Philw
Player Valuation: £50m
For the first two books, are the previous entries in the series required reading?
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The GOT Book Club
- Thread starter chicoazul
- Start date
Gwladysstreetlad
Player Valuation: £50m
No you can jump straight with both books if you want to mate.
In fact one of the best things about the Quarry books is the way the author has made them so accessible. The author jumps around the timeline from book to book and always a little explanation of where and when it is and has a little overview about the main characters story prior to the point where the book starts. The books are all written in the first person perspective of the main character "Quarry". So if you enjoy the latest one you don't have to go back and read them all in order, you could just pick another one off the list at random. Some of the books are much better then others but they're very enjoyable.
You don't have to read the earlier First Law work by Joe Abercrombie to enjoy his new book, he's done a good job in making the first book be its own thing and establish the new main cast but imo you'll enjoy it so much more if you have read the previous books.
gonetomorrow
Player Valuation: £70m
The Co-ops Got Bananas by Hunter Davies who is a well known sports writer and biographer of The Beatles among others. This is the first of three autobiographies and leads us through his life up to 1960, including school in Carlisle, University in Durham and first steps in newspapers - but increasingly the story of the love of his life and future wife Margaret Forster, the late novelist.
Davies' flat, unpretentious style fails to mask the pain regarding his asthmatic childhood and awkward family relationships.
The book is most valuable as an account of ordinary life in the fifties with Edwardian attitudes to work, family, sex etc still holding sway - at least in the north of England. Davies remains cheerful despite it all and the book leaves us teetering on the edge of the swinging sixties.
Davies' flat, unpretentious style fails to mask the pain regarding his asthmatic childhood and awkward family relationships.
The book is most valuable as an account of ordinary life in the fifties with Edwardian attitudes to work, family, sex etc still holding sway - at least in the north of England. Davies remains cheerful despite it all and the book leaves us teetering on the edge of the swinging sixties.
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AndyC
Player Valuation: £70m
Have just read, start to finish in one sitting, Guiding me Home and Away, the autobiography of former Blues winger Dave Thomas.
A very interesting look at the life of a professional footballer from one who largely ignored or paid little heed to all the trappings of fame and fortune.
After football, he's led a very varied life and now afflicted by glaucoma that's debilitating his eyesight, he talks emotionally and movingly about his relationship with his guide dog, Hannah.
It really is a very, very good read, and with all proceeds from book sales going to fund further guide dog training, it's a superb cause to support.
A very interesting look at the life of a professional footballer from one who largely ignored or paid little heed to all the trappings of fame and fortune.
After football, he's led a very varied life and now afflicted by glaucoma that's debilitating his eyesight, he talks emotionally and movingly about his relationship with his guide dog, Hannah.
It really is a very, very good read, and with all proceeds from book sales going to fund further guide dog training, it's a superb cause to support.
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Someone recommended this - The Sisters Brothers.
Excellent tale of American Noir - the trials and tribulations of the Sisters Brothers in the 19th century Mid West.
Dark, funny and well written.
Going to hunt the film out now.
scratchnsurf
Player Valuation: £40m
Just finished Early Riser by Jasper Fforde. I haven't enjoyed a book as much for a long time.
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about to start Time's Arrow - Martin Amis, anyone read? its cover and the subject looked cool so I take the risk, hoping for something decent
sdk
Player Valuation: £35m
Good one. I hope you like it. That book's form is pretty breathtaking and I remember being hugely impressed by the way Amis put it together. I also found it a more emotionally affecting read than most of Amis's stuff (his work tends to appeal more to the intellect than to the emotions in my experience). But I like his stuff overall; I just finished rereading his London Fields, as it happens. His father Kingsley Amis was an ace writer as well, though stylistically they have little in common beyond comic ability.
Saw the film, thought it quite good. I can imagine it making for a much much better novel than film. Gonna chase down the book!
Just finished reading this book as I had seen it on a number of lists of best books of 2019. Extraordinary.
Black Belt Jones
Player Valuation: £25m
AndyC
Player Valuation: £70m
Just finished Jon Sopels' "A Year in the Circus" about being a news journalist in Donald Trumps White House.
It's a really well written book, Sopel patently has a huge understanding of the history of the presidency and the White House, and for anyone with an interest in how Trump somehow survives, it's a superb read.
It's a really well written book, Sopel patently has a huge understanding of the history of the presidency and the White House, and for anyone with an interest in how Trump somehow survives, it's a superb read.
Got 'First Man In' by Ant Middleton (the guy from SAS Are you tough enough etc. autobiography) for Christmas from my Aunt and on just got around to reading it.
What a horrible little self aggrandising arsehole that fella is.
It's been a while since a book has actually made me this angry, but he comes across as an absolute tool.
He paints his whole early life as a difficult struggle and bases that on the fact that his father died when he was young. Granted that's a horrible thing to happen to anyone, but he milks it to the fullest. Completely sidestepping the fact that the rest of his family were there for him and were pretty well off. He grew up on a vineyard in the south of France ffs.
He spends the rest of the book bragging about being a hard-man and how all his mates in London are serious gangsters.
But he only got into fights to "fit in with the other Para's"
There's a whole section on how he ended up in prison for sparking out a policeman, which he half frames as being the coppers fault for provoking him by poking him in the chest and telling him to "move on" from the scene of an altercation when he was drunk. You know, just doing his job in other words.
He frames the whole thing as some sort of injustice when only a few chapters previously he tells a tale of him losing the plot and half beating to death a random fella outside his flat for no reason other than the guy gave him a dirty look. All the time he keeps going on about "not being that sort of bloke"
An absolute divvy of the highest order. Avoid.
What a horrible little self aggrandising arsehole that fella is.
It's been a while since a book has actually made me this angry, but he comes across as an absolute tool.
He paints his whole early life as a difficult struggle and bases that on the fact that his father died when he was young. Granted that's a horrible thing to happen to anyone, but he milks it to the fullest. Completely sidestepping the fact that the rest of his family were there for him and were pretty well off. He grew up on a vineyard in the south of France ffs.
He spends the rest of the book bragging about being a hard-man and how all his mates in London are serious gangsters.
But he only got into fights to "fit in with the other Para's"
There's a whole section on how he ended up in prison for sparking out a policeman, which he half frames as being the coppers fault for provoking him by poking him in the chest and telling him to "move on" from the scene of an altercation when he was drunk. You know, just doing his job in other words.
He frames the whole thing as some sort of injustice when only a few chapters previously he tells a tale of him losing the plot and half beating to death a random fella outside his flat for no reason other than the guy gave him a dirty look. All the time he keeps going on about "not being that sort of bloke"
An absolute divvy of the highest order. Avoid.
scratchnsurf
Player Valuation: £40m
Not read that but have enjoyed quite a few of his books - London Fields and Money in particular.