What are you reading at the moment?

Blueingreen

I've been working my way through George Simenon's Maigret novels.  I'm currently reading Maigret's Dead Man, maybe the 7th or 8th I've read (they are a little like P G Wodehouse in that although they are excellent they tend to meld into one another in your memory and you start to lose track of which ones you've read).

I'm also reading Natasha's Dance, A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes.

Recently finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh.

Philly_Q

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

I'd put off reading this until I'd read all Dickens' other novels, because I thought I might be frustrated by its unfinished state, but it is very good and well worth reading.  Dickens is really more about the characters than the plots anyway, and as always this has some great ones.

It did make me curious about other authors' attempts to complete the book, and I've now read one by Leon Garfield (1980) and another by David Madden (2011).  Both very enjoyable.

ICBM

Face It by Debbie Harry.

Just finished Che Guevara - A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson. Now that was hard going... not because it's dull but because it's so thoroughly researched that the amount of detail is almost overwhelming - and interesting, if you want the definitive story.

notanon

Rocker said:

It is only a small book but I strongly recommend that you get a copy of No One Shouted STOP! by John Healy.  ISBN 0 951263911 9.  The book is about the death of a town in Mayo, Charlestown, but it probably could be about any town in Ireland, Scotland, Wales or England.  Towns that the Government forgot existed.  Do yourself a favour and read it.

I thought I recognised the name. He wrote The Grass Arena.

I would highly recommend it. An autobiographical account of the time he spent living on the streets as an alcoholic. Brutal stuff, I won't ruin the book - read it ;-)

@Rocker, if you have read the Grass Arena and I can find mine, I'll do you a swap.

boogieman

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. About a young guy’s burning desire to be a helicopter pilot in the 60s. So he signs up to the US army for training..... just in time to be sent out to Vietnam.  

One of the best war biographies I’ve ever read.  

proggy

The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris.

Moominpapa

Today I finished Death's End, the final book of the 'Dark Forest' trilogy by Cixin Liu. The scale of Liu's imagination in this trilogy is universal and multi-dimensional. One of the most intellectually satisfying pieces of science fiction I have ever read - but also a damned good story that kept me reading to see what was going to happen next.

PolarityMan

Moominpapa said:

Today I finished Death's End, the final book of the 'Dark Forest' trilogy by Cixin Liu. The scale of Liu's imagination in this trilogy is universal and multi-dimensional. One of the most intellectually satisfying pieces of science fiction I have ever read - but also a damned good story that kept me reading to see what was going to happen next.

ooh im tempted...could you give me some more details?

DesVegas

Under the Dome by Stephen King. Maybe 30% through and finding it quite enjoyable. Although I can't help thinking of the Simpsons movie every other page

Moominpapa

PolarityMan said:

Moominpapa said:

Today I finished Death's End, the final book of the 'Dark Forest' trilogy by Cixin Liu. The scale of Liu's imagination in this trilogy is universal and multi-dimensional. One of the most intellectually satisfying pieces of science fiction I have ever read - but also a damned good story that kept me reading to see what was going to happen next.

ooh im tempted...could you give me some more details?

On the one hand I want to persuade everyone to read the trilogy, on the other hand I desperately want to avoid spoilers!

Anyway, not giving anything away if I say that the trilogy is a carefully and beautifully thought out meditation on what humanity's contact with other life in the universe might be like, and what it might reveal about what every life form has in common. The author has a talent for being able to translate conceptually difficult scientific phenomena into graspable and vivid narrative events. It's like a Stephen Hawking book and Jim Al-Kalili documentary had sex and gave birth to an epic novel.

My younger son read it first, and raved about it so much that my elder son then started it and he also raved so much that I started it.

matdotcodot

Theft By Finding - David Sedaris
 Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers 

 Wis for The Grass Arena mention @notanon makes Down and Out in Paris and London look like the Beano.

Stuckfast

I'm reading a book about the history of Satanism called Lucifer Rising. It's thoroughly entertaining, quite well researched and not nearly as trashy as it looks.

Jalapeno

Alastair Reynold's latest Ness sisters installment - Bone Silence.  Not sure if I'd bother with the next or not .... hasn't really gripped me.

PolarityMan

Jalapeno said:

Alastair Reynold's latest Ness sisters installment - Bone Silence.  Not sure if I'd bother with the next or not .... hasn't really gripped me.

Oh i hadnt realised he had released anything since the posiedens children series...that def going on my reading list along with the dark forest reccomendation above 

skullfunkerry

I'm reading Guy Martin’s autobiography at the moment. It’s very funny, written exactly how he speaks and impossible to read without doing his accent in your head.

My favourite bit so far was about him being invited to an orgy which they decided to hold in his van, and which ended up being him and one other couple:

“...being in the back of a works breakdown truck that stank of gear oil wasn’t doing it for me, so there was this weird scene of me sat in the buff, except for my socks, on the wheel arch in the back of a Transit van eating a Mars Bar, watching Dave rattle into his new girlfriend”

RaymondLin

Listening to Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.

I am actually listening to it in an audio book format.

FASCINATING stuff and amazing skills to learn in negotiations, about manipulating people without them knowing it, some of the techniques is so simple but so clever.  The idea on how getting someone to do what you want thinking it is your idea is brilliant.

kjdowd

Philly_Q said:

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

I'd put off reading this until I'd read all Dickens' other novels, because I thought I might be frustrated by its unfinished state, but it is very good and well worth reading.  Dickens is really more about the characters than the plots anyway, and as always this has some great ones.

It did make me curious about other authors' attempts to complete the book, and I've now read one by Leon Garfield (1980) and another by David Madden (2011).  Both very enjoyable.

Try Drood by Dan Simmons. Novel based on this with Dickens as a character. V good, if a little dark in places 

Philly_Q

kjdowd said:

Philly_Q said:

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

I'd put off reading this until I'd read all Dickens' other novels, because I thought I might be frustrated by its unfinished state, but it is very good and well worth reading.  Dickens is really more about the characters than the plots anyway, and as always this has some great ones.

It did make me curious about other authors' attempts to complete the book, and I've now read one by Leon Garfield (1980) and another by David Madden (2011).  Both very enjoyable.

Try Drood by Dan Simmons. Novel based on this with Dickens as a character. V good, if a little dark in places 

Thanks, I'll look into it!  I've read some Dan Simmons books, but a very long time ago.

Nitefly

I've just finished "The Cricketers of Vanity Fair", by Russell Marsh.  It's a collection of the 38 cartoons of cricketers of the day between 1877 and 1913 which were published in Vanity Fair magazine.  

The first one was of course W. G. Grace, and the last was E. W. Dillon.  The accompanying notes, written by the magazine's owner Thomas Bowles, are very much "of their time"... 

I reckon @Heartfeltdawn would love it!

pmbomb

RaymondLin said:

Listening to Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.

I am actually listening to it in an audio book format.

FASCINATING stuff and amazing skills to learn in negotiations, about manipulating people without them knowing it, some of the techniques is so simple but so clever.  The idea on how getting someone to do what you want thinking it is your idea is brilliant.

I'm reading this.

It's a book for anyone who deals with people. Fascinating.

Also The Naked Mind by Annie Grace which is about what alcohol does (and doesn't) do to us and how to be the master of it.

And in between those, Graham Greene The End of the Affair. Exquisite.