Books

[Maggot Colony]

Almost finished Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard. He's becoming one of my go-to authors, his novels are entertaining and a pleasure to read even when I'm knackered.

What would you recommend as a starting point?

I'd recommend Killshot which is the first novel of his I read. It's a cracking story involving a pair of hitmen and a married couple. I don't want to give too much away, but the dialogue is great and the plot is very unpredictable.

The only other novels I've read by him are Out of Sight and Get Shorty, both of which were made into films. Get Shorty is excellent. Out of Sight is good, but I wouldn't recommend it over the other two.

Herself got me Leonard's Four Novels of the 1980s collection for Christmas. Looking forward to getting stuck into those.

[StoutAndAle]

What would you recommend as a starting point?

I'd recommend Killshot which is the first novel of his I read. It's a cracking story involving a pair of hitmen and a married couple. I don't want to give too much away, but the dialogue is great and the plot is very unpredictable.

The only other novels I've read by him are Out of Sight and Get Shorty, both of which were made into films. Get Shorty is excellent. Out of Sight is good, but I wouldn't recommend it over the other two.

Herself got me Leonard's Four Novels of the 1980s collection for Christmas. Looking forward to getting stuck into those.

Leonard at his best is like Stephen King - just a joy and breeze to read. I started with "Get Shorty" back when the film came out.

I'd recommend "Swag", "Rum Punch" (made into "Jackie Brown" by Tarantino), "The Hunted", "Maximum Bob", "Glitz" and the Raylan Givens books - paraticularaly "Pronto", "City Primeval" and "Riding The Rap". The last book, simply called "Raylan", which was also Leonard's last book is OK too.

[Blankety Blank]

Nearly finished 'Heat 2'. It's a bit like reading fan fiction.

Sorry, not adding anything to the conversation with this one but the words "fan fiction" strike fear into my heart. There are not many things worse

You'd be right. An unnecessary sequel that's currently be made into a film.

[Carnage]

Just finished Brian Cox' autobiography (the actor, not the scientist). It's alright. He's a lot more of a luvvie than I'd have taken him for, the majority of it concerns his lengthy theatrical career with the film stuff fairly flown through. He's fond of dropping names and not a bit shy about slagging people off (though he does cop out a bit in the afterword).

Worth a read, but far from essential.

[boozegeune]

I've been reading loads lately so allow me to dump some of my thoughts here.

Currently reading Babel by RF Kuang. So far so good, a bit of a Phillip Pullman type low fantasy/alternate history feel to it.
Best novel I've read this year so far is Lapvona, by Otessa Moshfegh from a couple of years ago. Grim and miserable medieval stuff, intense and violent but also atmospheric and even at times a little funny. She lays it on thick and is sometimes cartoonish with her depictions of the feckless lord, clapping, engorging himself and drinking his way through a famine, but somehow it just works for me.

Also read Samantha Harvey's Orbital, winner of the man booker. For such a tiny book it felt so long. Some nice prose but far inferior to her earlier novel The Western Wind. I don't get why Orbital rose to the fore but there you go.

For non fiction Mesopotamia by Gwendolyn Leick and Assyria by Eckhart Frahm. Mesopotamian civilisations a bit of an obsession of mine recently. Assyria is a brilliant popular history book about that particular society, published last year. Gwendolyn Leicks book is older and more archaeologically focused, she picks 10 Mesopotamian cities and gives a detailed essay on each, from archaeological evidence to their historical significance and role, to their founding Myths and place within babylonian culture. Brilliant stuff.

The Language Puzzle by Steven Mithen. How we talked our way out of the stone age is the subtitle of this book, and that's essentially what it is. Trying to piece together the earliest possible traces of human speech and covers it with a degree of real academic, scientific rigour. Really interesting topic if you're into linguistics and prehistoric stuff. A bit much at times, I skimmed through the section where he describes in great detail the anatomy of the fucking ear canal of a chimpanzee - its entirely relevant to the study and he's a real scientist at work but I can just take yourbword for it Steven.

Final recommendation for history is The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia. This is basically a full global human history using the sea as its framing device. Don't know how else to summarise it, I guess be prepared to hear a lot about trade. Doesn't drone on endlessly about this battle or that armada, definitely more about seafaring, navigating, settling, trading, empire building and he moves through all of these time periods and every corner of the world at a decent enjoyable clip. Utterly fascinating and couldn't recommend it highly enough if these sweeping histories are your bag. Generally the less specific a history book the more skeptical I am, but this is a masterpiece.

[Eoin McLove]

I've been reading loads lately so allow me to dump some of my thoughts here.

Currently reading Babel by RF Kuang. So far so good, a bit of a Phillip Pullman type low fantasy/alternate history feel to it.
Best novel I've read this year so far is Lapvona, by Otessa Moshfegh from a couple of years ago. Grim and miserable medieval stuff, intense and violent but also atmospheric and even at times a little funny. She lays it on thick and is sometimes cartoonish with her depictions of the feckless lord, clapping, engorging himself and drinking his way through a famine, but somehow it just works for me.

Also read Samantha Harvey's Orbital, winner of the man booker. For such a tiny book it felt so long. Some nice prose but far inferior to her earlier novel The Western Wind. I don't get why Orbital rose to the fore but there you go.

For non fiction Mesopotamia by Gwendolyn Leick and Assyria by Eckhart Frahm. Mesopotamian civilisations a bit of an obsession of mine recently. Assyria is a brilliant popular history book about that particular society, published last year. Gwendolyn Leicks book is older and more archaeologically focused, she picks 10 Mesopotamian cities and gives a detailed essay on each, from archaeological evidence to their historical significance and role, to their founding Myths and place within babylonian culture. Brilliant stuff.

The Language Puzzle by Steven Mithen. How we talked our way out of the stone age is the subtitle of this book, and that's essentially what it is. Trying to piece together the earliest possible traces of human speech and covers it with a degree of real academic, scientific rigour. Really interesting topic if you're into linguistics and prehistoric stuff. A bit much at times, I skimmed through the section where he describes in great detail the anatomy of the fucking ear canal of a chimpanzee - its entirely relevant to the study and he's a real scientist at work but I can just take yourbword for it Steven.

Final recommendation for history is The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia. This is basically a full global human history using the sea as its framing device. Don't know how else to summarise it, I guess be prepared to hear a lot about trade. Doesn't drone on endlessly about this battle or that armada, definitely more about seafaring, navigating, settling, trading, empire building and he moves through all of these time periods and every corner of the world at a decent enjoyable clip. Utterly fascinating and couldn't recommend it highly enough if these sweeping histories are your bag. Generally the less specific a history book the more skeptical I am, but this is a masterpiece.

The Language Puzzle sounds promising. I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Ollkiller]

Re read "The Universe in your Hand" by Christophe Galfard. Great popular science book about the universe and quantum world.
Now on to "Parallel Worlds" by Michio Kaku. Again a popular science book but far more depth. Both books show how insane our universe is.

[Thorn]

I have Orbital on the shelf waiting it's turn. Currently reading House Of The Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was part of an old family collection of classics but I always avoided it because I thought it was some sort of Gone With The Wind type thing but far from it, actually another connection my brain was making was Seven Sisters For Seven Brothers, but again no,..it's no sort of wistful love story at all ..it's good ,enjoying it and flying through it.

[Carnage]

Finished Fisherman's Blues by Mick Donnellan there. Mad, starts off like a Ken Bruen (RIP) book before getting weirder and weirder as it goes on. It's set in Galway, Purgatory and Hell (some might say they're all the one), so take from that what you will. Self published, I'd say - the spelling and formatting were all over the place and the cover looks very amateur. Lots of elements don't work but it was good craic.

Picked off the shelf at random: Munich by Robert Harris. Hard to go wrong with anything of his (apart from The Fear Index, that was shite).

[Don Gately]

Imperium was great and the one about the popes

[Carnage]

Conclave, yeah it was decent. If you liked Imperium then the rest of the trilogy (Lustrum & Dictator) are just as good. Pompeii is worth a read too, though it's more of a mystery than political intrigue.

I've enjoyed all of his that I've read apart from The Fear Index as I mentioned above. I just found it cheesy and predictable, with a 'twist' that was well telegraphed and has been aped a hundred times since.

[Trev]

Picked up a few Clive Barker books on the cheap, only know his stuff like Hellraiser and the other films adapted from his stories, but never read any of his novels. Hundred or so pages into Sacrament and it's pretty good so far

[Don Gately]

Anne Enroghts "The Green Road"

[Eoin McLove]

Anne Enroghts "The Green Road"

I read that years ago and loved it. The best thing I've read by her.

[Emphyrio]

Dracula: Dacre Stoker/JD Barker. A very good and very worthy prequel, which came as a bit of a surprise.