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1 hour ago, AmericanRam said:

The Joe Pickett series is about a Game Warden in Wyoming and it is a crime/mystery type series. The Penn Cage series is set in Natchez, Mississippi and is a crime/mystery series also. Both are fantastic series and think you would enjoy them. Also,  since you like the Helen Grace books, I think you would like, if haven't read before, the Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham and the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson as well.

I might try them then.  I am using my local library so nothing lost through trying them.

I do really enjoy both Mark Billingham's standalone and Thorne books and think I am pretty much up to date on them.  It is weird to think you have read Alridge and Billingham's in the US.

Other authors I love include  Linwood Barclay, Dennis Lehane, Simon Kernick, Gregg Hurwitz & Peter James.

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Just read one nonfiction and one novel.

The nonfiction is Decoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant about a curious artefact that came to be known as the Antikythera Mechanism, found in a shipwreck around the turn of last century. It's a brilliantly engaging tale that shows we can't always rely on society to progress and the ancient Greeks had technology that wasn't replicated again until well over a thousand years later. It was nominated for the Royal Society's science book prize a few years ago.

The novel is The Last Neanderthal by Canadian author Claire Cameron. We know nowadays that modern humans outside of Africa share a a small proportion of Neanderthal DNA which means they must have shagged in the distant past. The book is a timeslip narrative alternating between an archaeologist working on a dig and the time forty thousand years ago when the Neanderthals were dying out. It's compelling and very credible on the science.

Definitely recommend them both as books that will stick with you.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Currently reading "Dragon Teeth" by Michael Crichton, very good so far.

 Also reading "The Frozen Hours'" by Jeff Shaara, and "The Play of Death";book six in the Hangman's Daughter series by Oliver Potzsch and which I highly recommend.

 

 

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On 2016-12-11 at 11:20, Spanish said:

Just read Anthony doerr book , all the light we cannot see, really enjoyed it. Found myself reading slower the closer I got to the end to absorb more of the story.  A cursed diamond, a blind young French girl, an orphaned German boy, separate lives come together against the background of WW2

I never did get around to reading this on my NY trip, even though I took it with me. Too much going on! 

However, I have now read it over the last few weeks. Absolutely outstanding. One of the best books I've ever read. Thanks again for the recommendation! 

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On 20/10/2016 at 21:54, ColonelBlimp said:

I've just started reading Thus Spake Zaruthrustra, Neitzsche. (name drop) Picked it up in the Strand bookstore in NY (location name drop)

It's taken me a week to get page 33. 

 

Have you finished it yet?

I don't imagine it would make much sense out of the context of his philosophy. The Nietzsche Reader and Twilight of the Idols are good places to start. 

Trying to catch up with the later ones in John Sandford's Prey series, but they don't appear in charity shops that often. Just finished Silken Prey, good enough, but not one of the best. Revived the characters of Kidd and Lauren, for those who read the Kidd series. The Virgil Flowers ones are good too.

Recommend the early Prey books, if you haven't come across them before. Clever, well written crime, set in Minneapolis  

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2 hours ago, ketteringram said:

I never did get around to reading this on my NY trip, even though I took it with me. Too much going on! 

However, I have now read it over the last few weeks. Absolutely outstanding. One of the best books I've ever read. Thanks again for the recommendation! 

No probs glad you liked it

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1 hour ago, Lambchop said:

Have you finished it yet?

I don't imagine it would make much sense out of the context of his philosophy. The Nietzsche Reader and Twilight of the Idols are good places to start. 

Trying to catch up with the later ones in John Sandford's Prey series, but they don't appear in charity shops that often. Just finished Silken Prey, good enough, but not one of the best. Revived the characters of Kidd and Lauren, for those who read the Kidd series. The Virgil Flowers ones are good too.

Recommend the early Prey books, if you haven't come across them before. Clever, well written crime, set in Minneapolis  

Nope, gave up!

Moved on to Douglas Haig:From the Somme to Victory written by Gary Sheffield who just happens to be one of my son's tutors.

A much fairer and more balanced view compared to the usual anti Haig nonsense we got fed at school. Lions, Donkeys, you know?

Haven't tried Sandford, will have a look in ye old bookshoppe in Arundel next time me and the missus go for a bike ride.

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3 minutes ago, ColonelBlimp said:

Nope, gave up!

Don't blame you, it was his half baked attempt at being allegorical. I remember trying to read it on the coach at half six in the morning when I used to commute to London. His normal philosophy is very readable though and laugh out loud funny in places. He writes in aphorisms, so it's a good one for keeping by the loo. 

I don't read a lot of crime to make comparisons, but I've really enjoyed Sandford. 

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On 20 October 2016 at 21:54, ColonelBlimp said:

I've just started reading Thus Spake Zaruthrustra, Neitzsche. (name drop) Picked it up in the Strand bookstore in NY (location name drop)

It's taken me a week to get page 33. 

 

Nietzsche has to be one of the most influential philosophers. Influenced all the alpha males from Le Corbusier to Adolf Hitler.

 

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2 hours ago, RamNut said:

Nietzsche has to be one of the most influential philosophers. Influenced all the alpha males from Le Corbusier to Adolf Hitler.

 

The Nazi misappropriation of his ideas came after his death, as a result of the influence and inclinations of his sister. If you read him, he clearly despised nationalism and German nationalism in particular. It's why he broke off his friendship with Wagner. 

He was certainly influential in other ways though, particularly in finally killing off Platonic metaphysics and opening the door for the existentialists. Interestingly, he predicted that the 20th century would be one of unprecedented violence as two millennia of moral certainties fell apart. 

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3 minutes ago, Lambchop said:

The Nazi misappropriation of his ideas came after his death, as a result of the influence and inclinations of his sister. If you read him, he clearly despised nationalism and German nationalism in particular. It's why he broke off his friendship with Wagner. 

He was certainly influential in other ways though, particularly in finally killing off Platonic metaphysics and opening the door for the existentialists. Interestingly, he predicted that the 20th century would be one of unprecedented violence as two millennia of moral certainties fell apart. 

i read a few in the past which i can hardly remember now......being mostly impressed with his big tash and the fact that he went mad with clap.

(The Birth of Tragedy was quite interesting in the context of Charles Jencks Tragic View of Architecture)

The Will to Power Had a more unfortunate influence on Ian Brady amongst others.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, RamNut said:

The Will to Power Had a more unfortunate influence on Ian Brady amongst others.

It's a basic misunderstanding of the idea of the übermensch. Self-overcoming was his solution to the problem of nihilism; how one finds meaning by facing the abyss of ones' own nothingness. It's closer to Buddhism than anything else in Western thought at the time and is meant to bring about a joyful appreciation of the transitory moment. It certainly wasn't intended as a license to be a ****. 

But yeah, the moustache was good and he loved a bit of ice cream. 

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  • 4 months later...

Quite timely, finished Orwell's Homage to Catalonia the other week.

Tells the tale of his time as a soldier/reporter in the Spanish Civil war.

Interesting as a diary of the war and as an insight into the history of the politics of Spain, but perhaps lacks the deeper meanings and explorations of his later work.

Starting For Whom the Bell Tolls next.

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"Watching the Door" by Kevin Myers

He was a young reporter in Belfast during the 1970's. No one comes out of this book with any credit.

The remarkable thing is how ordinary people tried to go about their daily lives while the horror of sectarian warfare was going on all around them. 

 

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16 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

"Watching the Door" by Kevin Myers

He was a young reporter in Belfast during the 1970's. No one comes out of this book with any credit.

The remarkable thing is how ordinary people tried to go about their daily lives while the horror of sectarian warfare was going on all around them. 

 

Not a man I'd trust as an objective source of information on any subject. A self confessed contrarian, possessing an incredibly high opinion of himself (possibly diminished after his recent public embarrassments), who seems to deliberately court controversy.

That's not to say he hasn't written some good stuff, and he really was in the thick of it in Belfast as a reporter in the 70s, so his opinion is worth hearing in this case. Would be interested to know what you think of it when you are finished.

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22 minutes ago, Highgate said:

Not a man I'd trust as an objective source of information on any subject. A self confessed contrarian, possessing an incredibly high opinion of himself (possibly diminished after his recent public embarrassments), who seems to deliberately court controversy.

That's not to say he hasn't written some good stuff, and he really was in the thick of it in Belfast as a reporter in the 70s, so his opinion is worth hearing in this case. Would be interested to know what you think of it when you are finished.

I'm intrigued now so i'll read up on the authour.

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