Reading

[reeses4life]

Does anyone have any good book recommendations? Could you give me a brief summary of what its about and your thoughts on it to see if I will like it

[jennyjoan]

I looked at your profile there but you are male.

If you had have been female - I would recommend Katie Mulholland by Catherine Cookson. Fabulous book.

[jno]

fiction? Biography? History? Crime? Give us a hint...

[reeses4life]

I personally like any book that gets to you emotionally or has an impact on you

[jno]

for me Catch-22 is the funniest book ever written, a black comedy about WW2 and military logic.

[reeses4life]

What is it about?

[jno]

about US air force men making bombing sorties over Italy and trying to figure out a way to get out of it. If they claim to be mentally unwell they'll be excused flying - but if they want to get out of flying this proves they're perfectly sane.

More about it here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

The man who wrote it was in a bomber himself. It's very funny.

[Buenchico]

Try some quirky British humour:
http://tinyurl.com/y9eqf5qw
(Mark Wallington is a sort of British version of Bill Bryson. His ten books so far have all been great successes here).

Or try some classic Czech humour:
http://tinyurl.com/y9uhubl9
(Zdenek Jirotka modelled his writing upon the characters of P G Wodehouse but with a writing style probably more akin to that of Jerome K Jerome)

. . . which reminds me that I'd regard Three Men in a Boat as the funniest novel ever written:
http://tinyurl.com/y8tovmb2

[jno]

you can read that online

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm

[Jennykenny]

Have just re-read all four of Helen Forrester's non-fiction books, starting with 'Twopence to Cross the Mersey'. Her middle class parents lose all their money due to their badly organised life style and bad investments and have to move back to Liverpool where they live in the most dreadful poverty. Heartbreaking.

[Ken4155]

The Queen And I by Sue Townsend imagines that the Royal Family have been forced to live on a council estate after the People's Republican Party have won the 1992 General Election. The book is often funny, sometimes quite touching and, imho, in no way reflects the author's Republican tendencies. Definitely a book to have by your side in the garden during the forthcoming forecast heatwave.

[ichkeria]

Two Brothers by Ben Elton is the last book I finished, and, despite the oddly unfavourable reviews at the time (2012) I found it a very powerful story. It's about two boys with Jewish parents (a jazz trumpeter and a doctor) growing up in Weimar and then Nazi Berlin. But the catch is: one is a non-Jew adopted at birth when the other's twin is still born.
500+ pages of stirring narrative, and although we all know that being a Jew in Nazi Germany must have been pretty grim, it's the little things that Elton brings into the narrative which make it for me. Many critics thought the plot too contrived and a lot of the dialogue corny, but to be honest given the horrendous historical background that pales into insignficance: I mean, what could be more contrived than a government plan to establish the racial background of every one of its citizens?

And now The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks. I would rather not say what that is about if you don't know (!) , but it is amusing to read the awful reviews THAT got - many of them printed honestly at the front of the book.

[Kromovaracun]

The Wasp Factory is amazing. Must-read.

I'll throw in Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, which is the last novel I finished. Which I found very poignant. It won't sound very exciting as it's essentially about the impact of obesity on peoples lives and family, and how people get to the point of becoming that way. It installed the phrase "slow-motion suicide by pie" in my brain, which I don't think will ever leave me. It's strangely compelling and has very well-written characters.

[atalanta]

" Cold Comfort Farm " by Stella Gibbons. An upperclass young woman is left on her own, obliged to go to live with her earthy relatives on their farm. Her attempts to civilise them are hilarious, and, eventually, mostly successful. Or "Three men in a boat ", by Jerome K Jerome, for lots of laughs. Three friends take a boat up the Thames, and get into all sorts of trouble.
But don't read "two brothers" as mentioned above. It is dreadful, the plot is nonsense, the characters change in the most unlikely way, and as well as that, it's Far Far too long.

[ichkeria]

Well, you didn't enjoy it plainly but I disagree that the plot is 'nonsense'
As I mentioned above, a lot of the rather sniffy criticism I read about this book might be justified were it not for the fact that the historical context is so bizarre and yet true. Had I read the reviews first I'd never have read it but thank God I didn't. Great Literature it is not, but a cracking read and ingenious plot it most certainly is and has.

[ichkeria]

As an example of what I mean by the true historical context, the death of the twins' mother might be dismissed as unbelievable except: it is based on a true incident. It is true that the characterisation is not Mariana trench deep exactly in places, but I generally jushe a book by readability. One review i read started off by complaining that the book uses a Jeffrey Archer plot device, which seems less than relevant! I was on 'cultural snob' alert from then on :-)

[jno]

sorry... totally wrong thread

[elliemay1]

The Light Between Oceans
https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2745/the-light-between-oceans

[elliemay1]

^ Please read this one. It is so well written and will definitely get to you emotionally

[mikey4444]

Try "A Town like Alice" or pretty well any other Neville Shute :::

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/nevil-shute/

Can't recommend this author highly enough.