Planet Rugby Forum

MrDominator wrote:Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Brilliant

the unconsoled was a strange old read but has stayed with me when other books have faded away

Reading "Winged Victory" by V M Yeates; fascinating story of the air war from a Camel pilot's perspective through 1918. It's a semi fictionalised autobiography, as Yeates was himself a Camel pilot through that period; shades of Hornet's Sting, but with less absurd characterisations, and fantastically accurate for obvious reasons (though they do seem to encounter Fokker DVIIs a few weeks too early).

Mahoney wrote:Reading "Winged Victory" by V M Yeates; fascinating story of the air war from a Camel pilot's perspective through 1918. It's a semi fictionalised autobiography, as Yeates was himself a Camel pilot through that period; shades of Hornet's Sting, but with less absurd characterisations, and fantastically accurate for obvious reasons (though they do seem to encounter Fokker DVIIs a few weeks too early).

That's class.

You read the last enemy by Richard hilliary. Best one of WWII imho

Nope, thanks, I'll look it up.

Mahoney wrote:Nope, thanks, I'll look it up.

Slightly different, but one of the lives in three fatal Englishmen by faulks is a ww2 fighter pilot. Thought the whole book was fascinating

a masterpiece.


i am amazed that i had never heard of Jackson before i bought this on a whim: you can see her influence in Patricia Highsmith and Donna Tartt

Speaking of classics just finished the Count of Monte Christo. Why did nobody tell me to read it as a kid? Why didn't we do it at school instead of Thomas f**king Hardy and the Bronte sisters. I may actually have enjoyed and stuck with reading if we had. Dumas must've been the Aaron Sorkin of his day. Kills it. The count is one evil, but respectfully awesome muthafcuka.

HKCJ wrote:Speaking of classics just finished the Count of Monte Christo. Why did nobody tell me to read it as a kid? Why didn't we do it at school instead of Thomas f**king Hardy and the Bronte sisters. I may actually have enjoyed and stuck with reading if we had. Dumas must've been the Aaron Sorkin of his day. Kills it. The count is one evil, but respectfully awesome muthafcuka.

Brilliant book. Always forget it when I do my top 5 but it has to be there.

slick wrote:

HKCJ wrote:Speaking of classics just finished the Count of Monte Christo. Why did nobody tell me to read it as a kid? Why didn't we do it at school instead of Thomas f**king Hardy and the Bronte sisters. I may actually have enjoyed and stuck with reading if we had. Dumas must've been the Aaron Sorkin of his day. Kills it. The count is one evil, but respectfully awesome muthafcuka.

Brilliant book. Always forget it when I do my top 5 but it has to be there.

Agreed. It's 1200 odd pages yet they just fly past it's so gripping. Great yarn, some nice twists, good characters, very well written and finishes strong. Can't say there are many books that tick all those boxes for me.

HKCJ wrote:Speaking of classics just finished the Count of Monte Christo. Why did nobody tell me to read it as a kid? Why didn't we do it at school instead of Thomas f**king Hardy and the Bronte sisters. I may actually have enjoyed and stuck with reading if we had. Dumas must've been the Aaron Sorkin of his day. Kills it. The count is one evil, but respectfully awesome muthafcuka.

The Count isn't evil, he's been wronged, previously wronged.

Liked the slight lesbian scene too, just feels it bares mentioning.

c69 wrote:I am going to revisit all my old classics in my library.Starting with Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich before moving on to Cancer Ward.
Not the most cheerful or easy read combo but if I can't get through them then it's Burroughs Naked Lunch or RA Wilson's Cosmic Trigger or Illuminatus Trilogy.

on the gulag i would suggest to read Chalamov tales of Kolyma, a classic and a masterpiece as well

panamax wrote:

c69 wrote:I am going to revisit all my old classics in my library.Starting with Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich before moving on to Cancer Ward.
Not the most cheerful or easy read combo but if I can't get through them then it's Burroughs Naked Lunch or RA Wilson's Cosmic Trigger or Illuminatus Trilogy.

on the gulag i would suggest to read Chalamov tales of Kolyma, a classic and a masterpiece as well

Have a look at this one as well.

JoeyFantastic wrote:

HKCJ wrote:Speaking of classics just finished the Count of Monte Christo. Why did nobody tell me to read it as a kid? Why didn't we do it at school instead of Thomas f**king Hardy and the Bronte sisters. I may actually have enjoyed and stuck with reading if we had. Dumas must've been the Aaron Sorkin of his day. Kills it. The count is one evil, but respectfully awesome muthafcuka.

The Count isn't evil, he's been wronged, previously wronged.

Liked the slight lesbian scene too, just feels it bares mentioning.

He was wronged yes but anyone that puts that much effort into the revenge he does has a few screws lose and let's not forget his machinations led to the death of an innocent child. Still, he's a respectable psycho.. a Walter White.

Bindi wrote:I'm on the 3rd book of NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. Seriously good. 1st two both won the Hugo for best novel. Very dark fantasy with no elves or dwarfs or shit. Totally original and well written.

Will check it out. Currently re-reading the Ender Wiggins books.

HKCJ wrote:

JoeyFantastic wrote:

HKCJ wrote:Speaking of classics just finished the Count of Monte Christo. Why did nobody tell me to read it as a kid? Why didn't we do it at school instead of Thomas f**king Hardy and the Bronte sisters. I may actually have enjoyed and stuck with reading if we had. Dumas must've been the Aaron Sorkin of his day. Kills it. The count is one evil, but respectfully awesome muthafcuka.

The Count isn't evil, he's been wronged, previously wronged.

Liked the slight lesbian scene too, just feels it bares mentioning.

He was wronged yes but anyone that puts that much effort into the revenge he does has a few screws lose and let's not forget his machinations led to the death of an innocent child. Still, he's a respectable psycho.. a Walter White.

Ah, most of his victims had it coming, can't really recall the death of the innocent child but can't make omelettes etc.

Really great book.

Just finished Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy, a whistle stop autobiography of the five Summit stars. Well worth a read. Some of the shit they got away with...

Reading Rubicon by Tom Holland. Breezy and a good read.

Also attempting to finish the Gormenghast Trilogy again. Seventh try at it.

Blood Forest by Geraint Jones. A Bernard Cornwell type book about the Roman legions being massacred in German is.

I'd seen this pop up on Facebook months ago and finally got round to reading it. If I hadn't known the author was a vet I'd have guessed by the way it was written, some modern military language and slang used (that's not a criticism), a proper sense of camaraderie and a great insight into a struggling soldiers mind. I love these types of books and think from a soldiering point of view it's the best I've read. No other book has given me the same sense of things I've mentioned above, perhaps because he's been and done it, perhaps because I'm biased and like to see squaddies do well.

The Man Without Fear wrote:Just finished Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy, a whistle stop autobiography of the five Summit stars. Well worth a read. Some of the shit they got away with...

Reading Rubicon by Tom Holland. Breezy and a good read.

Also attempting to finish the Gormenghast Trilogy again. Seventh try at it.

If you enjoyed Rat Pack Confidential, you might like Hellraisers by Robert Sellers, about the life and high times of Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed. Not my usual tipple and it won't have won any prizes, but it's very entertaining.

Sample - POT is in a play in the West End. He finishes his last scene of the first half and nips into the pub next door. He meets a friend there and after a few quick ones, he sneaks him back into an empty box to watch the second half. "You'll like this next scene", whispers POT, "this is when I...sh*t".

Ramming Speed wrote:

The Man Without Fear wrote:Just finished Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy, a whistle stop autobiography of the five Summit stars. Well worth a read. Some of the shit they got away with...

Reading Rubicon by Tom Holland. Breezy and a good read.

Also attempting to finish the Gormenghast Trilogy again. Seventh try at it.

If you enjoyed Rat Pack Confidential, you might like Hellraisers by Robert Sellers, about the life and high times of Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed. Not my usual tipple and it won't have won any prizes, but it's very entertaining.

Sample - POT is in a play in the West End. He finishes his last scene of the first half and nips into the pub next door. He meets a friend there and after a few quick ones, he sneaks him back into an empty box to watch the second half. "You'll like this next scene", whispers POT, "this is when I...sh*t".

Hellraisers is a great read really enjoyed it. There is a Hollywood Hellraisers too, focussing on Marlon Brandon, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicolson which I found no where near as enjoyable

Finally just started Gita Sereny's Albert Speer book, 900+ pages sp the 3rd Stormlight book will have to wait. It reminded me of this by Gita Sereny, it's on Frank Stangl. He ran 2 extermination camps, but he was no Goeth, he was efficient, he didn't rape or abuse but he ran the camps which were purely for murdering Jews. He also worked on the killing disabled and inconvenient people program before that. Surely to have done those things the glib assumption is that he was evil, he wasn't though. Very good read. Drifts a bit into the extent of Catholic churches involvement in helping Nazis escape, sits awkwardly, disrupts the book a bit and deserved a more detailed book of it's own.



https://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-That-Dark ... 287&sr=1-2

The Man Without Fear wrote:Just finished Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy, a whistle stop autobiography of the five Summit stars. Well worth a read. Some of the shit they got away with...

Reading Rubicon by Tom Holland. Breezy and a good read.

Also attempting to finish the Gormenghast Trilogy again. Seventh try at it.

Levy's book on Swinging London is good too - Ready Steady Go. For that matter, White Bicycles by Joe Boyd is a great memoir of the 60s music scene on both sides of the Atlantic that I'd always recommend.

I had to chuckle, doing a clean-up of the elementary school library I've just started working at. I found a book by a celebrated Canadian author that I have read (generally not a fan of his) and am pretty sure K-6 kids shouldn't be reading it just yet. Description of military action aside (they probably see worse in their video games or on telly/in movies), it's got a pretty detailed account of how he lost his virginity and of military-run brothels in WW2 (I'll move it to the high school I also work at, though).



I had another chuckle when I looked at the borrowing history. It hadn't been checked out in years, but back in 2012, a boy called Joe in Grade 5 checked it out four times in a row over the course of two months!

As far as recommendations go, it's a pretty good account of a junior Canadian officer's time in Italy from 44-45 (iirc).

Mira Grants Newsflesh books is pretty damn good if anyone is looking for some zombie books to read.

Has anyone read this?




I'm going through my library's collection, looking for old crap that's no longer of interest any more and wondered why we had 12 from this series, but not the first one. When I started reading reviews, I was shocked to learn that's basically American right-wing Christian propaganda ...

Makes me feel better about helping a girl find a book about cults today while her friends kept saying how weird she was. I imagine reading the above is way more dangerous! (The cult book was full of all the freaks who came to an unsavoury end, like the Manson Family, Koresh, Heaven's Gate, etc. and she kept saying she wasn't interested in joining one, but just fascinated by them. Fair enough. There were a few not-so-famous ones in Canada that are utterly fascinating, and terrifying, to read about.)

My son's ex brother-in-law was into that crap.

Nieghorn wrote:Has anyone read this?




I'm going through my library's collection, looking for old crap that's no longer of interest any more and wondered why we had 12 from this series, but not the first one. When I started reading reviews, I was shocked to learn that's basically American right-wing Christian propaganda ...

Makes me feel better about helping a girl find a book about cults today while her friends kept saying how weird she was. I imagine reading the above is way more dangerous! (The cult book was full of all the freaks who came to an unsavoury end, like the Manson Family, Koresh, Heaven's Gate, etc. and she kept saying she wasn't interested in joining one, but just fascinated by them. Fair enough. There were a few not-so-famous ones in Canada that are utterly fascinating, and terrifying, to read about.)

Most Fijian kids grew up reading those.

flaggETERNAL wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:Has anyone read this?




I'm going through my library's collection, looking for old crap that's no longer of interest any more and wondered why we had 12 from this series, but not the first one. When I started reading reviews, I was shocked to learn that's basically American right-wing Christian propaganda ...

Makes me feel better about helping a girl find a book about cults today while her friends kept saying how weird she was. I imagine reading the above is way more dangerous! (The cult book was full of all the freaks who came to an unsavoury end, like the Manson Family, Koresh, Heaven's Gate, etc. and she kept saying she wasn't interested in joining one, but just fascinated by them. Fair enough. There were a few not-so-famous ones in Canada that are utterly fascinating, and terrifying, to read about.)

Most Fijian kids grew up reading those.

Can it be read as just a sci-fi story, or is it pretty blatant with the brainwashing? The reviews on Goodreads touch upon it, but these are all adults. They also say the quality of writing is terrible.

With these and the L Ron Hubbard books, I'm starting to wonder about my predecessor!

I acquired The Wheel of Time books 1-7 for free last night from the local public library (means no one's really read them in years ) I was going to transfer them to the school library I work at, but realised it already has Books 1-10. (I'm new, and building it up as best I can, having just sorted out the mess.)


Question for those who've read it, seeing as I'm keeping this series for myself now ... It's been hinted that books 7-10 are boring, that Jordan's last (couple?) pick up the pace and the posthumous ghost writer really did it justice with Jordan's notes.

Can / should I skip those boring books, or are the events essential - even if boring - to get to the end?

Just about to finish Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan.

About a convict transported down to Oz back in the day, but a whole lot more going on. Have really enjoyed it.

Nieghorn wrote:I acquired The Wheel of Time books 1-7 for free last night from the local public library (means no one's really read them in years ) I was going to transfer them to the school library I work at, but realised it already has Books 1-10. (I'm new, and building it up as best I can, having just sorted out the mess.)


Question for those who've read it, seeing as I'm keeping this series for myself now ... It's been hinted that books 7-10 are boring, that Jordan's last (couple?) pick up the pace and the posthumous ghost writer really did it justice with Jordan's notes.

Can / should I skip those boring books, or are the events essential - even if boring - to get to the end?

No. Don't even start reading them. Gift them to a kid you don't like.

Franco's International Brigades, by Christopher Othen, about the foreigners who volunteered to fight for Nationalist Spain. Full of "Well, I Never" moments, such as the fact that nearly three times more foreigners volunteered for Franco than joined the International Brigades - admittedly mostly Moroccan mercenaries - though they are nearly entirely forgotten, Ireland and Portugal were the only other countries which sent more to Franco than the other side (in the end, Franco refused to send a boat to collect any more Irish volunteers) and a typically idiotic intervention by Jeremy Corbyn. Very entertaining.

Wondered what kind of Christmas books we had and realised I could cater to two types ... (wanted better pictures, but I didn't have easy access to a colour printer).

Just finished Tiffany Haddish' The Last Black Unicorn. Nice light reading. Started on this trilogy today...

Picked this up at the weekend:

Truly shocking secret history. Describes itself well, but if, like me, you wondered why the civil rights movement was necessary 100 years after the Civil War, this explains why. And Roy Moore just missed out being voted US Senator for Alabama.

Ramming Speed wrote:Truly shocking secret history. Describes itself well, but if, like me, you wondered why the civil rights movement was necessary 100 years after the Civil War, this explains why. And Roy Moore just missed out being voted US Senator for Alabama.

Have you read The New Jim Crow? Harrowing. This looks good. Will look for it.

Will have a look for it, thanks.

Has anyone read My Life with Mr S by one of Sinatra's former staff?

I must get my hands on a copy. I bet it's fvcking outrageous. I believe one of his terms of endearment for his former boss was "The Prince of Pussy".

jdogscoop wrote:Has anyone read My Life with Mr S by one of Sinatra's former staff?

I must get my hands on a copy. I bet it's fvcking outrageous. I believe one of his terms of endearment for his former boss was "The Prince of Pussy".

For a while, at least. It seems that little Frank's farewell tour was a few years before big Frank's. Not even a penile implant was able to get him back on the road.

Just finished the Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett. Absolutely superb. Up there with China Mieville's Bas-Lag books. If your into speculative fiction, highly highly recommended. Every book is superb. Bit of a golden age for that genre at the moment.