The SMB Book thread

Reet, I want some easy reading after finishing Purity by Franzen. I've been told that Harlan Coben does some simple, twisty novels (read one which was decent a few years back despite my sneering attitude going in to it) so can anyone recommend a few of his to try? Having a real hard time finding things I want to read these days...
I really liked the Myron Bolitar series by Coben, not sure they'd be up your street though. They're pretty fluffy page turners not a whole lot to them. Have you read any Dennis Lehane before? His stuff is great, the kenzie and genarro series. There's also mystic river, the given day and Shutter Island which are all excellent reads.
 


I really liked the Myron Bolitar series by Coben, not sure they'd be up your street though. They're pretty fluffy page turners not a whole lot to them. Have you read any Dennis Lehane before? His stuff is great, the kenzie and genarro series. There's also mystic river, the given day and Shutter Island which are all excellent reads.
I've read one Lehane, short story collection.
 
I really liked the Myron Bolitar series by Coben, not sure they'd be up your street though. They're pretty fluffy page turners not a whole lot to them. Have you read any Dennis Lehane before? His stuff is great, the kenzie and genarro series. There's also mystic river, the given day and Shutter Island which are all excellent reads.

I've read some of the Kenzie/Hennaro series (think I started with Gone, Baby, Gone and worked forward) also all three of the Coughlin books (The Given Day, Live By Night and World Gone By) plus The Drop (which was so so) and Since We Fell, which I think I posted about in this thread. Need to go back through the rest, although having seen the films of Mystic River and Shutter Island, I'm a bit reticent.
 
I've read some of the Kenzie/Hennaro series (think I started with Gone, Baby, Gone and worked forward) also all three of the Coughlin books (The Given Day, Live By Night and World Gone By) plus The Drop (which was so so) and Since We Fell, which I think I posted about in this thread. Need to go back through the rest, although having seen the films of Mystic River and Shutter Island, I'm a bit reticent.
The Kenzie/Gennaro ones really benefit from being read in order (Gone Baby Gone is the 4th one) as he actually give away pretty big plot details of the preceding ones. The earlier ones are the best two, probably peaking with Gone Baby Gone, midnight mile wasnt great.

Both mystic river and shutter island are definitely worth a read, plot wise reading mystic river it wouldn't matter that you've seen the film, whereas obviously shutter island has that twist. It's handled a lot better in the books too. Havent actually seen the film of Mystic River yet .
 
I'm wa`iting for the cost to drop. Tend to buy kindle books when they go down to 5 to 7 quid. Currently reading the book he's co-written with his wife, under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry, The Way of ALl Flesh. Medical detective type thing set in early Victorian Edinburgh (1847, I think). Halfway through, seems pretty good. Suspect it could be the start of a series. Will review here when I finish reading it.

I finished reading this earlier in the week so:

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

As above, Ambrose Parry is pseudonym for Christopher Brookmyre and his wife, Marisa Haetzman, a consultant anaesthetist. As such, it combines his crime novels with her medical work. It focuses on Will Raven, a medical student, and Sarah Fisher, a housemaid, who join together to track down a murderer in early Victorian Edinburgh. It tackles a lot of the issues of the day - abortion, lack of opportunity for women etc. as well as ongoing medical developments (the invention of chloroform as an anaesthetic happens in this book). Very good, all in all! At least two more books to come in the series. 8.5/10
 
45 by Bill Drummond. 6/10.

A sort of auto biog and essay collection by the former theatre scenery maker and ex bunnymen/teardrop explodes manager and zoo records supremo who had previously been in deaf school (band) with the singers from Frankie goes to Hollywood and the lightening seeds and Suggs wife.
He had a few hits of his own as the KLF and The Timelords. Also hoyed a dead sheep into the british record industry awards do and mebbes burnt £1m on a Scottish Ley line island. His co manager of bands was the feller who “lived in a house, a very big house in the country” which he bought from flogging blur to a major record company.
As can be imagined he has some tales to tell but I don’t think he’s telling them all here tbh....or to the best of his ability. I reckon he’s saving em for later.....so I’d wait for that if I was you.
In one chapter hes astonished to find that a semi tongue in cheek manual on how to have a hit single now sells for £80+ on eBay and he’s gutted he’s got none left. His methods obviously work as Doctoring The Tardis was a reet heap of shite.
As I say wait for the real autobiog.
 
Love Is Blind by William Boyd

Finally got round to reading this. As with Any Human Heart, Waiting For Sunrise and Sweet Caress before it, it follows the central character over a large part of their life and key events. This focuses on Brodie Moncur, a gifted piano tuner from the Scottish borders, who starts the book resident in Edinburgh close to the end of the 19th century but, for reasons that would count as spoilers, ends up travelling extensively through Europe and beyond over several years, finding love, enmity, friendship, obsession...

It's fair to say that it's amongst the best, most beautiful books I've read in a long time. The ending had me fighting back tears. 9.5/10
 

Back
Top