'What are we all reading?'. Book recommendations thread.

DonCorleone

DonCorleone

Well-known member
I love this forum's 'What we all watching' thread and use it regularly for TV and films recommendations.

I'm also a keen reader so thought a similar thread for books would be equally useful? I'll start with the book I've just this week finished.

Robert Harris's 'Conclave'. It's also a hollywood blockbuster though I've yet to see it.

Gave a fascinating insight into conclaves and the papal electoral system combined with a good story. It was a real page turner with a great ending so would highly recommend. Fans of Robert Harris will know exactly what to expect.

Feel free (or not) to drop in your recent reading recs below.
 
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Doing audiobooks at the moment, so I can listen while walking. Just finished The Man From St. Petersburg by Ken Follet, read a lot of his books, Fall of Giants etc.

Read all the Scott Marriani, Ben Hope books

C J Samson Shardlake series

Currently listening to Harlem Corbyn, I Will Find You
 
Found a book in the Library, from one of my favourite authors, Michael Connelly.
'Resurrection Walk' is the title..
All his best characters are in it.
Police Detective 'Mickey Haller' and my favourite character retired LA Police Detective, Harry Bosch.
Great writer if you like US crime.
Recommended to anyone who reads crime.
 
Nick Oldham- Henry Christie
Who'd have thought that Blackpool would have it's own Detective series.

Because of these book threads that I discovered the local copper.
 
‘She’s a Rainbow’ by Simon Wells. The biography of Anita Pallenberg. Hugely entertaining, detailed & well-written - what a life!

Her life & career, especially including her times around, & influence on The Rolling Stones in the 60’s/70’s. If you don’t like biographies/The Rolling Stones or don’t know who she was, it’s perhaps admittedly not for you, but otherwise it’s a great read & certainly more than a cut above your average ‘sex,drugs & rock n’roll’ bio - altho’ inevitably that’s all in there too!
 
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DonCorleone said:
I love this forum's 'What we all watching' thread and use it regularly for TV and films recommendations.

I'm also a keen reader so thought a similar thread for books would be equally useful? I'll start with the book I've just this week finished.

Robert Harris's new one, 'Conclave'. It's also a hollywood blockbuster though I've yet to see it.

Gave a fascinating insight into conclaves and the papal electoral system combined with a good story. It was a real page turner with a great ending so would highly recommend. Fans of Robert Harris will know exactly what to expect.

Feel free (or not) to drop in your recent reading recs below.
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Actually quite an old one that! I’ve just started reading his latest - Precipice.

Act of Oblivion was also a great book as was Munich.

In the other hand I thought that his novels The Second Sleep and The Fear Index were fairly crap.
 
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. A great story of injustice and love and how these two remarkable people overcame tremendous adversity to reclaim their lives and more. Inspirational for any of us who've felt we've lost everything and have nothing to live for. Remarkable!
 
The memoirs of Al Pacino, sonny boy.
For probably the 5th time “a year of eating dangerously “by Tom Parker Bowles.
How to play harmonica for beginners by jerrad Williams
 
I was recommended from someone off here ages ago on a similar thread about Mark Dawson's 'John Milton' books. Very much in the Reacher mould but he's British and in my opinion they are better than Reacher and just as fast paced.

I have just finished the penultimate Mo Hayder 'Jack Caffrey' book, really good series too.

Always dip into a Haruki Marukami every now and then, totally different but great.
 
hertfordseasider said:
I was recommended from someone off here ages ago on a similar thread about Mark Dawson's 'John Milton' books. Very much in the Reacher mould but he's British and in my opinion they are better than Reacher and just as fast paced.

I have just finished the penultimate Mo Hayder 'Jack Caffrey' book, really good series too.

Always dip into a Haruki Marukami every now and then, totally different but great.
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Glad you took my advice and that you're enjoying the Milton series.

Vultures is my next book.

I like Michael Connolly's books (Mickey Haller or Harry Bosch), currently trying a Greg Hurwitz "Orphan X" book and enjoying it.

I also previously recommended the Bernie Gunther books by Philip Kerr. He's a German detective during WW2 who hates Nazis, but can't avoid getting involved in cases with them. Excellent series of books, with dark humour which can be LOL at times.
 
Just finished Tourist Season and now on to Double Whammy by Carl Hiaason.

Imagine Hunter S Thompson mixed with The Reacher novels....Hiaason writes about his once beloved Florida, now going to shit like The American Dream in general. Low-lifes, corrupt officials, bent cops, hookers, real estate scammers, pimps, radicals, bass fishing competition cheats....really funny and insightful but good stories too.

The Florida in my novels is not as seedy as the real Florida. It's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life.
Carl Hiaasen
 
Dave62 said:
Glad you took my advice and that you're enjoying the Milton series.

Vultures is my next book.

I like Michael Connolly's books (Mickey Haller or Harry Bosch), currently trying a Greg Hurwitz "Orphan X" book and enjoying it.

I also previously recommended the Bernie Gunther books by Philip Kerr. He's a German detective during WW2 who hates Nazis, but can't avoid getting involved in cases with them. Excellent series of books, with dark humour which can be LOL at times.
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Are the Milton books standalone or is there character development? I suppose I mean can you jump in at book 12 and it not detract from reading book 3 after?
 
fcblackpool said:
Are the Milton books standalone or is there character development? I suppose I mean can you jump in at book 12 and it not detract from reading book 3 after?
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It's a series, need to start at the first book, as you say for character development.

Iirc you started reading a Bernie Gunther book after the previous book thread. Did you like it or did you struggle to get into it?
 
Dave62 said:
It's a series, need to start at the first book, as you say for character development.

Iirc you started reading a Bernie Gunther book. Did you like it or did you struggle to get into it?
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Struggled. March Violets. Probably got well over half way through and something else cropped up to read. Should go back to it really.
 
Matesrates said:
Agreed, I’ve done them all, as you say, easy reading, but somehow you can’t wait to pick it up again
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Annoys me when I go in Tesco and look at the books, see a Reacher on sale and think it's new until I look at the date and see 2008 or whenever.

They are quite light and very easy to forget in truth.
 
The Stranger Times series is great too, written by C K McDonnell, set in Manchester about a newspaper who only report on the weird and the strange, very funny, well written and the boss of the paper could easily be Jackson Lamb from the Slow Horses books, he's gross!
 
Dave62 said:
Glad you took my advice and that you're enjoying the Milton series.

Vultures is my next book.

I like Michael Connolly's books (Mickey Haller or Harry Bosch), currently trying a Greg Hurwitz "Orphan X" book and enjoying it.

I also previously recommended the Bernie Gunther books by Philip Kerr. He's a German detective during WW2 who hates Nazis, but can't avoid getting involved in cases with them. Excellent series of books, with dark humour which can be LOL at times.
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I couldn't get into the Gunther books, he kept writing the names of the roads all the time, it was a bit like reading an A to Z 😂
 
I've been giving myself a break from fiction lately and reading other things.
Just finished Anne Nolans 's book on the Nolans which mentions BFC quite a few times.
Currently reading An American Caddie in St Andrews about caddies on the Old Course. For golf lovers only I suppose but very good.
 
Just finished The Wager by David Grann. A 1740's true story of shipwreck, murder, mutiny and almost unimaginable hardship at sea. Certainly made of stern stuff back then to survive weeks/months at sea trying to navigate around Cape Horn in a small boat with little food and no protection from the elements.
 
I'm not one for fiction so I'm in to autobiographies and true life stories, if you like the same then I'd recommend Roy Keane's book, it's excellent.
 
Predictable picks but Michael Connelly is the king of crime fiction. Slough House series is very funny and the Len Deighton Berlin trilogies are good. More left field try Richard Russo.
 
We’ve had Gone With The Wind in our house for years, my wife kept it after her mum died because her mum told her to read it.
Anyway, a few weeks back I decided to give it a go. It’s over 800 pages and in small text so there is a lot to read and, probably like a lot of people, I thought it was a romance between Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler.
Nothing of the sort, and although there is a tempestuous relationship between the 2 of them, Rhett is certainly not a main character.
It’s all about the American Civil war and it took Margaret Mitchell 7 years to write it and at the time was the best selling book after the Bible..
I’ve just passed the halfway stage so maybe Rhett will make another appearance.
 
How To Win The Premier League by Ian Graham is a good read on the rise of data analysis in football, with lots of anecdotes from his time as director of research at Liverpool and elsewhere.
Especially recommended for all the South Stand experts who yell "Shooooot" every time a Pool player gets within 40 yards of goal. You know who you are.
 
mad-link said:
Just finished Tourist Season and now on to Double Whammy by Carl Hiaason.

Imagine Hunter S Thompson mixed with The Reacher novels....Hiaason writes about his once beloved Florida, now going to shit like The American Dream in general. Low-lifes, corrupt officials, bent cops, hookers, real estate scammers, pimps, radicals, bass fishing competition cheats....really funny and insightful but good stories too.

The Florida in my novels is not as seedy as the real Florida. It's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life.
Carl Hiaasen
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Great books
 
I didn't really read many books,
But I was feeling a bit low about 20 years ago .... no particular reason for it, but a friend suggested I should read more and recommend the author Wilbur Smith, got to say I've read quite a lot of his books over the years and have enjoyed most of them.
 
Just finished the second part, or 'Book VI', of The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Tough going at times due to the number of characters (and the several diminutives/nicknames for each), but some incredible writing/passages. Enjoying it, but time for a little breather and something a little less taxing before going back in.
 
mad-link said:
Just finished Tourist Season and now on to Double Whammy by Carl Hiaason.

Imagine Hunter S Thompson mixed with The Reacher novels....Hiaason writes about his once beloved Florida, now going to shit like The American Dream in general. Low-lifes, corrupt officials, bent cops, hookers, real estate scammers, pimps, radicals, bass fishing competition cheats....really funny and insightful but good stories too.

The Florida in my novels is not as seedy as the real Florida. It's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life.
Carl Hiaasen
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im a big Karl hiaasen fan as well.

if you want a similar vein but english / scottish / irish try Christopher Fowler; his horror books are very good, as is his detective series Bryant and May,

Christopher Brookmyre has a Hiaason vibe but set in scotland, and Colin Bateman for Northern Ireland set mysteries.

If you have a slightly twisted sense of humour try AA Gill's Sap rising.

my brother in law bought me the series of books from Liy Cixin (three body problem) - cant get into them at all. had them for nearly 18 months and am barely half way through the second, i can quite often get through a book in a couple of days.
 
Dave62 said:
It's a series, need to start at the first book, as you say for character development.

Iirc you started reading a Bernie Gunther book after the previous book thread. Did you like it or did you struggle to get into it?
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Wasn’t march violets, that was Phillip Kerr. What was the Bernie book? Couldn’t find it in the East Wing library.lol.

Toss up whether to go straight on with the Slow Horses series or to take a recommend from above? Decisions..
 
fcblackpool said:
Wasn’t march violets, that was Phillip Kerr. What was the Bernie book? Couldn’t find it in the East Wing library.lol.

Toss up whether to go straight on with the Slow Horses series or to take a recommend from above? Decisions..
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I read Philip Kerr's (author) books a few years ago. Bernie Gunther is his main (only?) Character. The books get better and better as he gets older throughout the series, with Nazis trying to kill him. One of my favourite book series, each to their own eh

Slow Horses was a brilliant series, I'm thinking of reading the Slough House books myself.
 
I've just added the Philip Kerr / Bernie books to my pile so will make a start on those shortly. After a long period of reading mainly non-fiction, I'm flying through fiction now and enjoying it.
 
Dave62 said:
I read Philip Kerr's (author) books a few years ago. Bernie Gunther is his main (only?) Character. The books get better and better as he gets older throughout the series, with Nazis trying to kill him. One of my favourite book series, each to their own eh

Slow Horses was a brilliant series, I'm thinking of reading the Slough House books myself.
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Of course!!!!! Told you I struggled, teeth smiley.
 
The Mick Herron Slough House novels are great. Chris Carter is also a good author albeit that they can be a bit gruesome. I also love reading Steve Cavanagh and Simon Mason.
 
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