The GOT Book Club

[Bruce Wayne]

Tried reading Debt but really didn't like his writing style

Yes, for a respected academic it's a most un-academic style. I mean his latest chapter has been bemoaning the lack of technological advancement on the basis that predictions from HG Wells era came broadly true but we don't have Star Trek style flying cars yet. It's all a bit incoherent, and of course it is unashamedly framed in the left=good, right=bad polemic, which is perhaps a little sad too.

 

[verreauxi]

Yes, for a respected academic it's a most un-academic style. I mean his latest chapter has been bemoaning the lack of technological advancement on the basis that predictions from HG Wells era came broadly true but we don't have Star Trek style flying cars yet. It's all a bit incoherent, and of course it is unashamedly framed in the left=good, right=bad polemic, which is perhaps a little sad too.

I knew Graber in graduate school. Nice fellow, but I could see his writing style to be a bit rambling. He was so far left, he was basically anarchist.

 

[verreauxi]

Can anyone recommend a good read? Thriller, can't put it down type of thing...

I haven't been able to find anything as engrossing as the Stieg Larsson trilogy since I finished them a few years ago.

Check out "Child 44" a novel about a serial killer moving through communist Russia in the 1950s. Good stuff, in that thriller-beach-read type of book.

Another great read, not so much a thriller, but certainly a crime novel is "Power of the Dog" It is fiction but based on the completely ineffective US drug war, including the CIAs involvement in drug-running, and USA-Mexico relations. Good stuff.

 

[COYBL25]

Check out "Child 44" a novel about a serial killer moving through communist Russia in the 1950s. Good stuff, in that thriller-beach-read type of book.

Another great read, not so much a thriller, but certainly a crime novel is "Power of the Dog" It is fiction but based on the completely ineffective US drug war, including the CIAs involvement in drug-running, and USA-Mexico relations. Good stuff.

Child 44 is based on the hunt by one Russian Detective for the real life serial killer - Andre Chicatilo

He murdered fifty plus young men and women up and down the railway network around Rostov during a time when the Communist authorities denied that Russians could be serial killers as it was an American " disease ".

If you enjoyed Child 44, then you must read this book. It's factual but is an incredibly good book, very disturbing too, as you'd expect.

 

[verreauxi]

View attachment 28591

Child 44 is based on the hunt by one Russian Detective for the real life serial killer - Andre Chicatilo

He murdered fifty plus young men and women up and down the railway network around Rostov during a time when the Communist authorities denied that Russians could be serial killers as it was an American " disease ".

If you enjoyed Child 44, then you must read this book. It's factual but is an incredibly good book, very disturbing too, as you'd expect.

Excellent, thanks for the info. I'll definitely check it out.

 

[Whitebootman]

The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle. Twists and turns like a young Alan Ball. Quite enjoying it so far.

 

[Efcjake]

Theyre essentially the same book

Inferno is good

Every single one of his books is the same book. I read about 4 before I just got tired of it. Angels and Demons was my first, which I really enjoyed and then I got the Da Vinci Code which was basically a carbon copy. Then two other ones which are so similar in my head I can't distinguish them, one was this cryptology FBI super computer one and the other was something involving the arctic. They all follow the exact same character and plot set up, he just changes the settings and character names. He is absolutely dreadful. My mum and girlfriend love his stuff but it is only useful for starting fires in my opinion.

 

[Efcjake]

Has anyone read atlas shrugged? Its on my list but idk when i'll get round to it

Ooh another great series is the chronicals of thomas covenant the unbeliever by stephen r donaldson

It is a tough read that one. It is a novel built around conservative ideology and you have to be aware of that going in to really understand it since the actual plot isn't too great. I really enjoyed the first half of the book and the world set-up that is built to explain the ideology development. The book takes a turn after the first half though and starts to become a bit of a love story that gets a bit messy and distracts from the good parts of the book. It raises some good points like but they really only apply to the fictional world in the book and not the real world.

 

[COYBL25]

Anyone who likes Cormac McCarthy will love this. ( the inspiration for his Crossing trilogy )

Possibly the best book I've read this year.

Set in the Wild West. Story of of an idealist young graduate who joins a Buffalo hunt.

Beautifully written. The book is as much about the scenery and surroundings as the story. You can see where McCarthy gets a lot of his inspiration from in this book.

A resounding ten out of ten.

* can't remember who recommended it on here - a big thanks !

 

[verreauxi]

View attachment 28612

Anyone who likes Cormac McCarthy will love this. ( the inspiration for his Crossing trilogy )

Possibly the best book I've read this year.

Set in the Wild West. Story of of an idealist young graduate who joins a Buffalo hunt.

Beautifully written. The book is as much about the scenery and surroundings as the story. You can see where McCarthy gets a lot of his inspiration from in this book.

A resounding ten out of ten.

* can't remember who recommended it on here - a big thanks !

Read that a few summers ago (and posted about it here, so perhaps it was me who recommended it...??), but I totally agree. And incredible portrayal of the Wild West and greed. So happy it was re-released and "rediscovered."

 

[verreauxi]

Lisa Mcinerney - The Glorious Heresies.
Debut novel, Irish writer, crime / sinkhole estate story.
Absolutely amazing, she's got a turn of phrase you wouldn't believe.
Seriously just track this down.
The sort of talent that makes you sick.

I just got a copy of this book. Seems it was released in the UK long before it was released here. Looking forward to reading it!

 

[summerisle]

I'm currently reading The Short Stories of H G Wells, all 63 of them. Along with the famous ones, The Time Machine, The Door in the Wall and The Country of the Blind, there are some crackers : The Sea Raiders, The Magic Shop, and Mr Skelmersdale Goes to Fairyland. What is however noticeable is the terrible racist stereotypes in many of the stories. No race is excused ; first published in 1927, my copy is a reprint from 1957, all the tropes are there. I pity the first immigrants from the Caribbean who arrived in the fifties when they had to suffer the language which appears in some of the stories.

Saying that, if you can find a compendium of his short stories nowadays, I would imagine that this language would be expunged, and you could enjoy some excellent tales. As an aside Wells was a proponent of Eugenics, as well as Keynes, George Bernard, Shaw, Bertrand Russell and even William Beveridge. It's not then really surprising that his views on other races are what they are.
More here on his 'world view'.

http://whyiamprolife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/h-g-wells-and-intellectual-origins-of.html

 

[COYBL25]

Read that a few summers ago (and posted about it here, so perhaps it was me who recommended it...??), but I totally agree. And incredible portrayal of the Wild West and greed. So happy it was re-released and "rediscovered."

Couldnt agree more mate,

Have you read his others - Stoner and Augustus ?

 

[verreauxi]

Couldnt agree more mate,

Have you read his others - Stoner and Augustus ?

No, haven't read them but I want to check them out. I've got a few others I'm finishing up "Eileen" (incredibly well-written noir-fiction--this young author can write!) and then I'm starting "Glorious Heresies". Also just picked up a great non-fiction book "Dream of Enlightenment" which is a history of western philosophy (part of a trilogy), and incredibly well-written.

 

[COYBL25]

No, haven't read them but I want to check them out. I've got a few others I'm finishing up "Eileen" (incredibly well-written noir-fiction--this young author can write!) and then I'm starting "Glorious Heresies". Also just picked up a great non-fiction book "Dream of Enlightenment" which is a history of western philosophy (part of a trilogy), and incredibly well-written.

Let me know how you get on with them.

Stoner is the one that made Williams famous and came after Butchers Crossing ( that's why it was rediscovered )