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^ Thanks for the recommendation!
Odd that parts of my post are underlined. Hum.
Odd that parts of my post are underlined. Hum.
Book What are you reading?
- Thread starter digrar
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Painting The Sand by Kim Hughes GC
Excellent read, get the book!
Kim Hughes is the most highly decorated bomb disposal operator serving in the British Army. He was awarded the George Cross in 2009 following a grueling six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan during which he defused 119 improvised explosive devices, survived numerous Taliban ambushes and endured a close encounter with the Secretary of State for Defence. The back drop to Painting the Sand will be the Afghan War, the conflict where the cold courage of the bomb disposal operator rose to national prominence. No other field of warfare offers the chance of a single individual to come so close to his enemy and fight out a battle of wits where losing can means death. This is one of the best memoirs that will come out of a ten-year struggle to defeat a hidden, and enduring, enemy.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34873461-painting-the-sand
Excellent read, get the book!
Kim Hughes is the most highly decorated bomb disposal operator serving in the British Army. He was awarded the George Cross in 2009 following a grueling six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan during which he defused 119 improvised explosive devices, survived numerous Taliban ambushes and endured a close encounter with the Secretary of State for Defence. The back drop to Painting the Sand will be the Afghan War, the conflict where the cold courage of the bomb disposal operator rose to national prominence. No other field of warfare offers the chance of a single individual to come so close to his enemy and fight out a battle of wits where losing can means death. This is one of the best memoirs that will come out of a ten-year struggle to defeat a hidden, and enduring, enemy.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34873461-painting-the-sand
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Relapsing again wit Houellebeq, this time with "Serotonine", insomnia the last nights, so probably I will finish reading it this night.
The common characters and situations of Houellebeq´s books, same sensations of helplesness and rawness reading it. Strangely, even if every Houellebeq book is like read always the same history, I enjoy it, probably because in some sense, I could be perfectly the main character.
Before this book I read "The Burmese days", George Orwell. Saying what Mi.net members read, probably you will not aprove my likings.
The common characters and situations of Houellebeq´s books, same sensations of helplesness and rawness reading it. Strangely, even if every Houellebeq book is like read always the same history, I enjoy it, probably because in some sense, I could be perfectly the main character.
Before this book I read "The Burmese days", George Orwell. Saying what Mi.net members read, probably you will not aprove my likings.
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Coincidentally, I just purchased today Michel Houellebecq’s “Les Particules Élémentaires” for only 3€... @Mokordo and we already talked him on TheMess earlier this year.
Every of his readers may find his stories and characters more than repetitive and yet I still enjoy them for the very reason you mention: A middle-aged Frenchman bordering on depression and alcoholism with a troubled relationship with women and society. I could fit this character.
For those who don’t know this French author, he’s taken inspiration from American Psycho author, from George Orwell and Lovecraft to name only a few.
Worth reading although I haven’t had the time yet to read thru it, I’ll tune out now and start it for the evening. Makes for a nice change from the usual TV or streaming BS.
Every of his readers may find his stories and characters more than repetitive and yet I still enjoy them for the very reason you mention: A middle-aged Frenchman bordering on depression and alcoholism with a troubled relationship with women and society. I could fit this character.
For those who don’t know this French author, he’s taken inspiration from American Psycho author, from George Orwell and Lovecraft to name only a few.
Worth reading although I haven’t had the time yet to read thru it, I’ll tune out now and start it for the evening. Makes for a nice change from the usual TV or streaming BS.
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Coincidentally, I just purchased today Michel Houellebecq’s “Les Particules Élémentaires” for only 3€... @Mokordo and we already talked him on TheMess earlier this year.
Every of his readers may find his stories and characters more than repetitive and yet I still enjoy them for the very reason you mention: A middle-aged Frenchman bordering on depression and alcoholism with a troubled relationship with woman and society. I could fit this character.
For those who don’t know this French author, he’s taken inspiration from American Psycho author, from George Orwell and Lovecraft to name only a few.
Worth reading although I haven’t had the time yet to read thru it yet I’ll tune out now and start for the evening. Nice change from the usual TV or streaming BS.
Un livre, a mon avis, est toujours une meilleure option que regarder la television. I don´t know how is the french tv offer, but here it´s a S**t.
I thought you were younger to identify with Houellebeq´s main characters.Anyway, I hope you enjoy/suffer the book.
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Well, I first read Houellebecq “Plateforme” in 2000 (?) and I was a late teen... I’m turning 36 this winter. Not old, really but he opened my eyes then as to what “life” was going to be...
Oh and French TV is crap too, beside the occasional good flick...
Oh and French TV is crap too, beside the occasional good flick...
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I am currently reading Soviet sci-fi. With my daughter, that is 6. She loves it, as well as me 
The author`s Kir Bulychev, and he wrote tens of books - mostly for adults, like Veliky Guslar series (similar to Terry Pratchett`s Disc World), and for children : Alisa Selezneva series. We are reading Alisa series, those are absolutely stunning books, without communist ideology; the author`s sense of humour and sheer sense of humanity makes it great and developing adventure.
en.wikipedia.org
The author`s Kir Bulychev, and he wrote tens of books - mostly for adults, like Veliky Guslar series (similar to Terry Pratchett`s Disc World), and for children : Alisa Selezneva series. We are reading Alisa series, those are absolutely stunning books, without communist ideology; the author`s sense of humour and sheer sense of humanity makes it great and developing adventure.
Kir Bulychev - Wikipedia
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I just finished The Ruin of Kings, by Jenn Lyons. This book got a lot of hype, underservedly so, IMO. There are some literary tools the author used that I liked, like the main character's story was told from two points of view and starting from different periods of time, converging towards one point. It was just too long though. It really needed some ruthless editing. The author has created an interesting world, but there's no way I'm committing to 5 books that take that much effort to read.
I'm currently reading Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff, and I'm loving it. I don't even know how to describe it; some of the characters feel like they're in a horror / fantasy story, some feel like they're in a sci-fi story. It's set in about 1950, and the main character is a WWII vet named Atticus who is dealing with, on the fantastical hand, getting drawn into the machinations of a cabal of powerful people who call themselves natural philosophers who are trying to impose order on the world by bringing back that one moment of Creation when Adam named all the things, and on the other banal hand, dealing with being black in the Jim Crow era. It's really good, and Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams are making a series out of it for HBO, which is pretty exciting.
I'm currently reading Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff, and I'm loving it. I don't even know how to describe it; some of the characters feel like they're in a horror / fantasy story, some feel like they're in a sci-fi story. It's set in about 1950, and the main character is a WWII vet named Atticus who is dealing with, on the fantastical hand, getting drawn into the machinations of a cabal of powerful people who call themselves natural philosophers who are trying to impose order on the world by bringing back that one moment of Creation when Adam named all the things, and on the other banal hand, dealing with being black in the Jim Crow era. It's really good, and Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams are making a series out of it for HBO, which is pretty exciting.
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Read about 200 pages of Point Counter Point, by Aldous Huxley. Enjoying it. A lot of interlinked storylines and characters. I find interesting all. Some of his last books dissapointed me (Island) but this one is well worth reading(at least to me).
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At this time I have had to take a break in academic reading for my mastery, now I am with a book called "The Wars of Israel", I have found it quite good and addresses from 1920 to Yom Kippur
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Rereading Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon - Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts" for the first time in years.
It's long been one of my favourite books but I lost my paperback and I've grudgingly refused to buy a new one since I started travelling a lot for work and kindles became so much more convenient.
Anyway, its finally been released on kindle and am back at it - it's a must read for anyone interested in the US space programme, giving good details of the technology involved but focusing more on the individuals themselves.
It's long been one of my favourite books but I lost my paperback and I've grudgingly refused to buy a new one since I started travelling a lot for work and kindles became so much more convenient.
Anyway, its finally been released on kindle and am back at it - it's a must read for anyone interested in the US space programme, giving good details of the technology involved but focusing more on the individuals themselves.
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Same here, I thought they would be books for teens TBH but found myself reading the entire series one after the other
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Parachute Infantry David Kenyon Webster. Part of the 101st Airborne Division, Co. E 506th. He mentions several of the characters made famous by Steven Ambrose in Band of Brothers, but Webster, a Harvard literature grad and gifted writer, died in 1961 while shark fishing. One of the best written first person accounts of the Normandy jump, Market Garden jump and life as a soldier. He missed the battle of the Bulge with a wound suffered in Holland, but finished the war with his outfit at the Berchtesgaden.
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Charles Bean
by Ross Coulthart
"Charles Bean's wartime reports and photographs mythologised the Australian soldier and helped spawn the notion that the Anzacs achieved something nation-defining on the shores of Gallipoli and the battlefields of western Europe. In his quest to get the truth, Bean often faced death beside the Diggers in the trenches of Gallipoli and the Western Front - and saw more combat than many. But did Bean tell Australia the whole story of what he knew? In this timely new biography, Ross Coulthart investigates the untold story behind Bean's jouralistic dilemma - his struggle to tell Australia the truth but also the pressure he felt to support the war and boost morale at home by suppressing what he'd seen."
IMHO, a very good book, part idolising, part hatchet job. I have always had a soft spot for CEW Bean who pushed for the Australian War Memorial and wrote such a history with single minded devotion.
by Ross Coulthart
"Charles Bean's wartime reports and photographs mythologised the Australian soldier and helped spawn the notion that the Anzacs achieved something nation-defining on the shores of Gallipoli and the battlefields of western Europe. In his quest to get the truth, Bean often faced death beside the Diggers in the trenches of Gallipoli and the Western Front - and saw more combat than many. But did Bean tell Australia the whole story of what he knew? In this timely new biography, Ross Coulthart investigates the untold story behind Bean's jouralistic dilemma - his struggle to tell Australia the truth but also the pressure he felt to support the war and boost morale at home by suppressing what he'd seen."
IMHO, a very good book, part idolising, part hatchet job. I have always had a soft spot for CEW Bean who pushed for the Australian War Memorial and wrote such a history with single minded devotion.
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Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch. It's about a probationary constable who discovers that he can talk to ghosts and sense and use magic. He gets assigned to a special unit of the London Metropolitan Police that deals with supernatural crime, and shenanigans ensue. I've been hearing about this book for a few years, and I dismissed all the hype as just...hype. It's really good though, and I'm sorry I didn't pick it up sooner. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are working on a TV adaptation, or at least were a year ago.
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