Good books you've read recently.

[PaulB]

Any good books out there at the moment?

I can recommend "A Fair Cop" by Michael Bunting which was so fascinating and horrifying, I read it in one sitting. Michael was a serving police officer in West Yorkshire who was called out to a disturbance one night in Leeds. It was pretty routine stuff but the guy he had hold of turned nasty and battered him. His police colleague sprayed CS gas but most of it went in Michael Bunting's face and to stop the ongoing beating and still disoriented, he lashed out at his attacker. The area was full of onlookers and his assailant later complained he'd been assualted. The case hung over him for two years and he was eventually found guilty of assault and sentenced to jail. How many assaults do you see on those fly-on-the-wall documentaries about the police where even the most violent scum get a fine or community service? Nevertheless, Bunting had to go to prison which, as you can imagine, can be a death sentence for a serving police officer. Sobering stuff but well written and you can't help but sympathise with his awful plight.

 

[Greedo]

Stone Junction by Jim Dodge. Class class class

I read The Take by Martina Cole on holiday last week. It was lying in the villa along with others people had left. I just picked it up one day when I went in to cool down a bit and read the first chapter. That was me then and I read the whole thing.

Not going to win any prizes but I really enjoyed it. I never read novels by woman either normally!

 

[Campfire]

I was just going to post a "Has anyone out there read "Moorlands & Memories" by Allen Clarke? The recent publication is a limited one of 750 copies.

Allen Clark was born in Bolton on 1863 & he ended up being Lancashire's most loved author, as "Teddy Ashton" writer of dialect sketches & poetry. He wrote over 20 novels, published several newspapers & cycled & walked around Lancashire & in particular the Bolton area. He died in 1935.

This particular book goes over the area surrounding Bolton when all but the town centre was moorland. It's written in a quaint style, probably typical of the period.

One of the poems is in dialect & if anyone is interested I'l post it.

 

[Velorum]

Just finished 'The Kenneth Williams Diaries' first published in 1994 which I have been meaning to read for years.

Funny, sad and absorbing.

 

[PaulB]

Just finished the eponymous "Catch 22 - Joseph Heller"

It was shite.

Ahh. It's about my favourite book of all time and I think it's as good as a book can get.

 

[marinyork]

Was worried this was going to be a books published right now thread as I've not read anything new new.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Re-reading The Secret History.

 

[Paulus]

Just read fallen Angel by William Fotheringham. It is about Fausto Coppi , his racing career and his tangled love life back in the 1950's. It is very good.

 

[ChrisKH]

Currently reading Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. Cracking read if you like that sort of thing.

 

[ChrisKH]

Just finished the eponymous "Catch 22 - Joseph Heller"

It was shite.

I have to say I picked it up with great expectations and put it down at various intervals until about half way when I realised my life was passing me by. That was ten years ago and I still haven't finished it.

 

[PaulB]

I have to say I picked it up with great expectations and put it down at various intervals until about half way when I realised my life was passing me by. That was ten years ago and I still haven't finished it.

Another weirdo.

 

[User169]

Just finished "I didn't do it for you..." by Michela Wrong - a brisk history of Eritrea.

The title is a (possibly apocryphal) quote from a British soldier who, on being thanked by an Eritrean for having liberated the country from Italian rule, said "I didn't do it for you, nigger..".

 

[Crankarm]

Just started reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov translated by Richard Pevear.

Otherwise Toast, by Nigel Slater.
French Revolutions by Tim Moore was quite amusing.
A Year in the Merde and Merde Actually by Stephen Clarke - hilarious.

 

[Dayvo]

Just read fallen Angel by William Fotheringham. It is about Fausto Coppi , his racing career and his tangled love life back in the 1950's. It is very good.

Time to raffle it, then!

Yes please!

 

[gbb]

Hungry Ghost by Steven Leather..
Recommended to me...and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ex SAS psycho brought out of retirement to kill a Triad leader in Hong Kong. Has to be done covertly for the British government for fear of upsetting the Chinese, who are getting ready for the Hong Kong take over.

Now moved onto his book Dead Men....

 

[papercorn2000]

Collapse by Jared Diamond
Well researched and an easy reading style. Not as readable as Guns, Germs & Steel tho'