Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[widowspider]

Gonna get started on 'Lost in a good book' by Jasper Fforde later. Really enjoyed 'Eyre affair'

You'll enjoy it.

[Everlong]

Yay!

[Shack]

Gonna get started on 'Lost in a good book' by Jasper Fforde later. Really enjoyed 'Eyre affair'

It's rather good. Although I suggest you note down some of the things that happened in the Eyre Affair because I'd forgotten.

[Shack]

Restless - William Boyd

Single mum finds out mum used to be a spy, cue flashbacks to the past and mystery solving flipping between World War II and the seventies. Pretty good.

[Jubei]

I've given up on it, couldn't get into it and found it seriously unfunny. Started on Ark by Stephen Baxter instead.

I'm Stephen Baxtering myself up at the moment. I got the Xeelee Omnibus and I've worked my way through Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux and I've almost finished Ring. I've really enjoyed the way each book has a central concept, like in Raft the gravitaional force, normally incredibly weak, is billions of times stronger so the entire universse is completely different in every way imaginable, or Flux is set around a community of almost post-technology pastoral micro people made of tin who measure distances in centimetres and metres and live in a neutrino superfluid in the photosphere of a star. Brilliant. Might have to see if there's an anthology of the short stories so that I can fill in the gaps in the 10 million year timeline...

This post has been edited by Jubei: May 21 2010, 05:43 PM

[maian]

I vaguely remember Hey, Nostradamus! being very engaging.

Indeed it was. I was really impressed with his ability to give each of the four narrators their own unique voices and viewpoints, particularly since those viewpoints cast the other narrators in very different lights as the book progressed. I also thought that his unwillingness to comment to heavily on the cause of the school shooting at the start of the book was a great strength, since he really understood that the causes aren't as important to the characters as the effects, and how the shooting cast a pall over their lives, even people like Heather, who wasn't directly involved. I think I much prefer Coupland when hs is in philosophical, character-driven road, as opposed to the more bitingly sarcastic Coupland of JPod.

[Julie]

Indeed it was. I was really impressed with his ability to give each of the four narrators their own unique voices and viewpoints, particularly since those viewpoints cast the other narrators in very different lights as the book progressed. I also thought that his unwillingness to comment to heavily on the cause of the school shooting at the start of the book was a great strength, since he really understood that the causes aren't as important to the characters as the effects, and how the shooting cast a pall over their lives, even people like Heather, who wasn't directly involved. I think I much prefer Coupland when hs is in philosophical, character-driven road, as opposed to the more bitingly sarcastic Coupland of JPod.

In that case, I think you'd love Generation: A, then.

[Serafina_Pekkala]

I found Oh What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe in a free book share bin at work. Zoe is right. It is really really good.

[Raven]

Finished The Gum Thief, I really enjoyed it, a lot better than jPod.

[Shack]

Currently reading Mystery Man by Colin Bateman.

I think Christopher Moore fans would love it (except that it doesn't have anything that bends reality too much) as it's funny, the lead character is quite quite OCD and it's about a book shop.

Recommended.

[Igmeister]

Finished Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist Really wish I'd read this before I'd seen the film, but either way it's still both shocking and gripping. starts slowly and is not as terrifying as it would have been, but well worth a read.

[maian]

I finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow yesterday. I really, really liked it. Doctorow is clearly very passionate about the rights of people in the digital age and he interweaves his concerns into a compelling narrative about a 17 year old kid who gets taken prisoner by the Department of Homeland Security following a terrorist task, and who fights back against the abuses of power he sees taking hold of his beloved San Francisco. It bristles with teenage rebellion and, if I'd read it when I was 17, it would probably have blown my mind.

I've now started two books; my public book - the one I can read on the train or at work - is Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard (brought on by watching Justified) and my at home book - the one I will get flack for if I read it anywhere other than at home - is My Booky Wook by Russell Brand. They have both proven very entertaining so far, but for very different reasons.

[Everlong]

Currently reading Mystery Man by Colin Bateman.

I think Christopher Moore fans would love it (except that it doesn't have anything that bends reality too much) as it's funny, the lead character is quite quite OCD and it's about a book shop.

Recommended.

I read that last year, really enjoyed it. Funny, and just a bit clever too. In my head he was like a book version of Bernard Black, albeit less nutty and more organised version (like trying to avoid customers when they ring). I'll say no more, as I don't know how far in you are.

I hope there's a follow up though with these characters, that would be great.

I didn't know his (Bateman) first name actually. I hadn't heard of him previously.

[blackcherry]

I've just started reading The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss and am really enjoying it so far. The only problem is finding the time to read!

[Serafina_Pekkala]

I'm reading Wide Open by Nicola Barker. Out of the trendy Granta list style authors - she is the few (like Peace, Coe and Mitchell) who have an original voice. Alan Warner is perhaps similar stuff. I don't think she is the best writer of the lot but she is good and proof that many writers improve with age. Here is a recent interview - she sounds both humble and funny. I will try her more comic stuff next. This one is quite dark and sinister.