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

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

I just ordered a copy from the UK. Unfortunately I just noticed the pre-fill booked my name the same as my street name. That might prove challenging when Mr Street turns up at the post office to collect his book.

The lucky ones by Mark Edwards. 👍

? Sci-fi effectively?

Just finished moving my sister into her new home and in unpacking her library I realise she has 5 Terry Pratchett Discworld books that I haven't read.

Yet.

No fantasy, but not your typical, great characters and storytelling set in an original setting, it's not medieval England for starters. Involves gods but really it's the characters that shine.

Anyone read Zadig?

Any good books on the Oligarchic lootfest that was Russia a couple decades ago?

Finally got round to this one. Been sitting on my shelf for a few years and I am so annoyed I did not read it earlier. Best laugh I've had from a book for many a year.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Finished "Against a dark background" by Banks last night. Had somehow missed it before, until my dad was talking about it.

Very good, huge amount of creativity and environments jammed into one book. Build up to the climax was bleak as fudge.

Just finished this.



About to start on the next in the series, ''Between the Woods and the Water''

This, unfortunately.

I was a big fan whilst a teenager, but the series becomes really slow and just plain bad around book 8. Jordan couldn't write female characters, throughout the series. I really enjoyed books 1-4, books 5,6,7 are OK-ish, then things go bad. The conclusion of the series was really a bit 'meh' for me, there is just so much crap to wade through from book 6 onwards, I finished the series purely because I started it, and had fond memories of getting into it as a teenager.

Start reading book 1, you may just like it. I still think the first 4 are good fantasy novels.

If you are looking to read an "epic fantasy series", read Steven Erikson's 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'. 10 Books, already completed and it some of the best fantasy I have read, IMHO.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... ret-atwood

2017 100 bestselling books

Over 10% of them by David Walliams

Is that the best selling UK books?

I am currently reading Martin Meridith's The Fate of Africa. What depressing reading.

Just finished Patchwork man by DB Martin. Looking forward to the next

A standing ovation from me for Golden Hill, by Francis Spufford. Beautifully written story of an English visitor to New York in 1746, great plotting, historical detail and literary pastiche. Finished it in two days, absolutely outstanding.

Truly depressing reading.

On the first book in the Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Pretty good so far although I think something(s) may have been lost in translation. Still, not too bad. Trying to get my daughter interested in the Artemis Fowl books.

Try also...

His name is mud in Russia, but the brazenness of the villainy he describes is breathtaking.

I saw a mention of Patrick Leigh Fermor earlier. Anyone interested in his circle would enjoy Outlandish Knight, a biography of Steven Runciman by Minoo Dinshaw. Very entertaining stories of amateur espionage in the Balkans and Levant in the war involving PLF, among many other delights.

A shining endorsement.

Just finished this, and it was absolutely fantastic. A little sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, but who isn't? Having said that, he doesn't hesitate to criticise them either. Extremely readable, and really captures the chaos of 1917.