Book Recommendations

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’ve only just realised that there are two threads with the title ‘Book Recommendations,’ c.d. The only that I started last year and this one, started by you 14 years ago! I don’t know why I started my thread when this one already existed? I’ve even posted on this thread. My brain must have been out of order on the day that I started the thread.

[c.d.]

Just finished "The Four Winds" by Kristin Hannah. Absolutely fantastic book (fiction) about the Dust Bowl and the Depression in America in the 1930's. Incredible characters. Beautifully written. Can't recommend it enough.

She also wrote "The Nightingale" which deals with the French Resistance in World War II. Excellent as well.

c.d.

[c.d.]

I am currently reading "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed. Her account of her solo backpacking trek of the entire Pacific Crest Trail in America. 2, 650 miles. What makes it so interesting is that she was completely unprepared for what she did and was pretty much clueless. In addition, she could have been the poster child for bad decisions with regard to her personal life. Hard to believe that one person could screw up their life so badly. She describes one scene on the trail where she sits down to rub her badly aching ankle which she describes as having a golf ball sized bruise on it which is starting to turn black. You expect her to tell how she bruised it on a rock. Nope. Shot up some heroin a few nights before setting out on the trail. Truly amazing. Yet, she gutted it out and wrote a book about it.

c.d.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Hello Sir John,

Glad to see you like Murakami. "Kafka on the Shore" was my first introduction to him and I really liked the book. Have you read it?

c.d.

Not yet. I purchased Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. About to start it. Kafka will probably my next, but I don't know when. (So many books to read)

[bjgourley]

The professor and the madman by Simon Winchester for non-fiction, most of his books are pretty decent for that matter. And for fiction, I've just started reading Casino Royale. I can't speak for the rest of the Ian Fleming Bond books, but the first one is pretty good so far. If that doesn't float your boat, I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Don't worry, it's nothing like the garbage movie they recently did, though surprisingly, the Chuck Heston film was closer to the book. That being said, watch The Omega Man if you haven't already.

[c.d.]

Hello Sir John,

Glad to see you like Murakami. "Kafka on the Shore" was my first introduction to him and I really liked the book. Have you read it?

c.d.

[Herlock Sholmes]

...Wallander </pedantic>

Thanks Gareth. Don’t tell Fish I got the spelling of a Swedish name wrong

[Sam Flynn]

Not that it’s important but I just happened to notice my typo. ‘’Wallenberg’’ should read ‘’Wallender’’ of course.

...Wallander </pedantic>

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’m not a massive reader of fiction these days (apart from Sherlock Holmes pastiches and Solar Pons stories) but I was recommended a series of books late last year by a London Tour Guide. They are the Shardlake series by CJ Sansom. The tour guide mentioned them as his company is currently considering creating a walk based around the series. It’s historical/crime fiction set during the rain of Henry VIII. Matthew Shardlake is a hunchback lawyer who, in the first book, does work for Thomas Cromwell during the dissolution of the monestaries. Sansom is brilliant at recreating the sights, sounds and smells of Tudor England (and especially of London.) Twisting plots, a few gruesome murders, religious intrigue and absolutely brilliant characters. Shardlake himself is a great creation who practices at a time when hunchbacks were considered ill-fortune and he suffers a fair bit of mockery; even very briefly from the King.

I can’t recommend these highly enough. I’m on the sixth book and Sansom’s latest (book seven) is now on sale. Apparently he intends to keep on writing into the Elizabethan era.

In 2007 the BBC planned to do the first book Dissolution for tv starting Kenneth Branagh as Shardlake but he decided to do Wallenberg instead and so, as far as I know, nothing came of it unless anyone has news?

Not that it’s important but I just happened to notice my typo. ‘’Wallenberg’’ should read ‘’Wallender’’ of course.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

My favorites, available in English:

1Q84 by Murakami. It's in three parts for almost 1500 pages. I suggest you get a sample of the e-book. If you don't like the beginning, you won't like the rest. You follow two characters, one male one female, who are experiencing a strange switch in reality in Japan of 1984.

American Tabloid by Ellroy. First book of the trilogy Underground USA. By creating 3 fictional protagonists (1 mafia, 1 FBI, 1 CIA) Ellroy links major events from Castro taking over Cuba up to JFK's assassination. The style is raw, brutal, reminding of Chandler.

If you enjoy the late Victorian era, there is the last fiction Umberto Eco wrote, The Prague Cemetery, taking place in continental Europe, with a very unlikeable main character that creates mayhem with fake documents and lies, right up to the Protocol of Sion.

Also, apparently harder to find in English, there is The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon. It's 5 books, but each are less than 300 pages. It's an historical fiction taking place in medieval France, starting to the trial of the Templars and their execution. Before dying, their leader curses the king. Coincidentally, every successive kings of France up to the Hundred Year War will see their reign cut short. It's their story. It's a "classic" in French, written in mid 20th Century.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’m not a massive reader of fiction these days (apart from Sherlock Holmes pastiches and Solar Pons stories) but I was recommended a series of books late last year by a London Tour Guide. They are the Shardlake series by CJ Sansom. The tour guide mentioned them as his company is currently considering creating a walk based around the series. It’s historical/crime fiction set during the rain of Henry VIII. Matthew Shardlake is a hunchback lawyer who, in the first book, does work for Thomas Cromwell during the dissolution of the monestaries. Sansom is brilliant at recreating the sights, sounds and smells of Tudor England (and especially of London.) Twisting plots, a few gruesome murders, religious intrigue and absolutely brilliant characters. Shardlake himself is a great creation who practices at a time when hunchbacks were considered ill-fortune and he suffers a fair bit of mockery; even very briefly from the King.

I can’t recommend these highly enough. I’m on the sixth book and Sansom’s latest (book seven) is now on sale. Apparently he intends to keep on writing into the Elizabethan era.

In 2007 the BBC planned to do the first book Dissolution for tv starting Kenneth Branagh as Shardlake but he decided to do Wallenberg instead and so, as far as I know, nothing came of it unless anyone has news?

[Robert]

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605171h.html

[c.d.]

Three recent books to recommend. Reviews can be found on amazon.com.

"Hellhound on His Trail" by Hampton Sides -- a real page turner about the massive manhunt for the killer of Martin Luther King.

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon -- a young high school kid who is autistic tries to find out who killed a neighborhood dog. A fascinating look into autism.

"Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami - can't even begin to describe it but one of the best books I have read in years. Highly recommended. (Note that it does contain some sex scenes if that bothers you at all)

c.d.

[The Bounder]

I've just finished reading a brilliant novel I downloaded off Amazon called 'The Ruminations of Freekly Oldacre: The Adventure of the Curse of the Mummy's Toenail'. I couldn't recommend it highly enough, its a Victorian detective novel with a strange central character and a plot that's like Sherlock Holmes meets tongue in cheek Dan Brown. Excellent book. Seriously read it, its only about £2 to download.

[glyn]

"Parisians" for a rather off beat look at the history of Paris and its characters.