The BOOKS thread... what you reading?

[Isaac(Black Eagle Rising)]

Just finished "The Rape Of Nanking." A highly touted historical work...did not live up to the accolades the book has received. I found it far too fleeting. Such a powerful subject and the book read like a magazine article.

A few weeks a go, I watched a documentary about  "unit 731" on NHK World and it is really disturbing.They clearly told what has happened there and your blood gets cold.

[cthulhu]

there's also i fictional film about that subject called "men behind the sun". i think it had some problems with censorship in japan, which is almost uncommon and very seldom for i know, but it wasn't because of the violence in the movie but because of political reasons. a chapter the japanese would like to forget. a very tough watch.

[Master Ray]

there's also i fictional film about that subject called "men behind the sun". i think it had some problems with censorship in japan, which is almost uncommon and very seldom for i know, but it wasn't because of the violence in the movie but because of political reasons. a chapter the japanese would like to forget. a very tough watch.

Bizarrely, that movie is available to watch UNCUT on Youtube, which astonishes me in view of the content... I mean that bit with the cat which might have been done for real... 

[cthulhu]

yeah, and my little music video gets banned there because of violence
and maybe some copyright infractions, ahem

[Simon73]

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Booklet from Mark Bray


“Focused and persuasive... Bray’s book is many things: the first English-language transnational history of antifa, a how-to for would-be activists, and a record of advice from anti-Fascist organizers past and present.”—THE NEW YORKER

"Insurgent activist movements need spokesmen, intellectuals and apologists, and for the moment Mark Bray is filling in as all three... The book’s most enlightening contribution is on the history of anti-fascist efforts over the past century, but its most relevant for today is its justification for stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists."—Carlos Lozada, THE WASHINGTON POST

[Master Ray]

Just took delivery of 'Fireweed' by Jill Paton Walsh, a book I loved as a kid but haven't read since the 80's... it's about two kids on their own during The Blitz.  Hoping it lives up to my childhood memories.

[Master Ray]

Addition to the previous post... 'Fireweed' is, indeed, just as good as I remembered it.  Half way through and I'm loving it.

Not exactly a kids book, more like what would be nowadays described as a 'young adult' novel.  It's about a boy and a girl , separated from their parents, living on their own in WW2, blitz-torn London.  Really well written, just goes to show how you can aim a book at young folks without talking down to them and skimping on the quality of the writing. 

Anyone else read this one as a kid?

[Red]

Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdottir

Started to read this as it was in the house we rented in Stromness whilst on holiday so I had to buy a copy off Ebay

[Ghosttrain]

Keith Floyd Stirred But Not Shaken The Autobiography, a later updated version of his earlier one (which i have read) a really good read ,funny as well as sad written by the best and most original TV chef ( IMHO).He certainly broke the mould when it came to TV food shows.............often copied NEVER bettered........no doubt he is having '' A quick slurp '' in that great kitchen in the sky as he so often said and did in his programmes,never agreed with his politics but that aside a great,great character............much missed (still).  

[Master Ray]

'Leonard' by William Shatner... gotta be honest, this book pisses me off a bit.  Shatner put out this book as a sort of 'celebration of his 50-year friendship' with Mr Nimoy, his supposed best friend, but much of it could be cut and pasted from previous books... there's very little here that you haven't read before.  The only honest bit is that he barely spoke to Nimoy in the last few years before he died!

[dilla]

Local college which shut recently had a library sale with books at £1each.Just finishing the first of a load I bought,Boadilla by Esmond Romilly.(nephew to Winston Churchills wife)His account of fighting in Spanish Civil War at 18 years of age.

[Wessexy Witch]

text books, text books, theory books, theory text books.....all to be read and then reviewed   

[pjevac]

Just got it from the library, can't wait to get home!

[Whirlwind]

Just got it from the library, can't wait to get home!

Hope you enjoy it.
(Even if you don't, it is such a short novel, a quick read, no harm is really done by reading it and disliking it.)


Post what you like or dislike about it when you have finished, please.

[Tony S]

"We need to weaken the mixture" - Guy Martin

The pace of the book is a bit like he talks - very fast ! So I'm almost half way through it after only starting it a couple of days ago. Entertaining.