The SMB Book thread

Monty Pigeon said:
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 10/10

I've been meaning to tackle McCarthy's Border Trilogy for ages. Just knocked off the first volume. What a great book. So many incredible sequences. The scene in which John Grady breaks a group of horses, and the aftermath, is just breathtaking: The wild and frantic band of mustangs that had circled the potrero that morning like marbles swirled in a jar could hardly be said to exist and the animals whinnied to one another in the dark and answered back as if some one among their number were missing, or some thing.

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Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan recemended by you I think very clever and very sad . Reminded me of my own struggles 45 years ago with a long time wad girlfriend who was sexless and a bit of a twat if I'm honest . Anything else by him you would advise me to read ?
 


DisillusionedOldGit said:
Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan recemended by you I think very clever and very sad . Reminded me of my own struggles 45 years ago with a long time wad girlfriend who was sexless and a bit of a twat if I'm honest . Anything else by him you would advise me to read ?
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I've only read two others of his: Solar, which I enjoyed, and Sweet Tooth, which I hated.

I've got two lined up for the coming months: Atonement and The Child in Time.
 
End of Watch by Stephen King. 5/10
King by numbers tbh and I'm pleased the daft trilogy has come to an end.

JonnotheMackem said:
To you as well, if you haven't already, get on to Oryx and Crake/Year of the Flood/Maddaddam.
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I got the trilogy for xmas, started Oryx and Crake yesterday lunchtime and had finished it by 9pm. I've not done that for yonks. Really bloody good!
Oryx and Crake 9/10
 
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 9/10
Totally unlike anything I've read before. I've long been a big fan of Saunders' short stories. This is his first novel, and on the page looks like a screenplay. Gradually the interplay between the characters - most of them ghosts in the graveyard where Abraham Lincoln is morning his young son - builds into something profound. I partly read it, and partly listened to the audiobook, which has a cast of 166 actors, including many big names.

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Seven steps from Snowdon to Everest, by Mark Horrell.

9/10

Very enjoyable. Sometimes these expedition books can become a bit technical and dull, but not this one.

Funny and entertaining throughout.
 
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
8/10

Probably will enjoy it more than an 8 after reading the last in the trilogy. Too many annoyances, coincidences etc that will hopefully be explained in MadAddam.

My reading knowledge is pretty rubbish. Until I got these for Xmas I dont think I'd ever heard of Margeret Atwood. I'll be making sure I try some more her stuff though.

(embarrassingly, I'm pretty certain these are the first books I've read that were written by a woman. I'm 36 Ffs.)
 
Monty Pigeon said:
I've only read two others of his: Solar, which I enjoyed, and Sweet Tooth, which I hated.

I've got two lined up for the coming months: Atonement and The Child in Time.
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Weirdly, I much preferred Sweet Tooth to Solar. Atonement is excellent, probably up there with On Chesil Beach and Enduring Love as his best work.

I think the only others of his I've read are The Cement Garden (fairly disturbing, reminded me of The Wasp Factory), Saturday (very good) and The Children Act (which disappointed me).
 
SR5 1SU said:
Seven steps from Snowdon to Everest, by Mark Horrell.

9/10

Very enjoyable. Sometimes these expedition books can become a bit technical and dull, but not this one.

Funny and entertaining throughout.
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I like his stuff, read that and a few others and always worth a read. Entertaining stuff.
 
moo said:
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
8/10

Probably will enjoy it more than an 8 after reading the last in the trilogy. Too many annoyances, coincidences etc that will hopefully be explained in MadAddam.

My reading knowledge is pretty rubbish. Until I got these for Xmas I dont think I'd ever heard of Margeret Atwood. I'll be making sure I try some more her stuff though.

(embarrassingly, I'm pretty certain these are the first books I've read that were written by a woman. I'm 36 Ffs.)
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MadAddam, then The Handmaid's Tale.
 
moo said:
Dictator by Robert Harris
A bit tough to get into (probably due to my lack of knowledge of the Roman Republic and Empire) but once it got going I found it fascinating.
So much so I've spent a fair amount of time subsequently on wiki looking into the first and second triumvirate and trying to work out if Cicero and the boys could've held the Republic together or if it was doomed.

If anyone knows of a good book from around that period I'd gladly check it out. Fiction or non fiction.
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Check these out https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_(novel_series)
 
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 7/10

Hemingway is a great descriptive writer; one of the best. When he's describing landscape or a bullfight, there's nobody better. But the story left me cold. A bunch of infuriating expats behaving infuriatingly in Paris and Spain.

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Monty Pigeon said:
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 7/10

Hemingway is a great descriptive writer; one of the best. When he's describing landscape or a bullfight, there's nobody better. But the story left me cold. A bunch of infuriating expats behaving infuriatingly in Paris and Spain.

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I wasn't impressed either, nor with any of his other better known ones.

I've been working my way through his short stories, many of which were also a load of bull, imho,
but on a brighter note I did come across a couple which I really enjoyed and brought out the best of his knowledge and experiences.
I can't recall the titles offhand, but if they do come to mind I'll post them later.
 
lenshack said:
I wasn't impressed either, nor with any of his other better known ones.

I've been working my way through his short stories, many of which were also a load of bull, imho,
but on a brighter note I did come across a couple which I really enjoyed and brought out the best of his knowledge and experiences.
I can't recall the titles offhand, but if they do come to mind I'll post them later.
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The difficulty is separating the man from the writer. I've been to plenty of the bars that continue to cash in on his name (Sloppy Joe's, Cafe Iruna in Pamplona), and I've been to two of his houses (Havana and Key West).

To evaluate him on his writing alone is like evaluating Donald Trump on his business prowess. Personal image is everything. I like a couple of his short stories, but in both cases I'd need to edit them before ranking them with my favourites. The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber needs to be shorter, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro needs to ditch the entire Paris sequence.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 9/10
Totally unlike anything I've read before. I've long been a big fan of Saunders' short stories. This is his first novel, and on the page looks like a screenplay. Gradually the interplay between the characters - most of them ghosts in the graveyard where Abraham Lincoln is morning his young son - builds into something profound. I partly read it, and partly listened to the audiobook, which has a cast of 166 actors, including many big names.

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Quite fancy that .
I am just finishing " the sorrow of war " by Bao ninh. Reflections on his war and peace (post and pre war ) written by a north Vietnamese fighter .
It's all over the shop and very evidently ( for someone in that line of work ) written as a personal attempt to deal with unrecognised ptsd . Disjointed and repetitive with a scattering of observations that are just so vivid, Vietnamese and poignant that make it worth reading for that alone .
 

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