Currently on this this:
Christopher Clarey
The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer. Decent biography of arguably the greatest ever.
What have you read recently?
Stephen King - Holly
Given to me as a gift for Xmas. I am obliged to read his books as I have read all previous ones bar two, however I knew going in that this character is his worst ever so I didn’t have high hopes.
It turned out to be ok, quite a grisly tale done in the usual King style. However the book should have been called ‘Covid’ as I’m pretty sure it was referenced on every page. It became quite tiring …we get it mate, you hate anti vaxxers.
There was also the obligatory Trump bashing that has been in his last few books. Again very tiring.
Not as good as Billy Summers but way better than Fairy Tale that’s for sure. That was my 25th for the year which I’m happy with as there were many weeks I wasn’t reading
@Homegrove you read this one?
15 days later
I reread Dune, and the read Dune Messiah for the first time in preparation for Villeneuve’s Dune Part 2. Messiah was a sort of an epilogue to the story of Paul Artreides, set 12 years after Dune. You can see how it influenced George RR Martin with the Game of Thrones-books. It was 300 pages of people scheming and plotting against each other with no action, and exactly one worm.
a month later
Blake Crouch - Dark Matter. It’s been made for Apple TV+, premiering in May, and starring Joel Edgerton with Jennifer Connelly. A multiverse scifi, with a lot of WTF moments, and will probably make a very entertaining TV show, because it was plotted very well. But the writing was pretty bad. I’d compare it to DaVinci-code in terms of the language. That was the book I was most reminded of when reading this.
Am reading Champion Thinking by Simon Mundie.
Mainly because I was his best man.
I just finished Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. Probably not his best and takes a while to get going but worth it when it does.
4.5 / 5
Also finally got round to Infinte Ground by Martin MacInnes - super weird
2 / 5
Been reading James Clavell - Tai Pan (pt 2 of the Asian saga after Shogun) for about 3 months now. It’s literally 6 books combined into one monster book. Epic doesn’t do it justice. Not as good as Shogun so far but still excellent.
Still, when you consider that after 40 ish years old, you’ve only got about 4 or 5 hundred books left before you pop your cloggs, should you really be nuking a noticeably large amount of that for one book.
14 days later
Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Entertaining.
This is the first book I’ve completed reading since February of last year. My reading mojo declined heavily. 
10 days later
Jo Nesbø - Killing Moon
The usual lengthy, hard-boiled Harry Hole caper: drugs, sex, murder, booze, regret.
Quite good, though, when it gets going. 
JonQPublik I loved Shades of Grey, and like you want that sequel
Jon, have you gotten into Red Side Story yet?
Amps I haven’t. I still need to buy it too. 
Skagboys by Irvine Welsh.
First half excellent and the Sick Boy/Maria story is the darkest thing I’ve read in a long time.
Second half shite.
JonQPublik It’s defo worth it, but be warned, I think it’s the last in the series, rather than the trilogy we were promised.
Operation Chastise (The Dam Busters)
Incredible war time story, Barnes Wallis was some inventor
Amps I just discovered I have to wait until May 7 for RSS
Finised Tai Pan last night. 4 and a half months. Fucking hell. Bought the next one in the saga (‘Gai Jin’) but it’ll be a while before I pick it up.
JonQPublik Worth the wait!
2 months later
Stephen King has a new short story collection out, that has a sort of sequel to Cujo in it, so I thought it best to reread said novel, as I’ve only read it once, and it was 30 years ago and in Finnish. Jesus Christ I’m struggling with it. King’s worst book, and I’ve read Roadwork and Thinner. Just 304 pages, and it’s taken me 4 days to get halfway through it. He famously has said he can’t remember writing it, due to being REALLY into drugs and booze at the time, and it shows.
Not seen the movie ever, it’s apparently held up pretty good for a movie where the rabid dog is a man in a suite half the time.
11 days later
Stephen King - You Like It Darker. A collection of short stories, likely his last released while he’s still alive. He’s 76, and releases one collection every ten years or so, so another one yet after this one would be pushing it a bit. Some repetition of his earlier works, but still damn good. Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream is one of the best things he’s written in a while. Also the longest in the book, almost a novel at 150 pages. It’ll get bought for an adaption soon I’m willing to bet.
Robert Sapolski - Determined.
WE HAVE NO FREE WILL!
Interesting take on free will, or lack thereof by a neuroscience professor and its consequences particularly referencing differences in penal systems and how/whether you punish those that can’t be culpable. There’s a very good bit in the middle debunking chaos theory, quantum randomisation and emergent complexity as ways of introducing a random conscious generator into the equation. Agree with him or not it’s a thought provoking read.
9 days later
Finally read Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 after buying it ten years ago. I can understand why it’s a classic, but not why it had to be so long. 519 pages of the same thing all over again. Maybe I just don’t like satire in novel form (I love it in movies), struggled with Don DeLillo’s White Noise too.
8 days later
- Edited
Paul Tremblay - A Head Full of Ghosts. A very fine horror novel. I bought it years ago, then put it down almost right away because it was giving me too much anxiety. A great twist on the excorcism subgenre, the ending managed to surprise me twice.
The most dangerous man in Brighton - Martin Webb. A crime fiction tale of a big Brighton gangster Billy Murphy takes on a college dropout Buster Brett who rises to second in command then one day he decides to steal a load of cash from his boss and goes on the run.
It’s an easy read and a half decent story with a few twists and turns.
James O’Brien - How they broke Britain.
If you listen to his radio show then you’ve heard him banging on about it every chance he gets. I’ve only just finished the second chapter after the long introduction but the detail on the first two chapters is outstanding as it’s about Rupert Murdoch & Paul Dacre. I’m already lived and I haven’t got onto the politicians yet. So far it’s very good.
2 months later
Anyone read Resolution, the final book in Irvine Welsh’s Crime trilogy? Fucking hell, it’s brutal.
Euro 88 by Steven Scragg, who is a thoroughly overrated football writer.
Along_the_Wire
Been watching the second series on ITV. It’s also very brutal
2 months later
I reread Jeff Vandermeer’s Area X-trilogy (Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance) because he’s got a new Area X-novel coming out next month. It’s one of my favorite books ever (I count it as one, as it’s all one story really, and I own it as an omnibus-edition), just really good deeply unsettling stuff. Garland’s movie adaptation of Annihilation has almost nothing in common with the book, except the fucked up mood and female characters. But I love the movie too. They are just two completely different things.
‘When the sparrow falls’ by Neil Sharpson - best book I’ve read in years. Superb.
David Morrell - First Blood (1972). I’ve been reading this every few years since I was a teenager. It’s a masterpiece.