Read any good books lately?

[Melvil]

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson. Detective story meets literary fiction.

The Time-traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulkes

The Time Traveller's guide sounds fascinating - cheers - will check it out.

 

[CharlieB]

I'm thoroughly enjoying 'Calling All Shipping' by Charlie Connelly at the moment.
It's an unusual travelogue that visits some more obscure locations in the sea areas mentioned in the R4 shipping forecast. It also touches on the history of the forecast itself.
What sets the author apart, however, is that not only does he possess the common travel writer's ability to be hilarious in the telling of his anecdotes, but also that he can write well and quite poetically in places.

Would recommend this without question.

 

[Zoiders]

I did Surface Detail a few months ago as well and it was indeed a return to form as Melvil said.

Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History got a turn lately as well as Gibson finished off another trilogy, found the first possibly slightly week as he followed character cliches but the last two took off rapidly, he grasped dynamic of the the late noughties very well.

 

[dan_bo]

Oh and the latest Viz annual- I think this one's 'The Five Knuckle Shuffle'............

 

[goo_mason]

Oh and the latest Viz annual- I think this one's 'The Five Knuckle Shuffle'............

I had tears of laughter rolling down my face the other night reading the strip "BBC Director General Mark Thompson in - 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word'" Brilliant!

"Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England" - read that last year; fascinating stuff.

My personal recommendations would be "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole or "Radio Romance" by Garrison Keiller. Both books I'd read and re-read a number of times.

 

[Speicher]

I'm thoroughly enjoying 'Calling All Shipping' by Charlie Connelly at the moment.
It's an unusual travelogue that visits some more obscure locations in the sea areas mentioned in the R4 shipping forecast. It also touches on the history of the forecast itself.
What sets the author apart, however, is that not only does he possess the common travel writer's ability to be hilarious in the telling of his anecdotes, but also that he can write well and quite poetically in places.

Would recommend this without question.

Is it "Calling" or "Attention All Shipping". I am not intending to nitpick, because he might have written two books.

 

[Rykard]

+1.....Love them!

+2

 

[justAl]

Penguins stopped play by Harry Thompson and Missing the boat by Michael hutchinson. Both personal accounts of a part of their lives and a very funny light read

 

[CharlieB]

Is it "Calling" or "Attention All Shipping". I am not intending to nitpick, because he might have written two books.

Whoops and thank you for that! It's 'Attention All Shipping'

 

[Yellow Fang]

I am reading Phoenix Squadron by Rowland White. It's about an intervention by HMS Ark Royal to head off an invasion of Belize by Guatemala in 1972. I'm not sure it's quite as gripping as it's cracked up to be, but it's certainly well researched.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The Time Traveller's guide sounds fascinating - cheers - will check it out.

I like Mortimer's approach to historical narrative and his writing style.

I'm on 1st December in his '1415 Henry V's year of glory'.

11 months in and Henry V is no longer one of my hero's A deeply unpleasant person it seems.

 

[mac1]

"Extreme Risk" by Major Chris Hunter about his life as a bomb disposal expert in the world's trouble spots. Awesome! Our forces in Afghanistan really are a cut above and must be supported.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Finished 'Moods of Future Joys' by Alastair Humpreys - part 1 of his RTW cycle ride - now making my way through Part 2

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Have read a lot this year but very recently read some short stories by the French 19th century author Guy de Maupassant entitled The Necklace. These stories really hit the mark.

Other recommendations for those into classical stuff would be two recent translations of ancient Roman poetry (in English):

The Aeneid by Virgil, a new translation by Robert Fagles.
The Erotic Poems by Ovid translated by Peter Green.

 

[mikeitup]

Just reading "Secret Affairs - Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam" by Mark Curtis.
Interesting, informative and disturbing!