The GOT Book Club

[gonetomorrow]

I've rediscovered Beryl Bainbridge. Shortish novels with dark humour and very good insight into people dealing with each other.

 

[summerisle]

I've rediscovered Beryl Bainbridge. Shortish novels with dark humour and very good insight into people dealing with each other.

I like her as well, born in Liverpool.

 

[Philw]

About half way through this at the moment. I’m a massive Bryson fan, so any review I give is inherently biased

Interesting and funny in equal measures, well recommended!

Just read this one last month. Really enjoyed it. He’s a blue as well

Got this for Xmas last year, haven't got round to reading it yet, but love Bryson's books. A Short History of Everything is amazing and everyone should read it.

 

[wm02]

Nearing the end of the biography of Thomas Jefferson that I am currently reading. Fascinating chapter on Jefferson and his role in inoculations for smallpox in Virginia.
Next book up is Circe by Madeline Miller

 

[Black Belt Jones]

Saw this top ten social media novels in the Guardian, anyone read any?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/23/top-10-books-about-social-media-viral-matthew-sperling

Challenge here is that most of the writers are too young to be good (yet), but they're the generation who really feel this social media in their bones and can be real about it. Bobbins like 'Sympathy (Olivia Sudjic) is perhaps the first mature literary novel written from an internet-native perspective' when it's her first book sums this up.

 

[degsy]

Saw this top ten social media novels in the Guardian, anyone read any?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/23/top-10-books-about-social-media-viral-matthew-sperling

Challenge here is that most of the writers are too young to be good (yet), but they're the generation who really feel this social media in their bones and can be real about it. Bobbins like 'Sympathy (Olivia Sudjic) is perhaps the first mature literary novel written from an internet-native perspective' when it's her first book sums this up.

Bobbins indeedy.
There are just 2 types of book I can read.
a) Those I can read...all the way through, even if it might at times be a bit of a struggle
b) Those I can't get past page 24 on...yes Salman Rushdie, you and your satanic verses shight - no wonder they put the fatwah on you

 

[wm02]

Just read Philip Mansel’s book about Aleppo. Wouldn’t recommend it. Fairly lazy format (1/2 of Aleppo’s history, 1/2 excerpts from travelers’ accounts of the city at different periods).
Started Ron Chernow’s biography of John D. Rockefeller. Really enjoying it thus far

 

[Deleted member 48881]

The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Too late, yes. But it's a book I will never forget. Speechless.

 

[random]

just finished The Gulag Archipelago (vol 1) by Solzhenitsyn

That was one serious book, it explains Article 58 that was used to put people in jail, the subsequent torture they endured to get 'confessions' was horrific.

I had heard about the Gulags and seen some films, but nothing prepares you for reading this 1st hand account. I will definitely be reading vols 2 & 3 at some point in the future.

One of the best non-fiction books I have read

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Now reading

 

[COYBL25]

just finished The Gulag Archipelago (vol 1) by Solzhenitsyn

That was one serious book, it explains Article 58 that was used to put people in jail, the subsequent torture they endured to get 'confessions' was horrific.

I had heard about the Gulags and seen some films, but nothing prepares you for reading this 1st hand account. I will definitely be reading vols 2 & 3 at some point in the future.

One of the best non-fiction books I have read


View attachment 108750

Not just that, the risks that the author took to write them.

They also put to bed the popular notion that Lenin wasn`t an evil maniac.

 

[4737carlin]

Just read Pauline Black Black By Design, great book, best music releated book I've read during lockdown, and ive read a lot. Deals with a lot more then just The Selecter, adoption, the search for her real parents, racism in the 60s and 70s, and a few of things, great read.

 

[Daz1878]

Just finished Michel Houellebecq's Serotonin. I thought it was excellent, although maybe not quite as good as his previous one, Submission. I really like the style of his writing, although his books aren't for all tastes - this one, like most of his stuff, deals with some taboo subjects, although there is a point in this one that proves, quite surprisingly, that he does draw the line somewhere. It's also very funny in places. My only gripe was that it was all over a bit too quickly, as I wouldn't have minded if it twice as long, which I guess is a pretty good recommendation.

 

[Ollie d]

Got a book cheap from Tesco's the other week and finished it. Deep state by Alex Hauty, decent action thriller well worth a read.

 

[wm02]

Just finished Michel Houellebecq's Serotonin. I thought it was excellent, although maybe not quite as good as his previous one, Submission. I really like the style of his writing, although his books aren't for all tastes - this one, like most of his stuff, deals with some taboo subjects, although there is a point in this one that proves, quite surprisingly, that he does draw the line somewhere. It's also very funny in places. My only gripe was that it was all over a bit too quickly, as I wouldn't have minded if it twice as long, which I guess is a pretty good recommendation.

Haven’t read his more recent work but enjoyed reading Elementary Particles in grad school.