I still haven't read Ender's Game. I need to see to that! I just started House of Leaves. I haven't got very far but I'm intrigued.
I finished reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This book won the Man Booker prize. It’s a SF about a group of clone kids who are being brought up toward eventually donating their vital organs to people who need them. These clones aren’t regarded as humans to the government who purports this scheme. The book is written from the perspective of the narrator, Kathy, who reminisces what her life was like as a child growing up and getting an education at Hailsham along with all the other clone kids and thinking about the games they used to play. At the time they’re told very little about what their purpose is. Kathy lives by all her sentimental memories of being a kid, playing with the other children and establishing friendships that continue with her throughout maturity. The book is sentimental and nostalgic but also disturbing and horrifying in parts. In the end it’s affection and the sentiment of friendship that underlies the tone of this book. 4/5 stars. I recommend.
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Haven't read anything by him and wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. And coincidentally, it's the last book in my recently alphabetized book shelves, proceeding Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road), Don Winslow, and a buttload of Vonnegut. So far so good. One of those ho-hum literary books that draws you in before you know it.
The Prisoner of Heaven is part of a larger story, the Cemetary of Forgotten Books. I thought there were only three but actually there are four books in the series, with one of them actually a prequel. The last is Labyrinth of the Spirits. I only got to the second, or the prequel, but the first, The Shadow of the Wind, was really good. I've also read the Watcher in the Shadows, which is more of a childrens book really. On a sad, side note, I just read that Carlos Ruiz Zafon died only a few months ago.
No, this is my first. The blurb said they could all be read independently, and since it's the only one I have....
So, finished an A G Riddle book called Winters World. A bit of a hail mary this as I wasn't looking for another book to read on my phone and then this popped up. And actually, it's not bad; well written with an original idea, and a little funky on the science - perhaps science fantasy would be a more apt description. Still, a good start to another trilogy. As to whether I will continue I've no idea, perhaps when the other two come down in price.
Busy reading a novel written by Samantha Ford - a South African author. Title: The House Called MBABATI The setting is located in London, Cape Town and Kenya. A twisting tale of passion, betrayal, murder - everything.
I just started a novel called A Peculiar Peril, it's gotten my attention long enough to keep reading it. It's about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying.
I've recently taken to rereading Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, after listening to a number of reviews lambasting the novel. It was interesting when I first read it several years ago, but I decided to be analytical this time around, and as much as I detest reviewers (the aggressive kind which demands you think the way they do), I'd have to agree with some of their points. The structure is bizarrely off-kilter, and some of the major viewpoint characters are rather unlikable. I know a lot of readers dislike it when King, in his larger works, takes a road away from the narrative and begins offering insight and history into the plot-crucial township or county, but I've always adored it, even in The Tommyknockers for all its flaws. It provides a sense of scale or importance, and feels like it includes the entire geography of a location as a vital actor in the narrative.
Dark Trade - Lost in Boxing. A book which explores the fighter's world. From tragic injury, to conversations with fighter such as Mike Tyson or Evander Holyfield, it's an incredible read. Also it's my first post, quite pleased to join the forums!
Scythe by Neal Schusterman It's been good so far. I started it yesterday and I'm almost halfway through. It's an interesting perspective of death.
I'm taking a break from fiction and reading A Cheesemonger's History of the British Isles by Ned Palmer. It's exactly as it sounds - a history of cheese, from Neolithic times to present day. Fascinating!
I'm on a John Le Carre book at the moment, which I think was primarily because of the recent death of the author. A Delicate Truth was the book I went for, but it could have been any one of so many. I can't remember ever reading a John Le Carre book before, if I did it might have been The Tailor of Panama, but that also might have been a film I watched a long time ago with Pierce Brosnan in; my memory is sitting comfortably on the fence on that one. Anyway, be that as it may, I'm enjoying the book so far.
Just finished A Chance at Love by Beverly Jenkins. Finishing up The Order Of The Pale Moon Reflected In Water by Zen Cho. **Need to figure out what to read next while im waiting for At Night All Blood Is Black by Diop (**Edit: found The Sojourned by Andrew Krivak, and The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon. those seem pretty good, and I like Krivak's writing so....)
Soooo many Le Carres. I might have read 3 or 6... kind of hard to remember. It's not they're all the same, but they're all kind of... the same?
Isn't that the problem with successful authors, the template tends to stay the same. Rinse and repeat I guess. I like the novel I'm reading but I'm not sure I will read any more.
Kind of? I'd say with Le Carre that he was so prolific for so long and so ubiquitously represented in other media that it all kind of blended together for me. I was also very late to the party... only been reading him for the last few years. Unlike King or Clancy, who I've been reading since I was a kid.
Well, bit on the late side myself, although I have seen several of his books on film. I've read Clancy when I was much younger, not King, never did get into King.
I haven't read it myself, but I know someone who's absolutely crazy about that series. I've picked up quite a bit of secondhand information.
Hello! I'm new to the forum, just joined today. I haven't read much fiction since school and certainly didn't expect to have ideas for my own fiction writing! I'm currently reading Sahara by Michael Palin, Shtum by Jem Lester and Three Men on the Bummel (in audiobook form). I like the humour in Sahara and it's so interesting to read about such far-flung places. I was recommended Shtum as it has a neurodiverse character, which is interesting for me as various family members and friends are autistic and have specific learning difficulties. Three Men in a Boat was the first ever book that I read using my ears, earlier this year, and Three Men on the Bummel doesn't seem quite as biting in its humour and evocative in its description so far but is still very funny.
And so begins my new year of reading, which will be highly focused on gothic literature but not completely as there is a lit of other things to study as well. But this first month is a bit of fun with some more modern gothic literature. I'm taking on Paul Tremblay's novel A Head full of Ghosts today. I'm looking forward to the deceptive unreliability of the narrator I've heard is present. It's a hallmark of the genre that I've always enjoyed. I'll let you know how it is when I finish it later today. Short read at only around 300 pages.
