Finish 52 Books 2022

KovacsC · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:45

KovacsC wrote:

1. The Sentinel - Lee Child.
2. Proud - Gareth Thomas.
3. The Geneva Trap - Stella Remington
4. The Gangster - Scott Siglar (audiobook) - Book 6 in the Galactic Football League
5. The Stone Wolves - Scott Siglar (audiobook)
6. Better Off Dead - Lee and Andrew Child

7. Close Call (liZ Carlyle Book

- Stella Rimington

Quote:

CIA agent Miles Brookhaven was attacked in a souk while infiltrating rebel groups in the area. No one was certain if his cover had been blown or if the act was just an arbitrary attack on Westerners. Months later, the incident remains a mystery.

Now, Liz Carlyle and her Counter Terrorism unit in MI5 have been charged with the task of observing the international under-the-counter arms trade. With the Arabic region in such a volatile state, British Intelligence forces have become increasing concerned that extremist Al-Qaeda jihadis are building their power base, ready to launch another attack. As the pressure mounts, Liz and her team must intercept illegal weapons before they get into the wrong hands.

But when MI5 learns that the source of the arms deals is located in Western Europe, Liz finds herself on a manhunt that leads her to Paris, to Berlin and into her own long-forgotten past.

A past buried so deep that she thought it would never resurface . . .

I am really enjoying the series, it a spay book, but noit silly like Bind. But more how folks are tracked down.

Kern · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2022 14:09

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1. The Holocaust by Laurence Rees
2. Cathedrals of Steam by Christian Wolmar
3. United Ireland: Why Unification is Inevitable and How It will Come About by Kevin Meagher
4. The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
5. You Don't Want to Know by James Felton
6. Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon
7. The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke
8. Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy by Tim Hartford
9. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Bucan
10. Meet the Georgians by Robert Peal
11. Houdini: the Man who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsey Gresham
12. So Far... by Kelsey Grammer
13. Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal by Lucy Cooke
14. The Time-Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer
15. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh
16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
17. Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas
18. Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel
19.Speaking of Harpo by Susan Marx
20. All In It Together: England in the Early 21st Century by Alwyn W. Turner
21. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
22.Pompeii by Mary Beard
23.A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister
24. The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells by Sarah Churchwell
25. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

26. The Martian by Andy Weir

I was looking for some more fiction to read and Mali mentioned he was reading this. It's been several years since I read it and I'd forgotten how enjoyable and unputdownable it is. Also impressed at how carefully it's structured - I picture the author as some kind of GM just setting everything up carefully so none of the solutions to Watney's numerous troubles feels forced or unrealistic.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2022 15:07

Curiosity wrote:

Now that I have remembered how to read books, I can get to reading the 3rd and 4th books in James Smythe's "Anomaly" series, about a weird thing in space.

But first! Rereading the first two books so I could remember WTF happened in them.

5 - The Explorer by James Smythe
6 - The Echo by James Smythe

They are very good. The first one I particularly love, but they are both worth a look. Science Fiction, but also about people and relationships more than anything action-based. The first is about a group of people who go on a spaceship to investigate a weird thing found a long way away in space (based only in the near future, this is far further than man has gone before). Obviously shit goes wrong and people die and the weird thing is weirder than expected.

The second is about a subsequent mission to try and investigate the weird thing, but better. Needless to say, this obviously goes a bit wrong too.

7 - The Edge by James Smythe

Oh no, it’s a few years later and the weird thing is almost at the Earth. This one is mostly set on an orbital space station seeking to understand The Anomaly. Again it’s also a lot about relationships and whether people are telling you the truth.
Not quite as good as the first two, but still good. On to the fourth and final book…

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3307

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1. A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik.
2. Sad Little Men - Richard Beard.
3. The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu.
4. Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World - Otto English.
5. The Blade Itself: Book One (The First Law 1) - Joe Abercrombie.
6. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah.
7. Duty of Care - Dominic Pimento.
8. Find you First - Linwood Barclay.
9. Flesh and Bone and Water - Luiza Sauma.
10. Normal People - Sally Rooney.
11. I'm a Joke and so are you - Robin Ince.
12. All the Lonely People - Mike Gayle.
13. Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby.
14. Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond - Dalrymple and Anand.
15. 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak.
16. Severus: The Black Caesar - Steve Exeter.
17. Commonwealth - Ann Patchett.
18. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline.
19. The Gathering - Anne Enright.
20. Better off Dead - Lee/Andrew Child.
21. Call for the Dead - John le Carre.
22. Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner.
23. The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz.
24. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
25. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker.
26. The Last Graduate - Naomi Novak.
27. Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
28. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby.
29. Foreign Fruit - Jojo Moyes.
30. Autumn - Ali Smith.
31. Leviathan - Rosie Andrews.
32. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo.
33. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes.
34. Nobody Walks - Mick Herron.
35. Crocodile Hunter - Gerald Seymour.
36. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams.
37. Bear Head - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
38. Maddaddam - Margaret Atwood.
39. Klara and the Sun - Kazoo Ishiguro.
40. The Salt Path - Raynor Winn.
41. One Two Three Four - Craig Brown.
42. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir.
43. Fall - John Preston.
44. A Murder of Quality - John Le Carre.
45. The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss.
46. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan.
47. Barca - Simon Kuper.
48. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton. I read Turton's second book (The Devil and the Dark Water) and thought it was great, so I came to this. And it's great, too. A short description doesn't do it justice - body-hopping, time-travelling whodunnit. The author's workspace must be a morass of string and notes, as this is densely plotted and incredibly complex, but I'm sure it all hangs together. Honestly, I didn't remember every detail, as the protagonist wakes up in one person, trying to work out why he can't remember anything, then every time he falls asleep, wakes up as another one. With just a limited number to go through, and only so much time. Both his books feel like they must be part of a series, and that's his genius - the characters arrive fully formed, without the shortcut of cliche. Long, but well worth it.

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6621

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1.) Seveneves - Neal Stephenson.
2.) Neuromancer - William Gibson.
3.) Sharpe's Tiger - Bernard Cornwell
4.) Chess 101 - David Schloss.
5.) Count Zero - William Gibson
6.) Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
7.) White Gold - Giles Milton.
8.) Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery - Field-Marshal Montgomery, obviously.
9.) The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
10.) A Very British Coup - Chris Mullin
11.) SS-GB - Len Deighton.
12.) Westward to Vinland - Helge Ingstad
13.) Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse
14.) Tamed - Prof Alice Roberts
15.) Space Family Stone - Robert Heinlein
16.) The Cruel Sea - Nicholas Monsarrat
17.) A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

18.) Frankenstein - Mary Shelly.
I've never read this before - I was surprised at how sad it was, and how little of the general popular view of Frankenstein comes from the book. Another classic ticked off the list!

Curiosity · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2022 22:31

JBR wrote:

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton. I read Turton's second book (The Devil and the Dark Water) and thought it was great, so I came to this. And it's great, too. A short description doesn't do it justice - body-hopping, time-travelling whodunnit. The author's workspace must be a morass of string and notes, as this is densely plotted and incredibly complex, but I'm sure it all hangs together. Honestly, I didn't remember every detail, as the protagonist wakes up in one person, trying to work out why he can't remember anything, then every time he falls asleep, wakes up as another one. With just a limited number to go through, and only so much time. Both his books feel like they must be part of a series, and that's his genius - the characters arrive fully formed, without the shortcut of cliche. Long, but well worth it.

Loved that book. Sophie Petzal was supposed to be adapting it for Netflix, but I think it has been put on the shelf for the time being.

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6621

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1.) Seveneves - Neal Stephenson.
2.) Neuromancer - William Gibson.
3.) Sharpe's Tiger - Bernard Cornwell
4.) Chess 101 - David Schloss.
5.) Count Zero - William Gibson
6.) Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
7.) White Gold - Giles Milton.
8.) Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery - Field-Marshal Montgomery, obviously.
9.) The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
10.) A Very British Coup - Chris Mullin
11.) SS-GB - Len Deighton.
12.) Westward to Vinland - Helge Ingstad
13.) Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse
14.) Tamed - Prof Alice Roberts
15.) Space Family Stone - Robert Heinlein
16.) The Cruel Sea - Nicholas Monsarrat
17.) A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
18.) Frankenstein - Mary Shelly.

19.) Double Indemnity - James M. Cain.
A cracking little crime novel. Only 136 pages and I finished it in an afternoon. I'm off to find more of Mr Cain's books straight away!

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6621

Squirt wrote:

1.) Seveneves - Neal Stephenson.

2.) Neuromancer - William Gibson.

Man, this book takes me back. I first read it when I was about 15 and fucking loved it, and still do. What's not to love? Scheming AIs, Rastafarian astronauts with sawn-off shotguns, beautiful women with mirrored eyes and razorblade fingers, a grand heist, insane clones and genetically engineered ninjas.

How the hell is this not a Netflix / Amazon Prime series? Come on Bezos, pull your finger out and turn this genre defining novel into something awesome. But make it better than Johnny Mnemonic.

Huh, turns out it's gonna be a series on Apple TV. I knew all the big Hollywood movers and shakers read this thread.

Kern · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2022 9:04

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1. The Holocaust by Laurence Rees
2. Cathedrals of Steam by Christian Wolmar
3. United Ireland: Why Unification is Inevitable and How It will Come About by Kevin Meagher
4. The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
5. You Don't Want to Know by James Felton
6. Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon
7. The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke
8. Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy by Tim Hartford
9. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Bucan
10. Meet the Georgians by Robert Peal
11. Houdini: the Man who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsey Gresham
12. So Far... by Kelsey Grammer
13. Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal by Lucy Cooke
14. The Time-Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer
15. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh
16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
17. Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas
18. Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel
19.Speaking of Harpo by Susan Marx
20. All In It Together: England in the Early 21st Century by Alwyn W. Turner
21. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
22.Pompeii by Mary Beard
23.A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister
24. The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells by Sarah Churchwell
25. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
26. The Martian by Andy Weir

27. Gamesmaster: The Oral History by Dominik Diamond and Jack Templeton

The TL;DR: "My drug-fuelled twenties in the 1990s were better than yours".

It's an amusing, easy read about the making of the classic show, with a good mix of interviews from those involved. Even Dexter Fletcher gets a fair amount of coverage. I didn't realise they used Oxford prison for some of it!. Arguably the tales of drug and alcohol induced hedonism get a bit waring by the end but this is a book about people in middle age looking back on events thirty years ago. It's a fun, fast-paced piece of nostalgia, and one I might flick through from time to time.

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I liked how Dominic hates being reminded about that documentary he did, but unfortunately "Dominic Diamond failed to get crucified on Channel 5" is just such a wonderful sentence I doubt he'll ever shake it off.

28. US Grant: American Hero, American Myth by Joan Waugh

An overview of life and post-humous career of Ulysses S Grant, especially during the latter part of the 19th century. The few chapters outlining his military and political careers both felt pretty perfunctory although Waugh is right to highlight that his presidency has been severely maligned in the 20th Century as part of a general effort to promote the Lost Cause view of the American Civil War and demonise the achievements of Reconstruction. The final chapters spend a lot of time on the turmoil behind building Grant's Tomb, and how it fell from being a grand memorial to the greatest American ever (after Washington and Lincoln) to a rundown, overlooked folly and Groucho Marx catchphrase.

It's given me the impetus to read up more on his post-1865 career, but I felt that I wanted more about why his historical reputation has suffered so much instead of accounts of committee restructures.

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6621

Oooh, is JBR going to get to 52 this year? Come on man, we're all rooting for you!

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3307

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik.
2. Sad Little Men - Richard Beard.
3. The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu.
4. Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World - Otto English.
5. The Blade Itself: Book One (The First Law 1) - Joe Abercrombie.
6. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah.
7. Duty of Care - Dominic Pimento.
8. Find you First - Linwood Barclay.
9. Flesh and Bone and Water - Luiza Sauma.
10. Normal People - Sally Rooney.
11. I'm a Joke and so are you - Robin Ince.
12. All the Lonely People - Mike Gayle.
13. Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby.
14. Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond - Dalrymple and Anand.
15. 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak.
16. Severus: The Black Caesar - Steve Exeter.
17. Commonwealth - Ann Patchett.
18. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline.
19. The Gathering - Anne Enright.
20. Better off Dead - Lee/Andrew Child.
21. Call for the Dead - John le Carre.
22. Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner.
23. The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz.
24. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
25. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker.
26. The Last Graduate - Naomi Novak.
27. Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
28. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby.
29. Foreign Fruit - Jojo Moyes.
30. Autumn - Ali Smith.
31. Leviathan - Rosie Andrews.
32. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo.
33. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes.
34. Nobody Walks - Mick Herron.
35. Crocodile Hunter - Gerald Seymour.
36. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams.
37. Bear Head - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
38. Maddaddam - Margaret Atwood.
39. Klara and the Sun - Kazoo Ishiguro.
40. The Salt Path - Raynor Winn.
41. One Two Three Four - Craig Brown.
42. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir.
43. Fall - John Preston.
44. A Murder of Quality - John Le Carre.
45. The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss.
46. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan.
47. Barca - Simon Kuper.
48. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout.
49. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton.

Venice - Jan Morris. A biography of Venice, written in the 70s. She returned to update it because even by the 90s the city (and she!) had changed plenty, but found it wasn't that sort of book - this isn't a 'travel' book of places to go, but an evocation of the feelings of the city. I found it a bit wordy in places, but at its best you can almost taste the air.

And thankyou for the cheer/hurry up! Assumed I was on 50, so hadn't listed the last few books, but I figured I'd better put this one in there. I also read, but am not counting, a book of three novellas 'set in the Jack Reacher universe' by Dan Ames, which were the very definition of competent, or even just "fine". The most interesting thing was that he was aiming for Child's clipped delivery, and that showed how polished Child is - Ames had the odd extraneous word, and something as simple as starting a sentence with 'but' spoiled the flow in a way Child never would.

Kern · **Posted:** Fri Dec 16, 2022 9:51

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1. The Holocaust by Laurence Rees
2. Cathedrals of Steam by Christian Wolmar
3. United Ireland: Why Unification is Inevitable and How It will Come About by Kevin Meagher
4. The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
5. You Don't Want to Know by James Felton
6. Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon
7. The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke
8. Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy by Tim Hartford
9. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Bucan
10. Meet the Georgians by Robert Peal
11. Houdini: the Man who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsey Gresham
12. So Far... by Kelsey Grammer
13. Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal by Lucy Cooke
14. The Time-Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer
15. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh
16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
17. Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas
18. Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel
19.Speaking of Harpo by Susan Marx
20. All In It Together: England in the Early 21st Century by Alwyn W. Turner
21. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
22.Pompeii by Mary Beard
23.A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister
24. The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells by Sarah Churchwell
25. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
26. The Martian by Andy Weir
27. Gamesmaster: The Oral History by Dominik Diamond and Jack Templeton
28. US Grant: American Hero, American Myth by Joan Waugh

29.When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs

A heart-breaking story about the end of the world.

Somehow this one had passed me by but I finally picked up a copy from the library and was entranced by how touching and devasting the tale is. Will probably check out the animated version at some point.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38697

I read that book (and saw the movie) at far too young an age. I spent about a year terrified of nuclear attack. Every plane that flew overhead was a potential missile to my poor traumatised brain

Kern · **Posted:** Fri Dec 16, 2022 17:47

I'd requested a hardback version from the stacks and was a little concerned by the sticker for the children's library.

So, do I show my nieces this or "the bunny movie" first?

Kern · **Posted:** Fri Dec 16, 2022 17:50

(I'm joking of course. We'll start with Ulysses then move on to Das Kapital, perhaps with the Book of Job as a lighter interlude)

Findus Fop · **Joined:** 14th May, 2009 **Posts:** 4365

In almost related news, we got to the

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death of simon

in lord of the flies for mini fop's bedtime reading. Cue one very upset child and two upset parents.

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Dec 19, 2022 16:54

Whoops, I'm way behind on this. Stand by!

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Dec 19, 2022 17:14

Grim... wrote:

1) Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
2) The Medium-Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia Volume 2 by Sniff Petrol
3) Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
4) Kill Your Friends by John Niven
5) Rum Runner by J.A. Konrath
6) Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
7) Verity by Colleen Hoover
Eight) Sourdough by Robin Sloan
9) The Transition by Luke Kennard
10) The First 15 Lives of Harry August by Catherine Webb
11) Last Call by J.A. Konrath
12) Children of Chaos by Greg F. Gifune
13) White Russian by J. A. Konrath
14) Dead Space: Martyr by B. K. Evenson
15) Shot Girl by J. A. Konrath

16) Chaser by J. A Konrath
More Jack Daniels, but far more light-hearted than the previous book. Harry continues to be great. The books as a whole continue to be remarkably easy to read, and great.

17) Old Fashioned by J. A. Konrath
This one is much "lower key" than previous books - rather than an international murder lord with their own army, this one is about Jack's next door neighbour. Still ridiculous, still horrific, still great.

18) No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child
REACHER PUNCH BAD GUYS. REACHER FUCK PRETTY LADIES. REACHER USE BIG BRAIN AND BIG MUSCLES AND BIG WILLY.
This is the best Reacher book in a while, and by far the best one Andrew Child has written. It's entirely as you'd expect, and that's the point. Literary comfort food.

19) GamesMaster: The Oral History by Dominik Diamond and Jack Templeton
I agree with what others have said about this. It's very well written and very nostalgic but Dominik needs a good talking to about not being such a fucking baby. Having read about the Dave Parry "incident" I'm even more convinced that they were out to get him and frankly I think he was treated appallingly by a drugged up narcissist who kept saying how good everyone was and also couldn't help but refer to GamesMaster as "their" show.

20) Once More, With Feeling by Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton
When Victoria Coren-Mitchell was younger, she wrote, produced and directed a porn movie, and this book is all about how that came about and what it was like. Victoria Coren-Mitchell going on about porn? Fucking in.
That said, it was a bit of a slog to finish. It was entertaining enough, but it took ages to get the interesting bits.

21) The Medium-Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia Volume 3 by Sniff Petrol
What did I say about Volume 2?

Quote:

I liked the first one, and this one is the second one. Of it. I liked it.
Have a random piece of trivia: The TV advert for the launch of the 1990 Rover Metro was directed by Ridley Scott.

Oh, okay, hang on for a new random piece of trivia: The E at the end of old school Mercedes-Benz model names stands for Einspritzung or 'injection'. The same German word is why sportiest versions of the Opel-developed Vauxhall Astra were badged GTE not GTI.

22) A Clean Kill In Tokyo by Barry Eisler
This was a series that was described to be "like Reacher" so I gave it a shot. It's about an assasain and goes into some detail around how he would make sure no-one was following him and how to do surveillance, which was 90% of the job. Obviously he does a job that - oh no! - goes wrong, and shit kicks off. It's not as easy to read as Reacher but it's still an enjoyable use of your eyes.

23) Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The sequel to Dogs of War, I liked this a lot more. It's hard to say too much about it without spoilz, but it's set on Mars and told from the point of view of a few different humans and one AI. Trigger warning for future-rape.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49252

However the Astra GTE became the Astra SRi

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Dec 20, 2022 14:02

Don't tell me, tell [email protected]

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49252

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Dec 28, 2022 15:43

KovacsC wrote:

1. The Sentinel - Lee Child.
2. Proud - Gareth Thomas.
3. The Geneva Trap - Stella Remington
4. The Gangster - Scott Siglar (audiobook) - Book 6 in the Galactic Football League
5. The Stone Wolves - Scott Siglar (audiobook)
6. Better Off Dead - Lee and Andrew Child
7. Close Call (liZ Carlyle Book

- Stella Rimington

8. Dead Man Running - Kevin Webber

Quite and inspirational read. Highly recommend

Quote:

Dead Man Running: One Man's Story of Running to Stay Alive is the inspirational story of Kevin Webber. Diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in 2014 and given just two years to live, Kevin started a brutal regime of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He also started running and refused to stop. Across the deserts of the Sahara, the snow and ice of the Arctic and the jungles of Cambodia, Kevin's journey has taken him from the depths of despair to achieving the impossible. Kevin describes the emotions of discovering he was terminally ill and the impact on his family and friends. He talks honestly about his cancer, his treatment and making every day count while staring death in the face. The training, the marathons, the injuries, the physical and mental challenges of living with terminal cancer are all described in Kevin's own words. He has never stopped dreaming and living his life the best way he can. This is one man's story of running to stay alive which will hopefully inspire you to live a bit more too.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3307

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

1. A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik.
2. Sad Little Men - Richard Beard.
3. The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu.
4. Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World - Otto English.
5. The Blade Itself: Book One (The First Law 1) - Joe Abercrombie.
6. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah.
7. Duty of Care - Dominic Pimento.
8. Find you First - Linwood Barclay.
9. Flesh and Bone and Water - Luiza Sauma.
10. Normal People - Sally Rooney.
11. I'm a Joke and so are you - Robin Ince.
12. All the Lonely People - Mike Gayle.
13. Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby.
14. Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond - Dalrymple and Anand.
15. 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak.
16. Severus: The Black Caesar - Steve Exeter.
17. Commonwealth - Ann Patchett.
18. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline.
19. The Gathering - Anne Enright.
20. Better off Dead - Lee/Andrew Child.
21. Call for the Dead - John le Carre.
22. Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner.
23. The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz.
24. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
25. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker.
26. The Last Graduate - Naomi Novak.
27. Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
28. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby.
29. Foreign Fruit - Jojo Moyes.
30. Autumn - Ali Smith.
31. Leviathan - Rosie Andrews.
32. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo.
33. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes.
34. Nobody Walks - Mick Herron.
35. Crocodile Hunter - Gerald Seymour.
36. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams.
37. Bear Head - Adrian Tchaikovsky.
38. Maddaddam - Margaret Atwood.
39. Klara and the Sun - Kazoo Ishiguro.
40. The Salt Path - Raynor Winn.
41. One Two Three Four - Craig Brown.
42. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir.
43. Fall - John Preston.
44. A Murder of Quality - John Le Carre.
45. The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss.
46. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan.
47. Barca - Simon Kuper.
48. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout.
49. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton.
50. Venice - Jan Morris.

The Patron Saint of Liars - Ann Patchett. She can do no wrong, and even this first novel of hers is excellent. A girl finds she's pregnant, by her husband, can't be arsed with him any more and sets off to live differently. She's a complicated character - as the title suggests - and well written. I'm sure her later books are even better, but I enjoyed reading this one.

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3307

52. Slow Turn - Mike Marqusee. A thriller set around a cricket match, and with cricketers as the main characters. It works. It's not high-octane stuff, but the cricket is described realistically, and with India the setting (where cricket is super-important) it serves to punctuate the plot, with riots and political manouevrings. I read about half then left it on the bed where I'm dog-sitting, and one half was torn to shreds during a period of time that I should have noticed was far too quiet. Luckily, it was the half I had read.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38697

You made it!

Squirt · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6621

Good work JBR! Pulling up the average for the rest of us!

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3307

On it! Never meant to wait till the last day, but when it got to the 30th, it was too fitting not to. On to the next lot.

Grim... · **Posted:** Sun Jan 01, 2023 19:57

Grim... wrote:

1) Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
2) The Medium-Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia Volume 2 by Sniff Petrol
3) Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
4) Kill Your Friends by John Niven
5) Rum Runner by J.A. Konrath
6) Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
7) Verity by Colleen Hoover
Eight) Sourdough by Robin Sloan
9) The Transition by Luke Kennard
10) The First 15 Lives of Harry August by Catherine Webb
11) Last Call by J.A. Konrath
12) Children of Chaos by Greg F. Gifune
13) White Russian by J. A. Konrath
14) Dead Space: Martyr by B. K. Evenson
15) Shot Girl by J. A. Konrath
16) Chaser by J. A Konrath
17) Old Fashioned by J. A. Konrath
18) No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child
19) GamesMaster: The Oral History by Dominik Diamond and Jack Templeton
20) Once More, With Feeling by Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton
21) The Medium-Sized Book of Boring Car Trivia Volume 3 by Sniff Petrol
22) A Clean Kill In Tokyo by Barry Eisler
23) Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

24) Alien: Colony War

I finished this on the 30th, so it counts for this thread. I was hoping to get to 26 this year (or one book every two weeks) but DMZ on MWII ruined that. Anyway, Colony War was just fine, it had some nice ideas but was a lot like many of the other Alien books. However at the end there was a one-shot Alien RPG campaign set in the colony you've just read about, which I thought was a lovely idea. It might be interesting for @sdg .

Anyway, next year I'm going for 26 for sure.

Be Excellent To Each Other

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