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The GOT Book Club

The Decade in Tory by Russell Jones

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The Decade in Tory is an inglorious, rollicking and entirely true account of ten years of demonstrable lies, relentless incompetence, epic waste, serial corruption, official police investigations, anti-democratic practices, abuse of power, dereliction of duty and hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths.

This should required reading for anyone who voted Conservative over the past few elections. As it is, anyone with the slightest interest in politics would do well to get a copy of it.

Superb book, couldn't put it down. Well worth getting and probably one of the best, if not the best, books on politics I have read.
 
….many years ago this book was recommended by a friend who was a Liverpool Docker. That friend passed away last year and I finally got around to reading it this past fortnight.

It’s basically about the impoverished life of workers and families in Edwardian times. Very poignant and a little ironic that the author died aged 40 and is buried in a paupers grave opposite the gates of Walton Prison;

IMG_9569.jpeg
 
Yet another Jon Krakauer book down, he's quickly becoming one of my favourite non-fiction authors.

'Under the Banner of Heaven' this time around, which covers the history of the Mormon faith, in particular the polygamist fundamental sect. It also covers the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter in 1984 at the hands of her brothers-in-law Ron and Dan Lafferty who believed they were acting upon orders from God himself.

This was a pretty wild ride. I had some knowledge of Mormonism, it's founding and Joseph Smith, but had no idea just how much violence and bloodshed there was in their history.

Also, when it came to the polygamist sect, the guys who take multiple wives and father ungodly amounts of children (the irony of that statement is not lost), I was not at all surprised to find that some of the many wives these pervy old codgers marry are not always of age. Religious fundamentalism and perverts seem to be a regular match.
"What's that? Your wife has hit her late 20's? We can't have that, she's far too old, God has just revealed to me that you are to marry your neighbors 14yo daughter, who is also technically your niece and get her up the duff as soon as you can" :dodgy:

Despite the rampant noncery, I did enjoy this bit:

image0-9.jpg


:lol:
 
LostLegend said:
Yet another Jon Krakauer book down, he's quickly becoming one of my favourite non-fiction authors.

'Under the Banner of Heaven' this time around, which covers the history of the Mormon faith, in particular the polygamist fundamental sect. It also covers the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter in 1984 at the hands of her brothers-in-law Ron and Dan Lafferty who believed they were acting upon orders from God himself.

This was a pretty wild ride. I had some knowledge of Mormonism, it's founding and Joseph Smith, but had no idea just how much violence and bloodshed there was in their history.

Also, when it came to the polygamist sect, the guys who take multiple wives and father ungodly amounts of children (the irony of that statement is not lost), I was not at all surprised to find that some of the many wives these pervy old codgers marry are not always of age. Religious fundamentalism and perverts seem to be a regular match.
"What's that? Your wife has hit her late 20's? We can't have that, she's far too old, God has just revealed to me that you are to marry your neighbors 14yo daughter, who is also technically your niece and get her up the duff as soon as you can" :dodgy:

Despite the rampant noncery, I did enjoy this bit:

image0-9.jpg


:lol:
Click to expand...
Yo bren.
 


Just finished Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing fantasy trilogy - exceptional, but very polarising. Trying to describe these books makes them sound unbelievably bad, as we have:
An ubermensch protagonist who can literally do anything.
Channels the Lord of the Rings extensively in terms of world-building and lore.
Zero humour in three big novels. Not one sentence.
Edgy sex and violence explicitness common throughout.
Female characters a parody of bad genre-writing.

Yet they were one of the best multi-volume fantasy series I've read. Better than Malazan even, although the books are very different. Bakker is just a very good writer, and recognises that skilled world-building allows you to do a lot. It's like he's read the two giants of the genre, Tolkein and Moorcock, who are polar opposites in style, themes, depth, character, everything, and drawn from both equally.
 
www.nytimes.com

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

As voted on by 503 book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

The NYT's top 100 books of the 21st century so far.

I've read one of them :lol:

I'm sure there's a few great reads amongst them, but the list looks like a chin-strokers wet dream. The type of people who go to indie film festivals to watch 3 hour long, silent art-house films and enjoy independent theatre.
 
LostLegend said:
www.nytimes.com

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

As voted on by 503 book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

The NYT's top 100 books of the 21st century so far.

I've read one of them :lol:

I'm sure there's a few great reads amongst them, but the list looks like a chin-strokers wet dream. The type of people who go to indie film festivals to watch 3 hour long, silent art-house films and enjoy independent theatre.
Click to expand...
Some chin-stroking omissions there tbh - Kraszhnahorkai, Knausgaard, Tokarczuk, Cartarescu not in the top 100? Nah. But it's an American publication and the centre of gravity for the novel moved away from the US a while back.

My brilliant friend by Ferrante seems to divide the sexes. Women I know who've read it seem to rate it anywhere between exceptionally good to greatest novel of all time. Men are more like it's decent, prose a little sparse.
 

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