The GOT Book Club

[random]

After the last book debacle at least I managed to finish this book...



Lets see, how many cliches can we fit into this one.......

[x] Hero just a normal guy
[x] gets in cross-hairs of shadowy organisation
[x] partners up with a female
[x] turns into a cross between Jason Bourne and Ethan Hunt within 24 hours
[x] Has a 'quirky' friend who will risk his own life and join in the battle
[x] Evil Inc. can hack into any CCTV system anywhere within seconds, faster than a sys admin with /root

Spoiler: Do not open if you are going to read the book

[x] Of course hero wins

A below average read, there are way better books out there.


If you like thrillers then I can certainly recommend The Prometheus Deception by Robert Ludlum which is the book you will be judging all other thrillers by, it is an outstanding read and I am constantly looking for something that will hit those literary heights again, this book that I have just read however is only at rung two on a very high ladder.

Save your money (or if you are on Kindle Unlimited save your time)

 

[wm02]

The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam.

Published in 1972 this remains essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how the USA became enmeshed in the quagmire of Vietnam. It's a huge book but don't be daunted by its size - it reads like a great novel, and for that reason I'd recommend it to anyone with only a passing interest in history, let alone those interested in politics, the US or the Vietnam war.

The book is the story of the generation who gathered in Washington in 1960 with the advent of the Kennedy administration, the so called best and the brightest of their time. It describes how these men, for all their brilliance and idealism, led the country into the most disastrous war in its history. Halberstam concentrates on the characters and personalities of those involved as much as the policies and decisions they took, and there are colourful portraits of all the characters involved, from JFK to Robert Kennedy, LBJ, Robet McNamara, Dean Rusk, Maxwell Taylor and the Bundy brothers, to name just a few.

As an example of his writing, here, in one sentence, he sums up Robert McNamara and the attitude of the whole Kennedy White House:

"He was a man of force, moving, pushing, getting things done, Bob got things done, the can-do man in the can-do society, in the can-do era."

With the exception of Vice-President LBJ, fatally kept out of huge chunks of the decision making, this was the Kennedy dream team, a group who combined academic credentials with elite social backgrounds. They also held a similar view of recent history. The lesson from Munich onward was basic, they decided: one had to stand up, to be stern, to be tough.

Halberstam was a journalist who spent time in Vietnam and he has a reporter's eye for the little detail which transforms a story and makes it come alive. He brilliantly weaves together the various strands - the events, the people, the policy debates - into a captivating narrative which is not only entertaining but teaches many lessons, foremost of which for me is that even those who appear to be highly qualified to hold power can carry out policies of monumental stupidity.

There are more complete books about Vietnam - this one was published too early to cover the Nixon years - but none as enthralling or enlightening as this.

That’s a great book. We read it as part of a high school course on Vietnam.
Here’s hoping Robert Caro can finish his LBJ biography!

 

[BigMick]

That’s a great book. We read it as part of a high school course on Vietnam.
Here’s hoping Robert Caro can finish his LBJ biography!

Agree about the Caro book - I suspect Everton will be in Bramley-Moore before it's published!

 

[Philw]

The Institute by Stephen King - Books on Google Play

The Institute - Ebook written by Stephen King. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read The Institute.

play.google.com

Currently reading Stephen King's The Institute. Really enjoying it. About 1/3rd of the way through in just a few days (normally I only read for 10/15 minutes a night before bed), have been really getting into it and staying up too late reading. It can be a little hard going, not in terms of quality or pace etc, but content: it is about a child/group of children who are kidnapped and held in an unknown facility, and they are not treated particularly well to say the least! In spite of those passages I think it's really good so far, and certainly has me rooting for the protagonist more than most other books!

 

[COYBL25]

The Institute by Stephen King - Books on Google Play

The Institute - Ebook written by Stephen King. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read The Institute.

play.google.com

Currently reading Stephen King's The Institute. Really enjoying it. About 1/3rd of the way through in just a few days (normally I only read for 10/15 minutes a night before bed), have been really getting into it and staying up too late reading. It can be a little hard going, not in terms of quality or pace etc, but content: it is about a child/group of children who are kidnapped and held in an unknown facility, and they are not treated particularly well to say the least! In spite of those passages I think it's really good so far, and certainly has me rooting for the protagonist more than most other books!

Cheers, gone on my list.

You’d think he’d have become bored of writing by now !

 

[random]

Thought I would go back to a bit of Sci-Fi, I went for a book that won a Hugo Award as I figured award winning books can't be half bad.



One minute, down-and-out actor Lorenzo Smythe was - as usual - in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars.
Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnapped.

Not the longest book I have ever read, coming in at 260 pages, to be honest apart from a bit of space travel and Martians getting a mention there isn't that much Sci in the Sci-fi.

The setting could (and probably has) been used in lots of other books, both for historical and present day settings.

The fact that it won an award just goes to show either the competition was very poor or the fix was in.

£4 for the Kindle version, if you are a Heinlein completest then I guess you will be reading it anyway, I don't think it's all that so my read-a-crap book run seems to be continuing unfortunately

 

[Philw]

Archangel Down. Archangel Project. Book 1

In the year 2432, humans think they are alone in the universe. They’re wrong.Commander Noa Sato plans a peaceful leave on her home planet Luddeccea ... but winds up interrogated and imprisoned for her involvement in the Archangel Project. A project she knows nothing about.Professor James...

books.google.co.uk

Read a couple of books in this series. The author also has another cool series where Loki comes to earth and gets hunted down by the FBI.

I don't think it's all that so my read-a-crap book run seems to be continuing unfortunately

Try this series. Pretty good in my humble opinion, and you can prob pick up the first one for free, or as part of some sort of bundle, on Amazon.

 

[random]

Try this series. Pretty good in my humble opinion, and you can prob pick up the first one for free, or as part of some sort of bundle, on Amazon.

Thanks mate, the first one is indeed free on Amazon, looks to be 9 in the series, so will give it a try out and post a review once I have had a look at it

 

[LocalNative]

About to get started on The Terror this weekend. Looks like a mammoth read at 900+ pages, most of them said to be as bleak and depressing as it comes - can't wait.

In all seriousness, it's supposed to be very good. A fictionalised account of the lost Franklin expedition to the Arctic in the early 1800's.

 

[wm02]

About halfway through Bill Bryson’s At Home. It’s a fun read—think it would have benefitted from some additional editing as there are many tangents

 

[COYBL25]

Just finished this after a recommendation from someone on here ?

The Bayou Trilogy - Daniel Woodrell.

Described as “ Creole Noir “

Tale of Police, crooks and council officials in the Deep South.

I struggled with the first fifty or so pages, but then really got into it.

Not too dark, with plenty of humour laced throughout around the odd ball characters throughout the book and a very good read.

 

[summerisle]

Cheers, gone on my list.

You’d think he’d have become bored of writing by now !

 

[random]

Try this series. Pretty good in my humble opinion, and you can prob pick up the first one for free, or as part of some sort of bundle, on Amazon.

So as per previous post I did get hold of this one and have just finished it



Story is interesting at the beginning, then takes a bit of a downturn about half way through, picks up again towards the end, but the actual book ending was pretty meh.

I know the author is giving the book away as a freebie to encourage people to buy the next book, but I always think that if the story and characters are good enough then folks will purchase book number two without book one sort of forcing the issue

I think it would have been better without the name dropping as well.

Probably won't read book two though, as there wasn't enough to make me interested in the story, shame as I think he was onto a good thing for the 1st half of the book, then it went sort of comedic and away from tension and that ruined it for me

Spoiler: character spoiler

A 'sexbot' called 6T9 ??

 

[Philw]

So as per previous post I did get hold of this one and have just finished it

View attachment 115202

Story is interesting at the beginning, then takes a bit of a downturn about half way through, picks up again towards the end, but the actual book ending was pretty meh.

I know the author is giving the book away as a freebie to encourage people to buy the next book, but I always think that if the story and characters are good enough then folks will purchase book number two without book one sort of forcing the issue

I think it would have been better without the name dropping as well.

Probably won't read book two though, as there wasn't enough to make me interested in the story, shame as I think he was onto a good thing for the 1st half of the book, then it went sort of comedic and away from tension and that ruined it for me

Spoiler: character spoiler

A 'sexbot' called 6T9 ??

Spoiler

Haha yeah. The bits with him and the old woman lol.
The first section was good tho, and then the part when they found Ghost. I still enjoyed it and the next two, even with the robot-old woman love story. And for free/99p, can't really complain!

 

[random]

Now this is more like it ! trawling goodreads I came across this, The Devotion of Suspect X





If you like whodunnits, mysteries, police procedurals or books of that ilk then this will be right up your street, its a fantastic read and probably the best book I have read for a good number of years.

But there is a big problem, if I describe the basic story of the book it will go some way in spoiling the story, but all I can say is get hold of it, try it out and where possible really try and avoid anything that gives you the story outline before you read it.

What I will do instead is copy some extracts from goodreads/amazon reviews to whet your appetite


This book is best if read cold, without reading the cover blurbs or reviews.
One of the best books in the thriller genre I have read so far
What can I say about this book. It's a cut above the rest when it comes to crime fiction
this is an absolute "must read" top rated story which will thrill you right from the word go.
I rarely give out five stars, but this one earned it
The Devotion of Suspect X is one of the most mind boggling books that I have ever read
I literally could not put this down. One of the best novels I've read in the past few years
One of the biggest-selling Japanese thrillers ever



Every so often I read a book that sets the bar that other books need to reach, I am not talking about the 'above average' books, but ones that are defining moments in a particular genre, in the whodunit/psychological thriller stakes, this one is the new standard by which I will be judging all others.

I hope you give it a try and come to the same conclusion I did (just hope I haven't built it up so much that you will disappointed in it, but I doubt it)

Outstanding book