Brian.

I checked the weather forecast from two different sources this morning with both saying no rain before 2pm. So I decided to grab my camera and do some wildlife photogrpahy this morning and promptly got absolutely soaked at 10:30

I've had many days like that in recent months.

I finished my 73rd book of the year this morning, Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I thought it was ok but I have some serious reservations about it which I’ll write about in my thread later. I’m currently about halfway through Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart at the moment and in truth I’m struggling with it a bit now after a promising start.

I can highly recommend anything written by Jules Verne.

Robert Harris writes historic fiction and I have enjoyed all that I've read from him so far. Fatherland is a standalone book set in an imagined post WWII where the Nazi's won the war. He doesn't tend to write series but he has written a trilogy set in Roman times based around the life of Cicero which is fantastic.

I managed to spend the afternoon on the sofa with a book which I finished a few hours ago. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (4/5) This is a non-fiction book about the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland from roughtly the 1970's through until about 2000. The book focuses on mainly the Republican side of things but it does stray into Loyalist territory from time to time. The author draws on a lot of interviews, books, and news articles and having finished it I can see why it took 4 years to research. Although there are many characters and a bit of an erratic timeline, the book hinges around the disappearance of Jean McConville, a single mother who has kidnapped in 1972. Throughout the book Keefe goes away from this central story to explore what was happening only to return to it again when new developments happen in the story. I found this to be a really engaging account of what happened in Northern Ireland, providing a great overview. We don't really dig deep into any of the main players but cover a wide scope of history. My only criticism is that I wish there were more photographs. I read the paperback edition and all we get are a few small black and white images and I would have preferred a chunk of colour images in the middle of the book. I'm not sure what to read yet. I shall consult the shelves and see what jumps out at me.

It's been quite a while since my last update as I have struggled to read much lately. We are in the process of selling and buying a house which as anyone who has gone through the process will attest to, it can be pretty stressful. When I get stressed I can't read for very long. Anyway, on to the books. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (3/5) A couple decide to take a break in a remote area in Long Island with their teenage son and daughter. Late at night there is a knock on the door from a older couple who claim to be the owners of the house. The possible owners also say that something big has happened as there is a huge blackout across the city. With no TV, radio, or internet coverage it is hard to ascertain how true this is and if there are other motives for the visit from the claimed owners. After fnishing this book I watched a couple reviews on YouTube and although I enjoyed the book I don't quite get the gushing reviews. I guess that people feel the need to stand out in a competitve market such as YouTube so needs to extreme on either end to meet this need. I digress. I found the book to be a decent read with a pace that moves along quickly without feeling too rushed. The mystery and suspense builds up slowly as we reach towards the end of the novel and although some people didn't like the ending, I thought it was well handled. Peak Performance by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness (3/5) I downloaded this a while ago on Audible and only recently got round to listening to it. In the book the authors speak to people who are seen as top performers in a number of different fields and see if there is are things which they all do or have in common. If you have read anything on this subject in the past I don't think you will discover anything new here but it does bring everything together in a nice concise package. My one minor gripe is that it is very US centric with everyone they speak to being an American. This aside it is a well written, if unspectacular book. License Renewed by John Gardner (3/5) My latest Bond novel in the mission to read all the work dedicated to James Bond. So far I have read all the original Fleming books, Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis, Ice Breaker by John Gardner (although I will read this again in sequence), and Forever & a Day by Anthony Horowitz. In Licence Renewed we jump forward in time to some time in the 1980's with Bond being in his late thirties. There is a lot of change going on in the British Secret Service and the 00 program has pretty much been suspended. Spies being licenced to kill is seen as old hat and something that should be a thing of the past. In this book the bad guy is a shadowy figure in the nuclear industry called Anton Murik. Murik claims to have invented a completely safe nuclear reactor but has been shunned by the industry. To prove his point he decides to commit a series of crimes which could end in nuclear annihilation. To find out what Murik is up to, and to hopefully put an end to it, James Bond is called into action. Parts of this book are really good. The initial set up, the set peices, Bond's infiltration to Murik's world, and his capture are all good standard Bond fare. The deranged bad guy, the glamorous ladies and the huge henchman are all characters that anyone who has watched the movies would recognise. On the downside, Gardner leans on the movie tropes a little too much in my opinion. I always liked the stories where Bond was clever instead of being almost a superhero and in this book he definitely leans more towards the superhero side of things. The gadgets and brands are relied on a lot, again far too often to my liking. All of this is not to say that this is a bad book. In fact I really enjoyed it and it is definitely better than Colonel Sun.

If you enjoyed The Drinker you will probably also enjoy one of Fallada's other books published a few years later called Nightmare in Berlin. It is set just after the end of the war and covers similar topics and is also considered to be fairly autobiographical.

I know that especially when it comes to Russian literature the translation is of utmost importance. I've read Crime & Punishment a few times and the different translations change the feel and reading experience of the novel more than I would have expected.

I've just re-started my Audible membership thanks to an offer and discovered that Audible Plus is now included. There seems to be loads available in the Plus catalogue that I would listen to. Anyone know when they added the Plus part for UK customers as I didn't notice it when my cancelled my previous subscription about 6 months ago?

Sorry to hear about the poor cat Hayley.

Doing It by Melvin Burgess (4/5) I bought this book at a charity bookshop after reading Smack by the same author 2015. From what I can remember about Smack, I expected Doing It to be a YA book which pushes the limit and I wasn't wrong. In Doing It we follow three young men around the age of 15 to 16 who all have different approaches to sex. The book covers quite a wide range of topics including rape, pregnancy, revenge, and friendship. I enjoyed this far more than I expected to and it was a nice change from what I have been reading in recent months. Iron Coffins by Herbert A. Werner (5/5) I have read many books about the second world war but not too many written from the German point of view. This book is written by a U-Boat commander covering the period of 1930-1945 and concentrates on his experiences as part of the Wolf Pack. I found the book slow going to start off with and wasn't too sure if I would enjoy it much. However, once I got into the swing of it I found a remarkable book which conveyed the terrible reality of operating a U-Boat. The contrast between the environment in the U-Boats and the life experienced by officers based in nice conditions in France were very stark. Werner has done a great job of reflecting just how scary it must have been to go out on patrol as the war came to a close knowing that your chances of returning were almost nil.

Thanks. I read it many years ago and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a copy of it on one of my bookcases. From what I recall it’s a better book than Whittock’s and now that you’ve jogged my memory, I might have to dig it out for a re-read.

A Brief History of the Third Reich by Martyn Whittock (3/5) This is an interesting book which covers German political history from the end of WWI through to the end of WWII. Although there are some areas of battle covered, the book concentrates on the political rise of the Nazi party and how they managed to take control of German and most of Europe. It goes right back to the start of the party and includes how Hitler joined the party and rose through the ranks which is rarely covered when this subject is explored. Whittock looks at policy decisions, decisive moments along the way, how the populace were handled, and eventually the downfall at the end of the war. There are some echos with what we can see today with some political figures around the world and how they use the same tactics to convince people that they are victims of some grand conspiracy. The book loses a few marks for me due to it's fairly dry tone. I accept it is hard to inject much energy into such a complex subject but I still think it is possible to make it a more engaging read. Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid (3/5) This is one of McDermid's stand alone novels and the first book of her's I've read that isn't part of the Karen Pirie series. The book starts with disgraced psychiatrist Charlie Flint being sent a package about a murder which draws her back to Oxford University where she had been a student. A groom is murdered hours after his wedding on the grounds of Charlie's old college, and despite the trial being almost over, not all is as it seems. Having really enjoyed the Karen Pirie series so far, I was really looking forward to see how I would get on with a book with completely new characters. For a while I thought that I may have come across a dud because as hard as I tried I just couldn't get into the book for the first 100 pages. There are about half a dozen new charcters introduced in one go and this caused me issues because they are quite similar. The middle 300 pages are solid and keep the story ticking along at an easy pace without ever getting up a head of steam. The final 100 pages were another dud for me. I knew where the story was going and I was pretty sure who the culprit was (I was right) but I couldn't work out the motivation. McDermid uses one of the characters writing a book as a plot device to cover some background throughout the book and this works really well in my opinion. I felt as though the book had too many prominent characters and as a result they never get fully developed. There is a mixture of lesbian love triangles going which although start off intriguing just get tedious as the book goes on. I'm not sure if McDermid was trying to make a point or not, but if she was, it missed completely for me. The plot is solid though and this is what carries the book, a weaker plot would have killed the book. In truth this book sits between 2 and 3 stars but I gave it 3 because there was just enough there to keep me interesting in the middle part of the book. It falls quite short of her best writing which is a shame given how good a writer she is.

I finished Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid earlier this evening. It is one of her standalone novels and although I thought it was ok, it definitely wasn’t up to the standard of her best work.

They’ve done it for years in their bigger stores but as mentioned they are usually film or music related. They do stock other books but only ones which seem to fit in with a pop culture vibe. I’ve seen copies of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and they usually have a few copies of books by Ben Mezrich as well for some reason.

I’ve only managed to do that once. I never found it and had to buy a new copy.

My mojo seems to be back and with some strength. We had a few quiet days at work so I had plenty of time to read and have finished 3 books since the weekend. The Greatest Football that Never Was by Sonny Pike (3/5) For those who don't know, Sonny Pike was the next big thing in football during the mid 90's despite only being about 10 years old. He was featured in newspaper articles, on tv shows, and invited to numerous football events and award shows. He had a trial at Ajax which for a British youngster at the time was unheard of. On the surface it appeared that he had it all and it was inevitable that he would go on to be a successful player in the future. What the public never saw was that his home life was in turmoil and he was being exploited by those who should have had his best interests at heart. All of this culminated in Sonny never making the leap expected of him and walking away from football at the age of 18. This book only came out 2 months ago so there weren't many reviews for me to look at before deciding to jump into it. I found it an engaging read and I learned a lot about what happened to Sonny that I was unaware of. Sonny worked with Seth Burkett while writing this book and Burkett has done an admirable job of bringing it all together into a cohesive and logical tale. There is nothing spectacular here in terms of the writing but some of the revelations about how he was exploited are pretty shocking. One individual in particular went on to become a leader in the English game and it would be nice to hear what he has to say about his actions at the time. Despite how badly Sonny was treated it is clear that he has moved on. While he probably will never forgive those who wronged him he is clearly very happy with how his life has eventually turned out. One for the football fans. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (4/5) The synopsis of this book is as follows So first up I need to say that this isn't the kind of thing that I would be interested in reading. I don't really like Shakespeare after being forced to study his work at school and an imagined story of part of his life isn't my idea of fun. However. This book just kept coming up everywhere I looked. Every time I took a look at newer fiction best seller lists it was there. It kept popping up in my Goodreads friends feed and it was also on prominent display at my local Waterstones. So I finally accepted defeat and decided to give it a go, after all I could always DNF it if I thought it was stinker. I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed the book and the story that it contained. The characters are well formed (apart from one aspect of Agnes which I'll come to) and most of them serve a specific purpose in the plot. It's generally well paced even if it does fall off a little towards the end and a slight diversion about a flea works surprisingly well. Now for the small negatives. There are a lot of characters introduced quite quickly and I lost my way a few times and had to track back to double check who was who. The biggest issue for me, and perhaps just for me, was the mystical woman aspect of Agnes. On one hand I understand that Agnes needed to be given a purpose in life away from just being the wife of Shakespeare but the witchy healer is done too often in my opinion. These are minor complaints however and on the whole I really enjoyed reading this book and learned something along the way which is always a bonus. My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay (3/5) This is a non-fiction book written by Lemn Sissay about being brought up in the UK care system in the 70' and 80's after being effectively stolen from his mother. During the book Sissay explores his feelings, reactions, and recollections after finally being given all the documents and reports about his time in care. This isn't an easy read and really highlights a lot of the abuse and downright criminality that went on during this time. I was left feeling quite angry about how so many young vulnerable people were handled. After reading the book I was left understanding just why so many of the people affected during this time went on to suffer mental issues as adults and often ended up with substance abuse issues.

I think I recognise 3 of the authors names from previous work but I haven’t read any of the long listed books.

I always have reservations with opinions on YouTube as there is far too much undeclared paid promotion going on. Couple that with clickbait titles and purposefully controversial videos to gain more views and it gets harder and harder to know what is genuine and what is not. It's especially bad when it comes to tech channels but the problem is spreading to all areas of the site.

New book time for me, this time Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

The author works in publishing so that probably helped getting it along the process a bit quicker.

I had a good day reading yesterday and finished Pine. Pine by Francine Toon (2/5) I'll put my hands up and admit that I bought this book mainly because I loved the cover and the spynopsis on the back sounded intriguing. I hadn't yet read any kind of horror book and this book spans a couple of genres including horror so that sealed the deal for me. The basic synopsis is that Niall, a single father, lives with his daughter Lauren in the highlands of Scotland. One night a woman stumbles out of the pine forest and Niall drives her to his house. In the morning she is gone and Niall acts like nothing has happened. We don't know who the woman is or what has happened to her. There is definitely something not right and some of the residents are clearly aware of this but keeping it under wraps. I found this book really difficult to get into but I suspect that could be more because of my recent lack of mojo rather than the quality of the writing. It took me a good 100 pages to settle into it and feel like it was worthwhile to carry on. There isn't a huge amount of character development and I really didn't like 90% of them. It is very atmospheric in a way that few books are. It almost felt oppressive and times and the only other book I have read that managed this for me is Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Now for the negatives. The pacing is uneven. The beginning is very slow going, the middle has jumps in pace and then the end comes so quickly that it feels far too rushed. I wasn't sure how to rate this but in the end i've gone for 2/5 because I could have easily put this on the DNF pile in the early stages. I don't think it's a bad book but I just never really got on with it in the way I hoped I would.

Same here, it's such a relief to finally not be sweating like a beast for a change.

I've finished two books since my last post in this thread, both non-fiction. I'm about halfway through Pine by Francine Toon and it's starting to work for me as I struggled a bit with it initially. Anyway, back to the updates. Champagne Football by Mark Tighe & Paul Rowan (4/5) This book has been mentioned a few times on the Guardian Football Podcast by Barry Glendenning as an example of how badly football administration is often run. It covers the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) and the period in which it was run by John Delaney. It's the kind of book which would appeal to a football fan but probably won't reach many people outside this demographic. I already knew the gist of what was covered in the book as it was fairly big news at the time. What I didn't know was the size of the corruption and theft which went on. The amount of money that was mis-used under the directions of Delaney is mindblowing and how no one ended up in prison is beyond me. Sadly this sort of things isn't unique and goes on in football and sports administration (and governments for that matter) all over the world. Full Circle by Michael Palin (5/5) I'm reading Michael Palin's travel books in order and I'm now up to number 3. Having already gone around the world in 80 days and travelled pole to pole, Palin and his team travel around the Pacific pim over nine and a half months. This book is the best of the lot so far and it really helps that despite the long time spent travelling they only visit 18 countries. This allows time to feel like you are actually getting some good detail on these places and I particularly enjoyed the sections in China and South America. I really like the way that Palin always presents things are they are and how he feels about them instead of trying to project an ideal image all the time. At one point he is doing an activity which he finds painful and instead of putting a brave face on it admits that he lost his temper and started to swear at the leader of the activity. I think many writers wouldn't admit to this as it presents them in a negative light but not with Palin, what you read is what happened.