The 2nd "What are you reading now" thread

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Books I have read lately

Twelve Secrets by Robert Gold
excellent read, murder mystery 2 14 year boys are murder by two 14 year old girls, the two girls are sentenced and then released 11 years later under different names, to hide there identity
The book is set roughly 25-30 years after the murders
People start getting murdered to cover a dark secret that happen on the day of the murders
Main character is the younger brother of one of the brothers who now is a journalist


Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham
First book in a Fantasy trilogy
First book I have by the author
Really enjoy this book, main character who is a thief in ancient city called Kithamar, her brother is killed and seeks to find out why he was killed and she wants revenge
The book is set over a year with a Prince dying at the start and at the end of that year, you know that as it tells you at the start, the brother being killed is related in some way of the Princes Deaths

Currently reading

The Extinction Trials by A.G. Riddle
read some of his other books! enjoying it so

Other books I have read over past year

Breathless by Amy McCulloch
The Vatican Secret by David Leadbeater
Darkness Falls by Robert Bryndza
The Fields by Erin Young
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
Hell and High Water by Christian Unge
The Deathwatch Beetle by Kjell Eriksson
 
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Started reading a Harlan Coben book last night (Tell No One). I'm not a huge reader but I like the cut of his jibe.

Which Harlan Coben books are his best? Or any other books of similar style, that you guys would recommend? I loved Girl On The Train.
 
mcnulty said:
Speaking of Noir I’m about to revisit a bit of James Ellroy. Came across an old copy of American Tabloid, which I remember thinking was about his best. There are so many characters in his books and they are so densely plotted no danger I’ll remember much, so should be like going in relatively fresh.

His books are so dark and the characters so irredeemably awful- can’t wait.
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Here’s some Music Noir for ya! Classic lyrics!

 
AFDogs said:
Started reading a Harlan Coben book last night (Tell No One). I'm not a huge reader but I like the cut of his jibe.

Which Harlan Coben books are his best? Or any other books of similar style, that you guys would recommend? I loved Girl On The Train.
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His Myron Bolitar series is pretty good - enjoyed those years ago.
 
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

The third Murakami book I've read (after Norwegian Wood and Kafka On The Shore) and probably my favourite. A long read but a pretty easy one - I got quite engrossed in the world and the vividly-painted characters. I am currently trying to get back into reading novels and it was ideal for that. Am still on the fence about whether I will go on and read more of his back catalogue - I remember feeling like I needed a break from his writing after the last two books as well.
 
Caesar said:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

The third Murakami book I've read (after Norwegian Wood and Kafka On The Shore) and probably my favourite. A long read but a pretty easy one - I got quite engrossed in the world and the vividly-painted characters. I am currently trying to get back into reading novels and it was ideal for that. Am still on the fence about whether I will go on and read more of his back catalogue - I remember feeling like I needed a break from his writing after the last two books as well.
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Funny, that's the book I'm reading right now. Absolutely love his style, possibly my favourite author.

Not sure if this is on topic but does anyone have a non-fiction Audiobook recommendation? Open to any topic, I've enjoyed psychology, history, science etc. For some reason I like non-fiction for audio and fiction for reading.

Just finished listening to Stan Tatkin's Your Brain on Love: The Neurobiology of Healthy Relationships, an insightful look at attachment styles etc, really enjoyed it.
 
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon - loving it, clear inspiration for DFH and his ultra stream of consciousness style of writing. Going to take me a while to tear through it, but it’s right up my alley, and like Infinite Jest, it feels like a book you can read in segments.

Super-Cannes, JG Ballard - cool writing style, the plot lacks a little bit, but the book moves at a decent pace, characters are interesting and well described. Definitely going to go back and read Crash and Atrocity Exhibition at some point.

Kingdom of Fear, Hunter S Thompson - read plenty of HST, and his stuff never disappoints. Always has good insights into the psyche of the American public and makes some far-reaching global comparisons.

Just read:

4321, Paul Auster - liked it, didn’t love it. Similar writing style to John Irving, but didn’t quite hit. The book itself was over 1000 pages, although not a lot was wasted, it just didn’t hit a lot of high points. Also rubbed me the wrong way at times. I hate when books turn out unrealistic details (in this eg the main character goes to France for 1 week and purchases 30 books of French poetry) and there’s a bunch of bad humour that leaves other characters in stitches.

Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche - essential reading. Really made me think about the associations I have with good and bad thoughts and actions and the way everyone’s moral code is specific to them and sits on a pretty big continuum. Ended up highlighting a lot.

Just bought:

Chuck Palahniuk - Choke
Bret Easton Ellis - The Rules of Attraction
John Irving - The World According to Garp
Mark Fisher - The Ghosts of My Life
Nikolai Gogol - Dead Soul

Those last couple sounded unreal. Cannot wait to get stuck in.
 
So far this year:

4/5
Nelly Dean - Alison Case
Power Without Glory - Frank Hardy
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

3/5
Round the Bend - Nevil Shute
Hard Times - Charles Dickens
An American Dream - Norman Mailer
Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead
Orfeo - Richard Powers

2/5
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
Tender is the Night - FSF
The Man Without a Shadow - JCO


Current reading queue:
Generosity - Richard Powers
Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton
The Falls - JCO
 

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My physical copies of the Malazan books started arriving so I've begun the reread an I'm hoping that the ones on back order that I haven't yet read show up so I can continue past where I stopped on Kindle in 2020

Currently on Book 2 Deadhouse Gates
 
When Breath Becomes Air

Autobiography of Paul Kalanithi, an American neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in the final year of his residency.

Kalanithi was a remarkable mind - prior to studying medicine, he obtained separate masters degrees in literature and history. The prose reflects that training - it is extremely eloquent and evocative. Whilst it ostensibly chronicles his short life, it is more than anything a meditation on his own exploration of life and death - mostly through his literary, historical and medical studies and his experiences as both doctor and patient.

The most notable omission is much discussion of his personal relationships. Although he talks a little about problems in his marriage (which was under strain prior to his diagnosis due to the intense demands of his surgical training) they are not delved into in any specific detail - his wife (a physician) mostly appears as his medical copilot. He meditates a little on the choice to have a child, and in the final chapter he talks about the feelings fatherhood invoked in him - but mostly the curtain remains drawn around his personal life. You definitely get the impression he was a fairly emotionally private person.

Kalanithi's chronicle starts with his childhood in rural Arizona and ends around the time of his daughter's birth - which coincided with his health taking a significant turn for the worse. Although he lived another nine months (dying at the age of 37) presumably he wanted to devote what energy he had to his family, and polishing the manuscript. There is a short epilogue written by his widow covering this period, and providing a brief overview of her experience with his illness (which is much needed and provides a slightly different image of his character).

Overall it's a remarkably dispassionate and intellectual (albeit poetic) book given the subject matter, but that means it presents a pretty unique perspective on life and death. As such I would definitely recommend it.
 
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The Passenger- unmistakably a Cormac McCarthy novel, shades of No Country For Old Men and Suttree here. And some of the classic McCarthy traits- lack of punctuation, almost no internalizing from characters. Typically grim.

Won’t stack up with his great books- there are characters and passages have no real association to the plot, and deliberately so- but an average McCarthy novel is still better than just than what most authors could dream of. He just writes so well.
 
mcnulty said:
The Passenger- unmistakably a Cormac McCarthy novel, shades of No Country For Old Men and Suttree here. And some of the classic McCarthy traits- lack of punctuation, almost no internalizing from characters. Typically grim.

Won’t stack up with his great books- there are characters and passages have no real association to the plot, and deliberately so- but an average McCarthy novel is still better than just than what most authors could dream of. He just writes so well.
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Just started this recently, really enjoying it - I understand there are some fairly dense, mathematically-based chapters on the horizon; might prove tricky reading for me but I’ve tackled everything by McCarthy to date and I ain’t about to forsake him now!
 
Recently finished Warner's The boys club... very enlightening and just reinforces my view about how makey uppey the AFL is.

Read the Godfather and really enjoyed that.

Then read a historical fiction novel called Essex Dogs written by Dan Jones. Liked that, bernard cornwell-esque
 
So I just finished up reading The only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff. Absolutely heartbreaking book about September 12. But well worth the read.

Then I just started re-reading Killer Show by John Barylick which is about the Station Nightclub fire on the 23rd of Feburary 2003 where a great white concert lead to 100 deaths.

But in the mail today 56 - the story on the Bradford Fire by Martin Fletcher showed up so I just started reading that.
 
Sad to see Martin Amis passed away. Really enjoyed his novels even though he often had a bit of trouble sticking the landing- couldnt quite maintain the momentum his books started out with, in some cases. But he sure could write.

Might dust off London Fields again.
 
Currently reading The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone In The Universe by Paul Davies. About halfway through on the Kindle (first book I've read on there) - it's ok, a bit dry in some parts and I don't really agree with some of his assumptions but enough thought provoking stuff to make it worthwhile.

Also reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan with my 7yo son - we've blitzed through the first 4 books in a couple of weeks and just started the 5th. Pretty good for a kids series and love the fact it's based on the old Greek Gods, Myths and Heroes. My son loves it, would make me stay up all night reading to him if he could.
 
I read Bartleby, The Scrivener by Melville the other day - a quick easy and fairly entertaining read. Barlteby's passive resistance to his lot in life had me in stitches especially as he was able to get away with it for so long due to the narrators desire to avoid any confrontation even going to the point of relocating his business.

I've also just read My Work Is Not Yet Done by Thomas Ligotti - I'd heard him referenced on a few podcasts I've listened to (twin peaks podcasts that also delve into weird fiction) and thought it sounded up my alley so would give it a go. Was good, I enjoyed the first part of the book better than the latter part I think, his description of the banality and horror of the modern office job was excruciatingly real. I've got another of his books ready to go, Conspiracy Against the Human Race but I think I'm going to read the Yellow Wallpaper next, another book I've heard referenced on a twin peaks podcast (probably the same pod). I also want to read the Kurt Vonnegut bio Man Without A Country.
 
Demonic Ascent said:
I read Bartleby, The Scrivener by Melville the other day - a quick easy and fairly entertaining read. Barlteby's passive resistance to his lot in life had me in stitches especially as he was able to get away with it for so long due to the narrators desire to avoid any confrontation even going to the point of relocating his business.

I've also just read My Work Is Not Yet Done by Thomas Ligotti - I'd heard him referenced on a few podcasts I've listened to (twin peaks podcasts that also delve into weird fiction) and thought it sounded up my alley so would give it a go. Was good, I enjoyed the first part of the book better than the latter part I think, his description of the banality and horror of the modern office job was excruciatingly real. I've got another of his books ready to go, Conspiracy Against the Human Race but I think I'm going to read the Yellow Wallpaper next, another book I've heard referenced on a twin peaks podcast (probably the same pod). I also want to read the Kurt Vonnegut bio Man Without A Country.
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Yeah Ligotti’s work was the source of True Detective’s nihilistic tone (the first season). Check out his many short stories. Very weird and a very bleak world view.
 

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The 2nd "What are you reading now" thread

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