What Have You Been Reading Lately? 📖

[Stranger]

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris

So far a very informative, readable and interesting account of what is arguably the most influential event in our history before WW2. Reads very Game of Thrones esque, showing the perspectives of the key figures involved in the buildup and aftermath of 1066 (Aethelred, Cnut, Godwine, Edward the confessor, Harold Godwineson, Harald Hadrada, and of course William).

I love anything with swords and castles.

I'd argue that the Norman Conquest was a vastly more influential event in our history than WW2

 

[werthersoriginal]

I downloaded this to my Kindle, on your recommendation above, and am about 40% of the way through it on holiday. What a great book, so well constructed and written. It's interesting trying to work out what is fact, what is embellishment, and what is fiction.

Thanks for putting me onto this, I imagine I'll be downloading more Robert Harris, as I hadn't read anything of his until now.

Oh man, Fatherland and the one about Stalin (can't remember the title) are so gripping. They're all good though some of the recent ones have been a bit thinner.

 

[holdsteady]

The ones about Rome are good, especially the couple about Cicero.

 

[Colin B]

Oh man, Fatherland and the one about Stalin (can't remember the title) are so gripping. They're all good though some of the recent ones have been a bit thinner.

I'd marked out Fatherland as my next one, the concept of the UK, post war, if we'd lost is fascinating. Don't spoil it for me, but I wonder if Hitler followed through with his intention of making Oxford his capital?

 

[chuckbert]

I've been bingeing Ken Follett on my kobo. Never read anything by him until last year, but have got hooked.
The latest Jonathan Coe "The proof of my innocence" was excellent.

 

[Morris Oxford]

I downloaded this to my Kindle, on your recommendation above, and am about 40% of the way through it on holiday. What a great book, so well constructed and written. It's interesting trying to work out what is fact, what is embellishment, and what is fiction.

Thanks for putting me onto this, I imagine I'll be downloading more Robert Harris, as I hadn't read anything of his until now.

I read Fatherland just after it came out, remember really enjoying it, followed soon after by Archangel. Also read Enigma, Munich, Precipice, The Second Sleep, all by the same author. My favourite though was An Officer and a Spy, a cracking read.

 

[TailsWeWin]

“The Perfect Couple” Kidman at her supreme best.

 

[Morris Oxford]

I've been bingeing Ken Follett on my kobo. Never read anything by him until last year, but have got hooked.
The latest Jonathan Coe "The proof of my innocence" was excellent.

Just finished listening to ‘The proof of my Innocence’ on audio, a bit different to some of Jonathan Coe’s other works but enjoyable nonetheless. A clever, funny writer.

Also recently finished Ken Follett’s ‘Fall of Giants’, the first Follett book I’ve read/listened to. A real storyteller for sure, the sequel ‘Winter of the World’ is next in my list.

 

[Morris Oxford]

Anything written by Len Deighton for me although you'll probably have to find them in charity shops or Ebay these days. Classic war/spy fiction if you like that sort of thing. Winter is my favourite but all are good.

Len Deighton’s SS-GB has a similar background idea to Robert Harris’ Fatherland, ie ‘What if Hitler had won the Battle of Britain’. Two excellent books.

 

[Stranger]

I'd marked out Fatherland as my next one, the concept of the UK, post war, if we'd lost is fascinating. Don't spoil it for me, but I wonder if Hitler followed through with his intention of making Oxford his capital?

If you're into those sorts of 'what if' books, I highly recommend Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle about Germany and Japan invading America

 

[swolley]

Re Robert Harris I picked up V2 in a charity shop and tbh it's dissaointing. Lots of techy info about the development in 1930s Germany but not much tension.
On another note have enjoyed Edward Marston The railway detective series. Set in the victorian period there is usually a murder on the,railway for the hero and trusty assistant to solve.

 

[lodeyellow]

I'd marked out Fatherland as my next one, the concept of the UK, post war, if we'd lost is fascinating. Don't spoil it for me, but I wonder if Hitler followed through with his intention of making Oxford his capital?

Fatherland is set in Germany rather than the UK. It’s more than 30 years since I read it, so there might conceivably be a passing reference to Oxford. Knowing quite a lot about Hitler’s Germany, and many of the leading Nazis, I thought it was an excellent, absorbing book, very well researched.

More recently, I’ve read Robert Harris’s Munich dealing with the 1938 conference in that city. Again, very well researched, but not as gripping as Fatherland.

I’ve read many of Harris’s other books that have been mentioned in this thread. A couple of years ago I read Act of Oblivion, which is about the post-Restoration hunt for regicides who sentenced Charles I to death in 1649. It was OK, but I much preferred a factual book on the subject by Charles Spencer entitled Killers of the King.

 

[Colin B]

Fatherland is set in Germany rather than the UK. It’s more than 30 years since I read it, so there might conceivably be a passing reference to Oxford. Knowing quite a lot about Hitler’s Germany, and many of the leading Nazis, I thought it was an excellent, absorbing book, very well researched.

More recently, I’ve read Robert Harris’s Munich dealing with the 1938 conference in that city. Again, very well researched, but not as gripping as Fatherland.

I’ve read many of Harris’s other books that have been mentioned in this thread. A couple of years ago I read Act of Oblivion, which is about the post-Restoration hunt for regicides who sentenced Charles I to death in 1649. It was OK, but I much preferred a factual book on the subject by Charles Spencer entitled Killers of the King.

Ah, I didn't realise that. I also didn't realise it was written that long ago!

 

[Isle of Wight Yellow]

An ex bought me the entire Witcher book series a year ago and still getting through them (even the copies without the dumb netflix logo on the cover). Enjoying them so far.

I’m just finishing the complete Witcher series (by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski) on my kindle.

I thought the Lady of the Lake was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and then I read Season of Strorms and it’s even better! Well worth persevering with.

I’d recommend them to anyone who likes fantasy. Much better than GOT…

 

[Stranger]

Not read the Witcher books yet but the ultimate fantasy books are the Gormenghast trilogy

 

[Paul Cannell]

Another vote for Gormenghast here. Read them when I was a wispy student and then again recently; they stood the test of time.

Don't read fantasy much. The last few years I've been reading a bit of Japanese stuff (in translation). Just finished Kawabata's Snow Country which is wonderful strange.

If anyone is interested in an author who can write stunningly well, differently, get hold of Soseke's 'Three-cornered world' then 'the miner; both great.

 

[Foley]

Journeyman by Ben Smith is an interesting football Autobiography

He played for Hereford, Crawley, Shrewsbury amongst others

Steve Evans comes across as an even bigger nasty bit of work ( with some strengths).

Some of the way that contracts were negotiated are unbelievable ( together with the amounts that teams in the Conference North and South wouod pay at times)

And the ups and downs of a journeyman footballer.

 

[holdsteady]

Journeyman by Ben Smith is an interesting football Autobiography

He played for Hereford, Crawley, Shrewsbury amongst others

Steve Evans comes across as an even bigger nasty bit of work ( with some strengths).

Some of the way that contracts were negotiated are unbelievable ( together with the amounts that teams in the Conference North and South wouod pay at times)

And the ups and downs of a journeyman footballer.

Read it a month or two back after someone mentioned it on here, its an interesting insight into lower league football especially considering were around that level back then.

 

[bicesterox]

The Hawk is Dead by Peter James who

 

[Morris Oxford]

Just finished Charles Dicken’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’ on audio, not one of his novels I was familiar with but enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana.

Knocks creeping Jesus' presumptuous 'I die for your sins' into a tiny cocked hat. #pagans4eva

 

[Stranger]

Just finished Grey Bees by Ukrianian author Andrey Kurkov. I've read a few of his but this is the first I've read about the current war. It's not a war novel, but about a beekeeper who lives in the 'Grey Zone' - a narrow strip of land in the Donbas between the invading Russians and the defending Ukrainian army. Needless to say, it's very good

 

[Nadi-]

The flame of resistance by Damien Lewis.
Josephine Bakers spy role in world war 2

 

[lodeyellow]

Just finished Grey Bees by Ukrianian author Andrey Kurkov. I've read a few of his but this is the first I've read about the current war. It's not a war novel, but about a beekeeper who lives in the 'Grey Zone' - a narrow strip of land in the Donbas between the invading Russians and the defending Ukrainian army. Needless to say, it's very good

You might possibly be interested in Tim Judah’s In Wartime: stories from Ukraine, published in 2015, so obviously before Russia’s current “special operation” but after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. It contains the stories of people from both sides of the divide, plus useful insight into Ukraine’s history since the outbreak of World War II.

I’m currently reading Eight Days in May: how Germany’s war ended (a translation of Volker Ullrich’s Acht Tage im Mai: die letzte Woche des Dritten Reiches) - a readable account of events between Hitler’s suicide and Germany’s surrender to the Allies. The anecdotes about Karl Doenitz’s short-lived government are particularly interesting.

I’d also highly recommend the Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein’s Hitler, Stalin, Mum & Dad: a family memoir of miraculous survival - a harrowing account of what happened to both his parents’ families in Europe during World War II. A book I genuinely found difficult to put down and finished in a couple of days.

Also well worth a read for anyone interested in that period of history is The Ticket Collector from Belarus: an extraordinary true story of the Holocaust and Britain’s only war crimes trial, by Mike Anderson and Neil Hanson. How easy was it to put someone on trial for crimes committed in a foreign country almost 50 years previously and for which there was no physical evidence?

 

[Stranger]

You might possibly be interested in Tim Judah’s In Wartime: stories from Ukraine, published in 2015, so obviously before Russia’s current “special operation” but after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. It contains the stories of people from both sides of the divide, plus useful insight into Ukraine’s history since the outbreak of World War II.

I’m currently reading Eight Days in May: how Germany’s war ended (a translation of Volker Ullrich’s Acht Tage im Mai: die letzte Woche des Dritten Reiches) - a readable account of events between Hitler’s suicide and Germany’s surrender to the Allies. The anecdotes about Karl Doenitz’s short-lived government are particularly interesting.

I’d also highly recommend the Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein’s Hitler, Stalin, Mum & Dad: a family memoir of miraculous survival - a harrowing account of what happened to both his parents’ families in Europe during World War II. A book I genuinely found difficult to put down and finished in a couple of days.

Also well worth a read for anyone interested in that period of history is The Ticket Collector from Belarus: an extraordinary true story of the Holocaust and Britain’s only war crimes trial, by Mike Anderson and Neil Hanson. How easy was it to put someone on trial for crimes committed in a foreign country almost 50 years previously and for which there was no physical evidence?

Thanks for the reccs, I'll definitely try to check out some of those.