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A Good Read: Book Suggestions & Recommendations

Baron Scarpia said:
Interesting , I had wondered about the combination of time travel and alternative history. Seems that John Brunner fulfilled this with 'Time Without Number'.
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If you're looking for Alternate History type books Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee is about a World where the South won the US Civil War, not rad it.

If you're looking for time travel then Time and Time Again by Jack Finney is very good, a contemporary (1970) man goes back to the late 19thC NY, lots of focus on the small differences between then and now.

Would strongly recommend Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates, contemporary (early 80s) people go back to the early 19thC. Lot's of magic but Power's writes magic almost like a form of technology, hard to explain but I love the way he does it. He inserts magic into historical events without changing the event but giving an "alternate" explanation for their happenings.

Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls features a time travelling serial killer, it's pretty good.
 
maximus otter said:
...c) The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators

OK: Just how bad is the bite from a black widow spider? Pretty ****ing awful...
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I'm pretty sure that Blair's description of the symptoms of his self induced black widow bite takes something like half a dozen pages.

That book is a great read - I mentioned it back on the 'Murder Hornets' (Asian Giant Hornets) thread.

I always think of that book when I see grown adults getting all flappy and hysterical about the odd wasp.
 
Cochise said:
Read one of Josephine Tey's - quite enjoyed it, will try some more. Also found the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries by R. Austin Freeman. In some respects they follow the Holmesian archetype a bit too closely. Quite enjoyable though, and they cover more of the scientific and legal side of cases.
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@Cochise - I have not read any Dr. Thorndyke, but it is now on my list. One of my favorite books is the complete Sherlock Holmes. My book was heavily commented on - interlinear fashion - by a previous owner whom I never met as I bought my 1921 book at a used book store. These comments are now a necessary part of my enjoyment.
 
I always liked Phillip Pullmans 'His Dark Materials' good dimension travelling, ive just finished the first of his prequel 'The Book of Dust' series 'La Belle Sauvage' and im about to start book 2 'The Secret Commonwealth'
If you havent read 'his Dark Materials' i can highly recommend it.
 
^ The second book is by far the best....genuine genius.


1st is excellent.

Third, in my opinion and Pullman's interestingly was pretty shoddy.
 
I've read a number of the Dr Thorndyke books now - there's an omnibus edition on Kindle which I have been devouring.

Pleased to find a number of plots with Essex connections. I know I've lived away from Essex for 30 years, and I feel a true affinity with Liverpool, but most of the best things in my life happened in Essex and I love it for all its faults. I'd have moved back there before now if I could have afforded it. House price differentials between the South East and the North West make it impossible, though.
 
At first, I thought this was just a Prime deal - but I don't think it is.

Currently, the Kindle version of Geoffrey Ashe's Mythology of the British Isles appears to be available for the bargain price of 0.99 on Amazon.

It's a long time since I read my old-school copy - but, if my memory serves me okay, I'm pretty sure I'd recommend it. Certainly at that price.
 
Reading Ian Rankin's introduction to one of the Rebus books, he contrasted UK and US attitudes to endings. He had been told by a US publisher that he couldn't leave all sorts of things not finalised for a US audience in a particular book that had an abrupt end, and had been induced to write an extra chapter to tie up all the loose ends.

I must admit I tend to the US approach - I like all the loose ends tied up with no unsolved mysteries to mull over with no hope of resolution. The old school mysteries I've been reading, written by J. S. Fletcher and R. Austin Freemen, have a lot of abrupt endings, particularly the works of the former. (Villain dies, good guy gets the girl, the end.)

I'd certainly like an extra chapter resolving all the detail. I wonder how y'all feel? I'm thinking as we share Fortean interests we'd all like all the answers!
 
Cochise said:
...I'd certainly like an extra chapter resolving all the detail. I wonder how y'all feel? I'm thinking as we share Fortean interests we'd all like all the answers!
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I have to admit that I quite like a dollop of ambiguity in my crime fiction - it seems to me to be more a reflection of reality, and also leaves you with much more to think about; I like it when something I've read keeps tapping me on the shoulder long after I've finished it.

Maybe US consumers are more generally demanding of closure - both in literature and film - but, ironically, the author I most associate with an unwillingness to wrap things up in a nice neat package is the American writer James Sallis.

Seems to me that Europeans are even less demanding of the traditional paraphernalia of closure than the British - although I can't help thinking that some authors simply run out of steam and can't be much bothered working out what happens.

One of my favourite crime movies of all time is the German film The Silence (Das letzte Schweigen), based on the German author Jan Costin Wagner's equally excellent novel Silence. Without going into details it manages to tie things up in one sense, while leaving the story unfinished in another - very powerful, and really quite disconcerting.
 
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lordmongrove said:
The Apparition Phase is the best book i've read in yeas. A truly haunting ghost story with a very different type of ghost and a very disturbing ending. Its also chock full of fortean references (Gef, the Philip experiment and so on) and oozes 70s hauntology.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apparition-Phase-Will-Maclean/dp/1785152378/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OGW298S27O17&dchild=1&keywords=apparition+phase&qid=1616249381&s=books&sprefix=apperition+ph,aps,278&sr=1-1
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agree - it is outstanding. I got it as an audiobook and listened to it twice in a short time.
 
Cochise said:
Can anyone suggest some UK detective type books? I've just reread the Inspector Rebus series and the Morse books. I've done Elizabeth George and Minette Walters, even my late mum's Agatha Christies. Really looking for more in that sort of vein, stuff I can read when the insomnia kicks in.
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Following up on this again, it strikes me that you might like Benjamin Black's rather excellent Quirke series set in Dublin in the 1950's. Black is the pseudonym of the author John Banville - and I'd say that they were towards the the 'literary' end of the crime fiction spectrum, but not in any way which distracts from what it is you want out of the genre. (I very much like some of the so-called 'literary crime authors - but some do occasionally get caught up in their own art, and as a consequence lose focus on things like plot and pace.) Banville himself has claimed that he only writes the novels for the money - but I don't really see any drop in standard between these and his regular literary output.

Another series of books by a pseudonymous author that I haven't read for years, but I recall really enjoying when I did, are the Duffy series, set in London in the 80's and written by Dan Kavanagh (who also happens to be Julian Barnes). I'm going to have to dig those out and re-read myself.

Not 'UK detective type books', but worth trying if you haven't already - George Simenon. As one Guardian review of his 'hard novels' once said (something like) - we all think we know Simenon - even those who have never read him - but the more we read, the stranger he becomes. The same could be said of Maigret. If you have never read the novels and wish to try, then erase the images of Rupert Davies and Rowan Atkinson from your imagination - as good as they may be, they are not Maigret.
 
Frideswide said:
agree - it is outstanding. I got it as an audiobook and listened to it twice in a short time.
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The Apparition Phase is an excellent book. I've not actually finished it yet, but so far I'd say it is possibly the best written of any contemporary fiction that covers that sort of subject matter that I've ever read. I was prepared to be seriously disappointed - and am more than a little pleased not to find myself so.
 
Spookdaddy said:
The Apparition Phase is an excellent book. I've not actually finished it yet, but so far I'd say it is possibly the best written of any contemporary fiction that covers that sort of subject matter that I've ever read. I was prepared to be seriously disappointed - and am more than a little pleased not to find myself so.
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I started The Watchers by Neil Spring, supernatural fiction set around loosely around the Pembrokeshire UFO flap. The prose was so bad I gave up after a couple of chapters, I actually returned it to the shop and got something else. Something I virtually never do with books.

Will definitely check out The Apparition Phase.
 
Has anyone read this yet?

drummer.jpg


 
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For the last few years I've been finding it impossible to read books. I used to read two or three a week, but then I had a life changing event that left me shell-shocked and depressed for a few years and since then my attention span has reduced to almost nothing. I read magazines, websites and I can manage non fiction. Anyone got ANY idea how I can get my reading mojo back?

I can, sometimes, just about re-read old favourites. I listen on Audible to books but, again, almost excusively non-fiction. I really really REALLY want to be able to enjoy fiction again. I need books! So I'm watching this thread with interest...
 
I would suggest something easy to read, not to taxing with a pacy storyline, i really liked 'Panic' by Jeff Abbott, it was the first book i have read that i would describe, ilterally as a page turner, i read all but a few chapters in one day, but had to go to sleep, but i couldnt sleep because i wanted to know what happened at the end, so i got up again and finished the book at about 3am.

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/884204.Panic
 
catseye said:
For the last few years I've been finding it impossible to read books. I used to read two or three a week, but then I had a life changing event that left me shell-shocked and depressed for a few years and since then my attention span has reduced to almost nothing. I read magazines, websites and I can manage non fiction. Anyone got ANY idea how I can get my reading mojo back?

I can, sometimes, just about re-read old favourites. I listen on Audible to books but, again, almost excusively non-fiction. I really really REALLY want to be able to enjoy fiction again. I need books! So I'm watching this thread with interest...
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I have similar issues. I can't settle down with a good book.
I realise now that most of my reading was done when I was travelling to and from work on a bus or train. I have driven a car now for 25 or so years and this has reduced the amount of reading I've been able to do.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I have similar issues. I can't settle down with a good book.
I realise now that most of my reading was done when I was travelling to and from work on a bus or train. I have driven a car now for 25 or so years and this has reduced the amount of reading I've been able to do.
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Audio books are great for driving - I can feel as though I've 'read' a book on a long drive. But my commute is about three minutes, so I don't even get that pleasure.

I'm trying to start myself off again by reading very well loved books that I almost know off by heart. Son in Law has given me a book of short stories which I am hoping will help too.
 
catseye said:
Audio books are great for driving - I can feel as though I've 'read' a book on a long drive. But my commute is about three minutes, so I don't even get that pleasure.

I'm trying to start myself off again by reading very well loved books that I almost know off by heart. Son in Law has given me a book of short stories which I am hoping will help too.
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Short story compilations are always a good way of getting into a writer's work. If you don't like one story, skip to the next.
My favourite book format.
 
Re Biggles:

I realise many of you won't ever have read Biggles, unless you are male and of a certain age. but you should give them a try.

I could strongly recommend the following, even to an adult audience, as long as one remembers the original target audience.

The Cruise of the Condor

Biggles Flies Again (the original unbowdlerised editions are unfortunately hard to find)

Biggles - Charter Pilot

Biggles Flies West

Biggles Goes to War

Biggles in the South Seas

Don't blame me if you get hooked on the combination of raw adventure and schoolboy humour. Allowances need making for terminology appropriate to period, but I don't think you'll find in these the mindless racism that exists in many authors that were W. E. Johns contemporaries. People of colour appear as both good and bad guys, and sometimes ambiguous. In later books he often made ex RAF officers and peers of the realm into villains - maybe his sense of humour again.

I haven't included the WW1 books in the above - they are very evocative as Captain Johns himself was a WW1 pilot. But I guess in this day an age something of an acquired taste - when I weren't lad people were still flying ancient biplanes out of Southend Airport (Tiger Moths?) so the link with the canvas and wire days was still there.

Apologies to our female readers, you don't turn up much in these books, but Captain Johns did write a whole series for you (the Worralls books)
 
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catseye said:
For the last few years I've been finding it impossible to read books. I used to read two or three a week, but then I had a life changing event that left me shell-shocked and depressed for a few years and since then my attention span has reduced to almost nothing. I read magazines, websites and I can manage non fiction. Anyone got ANY idea how I can get my reading mojo back?

I can, sometimes, just about re-read old favourites. I listen on Audible to books but, again, almost excusively non-fiction. I really really REALLY want to be able to enjoy fiction again. I need books! So I'm watching this thread with interest...
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I'm sorry to hear that. I can't imagine what sort of life changing event would be enough to put me off reading! (`Any book will do in a storm`, as Alan Sillitoe used to say).

I have two suggestions:

One is to give your reading some sort of unifying purpose beyond that of just reading for pleasure. In other words - read to a purpose. Read novels that explore a certain theme that you are investigating or caught up with - or need to know something about.

In my case, I have been reading almost anything I can get my hands on which is Russian and in translation. That is because I am involved with getting to know Russian culture both past and present - and the reading is a part of that project (which in turn feeds into a blog that I produce). So as a biproduct of that, I have read many novels of the kind that I would not have bothered with were I simply reading for my own enjoyment. Yet, at the same time, I have encountere, en route, some real gems which I have very much enjoyed.

The other suggestion is to try a completely different type of genre than whatever one you have been naturally drawn to. This can jolt your system and make reading seem fresh again. Again, in my case, I had always been a reader of science fiction and horror (when it came to genre fiction) - then, somewhere in my late thirties I began to experiment with genres that I had up to now not had much interest in. I began to try psychological thrillers and espionage novels. I found to my surprise that I could enjoy these without forcing myself - and indeed get the same kind of kick out of them as I did from Science fiction and horror. Now I'm in a position that I can switch between different types of genre fictions with ease (although Historical Romance and War are a bridge too far).

So: (a) Read to a purpose and not just for `pleasure`, and (b) try something which is completely fresh to you.
 
As I noted here, Johns imparts some great geographical content that makes his sketches of far-flung locales much more plausible:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...in-burma-hitlers-gold.667/page-4#post-1593634

Cochise said:
Biggles - Charter Pilot
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I might add that this title is a compilation of very short stories that doesn't quite match the themes of the rest and features Fortean content!

“ The nauseating part of living at a time like this, is that you can believe nothing you read and nothing you hear—absolutely nothing," remarked Flying-Officer Henry Harcourt gloomily, tossing aside the newspaper he had been reading.​
​
Flying-Officer " Ginger " Hebblethwaite regarded the speaker sympathetically. "On the contrary, my poor cynical comrade," he observed, "the fascinating part of living at a time like this is to believe anything and everything."​
​
" Do you believe anything?"​
​
"I do, within the limits of possibility," answered Ginger. "And if you'd knocked around a bit instead of knocking a fives ball about at school, so would you...”​

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During the spare moments in the mess of 666 Sqn, typically after a good dinner, Ginger tells his squadron mates about the exploits of Biggles, Algy and himself while acting as a charter pilot for the eccentric scientist Dr Augustus Duck as he sets out to explore strange phenomenon around the world. The reader is left to assess the plausibility of some of the stories--story telling in a pilots' mess after a good dinner inevitably involves some exaggeration.​
​
The following stories are narrated at various times by Ginger:​
Brief details of each story here:​
 
Zeke Newbold said:
I'm sorry to hear that. I can't imagine what sort of life changing event would be enough to put me off reading! (`Any book will do in a storm`, as Alan Sillitoe used to say).

I have two suggestions:

One is to give your reading some sort of unifying purpose beyond that of just reading for pleasure. In other words - read to a purpose. Read novels that explore a certain theme that you are investigating or caught up with - or need to know something about.

In my case, I have been reading almost anything I can get my hands on which is Russian and in translation. That is because I am involved with getting to know Russian culture both past and present - and the reading is a part of that project (which in turn feeds into a blog that I produce). So as a biproduct of that, I have read many novels of the kind that I would not have bothered with were I simply reading for my own enjoyment. Yet, at the same time, I have encountere, en route, some real gems which I have very much enjoyed.

The other suggestion is to try a completely different type of genre than whatever one you have been naturally drawn to. This can jolt your system and make reading seem fresh again. Again, in my case, I had always been a reader of science fiction and horror (when it came to genre fiction) - then, somewhere in my late thirties I began to experiment with genres that I had up to now not had much interest in. I began to try psychological thrillers and espionage novels. I found to my surprise that I could enjoy these without forcing myself - and indeed get the same kind of kick out of them as I did from Science fiction and horror. Now I'm in a position that I can switch between different types of genre fictions with ease (although Historical Romance and War are a bridge too far).

So: (a) Read to a purpose and not just for `pleasure`, and (b) try something which is completely fresh to you.
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Trying to find a 'fresh' genre is tricky - as I said, reading 2/3 books a week, I used to read EVERYTHING. And I used to love suspense, horror, and psychological but now find that anything 'edgy' is unreadable. Can just about bear a well plotted crime book, so I've got the latest Vera book to read and hoping that that works.

I read non fiction for research purposes and I don't seem to have a problem with that. Friends have suggested that (as I'm an author) my brain has started to try to dissect books as I'm reading, which is rather like trying to cut up your friends whilst having a conversation with them. Maybe when the day job is less frantic I may have more brain space?
 
Cochise said:
Re Biggles:

I realise many of you won't ever have read Biggles, unless you are male and of a certain age. but you should give them a try.

I could strongly recommend the following, even to an adult audience, as long as one remembers the original target audience.

The Cruise of the Condor

Biggles Flies Again (the original unbowdlerised editions are unfortunately hard to find)

Biggles - Charter Pilot

Biggles Flies West

Biggles Goes to War

Biggles in the South Seas

Don't blame me if you get hooked on the combination of raw adventure and schoolboy humour. Allowances need making for terminology appropriate to period, but I don't think you'll find in these the mindless racism that exists in many authors that were W. E. Johns contemporaries. People of colour appear as both good and bad guys, and sometimes ambiguous. In later books he often made ex RAF officers and peers of the realm into villains - maybe his sense of humour again.

I haven't included the WW1 books in the above - they are very evocative as Captain Johns himself was a WW1 pilot. But I guess in this day an age something of an acquired taste - when I weren't lad people were still flying ancient biplanes out of Southend Airport (Tiger Moths?) so the link with the canvas and wire days was still there.

Apologies to our female readers, you don't turn up much in these books, but Captain Johns did write a whole series for you (the Worralls books)
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I’ve read most of the Biggles books- my dad and his brothers, brought up during WWII, read them as kids, and most of them were still at my grandparents when we used to go stay in the summer... was thrilled to discover that you can get lots as kindle downloads now, and I’m rebuilding my library. Yes, there’s a lot of outdated language, but I agree that the attitudes are often unusually modern... never read any of the Worralls books, but I read some of the Gimlet ones...
Looking at the reviews on Amazon, I seem to be in a minority cos I actually enjoyed this:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Biggles-...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1616941022&sr=1-2

My favourites were probably Biggles Flies East, and Biggles Defies the Swastika.
 
ramonmercado said:
Dalrymple's new book on ehe East India Company sounds interesting. On my list.

THE ANARCHY, William Dalrymple’s gripping book on the East India Company’s “relentless rise” in the Indian subcontinent from 1756 to 1803, settles many things.

No one can now argue that Indians did not put up a tough fight; that they lacked in enterprise, dignity, or political sophistication; that the Mughals — the empire that ruled much of the subcontinent before the British — were a decrepit dynasty that let the British have their way. And no one can argue that Company rule was just, benevolent, or about anything other than greed. Still, Dalrymple’s literary commitments and tight focus on the Company constrain it from grappling fully with the realities of colonialism.

Drawing richly from sources in multiple languages, The Anarchy is gorgeously adorned with luminous images representing a range of perspectives. (I only wish the poetry laced throughout had also been presented in the original languages.) Delightful passages abound, including of the duel between Warren Hastings and Philip Francis, Shah Alam as “the sightless ruler of a largely illusory empire,” and action-packed scenes of battle. In postwar Calcutta, mansions rise “jagged from the loot-littered riverfront like blackened, shattered teeth from a diseased gum.” These gems are enrolled in an account of the conquest of India as “the most extraordinary corporate takeover in history.”

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/an-epic-struggle-for-mastery-of-a-subcontinent/
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And I've read it, a cracking good read. The East India Company was just as bad as portrayed in Taboo but also great tales of Indian Rulers (my favourite being Aliverdi Khan "a cat loving epicure"), great battles.
 
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