This week I will be mainly reading (Alliance book club)

[Mark Gilman]

Just finished Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow. Only read the magnificent Power of the Dog before. I loved Dawn Patrol. Just starting California, Fire and Life (I'm saviing the Winter of Frankie machine for endless train journeys in September

[alli]

Have just finished Jodi Picoult's 'change of heart' (I think), - it was really quite good, better than I'd expected.  I've also read 'second glance', which was ok and 'The Tenth Circle' - which was also ok, both also by her.  I am in the middle of reading her book 'mercy' - it is easy reading, as are the others but not something that will stay with me for any length of time.  She is good enough though to make me want to read all of her books and I have already bought 'salem falls' and started reading it on the way home on the bus. alli x

[will-c]

I have read a pile of books since my last post. Being that I went to Whitby for a weeks holiday and got to roam around a half dozen new charity shops, I have about 15 new books to get through. I just finished a Lisa gardener book the other day which was really good The Killing Hour. I also read alafair Burke debute book City of Fear. I spoke to her on twitter and she is James Lee Burkes Daughter. I am half way through The Neon Light now. I have bought a Richard Montanari books and read a Greg Ilses book a few weeks ago as I am trying to find new authors again.

[will-c]

I found a new author who I am enjoying, half way into my second novel by Richard Montanari.

[Ursula]

I've been finding time to read on the underground recently.  It's great.  Currently reading The Widows of Eastwick.  I'm never entirely sure about Updike.  I can see that he's very good at what he does, but I don't know whether I actually enjoy it. 

Recent reads:

Sharp Teeth by Tony Barlow.  The turf wars of werewolves in LA written in verse - I'm not entirely sure it was poetry, but it was absorbing and atmospheric with some splendid conceits.

The Believers - Zoe Heller.  The story of a family in crisis, all of whom gravitate towards the extreme in their religious and political lives.  I really enjoyed this, despite thinking I probably wouldn't (I didn't much like Notes on a Scandal).  Stupid publishers had chick-lit covered it, which doesn't do it justice at all. 

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith.  Always brilliant.  Told in journal format, it's the story of a girl coming to adulthood.  She and her family rattle around a falling-to-bits castle in a state of abject poverty some time in the 1930s and somewhat ineffectually try to get some money coming in.  Alternately funny and touching.  Don't be put off by the teen fiction label.

[will-c]

I just got the new Michael Connelly Harry Bosch book/novel (Nine Dragons), come through my door, it was a surprise present from Sasha and Phoebe. After I read the last of the Harry Bosch crime novels I never thought I would get to read another as he was getting old in his last book. I thought like Lawrence Blocks Matt Skudder he had been laid to rest, along side some of the greatest fictional detectives in the Golden Gated fictional graveyard, inscribed with the words ''follow the money, stupid''. I used to deny it but I love surprises, presents, birthdays and Christmas because I am still big kid at heart.

Harry Bosch is back and this time its personal........   

[flashman]

Just been given "monkey on my back' by eric detzer. I'm sure I read about this book on another thread and it's a great read about a functional[but not very happy] addict who. after a couple of years on the proper dark side in San Fran in America he managed to straighten out for a while and became a social worker during a period abstinance.

He's then holds down an on off habit down with poppy heads. Very funny and very honest- given his framing of his problem a s a spiritual malady I can smell an NA conversion coming on....still, good luck to him. Very funny stories about him raiding gardens!

In terms of non fiction I've been reading"liberal fascism". A critique exposing how the routes of fascism come as much from the left as the right. Npt sure what i think yet but it's making me think

Cheers,

Flashman

Flashman

[will-c]

i was interviewed by the author of this book a few years ago. I completely forgot all about it until I found an email in my Hotmail account saying this book 'Coming to Harm Reduction Kicking and Screaming' by Dee Dee Stout had been released http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=50752 http://www.responsiblerecovery.org/ I hope the links work. I got an interview for another job tomorrow so will buy it as a treat if I am successful, fingers and toes crossed...

[garstang]

Personally I love David Peace, the quartet really kicks in with 1977 (74 is a bit too much James Ellroy does Emmerdale) and the Tokyo books are great. Recently been reading a lot of crime fiction of the Nordic kind; mankell, larsson (steis & asa), nesbo, nesser etc but need to read some quality lit fiction. Recently read ian mcewans atonement which was excellent and have in front of me roberto bolano's 2666 - a beast of a book! Also want to read hans fallada's alone in berlin, written in 1947 it's a tale of one man's resistance to nazism. Oh, if you like crime and readind about ww2 try phillip kerr's berlin noir, excellent stories feat PI bernie gunther in pre, during and post war berlin, excellent reading! I sometimes think my reading is an addiction as I do it to get away from the everyday humdrum, at least its benign I guess...I usedta read lots of drug lit but find them tedious in the extreme, why read something that you're living! And they can be a trigger to using...hey ho, would love to hear any reccomendations! G.

[CouldDoBetter]

Londonistan by Melanie Phillips:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Londonistan-Britain-Creating-Terror-within/dp/1903933765

Can't put it down.

[Ursula]

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  Utterly brilliant.  Seriously, I'm ignoring my partner and child to sneak off for a quick read several times a day and am torn between racing through it and saving it up.

[mcdermott]

Londonistan by Melanie Phillips:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Londonistan-Britain-Creating-Terror-within/dp/1903933765

Can't put it down.

While I loathe and detest Melanie Phillips with a passion, I've also got a sneaking admiration for her. She deploys the kind of arguments on behalf of her position that work extraordinarily well. I've been meaning to read this for a while, even though I know it'll make me nuts.

I'm currently on a Yakuza tip -- reading Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein (an American reporter who was working the crime beat in the Japanese press) and Kaplan and Dubro's Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld -- a more scholarly book that looks at the history of the Yakuza and their involvement in right wing politics and the corruption scandals around Japanese government.

Did you know that the Yakuza actually have their own offices, with a plate over the door? And they take on apprentices. There's a really good documentary called Young Yakuza, in which a mum, who's fed up with her son's hanging around, not getting work, not studying, etc. talks to a friend in the mob and signs him up for an apprenticeship.

Eventually, he leaves (all fingers still intact) because they kept him for too long on cleaning and serving the boss's tea, and didn't promote him quickly enough to the drug dealing and the hits.

Here's a review:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024257/

[Ursula]

Ian McDonald - River of Gods.  Really enjoying this.  I always forget how much I like SF and this is excellent. 

[skunkworks]

I'm currently on Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning: The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust" - a truly special piece of work.
and
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break [Steven Sherrill]

I also continuously read Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Sir Terrance of Pratchett, book gold

[OP8S]

This week I have just finished one of my favorite authors, Rupert Thompson's first book of memoirs. It has the background of the death of his father & how it brings his estranged family back together for a short time. One minute I was laughing, the next almost in tears. I don't know if anybody else enjoys his writing but I can't see a book of his published without getting it. They are all novels, each one different but with sometimes surprisingly gripping stories. Love plays a role in most of his books but it is usually flows along with dark undertones. If you have not read one of his books & see it in a cheap bookstore BUY IT!