December 2020 Reading Thread

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dask said:
Finished The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester. Realistic minute by minute look at what it was like to be on a destroyer in the U-Boat infested waters of the North Atlantic during World War II. While not action packed like Saving Private Ryan or 1917, it was exciting at least in the way the dueling scene in Barry Lyndon was exciting. (It really was, by the way. I’m not trying to deceive you.) I did not know when I started the novel that Tom Hanks new movie, Greyhound, was based it but now am very much looking forward to seeing it. Good book. Recommended
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@dask
I read it a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

A ripping yarn of similar hue, and most enjoyable, is HMS Ulysses by Alistair McLean - if you can get a copy.
 
This morning I'm starting on a 'near future' (actually set in 2019!) apocalypse thriller.

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray
 
Parson said:
Finished Valor's Stand by Kal Spriggs (book 5 of The Children of Valor). The downside is that even I, a person who does not see typos well at all, finds a few of these in the book. (Does that mean there are a lot of them? Could be.)
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That would certainly put me off - they’re self published, right?
 
I think this is gonna be a DNF. Started off really exciting, then just dwindled to rather boring police case. A bit like watching an episode of The Bill.
 

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Parson said:
Yes.
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Right, I don't read self-published books myself. Probably an unpopular notion on this forum, but it's honest. One reason is that I don't read e-books only real ones, and most self-published stuff isn't available in paperback from the likes of Book Depository (which is a necessity living in New Zealand). The other reason is that editing issues, such as you mention, and the potential for poor writing put me off. Essentially, there's no gate-keeper on the quality, so I'd rather not take the financial and temporal risk. I only live once, so I'm careful what I read in the short span allotted me.

(I have tried the first few pages of four or five self-pub titles electronically, to see if the actual paperback might be worth buying and have found in each case that the writing didn't satisfy me ).
 
Bick said:
Right, I don't read self-published books myself. Probably an unpopular notion on this forum, but it's honest. One reason is that I don't read e-books only real ones, and most self-published stuff isn't available in paperback from the likes of Book Depository (which is a necessity living in New Zealand). The other reason is that editing issues, such as you mention, and the potential for poor writing put me off. Essentially, there's no gate-keeper on the quality, so I'd rather not take the financial and temporal risk. I only live once, so I'm careful what I read in the short span allotted me.

(I have tried the first few pages of four or five self-pub titles electronically, to see if the actual paperback might be worth buying and have found in each case that the writing didn't satisfy me ).
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I'm afraid I suffer from the same affliction. I haven't had much success with self-published titles. I will say I have collected a great many of the classics in e-book format, which are usually free.
 
Well I've given up on the crime book I was reading, far too dull. Buggrit I'm gonna read some more Pratchett. A re re read of Guards! Guards! I'd like to read all the Watch series but I don't have them all yet.
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AE35Unit said:
Well I've given up on the crime book I was reading, far too dull. Buggrit I'm gonna read some more Pratchett. A re re read of Guards! Guards! I'd like to read all the Watch series but I don't have them all yet.View attachment 73562
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Is that the first Watch book? They get better, reaching a peak with Night Watch.
 
Finished Greenwitch by Susan Cooper. It's been ages since I read this volume of her Dark is Rising sequence, and I'd forgotten how relatively short it is. Packed with atmosphere, though, and a real sense of wonder, especially in the darker and wilder supernatural elements. I don't know Cornwall well, but I wouldn't mind betting the sense of place is as authentic as it is effective. Possibly the best in the sequence, perhaps because the plot is largely independent of the Light vs Dark cosmology of the rest (which doesn't really work for me as an adult reader).

Also finished God-Emperor of Didcot, by Toby Frost. Very enjoyable, with plenty of laughs, and have now moved on to End of Empires in the same Space Captain Smith series.
 
Thomas Hegghammer “The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad”
I’ve been wanting to read something on the origins of jihad for a while and this book really ticked all the boxes for me. It came out earlier this year to good reviews and I thought it worth a look. The author is a Norwegian academic who’s written previous books on jihad and this seems very well informed and extensively researched without having any particular cultural axe to grind. It may be a tad long for some at @500 pages but it held my attention and I feel I have a much better understanding of how al-Qaida came into being in the late 1980s. I won't say more here as it's somewhat off piste for this forum (though perhaps suitable material for world-building), but here are a couple of reputable reviews should you be interested...

www.theguardian.com

The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad review – recent history at its finest

Thomas Hegghammer delivers a meticulously researched account of a charismatic Islamist
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

www.the-tls.co.uk

The Caravan by Thomas Hegghammer book review

The TLS - Asian Politics - Book Review | The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the rise of global jihad by Thomas Hegghammer, reviewed by Lydia Wilson
www.the-tls.co.uk www.the-tls.co.uk
 
[QUOTE="HareBrain”]
Also finished God-Emperor of Didcot, by Toby Frost. Very enjoyable, with plenty of laughs, and have now moved on to End of Empires in the same Space Captain Smith series.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I read God Emperor earlier this year and enjoyed it a good deal too. I’ll probably move on to the third volume at some point too, but I’ve not bought it yet.
 
Bick said:
Right, I don't read self-published books myself. Probably an unpopular notion on this forum, but it's honest. One reason is that I don't read e-books only real ones, and most self-published stuff isn't available in paperback from the likes of Book Depository (which is a necessity living in New Zealand). The other reason is that editing issues, such as you mention, and the potential for poor writing put me off. Essentially, there's no gate-keeper on the quality, so I'd rather not take the financial and temporal risk. I only live once, so I'm careful what I read in the short span allotted me.

(I have tried the first few pages of four or five self-pub titles electronically, to see if the actual paperback might be worth buying and have found in each case that the writing didn't satisfy me ).
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I have much the same experience and attitude (though I do read ebooks almost exclusively now). I have found one or two self published authors who have produced a moderately professional product but so few that I'm loathe to try new ones. Books full of typos are one of my biggest grouches. Every time I hit a typo/missing word/muddled phrase it pulls me out of the story and, no matter how good the story, that will quickly destroy my enjoyment of it. The most annoying thing is that they seem to have normalised books with such typos now and I'm finding more and more traditionally published books with excessive typos; I'm currently reading Bone Silence from Alastair Reynolds and it has far too many copy errors in it. :(
 
another great lost this year
John le carre died.
damn. did the mayans get it wrong and it was 2020 and not 2012?
 
Tonight I've started a crime thriller.
The eye thief by M K Farrar.
I'm trying to alternate every book I read, first a SFF and then a spy or crime thriller and then a SFF again
 
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