Finish 52 Books 2023

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25594

Grim... wrote:

Hello! Do you have an eBook reader? Would you like a free book? I wrote it, so it's rubbish, but I'd love some notes on how to make it better (and where all the spelling mistakes are).

Bobby described it as "space Jack Reacher hangs out with a sex robot", which is pretty accurate.

Hit me up and I'll send you a copy.

OMG Grim… I missed this post completely. Blinking well done. That’s incredible. How long have you been writing it for? Absolutely brilliant! Are you going to submit it for publication?

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 25594

Sex robot or sexy robot?

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 18, 2023 17:01

Mimi wrote:

OMG Grim… I missed this post completely. Blinking well done. That’s incredible. How long have you been writing it for? Absolutely brilliant! Are you going to submit it for publication?

Quite a while: viewtopic.php?p=943404#p943404

Mimi wrote:

Sex robot or sexy robot?

Yes.

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6515

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was a sex robot, it was a sexy robot..."

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

That thread is _great_

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 18, 2023 17:35

It really is. I'd forgotten I used to call that girl Tinkerbell

I wonder how she's getting on now. TO THE CORPOSTALK!

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 18, 2023 17:36

She works for a real estate company, and has brown hair now. I think she might be Facebook friends with me. TO THE PERSONALLIFEOSTALK!

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 18, 2023 17:37

She's deleted her account.

What a rollercoaster! This was far better than anything I've written in that stupid book.

MaliA · **Posted:** Tue Jul 18, 2023 19:24

MaliA wrote:

Ok, Boomer.

This was underappreciated

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 18, 2023 22:03

I did,.indeed,.miss that.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38464

Grim... wrote:

She works for a real estate company, and has brown hair now. I think she might be Facebook friends with me. TO THE PERSONALLIFEOSTALK!

Amazed she didn't go into porn. You were so convincing

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Jul 19, 2023 13:27

Grim... wrote:

I did,.indeed,.miss that.

What the fuck did I type that on, my kindle?!

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6515

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1.) Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully
2.) Father Brown - G.K.Chesterton
3.) The Kean Land - Jack Schaefer
4.) To the Devil - a Daughter! - Dennis Wheatley.
5.) Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers.
6.) Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin.
7.) South by Java Head - Alistair MacLean.
8.) Sharpe's Triumph - Bernard Cornwell.
9.) Sharpe's Fortress - Bernard Cornwell.
10.) Sharpe's Trafalgar - Bernard Cornwell.
11). HMS Ulysses - Alistair MacLean.
12.) The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer.
13.) Gateway to Hell - Dennis Wheatley.

14.) Sharpe's Prey - Bernard Cornwell.
Sean Bean heads off to sunny Copenhagen, to shoot some baddies, woo some ladies and generally kick ass. All the Sharpe books are essentially the same, but I'm enjoying reading them and I doubt I'll get tired anytime soon!

Next up, Grim's book! Although currently I'm only reading it on my laptop so another physical book might sneak in as well.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Wed Jul 26, 2023 12:51

Curiosity wrote:

I read a book!

"Titanium Noir" by Nick Harkaway

This is quite different to his other books, but no less good. It's a noir detective story set in the near future, written in first person as the detective, and it's great. Very accessible, very fun, very recommended.

I read a second book!

"The Ferryman" by Justin Cronin

Mister Cronin is the author of the fantastic 'The Passage' trilogy, which took some standard apocalyptic tropes and made incredible books out of them.

The Ferryman takes some other standard science fiction tropes and makes a very good book out of them. Occasionally it does so in a slightly predictable way, but equally it's normally for a pretty decent reason.

In short, it's about a nice island where everyone has lovely extended lives, and everything is hunky dory. Apart from it really isn't, as our protagonist is about to find out... I don't want to to say too much about it as half of the fun is finding out what's going on, should anyone wish to read it.

Kern · **Posted:** Wed Aug 09, 2023 8:42

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
4. Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner
5. My Name's Not Friday by Jon Walter
6. All That Remains by Sue Black
7. Aftermath by Harald Jähner (tr. S Whiteside)
8. God: an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
9.A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner
10.How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt
11. Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis
12.The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
13.A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins
14. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
15. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. Eversion by Alistair Reynolds
17. The Irish Difference: a tumultuous history of Ireland's breakup with Britain by Fergal Tobin
18. Fake Heroes by Otto English
19. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
20. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

21. The Department of Truth: volume 1 - The End of the World by James Tynion IV; art by Martin Simmonds

A writer specialising in conspiracy theory culture is recruited to an X-Files-like double secret government organisation tasked with keeping them from entering our reality. The artwork really adds to the sense of mystery and bewilderment. Will probably pick up the later volumes in time.

Massive spoiler:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

Who could run such a department other than Mr Conspiracy himself, everyone's favourite lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald?!
Brilliant twist

22.One..Two..Three..Four - The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown

First read this back in 2020 and it's just as enjoyable the second time round. In fact, John becomes an even bigger dick.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.

Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart. Beautifully written story about growing up poor with an alcoholic mother in Glasgow. Grim subject, well told.

The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik. I've raved about the first two in this trilogy before, and this is just as good. Novik's brilliant - I haven't read the Temeraire series yet but that's a highlight. This one follows a sorceress as she goes through school and out the other side, trying not to fulfil a prophecy and become the destroyer of worlds. She's also realistically grumpy, which is a great trick to pull off. I suppose the themes are universal - love, family is best, good vs evil (the complicated both-in-all version), but they're done so well that you can just as easily just get wrapped up in the story as care about them. Brilliant.

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6515

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1.) Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully
2.) Father Brown - G.K.Chesterton
3.) The Kean Land - Jack Schaefer
4.) To the Devil - a Daughter! - Dennis Wheatley.
5.) Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers.
6.) Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin.
7.) South by Java Head - Alistair MacLean.
8.) Sharpe's Triumph - Bernard Cornwell.
9.) Sharpe's Fortress - Bernard Cornwell.
10.) Sharpe's Trafalgar - Bernard Cornwell.
11). HMS Ulysses - Alistair MacLean.
12.) The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer.
13.) Gateway to Hell - Dennis Wheatley.
14.) Sharpe's Prey - Bernard Cornwell.

15.) Aunt's aren't Gentlemen - P.G. Wodehouse.
Old Pelham Grenville was about 93 when he wrote this, and it shows a little bit. Not the best Jeeves & Wooster novel by a long shot, but a nice little read anyhow. The plot is entirely nonsense, but it doesn't really matter.

Kern · **Posted:** Mon Aug 21, 2023 19:48

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
4. Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner
5. My Name's Not Friday by Jon Walter
6. All That Remains by Sue Black
7. Aftermath by Harald Jähner (tr. S Whiteside)
8. God: an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
9.A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner
10.How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt
11. Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis
12.The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
13.A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins
14. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
15. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. Eversion by Alistair Reynolds
17. The Irish Difference: a tumultuous history of Ireland's breakup with Britain by Fergal Tobin
18. Fake Heroes by Otto English
19. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
20. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
21. The Department of Truth: volume 1 - The End of the World by James Tynion IV; art by Martin Simmonds
22.One..Two..Three..Four - The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown

23.British Rail: the Making and Breaking of Our Trains by Christian Wolmar

BR: not as awful as we remember but not as good as it could have been.

This is an enjoyable if depressing tale of an organisation and industry that was denied the investment it needed when it most mattered and internally took too long to distance itself from the days of steam and the pre-1948 ways of working. It had just got itself in shape when the Tories decided to trash it despite not really knowing what they were doing or why.

Sone surprises here: Pacers become the unexpected saviours of the regional network, and even folk villain Dr Beeching (is he more hated than Yoko?) gets praise for some of his better ideas.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 23, 2023 19:17

KovacsC wrote:

1. No Plan B - Lee & Andrew Child
2. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
3. The Man who Died Twice - Richard Osman
4. The Bullet that missed - Richard Osman
5. First Man In - Ant Middleton.
6. The Moscow Sleeper. - Stella Rimmington.

7. Shaken - J. A. Konrath.

Working thorough the Jack Daniels Mystery. it is good to be back in this world

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik

Wild Fell - Lee Schofield. How the Lake District is and how parts of it could be, as told by a farmer. A farmer who works for the RSPB, who own large tracts of land. It's really interesting, if a little unstructured, and the tone is defensive because the nudge to write it seems to have been all the criticism from other farmers. But I was convinced - fewer (but not no) sheep allows a far wider range of plants to grow and the ecosystem benefits hugely.

The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies. Three books spanning time in Canada across WWI and beyond. Great storytelling. I'm not sure I can really say what it's about, but the three books follow three lives from a small village and see where they end up. Picked it up because it's apparently the favourite book of a bloke I don't know (the 'This is True' newsletter, which I've got without thinking is vital for years). But I was convinced enough to remember it, buy a copy, forget I had and buy another, so if you want one, let me know.

Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith. Excellent thriller starring Arkady Renko. Smith conjures an air of depression but something more from the Russian (here Cuban) settings. I remembered the start of this, so might have read it before, but could not remember the end so surely I didn't finish it, as it's a doozy. I always plan to read more of these, having discovered them late (books of the 80/90s - Gorky Park was made into a film in 1983) then forget which ones I've read. But they're excellent, and like the Robertson Davies, pretty timeless. Or perhaps, very good at describing their time without it seeming like an anachronism.

Kern · **Posted:** Fri Sep 08, 2023 18:13

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
4. Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner
5. My Name's Not Friday by Jon Walter
6. All That Remains by Sue Black
7. Aftermath by Harald Jähner (tr. S Whiteside)
8. God: an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
9.A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner
10.How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt
11. Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis
12.The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
13.A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins
14. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
15. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. Eversion by Alistair Reynolds
17. The Irish Difference: a tumultuous history of Ireland's breakup with Britain by Fergal Tobin
18. Fake Heroes by Otto English
19. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
20. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
21. The Department of Truth: volume 1 - The End of the World by James Tynion IV; art by Martin Simmonds
22.One..Two..Three..Four - The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
23.British Rail: the Making and Breaking of Our Trains by Christian Wolmar

24. The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay

A very engaging look at life during the Interregnum/Commonwealth/Protectorate era, following the lives of people from across the social strata and the country.
I always find the hardest part of understanding the 17th Century is the centrality of religion to life and politics, and Keay does a good job of explaining where people sit and why it mattered without disrupting the narrative.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Sep 20, 2023 21:05

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

]b]Corruptible - Brian Klaas[/b] Why we get the leaders we do, and how it is all our own fault, but there are ways to make it better. It's engaging, readable, and makes one think. There's a few ideas I I have seen elsewhere, but worth the time to go through it. Pair with How To Rig An Election for maximum eye row raising.

Spare - Captain Wales Christ, this is a ride and a half. It's very poorly written, and he comes over like Holden Caulfield without the whimsy. Really picks up in the final third with ALL THE GOSSIP. I ended up feeling some sympathy for him.

A Talent for War - Jack McDevit this bloke's uncle dies, and it is Very Mysterious, but his uncle was researching something, so this bloke picks up the trail. It's a good space adventure, and nods towards how we view our own history, it being written by the winners, and the legends that grow around powerful historical figures.

It's well worth the look.

Far From The Light of Heaven - Tade Thompson On a spaceship, travelling through interstellar space, the first officer wakes up from hypersleep to find the ship 's AI wiped, and thirty passengers out of the thousand on board who were also asleep out of their pods and very much dead. Really good locked room mystery.

The Employees - Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitkin) this is proper good. This is weirdly proper good. Life on board a spaceship through the employee's eyes. Highly recommended. Absolutely superb.

Cwen - Alice Abinia a book about life in an island where women begin to take over and what follows. It's a lot better than it sounds, and I probably would have been better reading it a lot more carefully.

Artemis - Andy Weir a caper on the moon. Similar in style to the Martian, but isn't as good. Dialogue felt clunky and awkward at times.

Beyond the Burn Line
by Paul J. McAuley

The earth is inhabited by evolved racoons now free from being enslaved by intelligent bears. They are trying to work out what went on.

It's OK, but I didn't massively enjoy it.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Absolutely loved this. Across three timelines, there's an anomaly witnessed. It's a great read, and lovely.

Recommend this!

The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz

The story of a planet made to be sold to people to live on as a holiday place, and those who take care of it through its life.

Yeah, I didn't like this
The first third was good, the second not so much, the third took a nose dive. Avoid.

Eversion by Alistair Reynolds

A vice enjoying surgeon joins a ship's crew on a private expedition to find a mysterious structure to gain fame and fortune in the absolutely brilliant mystery horror novel.

It was 99p so grab it on Kindle. I loved every page.

Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Sequel to the first book Children of Time.

I didn't like it as much and it was a slog at times.
[Spoiler]
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

This is very good, indeed. It's a saddening, horrific tale of someone trying to take down an empire. Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Good lord this is great. Highly recommend this about life on earth after a pandemic.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Sep 20, 2023 21:09

Oh FFS

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Sep 20, 2023 21:11

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Sep 20, 2023 21:18

MaliA wrote:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

]b]Corruptible - Brian Klaas[/b] Why we get the leaders we do, and how it is all our own fault, but there are ways to make it better. It's engaging, readable, and makes one think. There's a few ideas I I have seen elsewhere, but worth the time to go through it. Pair with How To Rig An Election for maximum eye row raising.

Spare - Captain Wales Christ, this is a ride and a half. It's very poorly written, and he comes over like Holden Caulfield without the whimsy. Really picks up in the final third with ALL THE GOSSIP. I ended up feeling some sympathy for him.

A Talent for War - Jack McDevit this bloke's uncle dies, and it is Very Mysterious, but his uncle was researching something, so this bloke picks up the trail. It's a good space adventure, and nods towards how we view our own history, it being written by the winners, and the legends that grow around powerful historical figures.

It's well worth the look.

Far From The Light of Heaven - Tade Thompson On a spaceship, travelling through interstellar space, the first officer wakes up from hypersleep to find the ship 's AI wiped, and thirty passengers out of the thousand on board who were also asleep out of their pods and very much dead. Really good locked room mystery.

The Employees - Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitkin) this is proper good. This is weirdly proper good. Life on board a spaceship through the employee's eyes. Highly recommended. Absolutely superb.

Cwen - Alice Abinia a book about life in an island where women begin to take over and what follows. It's a lot better than it sounds, and I probably would have been better reading it a lot more carefully.

Artemis - Andy Weir a caper on the moon. Similar in style to the Martian, but isn't as good. Dialogue felt clunky and awkward at times.

Beyond the Burn Line
by Paul J. McAuley

The earth is inhabited by evolved racoons now free from being enslaved by intelligent bears. They are trying to work out what went on.

It's OK, but I didn't massively enjoy it.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Absolutely loved this. Across three timelines, there's an anomaly witnessed. It's a great read, and lovely.

Recommend this!

The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz

The story of a planet made to be sold to people to live on as a holiday place, and those who take care of it through its life.

Yeah, I didn't like this
The first third was good, the second not so much, the third took a nose dive. Avoid.

Eversion by Alistair Reynolds

A vice enjoying surgeon joins a ship's crew on a private expedition to find a mysterious structure to gain fame and fortune in the absolutely brilliant mystery horror novel.

It was 99p so grab it on Kindle. I loved every page.

Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Sequel to the first book Children of Time.

I didn't like it as much and it was a slog at times.
[Spoiler]
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

This is very good, indeed. It's a saddening, horrific tale of someone trying to take down an empire. Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Good lord this is great. Highly recommend this about life on earth after a pandemic.

Monster by Seth Dickinson

Baru Cormorant continues doing stuff.Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Knowing it is a trilogy removes a lot of the jeopardy

Kern · **Posted:** Sun Sep 24, 2023 17:19

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
4. Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner
5. My Name's Not Friday by Jon Walter
6. All That Remains by Sue Black
7. Aftermath by Harald Jähner (tr. S Whiteside)
8. God: an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
9.A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner
10.How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt
11. Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis
12.The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
13.A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins
14. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
15. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. Eversion by Alistair Reynolds
17. The Irish Difference: a tumultuous history of Ireland's breakup with Britain by Fergal Tobin
18. Fake Heroes by Otto English
19. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
20. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
21. The Department of Truth: volume 1 - The End of the World by James Tynion IV; art by Martin Simmonds
22.One..Two..Three..Four - The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
23.British Rail: the Making and Breaking of Our Trains by Christian Wolmar
24. The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay

25. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Public schoolboy goes to war: doesn't enjoy it.

Orwell's classic book about life on the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War. His descriptions of the atmosphere of those times and his account of life on the front-line are top-notch and a testament to his journalistic abilities. Skip the appendices about left-wing in-fighting: you really don't need to know who betrayed who to get a sense of the paranoia of the time.

26. If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg

Are people better than beasts? Are the so-called lower species better than us? How does human intelligence differ from the other inhabitants of this planet?

This book takes a high-level survey of current thinking about theories of mind and what we know about animals. It's very readable but as with all pop science books suffers from the need to cover a lot in a very limited amount of time.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.

The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu. Hardcore science fiction that had me a bit obsessed. Earth encounters a different civilisation, far more powerful, and is surely going to be crushed. Leads to much philosophical pondering of what other civilisations might exist, how that might help, and ultimately spans many many years, with technology expanding. Despite focusing on a few key indivduals, there's an undercurrent of taking a macro-view of humanity - that long-term existence matters, and individuals don't - that feltl a bit too much a product of a collective society but isn't unconvincing. Netflix have attempted to bring it to the screen.

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6515

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1.) Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully
2.) Father Brown - G.K.Chesterton
3.) The Kean Land - Jack Schaefer
4.) To the Devil - a Daughter! - Dennis Wheatley.
5.) Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers.
6.) Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin.
7.) South by Java Head - Alistair MacLean.
8.) Sharpe's Triumph - Bernard Cornwell.
9.) Sharpe's Fortress - Bernard Cornwell.
10.) Sharpe's Trafalgar - Bernard Cornwell.
11). HMS Ulysses - Alistair MacLean.
12.) The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer.
13.) Gateway to Hell - Dennis Wheatley.
14.) Sharpe's Prey - Bernard Cornwell.
15.) Aunt's aren't Gentlemen - P.G. Wodehouse.

16.) The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin.
My brain completely dropped out of reading mode for the last 6 weeks, until an un expected visit from our coronaviral friend gave me some extra time on my hands, even though I can't really concentrate. This book is about a wizard. He goes to the kingdom of Death and then comes back.

I'll still reading Grim's book, although the above-mentioned 6 weeks has slowed me down, along with the fact that my eyes hate reading on a screen. Its' very good so far, funny and exciting and sci-fi-y, and I can confirm that the sex robot is, in fact, also a sexy robot.

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14489

Squirt wrote:

16.) The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin.
My brain completely dropped out of reading mode for the last 6 weeks, until an un expected visit from our coronaviral friend gave me some extra time on my hands, even though I can't really concentrate. This book is about a wizard. He goes to the kingdom of Death and then comes back.

It's been an incredibly long time since I read it but I'm sure thats part of a trilogy by Le Guin so if you've not read the others they are probably worth picking up

** edit ** and after checking it is now one of 5 Earthsea books (the two newer ones came in 1990 and 2001)

MaliA · **Posted:** Fri Sep 29, 2023 16:02

MaliA wrote:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

]b]Corruptible - Brian Klaas[/b] Why we get the leaders we do, and how it is all our own fault, but there are ways to make it better. It's engaging, readable, and makes one think. There's a few ideas I I have seen elsewhere, but worth the time to go through it. Pair with How To Rig An Election for maximum eye row raising.

Spare - Captain Wales Christ, this is a ride and a half. It's very poorly written, and he comes over like Holden Caulfield without the whimsy. Really picks up in the final third with ALL THE GOSSIP. I ended up feeling some sympathy for him.

A Talent for War - Jack McDevit this bloke's uncle dies, and it is Very Mysterious, but his uncle was researching something, so this bloke picks up the trail. It's a good space adventure, and nods towards how we view our own history, it being written by the winners, and the legends that grow around powerful historical figures.

It's well worth the look.

Far From The Light of Heaven - Tade Thompson On a spaceship, travelling through interstellar space, the first officer wakes up from hypersleep to find the ship 's AI wiped, and thirty passengers out of the thousand on board who were also asleep out of their pods and very much dead. Really good locked room mystery.

The Employees - Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitkin) this is proper good. This is weirdly proper good. Life on board a spaceship through the employee's eyes. Highly recommended. Absolutely superb.

Cwen - Alice Abinia a book about life in an island where women begin to take over and what follows. It's a lot better than it sounds, and I probably would have been better reading it a lot more carefully.

Artemis - Andy Weir a caper on the moon. Similar in style to the Martian, but isn't as good. Dialogue felt clunky and awkward at times.

Beyond the Burn Line
by Paul J. McAuley

The earth is inhabited by evolved racoons now free from being enslaved by intelligent bears. They are trying to work out what went on.

It's OK, but I didn't massively enjoy it.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Absolutely loved this. Across three timelines, there's an anomaly witnessed. It's a great read, and lovely.

Recommend this!

The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz

The story of a planet made to be sold to people to live on as a holiday place, and those who take care of it through its life.

Yeah, I didn't like this
The first third was good, the second not so much, the third took a nose dive. Avoid.

Eversion by Alistair Reynolds

A vice enjoying surgeon joins a ship's crew on a private expedition to find a mysterious structure to gain fame and fortune in the absolutely brilliant mystery horror novel.

It was 99p so grab it on Kindle. I loved every page.

Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Sequel to the first book Children of Time.

I didn't like it as much and it was a slog at times.
[Spoiler]
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

This is very good, indeed. It's a saddening, horrific tale of someone trying to take down an empire. Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Good lord this is great. Highly recommend this about life on earth after a pandemic.

Monster by Seth Dickinson

Baru Cormorant continues doing stuff.Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Knowing it is a trilogy removes a lot of the jeopardy

I gave up on the third one as I realised I didn't care

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6515

zaphod79 wrote:

Squirt wrote:

16.) The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin.
My brain completely dropped out of reading mode for the last 6 weeks, until an un expected visit from our coronaviral friend gave me some extra time on my hands, even though I can't really concentrate. This book is about a wizard. He goes to the kingdom of Death and then comes back.

It's been an incredibly long time since I read it but I'm sure thats part of a trilogy by Le Guin so if you've not read the others they are probably worth picking up

** edit ** and after checking it is now one of 5 Earthsea books (the two newer ones came in 1990 and 2001)

Yeah, I read the two previous ones earlier this year and really liked them. I liked this one too, but covid brain isn't really letting me putting it into words right now

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.

Transition - Iain M. Banks. Solid thrilling sci-fi, with a few people (in most worlds; some worlds have more) able to transition into other bodies. Shenanigans follow! Many worlds theory but not used lazily.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.
40. Transition - Iain M. Banks.

Checkmate in Berlin - Giles Milton. I read the introduction ages ago and wasn't grabbed. But I got straight into it when I read the rest. This is a very readable account of the race to Berlin that the Soviets won, and then how the Allies clung on to their presence in the city in the face of provocation and intransigence.

MaliA · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2023 7:27

MaliA wrote:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

]b]Corruptible - Brian Klaas[/b] Why we get the leaders we do, and how it is all our own fault, but there are ways to make it better. It's engaging, readable, and makes one think. There's a few ideas I I have seen elsewhere, but worth the time to go through it. Pair with How To Rig An Election for maximum eye row raising.

Spare - Captain Wales Christ, this is a ride and a half. It's very poorly written, and he comes over like Holden Caulfield without the whimsy. Really picks up in the final third with ALL THE GOSSIP. I ended up feeling some sympathy for him.

A Talent for War - Jack McDevit this bloke's uncle dies, and it is Very Mysterious, but his uncle was researching something, so this bloke picks up the trail. It's a good space adventure, and nods towards how we view our own history, it being written by the winners, and the legends that grow around powerful historical figures.

It's well worth the look.

Far From The Light of Heaven - Tade Thompson On a spaceship, travelling through interstellar space, the first officer wakes up from hypersleep to find the ship 's AI wiped, and thirty passengers out of the thousand on board who were also asleep out of their pods and very much dead. Really good locked room mystery.

The Employees - Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitkin) this is proper good. This is weirdly proper good. Life on board a spaceship through the employee's eyes. Highly recommended. Absolutely superb.

Cwen - Alice Abinia a book about life in an island where women begin to take over and what follows. It's a lot better than it sounds, and I probably would have been better reading it a lot more carefully.

Artemis - Andy Weir a caper on the moon. Similar in style to the Martian, but isn't as good. Dialogue felt clunky and awkward at times.

Beyond the Burn Line
by Paul J. McAuley

The earth is inhabited by evolved racoons now free from being enslaved by intelligent bears. They are trying to work out what went on.

It's OK, but I didn't massively enjoy it.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Absolutely loved this. Across three timelines, there's an anomaly witnessed. It's a great read, and lovely.

Recommend this!

The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz

The story of a planet made to be sold to people to live on as a holiday place, and those who take care of it through its life.

Yeah, I didn't like this
The first third was good, the second not so much, the third took a nose dive. Avoid.

Eversion by Alistair Reynolds

A vice enjoying surgeon joins a ship's crew on a private expedition to find a mysterious structure to gain fame and fortune in the absolutely brilliant mystery horror novel.

It was 99p so grab it on Kindle. I loved every page.

Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Sequel to the first book Children of Time.

I didn't like it as much and it was a slog at times.
[Spoiler]
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

This is very good, indeed. It's a saddening, horrific tale of someone trying to take down an empire. Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Good lord this is great. Highly recommend this about life on earth after a pandemic.

Monster by Seth Dickinson

Baru Cormorant continues doing stuff.Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Knowing it is a trilogy removes a lot of the jeopardy

I gave up on the third one as I realised I didn't care

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Toezs- a decent enough fantasy thriller centered around the use of magic in the modern world

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.
40. Transition - Iain M. Banks.
41. Checkmate in Berlin - Giles Milton.

Exactly - Simon Winchester. Sometimes fascinating history of precision getting evermore... precise, but I found the language increasingly fusty, and some of the description made little sense. The jet engine is introduced, he says it was war that would bring it to the mainstream, then he says "but not immediately", because we're still in 1931. Well, yeah, you said. For me, at it's worst when it feels like he really loves the stuff he's talking about - I found the detail and hyperbole in descriptions of Rolls Royces and cameras partly insufferable. But overall it works.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.
40. Transition - Iain M. Banks.
41. Checkmate in Berlin - Giles Milton.
42. Exactly - Simon Winchester.

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho - Paterson Joseph. Great actor, decent writer, too. The story of a black man in England in the 18th century. The introduction makes it clear (a bit ponderously, but not representative of the book) that this will address the nastier aspects, without being based on them, in order to celebrate a life. Charles/Sancho was real, but there is little detail of his life, so this is definitely fiction. Still, it is divided into four books, two are an entertaining, pseudo Dickensian (in a good way, it works), ride though his early life, then book 3 is letters between Sancho and the woman he wants to marry, before 4 is the rest. I suspect that's because there's more evidence to hang those first couple of books on, but it all gets a bit fragmentary in book 4. Still satisfying overall.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.
40. Transition - Iain M. Banks.
41. Checkmate in Berlin - Giles Milton.
42. Exactly - Simon Winchester.
43. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho - Paterson Joseph.

44. Empire - Conn Iggulden. The follow-up to Lion, concluding the story of Pericles' life. I have to fight the inner teen me, who thought of Athens as the goodies and Sparta as the baddies, when reading about the Peloponnesian War, but this focuses so much on the Greeks that that wasn't a huge problem. I didn't expect the ending, because it compresses a lot of history, turning it into one siege then war at the end when really Sparta came into Attica raiding, year after year, before anything remotely resembling a conclusion, but it's fair enough to keep the pages turning. More competent historical fiction, but it didn't set my world alight.

Kern · **Posted:** Sun Nov 05, 2023 9:24

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
4. Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner
5. My Name's Not Friday by Jon Walter
6. All That Remains by Sue Black
7. Aftermath by Harald Jähner (tr. S Whiteside)
8. God: an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
9.A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner
10.How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt
11. Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis
12.The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
13.A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins
14. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
15. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. Eversion by Alistair Reynolds
17. The Irish Difference: a tumultuous history of Ireland's breakup with Britain by Fergal Tobin
18. Fake Heroes by Otto English
19. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
20. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
21. The Department of Truth: volume 1 - The End of the World by James Tynion IV; art by Martin Simmonds
22.One..Two..Three..Four - The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
23.British Rail: the Making and Breaking of Our Trains by Christian Wolmar
24. The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay
25. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
26. If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg

27 Cultish - the language of fanaticism by Amanda Montell

A look at cults and how the language they use works to attract and keep adherents. After looking at things like Heaven's Gate, Jonestown, and [L Ron Hubbard's totally legitimate religious organisation - Legal Ed.], the author considers how multi-level marketing scams and wellness groups use similar tools. It's very readable, like an extended magazine article, and the most interesting parts are interviews with former participants who still maintain some of the language and some fondness for their time, reminding us not to look down on those sucked in as these were people looking for fellowship, answers, and a better world just as much as the rest of us.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.
40. Transition - Iain M. Banks.
41. Checkmate in Berlin - Giles Milton.
42. Exactly - Simon Winchester.
43. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho - Paterson Joseph.
44. Empire - Conn Iggulden.

This Must be the Place - Maggie O'Farrell. I let this slip down the list on my kindle, and every time I spotted it I decided it was chick-lit or something similar, a fluffy read for some time. But no, Maggie O'Farrell wrote Hamnet, which is excellent. This is very different, a multi-generation, multi-viewpoint look through a family's lives, a simple story to sum up - meeting, falling in love, splitting up, what happens next - but layered with all the angst and fun along the way. Brilliant.

MaliA · **Posted:** Fri Nov 10, 2023 16:25

MaliA wrote:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

]b]Corruptible - Brian Klaas[/b] Why we get the leaders we do, and how it is all our own fault, but there are ways to make it better. It's engaging, readable, and makes one think. There's a few ideas I I have seen elsewhere, but worth the time to go through it. Pair with How To Rig An Election for maximum eye row raising.

Spare - Captain Wales Christ, this is a ride and a half. It's very poorly written, and he comes over like Holden Caulfield without the whimsy. Really picks up in the final third with ALL THE GOSSIP. I ended up feeling some sympathy for him.

A Talent for War - Jack McDevit this bloke's uncle dies, and it is Very Mysterious, but his uncle was researching something, so this bloke picks up the trail. It's a good space adventure, and nods towards how we view our own history, it being written by the winners, and the legends that grow around powerful historical figures.

It's well worth the look.

Far From The Light of Heaven - Tade Thompson On a spaceship, travelling through interstellar space, the first officer wakes up from hypersleep to find the ship 's AI wiped, and thirty passengers out of the thousand on board who were also asleep out of their pods and very much dead. Really good locked room mystery.

The Employees - Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitkin) this is proper good. This is weirdly proper good. Life on board a spaceship through the employee's eyes. Highly recommended. Absolutely superb.

Cwen - Alice Abinia a book about life in an island where women begin to take over and what follows. It's a lot better than it sounds, and I probably would have been better reading it a lot more carefully.

Artemis - Andy Weir a caper on the moon. Similar in style to the Martian, but isn't as good. Dialogue felt clunky and awkward at times.

Beyond the Burn Line
by Paul J. McAuley

The earth is inhabited by evolved racoons now free from being enslaved by intelligent bears. They are trying to work out what went on.

It's OK, but I didn't massively enjoy it.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Absolutely loved this. Across three timelines, there's an anomaly witnessed. It's a great read, and lovely.

Recommend this!

The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz

The story of a planet made to be sold to people to live on as a holiday place, and those who take care of it through its life.

Yeah, I didn't like this
The first third was good, the second not so much, the third took a nose dive. Avoid.

Eversion by Alistair Reynolds

A vice enjoying surgeon joins a ship's crew on a private expedition to find a mysterious structure to gain fame and fortune in the absolutely brilliant mystery horror novel.

It was 99p so grab it on Kindle. I loved every page.

Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Sequel to the first book Children of Time.

I didn't like it as much and it was a slog at times.
[Spoiler]
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

This is very good, indeed. It's a saddening, horrific tale of someone trying to take down an empire. Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Good lord this is great. Highly recommend this about life on earth after a pandemic.

Monster by Seth Dickinson

Baru Cormorant continues doing stuff.Suffers a bit from "too many names" at times, but I forgive it that.

Knowing it is a trilogy removes a lot of the jeopardy

I gave up on the third one as I realised I didn't care

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Toezs- a decent enough fantasy thriller centered around the use of magic in the modern world

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Canterbury but in space, say some. It's brilliant. Also, I felt real human feelings. I haven't read the Canterbury Tales. They're probably not as good as they aren't in space

Grim... · **Posted:** Sat Nov 18, 2023 12:18

Hello, non-fiction nerds!

I think this will appeal to a few of you:
A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures https://amzn.eu/d/dXzL9rZ

Kern · **Posted:** Sat Nov 18, 2023 13:42

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
4. Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner
5. My Name's Not Friday by Jon Walter
6. All That Remains by Sue Black
7. Aftermath by Harald Jähner (tr. S Whiteside)
8. God: an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
9.A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner
10.How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt
11. Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made by James Wallis
12.The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
13.A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins
14. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
15. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. Eversion by Alistair Reynolds
17. The Irish Difference: a tumultuous history of Ireland's breakup with Britain by Fergal Tobin
18. Fake Heroes by Otto English
19. Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
20. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
21. The Department of Truth: volume 1 - The End of the World by James Tynion IV; art by Martin Simmonds
22.One..Two..Three..Four - The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
23.British Rail: the Making and Breaking of Our Trains by Christian Wolmar
24. The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay
25. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
26. If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg
27 Cultish - the language of fanaticism by Amanda Montell

28.The White Ship by Charles Spencer

In November 1120, a shipwreck wiped out the heir to Henry 1 and most of the younger aristocracy (TL;DR: "don't get on the boat when the crew are pissed").

The White Ship, taking its name from the ill-fated vessel opens with this tragedy, then takes us straight back to the Conquest, the reigns of William the Bastard and William 2, before going into detail about how Henry tamed England and Normandy. An account of the wreck takes up the middle of the book, before going on about how Henry tried to secure the succession in light of the death of the heir and ongoing dynastic quarrels with the King of France and various nobles.

It's quite fast paced but after Henry is dead it zooms through the Anarchy a little too quickly. It also suffers from the classic problem of any book on this period by a surfeit of Matlidas, made worse by the author's reluctance to clarify in the text which Matilda he's referring to at any one time without having to resort to the index. Seriously, medieval folks: please be more creative when it comes to naming your kids!

But these gripes aside it's a good account of how fate can disrupt even the best-laid plans and just how the fate of England was bound to the wider politics of the various territories on the left of France as various nobles and kings fought on the battlefield and in the bedroom for overall control.

And yes, it's written by that Charles Spencer.

Kern · **Posted:** Sat Nov 18, 2023 13:43

Grim... wrote:

Hello, non-fiction nerds!

I think this will appeal to a few of you:
A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures https://amzn.eu/d/dXzL9rZ

Looks fun - added to the wistlist!

Grim... · **Posted:** Sat Nov 18, 2023 22:27

Kern wrote:

Grim... wrote:

Hello, non-fiction nerds!

I think this will appeal to a few of you:
A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures https://amzn.eu/d/dXzL9rZ

Looks fun - added to the wistlist!

That'll trump it.

GazChap · **Posted:** Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:23

GazChap wrote:

1. Alien, by Alan Dean Foster
2. Aliens, by Alan Dean Foster
3. Alien 3, by (you guessed it) Alan Dean Foster
4. Jack Reacher: One Shot -- I mistakenly thought this was the first Reacher book, probably because it's the one that the first Tom Cruise movie was based on.
5. Jack Reacher: Killing Floor -- this one *is* the first Reacher book, and is what the TV series was based on.
6. Jack Reacher: Die Trying -- wasn't quite as enjoyable as the other two, perhaps because I struggle to form pictures in my head, but still a good read.

Contrary to my last post, I'm now moving on to The Colour of Magic by Pratchett.

1. Alien, by Alan Dean Foster
2. Aliens, by Alan Dean Foster
3. Alien 3, by (you guessed it) Alan Dean Foster
4. Jack Reacher: One Shot -- I mistakenly thought this was the first Reacher book, probably because it's the one that the first Tom Cruise movie was based on.
5. Jack Reacher: Killing Floor -- this one *is* the first Reacher book, and is what the TV series was based on.
6. Jack Reacher: Die Trying -- wasn't quite as enjoyable as the other two, perhaps because I struggle to form pictures in my head, but still a good read.
7. Jack Reacher: Bad Luck and Trouble -- wot the upcoming season 2 on TV is based on. Very good, gripping from start to finish.

And yes, I gave up on The Colour of Magic. That writing style is just impenetrable -- I'll start on a different Pratchett book at some point, but I've moved on to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin now.

Malc · **Posted:** Sun Nov 19, 2023 12:16

I too couldn't get in to Pratchett, I think I read the first three Discworld books, because people kept on telling me he was really good, but I just couldn't get into them properly.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3214

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
2. Educating Peter - Tom Cox.
3. Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris.
4. The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor.
5. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail - Dan White.
6. No Less the Devil - Stuart MacBridge.
7. The Foot Soldiers - Gerald Seymour.
8. The Sellout - Paul Beatty.
9. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie.
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi.
11. Magnificent Women and Flying Machines - Sally Smith.
12. Lion - Conn Iggulden.
13. I Hate the Internet - Jarett Kobek.
14. Mr Pye - Mervyn Peake.
15. Sidesplitter - Phil Wang.
16. This is True - Miriam Margolyes.
17. La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust 1 - Philip Pullman.
18. Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux.
19. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan.
20. Tenth of December - George Saunders.
21. The First and Last Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future - Olaf Stapledon.
22. Handsome Brute - Sean O'Connor.
23. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
24. How to Make the World Add Up - Tim Harford.
25. The Old Man - Thomas Perry.
26. Rutherford and Fry's Guide to Absolutely Everything - Rutherford and Fry.
27. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
28. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell.
29. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell.
30. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
31. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre.
32. Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel.
33. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes.
34. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart.
35. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
36. Wild Fell - Lee Schofield.
37. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
38. Havana Bay - Martin Cruz Smith.
39. The Dark Forest & Death's End - Cixin Liu.
40. Transition - Iain M. Banks.
41. Checkmate in Berlin - Giles Milton.
42. Exactly - Simon Winchester.
43. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho - Paterson Joseph.
44. Empire - Conn Iggulden.
45. This Must be the Place - Maggie O'Farrell.

Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein. It's fairly short (just over 200 pages), and very bullish. I hadn't realised the film is the satirical response to this bellicose "only military veterans can have the vote" military fiction story. Some argue the original is written that way, but it's hard to see, and I entirely agree with the idea that Heinlein meant it unironically. With all of that context, it's still a good read, with a whole lot of ideas (particularly the powered suits, he's given credit for that idea and all the spinoffs). Even the philosophical sections detailing why veterans are so suited to decision-making, which you need a heck of a squint to view as actually presenting both sides, are interesting and not overlong (it's not Ayn Rand-levels of straw-manning, for sure).

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Nov 22, 2023 22:47

GazChap wrote:

I've moved on to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin now.

It's fantastic.

GazChap · **Posted:** Fri Nov 24, 2023 17:55

1. Alien, by Alan Dean Foster
2. Aliens, by Alan Dean Foster
3. Alien 3, by (you guessed it) Alan Dean Foster
4. Jack Reacher: One Shot -- I mistakenly thought this was the first Reacher book, probably because it's the one that the first Tom Cruise movie was based on.
5. Jack Reacher: Killing Floor -- this one *is* the first Reacher book, and is what the TV series was based on.
6. Jack Reacher: Die Trying -- wasn't quite as enjoyable as the other two, perhaps because I struggle to form pictures in my head, but still a good read.
7. Jack Reacher: Bad Luck and Trouble -- wot the upcoming season 2 on TV is based on. Very good, gripping from start to finish.
8. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin -- as has been said here, brilliant! Even made me cry at a couple of points, which no book has ever managed to do before.

Grim... · **Posted:** Sun Nov 26, 2023 1:41

Grim... wrote:

10) Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
... it's basically written for us. Get on it, nerds.

I stand by this

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