Mostonian

Heart & Soul - Joy Division

I Am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses

Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot

Music - LTJ Bukem

Whoops! Sorry. Fortunately Gone - The Breeders

Mrs Murphy - Scott Walker

Nobody Home - Pink Floyd

Come As You Are - Nirvana

Free Nelson Mandela - The Special AKA

I haven't Hayley but I'll add them to my list to look at. Thanks.

Purple Haze - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

I've just read Storm Front by Jim Butcher, the first in the Dresden Files series and thought it was brilliant. I'm halfway through The Bat by Jo Nesbo.

That'd be great vodkafan, I'm always after new books. And thank you Lau_Lou!

Thanks for the information.I was going to watch the first of the programmes thinking they'd be in order of the books. I'll wait till I've caught up fully!

I'm new to the site, so here's what I've remembered and trawled from other lists of a few of my favourites. Fiction Katherine Neville – The Eight JRR Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit Ian Serraillier – The Silver Sword CS Lewis – Narnia books Clive Barker – Weaveworld Jeff Noon – Vurt Iain M. Banks – Consider Phlebas Iain Banks – The Crow Road LJ Ross – DCI Ryan series Ian Rankin – Rebus series Colin Bateman – Empire State Joseph Wambaugh – The Choirboys Frederick Forsyth – The Odessa File Alastair MacClean – Where Eagles Dare Alastair MacClean – The Guns of Navarone Alastair MacClean – Bear Island Jack Higgins – The Eagle Has Landed Dan Brown –The Da Vinci Code Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials JK Rowling – Harry Potter series Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy Katharine Kerr – Polar City Blues Stephen King – The Stand Stephen King – It Louise Wener – Goodnight Steve McQueen Gregory Benford – Timescape Mike Duff – Lowlife James Hawes – A White Merc With Fins James Herbert – ‘48 Roald Dahl – James & the Giant Peach Grant Naylor – Red Dwarf series Jeffrey Deaver – The Bone Collector Martin Cruz Smith – Gorky Park Alan Garner – The Moon of Gomrath Roddy Doyle – The Barrytown Trilogy Nick Hornby – High Fidelity Lionel Davidson – Kolymsky Heights Eric Ramsey – The Kummersdorf Connection Robert Harris – Fatherland David Nicholls – One Day Ben Elton – The First Casualty Murray Davies The Drumbeat of Jimmy Sands Len Deighton – SS-GB Non-fiction Steve Hill – The Card David Niven – The Moon’s a Balloon John-Paul O’Neill – Red Rebels: The Glazers and the FC Revolution Peter Hook – Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division Spike Milligan – Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall Fred Eyre – Kicked Into Touch Duncan Hamilton – Provided You Don’t Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough Deborah Curtis – Touching From a Distance: Ian Curtis & Joy Division Danny Sugerman – No One Hear Gets Out Alive Howard Marks – Mr Nice Brian McClair – Odd Man Out Adam Ant – Stand & Deliver Joseph D. Pistone – Donnie Brasco TJ English – The Westies John Frost – A Drop Too Many Toby Harnden – Bandit Country Cornelius Ryan – A Bridge Too Far Terry Christian – Reds in The Hood Robert Brady – An Undividable Glow Stephen E Ambrose – Pegasus Bridge

Lined up on my Kindle I have: White Nights - Ann Cleeves Next Girl To Die - Dea Poirier Truth & Lies - Caroline Mitchell The Bat - Jo Nesbo I'll carry on with the Ben Hope and Tom Caton series and have pre-ordered the new LJ Ross book.Yet another detective series I read has a new book out soon, the DI Nick Dixon books by Damien Boyd. But I'll be looking on here for titles that take my fancy. I've heard a lot about the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, so will give them a go at some point too.

No it won't Madeleine and as I said it's a good read, it's just that it'd be better reading it first off. As for Shetland, I purposefully didn't watch the television programme as it looked like something I'd read. It's taken me a while though. So without seeing the programme I can't really comment other than fair haired Douglas Henshall seems an odd fit for Jimmy Perez of Spanish descent!

I have borrowed Frankie's rating system for 2019: 1/5: I didn't like it 2/5: It was okay 3/5: I liked it 4/5: I really liked it 5/5: It was amazing I'm new to the site so here's a quick recap of my reading this year. Operation Certain Death by Damien Lewis 2/5 I don't usually read this type of book but as one of my friends was one of the soldiers captured in the tale I thought I'd give it a go. It tells the true story of a patrol of Royal Irish Rangers taken prisoner in Sierra Leone in 1999 and the combined SAS/SBS operation to rescue them. It's quite detailed and gives a lot of background on the history of the country and its political climate. It would be very good reading for anyone with a passion for the subject, but not for me I'm afraid. The Martyr's Curse by Scott Mariani 3/5 A troubled ex-SAS major, Ben Hope ends up sleeping rough in the French Alps before being saved by a secluded monastic order. Think Robert Langdon with guns, although I think Mariani is a better writer than Dan Brown. This is the eleventh outing for Ben Hope and whilst it could be read as a stand alone book I wouldn't recommend it. Bluebell Hollow by Bill Rogers 3/5 Another of the current serial books I'm reading, this follows the career of a Manchester police detective, DCI Tom Caton. Bodies begin to emerge on a former mining area and Caton and the team are tasked with finding the killer before they strike again. It's the fifth DCI Caton book and one of the better ones in the series. The characterisation is good and the development of the main players handled well. Longstone by LJ Ross 4/5 Another series I'm deep into (I really need to read a book with a beginning, middle and end soon!) and one of my current favourite authors. Another DCI saga, this one being set in the North East of England in and around Newcastle. LJ Ross is a much better writer than Bill Rogers in my opinion, and whilst I enjoy his books I suspect my bias is affecting my ratings as Rogers' Caton tales are set in my home city of Manchester. Longstone is the tenth of the DCI Ryan books and is set in the town of Seahouses. It sounds like a lovely place, but when a local academic is found dead shortly after announcing his long search for an almost mythical shipwreck has been successful, the locals are all suspects. A complicated family unit add to the muddle and Ryan and the team have to call on help from all quarters of the UK. A Trace of Blood by Bill Rogers 2/5 Number six in the series and a bit of an oddity. A distant cousin of DCI Tom Caton gets in touch with a seemingly tall tale. Niamh Caton lives in Manchester, New Hampshire and is seeing her family being bumped off at regular intervals. Her genealogy leads her to Tom Caton, a police detective in Manchester, England and a bond is forged. It's not a bad story, and is quite well told, but it's just all too far fetched. Billionaires, fourth cousins eight times removed etc. Not bad but... The Cassandra Sanction by Scott Mariani 3/5 The twelfth Ben Hope book sees him wandering aimlessly through Spain when a fight erupts in a quiet bar. Hope becomes embroiled in the suicide of a prominent scientist who became a media star (a female Professor Brian Cox was in my mind), a sinister gang chasing the scientist's brother and a billionaire with a private island. Now I know how far fetched it sounds, and how I criticised A Trace of Blood for the same thing, but I expect it in this type of book. I don't in a Manchester based detective yarn! The Infirmary by LJ Ross 3/5 This is a prequel to the DCI Ryan series and brings back a few characters no longer in the series. I would definitely recommend new readers to start with this book as you'll know the ending otherwise! I won't say too much here just in case others are starting in chronological order rather than published order. A brutal killer is stalking Newcastle and terrifying the city.It's a bit more gory than the rest of the series, but nothing too bad. I'd have given this 4/5 if I'd read it prior to the rest of the series. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves 3/5 A new author for me, the first in a good while. Not a new genre though. Another police detective and another location. Raven Black sees DI Jimmy Perez investigating the death of a young woman on the Shetland Isles. A reclusive old man with learning difficulties becomes the chief suspect when links to a missing girl emerge which saw him as the chief suspect. It's well written, descriptive and fast paced. I've got the sequel in my "to read" list and am looking forward to the characters developing. The Frozen Contract by Bill Rogers 1/5 Where to begin? An utterly implausible story with the most horrendous proofreading I've ever encountered! The tale concerns a fictional Premier League football club in Manchester and the death of their star striker in a cryotherapy freezer unit on the forecourt of the ground. Hmm. Fantastical enough before the deaths start to rack up. But the main problem is the proofreading. The names of characters are swapped about with a victim suddenly coming back to life as an agent with the National Crime Agency! Speech marks are scattered throughout at a seemingly random manner, numerous spelling mistakes and punctuation haphazard at best. Star of Africa by Scott Mariani 2/5 The thirteenth Ben Hope installment is also the most brutal. It's not the most violent book I've ever read, far from it, but it's a step up from this author. It's also a two parter. Anyway, Ben Hope is pulled from his wandering life again when his son is onboard a cargo ship that is attacked by pirates off the Somali coast. Or are they? It's not a major spoiler as the truth is unveiled very early in the book, as disparate groups attempt to get their hands on the glittering prize. It's probably my least favourite Ben Hope book up to now, but I'm only part way through. I've just started the second part so let's see. Backwash by Bill Rogers 2/5 Another DCI Tom Caton novel and another series of brutal murders hits the streets of Manchester. Caton and his colleagues are baffled by the murders of seemingly unrelated people. The murders are most definitely linked but the problem is finding out why before they can find out who. The characters are developing more with each book and thankfully the proofreading on this is much better. Stalybridge is incorrectly spelt and one of the victims has three different spellings of his surname, but it's a huge improvement on the previous book. As you can see, I'm a bit stuck in my ways at the moment. I'm also reading another DCI series but am up to date with those. I do intend to branch out when I finish the series or catch up with the authors output to give my brain a rest from DCIs, DIs, DCs and DSs! I've got a blog with slightly more content on the books I've read (link below) and a few more from the end of 2018 when I started it. Feel free to comment on her and there. All recommendations and help gratefully received! https://thebookbloke.home.blog/

Sad Sweet Dreamer - Sweet Sensation

Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) - The Doors

Thanks for the welcomes! Other books I like, well I've got rather stuck in my ways recently and seem to alternate between British crime series invariably with a DCI in the title and pulpy adventure series with a troubled ex-special forces fella righting the wrongs of the world. I occasionally branch out to sci-fi but find the more technical books that put the sci over the fi get a bit tedious. I like a biography now and then, but again seem to feel let down a lot. People I think will have interesting stories to tell often disappoint and others I wasn't looking forward to can hold surprises. I'm currently reading a detective book from a series set in Manchester by Bill Rogers. The stories are good but they're self published and the editing and proof reading are atrocious!

The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh is both Inspector Rebus and his creator, Ian Rankin's local.

Dennis E. Taylor's We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a sci-fi novel with dystopian themes. It's not too heavy on the sci-fi and explores the relationships of nations following a world ending cataclysm. I'd recommend it to people who don't like sci-fi as a genre as despite it being quite technical, it doesn't pile it on in great heaps. It's the first of (up to the time of writing) three books in a series, but I've not yet read the other two.

I've read a few books that stay with me years after I've finished them. Shogun by James Clavell terrified me as a boy, particularly the part where one of the crew is boiled to death in a big pot! I think it was the first time I'd read anything so graphic. It's probably not that bad nowadays with some of the other things I've read, but it still sticks in my mind. I read and disliked American Psycho, but that was more to do with me thinking it was a terribly over-hyped book. It seems to want to shock, and rather than do it with flair it seemed to me to be solely exploitative. I found it to be a dreadful book. Another that disturbed me and stayed with me was White Bones by Graham Masterton. I found it to be overly graphic and exploitative which added nothing to the story (which was quite good) and merely there to shock. I found out after reading it that the author has also written horror and edited pornographic magazines. Well that explains it then!

I love trashy books that don't require much soul searching so usually devour Dan Brown books, but I too found this very plodding. The usual jumping around the world fast paced tale is rather stilted I found. Easily my least favourite of his Langdon books.