The SMB Book thread



The King of Um said:
Story of King David Hartley of the Cragg Vale Coiners, running his own little kingdom of coin clippers up on a desolate moors above Hebden Bridge in the eighteenth century, until it all comes crashing down. Ben Myers is one of the best writers of the northern landscape around, and I liked this a lot. One of my favourite book covers for years, too: a very seventies Pelican look to it but with that great image.

Also really enjoyed his Rising Blue too, a kind of rural Yorkshire noir police procedural with a distinct folk horror vibe (though completely non-supernatural) and a very thinly disguised Jimmy Saville character.

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Half way through Turning Blue.

Brilliant but making The Gallows Pole seem like a light hearted comedy.
 
Cowvahlo said:
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
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I've heard it's really good. I was in Mumbai in the summer very near where it is set, but sadly hadn't read it

Siddharta by Herman Hesse for me

And if it hasn't been mentioned so far Ibram X Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning: Definitive History of Racism in America is an absolute masterpiece
 
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 8/10
Family saga mainly set in Brooklyn against the backdrop of WWII. It's not perfect by any means - suspension of disbelief is occasionally required. But great characters, and vivid detail of the time and place.

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Lankester Merrin said:
I've heard it's really good. I was in Mumbai in the summer very near where it is set, but sadly hadn't read it

Siddharta by Herman Hesse for me

And if it hasn't been mentioned so far Ibram X Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning: Definitive History of Racism in America is an absolute masterpiece
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I never had any real fancy for visiting india until I read the book...he managed to paint an excellent picture of the culture....whether it’s like that in real life I don’t know!
 
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

Not sure how many times it is that I've read and reread this now, but that's another one. Just started the follow up now - The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul
 
Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

Recommended by someone on here. Detective, murder story. Its just amazing, cant tell you anything about it, as I dont want to give anything away, but just try it if you havnt already. 10/10

Skandhaless said:
Bloody hell old berek half hand :eek::cool:
Read them all in the 70's
You may like the talisman by steven King if you haven't read it.
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The Talisman is an amazing book, it was by Stephen King and Peter Straub, amazed it has never been made into a film
 
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

Well, what to make of this? The themes are sex, love, the Czech uprising of 1968 and subsequent Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia, and an exploration of some of the deepest driving forces of our psyches. A conventional narrative journey from Point A to Point Z in time is abandonned; the novel departs in the middle to talk about another character entirely, and a dog is one of the stand-out characters. Along the way are authorial lectures on Beethoven, Nietzsche etc.

It can be hard going but Kundera's ability to create outstanding characters means it's a winner for me. 8/10.
 
janiep said:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

Well, what to make of this? The themes are sex, love, the Czech uprising of 1968 and subsequent Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia, and an exploration of some of the deepest driving forces of our psyches. A conventional narrative journey from Point A to Point Z in time is abandonned; the novel departs in the middle to talk about another character entirely, and a dog is one of the stand-out characters. Along the way are authorial lectures on Beethoven, Nietzsche etc.

It can be hard going but Kundera's ability to create outstanding characters means it's a winner for me. 8/10.
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That reads like a Joey Barton tweet.
 
janiep said:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

Well, what to make of this? The themes are sex, love, the Czech uprising of 1968 and subsequent Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia, and an exploration of some of the deepest driving forces of our psyches. A conventional narrative journey from Point A to Point Z in time is abandonned; the novel departs in the middle to talk about another character entirely, and a dog is one of the stand-out characters. Along the way are authorial lectures on Beethoven, Nietzsche etc.

It can be hard going but Kundera's ability to create outstanding characters means it's a winner for me. 8/10.
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reading this novel legitimised my practice of pissing in people's sinks iirc mate.
 
MickeyV said:
I read a novel a week, and my latest visit to the library yeilded these two gems.
'Beautiful You' by Chuck Palahniuk (who also wrote 'Fight Club')
Rogue businessman studies female eroticism with a 200 year old sex-guru (whose pubes trail on the floor) and designs a range of sex products that prove so addictive 'a billion husbands are now redundant'. Hillarious. 8/10
'The Book of Chameleons' by José Eduardo Agualusa.
A lizard lives in the rafters of an ex-colonial guy living in the tropics, whose profession is to supply authentic false identities to people who need to disappear. The lizard is the narrator who watches as two seperate characters, a devious 'photojournalist' and a mysterious femme fatale come to do business. Poetic and captivating. 9/10
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Not read Beautiful You but read a lot of his other stuff - great books but seriously strange stuff. Pygmy about the "North Korean style" terrorist sleeper in the US is brilliant yet very odd at the same time. Currently going through the Inspector McLean series of books, liking them but the overall supernatural vibe running through them seems a little odd and forced to me - like an odd cross between Rebus and The Exorcist
 
Stonemouth by Iain Banks

Enjoyed this one probably more than any of his since Whit.
I've only got The Quarry and The Hydrogen Sonata left to go now. I've been putting it off for ages, but I'll just have to start rereading them all once I've finished those two.
 
Pants said:
Stonemouth by Iain Banks

Enjoyed this one probably more than any of his since Whit.
I've only got The Quarry and The Hydrogen Sonata left to go now. I've been putting it off for ages, but I'll just have to start rereading them all once I've finished those two.
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I really enjoyed Stonemouth. Recently, I plucked up the courage to read 'Song of Stone' after it had been gathering dust for about 20 years. It was shite. 2/10.
 

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