What are you reading now?

[QualityChimp]

Literally just finished 11.22.63 by Stephen King and it was bloody brilliant.

The central premise is "what if you could go back and stop the JFK assassination?", but it takes you on such a journey to get there.

[Anpanman]

Read a Jack Reacher - The Visitor and some more Grisham's, The Appeal, The Racketeer and currently on The Associate, Racketeer is particularly good.

On the back of the films discussion also read All The Presidents Men (40th Anniversary Edition) after seeing the film which is terrific, thought it would be a slog but it's an easy read with a helpful list of the protagonists at the front which you can refer to.
Had to keep reminding myself that I'm not reading a Grisham and this actually happened, looking at recent political events around the world this sort of stuff is still going on.

I would thoroughly recommend it.

[Atticus]

Literally just finished 11.22.63 by Stephen King and it was bloody brilliant.

The central premise is "what if you could go back and stop the JFK assassination?", but it takes you on such a journey to get there.

Ace I just read Funhouse by Stephen King. Not his most substantial piece of work but very enjoyable (really good carny/fairground vibe).

Following that I just started the first book in The Dark Tower series: The Gunslinger.

[Blobcat]

After being a fan of the Poirot Tv series for many years, this week was the first time I had ever read a Agatha Christie novel.

I was running some errands in town for work when, whilst waiting for some keys to be cut, I wondered into a charity shop where someone clearly donated someone's entire collection of Christie novels. I saw this as a sign to buy some.

Just finished The ABC murders today and managed to find the episode on ITV hub. Really easy read and I loved Poirot and Hastings' interactions and hear Poirot in David Suchet's voice in my head when I read. Really enjoyed it, will defiantly be reading more.

Book was way better than the episode (it was an earlier ) but it was fun to compare. My best friend who I sadly rarely see anymore loves books and like me, had never read any Christie and loved the Poirot tv series. I plan to try and pick up some more if they are left next week and post her my copy when I am done with each as they are a quick read.

[kryss]

Ace I just read Funhouse by Stephen King. Not his most substantial piece of work but very enjoyable (really good carny/fairground vibe).

Pat Sharp has entirely different motivations in that I assume?

[Atticus]

[Atticus]

Just read Pet Sematary. Never seen any of the films so went in knowing nothing at all. And it wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be straight up spooky stuff but it's really an awful family tragedy. Great book.

[wakka]

Good work on resurrecting this thread Atticus.

I am reading Empire of Pain, a non-fic about the Sackler family - the 20th century American dynasty behind Purdue Pharma, the creators of the drug which started the opioid crisis in the US and which has caused (and continues to cause) untold addiction, death and misery.

It's dense, well researched, well paced, and thoroughly fascinating.

[Protocol Penguin]

Reading Savage Continent by Keith Lowe. It’s a history book I was given a while back; it’s about the lawlessness and warlordism that existed in Europe after WWII formally ended, but before peacetime stability emerged (or peacetime oppression, in terms of the soviet bloc states). Many of the atrocities described as being carried out in postwar Europe, well, there’s strong parallels to what Russian troops are currently doing to Ukraine.

[Atticus]

After watching the film again I read Silence of the Lambs again. Not read it for 30 years and I'd forgotten how slight and tight it is ... but a proper page-turner. Really, it's relatively short form and race against time set-up makes it perfect for the film it was made into. Not a lot was left out in the transition. If anything, the book makes everything a lot clearer ... but Ted Tally, who wrote the screenplay for the film, said he would rather confuse the audience for 10 minutes than bore them for one (or something like that). One thing the book doesn't have is the unnecessary anagrams featured in the film.

That's enough time off piste ... back to Stephen King next ...

[QualityChimp]

Just started the third audiobook in the Old Man's War series, "The Last Colony", after recently finishing the second one.
It's a great series where the sci-fi isn't too hard to be inaccessible, but deep enough to have some real issues to chew over.
There's a comical tone that runs throughout that stops the deeper issues from getting depressing.

Still plodding my way through The Stone Man when I get chance to sit down with my Kindle, which is an interesting premise of a giant, unstoppable statue stomping across England to try to reach something or someone.

[wakka]

I just read The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight on a couple of flights.

It's a short non-fic about a psychiatrist and science journalist who team up in the 1960s to start an emergency early warning system based upon premonitions. It's a fascinating story in and of itself, but the author uses that as a springboard to delve into ideas of whether time is really as linear as we think it is, and whether foretelling death can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's one of those unusual pieces of writing that deals with a paranormal topic without taking an ardent position for or against. Really terrific and I highly recommend it if you like long form journalism.

Sam Knight has also written gripping articles for The Guardian and New Yorker on topics like why Britain is obsessed with sandwiches, and why virtually all the world's spectacles are made by a single company (seriously, read them, they're great).

[QualityChimp]

[MENTION=5490]wakka[/MENTION], check out Recursion by Blake Crouch. H'amaze.

[wakka]

That sounds brilliant, I think you must have mentioned that to me before as it rang a bell once I googled it. Will deffo pick it up.

[fuse]

I tend to not read for years on end, and then go on a bit of a binge. About a month back I was away and visited a neat little bookshop that prompted me to buy a couple of things, and this weekend I was away again and grabbed another.

Of them, the first I've actually read through was After the Sun by Jonas Eika. It was quite abstract and provocative, which is very much my jam, but a lot of the short stories its comprised of didn't really land with me. In the acknowledgements at the end I noted William S Burroughs, and yep, all of a sudden I was reminded of Naked Lunch and how that had left me feeling.

I've since started Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner which, despite being a memoir centred around feelings of grief and alienation, is written in a very charming and enjoyable manner. Next up after that is probably a bit of a departure from that; Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.