[Archived] Holiday Reading

[JC4LAB]

..

Edited September 5, 2007 by JC4LAB

[Wiggy]

I am holidaying next week and have put aside This Thing of Darkness for then. I'm looking forward to that after all your recommendations.

If you're into thrillers I've been enjoying Robert Wilson's Javier Falcon series. The Blind Man of Seville, The Silent and the Damned etc.

However, last night I finished Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela's autobiography. What a fantastic account of a truly remarkable life. As it's rather long, probably perfect for a holiday.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Just started reading The Little Emperors by the fantastic Alfred Duggan (have a look at his entertaining biog on Wikipedia) and I have to say it's not as good as the others of his that I have read. Early days yet though and the reviews on Amazon are encouraging.

Oi good shout, sidders! I read Knight With Armour on my trip over to the UK. T'was a good read and when I visited the castle in Clitheroe I found it fitting that it was a Norman tower from the same age as the book I was reading took place.

I'll be looking for more of Duggan's work. Any recommendations? I like the sound of Little Emperors and Lady for Ransom. It's hard to find his stuff over here in the States, though.

[Cheeky Sidders]

Oi good shout, sidders! I read Knight With Armour on my trip over to the UK. T'was a good read and when I visited the castle in Clitheroe I found it fitting that it was a Norman tower from the same age as the book I was reading took place.

I'll be looking for more of Duggan's work. Any recommendations? I like the sound of Little Emperors and Lady for Ransom. It's hard to find his stuff over here in the States, though.

Another convert! I really, really liked Conscience Of The King. It's set in the early Saxon period and tells the vicous and entertaining tale of Cerdic Elessing - semi-legendary first king of Wessex and alleged ancestor to most English monarchs, including the current one. The most malacious machiavellian anti-hero character I've ever read and manages to be both repellant and seducing at the same time. Very reminiscent of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and seems to make virtues of patricide, fratricide and infanticide. Think of Joseph Stalin but without the morals and you've a good idea of what to expect. Ideal reading for anyone running their own firm, with aspirations of moving up in the world and wanting to get rid of a troiblesome spouse. Sample line "I did not seek a wide kingdom, just an absolute one". And there's even a bit of King Arthur thrown in for good measure.

I also liked Three's Company but it's much slower to start off with. It tells the tale of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the least known and least able of the second triumvirate alongside Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony. It's the classic tale of the incompetent buffoon promoted beyond all measure of ability and unable to learn from his mistakes. Laugh out loud funny but strangely moving.

Of the three I have read so far, I have to say The Little Emperors was the least approachable and not as good as the others as it takes a long time to get going. I haven't read Knight In Armour but I'll tag it onto my next Amazon order.

[blue phil]

I also liked Three's Company but it's much slower to start off with. It tells the tale of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the least known and least able of the second triumvirate alongside Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony. It's the classic tale of the incompetent buffoon promoted beyond all measure of ability and unable to learn from his mistakes. Laugh out loud funny but strangely moving.

He didn't do too bad , Sidders . He lived to an old age and died a natural death ......a remarkable achievement for a triumvirate

[Rovermatt]

I'm getting laced into Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire. It's absolutely fantastic.

[Cheeky Sidders]

He didn't do too bad , Sidders . He lived to an old age and died a natural death ......a remarkable achievement for a triumvirate

Ah but it's all in the story Phil. He didn't live a long life and die a natural death because he did well, it happened because Augustus didn't see him as a threat at all and so let him live even though he had every reason to kill him. It seems that Augustus thought that it would be unseemly to have the Pontifex Maximus bumped off and so allowed MAL to live in powerless obscurity. Anyway, it's an entertaining yarn and worth a read. MAL made an artform of snatching crushing defeat from the tight jaws of certain victory and his blundering and dizzying downfall as told by Alfred Duggan is far funnier than as portrayed in HBO's Rome.

[Cheeky Sidders]

I'm getting laced into Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire. It's absolutely fantastic.

Amen to that, brother. GOF should be required reading for all European citizens and a moral requirement for all heterosexual men. Bloody fantastic stuff.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Another convert! I really, really liked Conscience Of The King. It's set in the early Saxon period and tells the vicous and entertaining tale of Cerdic Elessing - semi-legendary first king of Wessex and alleged ancestor to most English monarchs, including the current one. The most malacious machiavellian anti-hero character I've ever read and manages to be both repellant and seducing at the same time. Very reminiscent of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and seems to make virtues of patricide, fratricide and infanticide. Think of Joseph Stalin but without the morals and you've a good idea of what to expect. Ideal reading for anyone running their own firm, with aspirations of moving up in the world and wanting to get rid of a troiblesome spouse. Sample line "I did not seek a wide kingdom, just an absolute one". And there's even a bit of King Arthur thrown in for good measure.

I also liked Three's Company but it's much slower to start off with. It tells the tale of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the least known and least able of the second triumvirate alongside Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony. It's the classic tale of the incompetent buffoon promoted beyond all measure of ability and unable to learn from his mistakes. Laugh out loud funny but strangely moving.

Of the three I have read so far, I have to say The Little Emperors was the least approachable and not as good as the others as it takes a long time to get going. I haven't read Knight In Armour but I'll tag it onto my next Amazon order.

I think I'm going to go with his historical British novels since 1) I'm not too familiar with Brit history and 2) I find it more fascinating (probably because of point #1)

But yeah Duggan was a good referral. Thanks for it!

Oh by the way I finished Knight With Armour on the train from London to Liverpool, so while in the 'Pool I picked up a book called The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. It's pretty good so far, actually, if of course you like fantasy novels...

Edited October 17, 2007 by Hypo-Luxa

[colin]

Blimey, more recommended reading, I can't keep up with this, but I'll try.

Just to chuck in my two cent's worth (thanks Kent Brockman) may I recommend "The Prester Quest" by Nicholas Jubber. ISBN 0-553-81628-4. Published by Bantam books.

For some unknown reason I've been a bit fascinated by the legend of Prester John (go do a search) and in my most recent wander around the local library I discovered this book.

Partly a sort of hippy narrative about his journey from Rome to Ethiopia, but mostly absolutely crammed full to the brim with history and observations of the regions his journey took him through.

Facinating stuff.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Blimey, more recommended reading, I can't keep up with this, but I'll try.

Just to chuck in my two cent's worth (thanks Kent Brockman) may I recommend "The Prester Quest" by Nicholas Jubber. ISBN 0-553-81628-4. Published by Bantam books.

For some unknown reason I've been a bit fascinated by the legend of Prester John (go do a search) and in my most recent wander around the local library I discovered this book.

Partly a sort of hippy narrative about his journey from Rome to Ethiopia, but mostly absolutely crammed full to the brim with history and observations of the regions his journey took him through.

Facinating stuff.

Since I'm about done with the current book I'm reading, are there recommendations on some good Brit history/historical fiction books out there that deal with the time between and including the Roman occupation up to and not including the Industrial Revolution? Visiting the country I saw a lot of names and battles mentioned but was embarrassingly at a loss as to their significance. Being a history major, this just grates on my nerves, so I have to read up on it.

Good recommendations so far, Alfred Duggan...anyone else I should look out for?

[Cheeky Sidders]

Hypo-Luxa, have a look back through this thread and read my recommendation of Imperial Governor by George Shipway (similar in style to Alfred Duggan). It gives a fine telling of one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of Britain (if not THE bloodiest) from the point of view of the Romans. I absolutely loved that book and so did everyone I know who read it, although Blue Phil wasn't as taken with it as I was. Incidentally, Shipway wrote a lot of other books and careful trawling of Ebay sometimes brings them up and most are historical in their theme.

Giving the (highly fictionalised) flip side of the same story as Imperial Governor is the Boudicca series by Manda Scott although I haven't read them, but the reviews are good. From the same period and lower down the evolutionary scale is the Eagle series by Simon Scarrow - good yarns but not in Duggan's league. Scarrow has also added a series written about the Napoleonic wars, although I've never read them. A truly great Roman novel partly set in Britain (though mostly in Germany) is the epic Eagle In The Snow by Wallace Breem. The Last Sodding Legion by VM Manfredi (recently made into a film) is partly set in Britain but it is unadulterrated ###### from beginning to end with the most rubbish villain in literary history who is even more incompetent than that coyote who is always trying to catch Roadrunner. Don't waste your time with it.

Bernard Cornwell is enormously popular and has sold millions of books through his Sharpe series (mainly Napoleonic wars) and his Grail Quest (100 Years War). I've not read the Sharpe books, but I've read the three Grail books and they're entertaining in an endearingly old-fashioned no-brainer type way. He's also written stuff about the Saxon period (my brother really like them) and the absolutely attrocious Stonehenge - avoid at all costs!

Better books (though hard to track down) about the 100 Years War are the two Kemp books by Daniel Hall. Absolutely superb and I think it's criminal they're out of print. The whole period from late 9th century to the 1600s is now subject to many novels of varying quality so choose carefully.

For mighty fine yarns of derring-do on the high seas requiring a few more brain cells than most you could try the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian (the film Master & Commander: Far Side Of The World was based on some of them) which I think are the best of their type. Most of the action involves lucky Jack Aubrey giving Johnny Frog a bloody nose, but in a couple he kicks Uncle Sam's backside! Huzzah! Requiring less thought are the Hornblower books by CS Forrester and the Ramage series by Dudley Pope. For a really epic literary voyage though you should have a pop at the sublime This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson - no battles, but an amazing true story.

For a very different reading experience I would recommend the very funny but historically super accurate Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser. They tell the tale of the disgraceful rogue Harry Flashman and his misadventures in Britain's foreign wars of the 19th century. Be warned though, they're very addictive.

Colin, Umberto Eco's "Baudolino" is partly about Prester John's kingdom, so you might want to give it a go. I've not read it although it has been sat on the Pending Shelf for some time now, but if it's half as good as Name Of The Rose it's got to be a winner.

[Flopsy]

re Sharpe - they give a good idea of the life of a soldier (Rifleman and redcoats) during the Peninsular and in his later books India and Trafalger. (You need to look at the list in the front of one of his books to work out the chronological order of them)

What they do is describe a vital part of our history, that we know nearly nothing about nowadays, and is really good at getting the description of the battles over to the reader.

They are slightly formulaic but they are rather good fun.

The TV series was a great disapointment compaerd to the books.

[Flopsy]

Daniel Hall Amazon

Amazon for Book 2

did you mean these?

[FourLaneBlue]

Since I'm about done with the current book I'm reading, are there recommendations on some good Brit history/historical fiction books out there that deal with the time between and including the Roman occupation up to and not including the Industrial Revolution? Visiting the country I saw a lot of names and battles mentioned but was embarrassingly at a loss as to their significance. Being a history major, this just grates on my nerves, so I have to read up on it.

There are of course many for such a wide period of time so I will just recommend ´Pillars of the Earth´ by Ken Follet and ´As Meat Loves Salt´ by Maria McCann.

[blue phil]

As we seem to have a few Roman fans let me recommend "Ancient Rome , the rise and fall of an empire" by somebody called Simon Baker . I took this on holiday and was very surprised at its quality and readibility (if that's a word) .

It's apparently based on a BBC series which I must have overlooked . Anyway it's now available at B'burn library .

[Hypo-Luxa]

Hypo-Luxa, have a look back through this thread and read my recommendation of Imperial Governor by George Shipway (similar in style to Alfred Duggan). It gives a fine telling of one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of Britain (if not THE bloodiest) from the point of view of the Romans. I absolutely loved that book and so did everyone I know who read it, although Blue Phil wasn't as taken with it as I was. Incidentally, Shipway wrote a lot of other books and careful trawling of Ebay sometimes brings them up and most are historical in their theme.

Giving the (highly fictionalised) flip side of the same story as Imperial Governor is the Boudicca series by Manda Scott although I haven't read them, but the reviews are good. From the same period and lower down the evolutionary scale is the Eagle series by Simon Scarrow - good yarns but not in Duggan's league. Scarrow has also added a series written about the Napoleonic wars, although I've never read them. A truly great Roman novel partly set in Britain (though mostly in Germany) is the epic Eagle In The Snow by Wallace Breem. The Last Sodding Legion by VM Manfredi (recently made into a film) is partly set in Britain but it is unadulterrated ###### from beginning to end with the most rubbish villain in literary history who is even more incompetent than that coyote who is always trying to catch Roadrunner. Don't waste your time with it.

Bernard Cornwell is enormously popular and has sold millions of books through his Sharpe series (mainly Napoleonic wars) and his Grail Quest (100 Years War). I've not read the Sharpe books, but I've read the three Grail books and they're entertaining in an endearingly old-fashioned no-brainer type way. He's also written stuff about the Saxon period (my brother really like them) and the absolutely attrocious Stonehenge - avoid at all costs!

Better books (though hard to track down) about the 100 Years War are the two Kemp books by Daniel Hall. Absolutely superb and I think it's criminal they're out of print. The whole period from late 9th century to the 1600s is now subject to many novels of varying quality so choose carefully.

For mighty fine yarns of derring-do on the high seas requiring a few more brain cells than most you could try the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian (the film Master & Commander: Far Side Of The World was based on some of them) which I think are the best of their type. Most of the action involves lucky Jack Aubrey giving Johnny Frog a bloody nose, but in a couple he kicks Uncle Sam's backside! Huzzah! Requiring less thought are the Hornblower books by CS Forrester and the Ramage series by Dudley Pope. For a really epic literary voyage though you should have a pop at the sublime This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson - no battles, but an amazing true story.

For a very different reading experience I would recommend the very funny but historically super accurate Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser. They tell the tale of the disgraceful rogue Harry Flashman and his misadventures in Britain's foreign wars of the 19th century. Be warned though, they're very addictive.

Colin, Umberto Eco's "Baudolino" is partly about Prester John's kingdom, so you might want to give it a go. I've not read it although it has been sat on the Pending Shelf for some time now, but if it's half as good as Name Of The Rose it's got to be a winner.

Thank you very much sidders! I think I have my reading list set for a few years with that!

Also, have you read Eco's Foucault's Pendulum? I've started it, but it's a slow go for a fair few pages. Does it ever pick up?

[Cheeky Sidders]

Daniel Hall Amazon

Amazon for Book 2

did you mean these?

The very same. Bit pricey but bloody fine yarns. I'm always surprised they didn't get more plaudits and wider readership. His puiblisher wants shooting, the bloody fool.

Hypo-Luxa - not read Foucault's Pendulum as a friend who is a Eco nut warned me off. Most people struggle with it or so I'm told. I have read The Name Of The Rose which is absolutely bloody fantastic once you get past the first 50 pages or so, and for me it gave me a whole new look at the world. I also read The Island Of The Day Before which veered between being very readable and witty, to being downright weird. I wasn't as keen and was left feeling "Hmm... next!"

Just started reading Dark Star by Alan Furst. I don't normally read spy novels but this one has got very good reviews and I picked it up secondhand for a few pennies. So far, so good. I have to say though I think I will be doing a lot more reading from now on as my bloody telly has just bloody blown up! Bloody hell! I've only had the bloody thing for 12 bloody years! Now do I take it to the skip or just leave it outside with a note on saying "Do NOT steal this" and wait for some bloody chav to steal it. Hmm...

By the way, don't waste your time with Mark Haddon's Spot of bother. I really liked his Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime but Spot Of Bother should have been called Spot of I think that is more than reasonable. Bloody rubbish.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

Dont know if these have already been mentioned and I really cant be @rsed trawling through the thread. Anyhoo I'm just back from my hols when I read the following -

"Horses Arse" a novel set in a 1970's North West Police station by Charlie Owen and "the Damned United" a fact based novel reflecting Brian Clough's 44 days at Leeds United in 1975 by David Peace.

Both good.

[blue phil]

There is a new book out on Cloughie called "Provided you don't kiss me " by Duncan Hamilton . Good reviews apparently .

[Debs]

Has anyone else read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy? I was told to read it by my sister and it has had some very good reviews, but so far I haven't really enjoyed it, I've not really liked the style. Is this how he always writes?

I've read it. I thought it was fantastic although very disturbing. I've read most of Cormac McCarthy's books and this one is very different, being set in a post apocolyptic world. Some of the themes and grittiness are similar to his earlier books, as is his wirting style, which I love but I know it's not to everyone's taste. My favorites are his wild west books. I think I recommended the Border Trilogy on an earlier version of this thread a few years ago. It's three books set in the 1940's as the cowboy way of life was ending and takes place on both sides of the USA/ Mexican border. McCarthy is in the Faulkner vein of American writing - almost Gothic! I'd reccomend the Road. It stayed with me for ages. You'll have to let us know what you made of it Eddie.

I've just ordered This Thing of Darkness on Sidders' and Colin's recommendations.

[Paul]

I don't read this thread on a regular basis so apologies if this is old news. I just finished The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Very good and very insightful.

[den]

For a good entertaining read for a few hours you could do worse than "Penguins Stopped Play" by Harry Thompson. It's an account of a "village" cricket team (who all just happen to be based in central London so they only play away games) embark on a trip around the world to play a game in every continent in a matter of a couple of weeks.

I'm not particularly interested in cricket, but I found it entertaining and funny. Particularly good is the continual slagging-off he gives to British Airways and the little cameo role played by Ian Hislop.

Ignore the Postscript & Afterword if you want to remain happy

Just finished reading this, Colin. Excellent book I thought. As for the Postscript & Afterword, well, it brought a tear to my eye. Very, very moving finale.

[colin]

I've just ordered This Thing of Darkness on Sidders' and Colin's recommendations.

Den said

Just finished reading this, Colin. Excellent book I thought. As for the Postscript & Afterword, well, it brought a tear to my eye. Very, very moving finale.

Two very different books by the same bloke. It's a crying shame that he's died. Debs, I hope you enjoy "This Thing Of Darkness." Sidders recommended it to me and what can I say apart from "Thank you" to him. It was a stunning read.

I'm keeping looking on here for recommendations for books so please keep them coming.

I'm lucky enough to live in Manchester where they have a squilllion books and all of them available to order on t'net. They send me an e-mail when the book is available and I have a five minute stroll down to the local library to collect it.

I don't think I'll ever need to buy another book again. Thank you the local authority library service.

[Eddie]

You'll have to let us know what you made of it Eddie.

I thought it was ok. It was an interesting idea, generally well written and it made you think, but I'm still not a big fan of the style and that is what prevented it from being a good book for me. I can see how some would really like it though.