What Book are you currently reading?

[Lorraine]

 

I love to read and but then life got busy with raising a bunch of wonderful and beautiful girls. With all the negativity that Covid19 has delivered to the world, I felt it was time to have a more positive outlook on life and I hope this book delivers.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.

Written by Gretchen Rubin

 

[King Cotton]

Hi, Lorraine

I'm currently trying so hard to be a writer that I have no time for reading. I'm presently in the process of submitting my latest effort, 'Many Bad Words', to publishers' agents, so it's a case of fingers very crossed.

Appropriate to my present involvement with the new T-T forum, 'Many Bad Words' is about me bad-mouthing the Thai PM - yes, really! - on a similar forum and ending up getting hired by him to help with his PR profile, only to be so disgusted with his ethics that I team-up with a Thanathorn clone, with whom I plot and bring about the PM's overthrow. Yes, exciting stuff!

The last book I read was one I borrowed from my youngest son, when I tripped back home 4 years ago, namely Lee Child's Jack Reacher novel, 'One Shot', which I can only say I 'half-enjoyed', finding the plot just too complex for me to keep tabs on the various characters.

I'm sorry that's the best that I can do in your 'current read' survey!

[Lorraine]

Hey, King Cotton

Very well done and i wish you every success and when it gets published, let me know and i will buy a copy or download one for kindle.

I see, Lee Child is a crime fiction author and on Amazon he has written a lot of books, will mention him to the husband.

[Andrew Reeve]

Hi Lorraine, thank you for asking and I try to read one book per week, it used to be 2 and sometimes 3 a week several years ago and unfortunately age has caught up with my eyes and can now only manage one. I have considered Books on tape as an option and might yet try it out.

I have been reading the following book all week and it was part of my Birthday present last year from my wife and it is an old enough book published back in 1984 and she tracked it down on Ebay.

Glory Glory By Bill Nicholson

Its an autobiography of his life with Spurs, winning the league in 1951 as a player and then as the manger in 1961 and going on to be Spurs most successful Manager.

[KaptainRob]

I'm currently reading Gerald Seymour's 'Archangel', a novel set in the 70's about a would-be spy captured in Moscow and sent to a prison camp.  It's based on historical realities and Google Earth shows the prison camp still exists.

Robert Harris is another English writer of exceptional historical novels all of which I have read ... although his most recent work was out of character.  Books like 'Officer and a Spy',  his Rome/Cicero series or 'Pompeii' were superb.

Brad Thor writes Lee Child type novels revolving around US Delta operatives and CIA spies.  Fast moving action with a decided slant against China's influences.  Entertaining.

Barry Lancet writes excellent novels with fascinating Japan/US themes.  And I can highly recommend all of the Bernie Gunther series of novels by the late Philip Kerr.  Detective/Berlin/WW2/Gestapo themes woven into historical context from ~1920's thru to ~1960's.

I download 4 or 5 E-books every fortnight.

[Alice]

Please do not judge

I am reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl to my son at bedtime and we are both enjoying it.

[Lorraine]

No judgement from me Alice and my two youngest are listening to me reading "Giraffes can't dance"

It is the story about Gerald a friendly, yet clumsy giraffe

[King Cotton]

With reference to Alice & son enjoying Roald Dahl and with me being a chocaholic, you can guess which Dahl story my kids enjoyed me telling them the most. I made all the appropriate choc-eating noises, too . . . happy days!

[JamesE]

On 6/3/2021 at 2:15 AM, King Cotton said:

The last book I read was one I borrowed from my youngest son, when I tripped back home 4 years ago, namely Lee Child's Jack Reacher novel, 'One Shot', which I can only say I 'half-enjoyed', finding the plot just too complex for me to keep tabs on the various characters.

You have to give Lee a second chance. When I started One Shot a decade or more ago I had to read the first couple of pages twice as there wasn't a single complete sentence. His style improves with his experience (although he does go through a "pink mist" phase). I've read all his books but it's just mind candy.

Just finished "Devolution: A first-hand account of the Rainier Sasquatch massacre" by Max Brooks. Currently 1/3 of the way through "Under a White Sky" by Elizabeth Kolbert.

[King Cotton]

@JamesEHi, James and welcome to T-T!

It sounds like you're quite a reader and I was bound to be interested in your One shot comments. It appears from other reviews of Lee Child's work that his staccato, half-finished sentence style accounts in no small way for his popularity since, whilst not being strictly grammatically correct, it does make for easy reading.

And, like you, I did give One Shot a 'second chance', it being one of the few works that I felt inclined to re-read in the hope of getting more from it. But alas, my fairly negative verdict remained, with its convoluted plot and, for me, over-populated character register. Your 'mind candy' verdict goes down fine with me!

I'll Google your recent Brooks and Kolbert reads, to see what's been keeping your eyes down!

Cheers

KC

[Andrew Reeve]

Its taken me a long longer to finish than normal and very much of an emotional roller-coaster as the American Indians only wanted to protect their lands and way of life.

 

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

This is the story of the white man's colonization of the American West between 1860 and 1890, but through the voices of the Native Americans themselves, using written accounts and interviews from that time. The reader is taken on a journey through the book, tribe by tribe and chief by chief. There are some characters that are now legendary, such as Geronimo, Chief Joseph and Sitting Bull.

 

[Andrew Reeve]

 

Next up for me is a book by one of my favorite Military Historians, Antony Beevor, D-Day : The Battle for Normandy

Purchased the book well over 10 years ago and finally getting around to reading it.

Another Military Historian is Max Hastings and several of his back-list titles are well worth the read.

 

[JimLimU]

I can count with 1 hand for the physical novel books, and one of my favorite was "Inferno" by Dante translated by Niven & Pournelle.  However, I have probably listened to more than 150 audibles.  I gather that I am a little adhd that I couldn't sit still to read.  I enjoy reading the "How-to" or "Repair" manuals, those are outside my audible listening.  

My current audible is, The Ra Contact.  Ninety-nine percent of my audibles are toward finding the answer to my life's purpose.  This Ra Contact has many answers that is very interesting (to me.)  I think some would say, its crazy, but I can escape from the real crazy world, and Ra gives me hope:)

[King Cotton]

@JimLimUSo many good comments, there, especially using the audibles as an answer for your suspected ADHD and also the insights you're clearly enjoying from The Ra Contact. I'll have to see if I can dip into that via Amazon or similar.

Happy reading!

KC

[Andrew Reeve]

Hello JimLimU, Good choice with reading Inferno and well worth reading the other 2 parts of the trilogy, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

They are available as books on tape with Amazon and audible.co.uk.

[Alice]

The most recent book that i have read was a work of romantic fiction by Marion Keyes "This Charming Man"

I Loved it!  Just love her character development-- stayed up late to finish it, as I needed to know what happened to each character!

 

[JimLimU]

2 hours ago, Andrew Reeve said:

Oh, really?  When I am done with the Ra series, I will look for the other 2 parts of the trilogy, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Thank you!

 

 

[JimLimU]

On 6/6/2021 at 10:18 PM, Tjampman said:

I just finished Steven Fry's first 2 introductions into Greek mythology,  Mythos and Heroes, which I recommend to everyone who don't know or glancing knowledge of Greek mythology but are curios to know more.

 

I like Greek mythology.  However, my reading ability probably won't allow me to comprehend the story, but I will look for movies instead. 

[Alice]

 

After putting my son to bed for the night, I will sit down and start to read “The Blind Assassin” By Margaret Atwood. This book was the Winner of the Booker Prize back in 2000. It is very literary and not too sure will I enjoy it and the book was recommend and loaned to me from a friend.

 

[King Cotton]

Hi, Alice

Just previewed 'The Blind Assassin' and in my view I shouldn't worry about Atwood's literary style. It's not a difficult style and I immediately connected with the first page and Laura crashing the car off the bridge.

I'll enjoy the rest of this generously long preview I'm sure, so thanks for that. Please let us know how you find it, once you've got into the meat of it.

[javada88]

I am  javada88, registered on Thailand Talk today and I am reading probably more then 100 books a year, since about 5 years mainly e-books. However lately I am not reading much. Since earlier this year I am able to look series and movies on Netflix, and I have a lot to catch up. But in the meantime I stored about 40 e-books in my library, so I have enough to look forward to read in between looking series and movies.

[King Cotton]

38 minutes ago, javada88 said:

and I am reading probably more then 100 books a year

Wow, that's some reading!

Hello, javada88 and welcome to T-T!

Please feel free to tell us a bit about yourself in 'Introductions'. It's good to pick-up on those sometimes differing regional or geographical perspectives.

And check-out the Guidelines, too, when you get a free minute. They're there to help us all enjoy our time here.

Happy posting

KC

[David1991]

This this count?

Airways magazine and i get it on subscription and posted to me every quarter. It is an american aviation mag with good articles.

[Alice]

Quote

 

Just previewed 'The Blind Assassin' and in my view I shouldn't worry about Atwood's literary style. It's not a difficult style and I immediately connected with the first page and Laura crashing the car off the bridge.

I'll enjoy the rest of this generously long preview I'm sure, so thanks for that. Please let us know how you find it, once you've got into the meat of it.

 

Hi King Cotton and have now finished this book and it was good in parts and just not my type of story.

Iris is over eighty years old and suffering from heart problems, she begins writing the story of her life for her granddaughter Sabrina, whom she has not seen in years. She tells the story through flashbacks.

The biggest surprise for me, was to discover Margaret Atwood had written the Handmaid's Tale. I have watched 2 seasons of it so far on a streaming provider.

[Silbers]

I'm reading Dreamland by Bob Lazar. For anyone interested in the UFO phenomenon it's well worth checking out.