[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?

[MJsGhost]

It’s been a little while since I posted on this thread – here’s what I’ve been reading:

MW Craven’s Poe & Tilly novels (The Puppet Show, Black Summer, The Curator & Dead Ground), then his Avison Fluke novels (Born in a Burial Gown, Body Breaker & the Short Stories). Definitely my fault attacking them all in quick succession, but they did become a bit samey but enjoyable all the same.
It’s not the usual genre of choice for me, but having enjoyed them, I’m giving M J Arlidge a whirl with his DI Helen Grace series (Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel and currently reading The Doll’s House). Pretty similar to MW Craven, so I think I’ll give crime novels a break for a bit after this one.

If anyone has some suggestions of an engaging, light read that would be appreciated (maybe funny, though humour is so subjective a recommendation might be tricky).
It’s essentially for whiling away the wee small hours when I am inevitably woken up somewhere between 3 & 4am and can’t get back to sleep due to a whirring mind.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Insel affe]

God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens

A critique of organised religion

Interesting, might look that up.
Although I am not sure I need a book to tell me that religion has been used for evil and selfish purposes, any sensible person already knows this.

 

[Albion my Albion]

The Rise and Fall of a Certain Royal Football Club From Berkshire

 

[wunt be druv]

This sounds right up my alley - recommended?

100% - very interesting read and gives a whole different view of the Air War in WW2.

 

[Beach Hut]

You Are Awful (but I like you) - Tim Moore

 

[Beach Hut]

Trio - William Boyd

This will be immense

 

[keaton]

It’s been a little while since I posted on this thread – here’s what I’ve been reading:

MW Craven’s Poe & Tilly novels (The Puppet Show, Black Summer, The Curator & Dead Ground), then his Avison Fluke novels (Born in a Burial Gown, Body Breaker & the Short Stories). Definitely my fault attacking them all in quick succession, but they did become a bit samey but enjoyable all the same.
It’s not the usual genre of choice for me, but having enjoyed them, I’m giving M J Arlidge a whirl with his DI Helen Grace series (Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel and currently reading The Doll’s House). Pretty similar to MW Craven, so I think I’ll give crime novels a break for a bit after this one.

If anyone has some suggestions of an engaging, light read that would be appreciated (maybe funny, though humour is so subjective a recommendation might be tricky).
It’s essentially for whiling away the wee small hours when I am inevitably woken up somewhere between 3 & 4am and can’t get back to sleep due to a whirring mind.

Thanks in advance!

The odd bit is quite sad but the Adam Kay book, This Is Going To Hurt filled that role for me

 

[Deleted member 37369]

It’s been a little while since I posted on this thread – here’s what I’ve been reading:

MW Craven’s Poe & Tilly novels (The Puppet Show, Black Summer, The Curator & Dead Ground), then his Avison Fluke novels (Born in a Burial Gown, Body Breaker & the Short Stories). Definitely my fault attacking them all in quick succession, but they did become a bit samey but enjoyable all the same.
It’s not the usual genre of choice for me, but having enjoyed them, I’m giving M J Arlidge a whirl with his DI Helen Grace series (Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel and currently reading The Doll’s House). Pretty similar to MW Craven, so I think I’ll give crime novels a break for a bit after this one.

If anyone has some suggestions of an engaging, light read that would be appreciated (maybe funny, though humour is so subjective a recommendation might be tricky).
It’s essentially for whiling away the wee small hours when I am inevitably woken up somewhere between 3 & 4am and can’t get back to sleep due to a whirring mind.

Thanks in advance!

I'm currently reading the second Poe book ... I picked it up as a recommendation by [MENTION=15734]harry[/MENTION]Wilson'stackle ... enjoyed the first and about 1/4 way through the second.

Re the 3/4am waking and whirring mind. I've had this same issue for a number of years ... full on insomnia. I'm currently a few weeks into a CBTi course ... which I'm paying for as couldn't get it on the NHS. My GP recommend it a few years ago and I just though it's not for me ... but in the end got so desperate I decided to give it a go. It does seem to be working. Lots of useful info ... but the way it works is by restricting sleep to try and get the body clock reset (they use other terms for it). So I started off by not being able to go to bed until midnight and had to get up at 6am.

The tip they've about waking up and the mind going off on one is repeating a simple word that has no real association with anything. The example they give is simply 'the'. So you say (in your mind - not out loud) the ... the ... the ... the ... etc. I guess it's almost like counting sheep!! But it's aim is to stop your mind wandering off on other stuff that will just keep you awake for hours on end. Again, it has kind of worked for me and my sleep the last week has been the best for ages!

 

[MJsGhost]

I'm currently reading the second Poe book ... I picked it up as a recommendation by [MENTION=15734]harry[/MENTION]Wilson'stackle ... enjoyed the first and about 1/4 way through the second.

Re the 3/4am waking and whirring mind. I've had this same issue for a number of years ... full on insomnia. I'm currently a few weeks into a CBTi course ... which I'm paying for as couldn't get it on the NHS. My GP recommend it a few years ago and I just though it's not for me ... but in the end got so desperate I decided to give it a go. It does seem to be working. Lots of useful info ... but the way it works is by restricting sleep to try and get the body clock reset (they use other terms for it). So I started off by not being able to go to bed until midnight and had to get up at 6am.

The tip they've about waking up and the mind going off on one is repeating a simple word that has no real association with anything. The example they give is simply 'the'. So you say (in your mind - not out loud) the ... the ... the ... the ... etc. I guess it's almost like counting sheep!! But it's aim is to stop your mind wandering off on other stuff that will just keep you awake for hours on end. Again, it has kind of worked for me and my sleep the last week has been the best for ages!

Thanks for the CBTi recommendation.

I have the perfect storm of baby (9 months) often waking me when I do manage to get back off to sleep and a pretty uniquely sh|t set of stressful circumstances at work that keeps the cogs whirring when I’m awake. The Mrs is so knackered she wants to be in bed by 9, so a reset to midnight would be tricky. 6am start sounds like an extravagant lie in!
I have even resorted to counting sheep, with limited results. I’ll give the repeated word a go, though tonight is unlikely to go well as the little one has a cold and so far has woken up every half hour since she went to bed at 7!

I enjoyed the end of the last MJ Arlidge book I read, so ploughed straight on into the next one (Liar Liar), despite my plan to switch genre…

Right on cue, the baby’s awake again!

 

[Deleted member 37369]

Thanks for the CBTi recommendation.

I have the perfect storm of baby (9 months) often waking me when I do manage to get back off to sleep and a pretty uniquely sh|t set of stressful circumstances at work that keeps the cogs whirring when I’m awake. The Mrs is so knackered she wants to be in bed by 9, so a reset to midnight would be tricky. 6am start sounds like an extravagant lie in!
I have even resorted to counting sheep, with limited results. I’ll give the repeated word a go, though tonight is unlikely to go well as the little one has a cold and so far has woken up every half hour since she went to bed at 7!

I enjoyed the end of the last MJ Arlidge book I read, so ploughed straight on into the next one (Liar Liar), despite my plan to switch genre…

Right on cue, the baby’s awake again!

That's certainly a challenging set of circumstances and CBTi probably wouldn't work at the moment. Good luck with getting through it and managing it best you can.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

The Tattooist of Auschwitz. True characters weaved into a novel, the main guy being Lale Sokolov, a Slovak jew who tattoo's everyone's number onto the inside of their left forearm - that is, if they made it past 'selection' on the arrivals platform.

The subject matter is obviously harrowing, but this is not a well written book. The characters are almost cardboard cutouts, and devastating events in the camp are covered in a fairly superficial matter-of-fact manner, almost skimmed. No real depth. The jews at one point play a football match against the SS, with ash cascading down onto them from a nearby crematoria, yet the abject horror of this is described almost in passing.

I'll finish it, but I can't recommend it. It IS an amazing real-life story, but the author Heather Morris is apparently a screenwriter. In better hands, this story could have been an incredible read.

Since visiting Auschwitz, I've read a few related books including this one and agree with your synopsis. There's been a lot of controversy around its accuracy ... including this from Wikipedia ... which is a real shame.

"Wanda Witek-Malicka from the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center,[3] writing in Memoria, offered historical criticism, questioning the novel’s factual inaccuracies and stating that the entire image of reality at Auschwitz displayed in the book is built on “exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements”.[3] She warns that those who read the Czech translation of the book may take its stories as fact,[3] which the Memorial Center believe is "dangerous and disrespectful to history".[8]

A key concern for the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center was Morris' claim that Gita's identification number tattooed on her arm was 34902, stating "we do not find any surviving documents with her personal data or relating to number 34902 issued in the women's series" and that a prisoner arriving at Auschwitz at the time Gita did could not have received such a high number.[3] Witek-Malicka states that according to Gita's own testimony, her identification number was 4562.[3] Witek-Malicka also rejects Morris' claim that Doctor Mengele conducted sterilisation tests on men in Auschwitz, and that in 1942 Lale gave Gita penicillin for her typhoid fever, because this antibiotic was not widely available until after the war.[3]"

 

[Barry Izbak]

The Scarlatti Inheritance by Robert Ludlum.

Loved his books in the 1980s and loving reading them again since I joined the library.

 

[Easy 10]

Since visiting Auschwitz, I've read a few related books including this one and agree with your synopsis. There's been a lot of controversy around its accuracy ... including this from Wikipedia ... which is a real shame.

"Wanda Witek-Malicka from the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center,[3] writing in Memoria, offered historical criticism, questioning the novel’s factual inaccuracies and stating that the entire image of reality at Auschwitz displayed in the book is built on “exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements”.[3] She warns that those who read the Czech translation of the book may take its stories as fact,[3] which the Memorial Center believe is "dangerous and disrespectful to history".[8]

A key concern for the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center was Morris' claim that Gita's identification number tattooed on her arm was 34902, stating "we do not find any surviving documents with her personal data or relating to number 34902 issued in the women's series" and that a prisoner arriving at Auschwitz at the time Gita did could not have received such a high number.[3] Witek-Malicka states that according to Gita's own testimony, her identification number was 4562.[3] Witek-Malicka also rejects Morris' claim that Doctor Mengele conducted sterilisation tests on men in Auschwitz, and that in 1942 Lale gave Gita penicillin for her typhoid fever, because this antibiotic was not widely available until after the war.[3]"

I went into it knowing it was a novel written by Morris from the perspective of Lale, who was giving his account of events to Morris from some 70-odd years ago, so I can forgive the odd inaccuracy (particularly when it comes to a serial number), as well as perhaps a bit of artistic licence being taken by the author.

I did however find it astonishing that he apparently managed to stash jewels and jewellery under his mattress in that camp, right under the noses of the SS for nearly 2 years, apparently without it being discovered. And with it eventually being discovered, then having narrowly avoided been murdered as punishment, he then cracked on doing the same thing hiding the same stuff under his bed again! That took a bit of a leap for me to absorb.

The main thing for me though was just the writing. A skilled wordsmith can paint pictures in the mind with detailed narrative, relatable themes, vivid description, eloquent prose. Morris has none of that. It was a simplistic by-the-numbers book that took you past the horrifying events taking place, but not through them. It was as if you were observing them dispassionately through a car window as you passed by.

I see Morris has done some follow-up books, including one on the fate of poor Cilka, the young girl unfortunate enough to attract the eye of a senior SS officer who then spent the next 18 months raping her. I'll not be investing in that.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I see Morris has done some follow-up books, including one on the fate of poor Cilka, the young girl unfortunate enough to attract the eye of a senior SS officer who then spent the next 18 months raping her. I'll not be investing in that.

Me neither!!

 

[Beach Hut]

A Year in the Merde - Stephen Clarke

 

[Albion my Albion]

My Favourite NSC Poster, Albion My Albion, by Chris Hughton

 

[DJ NOBO]

Glenn hoddle - playmaker

 

[Moaty]

'Nation States Consciousness and Competition' by Neil Davidson.Neil Davidson was a mate of mine.We spent more than 25 years together in the SWP,we both left, along with many others round about 2013 the Central Commitee's covering up of a rape crisis within the party being the straw that broke the camel's back.However neither of us gave up on the polotics we both joined a group called the International Socialists in Scotland or ISS for short (this being after International Socialists In Scotland or ISIS was rejected).This subsequently joined a group in Britain called RS21 or Revolutionary Socialists for the 21st Century.
Anyway onto the book; best to read you out the blurb on the back "In this insightful new collection of essays,prominant Scottish Marxist Neil Davidson brings his formidable analytical powers to bear on the conceit of the capitalist nation-state.Through probing inquiry Davidson draws out how nationalist ideology and consciusness are used to bind the subordinate classes to "the nation",while "the state" is simultaneously wielded by capital as a means of conducting geopolitical competition.The questions Davidson takes up-from the extent to which nationalism can be a component of left-wing politics to the difference between bourgeois and socialist revolutions-have wide ranging implications for today's activists and historians." anyway I'm enjoying it although I'm not going to pretend it's an easy read.

 

[Beach Hut]

The Ratline - Philippe Sands

Previously recommended in this thread so hopefully very good

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens.

2018 American coming of age murder mystery novel set in the 1950s/60s, gorgeously written, film coming out in July.