The GOT Book Club

[gonetomorrow]

I see that this year's Booker prize winner, 'Shuggie Bain', has been described as 'challenging' and 'uncompromising' by the judges.

This translates as totally unreadable to the likes of you and me.

Reading reviews of this novel have put me right off it. I feel we've been down the misery road far enough in Scotland.

Maybe I'm getting old but I'm looking for laughs or an intriguing story these days, not more drink, drugs and depression.

He seems to write well by all accounts so good luck to him.

 

[atrottel]

Yet again my ebook supplier has book 2 but not book 1

There's a bit of personal backstory between the two books, but nothing critical which would spoil you reading one before the other.

 

[wm02]

Started re-reading Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff after Chuck Yeager’s death earlier this week. Great read

 

[RAFUH]

I need a new book to read, but having trouble finding one that captures my interest. All have seemed a bit too heavy. I need brain candy escapism

 

[verreauxi]

I need a new book to read, but having trouble finding one that captures my interest. All have seemed a bit too heavy. I need brain candy escapism

What sort of stuff you like? Crime, thrillers, romance, sci-fi, etc.?

 

[atrottel]

I need a new book to read, but having trouble finding one that captures my interest. All have seemed a bit too heavy. I need brain candy escapism

Bernard Cornwell? (Historical)
Neil Gaiman? (Decent fantasy)
Don Winslow? (Seedy crime)

 

[verreauxi]

I need a new book to read, but having trouble finding one that captures my interest. All have seemed a bit too heavy. I need brain candy escapism

I would recommend "Priest Daddy" by Patricia Lockwood, which is among the funniest memoirs I've read. Very very good.

A good and quick Sc-Fi book that I liked (and sci-fi is generally not my thing) is Wool, by Hugh Howey. And if you like thriller-type stuff "The Girl on the Train" was quite good...in the vein of Gillian Flynn.

 

[RAFUH]

What sort of stuff you like? Crime, thrillers, romance, sci-fi, etc.?

All that, but only romance that isn't either complete sappy schmaltz or total bodice ripper so probably more a story that happens to have romance.
Also historical fiction, fantasy, most anything really so long as I don't have to think too much. I do enough of that type of reading for work.

 

[atrottel]

A good and quick Sc-Fi book that I liked (and sci-fi is generally not my thing) is Wool, by Hugh Howey. And if you like thriller-type stuff "The Girl on the Train" was quite good...in the vein of Gillian Flynn.

I would add a thumbs-up for Wool.

 

[atrottel]

Also historical fiction, fantasy, most anything really so long as I don't have to think too much. I do enough of that type of reading for work.

Maybe try the Arthur trilogy from Bernard Cornwell? (The Warlord Chronicles)

 

[verreauxi]

All that, but only romance that isn't either complete sappy schmaltz or total bodice ripper so probably more a story that happens to have romance.
Also historical fiction, fantasy, most anything really so long as I don't have to think too much. I do enough of that type of reading for work.

One of the most inadvertant romance stories that I've read as of recent was City of Thieves (David Benihoff), about the battle of Stalingrad and trying to find a wedding cake during the city wide curfew. Parts of it are, well, war-oriented, but it's quite excellent and you don't have to think too much! It's good breezy prose.

 

[RAFUH]

Thanks @atrottel and @verreauxi
I'll give those a look. I have about 2 weeks off coming up and could use a bit of checking out of the current real world.

 

[wm02]

All that, but only romance that isn't either complete sappy schmaltz or total bodice ripper so probably more a story that happens to have romance.
Also historical fiction, fantasy, most anything really so long as I don't have to think too much. I do enough of that type of reading for work.

Maybe something like Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Excellent novel

 

[verreauxi]

Thanks @atrottel and @verreauxi
I'll give those a look. I have about 2 weeks off coming up and could use a bit of checking out of the current real world.

Sounds good. Other good sometimes-quirky books that I liked are "The Family Fang" (Wilson--kids grow up with artsy dysfunctional parents), "Good to be God" (Fischer--wayward soul starts small church in Miami), "Gold" (Cleeve--female olympic cyclists and old friends compete in life), "Where'd you go Bernadette" (Semple--kid strives to find quirky mom who vanished), "The Orphan Master's Son" (Johnson--intensely good fiction about life in North Korea).

I'll stop now.

 

[atrottel]

Oh, and how could I forget, The Passage by Justin Cronin? (First in a trilogy.) It's a kind of non-horror vampire dystopian novel that the author wrote when his daughter asked him to write something about 'a girl who saves the world'. There are plenty of others here who also gave it rave reviews... (@COYBL25 ?)