Best books you have read in the last 12 months?

[irratebass]

ALVH was a great book! The author wrote so that it was almost believable. I have not seen the movie, and still not sure if I will watch it or not, but there are some passages in this book that would make for some great cinema.

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[irratebass]

Finished A Clockwork Orange, really enjoyed it, felt they did a great job with the film as well.

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[Ken Gargett]

i'll be honest, i don't really read many aussie authors and i also read far less non-fiction than i should (wine does not count as that is also technically work). springsteen's auto-biog the last, and it was brilliant. amazingly raw.

anyway, just finished an aussie murder mystery that is stunning. first time author Jane Harper's 'The Dry'. so well done, and such an easy read. recommended it to a mate (a former english teacher) and he got straight back having just read it into the night until he finished it.

also reading david mccullough's 'John Adams'. been taking more time with this than i should have but what an amazing book about a truly extraordinary man. we all hear about lincoln, washington, jefferson et al and so rarely about the 2nd prez, but i would venture there have been few men in the last 3 centuries who have influenced the world to the extent he did. and still does. and a brilliantly told tale.

[PatrickEwing]

6 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

 

also reading david mccullough's 'John Adams'. been taking more time with this than i should have but what an amazing book about a truly extraordinary man. we all hear about lincoln, washington, jefferson et al and so rarely about the 2nd prez, but i would venture there have been few men in the last 3 centuries who have influenced the world to the extent he did. and still does. and a brilliantly told tale.

Have you seen the HBO series? Very well done. I've watched it numerous times. 

And yes agreed, also used to say this about Hamilton, but he seems to have gotten his due all of a sudden. 

John Quincy Adams may be even more decorated (no doubt due in part to his father) though far less influential. Fascinating period of time. Makes one optimistic that our politics might one day turn. Or pessimistic at what they've become. 

[Ken Gargett]

Just now, PatrickEwing said:

Have you seen the HBO series? Very well done. I've watched it numerous times. 

And yes agreed, also used to say this about Hamilton, but he seems to have gotten his due all of a sudden. 

John Quincy Adams may be even more decorated (no doubt due in part to his father) though far less influential. Fascinating period of time. Makes one optimistic that our politics might one day turn. Or pessimistic at what they've become. 

yes, also several times - it was what put me on to the book.

sadly, i fall into the pessimistic category. but if the internet, facebook, reality tv, twits, 24 hour news etc was around back then, who knows - you chopped down a tree? you nasty little vandal and how many other lies have you told. you keep slaves. you have illegitimate children. et al.

[PatrickEwing]

2 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

yes, also several times - it was what put me on to the book.

sadly, i fall into the pessimistic category. but if the internet, facebook, reality tv, twits, 24 hour news etc was around back then, who knows - you chopped down a tree? you nasty little vandal and how many other lies have you told. you keep slaves. you have illegitimate children. et al.

It was still vicious outside the ring certainly. See Hamilton and all his scandal. His affair got quite ugly. But within the ring they seem to have retained a sense of duty, civility and shared cause. But yes, media wasn't nearly as intrusive. Pros and cons there as well. 

[SirVantes]

Some recents. All rated 3 stars (unreservedly recommended) under my rudimentary system.

[Ken Gargett]

5 minutes ago, SirVantes said:

Some recents. All rated 3 stars (unreservedly recommended) under my rudimentary system.

big fan of both mieville (perido street station my fave) and murakami (1Q84 is truly amazing stuff).

[SirVantes]

15 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

big fan of both mieville (perido street station my fave) and murakami (1Q84 is truly amazing stuff).

Mieville's Bas-Lag novels have all mesmerised me, none more than Perdido Street Station.  I know many have panned Kraken, but I enjoyed that immensely too.  The Last Days of New Paris is basically one conceit stretched to its limit, but beautifully executed.

Men Without Women has Murakami in his less surreal mode (there's still plenty there) - more accessible to those who are not ready for a full-blown mind-cramp.  I like to ease my friends into Murakami with South of the Border, West of the Sun or Norwegian Wood, before they encounter sheep-men and those cats.

Colm Toibin never disappoints.  Like Sebastian Barry or Joseph O'Connor, nothing beats a modern Irish in full lyric mode.

Finally, Sarah Bakewell's account of the key players in existentialism is compelling.  Freedom, choices, living your principles?  Quite apposite for our times.  Not the flighty mind-w**k it might seem 

[El Presidente]

 

[JohnS]

Umm...you do know @Fuzz AI will be along soon?

[El Presidente]

1 minute ago, JohnS said:

Umm...you do know @Fuzz AI will be along soon?

It's Ok John. I was going to gift it to him for Christmas but he told me he already bought it. I picked up one for Ken. 

[MrBirdman]

A great thread to resurrect! 

I read more non-fiction these days, and recently finished historian Ian Kershaw’s magnum opus, a two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler. It’s the best biography I have ever read, bar none, and demonstrates the wisdom of David Starkey’s insistence that history is a form of literature. The writing, pacing, characterizations are all phenomenal. It reveals how remarkable Hitler’s life was while repeatedly emphasizing how he was not only evil but, personally, a spoiled maniac. Nevertheless, he was genuinely popular in Germany until the war began to go badly.

The story of Hitler‘s rise to power through 1945 is, in retrospect, so unlikely and incredible (as in hard to believe) that, in another timeline where he never existed, his story would’ve been considered too unrealistic to be credible as a work of fiction. But it happened - a man who should’ve died forgotten was given power just when he otherwise would’ve begun fading into obscurity - and millions would pay dearly for the mistake. 

The work was immensely aided by the audiobook I listened to - it’s easily the best performance I’ve heard and I listen to audiobooks fairly regularly. I recommend buying the two volumes separately rather than the abridged single volume, it’s a different reader. Also you can skip the first half of Volume 1, Hubris. 

Without getting into politics, some of the parallels to the world today are very frightening. I’d go to far as to call this a must-read (or must-listen).

[Gubbins]

Brothers Karamazov

Crime and punishment

The Idiot

 

[Fuzz AI]

5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

5 hours ago, JohnS said:

Umm...you do know @Fuzz AI will be along soon?

It's Ok John. I was going to gift it to him for Christmas but he told me he already bought it. I picked up one for Ken. 

It is a good read.

 

 

But on another note.....

 

[Wookie]

Gore Vidal “Burr” and Margaret George “Cleopatra”...reading them both for second time. I like historical fiction. Have also read Patrick O'Brien’s “Aubrey Maturin” series twice. Can’t go wrong with Caesar’s writings either. Plus many others. 

• Chevalier’s “girl with a pearl earing” is also a great two day read about Vermeer, apocryphal probably but wonderfully expressed. Mind is rubbish. Can’t remember what else I’ve been reading. 

• Shirer’s “Third Reich” is a page turner as well on Germany and that sociopath. 

[joeypots]

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation 

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

All I can say is wowza to both.

 

[Ford2112]

The Chernobyl one sounds up my alley.

[SirVantes]

I had read this once before, years ago, and wasn't ready for it. I'm older now, and in less of a hurry. The verse is incendiary. It's like napalm - it sticks to you and burns, first degree, second degree, third degree...down to the bone.

[LaoFan]

One of my favorite business books ever:

[tbelle7]

I re-read 1984 (Orwell).

Prophetic.

[Hoosh]

I just finished Go ask Ogre by Jolene Siana. Great story and collection of letters she wrote back in the 80’s to the lead singer of Skinny Puppy. 

I’m also about halfway through Morality by Christopher Hitchens. He needs no introduction and while some found him “offensive” at best, I detest the fact I was never able to see him speak live.

[Li Bai]

"The songs of Maldoror", hard to describe that book, but impressive work written by the then 19yo the Comte de Lautréamont 🤯

Just about to start over the "Moral letters to Lucilius" by Seneca the younger, one of the books I re-read once every 5 years or so.

Two of those books that illustrate that quote by André Gide:

"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again."

[loose_axle]

I've got through a fair bit of history stuff mostly WW2 aviation this year. 

Geoffrey Wellum's 'First Light' was a standout. You think you're up there with him. 

It's WW1 but 'Sagittarius Rising' by Cecil Lewis was another very easy read.