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  • What have you read recently?

I only read when I’m on me holibobs.

Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Only just started it but it’s good fun and well written so far.

    I read a lot of historical fiction. I finished a trilogy a couple weeks ago about Eleanor of Aquitaine, by Elizabeth Chadwick.
    1) The Summer Queen - about her marriage to Louis of France and their journey to Jerusalem for the Second Crusade
    2) The Winter Crown - annulment from Louis and the beginning to middle of her marriage to Henry II
    3) The Autumn Throne - mid-marriage, imprisonment and through her death.

    There’s a lot of great historical detail mixed in with some great fiction. Not too much romance, because this poor lady lived through some crazy shit, but a great story all the same.

    Wally Was a fair book, imo. Decent enough for me to read its follow-up Children of Ruin.

        Jules72 brilliant book, absolutely flew through it. just got a copy of Liberation Through Hearing which im looking forward to, think its by the guy that ran XL Records.

          21 days later

          ‘The Curry Guy’ - Dan Toombs

          (lol) Got it for father’s day as I quite enjoy cooking and decided to give it a whirl this week. Knocked up a top drawer madras that I would have been happy with from a restaurant so job done book. Good work. Recommended if you wanna make good home curries. Be aware though, it’s a three or four stage process the first time so not something you can knock up in a single go.

          ‘Children of time’ turned out to be fucking great. Loved it. Currently reading ‘Natives’ by Akala as I really like the guy and thought I would do some self education in light of BLM.

          Currently working through a few crime thrillers from the Kindle store, some have been ok, a couple have been below average, makes me wonder how they get published to be honest.

          I have some Norman Mailer books coming shortly, not read him before, so looking forward to a new author

          6 days later

          48 Laws of POWERRRRR!!!!! By Robert Green.

          Fucking amazing! Wish I’d read it 20 years ago!! Coulda saved me alot of trouble!

          Just finished The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.
          Yes, it’s a Richard and Judy Book Club recommendation. It’s a bit like a Wasily mix, not very challenging but it makes you very happy. A solid 8.5/10. If you have a better summer beach read then you’re lying.

          If It Bleeds. A new collection of four long short stories by Stephen King. He’s still on the good streak that started with The Outsider. Incidentally this has a sequel story to that, which is also the weakest of the four.

            Yeah, it surprised me too. Did not expect that direction.

            Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett. Nice follow up to Foundryside. Not groundbreaking, but book 2s are usually middlefodder. The magic system in the series is well thought out though.

            The Companions by Katie M. Flynn. It garnered mediocre reviews (some especially bonkers I-hated-it’s on Goodreads. PS: even as a reader, never read Goodreads reviews, some people are just being cunts for cunt’s sake). I liked it, even though it gave me the creeps. Kinda reminded me of Philip K. Dick’s stories, but also reminiscent of the movie A.I. (just less technicolor).

            The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Decent epic fantasy novel, even if a bit traditional.

            The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. I’m gonna go against a lot of those bitchy Goodreads people on this one too– I thought it was fantastic. It’s 64-65 years before the events of The Hunger Games… did those twits really think the games would have been all the glamour and spectacle that they became? It’s gritty, dirty, and makes Coriolanus Snow seem far more human than who he became. And yeah, I’d read another Hunger Games prequel if Ms. Collins dared so. I kinda want to see Snow’s rise to power.

            a month later

            Lovecraft Country starts on HBO next week, and instead of buying it I bought a collection of all the classics from the horrible racist himself. Read through 3 stories last night, and it took me about half an hour. Most of them are not long. I was worried about the style, and whether they would seem silly, but I am happy to report that it’s ok, and they are more disturbing then silly still. I’ve last read any of them as a teenager, and now the amount of influence he’s had is amazing to notice.

            Reading Rave On by Matthew Collin at the moment. Picked it up at the Design Museum electronic exhibition. Very good so far. Read the Berlin and Ibiza chapters so far. Now on to Vegas

              I’ve just started on liberation through hearing about the history of XL records by Richard Russell. Would love to know anyone’s thoughts who’ve read it.

              JonQPublik finished Children of ruin too. Also great. Tchaikovsky announced there’s a third one planned at some point. 👍🏻

              Started on ‘Dark Matter’ by Blake Crouch. Good so far.

                22 days later

                He is going to kill us all in the end you know!