Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[HLS]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I interrupted Shogun to read a local book club book, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

It's set in the first half of the 20th century, and the background fro the characters is the compiling of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The characters are good, and I enjoyed the book overall. But I was a little put off by the introduction of fictional characters into history, in a place and time where the number of historical people is very small. That's to say - the people who worked for any significant length of time on the OED is small and well known. Having a minor and a major fictional character as part of that group seems odd.

4/5 overall.

I have Shogun but have never had the courage to read it yet.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HLS

I have Shogun but have never had the courage to read it yet.

I really enjoyed it. It's huge, but it keeps one's interest.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I really enjoyed it. It's huge, but it keeps one's interest.

When I was in my early tweens I read Tai-Pan and Noble House while visiting my Mum (her library was not kid friendly, but she was at work) but she didn't have Shogun. Not sure I'll ever complete the set

[Apache]

I have read Shogun multiple times. My only complaint is that he changed the names of the historical figures in the book.
Apache

[SteveEisenberg]

Just finished the newish Galbraith/Rowling Strike/Ellacott mystery, The Running Grave. I found it the best of the series -- generous in length, and generous to the characters.

I read a review suggesting that Rowling must be rejecting cuts advised by her editor. Sounds correct, but some great nineteenth century classics also were weakly edited. This outing, I think it was for the best, giving room to make series regulars multi-dimensional.

I don't read mysteries to guess the chief villain, but for those who do, the plot is complicated. A list of characters can help, and Rowling provides one on her web site.

[issybird]

I haven't posted here in a long time. Right now I'm reading:

• Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939-1945, by Alan Allport
• News from Tartary, by Peter Fleming
• The Vicar of Bullhampton, by Anthony Trollope
  
  and as an amuse bouche
• Eating for England, by Nigel Slater

I'm enjoying all of them.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by issybird

I haven't posted here in a long time. Right now I'm reading:

What an awesome list!

I don’t generally like travel books, but the intro of News from Tartary was wonderful.

For now, I’m going back to Richard Gwyn’s superb biography of Canada’s first prime minister, John A. McDonald.

[fantasyfan]

One August Morning: The True Story of Lizzie Borden by Troy Taylor is an excellent
examination of one of America’s most mysterious unsolved murders. It happened in 1892 and it is still unsolved (though Taylor presents an interesting and possible solution).

For a long time I believed that Lizzie Borden had managed both to murder her parents and avoid a conviction. Taylor’s book convinces me that the apparently strong case presented by Edwin H Porter in his book “The Fall River Tragedy” (1893) is very slanted in its presentation of the evidence and the demeanour of Lizzie Borden. Taylor analyses the time lines in the case and states that:

“The 30 minutes between the time that Andrew Borden returned at 10:45 a.m, and the cry of ‘murder’ that sounded at 11:15 is perhaps the most studied half-hour in American criminal history and is also perhaps the most puzzling.”

He proposes that possibly it was a different half-hour—the period between 10:45 and 11:15 “when the first telephone call was made to the Fall River police station” that is vital. There is also the problem that Mrs Borden had been slaughtered an hour or more earlier and her dead body had been lying untouched until it was found after Andrew’s death.

The book follows the trial carefully and uses primary sources to support inferences. The later lives of Lizzie and her older sister conclude this very interesting book.

Troy Taylor is described as “a supernatural historian, murder buff and author of almost 90 books on ghosts, hauntings, history, crime and the unexplained in America.” There is, at the end, a brief mention of hauntings or “events” at the Borden house (which is now a bed and breakfast tourist stop). But the book is well written and resourced. That includes Taylor’s suggested solution which does have probability but which he clearly states remains unprovable.

There are photographs of the site and the main players in this very strange murder mystery. It,is,well worth reading and is available on Kindle Unlimited and on the Kindle Store.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Shogun by James Clavell. An epic - over 1,000 pages!

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I interrupted Shogun to read a local book club book, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

Finished Shogun. Fascinating. A good read. Massive lead up to a civil war, and

Spoiler:

the actual war itself takes less than a page.

Next I started, and abandoned, "Later Essays", part of Delphi Classic's complete Robert Louis Stevenson collection. Interesting, but not for me. I suspect I'll be discarding a lot of the minor works.

Now reading Father Christmas's Fake Beard by Terry Pratchett. Another collection of his early short fiction written for the paper he worked at as a journalist. Even this early stuff shows his brilliance. Great fun so far.

[K. Lyn Kennedy]

What an eye opener! The Handmaid's Tale was written in 1989, but it seems that it could happen anytime, any place. Did the author have a premonition? It's a great book and I don't think it should be on the banned book list anywhere, but it is. I highly recommend reading it. And I recommend it especially for young women/girls. The message for me was: If we allow someone or some group to take away our power, our identity, ourselves, it will happen.

The book is available everywhere... Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Apple, Google, libraries, as ebook and paperback.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now reading Father Christmas's Fake Beard by Terry Pratchett. Another collection of his early short fiction written for the paper he worked at as a journalist. Even this early stuff shows his brilliance. Great fun so far.

Flashes of his genius shine through. Great fun.

Next up: For Kicks by Dick Francis - his third novel.

[drofgnal]

Still reading Anna Karenina. Slow going. It's pretty slow out of the gate, but picking now picking up. My reading usually slows down over the holidays, so I'm wondering if this was a good choice for this time of year, but I'll continue on. I am enjoying it.

Next up, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. It was an Amazon deal of the day for 1.99, so I picked it up.

[Fithaly]

I'm into "Assassin's Apprentice" by Hobb right now and it's great! Her writing's engaging, characters feel real. Planning to grab more from the series.