what are you reading at the moment?

[[deleted user]]

it does seem a pricey for a novella.

[Jo]

I finished The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry this afternoon and Shirley you were right it did get better :) I loved the twist I didn't see it coming, I've just started on The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared and I am really enjoying it so far :)

[Hilary]

I read the 100 year old man when I was recovering from an operation and I loved it so much I made it my choice for our reading group. They didn't enjoy it at all though. They found it unbelievable, repetitive and simplistic. I didn't altogether disagree with them but for me the sheer fun of it outweighed all its faults.

[Laurel]

I liked the idea and the general storyline of The Hundred Year Old Man but I didn't like the writing not sure if that was just the translation or if it reads like that in it's original language (Swedish?)

[Ellie]

I've just finished Nineteen Eighty-Four; one of those books that I've always thought I should rad but never got round to, it thanks to Goodreads I have finally done it, and I'm glad I did! Amazing how relevant it feels 70 years after it was written. My favourite bit has to be the altercation between a barman and a customer, when the latter tries to order a pint, to be told he can only have a litre of half-litre. That's a long-running argument!

[Joy]

Jo wrote: "I finished The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry this afternoon and Shirley you were right it did get better :) I loved the twist I didn't see it coming, I've just started on The One Hundred Year O..."

Glad you're enjoying 'The One Hundred Year Old Man...' I really liked it - especially the way he influences real historical events.

[[deleted user]]

@ Ellie - you'd probably enjoy We another dystopian book -written in 1924 in Stalinist Russia. George Orwell was a fan.
It's an amazing read - almost as good if not as good as 1984. And it's on Boxalls :0)

[Hilary]

Now I've finished the Unconsoled I was looking forward to reading The Naked Civil Servant which I had bought last week and started reading in the second handbook shop I saw it in. The bad news is that I can't find it, I think I may have left it in the shop! So instead I am starting The Genesis Project which is our September reading group choice. The person who chose it has already apologised as she thinks we may think its not very good, lets hope she's wrong.

[Ellie]

Thanks for the recommendation, Lee, I shall add it to the to-read list :)

[Jo]

I just finished The One Hundred Year Old Man... this afternoon and it was an amazing book, one of the best I have read this year :)

I'm just about to start The Citadel by A. J. Cronin... has anyone else read it? If so what did you think?

[Hilary]

@Joy, I can't remember which thread you mentioned the Spooks Apprentice on but I thought I would give it a try and saw that it was the first in a very long series. I'd you read the rest or just the first one?

[[deleted user]]

just ordered the 1st one myself - and Mary Beards Pompeii book . The Spooks apprentice books are all £2 s or so on kindle at the moment.

[Hilary]

Have just started WE rather than the Spooks Apprentice. I brought The Genesis Project (my reading group September book) to my sons and it is so badly written I have abandoned it at page 42 leaving me with nothing I really wanted to read here. Downloaded WE on the good old Kindle and am fascinated by it. Thanks for recommending it Lee.

[[deleted user]]

Yay - glad to hear you're enjoying it Hilary. It's great isn't it? I kept having to remind myself that it was written in 1924 - it seems so much more modern than that.

[Laurel]

I've just finished Sea of Poppies which I really enjoyed and now I'm reading Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Connor Grennan. Also hoping to finish The Unconsoled today as I'm having a lazy day.

[[deleted user]]

Finished the Unconsoled today - and started the 1st chunk of the Pickwick Papers.
Hope to read some more Thomas Mann short stories soon.

[Laurel]

Now I'm reading the first instalment of The Pickwick papers and also reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

[Hilary]

I'm coming up to halfway through WE. Really enjoying it and I can't understand why it isn't better known - or is it only me who hasn't heard of it? It's encouraged my to complete my reading of Stalin's biography. I read the first part ages ago and books two and three are sitting on the TBR shelf.

[Laurel]

I had never heard of it either till it got mentioned above - am adding it to my ever-increasing tbr list though as I appreciated* 1984 too.

*I was going to say liked but actually 1984 horrified me and I did throw the book across the room at the end. I just wanted Winston to stand up to the system but there was no way he could, they had him completely.

[[deleted user]]

@ Laurel- I know what you mean about 1984. You desperately want there to be a tiny bit of hope at the end. It's a great book - but not one I often feel like re- reading.

[[deleted user]]

@ Hilary -I've read a horrifying book about Stalin called At the Court of the Red Czar. There's one bit that always stays with me. An old neighbour of Stalin was in the garden of her Dascha when up popped Stalin from his side of the fence - they hadn't met for years and had a chat about old times. The very next day she was arrested - it seems that it was enough just to be brought to Stalin's attention.

[Hilary]

Was it by Simon Sebag Montefiore? I know the 3 part series I have was published as one volume also?

[[deleted user]]

Yes that's the one

[Hilary]

Just finished We. Brilliant book. I was reminded of Brave New World and wasn't surprised to read in the postscript it was credited as being the inspiration behind that book. So glad you mentioned it Lee.

Not in the right frame of mind for Dickens after that so I'll have to come up with an interim. Stalin perhaps.

[[deleted user]]

Glad you liked it Hilary - I'm back on with Mason & Dixon and thinking about starting Richard III

[Hilary]

I've picked up from my TBR shelf a book I bought a long time ago in a second hand shop called The Avengers: A Jewish War Story.

Three teenagers, a boy and two girls form an underground resistance movement within the Jewish Ghetto in Vilna as the Germans occupy it. The boy is one of the leaders of the partisan group who arm themselves to defend the ghetto as the Germans begin to clear it. A true story, the three made it eventually to Palestine and fought there to bring about the state of Israel. It is riveting but at some point I need to go to bed!

[Ellie]

I'm still on The Unconsoled and Birdsong! On the home straight with the Unconsoled now so going to give it my exclusive attention today (when I'm not working, obviously) and hopefully finish it today or tomorrow.

[[deleted user]]

message 4: by Dave

I have just finished In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. It is a great read and would recommend it to all who love modern history

[[deleted user]]

Just copied the above from another thread.
Can't get Dave's picture to come up though!

[Laurel]

I'm reading The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham and still on the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

[Hilary]

Just finished The Avengers, A Jewish War Story. An amazing story, don't know why it hasn't been made into a film. Three teenagers simply refuse to be victims of the Nazis and take up the fight. In the ghetto, then the forest they fight back with whatever is to hand. Then they run the British blockade of Palestine and when the British withdraw help to fight the SIX Arab armies that immediately invaded the tiny newborn state of Israel and BEAT them, to live to a ripe old age.

[Joy]

I'm reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I'm not a great fan of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, but I'm enjoying this, by the less famous Anne, so far.

[Hilary]

I remember enjoying it but it hasn't stayed in my mind like Wuthering Heights or my favourite, Jane Eyre.

[Shirley]

Joy wrote: "I'm reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I'm not a great fan of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, but I'm enjoying this, by the less famous Anne, so far."

Joy, I read this earlier this year, and really enjoyed it, but I'm a Jane Eyre fan, too! I've never read Wuthering Heights though, but would like to!

[[deleted user]]

I've tried a few times to read Wuthering Heights - but have never got past the 1st 10 pages - I love Jane Eyre though and particularly Villette.

[Hilary]

Couldn't cope with anymore Maon and Dixon, so decided to start the Spooks Apprentice and have also finished it. A very entertaining read. The problem is I will now go on to read all the rest of the series and all the TBR books will remain TBR!

[[deleted user]]

Ooooops :0)

[Laurel]

I'm reading The Hound of the Baskervilles but have had to put some music on cos someone's dog outside keeps making a racket - freaking me out considering what I'm reading :S

[Hilary]

Spooky!!! Don't take a walk in the garden whatever you do

[Laurel]

Ha ha, yeah I'm staying inside

[[deleted user]]

Are you a fan of the TV series Sherlock? I didn't think I would be but I love it - hate the sound of that American series with a female Dr Watson though.

[Laurel]

Yeah< I really enjoyed the first series but haven't seen the second yet - I really like Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson but I didn't fancy the American version either.

[Ellie]

The American thing would have been passable had not the BBC have made Sherlock. The guy who plays Sherlock is good at being Sherlock, but Watson is all wrong, not just by being female but the character as a whole, she just doesn't sit right with me. Cumberbatch and Freeman make an excellent team

[[deleted user]]

And Cumberbatch is rather yummy

[Ellie]

Those cheekbones.....

[Laurel]

Has anyone seen the new Star Trek film with Cumberbatch in it? Any good?

[[deleted user]]

Ellie wrote: "Those cheekbones....."

That voice...........

[[deleted user]]

Laurel wrote: "Has anyone seen the new Star Trek film with Cumberbatch in it? Any good?"

No, not yet - enjoyed the first one

[Hilary]

I haven't seen it but my daughter said it was fantastic in 3D.

[Shirley]

I've seen, thought it was very good!