flooding on the levels, with Muchelney and other villages along KSD being cut off.

  • robsail
    robsail Forum Participant Posts: 1,441
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2017 #107

    Guess what? Charlotte Gray Film was on TV tonight!!

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #108

    Whilst Lee Child has brought out this collection of Jack Reacher books I have noticed that it is not in fact his new annual JR book. This one is called The Midnight Line and guess what? It's out in time for Christmas.

  • Flyingfox
    Flyingfox Forum Participant Posts: 45
    edited November 2017 #109

    For an entertaining

    read try "The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 and a quarter Years old ". It's the story of a year of his life and his friends, The Old but not Dead Club, in a care home in Holland. Really funny.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #110

    FF - Who's the author? Sounds like an ideal read for members of this club!smile

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited November 2017 #111

    Anyone else come across Tim Weaver's "David Raker" series? He's a specialist in tracking down missing persons - gets himself into some very sticky situations! Good stuff for a few days away in the van! smile

  • Flyingfox
    Flyingfox Forum Participant Posts: 45
    edited November 2017 #112

    The author is Hendrik Groen. It's his diary

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,585 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited November 2017 #113

    Ta. I thought it might be a bit like Adrian Moles diary, written as a novel. Will check it out.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited November 2017 #114

    Just finished Ken Clarke's autobiography "Kind of Blue". As he has been around for a while it covers quite a slice of post war politics. He is a very big jazz fan and all the chapters are named after favourite songs! He comes across as a very laid back character, perhaps the only way to survive in politics? 

    David

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2017 #115

    I'm halfway through Salman Rushdie's latest novel "The Golden House". I enjoy his books - they're always very challenging and tell a riveting story.

    But I reckon that bloke must have a brain the size of a London bus! He uses such complicated language and obscure references and sentences that turn into complete paragraphs! Good stuff, but not an easy read! smile

  • Grant705
    Grant705 Forum Participant Posts: 164
    edited December 2017 #116

    Just finished "The Verdict" by Nick Stone - an amazing legal thriller ( murder/ courtroom) and unusually set in Britain.  A fabulous  read.

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2017 #117

    I think they call him a writer’s writer! I enjoyed Midnights Children but not many of his other books. I sometimes think it’s a choice between being entertained and being educated. I think it was William Boyd who recently said that there are only about half a dozen literary writers in the UK today. I tend to agree with that and often find myself drifting to the US and foreign (translated) authors.

    My list would start with Rushdie, Boyd, McEwan, Mantel, Amis but I am sure there are quite a few others so I think 6 is maybe a bit mean. 

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited January 2018 #118

    I had a book for Christmas from my sister, the same one that I'm reading at the moment "A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived" So now I have two copies..wink I mentioned it on here earlier. Anyone else with a new book, hopefully one they haven't read before?

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited January 2018 #119

    I don't often read biographies, especially those "celebrity life stories".

    But for Christmas I treated myself to "Reckless Daughter", a portrait of the Canadian singer Joni Mitchell. I've loved her music ever since the first time I heard the album "Blue" back in the early 70's. Although she is known for laying her soul bare in her songs, she's always been a very private person and this new biography has given a fascinating insight, particularly into her early years and climb to stardom. 

    It's a brilliant read for any of her fans. smile

    (Also got Robert Harris' latest - Munich - on hold!)

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
    1000 Comments
    edited January 2018 #120

    I've just read his "Conclave" whilst on the cruise. Interesting and sympathetic insight into papal elections.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636 ✭
    1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited January 2018 #121

    Following the recommendation by tda I've just read Catherine Bailey's Black Diamonds, an extraordinary tale of family feuds, forbidden love, civil unrest and the downfall of a mining dynasty. A fascinating insight into the story behind the closure of one of England's greatest houses, Wentworth Woodhouse.

Categories