The SMB Book thread

I always have a mooch at the Kindle Daily deals to see if there is owt interesting, today (27th November) there was a book titled "From Deep Space with Love" being a sucker for astrophysics books and with the cover showing stars I clicked through to see what the blurb said about it :-

From Deep Space with Love gives readers the chance to listen in on a fascinating conversation between one of today’s most celebrated New Thought leaders—New York Times best-selling authorMike Dooley—and Frank, a collective of eight beings who currently live in a distant galaxy, channeled by Tracy Farquhar.

The book is divided into four parts: Life on Brahoska (Frank’s planet), Life on Earth, The Greater Universe, and Building a Better World. Topics include:

  • Brahoskans’ culture, relationships, technology, leisure, conception of time, and much more
  • Aspects of Earthly existence, from current political and social realities to the truth about the Loch Ness Monster
  • Angels, divination, other dimensions, and what we can do to make a better world, starting now


Drawing on the experiences and wisdom of Frank’s much older civilization and the trials and tribulations they have moved beyond—which once rivaled those we’re now undergoing on Earth—From Deep Space with Love is a compelling, irresistibly readable guide to a new era. Readers will find their awareness expanded and their beliefs stretching to encompass ideas that challenge the status quo and reveal the true limitless nature of the Universe—and of humanity itself.

Who reads this kind of drivel (apart from Shirley MacLaine) it always sets a red flag for me when all the reviews are by other genre authors.

Just finished the Child 44 trilogy - not a bad read but I think the quality dropped as the series went on. It was wholly unbelievable but I thought the bits about the KGB and the stalinist purges were well written, the author also is one of these who writes a detailed sub character then kills him off in 2 lines never to be mentioned again. Overall not bad and the basic idea was very interesting - personally I would be tempted to recommend you read Child 44 and if you really like the characters read the next two but the the last one is the worst of the three.
 


Mrs Osmond by John Banville 9/10
Banville's sequel to The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I read the two books in succession, and there's very little difference in style despite them having been written nearly 140 years apart - an amazing achievement.

Logon or register to see this image
 
How Football Explains The World by Franklin Foer. 5/10.
American academicish gadgy attempts to illustrate the worlds ills through football. This of course allows him to travel to great "Derby" games around the world while writing it off as research in his tax affairs. Nice work if you can get it. Approach a publisher, get an advance, set up a Ltd Co.......don't blame the feller at all tbh.
There was a spurt of similar travel books a few years ago without the faux intellectualism. This one is actually weaker for its bullshit efforts.

Bill Shankly: It's Much More Important Than That. By Stephen Kelly. 7/10.
A biography of one of the games managerial greats. A bloody good read. He tried to buy Cloughie from Boro once he realised Liverpool couldn't afford Denis Law from Huddersfield butt settled for Ian St John. No mention of applying for the SAFC job or nipping in ahead of SAFC for Keegan I'm afraid.
A few of his oft quoted one liners were actually Paisleys that he'd heard a few days previously which was the one thing Paisley used to get the hump about much to the amusement of the other boot room lads.
I don't bother with football biogs normally and even less so with autobiogs but this ones a bloody good read following him through childhood, playing career, war, then management at Carlisle, Grimsby, Workington, Huddersfield before finally breaking through at Anfield. He never won anything or got promoted or owt prior to moving to Liverpool.

Just starting Paisleys auto biog as a sort of triptych thingy with Geoff Twentymens (Liverpool chief scout for decades) to follow. I'll be speaking scouse by Xmas.
 
Last edited:
Wild Tales by Graham Nash 6/10.
The man is up his own arse. I didn't know Rita Coolidge wrote the piano piece on the extended version of Layla. I bought this book wanting to like it it was mediocre.
 
Bit of a cheat as I havnt started either

But just got Dresden Tuesday 13 February 1945

and

In Harms Way

Will feed back when done

I also have another 3 books as presents in front of me as xmas presents, going to be a busy boy :)
 
Excellent book. It's well worth reading Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter-House Five at the same time. He was on the ground as a POW when the bombs fell.


Just finished it, thats what persuaded me to buy Dresden, as I was totally ignorant of the whole story.

Was he suffering from some psychological damage after Dresden? as he writes like someone on drugs, which I did find entertaining, the style not the potential drugs/trauma
 
Just finished it, thats what persuaded me to buy Dresden, as I was totally ignorant of the whole story.

Was he suffering from some psychological damage after Dresden? as he writes like someone on drugs, which I did find entertaining, the style not the potential drugs/trauma

It certainly damaged him. That's where the sci-fi element came in - it was the only way he could handle such a traumatic subject.

As far as I know, he wasn't on drugs - that was just his natural writing style. He certainly had a thing or two to say about drugs...

Logon or register to see this image
 
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor 9/10
Not for everyone, but gripping in its way. Thirteen chapters each spanning a full year and providing what seems like a bird's eye view of a village in the Peak District and its inhabitants. The repetitiveness reminded me of David Peace's Red or Dead, in which the cycles of successive football seasons become a hypnotic mantra.

Logon or register to see this image
 
Munich by Robert Harris 6/10
Low-key thriller set against the backdrop of Chamberlain's infamous meeting with Hitler in 1939. Some heavy-handed Trump references along the way. Plenty of interesting historical and political detail if you like that sort of thing.

Logon or register to see this image
 
American Kingpin about the lad who created the Silk Road website is a decent read - although the author has a habit of ending chapters with a “...but little did they know that all of that would change in less than a year” schtick which grates a bit.
 
Got 7 Books for xmas
The Robin Stephen Moss
True Haunting Edwin F Becker
Enter Night Michael Rowe
Roadwork Richard Bachman (Mr King)
Malus Domestica S A Hunt
Sleeping Beauties Stephen King
Uncommon Type Tom Hanks

Going to go blind :)
 
Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn 9/10

Didn't enjoy the first (loads of toffs gossiping in the south of France, with a bit of child rape thrown in) or the second (posh junkie roaming through the seedy side of New York). But I loved the next three. Some Hope is like PG Wodehouse meets Will Self. Mother's Milk and At Last make great use of shifting narrative perspectives.

Logon or register to see this image
 
I’m working my way through some of the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleria.

All very good with interesting plots and a touch of humour all the way through.

Last three I read were,
The Scent of the Night.
The Track of Sand
Wings of the Sphinx

Almost feel I know the main characters personally by now,
Montalbano, his two sidekicks, the nutty sergeant and his pain in the arse girlfriend.
 

Back
Top