The "I am currently reading" thread

[Delbow 700]

I've just read King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, non-fiction, history. A genuinely eye opening account of Leopold II of Belgium's private colony in Congo, the enslavement and mass murder of Congolese to collect rubber and ivory, the consequent deaths of between 8 and 10 million Congolese, and Leopold's concerted effort to erase what he'd done from the historical record.

[taxman 12]

Still reading War and Peace. It's a great book but the writing is tiny, which means I struggle to read it at night in bed which is where most of my reading is usually done. Got a week off work soon so will be able to finish it during the day.

[Delbow 700]

52 minutes ago, taxman said:

Still reading War and Peace. It's a great book but the writing is tiny, which means I struggle to read it at night in bed which is where most of my reading is usually done. Got a week off work soon so will be able to finish it during the day.

Is it like War and Peace? 

[metalman 21]

February's round up. Still nothing else to do so I've got through a book every couple of days again, mainly the usual mixture of crime and SF except for the second one.

 

Dell Shannon - Knave of hearts. Lt. Luis Mendoza tracks down a serial killer in this early instalment of the series from 1962. Good.

Fred Kitchen - Brother to the ox. The autobiography of a farm worker in the South Yorkshire coalfield in the early part of the last century. Excellent.

Robert B. Parker - Rough weather. Spenser comes up against an old enemy when a society heiress is kidnapped from her wedding. The usual fast-moving, streetwise mixture.

Sylvain Neuvel - Sleeping giants

Sylvain Neuvel - Waking gods

Sylvain Neuvel - Only human. In this SF trilogy, parts of a giant alien robot that have been buried for thousands of years are dug up and assembled, but this attracts the attention of the device's originators. Told in the form of interviews, reports, journals etc. which sometimes made it seem too much like a film script, but I found the whole thing reasonably entertaining. Volumes 1 and 2 were better than the last one however.

Hillary Waugh - Last seen wearing. Another top class police procedural as police chief Fred Ford hunts the killer of a female college student.

Philip Macdonald - The link. Col. Anthony Gethryn investigates the shooting of Sir Charles Grenville, where the main suspects are his wife and the vet who's in love with her. OK.

John Rhode - Mystery at Greycombe Farm. When Farmer Jim's cider store is destroyed by fire, a body is found inside. Dr. Priestley investigates who it was and how he got there. Very good, though as usual you wonder if it was worth the murderer's effort to go to all that trouble.

A. A. Fair - Bachelors get lonely. Private eyes Donald Lam and Bertha Cool investigate murder at a motel. Fair was a pen-name of Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, and the Lam/Cool books share the same pacy, convoluted plots. Excellent.

Georges Simenon - Account unsettled. Penniless Polish student Elie resents the arrival of rich Rumanian Michel, especially after he seduces the landlady's daughter, and decides he must be punished. Not a Maigret book, but a typical Simenon, full of atmosphere and sense of place.

Annie Haynes - The crime at Tattenham Corner. Racehorse owner Sir John Burslem is shot after going to see his prize horse the day before it runs in the Derby. Inspector Stoddart is on the case. Good, and reprinted a couple of years ago by Dean Street Press, so not completely impossible to get hold of.

Roy Vickers - The whispering death. London is stricken by a series of kidnappings carried out by master criminal The Whisperer. A fast moving thriller from the early 1930s rather than an actual detective story.

 

Now reading: Magnus Mills - All quiet on the Orient Express. A man stays on at a campsite after the end of the tourist season. Mills, like Dan Rhodes, writes about completely unexciting situations and characters in a slightly surreal way, so although nothing really happens, the result is strangely gripping.

[Bargepole23 337]

19 hours ago, metalman said:

February's round up. Still nothing else to do so I've got through a book every couple of days again, mainly the usual mixture of crime and SF except for the second one.

 

Dell Shannon - Knave of hearts. Lt. Luis Mendoza tracks down a serial killer in this early instalment of the series from 1962. Good.

Fred Kitchen - Brother to the ox. The autobiography of a farm worker in the South Yorkshire coalfield in the early part of the last century. Excellent.

Robert B. Parker - Rough weather. Spenser comes up against an old enemy when a society heiress is kidnapped from her wedding. The usual fast-moving, streetwise mixture.

Sylvain Neuvel - Sleeping giants

Sylvain Neuvel - Waking gods

Sylvain Neuvel - Only human. In this SF trilogy, parts of a giant alien robot that have been buried for thousands of years are dug up and assembled, but this attracts the attention of the device's originators. Told in the form of interviews, reports, journals etc. which sometimes made it seem too much like a film script, but I found the whole thing reasonably entertaining. Volumes 1 and 2 were better than the last one however.

Hillary Waugh - Last seen wearing. Another top class police procedural as police chief Fred Ford hunts the killer of a female college student.

Philip Macdonald - The link. Col. Anthony Gethryn investigates the shooting of Sir Charles Grenville, where the main suspects are his wife and the vet who's in love with her. OK.

John Rhode - Mystery at Greycombe Farm. When Farmer Jim's cider store is destroyed by fire, a body is found inside. Dr. Priestley investigates who it was and how he got there. Very good, though as usual you wonder if it was worth the murderer's effort to go to all that trouble.

A. A. Fair - Bachelors get lonely. Private eyes Donald Lam and Bertha Cool investigate murder at a motel. Fair was a pen-name of Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, and the Lam/Cool books share the same pacy, convoluted plots. Excellent.

Georges Simenon - Account unsettled. Penniless Polish student Elie resents the arrival of rich Rumanian Michel, especially after he seduces the landlady's daughter, and decides he must be punished. Not a Maigret book, but a typical Simenon, full of atmosphere and sense of place.

Annie Haynes - The crime at Tattenham Corner. Racehorse owner Sir John Burslem is shot after going to see his prize horse the day before it runs in the Derby. Inspector Stoddart is on the case. Good, and reprinted a couple of years ago by Dean Street Press, so not completely impossible to get hold of.

Roy Vickers - The whispering death. London is stricken by a series of kidnappings carried out by master criminal The Whisperer. A fast moving thriller from the early 1930s rather than an actual detective story.

 

Now reading: Magnus Mills - All quiet on the Orient Express. A man stays on at a campsite after the end of the tourist season. Mills, like Dan Rhodes, writes about completely unexciting situations and characters in a slightly surreal way, so although nothing really happens, the result is strangely gripping.

I quite enjoyed the Sylvain Neuvel trilogy. Sci fi isn't my usual thing but this one caught my eye.

 

Currently reading The Fearful Void, Geoffrey Moorhouse on a transit of the Sahara west to east in the early Seventies. So far so good, I like Moorhouse as a travel writer.

 

Just finished Sword Point by Harold Coyle, about a modern war between USSR and USA, in Iran. First in a series of four related books, and was an entertaining if unchallenging read.

 

Just ordered Brother to the Ox on the strength of your recommendation from AbeBooks.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Bargepole23

[wearysmith 141]

On 28/01/2021 at 12:54, alchresearch said:

I think its because of his illness, a few of his later novels lost cohesion., he wrote via dictating to an assistant.  I found "Raising Steam" absolutely terrible, as did many other fans.

 

 

Yeah, 'Raising Steam' was a good idea but it wasn't even a Pratchett book I reckon. If the poor chap had remained compos- mentis it would never even seen light if day. Read it once, will never again. 

That said, these characters are far too good to never be used again. There's some really good fan-fiction out there. His family should have a rethink about letting real writers, people who Pratchett liked and admired, have a go with the franchise. 

[taxman 12]

Just started Not Dead Enough by Peter James, one of his Roy Grace detective novels.

 

The plot is turning out nicely but it's yet another ......(Imagine deep Holywood blockbuster type voiceover)

 

"He's a cop with issues! His wife is missing and his boss is looking for an excuse to fire him! He's one more mistake from being sacked! Can he solve the case and keep his job?"

 

Never read any of these Grace books before so will be interesting to contrast with John Sim who will be playing him on ITV next week.

 

 

[Brooker11 10]

5 hours ago, taxman said:

Just started Not Dead Enough by Peter James, one of his Roy Grace detective novels.

 

The plot is turning out nicely but it's yet another ......(Imagine deep Holywood blockbuster type voiceover)

 

"He's a cop with issues! His wife is missing and his boss is looking for an excuse to fire him! He's one more mistake from being sacked! Can he solve the case and keep his job?"

 

Never read any of these Grace books before so will be interesting to contrast with John Sim who will be playing him on ITV next week.

 

 

They're not a bad series, some better than others and a few too many similarities but not bad reads.

[rachelmum 11]

6 hours ago, taxman said:

Just started Not Dead Enough by Peter James, one of his Roy Grace detective novels.

 

The plot is turning out nicely but it's yet another ......(Imagine deep Holywood blockbuster type voiceover)

 

"He's a cop with issues! His wife is missing and his boss is looking for an excuse to fire him! He's one more mistake from being sacked! Can he solve the case and keep his job?"

 

Never read any of these Grace books before so will be interesting to contrast with John Sim who will be playing him on ITV next week.

 

 

I enjoy them, just finished Dead Man's Time book 9 in the series. Stumbled on the author by accident my husband was bought one of the series but he doesn't read novels. I read it and was hooked on Roy Grace. They are easy reading and I like the ongoing story of Roy and his life that is the background to each particular story. They are comfortable reading well worth a try. 

[feargal 21]

I've just finished Blood Work by Michael Connelly, which was a fairly good LA crime caper.  It's a good few years old now, so for a while I got frustrated by the slow pace caused by a lack of mobile phones, and waiting for crucial info to be faxed 😂. How quickly these things feel dated! 

 

I'm moving on to Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman off the telly.  Its been a massive bestseller, but it's decidedly average so far.  It's also a hardback with massive print, so I think the publishers have tried to make it feel like a blockbuster, without the actual word count.  Sneaky. 

[taxman 12]

On 06/03/2021 at 23:26, rachelmum said:

I enjoy them, just finished Dead Man's Time book 9 in the series. Stumbled on the author by accident my husband was bought one of the series but he doesn't read novels. I read it and was hooked on Roy Grace. They are easy reading and I like the ongoing story of Roy and his life that is the background to each particular story. They are comfortable reading well worth a try. 

I've got the point where I'm just hoping against hope that there isn't an unknown evil twin involved....almost as poor a plot device as "..and it was all a dream"

[max 13]

17 hours ago, taxman said:

I've got the point where I'm just hoping against hope that there isn't an unknown evil twin involved....almost as poor a plot device as "..and it was all a dream"

There's also the plot which involves multiple deaths and multiple killers doing each other's murder. It is so frustrating, almost as if the author wrote themselves into a blind ally with no way out.