Be Excellent To Each Other

Also someone who knows how to have fun with indexes:

Half way through this for the second time, and it is still a racously funny view on the country I love.

3.) The Last Days of Jack Sparks An actually pretty creepy horror book, with a nicely unreliable narrator and an exorcism and a sort of haunted social mediay kinda twist. Worked very well as a "waiting in an airport" book.

I've not read any horror for ages, I may stick that one in the list.

4) Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman (ABWIRWME)

Enjoyable but much lighter in every sense than Fry's Mythos. Gaiman arguably does a better job of humanising the likes of Thor and Loki, his dialogue is wry and nicely observed. But the stories feel pretty basic in comparison to the Greek myths, and lacking much in the way of deeper meaning. Feels quite Boy's Own adventure in comparison. Very entertaining nonetheless, and was disappointed when it tapped out at the 6 hour mark, but Ragnorak has a habit of bringing things to an end for those Norse dudes.

It was also hugely enjoyable listening to this after recently finishing God of War. It really makes you realise what an incredible job the game devs did bringing that world to life so vividly.

5) 21 Ways to Manage the Stuff That Takes Up Your Time by Grace Marshall (non-fiction, obv)

Standard management stuff. It had a couple of good ideas in, but nothing radical.

I met her once at a 'bizmums' meeting.

Are you guys on goodreads. I’m having my reading challenge there..

I have read 3 of 30 books. https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/20479921

1) Jo Nesbo - The Son
2) Lee Child - Without Fail
3) Jim Denny and Pat Williams - How to be like Walt (Audio)
4) Stephen King - Duma Key

First SK book I've enjoyed in a long time. I got really absorbed in it and would look forward to going to bed and reading some more. I definitely want to go and visit the area that it's based on too.

1000 years of annoying the French - Simon Clarke

Entertaining zip through a millennia of relations between the two countries, and how they are beautifully childish toward each other. I learnt that champagne is an English invention, french wine is mainly from the new world, king Richard was ransomed for £150k, but his brother offers an £80k bribe to keep him imprisonment, and how that "the only thing the English cooked well was Joan of Arc" was actually due to her being betrayed, repeatedly, by her own country.

1) How to be right... in a world gone wrong by James O'Brien
2) Necroscope (Book 1 of the Necroscope Series) by Brian Lumley

The cover might be disturbing to some, so don't click the link if you don't like skulls and tentacles and the like



Really enjoyed this book when I first read it in my teens, and enjoyed re-reading it again. As you can probably tell it's about psychics and spys and stuff, but also includes Vampires (like properly evil ones, none of your sparkles here) and other things like that. This book sets up the series, but it's quite a good story on it's own merits.

I'm not going to make 52 books at this rate, need to up my game a bit.

1) Kate Atkinson - One Good Turn. Fine, but not great. Too much of the inner dialogue of the characters is tedious. Realistically tedious for the entitled English (by which I mean, the ones who act entitled, not that all do), but not what I wanted. It's entertaining when it gets going, but takes too long to get there.
2) Lee Child - Past Tense. There are good Reacher books, and there are average ones. This is a good one, with a slow-burning main plot, and some decent action running alongside it.
3) Grisham - King of Torts. Read it so it can be removed from the house. It's fine. Starts in a rush of excitement, then loses its way, as if the writer lost interest, which I think is my standard response to Grisham.
4) Dracula (abridged). It's a doozy. Kind of hard to read without thinking of everything else I've heard of/seen/read about vampires, but it stands up pretty well.

The issue I have with Dracula (and it isn't all the sex stuff I totally missed) was that the only thing the woman does in was remember a railway timetable.

2. "Queen of the Sea: a history of Lisbon" by Barry Hatton
Very much a short introduction to this fascinating and beautiful city. Read before you visit to understand the key names, dates, and events.

3. "Island Stories: Britain and its history in the age of Brexit" by David Reynolds
Of the "Oh, Britain really is a European country but the people don't really know this" school of contemporary journalism. Not entirely without merit and shows good use of cases throughout the work but Fintan O'Toole's "Heroic Failure" makes more of an argument so read that instead.

Well, yes; the gender politics, as the men tell her to stay behind, and she is very grateful to be allowed to stay behind, are pretty poor.

Currently reading a biography of Agrippina which contains corkers such as





And



Highly recommended

6) Altered Carbon: Download Blues by Richard Morgan and Rik Hoskin (fiction)

Kovacs sluthes and punches his way out of a few problems. I liked it, but Gaywood didn't. Top consumer advice!

1) Jo Nesbo - The Son
2) Lee Child - Without Fail
3) Jim Denny and Pat Williams - How to be like Walt (Audio)
4) Stephen King - Duma Key[/b]
5) Lawrence Levy - To Pixar and Beyond (Audio)
The story of Pixar from when Toy Story was in production until it was bought by Disney following Lawrence's relationship with Steve Jobs. Probably not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

Go me!!

3) The House with Chicken Legs - Sophie Anderson
One of my daughter's books. A lovely read. I cried a few times.

4) The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood
Picked up in Euston Station's WH Smith to entertain me on the train. Eerily reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale in terms of this dystopian "humanity has fucked up and we need to create a solution to fix it" type scenario. Reasonably good read but not as gripping as The Handmaid's Tale.

Also if you got it from a station's WH Smith it cost you £1,000.

You're not far wrong

Hey, they throw in a copy of the Daily Mail!

I wouldn't be caught dead with the Daily Fail

4. "Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and sometimes Zeppo" by Joe Adamson
(subtitled "A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World"*)

Published in 1973, this was for many years the main reference guide to the Marx Brothers' films.As well as archive photos and excerpts from the dialogue, which would have been fans' only real access to their material before the advent of home video, Adamson details the development of each film before launching into lengthy critiques. Not as dull as it sounds, as he is frequently damning about things that don't work, and just as gushing about things that do. He even goes so far as to construct a "nausea index" of the very worst.

As the first major publication on the Marxes and written with the benefit of actually interviewing many of those involved, it's often the source of many stories that reappear in later books and articles to this day, some of which are now not as considered canon as was the case 40 years ago. Despite this, it's still worth reading for any Marx fan to get a sense of the background to their work and to argue with his views on the films' various merits.



*As opposed, of course, to the official memoir of Shropshire Beex, "Jemo, Gazo, Kovo, and sometimes ["Bang"]"

5. "Searching for Black Confederates: the Civil War's Most Persistent Myth" by Kevin M Levin

The Internet has many virtues, but we're learning that one of its worst features is how easy it makes for stuff like conspiracies, myths, pseudosciences, and pseudohistories to spread, and how people end up fooling for and repeating the same discredited idea again and again. One of the most pernicious for those interested in US history is the notion that thousands of African-Americans fought for the Confederacy. Despite being complete crap, it still circulates today, particularly amongst those desperate to cling to the idea that the war was caused by everything but slavery. Circulation of misunderstood documents, butchered photos, and a reluctance to interpret sources just keeps this nonsense alive. I've experienced it online myself, back when I used to frequent ACW forums, and even once left a re-enactment after hearing someone repeat it to the public.

Levin has been documenting and following this on his CW Memory site for over a decade and a half now. In this book he builds on his earlier work to set out not only the role of slaves in the Confederate forces in the war but also their highly patronising portrayal in veterans' journals and reunions afterwards before discussing how the myth appeared as a reaction against the increased focus during recent decards over the role of black Union soldiers (especially after "Glory") and the importance of emancipation as the key victory of the war. The book closes with a consideration of the 150th anniversary events and the debates over monuments.

A useful addition to my collection, providing plenty of useful debunking material and an insight into changing cultural attitudes to the war over the past 160 years. It's also refreshing to get more examples of the African-American experience and seeing the author provide more accurate biographies to those often appearing as "loyal slave" stories. Sadly the people I'd most like to read this are those least likely to.

I’d be interested in that, thanks!

Sadly for such a serious subject, I can't help but chuckle at the authors name. : facepalm: /child

This is not a.time for Kevin Levinty

What's worse if you try to avoid it by stressing different syllables in each part, you're just drawing more attention to it.

1) How to be right... in a world gone wrong by James O'Brien
2) Necroscope (Book 1 of the Necroscope Series) by Brian Lumley
3) Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

A book I'd be meaning to read for ages, (like 30 years or more) and quite a few surprises in there for me, for such and old book. I knew it was quite different to the films and the stereotypes, but I didn't quite know different it was! (Or rather I didn't know ignorant of what actually happens in the book I was). It took me a while to get into it, I think because of the 19th century English, but once I did, I read 90% of in one sitting. There are some amazing insights in there (and I didn't realise how young Mary Shelly was when she wrote it!) and some of what'ts in there rang relevant to today, despite being written over 200 years ago.

That's been on my "I really should read this" list for several years. Will have to make the effort this year.

If I remember right, there was a decent In Our Time podcast on this.

The middle initial "M' in his name stands for "Mevin"

1) The Midnight Line - Lee Childs - Kindle
2) The Chimp Paradox - Dr. Steve Peters - Audiobook
3) Past Tense - Lee Childs - kindle
4) The Unicorn Project - Gene Kim - Hardback

The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Redshirts, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order.

Basically it is the sequel to the Phoenix Project it is a must read for digital transformation

6. "When the Irish invaded Canada" by Christopher Klein

Shortly after the American Civil War, a group of recently-discharged soldiers from both sides decided to liberate Ireland by invading Canada.

Spoiler: It wasn't a roaring success. The Irish groups were heavily divided by splits and personality clashes, whilst being completely infiltrated by British and US spies up to the highest levels of the organisations. Yet despite official neutrality the US was at the time antagonistic towards Britain over the Alabama claims, and there was concern about alienating Irish voters so the US response wasn't as clear as might have been expected.

An enjoyable overview of the period and a part of US/British/Irish history I was pretty unaware of. I didn't realise quite how key the Fenian Raids were to the creation of Canada, and how farcical some of the events were (expected uprisings not happening; US navy ships not being launched on the Great Lakes through skilful drinking sessions with the pilot; numerous splits at the wrong moments). The descriptions of the battles are easy to follow with a suitable amount of drama. I perhaps would have liked more background on individual soldiers rather than just the leaders, and it would have been better to contextualise it with a wider discussion of the Irish-American experience at the time. A fun introduction nonetheless.

.

1) Jo Nesbo - The Son
2) Lee Child - Without Fail
3) Jim Denny and Pat Williams - How to be like Walt (Audio)
4) Stephen King - Duma Key
5) Lawrence Levy - To Pixar and Beyond (Audio)
6) James Herbert - Nobody True


I've not been listening to my audio books sadly as I've constantly had the news on in the car at the moment.

Oh, and I know that what I read isn't every bodies cup of tea, but if you see something you like the sound of I'm happy to pop it in the post to you or share the audio book with you through Audible.

I like James Herbert. I'm fairly sure I've read all his books. My favourites are Moon, Creed and Haunted.
Fluke was good but that was more of a YA book.

YA?

Young Adult.

Ah, I think I would have fit into that category when I read it. Rats too.

Rats is not a YA book

Maybe not, but that's still when I read it.

I read Moon while I was in middle school. That was fucking terrifying, I can tell you.

I read IT in the school library at lunch and break times when I was 12.

I’m surprised the librarian let me. And yes I was cool

1) Jo Nesbo - The Son
2) Lee Child - Without Fail
3) Jim Denny and Pat Williams - How to be like Walt (Audio)
4) Stephen King - Duma Key
5) Lawrence Levy - To Pixar and Beyond (Audio)
6) James Herbert - Nobody True
7) Stephen King - Skeleton Crew

Oh no, I forgot about this. I need to go and get my Kindle.

...

Okay, here we go!

7) Leadership is Language by L. David Marquet
Ironically, it repeats itself a lot.

eight) Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Lesbian necromancers in a space labyrinth. Even better than that sounds, if that's possible.

9) The Demonologist by Gerald Brittle
Biography of Ed and Lorraine Warren, off of The Warren Files and Annabell and all that. One chapter was legitimately creepy, and I always like a biography. Some of the stuff is a little - how to put this - "far fetched"

10) Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Actually not bad, as leadership manuals go.

11) Voyage of the Space Bastard by Andrew Lawston
I had to read it because of the title. It's not terrible, and it's not very good. Feels a lot like something I might write (but not as good, obv ).

12) The Neighbour by Dean Koontz
It was all right. Koontz is always going to be a poor man's King though.

13) First Thrills by Lee Child (editor)
A collection of short thriller stories. The quality was pretty variable, this is one to skip.

How come you're reading leadership manuals? I'm assuming it's so you can lead us all come the revolution!

Secret mod-election-elections.