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Author Topic: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)  (Read 961961 times)

Offline Nikki

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3795 on: January 27, 2017, 05:58:32 PM »
 Sometimes I just like to forgo the heavy stuff and lose myself in mysteries or thrillers. Just finished a couple of novels by Daniel Silva. He has been called a gifted writer of international intrigue and the successor to Graham Greene and John le Carre'. He is all that.  His protagonist is Gabriel Allon, a brilliant art restorer who is also an undercover Israeli officer. Silva has written 16 books featuring Allon.  They can be read as  stand alone novels, but they are more fulfilling in chrono order, since many of the characters appear in subsequent stories, with  their own interesting backstories. Allon's mother was held in a concentration camp and eventually died of cancer. Allon comes from a family of artists and his art restoration work provides a good cover for his undercover work.  Silva describes Israeli politics and the intrigue in his undercover work interestingly as well as events that are used as background in many of the novels. Silva has received praise for his writing and character development as well as the settings of his stories whose plots take his protagonist to every corner of the world. I recommend him highly for  international intrigue that will keep the reader entertained and engrossed.
The shirts hanging on a nail shudder slightly in the draft.

If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive
But to be young was very heaven!

Offline gattaca

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3796 on: February 11, 2017, 05:20:16 PM »
I just finished reading "Semper Fi" by Keira Andrews.  I really liked the story... well written.  The reason I chose it is because it's from the same time period as my all time favorite "Wingmen".  If you liked "Wingmen" you may like this one - give it a shot.  BTW, it does have a bit more graphics than "Wingmen" but not too much.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OGTY67O/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o02_?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anyone else read it?  If you have or will, love to hear your thoughts about Cal and Jim.  I could always see it playing out in my head.  V.

Offline Sara B

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3797 on: February 12, 2017, 01:35:33 AM »
I'll give it a go, Vincent!

Any news on Ensan Case's next book?

Offline gattaca

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3798 on: February 13, 2017, 03:48:20 PM »
Hi Sara, There are a few lines that got me good.  I had posted one below but then thought maybe it was too much of a spoiler.  I really hope you enjoy the novel.  I'm tempted to try some others of hers but I'm really drawn to the war material.  I D K why.  Let us know what you think, good, bad, ulgy, awesome...  V.

« Last Edit: February 13, 2017, 11:20:27 PM by gattaca »

Offline tfferg

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3799 on: February 23, 2017, 10:05:20 PM »
Sebastian Barry's novel Days without End made me suspend my routines in order to devour it.

Very young teenager Thomas McNulty of Sligo, Ireland, orphaned by the Great Famine of the 1840s, stows away on a coffin ship to fearful Canada, makes his way to America and seeking shelter from a rainstorm in Missouri, dives under a hedge where he encounters young teenager John Cole who is also fleeing hunger on his father's exhausted Massachusetts farm.

The two boys team up in order to survive, fall into work as dancing partners dressed as women for miners in a saloon until their maturation catches up with them and they are no longer viable in the role. Again driven by hunger, the 17-year olds join the army in 1851 and find themselves subject to the great hardships of soldiers' lives and embroiled in the atrocities of the Indian Wars and later the Civil War.

Thomas tells us "John Cole was my love, all my love."

Thomas McNulty's distinctive voice in Sebastian Barry's lyrical prose lured me into avidly following their epic lives together over more than two decades of sickeningly cruel violence and peaceful familial periods. I often feared the worst for them, though the threats to them are not responses to their relationship, a relationship which they never question.

Sebastian Barry is a prize-winning Irish writer, Days Without End was inspired by his 16-year old's coming out and his immediate acceptance. The book is dedicated to him.

Offline B.W.

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3800 on: June 14, 2017, 08:17:21 PM »
The Exorcist Author William Peter Blatty Dies at 89


The man behind The Exorcist, author and filmmaker William Peter Blatty, has died at 89.

Blatty died Thursday at a hospital near his home in Bethesda, Md., his widow, Julie Alicia Blatty, told the Associated Press, adding that the cause of death was multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.

On Friday, Stephen King tweeted his condolences. “RIP William Peter Blatty, who wrote the great horror novel of our time,” he wrote, adding, “So long, Old Bill.”...


http://people.com/movies/the-exorcist-author-william-peter-blatty-dies-at-89/



"The Exorcist" (1973) may be greatest theatrical horror films that has ever been made worldwide in cinematic history.  I never read William Peter Blatty's novel, so I cannot say what it is like. I remember that it was very popular, but I wouldn't have been able to read it because I was still a member of the JWs at the time.


RIP sir!

A book I will not soon forget.

Offline gattaca

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Offline killersmom

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3802 on: July 10, 2017, 10:45:58 PM »
Neither one, Vincent. Although they both look good.
"Life can only be understood backwards. Unfortunately, it must be lived forward."
... Kierkegaard

Offline gattaca

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3803 on: July 11, 2017, 03:58:50 PM »
I may take a chance since it has such good reviews.   Let you know. V.

Offline killersmom

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3804 on: July 11, 2017, 05:38:15 PM »
Thanks, Vincent. I look forward to hearing from you!
"Life can only be understood backwards. Unfortunately, it must be lived forward."
... Kierkegaard

Offline FoS

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3805 on: November 29, 2017, 09:36:20 AM »
Has anybody read ”The Sparsholt Affair” by Alan Hollinghurst, and/or ”The Heart's Invisible Furies's by John Boyne?

They are strangely similar in structure – both telling the story of a gay man from his birth in the 1940’s, and, in jumps of 10 or so years between chapters, up until more or less now. And both book has about 600 pages, I think – have read them on my Kindle.

”The Sparsholt Affair” takes place in the UK, and is very much about the general change of attitude towards gays during those 70 years, whereas ”The Heart's Invisible Furies is set in Ireland, and is primarily a protest against religiously based homophobia.

Both are formidable works, and even if they are so similar in structure as is the case, they are also very different in the style of writing.

Anybody?

Offline tfferg

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3806 on: November 29, 2017, 04:57:40 PM »
Yes, I read The Sparsholt Affair a few weeks ago and wondered if anyone else here had. I found it absorbing. Alan Hollinghurst's lucid style makes this, like all his work, very readable.

The Sparsholt Affair is also structurally similar to Alan Hollinghurst's previous novel, The Stranger's Child which begins with the story of a World War I poet and his relationships with a fellow undergraduate and his family. It jumps from decade to decade as it follows the latter characters and others who become connected with them and the way they present the poet's memory in a changing Britain.

I found Johnny Sparsholt probably the most likeable of the main characters in Alan Hollingurst's novels and The Sparsholt Affair the most optimistic.

I'm looking forward to getting hold of John Boyne's book.

John Boyne's review of The Sparsholt Affair in The Irish Times captures my responses more eloquently than I can manage.


https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-sparsholt-affair-review-a-blitz-of-gay-longing-1.3238553

Offline FoS

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3807 on: November 30, 2017, 04:01:11 AM »

John Boyne's review of The Sparsholt Affair in The Irish Times captures my responses more eloquently than I can manage.


I totalt agree with you and Boyne!
Wonder if we will get a review of "The Heart's Invisible Furies" by Hollinghurst?

Offline gattaca

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3808 on: November 30, 2017, 07:22:59 AM »
I finished "Lost and Found"  enjoyed, I could see the story playing out.  V
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-Twist-Fate-Book-ebook/dp/B073P16LB1/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_1_dp 

Offline Sara B

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Re: What good book have you read lately? (New or old)
« Reply #3809 on: November 30, 2017, 07:57:32 AM »
Has anybody read ”The Sparsholt Affair” by Alan Hollinghurst, and/or ”The Heart's Invisible Furies's by John Boyne?

They are strangely similar in structure – both telling the story of a gay man from his birth in the 1940’s, and, in jumps of 10 or so years between chapters, up until more or less now. And both book has about 600 pages, I think – have read them on my Kindle.

”The Sparsholt Affair” takes place in the UK, and is very much about the general change of attitude towards gays during those 70 years, whereas ”The Heart's Invisible Furies is set in Ireland, and is primarily a protest against religiously based homophobia.

Both are formidable works, and even if they are so similar in structure as is the case, they are also very different in the style of writing.

Anybody?

I haven’t read either. I’ve been thinking about The Sparsholt Affair, but I’ve never really taken to any of Hollinghurst's novels. I can see how well-written they are, and do find them quite gripping, but I think the problem is, as people have said, that it can be hard to identify with or like any of the characters, even though they may be understandable. That is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it’s enough to make me a little reluctant to read another.