I can normally take or leave autobiographies. I just read Andre Agassis and couldn't put it down. Really good read and he's had one hell of a life.
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I can normally take or leave autobiographies. I just read Andre Agassis and couldn't put it down. Really good read and he's had one hell of a life.
Shantaram by Gregory Roberts.
An amazing story. I could genuinely feel I was there with the sights and smells of India not many books have done that to me.
Interestingly I started the follow up but never really got into it.
Try any of the three novels of Graeme Macrae Burnet.
His Bloody Project is the best known and was nominated for the Booker but they're all good psychological crime stuff.
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Small town Mississippi intrigue. So well written.
I'm currently reading Devil's Day by Andrew Michael Hurley, after finishing his debut novel The Loney recently. Both mainly set in rural Lancashire, both modern day atmospheric landscape based folk horror, if you're into that kind of thing.
I can recommend ‘Dead In The Water’ by Penny Farmer.
It’s a true story about her brother and his girlfriend going missing in Central America. It’s a triumph of her will to find out the truth.
I used to read ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ with my son, while he was adapting to ‘grown-up’ books. He has now gone back, after a few years, to reading it on his own, as he preps for his Highers.
I bought my daughter a copy of her own, but she is working through 1001 Arabian Nights. That might be a transition :greengrin
Nevertheless, both would rather be on social media or streaming my Spotify account to play music that makes me feel old because I don’t recognise it.
I have just taken on Orlando Figes ‘The Whisperers’. It is an account, as it were, of how ‘ordinary’ people survived and lived in Stalinist Russia. I have a couple of other of his works but the only one I have read is ‘Natasha’s Dance’ which is a narrative of Russia’s cultural history from the mid- nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.
It is masterful. The title of the book refers to a scene from Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’. The author is informed, informative and not afraid to intellectualise.
My favourite bit is towards the end where he desctibes the relationship between Shostakovich and Stravinsky. I am an ardent fan of Shostakovich’s works and if it were a Desert zIsland Discs scenario then he would be the prime candidate, but Stravinsky can claim to have changed music in a way that few others have. Probably only Beethoven, Bach and maybe Monteverdi or Palestrina before him.
I'm reading 'The Nowhere Men: The Unknown Story of Football's True Talent Spotters' by Michael Calvin and it's really interesting and enjoyable so far.
Anyone who likes crime novels should be watching Bloody Scotland crime festival this weekend.
https://bloodyscotland.com/watch/?mc...eid=a6c4aafee8
Today at 1pm is Anne Cleeve and Peter May. I imagine Peter will be talking about the book he wrote in 2005,but was only published last month because the idea was too outlandish for people to relate to.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/loc.../9781529411690
Maybe everyone needs to read it.
Shuggie Bain. Anyone read it?
Honestly, judging by reviews it looks utterly miserable. I've had enough of that.
Gimme some laughs!
Currently enjoying Viv Albertine’s autobiography “Clothes Clothes Clothes Boys Boys Boys Music Music Music”. Fabulous book and some great stories about the Slits, Sex Pistols, Clash and more. Can’t recommend enough.
Just finished the Water Dancer by Ta Nehisi Coates. Story about slave life in America with a bit supernatural thrown in. Great interesting character building and an engrossing story. I found it interesting and an enjoyable read.
Not a recommendation, but I am reading aloud every night after dinner a book called Silent Knit, Deadly Knit. It has 24 chapters so it is an advent book. It's a trashy murder mystery.
There is just my wife and I but I'm enjoying reading aloud to someone.
Reading another Reacher story “Worth Dying for”
The baddies are called
The Duncan’s
Can’t stop having a wee laugh every time I read their name.
Childish I know😂
Started Barack Obama's memoirs just recently. Very interesting so far and doesn't spend too much time on the pre-politics years which is a complaint I have about a lot of autobiographies or memoirs.
Reading Tim Peake autobiography. very good so far. Interesting life he's had.
Just finished that, really enjoyed it. More pilot than astronaut related content but some great stories all the same.
He's touring later in the year, few dates in Scotland.
https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/tim-peake
I started reading Doctor Zhivago recently after (almost) watching it all the way through for (almost) the second time ever around Christmas. If its anything like my attempts at watching the film then I might finish it around the time covid restrictions end for good.
It's a tough read. Part of my problem was the complicated Russian names; I kept having to flick back through the pages to remind myself "who was that again?".
If you're still interested after what will be a marathon, my mate made a documentary about Pasternak a while back. It's not on iPlayer just now, but I'll ask him if it's anywhere else.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09djrvr
Good luck :greengrin
Cheers man. It wasn't until this morning that I found out he was actually more of a poet than a novelist, which I suppose makes sense.
Re. the names - aye, the Russians make it complicated eh? I'm trying to decide whether its best to keep flicking back, or just remember the main characters and accept everyone else is just part of the background like a tree or something - focus on the atmosphere more than the specifics.
I just finished John Cooper Clark’s autobiography..I was gonna say a brilliant read but I actually got the audio book. Amazingly candid & honest, painful & funny. The guys lived a life for sure.