The "I am currently reading" thread

[NEKRO138]

Coming Down Fast, a Charles Manson biography. Quite interesting!

[JFKvsNixon]

Just finished reading Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, synopsis from Amazon:

 

Young marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company have been dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam, combatants in an increasingly desperate war. Standing in their way are the North Vietnamese, the monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, and disease and malnutrition. As racial tension and competing ambition build, the group threatens to crack at any moment. When the company is surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

 

The usual problem with war novels is that the best written are not always authentic and the most authentic are not always that insightful or well written.

 

'Matterhorn' is completely authentic, and thanks to endless re-editing, superbly written. Marlantes did his time in Vietnam and was awarded many medals for bravery, but it is his intelligence and capacity for social commentary and psychological analysis, that makes this work special.

 

Marlantes takes us to a place he knows well, only just this side of hell. It took him 30 years to write this book and edit it down to a size which could be printed in a single volume. It is a superb read, obviously autobiographical in the main, but a soaring piece of literature too.

[small_hall]

i have just finished reading Race to the pole by Ben Fogle & James Cracknell. Brilliant read & left me feeling inspired by them

Well worth a read

[surfinjim]

Just finished California Schemin by Gavin Bain. The true story of 2 guys from Dundee who formed a rap act called Silibil N Brains, but had to pass themselves off as americans to secure any form of record deal.

 

Quite a good read, not too long a book.

 

7/10

 

Jim

[foxydebs]

Currently reading orcs.

[taxman]

Just started The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova who wrote the excellent The Historian

 

Still ploughing my way through this. It has an interesting idea but it is just dragging and it needed to be proof-read by someone other than an American in order to get rid of the Americanisms present when the author is writing in the guise of a Frenchwoman.

 

Not a patch on The Historian.

[seanyboy]

I recently finished "One Day" by David Nicholls (a birthday gift from a fellow forummer!).

A beautiful read, the way it spans the most part of a lifetime is very clever - you really do get sucked in and want to know more, leaving you feeling like the characters are new friends in your life. Funny, poignant and moving. Read it before it's released as a movie! (Already started filming!)

[taxman]

A Clubbable Woman, the very first Dalziel and Pascoe novel by Reginald Hill

[Suffragette1]

I recently finished "One Day" by David Nicholls (a birthday gift from a fellow forummer!).

A beautiful read, the way it spans the most part of a lifetime is very clever - you really do get sucked in and want to know more, leaving you feeling like the characters are new friends in your life. Funny, poignant and moving. Read it before it's released as a movie! (Already started filming!)

 

Just reading this and I have to say that I am bored of the whole When Harry Met Sally thing and just want to cut to the chase and see them finally get together. Am currently at the 'Four Weddings' bit. It is amusing in parts although I would have liked to see more references to the current affairs and politics. I imagine that it will make a great film, it's written for the big screen really.

[Suffragette1]

Just reading this and I have to say that I am bored of the whole When Harry Met Sally thing and just want to cut to the chase and see them finally get together. Am currently at the 'Four Weddings' bit. It is amusing in parts although I would have liked to see more references to the current affairs and politics. I imagine that it will make a great film, it's written for the big screen really.

 

I've slightly revised my original view of this having now finished it. I saw the 'end' coming so it did not shock me, as was probably the author's intention, however, the last three 'years' really moved me - and I cried! I imagine the film will be a real weepie and promoted as a chick flick, whereas the book is not a chick lit one. There are some wonderfully comic moments as well as some very profound ones. Dexter is a very flawed character and cliched though it is, all he needed was the 'love of a good woman'. Emma is my kind of woman, she's great.

 

ETA: has anyone ever seen Same Time, Next Year, starring Alan Alda? The format of the book reminds me of that, that was a great film and moving too.

Edited September 30, 2010 by Suffragette1