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*What book are you reading? (part 2)

Them: Adventures With Extremists - Jon Ronson

The third book I've read of his in almost as many weeks. This one starts well with him overhearing David Icke slagging him off while he's in the bogs.
 
Englishman - Toby Broom aka Mister Swing Easy
My mate Toby's book about his life, so far, as a reggae selector. From being introduced to soul and reggae by his older sister to visiting shady shubeens as a naive young white lad, to venturing into the intimidating world of the reggae specialist store,to playing reggae on the radio but never making it into the upper echelons of the DJ/selector heirarchy, it's a story that I and lots of my generation will recognise, especially DJ's and those of us in the reggae community.

Told with wit and charm it's an enjoyable read, though a brief flick through does seem to suggest that I'm not in it, so words will be had ;):D

englishman-by-toby-broom-book-all-copies-of-this-first-consignment-are-signed-and-dated-by-the-author--33746-p[ekm]186x300[ekm].jpg


A current best seller at Dub Vendor:

Englishman by Toby Broom - Book all copies of this first consignment are signed and dated by the author
 
Just finished If This Is A Man, & The Truce, by Primo Levi. After the end he covers some of the questions he has received over the years and also explains that he only wrote about what he himself saw of the camps for example not expanding to the gas chambers of Birkenau which he knows about but did not himself witness. After such a barbaric time in the camps he retains an amazing humanity which lifts the spirits.
 
Lavondyss - Robert Holdstock

Not as good as the first book, plots a bit winding and spending far to long explaining things that were already explained in the first book, also a bit disjointed.

Enjoy his style though, wonderful imagery.
 
Just started The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz, by Denis Avey with Rob Broomby. An eyewitness account, large print which is nice, reminds me of another war tale I read recently, I know I am going to find it interesting if sobering reading.

He Denis Avey couldn't tell his story just after the war because no one would listen, then he bottled it up for 60 years suffering flashbacks, finally aged something like 90 he felt able to tell it, hence the book. While a prisoner of war he broke into Auschwitz by exchanging his British Army uniform for an incarcerated Jew's striped Lager clothing changing places.
 
Just started The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz, by Denis Avey with Rob Broomby. An eyewitness account, large print which is nice, reminds me of another war tale I read recently, I know I am going to find it interesting if sobering reading.

He Denis Avey couldn't tell his story just after the war because no one would listen, then he bottled it up for 60 years suffering flashbacks, finally aged something like 90 he felt able to tell it, hence the book. While a prisoner of war he broke into Auschwitz by exchanging his British Army uniform for an incarcerated Jew's striped Lager clothing changing places.
I seem to remember hearing him on the radio when the book was published.

Amazing.
 
I have just finished last night The Hangmans Hitch a novel by Donna Maria McCarthy. The story is set in 18th Century South West England the main character Freddy initially a likeable dandy who gets cut off from his inheritance soon descends and he meets an evil man Joseph Black. The book is totally different to my normal reads and this book is far from normal. I usually read Philip Kerr and Alan Furst style books political thrillers. I really enjoyed the diversion into a new type of reading it may broaden my horizons who knows?
 
Just finished, And the land lay still by James Robertson, an epic novel set against 20th Century Scotland told from the vantage point of a left leaning nationalist.
The story flows faultlessly, with different families/characters intertwining over the decades to create a coherent narrative.
I'm now midway through Joyce Carol Oates imagined biography of Marilyn Monroe, Blonde, and I'm really enjoying it. I've never really had any great fascination with Monroe but Oates brings her to life and I'm unexpectedly engaged in a book despite knowing the tragic ending it is building toward.
 
The Beautiful Struggle and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, loved them both.

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes, the bastard made me cry.

Currently reading the 5th installment of Knausgaard's My Struggle, it's very good.
 
An odd thing has happened, Primo Levi, an Italian Jew, whose books I recently read, was imprisoned in the part of Auschwitz building the Buna Rubber IG Farben factory. Denis Avey whose book I am now reading, a British POW, was also engaged building the Buna works and it seems the bit of Auschwitz Avey broke into might well have been the very bit Primo Levi was incarcerated in.
 
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Buried Giant
China Mieville - The Scar

Enjoying the latter more, but I'm in a funny mood.

Grief - the Buried Giant - what utter turgid rubbish. Unfinished. Disappoint.

Neal Asher - The War Factory - back to form - enjoyed Dark Intelligence too. Fed up of trilogies though.
Picked up The Days of the Deer - Liliana Bodoc on impulse.
 
Stephen King - Hearts in Atlantis; apparently there's links to the Dark Tower series which I'm also reading whenever I get a second hand copy of the series.
 
One for DotCommunist, I think - just finished Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky. Dunno if you read any of his insects series - 10 long books, but I found them diverting, if somewhat silly, but enjoyed them enough to pick up his first sf attempt which, writing as the zoologist he once was, proved highly entertaining (although not for the spider-phobic). Suprisingly moving, a mish-mash of first contact, ark ships, ecology and yep, insects. What's not to like?
pm and I will pop it in the post.
this has picked up a nomination for this years Arthur C CLarke award :thumbs:
 
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