What Are You Reading Just Now?

[armanisgirl]

Just about to finish my latest book and wonder what orgers recommend for my next read? I'll read almost anything. I've got all the Patricia Cornwall books, lots of non-fiction, fiction, a few autobiographies. I'm not really into romance unless there's a big twist in it, so no Mills and Boons please!! I did see a biography advertised that I thought might be interesting, but can't remember who it was by!!

[Julia]

Your post

[Victoria]

Whilst I was visiting Durness I went into the Balnakeil Bookshop and bought...

The Next Big Thing - A Fable of Modern Scotland by Michael Russell.

the blurb reads:

"This much is true; John lennon did spend some of his childhood holidays in the remote north westerly Scottish village of Durness. But what if he had left something behind? Something which the powers that be, backed by American fizzy drinks money, could turn into 'the next big thing' of scottish tourism, even if it destroyed the place.

Faced with the overweening ambition of a University principal, the fight for survival of a political peer and a millionaire's dream of ever greater riches, can an off-beat academic, an underemployed tourist office and an imaginative local builder put the genie of progress back in its bottle before a remote Highland community is ruined forever?"

Quite fitting, seeing as I was in Durness for the John Lennon Festival!!

I'm half way through and I think its a really good read. My only compaint is that its quite a short book!

You can find the book here.. http://www.balnakeilpress.com

[armanisgirl]

Your post

very good Julia!! Guess I walked into that one!!

[Julia]

Sorry could not resist!

I'm not reading anything at the moment but generally I read crime fiction. I particularly like the old crime club classics or anything by Ian Rankin. I don't like romance or horror of any kind, too scary

[trix]

hey guys!! - brilliant thread

i love readin, i read all e time. even on e way til work...an a walk til work....!! (unless im feelin lazy an i fone e auld chile - thanks dad!!) fancy pickin me up at 20 - 7 tomorrow mornin?? (only jokin....)

e best book that i hev ever read is ladykiller by martina cole. it is brilliant. all her books are, ye will love them. there are aboot 13 o them. im readin her latest - the close, its brill. really nitty gritty. kwite, nearly...gangsterish?? but written by a woman so they are based on wemin characters. absoloutly brilliant - even e auld chile wis impressed an hes read every one o them, cept iss one, but il gie it til him next...(promise ye dad) ..... - (if ye gie me a life til ma work 2moro) ha ha...

i no long ago feneshed e godfather....brilliant.
ma auld time favourite is The Stand by Steven King. ultimate favourite, favourite....brilliant

ever heard o salem falls by jodi piccoulti? (or somethin) its real guid too...

[_Ju_]

"The Boar Stone" by Jules Watson. She has written a triology ( at least so far) on historical Alba. I don't know how exact she is, but it is a delightful read ( some of it in pre-historic Caithness/Orkney/hebrides)- Better than Diana Gabardon, in my opinion. Start with "The white Mare", followed by "Dawn Stag". Both are at the library.

[Ricco]

You could do worse than reading the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan. Lolabelle must know of her books, 'cos Trudi is Australian.

[Thumper]

The matchbreaker by Chris Mamby-her books are so funny, the last one I read (can't remember the name of it0 I was actually laughing out loud at parts of it.I love Virginia Andrews as well, infact I have very book she ever wrote x

[karia]

'Wild Fire' by Nelson Demille

A political thriller with great Pace and even greater wit.

karia

[johno]

the real gorbals......im re reading it. funny stuff.

[angela5]

the real gorbals......im re reading it. funny stuff.

Interesting.
Have you read~ Up oor close?

[telfordstar]

I quite like Marian Keyes her books are brilliant and a good few to choose from i picked up a few from the cancer shop. I also liked Katie Prices book Angel was a good read and now thinking about it must go and get the nxt book

[helenwyler]

I'm reading The Pickwick Papers by good ol' Dickens, which I've been meaning to read for about 20 years!!

It's full of brilliant laugh-out-loud comedy and satire, but never contemptuous. Dickens must have enjoyed people so much!

Before that I was reading a very old copy of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos...quite light, but good fun!!

[Victoria]

I quite like Marian Keyes her books are brilliant and a good few to choose from i picked up a few from the cancer shop. I also liked Katie Prices book Angel was a good read and now thinking about it must go and get the nxt book

I love Marian Keyes too.

Telfordstar have you read Sophie Kinsella's book 'The Undomestic Godess' ?

If you like Marian's books then you'll like this.

[johno]

Interesting.
Have you read~ Up oor close?

no, but i,ll make a point of it.

[Jeemag_USA]

If you like biography's, David Bowie's is a good read, but you have to get the right one, some of his earlier ones were not fully fact if you know what I mean, he liked to spin yarns to the people writing them, but there was one written in like the late eighties or around 1990 that was really good, and also I thought Robert Maxwell's biography was a fascinating read.

The Bowie one I read was from 1987, just found it at amazon

Alias David Bowie: A Biography (Paperback)
by Peter Gillman (Author), Leni Gillman (Author)

[zappster]

Im reading D-day by Stephen Ambrose..astounding..Just finished reading the chapter about the rangers assaulting Pointe Du Hoc so thought i'd look up images..the craters are immense from the allied bombardment fae the sea...scary stuff!!
for anyone interested htheres some images/info here
http://www.strijdbewijs.nl/normandie8/noreng8.HTM

[karia]

Can I recommend a few of the books that delighted me of late?

'Black swan Green' by David Mitchell of 'Cloud Atlas' fame..superb coming of age novel.

'The Time traveller's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger..simply outstanding by whatever criteria you place it in, or choose to judge it by.

'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini.........Honour, love and morality, simply stated , but so beautifully detailed.

Thank you for indulging me!

karia

[armanisgirl]

A few good sounding titles here! Miriam Coles sounds like my kinda thing. I'm sure the biog that I saw advertised was plugged on 'This Morning' or 'The PAul O'Grady Show' or something like that, the author being someone I thought as potentially being very interesting to read about. It's gonna bug me til I remember who it was. Probably wake up at 4am and remember now!

One autobiog I read, by Trevor Rees Jones, was good. I feel very sorry for him, being the lone survivor of that awful crash, and often wonder, does he really remember more than he's letting on? And how awful for him if he does remember. I don't envy his position at all, it must have been awful for him to go through, surive and then write about, with so much speculation as to the cause of the crash.

My other half (who isn't a reading fan) is slowly making his way thorugh Allan Ball biog, but as football really isnt my thing, I won't be reading it and raving about it on here!