The SMB Book thread



The Northumbrians by Dan Jackson

Lots of interesting info about the last 2000 years or so of the North East. Each chapter has a different focus rather than it being chronological. That's mostly ok but it does lead to the same ground being re-covered (e.g. stuff about the lives of the miners. It threatens to turn into a list of people, places and events at a couple of points but ultimately manages not to. An enjoyable and informative read. Not sure how it compares to similar books coz I haven't read any.
 
Adrian McKinty's The Chain has won the Theakstons Crime Book of the Year and deservedly so in my view.

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

Winner Of The 2020 #TheakstonAward Announced

ADRIAN MCKINTY WINS CRIME WRITING’S PREMIERE AWARD FOR HIS ‘LIFE-CHANGING’ THRILLER THE CHAIN Belfast born Adrian McKinty has been awarded the UK’s most prestigious accolade in crime writing, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, for his best-selling thriller, The Chain,
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Redemption by David Baldacci

Plot was ok and had a reasonable amount of tension and excitement but I didn't enjoy the writing much. The dialogue was often stilted and he has a habit of putting the reporting clause before the speech for no discernible reason which just makes it worse. Some characters sometimes seemed a bit flat (possibly due to the dialogue) or were a bit cheesy and stereotypical. The whole memory thing with the detective was a bit a bit gimmicky and cliched at the same time, I thought.

All in all, I've read worse. I've never read Baldacci before (I don't read much crime/thriller fiction) and I don't feel particularly enamoured to do so again.
 
Old Prestonian said:
Adrian McKinty's The Chain has won the Theakstons Crime Book of the Year and deservedly so in my view.

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

Winner Of The 2020 #TheakstonAward Announced

ADRIAN MCKINTY WINS CRIME WRITING’S PREMIERE AWARD FOR HIS ‘LIFE-CHANGING’ THRILLER THE CHAIN Belfast born Adrian McKinty has been awarded the UK’s most prestigious accolade in crime writing, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, for his best-selling thriller, The Chain,
harrogateinternationalfestivals.com harrogateinternationalfestivals.com
.
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Well I enjoyed this but I thought it tailed off towards the end a bit. Great idea but the ending was a bit formulaic in my uneducated opinion 7.5/10
 
Recently read 'The Signature of All Things', by Elizabeth Gilbert, not a quick read, 580 pages
Really enjoyed it , great read, best book I have read for ages.

'Ambitious,boldly imagined and packed with authenticating detail, it engages very boldly with the interaction of art and science' The Guardian

The central character is a nineteenth century botanist,lots of stuff about plants, and the theory of evolution !
 
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Apeirogon by Colum McCann 10/10
1001 chapters, some only a sentence long, one left blank (admittedly something Len Shackleton did first, with a chapter in his autobiography entitled The Average Director's Knowledge of Football), forming a wide-ranging collage of seemingly unrelated topics. Gradually it all comes together, and the different topics provide shifting context for the main story, based on fact, about an Israeli and Palestinian who each lost a child to political violence and now campaign together for peace. Long-listed for this year's Booker Prize.

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Lovecraft Country. Pretty shit. Dare I say I think the main reason it's done so well is that it focuses on protagonists of colour? (Even though they're written ham handedly by a white author...) It's just so disparate - barely linked short stories really - and the conclusion is embarrassingly poor.
 
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Old Prestonian said:
Adrian McKinty's The Chain has won the Theakstons Crime Book of the Year and deservedly so in my view.

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

Winner Of The 2020 #TheakstonAward Announced

ADRIAN MCKINTY WINS CRIME WRITING’S PREMIERE AWARD FOR HIS ‘LIFE-CHANGING’ THRILLER THE CHAIN Belfast born Adrian McKinty has been awarded the UK’s most prestigious accolade in crime writing, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, for his best-selling thriller, The Chain,
harrogateinternationalfestivals.com harrogateinternationalfestivals.com
.
Click to expand...
Just finished this, excellent read though I did feel like someone else said that it tailed off a bit in the second half and the ending was a bit generic.

The build up of tension in the first half was incredible though. I dont have any kids and I would imagine its not the easiest of reads if you do.
 
jacko100 said:
Just finished this, excellent read though I did feel like someone else said that it tailed off a bit in the second half and the ending was a bit generic.

The build up of tension in the first half was incredible though. I dont have any kids and I would imagine its not the easiest of reads if you do.
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I do have a child and found it uncomfortable and gripping in fairly equal measures. Nowhere near as uncomfortable at a revelation within 'Fallen Angel' by Brookmyre though.
 
Old Prestonian said:
I do have a child and found it uncomfortable and gripping in fairly equal measures. Nowhere near as uncomfortable at a revelation within 'Fallen Angel' by Brookmyre though.
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Starting Fallen Angel today, will get back to you! Actually thought I had read it already, I bought it a while ago but reading the summary it must've slipped by. Went on a brookmyre binge a while back
 
Took a break from the fiction and started reading Walden and Civil disobedience by Henry David Thoreau yesterday.
 

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