[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?

[Pogue Mahone]

Picked up this magnificently funny book in a bookshop in Munich central railway station last week, the front cover having jumped clean out of the shelf at me...

And I quote from the blurb on the back:

"Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed - no Eva Braun, no Nazi Party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman.

AND HE'S FÜHRIOUS

People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable , the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own TV show, and people begin to listen. But the Führer has another programme with even greater ambition - to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights'

Turns out, according to Wikipedia, the book is a very recent (and very excellent) English translation of a German language one-point-five-million-selling hit novel Er Ist Wieder Da which I'm sure [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] will have already read in the mother tongue. Being a man of letters, I'm sure he will vouch for my recommendation of it being a very very funny read that is well worth seeking out.

The book is currently in the process of being translated into no fewer than 28 languages. Global domination beckons!

I will look out for this, sounds excellent.

 

[Marshy]

I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes literally just picked it up

Anyone who loves a good thriller will love this book. 900 pages but bashed my way through it in 4 days, couldnt put the bloody thing down !

 

[Surf's Up]

Lamentation by C J Samson - the hunchback lawyer Shardlake gets immersed in more Tudor skullduggery

 

[Rod Marsh]

Who's in charge? Free Will and the science of the brain by Michael S. Gazzaniga.

It's completely ruined me.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

An absolute classic, and one that most would really enjoy.

Truman Capote. In Cold Blood.

One of (if not) the first factional books, following a narrative for a real life crime where a family in a remote farmstead were killed in 1950's America. It is the story of the the build up to the murder, the act, and the investigation and (spoiler alert) conviction. Capote was a childhood friend of Harper Lee and the character Dill was apparently based on him. Harper Lee helped Capote with the research for this book.

It is one of the books in the Guardian Top 100 English Novels - this just scraped in as a novel - but is well worth the read.

Highly recommended.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Perfidia - James Ellroy.

Giddy aunt !

 

[Bombadier Botty]

American Weather - Charles McLeod. If you enjoyed American Psycho you'd probably like it. Good read.

 

[BBassic]

Eric Schlosser - Command and Control

Simultaneously one of the most entertaining and terrifying books you'll ever read.

 

[Spicy]

Just finished "Thirteen" by Sebastian Beaumont. Second time I have read it but really enjoyed it again and great the story is set in and around Brighton. Anyone else read it?

 

[Macca the attacker]

Caves of steel. Asimov

After reading all the Foundation novels I found out pretty much all his novels are interlinked. So I'm going through them over the summer.

 

[Barry Izbak]

Personal - Lee Child

Absolutely love the Jack Reacher series. But not this one. Set in the US fine. Try to set it in London and it just doesn't work (for me)

 

[Prince Monolulu]

I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes literally just picked it up

On the back of this glowing recommendation I have just got the audiobook (since I'm a lazy reader). Will let you know.

 

[Don Quixote]

The Knight by Gene Wolfe.

 

[catfish]

A killer book!

Totally superb!

Agreed - a real page turner.

 

[Norman Potting]

"Wings on my sleeve" - Autobiography of Eric "Winkle" Brown. The greatest pilot ever (don't think he even needs an "arguably") having flown more different types of plane than anyone. Survived numerous close calls (including being one of only two survivors from a torpedoed ship). I conclude that, whilst some people have a guardian angel, he must have a whole team, plus subs., development squad and U18's, of them. Viewed uncritically not the best written book ever but the tales told are pretty amazing - as a fluent German speaker he also got to know many Luftwaffe legends when debriefing them post WWII.

Still around at age 96 (not flying anymore), definitely one of the "they don't make them like that anymore" club.

 

[Goldstone1976]

...as a fluent German speaker he also got to know many Luftwaffe legends when debriefing them post WWII.

...as well as Von Braun (the "father of Rocket Science" and the inventor of the Saturn V rocket) and Hermann Goring...

A truly remarkable man.

 

[Barry Izbak]

Just started Peter James' new one You Are Dead
Sixty pages in and its shaping up to be a typical page turner

 

[theboybilly]

I do like a bit of WW2 spy reading. I've read Ben MacIntyre's stuff and Alone in Berlin (not really 'spy' I know) so was wondering if any NSC ers had recommendations for any other good reads. Fiction or non-fiction, I don't mind.

 

[Gwylan]

I do like a bit of WW2 spy reading. I've read Ben MacIntyre's stuff and Alone in Berlin (not really 'spy' I know) so was wondering if any NSC ers had recommendations for any other good reads. Fiction or non-fiction, I don't mind.

You tried Alan Furst's novels? They're terrific WW2 spy stories

And if you're after something really old school, try Eric Ambler - I read loads of his when I was teenager, don't know if they're still in print

 

[8ace]

Thinking, Fast and Slow.