Book Thread

[om15]

I mentioned some time back that I had failed to properly watch the film "The girl with the dragon tattoo", fell asleep mid way.
I read the book by Stieg Larsson and found it to be completely compelling, the most exciting read this year. I have finished the second and third volumes of the Millennium trilogy, "The girl who played with fire" and "The girl who kicked the hornets nest", the plot and narrative are gripping, it makes John Le Carre look like Enid Blyton. If you are going on holiday or simply a bit bored, buy all three volumes and find a quiet corner.

If you would like to go back to a simpler age, read Joseph Conrad "The Secret Sharer and Other Stories". Published as a Penguin Classic.

[unifoxos]

If you would like to go back to a simpler age, read any of the Dornford Yates thrillers. Very melodramatic in a 1930's sort of way, and you have to tune in to the archaic, almost Victorian language used occasionally, but a very good read and hard to put down.

[om15]

Read Dornford Yates when I was at school I think, will retry.

Have just finished "The Abominable" by Dan Simmons author of The Terror. Rattling good yard, rarely have the hero's (and the single beautiful heroine) been so resourceful and brave, Le Boche so dastardly and vile, and the plot so convoluted.
Recommend if you have a long flight planned and have a head for heights.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173 ... abominable

[Magnus]

I'm currently reading the Dornford Yates books on the Kindle, but the PITA is that it's centred, not left justified, and my eyes keep flicking to the wrong place on the screen. Good stories, though.

Still digging through Mandela's bio, and have just started A Brief History of time (Hawking).

[Karearea]

I enjoy Dornford Yates' books, particularly the humorous "Berry" books, and have (*scuttles off to check*) at least half a dozen on my shelves.

[Slasher]

just started A Brief History of time (Hawking).

I think you'll like it Magnus, but like me you'll probably have to reread a chapter here and there for it to sink in properly.

[603DX]

Nevil Shute wrote 24 novels and his autobiography, "Slide Rule". Most of the novels are a damned good read, the man had a strongly developed flair for engaging both the mind and the emotions. Rather surprising perhaps, for a talented and hard working aeronautical engineer in his "day job". I've read and enjoyed the majority of them, and since almost a third of them were made into successful movies, many others presumably found his storylines entertaining.

Some titles were outstanding: "No Highway", "On the Beach", "A Town Like Alice", "Landfall", "The Far Country", and "Requiem for a Wren". That last one really upset me, so beautifully was the writing crafted. It's known as his "darkest" novel, and on finishing the final chapter it was necessary to remind myself that "It's only fiction, it's not real!" I find that a rare event ...

[om15]

I read most of the Neville Shute novels as a kid, agree that they are very good, evocative of a time gone by and also how our parents generation had a harder time than we have.

[Karearea]

I also have Nevil Shute's novels; Pied Piper is one I've re-read recently.

[om15]

I have just finished "Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger, published just after the first world war, the author served as an infantry officer in the front line for four years. He was as enthusiastic on the last day of the war as at the beginning, wounded several times he was in the thick of the fighting most of the time, and appeared to thoroughly enjoy it. He served in France and on the Eastern Front in WWII.
He seems to have used the fighting as a form of transcendental experience, he was a user of cocaine, hash and LSD in later life, he lived to be 102 amazingly.
Recommend if only to be amazed that people like this exist.

[Pontius Navigator]

There have been two further Dragon Girl novels. They are, IMHO, very good for a follow on author and far, far better than the attempts to continue the James Bond series.

The other thing we should remember about novels printed in post-war Britain was paper rationing. An author had to complete the story in around 200 pages. The whole narrative was tighter, descriptive prose concentrated on relevant essentials.

For a light read of contemporary novels from the 20s I got all the Bulldog Drummond series by Sapper for just 77p on Kindle. 'Opened to window and called the nearest policeman '. Gentlemen didn't work but had a trusty man servant and live in house keeper and retained their service revolvers. Police treated gentlemen with respect and found them useful in catching baddies.

A modern author could not write like that.

[om15]

PN, yes I have bought both the follow on Dragon Tattoo books, have read the first and am keeping the second for my holiday in a couple of weeks, I think that they are very well written , follow on pretty seamlessly and thankfully omit the perv stuff of the original trilogy.

I enjoy the books written immediately pre and post war, I have "The Gorse Trilogy" by Patrick Hamilton next on my pile.

You will remember how the Flashman series mixed fact and fiction in the 19th century, this has been done by CJ Sansom in the Tudor period with his Shardlake series, seven books so far, as well as being unputdownable they are very interesting as period books as well, recommended.

[ian16th]

I enjoy the books written immediately pre and post war, I have "The Gorse Trilogy" by Patrick Hamilton next on my pile.

Not familiar with this author, so I looked him up.

He shares his birthday with me, but the poor sod actually got called Patrick, and ended up with a mixture of Irish and Scots names!

Apparently my grandmother wanted me to be called Patrick, but my mother & father vetoed it.

[Hydromet]

If you like John Steinbeck as I do, you should have a look at 'Tortilla Flat', his first novel.Set in Monterey, it's really a collection of short stories around the same characters. Not as polished as Cannery Row, it's still an entertaining read that gives an insight into the characters' feelings and lives.

[Rwy in Sight]

If you like John Steinbeck as I do, you should have a look at 'Tortilla Flat', his first novel.Set in Monterey, it's really a collection of short stories around the same characters. Not as polished as Cannery Row, it's still an entertaining read that gives an insight into the characters' feelings and lives.

I did enjoy the Cannery Row both in the translated version (which I read first) and the original version. I am not sure how the polished term fits with Cannery Row. I would keep an eye for the "Tortilla Flat".

it makes John Le Carre look like Enid Blyton

E B was fabulous when I read it back the 70's. Maybe I should read it again.

I am currently reading a book about Cats on Ships mainly the one they lived and chased rats on HMS around WWII. An interesting choice on behalf of my sister during her trip in Amsterdam. I would have expected to get the story of KLM but she does not want me to fuel my interesting in aviation any longer.

[Pontius Navigator]

I think Ian would support my recommendation for Tony Park. I first came across his novels in Cape Town. Initially the common thread was the setting in southern Africa and its wild life with the characters ancillary to the story.

Latterly he has change this approach and started to develop a thread between game guides, ex-military, US and An immigrants, police etc. Overall however it is the Bush that controls the tales.

One novel quite different from this sequence is one set in WW2 at an Empire Flying School in Rhodesia - shades of African Queen.

[Hydromet]

I am not sure how the polished term fits with Cannery Row.

I think the writing in Cannery Row is quite masterful. In Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck hadn't quite attained that level of skill, but was obviously approaching it.

[om15]

I have just read the latest Max Hastings book, "Vietnam", covering the story from 1945 to 1975, as with everything that Max Hastings writes it is very well researched and written in a very readable way, I did not know very much about this war, but Hastings interviews all involved on both sides and then makes a final assessment with hindsight at the end.
The Vietnamese stood no chance, living under terrible conditions under communism in the north and living under the most corrupt system in the south, they just had to watch everything be destroyed, helpless to do anything about it.
The American Presidents used their immense power both political and military in a way not abused so much since Stalin, they were responsible for the destruction of the country and huge damage to a generation of their own citizens.

Up to the point of finishing this book I thought that the film "Apocalypse Now" was a surreal fiction loosely based on the book "Heart of Darkness", I now realise that in fact it was an accurate and factual documentary about US forces in Vietnam, correct in every detail.

[Pontius Navigator]

Om15, you may recall the film The Dirty Dozen, it is based on a book of the same name. Well that author wrote a sequel where the officer, and maybe some survivors, were briefed for a mission into Vientiane. This of course pre dates Hastings's book but would fit well. Arms drops to the Vietnamese to fight the Japanese were instead stockpiled to fight the French. Their leader was Giap.

On Vietnam, during the period from 1963 we got regular intelligence reports from the Australian forces and details of antipersonnel nasties and improvised use of dud and captured US ammunition. The film First Blood covered some of these nasties.

I might get his book and see if he covered bits that I learnt at the time.

[ricardian]

I enjoyed Mary Brown's fantasy books "The Unlikely Ones" (1986), "Pigs Don't Fly" (1994), "Master of Many Treasures" (1995), and "Dragonne's Eg" (1999); supposedly written for teenagers but still readable by adults who enjoy a good story, well told.
The Deptford Mice trilogy by Robin Jarvis is good fun too.