What are you reading? 2019

Tom Holt is a master of absurdly comic fantasy. The J.W.Wells series of books are especially good.

Tom Holt - Wikipedia

 

Thanks for that list as I can see what they're about on Amazon but firstly they're not about dwarfs etc as i'm not into that

 

They are! And Elves, and goblins. Plus a random smattering of giants and dragons! And solicitors!

 

Sorry longk...not me mate..now my hubby will watch films like that and get enchanted and all i'm doing is questioning him on the film as some have so many different characters I get lost

 

Well i'm nearly finished my last purchase and just brought this one

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Well I enjoyed the "Dark Moon" great books every time

Purchased this one now and it seems a good read so far

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Well I finished the "The white lord of wellesborne" last night...great read again.

Just brought another by Kathryn Le Veque and there's a series of books even better

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I've just started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is unlike the his other books that I've read and so far it is coming across as a dystopian novel. I'm about a quarter of the way through it and it is reminding me of my favourite author Iain Banks which can only be a good thing.
Kazuo Ishiguro is probably best known for writing The Remains Of The Day.

 

Hi @longk just been reading about it on Amazon 898 reviews on the book and one member wrote this about it

Brilliant but disturbing. This novel, written in three parts, is narrated by Kathy, one of the clones, as she looks back over her life just before she is about to become a Donor, recalling memories of her childhood at Hailsham, her late adolescence at the Cottages, (ironically cosy name for a dark, uncaring, dilapidated establishment), and her lonely existence as a Carer. The book examines life, love, friendship and sexuality, what makes us human, how we cope with the prospect of death in a post religious world where the idea of God and an after life no longer exist. It also provides much food for thought - man's inhumanity to man, our treatment of people who are different, our terrible power to exert control over others. I'm still unsure that I could say I enjoyed the novel: it is immensely sad, poignant, thought provoking, memorable, certainly. Sometimes I felt it was unnecessarily long, and would have had more impact if some sections had been condensed. The other members of my book group hated it, I was the only one to say it had any merit at all, and I just could not agree with their views. I'm so pleased I read it. I especially liked the section about the abandoned boat, which Kathy, Ruth and Tommy visit towards the end of the book, causing them to revisit memories of their early years. I thought this boat symbolised the old more natural gentler order of things, especially Hailsham, now abandoned as a Home for young clones in favour of more stark , harsher, less expensive places. Tommy's scream, right at the end, his raging against his impotence to change his fate, also reminds us of our own impotence to escape the inevitable, and perhaps our regrets that we have not managed to fulfil our hopes and dreams. Readers have criticised the clones failure to rebel, to run away, that they are too accepting of the roles society has forced on them. But fundamentally there is no escape for any of us. We live our lives according to our circumstances, we have some choices, but in the end we all face the same fate.

 

Well I soon destroyed "while angels slept" lovely read...just been and purchased the 2nd book but I do enjoy the history besides the large family names also

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I'm not a fan of Sci-Fi, or rather I haven't tried reading it in close to thirty years, but I do see the odd Iain M Banks book in the charity shops so I'll give it a go. Is there one that you'd recommend as a starter?

Talking of charity shops, I went into our Oxfam bookshop this morning for a browse and came out with The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye by David Lagercrantz. The author was contracted by Stieg Larsons' publishers to write the sequel (The Girl In The Spiders Web) to the Millenium series (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo etc) which he had fleshed out before his death.He did a good job on that and it was just as compelling as the original three novels, and the transition to a different author would have been hard to spot had you not known, so I'll give this 'new' one a go.

 

I've just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. A terrific book - deeply moving and thought provoking. The science behind the core of the story is not possible but he makes no attempt to try and bluff it, it is just a mechanism used to tell the story. A keeper (most books go back to the charity shop once I've read them) .
Monday night I started The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye. As with the other books in the Millenium series it is impossible to put down and I'm now 240 odd pages in.