The "I am currently reading" thread

[metalman 21]

Just finished 'The Sentence is Death' by Anthony Horowitz (the sequel to 'The Word is Murder'), in which he appears both as character and author. Like the first one, I recommend this both as a really good read and as a fairly clued detective story. Looking forward to the third in the series already. Bizarrely this is the second book in a row (after Jonathan Latimer's Headed for a Hearse') where clocks going forward or back have a role to play.

 

Now on to 'This is your death' by Dominic Devine, another author I definitely rate. This one was his last book, found in his papers after he died in 1980.

[feargal 21]

I'm dipping in and out of Nigel Slater's Christmas Chronicals.  Its a beautifully written recipe book/memoir/diary.  If you've seen his cookery shows, its just as slow paced and meandering as those, and he appears to live in a middles class world of twinkliness and delight.  Just right for reading at this time of year.  😀

 

My friend and I have a mini reading challenge for 2019, we're going to read the ones we've each missed on here.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/books-best-greatest-read-before-you-die-classic-novels-literature-essential-austen-orwell-dickens-a8612606.html

[euclid 10]

Have just finished Johnny Cash.The Life...at 663 pages (hardback) quite a read but I.M.O. a very good one..a must for any Cash fans.....☺️

[Jason1969 10]

Step by Step -  The Life in my Journeys - Simon Reeve.

 

interesting guy, not the middle class, well educated chap I thought he was , far from it. Suffered from depression etc as a teenager , got where he is today through hard work and enthusiasm.

 

 

[metalman 21]

Just finished Ancillary Justice, the first part of the space opera trilogy by Ann Leckie; it won all the SF awards going a few years ago and to be fair it was pretty good. Now onto Ancillary Sword, the second part, with Ancillary Mercy still to come. It seemed to mark the beginning of a bit of a wave of intelligent-spaceships as-protagonist SF, of which Gareth Powell's Embers of War is probably going to be next up for me.

[Cyclone 10]

I read the first one, but it didn't quite hook me enough to buy anymore...  I'm not sure what it was lacking, I just didn't get very engaged with it.

[ChrisIB 11]

The secret life of birds by Colin Tudge

Wonderfully interesting, not a dull word

[lectrolove 10]

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Awful. A real disappointment after Gone Girl which I thought was pretty good. 

 

Before that, Educated by Tara Westover. The true story of the author's escape from her Mormon fundamentalist, survivalist family. Brutal but compelling.

[feargal 21]

Just finished Robert Harris's The Fear Index.

 

I really enjoyed the main body of it, but the fizzle out ending really spoiled itself.  It's for like the author's mum had shouted him down to have his tea, so he wrote any old rubbish to sign it off.

[alchresearch 213]

 

Very witty take on modern politics (left biased of course, and really, really against Thatcher, but fairly kind on Major. ). 

 

Its amazing to see so many parallels with today. Such as:

Quote

With the PMs policies going so disastrously wrong, pollsters might have expected the Labour party to be racing ahead in the polls.
However, the Labour Party was more focused on internals battles than fighting a government destroying the jobs of Labour's natural supporters

Sounds just like today, doesn't it?  But nope, that was 1981.

Edited January 16, 2019 by alchresearch

[taxman 12]

Just finished the latest Rebus novel from Ian Rankin, In a House of Lies.

 

Brilliant stuff as usual set in the familiar streets of Edinburgh and the good old Oxford Bar I'll be visiting in the not too distant future.

[jaffa1 10]

Film Stars Don't  Die In Liverpool. About the last days of actress Gloria Graham.

It's  a bit boring and I hope the film version is much more moving.