The GOT Book Club

[blue to the bone]

Have said it before but the Don winslow books are exceptional.
The latest trilogy City of dreams, City on fire and City in ruins are brilliant
As are his earlier cartel trilogy.

 

[summerisle]

Yeah, I liked that. Some litsy Englishmen of the time were content to wander lonely as a cloud and gawk at lakes and stuff, but it took De Quincey to demonstrate the virtues of indoor fun.

Lots of fun to be had indoors.

Anyway, currently reading :

Makes my experiences in kitchens very pale indeed. lol

 

[Bkk Andy]

Anyone else prefer buying books to reading them? I must have close to 100 on the shelf that are waiting to be read. Finding quiet time isn't easy.

 

[summerisle]

Anyone else prefer buying books to reading them? I must have close to 100 on the shelf that are waiting to be read. Finding quiet time isn't easy.

Indeed, biographies are my bête noir. Also, getting rid of books is no picnic either.

 

[LostLegend]

Anyone else prefer buying books to reading them? I must have close to 100 on the shelf that are waiting to be read. Finding quiet time isn't easy.

Yeah, I’ve been buying more recently, I bought a new bookcase so have been gradually filling it.

 

[COYBL25]

Indeed, biographies are my bête noir. Also, getting rid of books is no picnic either.

I save my used books up until I’ve got a few and then take them to the library at Alder Hey.

They’re always grateful for them, as there’s lots of parents who are effectively in the hospital, as long as their children, looking for something to do, other than watch daytime tv all day.

 

[summerisle]

I save my used books up until I’ve got a few and then take them to the library at Alder Hey.

They’re always grateful for them, as there’s lots of parents who are effectively in the hospital, as long as their children, looking for something to do, other than watch daytime tv all day.

I gave a load to my barbers for people to read, whilst waiting for kids to have ridiculously complicated haircuts that take an age.

 

[summerisle]

Anyone else prefer buying books to reading them? I must have close to 100 on the shelf that are waiting to be read. Finding quiet time isn't easy.

There's no respite, even when you're dead.

 

[LostLegend]

He's apparently a massive nerd for 70's & 80's horror, b-movies & exploitation cinema and all these influences come through in his stories. The opening page of 'The Haar' says: "For my Gran, she would not have liked this book at all" lol

His instagram page is a trip as well. It's just pictures of his pug "Boris" next to his favourite books & films:



lol

Sped through this in a few days, it's really good.

It's folk horror meets 'The Blob', with body horror, outrageous violence and gore to the point of being ridiculous, all told with the darkest of humour. It's also a romance!
The story follows Muriel, a woman in her 80's who lives in a small coastal village in Scotland which is currently being aggressively bought up by an obnoxious American billionaire called Patrick Grant who plans to build a golf course in it's place. Muriel is one of a handful of residents who have refused the buy-out offers from Grant, who has now resorted to bully tactics to convince them to sell up. If you are aware of the antics of a certain orange skinned ex-US President when he was building his Aberdeen golf course, you will see where the influence for Grants character has come from (And his coke addled son lol )

One day a thick fog, known locally as a Haar, rolls in and Muriel finds a strange sea creature washed up ashore and she takes it home to nurse it back to health in her bath tub.
That's when the bodies start to pile up.

I really enjoyed this. In some ways it reminded me a bit of Ian Bank's 'The Wasp Factory' with the blustery Scottish coastal setting, use of local dialect "Ya wee sh*tebag!" and the extremely dark humour.
This also has some of the most outrageous death scenes I've ever read, the ones where you don't know whether to be horrified, laugh out loud or both.
Definitely going to try more of his books on the strength of this.
I'll leave you with this quote:

“There is a God, thought Aaron, and then the creature yanked hard on his skin and turned him inside out like a revolting fleshy pillowcase.”

lol

 

[LostLegend]

My second David Sodergren novel in as many weeks. Fair to say I’m getting a bit obsessed!

This one follows Becky, who while renovating the family home finds 3 mysterious video tapes concealed inside a wall. On these tapes are episodes of a disturbing 80’s kids TV show called ‘Rumplejack’ and in one of the episodes she see’s her mother, an actress who disappeared 40 years earlier and vows to solve the mystery of her disappearance. However, in watching these videos, Becky has unwittingly woken up ‘Rotten Tommy’, an unstoppable killer who’ll stop at nothing to reach her.

This is every bit as fun and messed up as ‘The Haar’ and feels like a love letter to horror and pulp cinema. There’s cursed video tapes (The Ring), an unstoppable supernatural killer (Halloween, Friday 13th) spooky nursery rhymes (Nightmare on Elm St) and a set piece straight out of the first Terminator film. It also features a man being dragged up a flight of stairs by his manhood like it were “a suitcase handle”

Once again the characters are great. Becky is autistic and is based on the authors own experience of late diagnosed autism. ‘The Sausage King’ is also stand out… but I’ll let you read it yourself if you want to know who that is! Also as with ‘The Haar’ there is a comic level of OTT violence and dark humour.

Cannot recommended this enough as it’s so much fun to read!

5 Jason Statham’s out of 5

 

[Shevin Keedy]

Heh. Compare and contrast with, say, Blood Meridian or The Road. I love McCarthy's work and lament his passing, but I look forward to reading some of his earlier stuff that I never got to. I've heard Sutree, which I think was his debut novel, is both really good and quite different from his later work. What a writer he was.

Same, a big fan here.

I always recommend Child of God as a first read, just to see people's reactions once they've read it lol.

 

[Brownie]

I just finished the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden. Good as usual from him, but I wasn't quite as engrossed as I was with Conqueror. Ran out of a steam a little bit in the later books.

Still got the Greek one to go. Might give it a while before I get onto that. Cheers.

 

[LostLegend]

Just finished the audiobook Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

A grand hard sci-Fi space opera with some really unique plot twists.

“The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?”

Really enjoyed this one and the narration by Mel Hudson is superb.

Have jumped straight into the second (audio) book ‘Children of Ruin’

 

[COYBL25]

Just finished the audiobook Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

A grand hard sci-Fi space opera with some really unique plot twists.

“The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?”

Really enjoyed this one and the narration by Mel Hudson is superb.

Have jumped straight into the second (audio) book ‘Children of Ruin’

Thanks for that mate, I`ve put it on my reading list

Sounds like a book that would work well as a film ?

 

[Professor Toffee]

Excellent read, essentially a biography of a French man who murders his wife, children and parents because he has lied his way through his life, that he works on WHO, that he's an eminent physician when he is nothing but a thief who lives of other peoples savings. Riveting