What are you reading at the moment, part2

Have just started The Girl on the Train, looks good.

I am reading Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut. It is an imagined biography of E M Forster; and I have looked up his life, and the book does stick fairly accurately to his life, but adds in emotions as imagined by the author. It is interesting as a study of repressed homosexuality and attitudes to empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. I am finding it hard to warm to this man, but he was a product of his time. If you like Passage to India, the book tries to analyse what lay behind the writing of this.

I read Celia Imrie's 'Not Quite Nice' today, it saved my sanity. I was at the athletics master's while DBH was competing, and it was the most wonderful escape from all those people dressed in neon lycra doing strange things to their bodies all around me.

I really liked it. It wasn't a fairy tale, it wasn't a chicklit 'Happy Ever After, it was a lot more realistic, going by stories I have heard from friends who have gone to live in the South of France, in particular. And many a gransnetter will recognise the descriptions of their DCs. I particularly loved the ending. I have a friend to whom precisely the same has happened, except it is her son and not a daughter.

One gransnetter said on another thread that she hated the book. But as I can say that several of the events described in the book were very similar to ones that happened to me/friends in the past, and that rather than being rather mean, she has actually made it all much nicer than the reality for some, I can only conclude that some people only read the syrupiest of syrupy chicklit.

I've re-discovered Evelyn Waugh... having read most of his novels in my teen years I am now reading probably his masterpiece, Sword of Honour. I'm not sure how I missed it until now, but I am enjoying it very much. He is able invest tragic events with humour, in succinct, un-fussy language. The comic saga of Apthorpe's private thunderbox stays with one... and then Apthorpe dies, rather pathetically. Reality intrudes...

Waugh's Catholicism is stressed rather tiresomely for today's non-believer - it was so fashionable in literary circles in the thirties and forties...

Finished The Girl on the Train this afternoon. I went from being a bit bored with the story, to getting interested, then delaying my jobs this afternoon in order to finish it and see what happened! So, would recommend it, as a slightly different sort of thriller.

Forgot to add, I`ve just started The Burning Mind, by M.G.Gardiner, but not read enough to form an opinion yet.

Just finished Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey, a brilliant read giving a good insight into growing old and how it feels to be misunderstood. Not morbid or patronising but real, humorous and an engaging mystery.

Since learning of the sad death of Sir Terry Pratchett's, I am reading Feet of Clay again. Although it is a fantasy novel, it' s a really good murder mystery. I've read it twice before but always enjoy it.
I'm also nearly finished reading The Ship, kindly provided by Gransnet. Not really my kind of story but quite enjoyable nonetheless.

I'm reading Phil Rickmans' 'To Dream of the Dead'. I'm ambivalent about whether or not I like it....... I have several of his but this is the first one I've tried. A friend has lent them to me, she raves over him as an author.

The Burning Mind was very good, would recommend it, as was Buried Alive, by J.A.Kerley, which I`ve just finished. Have just started on Black Sheep, by C.J.Lyons, not too sure about it yet.

feetlebaum thanks for reminding me about 'Sword of honour'. I must load it onto my kindle. I read it many years ago and know I enjoyed it but have completely forgotten the story- one benefit of old age!

Asked my Kindle to send me a sample of Elizabeth is missing Rosannie only to find I downloaded and read it in...........February 2015 duh !

Anyone else (apart from Billy Connelly) do this?

Just started Stoner: A Novel by John Williams. So far so good.....

Just finished "Us" (David Nicholls). I enjoyed it.

Just finished Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok. Not bad.

Just finished The Miniaturist. Brilliant, set in old Amsterdam. No reading Dodger by Sir Terry. A departure from Discworld - set in Dicken's London with Dickens as one of the characters.

Enjoyed Black Sheep, am now reading another by the same author, Hollow Bones, it`s OK so far.

I have read and enjoyed Stoner and absolutely loved The Miniaturise. Just reading Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, it is very well written and evocative of the post war period.
Anya, given the theme of Elizabeth is Missing I hope you are not to worried about being so forgetful!

We Are Not Ourselves - Umpteen copies of this book all over the place in Waterstones when I last went in and having read a lot of crime of late, including The Girl on The Train, thought I would give this one a go. I am 350 pages in and enjoying it very much. It tells the story of Eileen Tumulty, born in 1940 to poor Irish immigrant parents and her desire to improve on her humble beginnings. Through her marriage to a brilliant academic she believes she will aspire to the American Dream of upward mobility, large house in a good neighbourhood etc. However, her husband's erratic behaviour leads to a diagnosis of early Alzheimers. This inter generational novel has been long listed by the Guardian and I believe it's a first book by the author Matthew Thomas, I have 250 pages to go and am finding it a very good read.

The Miniaturist. Brilliant. Can highly recommend it.

I have just picked up The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton, which won the Man Booker Prize, 2013, only 832 pages, which is awesome. With Easter coming up though, I should have plenty of time for reading. I wonder if anyone here has read it? Hope to give my opinion eventually!!

Yes I read it cazthebookworm, a lot of characters, a confusing and convoluted plot set during the 1860 New Zealand Gold Rush, quite a tome which I personally didn't enjoy and certainly didn't think it worthy of the Man Booker Prize. Don't let me put you off however, you may love it, it's just it's very long if it doesn't reel you in after a while. Be interested to know your opinion of it though.

Hollow Bones was OK, but I didn`t enjoy it as much as Black Sheep. I`m now just beginning Better Off Dead, by Tom Wood. Not too sure about it, but not very far into it yet. It`s about paid assassins, I usually prefer a straightforward murder, these tend to get complicated, but I`ll see how it goes.

I have read the Luminaries, caz, and tend to agree with Terri, but won't discuss it further until you've finished it. There's another excellent book about the NZ gold rush - 'The Colour' by Rose Tremaine.