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    My friend Jill writes a series of crime books, one of which is set in Spain https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/j...ead-softly.htm Not sure if you want to add it to your collection

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      Wine-themed..?
      I’ll give one a go

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        It's not Spain-based, but one of my fiction writing seminar leaders at university (the one who didn't write The North Water, which I just mentioned last night on another thread) wrote a novel set on an underground metro system, FIGS. It's this one here. I've only read the print version, and I quite liked it. It's not really a mystery, but there's definitely a crime involved.

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          Just finished Hamnet, which has a totally absorbing conclusion that I just blew through, and then had to sit for a few minutes at the end to just soak in. It is brilliant. Has to be a Booker contender. Also makes me immediately want to watch Hamlet, but I'm going to have to hold off on that desire because it's 3:40am so probably not a good time to start.

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            I should try Hamnet. O'Farrell's debut, After You'd Gone, is one of my favourite modern novels. I read the follow-up, My Lover's Lover, as well, but, while it seemed to be trying to do many of the same sorts of things, it wasn't anywhere near as involving. I haven't read anything of hers since.

            I finished Hanya Yanigahara's A Little Life last week. It's 720 pages so not easy to summarise in a few words. Ostensibly, it centres on the lives of four college friends in New York who all become extremely successful professionally. However, one of them suffered an unspeakable childhood which has increasing physical and psychological effects on his adult life. Passages of it were so traumatic I could only read 4-5 pages before having to put it down. Even a week on, I don't know what I think of it. On one hand, it's 300 pages too long and needed some ruthless cutting. On the other, every detail it gives is essential. The characters are utterly implausible yet totally recognisable, etc. Probably one for the 'flawed masterpiece'/'ambitious failure' category. I won't easily forget it though, I'm sure of that.

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              I've read a lot of mixed things about that one.

              Started A Thousand Ships, by Natalie Haynes, today. The story of the Trojan Wars told from the perspective of the women.

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                I just finished reading a whole book. Possibly the first time I've done that in about 7 years. I mean aside from all the children's books I read to the kids all the time. It was Dodger by Terry Pratchett. Not a proper adult book, but getting there. Enjoyable enough. Predictable but with some interesting tidbits about life in Victorian London.

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                  Originally posted by RobW View Post
                  Finished Stuart Cosgrove's brilliant 'Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul' last week, and will look forward to reading the sequels. Started reading Adam Nevill's 'The Reddening', a folk horror tale. Must have seen an ad for it on the tube, I don't really read much contemporary fiction, let alone horror. Enjoying what i've read so far.
                  I have started Cosgrove's book on Detroit and am really enjoying it. One caveat: proofreading wasn't great so you will get annoyed by the typos.

                  'Sidney Bechet' by John Chilton is good if you're into New Orleans jazz as much as I am.

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                    Just started Dominic Sandbrook Never had it so good A history of Britain from Suez to the Beatles.
                    Only 100 pages in, and iso far it's an interesting run through of a lesser covered period of modern history.

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                      Hmm, where's Nefertiti2's historians thread?

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                        Why,what's wrong with Sandbrook?

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                          A quick look on the internet's most powerful search engine suggests that he's a) a regular contributor to the pages of the Daily Mail and b) rather enthusiastic about invoking Godwin's Law while discussing the recent visibility of the campaign in Oxford to get Cecil Rhodes's statue taken down.

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                            Yeah, he's a Tory populist historian, so of course a favourite on BBC4.

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                              In the 'small thrills' department, I received my used copy of No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos (the story of his uncovering the Madoff fraud) and it's signed by Harry. Just a non-personalized bulk purchase signature, I'm sure, but still kinda cool.

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                                I finished A Thousand Ships a few nights ago. Very good fun, and makes me want to read loads of ancient Greek myths and the Homeric epics now. As it is, though, I've started Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

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                                  Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                                  Finished Normal People by Sally Rooney. Really enjoyed it--a very straightforward love/friendship story about two young people. Both characters sympathetically drawn. I don't quite know if it was worth all of the buzz that it got last year, but it was very good.
                                  Also read it recently. I didn’t want to watch the series until I read it. I don’t normally read novels but wanted to branch out and it was on Obama’s list so I thought I’d try it. Found it very compelling.

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                                    Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
                                    Just started Dominic Sandbrook Never had it so good A history of Britain from Suez to the Beatles.
                                    Only 100 pages in, and iso far it's an interesting run through of a lesser covered period of modern history.
                                    Also read three of his books. I read Turner’s trilogy along with When the lights went out by Beckett and No such thing as society which cover the 70s 80s and 90s from a centre left perspective. I want to read Promised you a miracle as well. I also have searching for socialism which is about the left in the Labour Party from the 1960s to get around to. I think taken together it gives a range of perspective.

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                                      Finished Stardust on Saturday, and I'm now on to The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter, who gave an interesting (to this layperson) talk at the Hay Literature Festival back in May.

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                                        After imp mentioned it on another thread, downloaded the short story collection Man v Nature. Unbelievably good.

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                                          Just finished reading The Twits to my six year old son. He was entranced and delighted with all the disgusting goings on.

                                          Dahl might have been somewhat of an arse, but my word he could write a decent children's book. My daughter reads David Walliams and the difference in quality between him and Dahl is night and day. You get the feeling Dahl considered every word of every sentence, even the made up ones, and worked to craft a story. Walliams just spunks a load of onomatopoeia, fart jokes and tropes onto the page and collects his royalty cheque.

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                                            Word. I think Roald Dahl is my favourite children's author. Partly for nostalgic reasons. I loved him as a kid. I even met him briefly at a Puffin Club convention. But also for professional reasons. I can read a Roald Dahl to a class of 8 year olds and they are enraptured. They all clamour for me to read David Walliams to them but, when I do, as Eggchaser says, the difference is palpable and they are not anywhere near as gripped as they are when listening to Dahl.

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                                              I'm not really qualified to give an opinion but I will say that when we were doing long car journeys we had several audio Walliams books to keep our young son entertained and he and indeed his parents enjoyed them immensely. Obviously Dahl is good but I only came to his children's books after reading (and loving) his adult "twist short stories", and I couldn't really get into them. But with children's books, what matters is what the kids think, right? And kids have varying opinions too.
                                              Last edited by Sporting; 24-08-2020, 06:42.

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                                                True, but when you have to read to them, it helps if you aren't deeply disappointed by third rate hackery.

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                                                  I can't agree with the third rate hackery bit, sorry. But each to their own.

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                                                    This may be as close as we've ever come to a fight on 'Books'. The Dahl v Walliams child literature smackdown!

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