Wow, if you like action, thriller, who done its, this one is for you. It's a little bit NASCAR, and a lot of Bob Lee Swagger. "Night of Thunder" by Stephen Hunter.

Went to the library, picked up another Stephen Hunter book, "Havana". Chris, have you read "Havana"? This one is a prequel to the Bob Lee Swagger books, because the main character is Earl Lee Swagger, Bob Lee's daddy.

I have read that, in fact it's the first Stephen Hunter I read and it switched me on to the others.

I am reading The Edge of the Water by Elizabeth George. It's not one of her normal series but the middle offering of a new set of three.
She continues to write well, but it's almost as if she's trying to cash in on the young adult market as the main characters are pretty much all high school student.

I'm clearly dragging behind in my historical fiction reading but I've just finished this and I agree, it was very well done. We don't really know much about the lives of 'normal' people caught up in the events of mediaeval England (assuming one can term as 'normal' a girl kept in a nunnery and a scribe in the monastery next door who run from a vicious mercenary and become no spoilers allowed...) but this book does a pretty good job at conveying how awful it was whilst keeping the protagonists alive. Which can't have been easy given the number of blades and arrows flying around. It made me remember a story I heard when I was growing up, of the olde Wiltshire farmer during the time of the Wars of the Roses, leaning over his gatepost when someone rode past yelling "the king is dead!" - the farmer just sighed and said "which one?" Well this book makes you want to find out.

Vol 2 has been published... I'm trying to resist it for the moment as my pile of things I haven't read yet is high enough already!

Well I just finished the second and it will not disappoint. Just as good as the first. I , again, could not put it down and am waiting for part three.

Don't tempt me, woman! I am really good at buying books I don't have time to read, hence the pile - do not make me buy another one. Although I suppose one more wouldn't...

I am being completely honest here You will love it!
Books are my only indulgence. When I move next year I have over 400 to sort. Somehow a yard sale in this village will not be wholly successful I reckon.I cannot take them with me. Problem

I went back to a Robert Harris book. This one is called "Imperium". It is a story of Ancient Rome through the eyes of Cicero's scribe, Tiro. So far so good. I haven't read much the past couple of weeks, I was in Florida on vacation.

Pascal - Letters to a Provincial

Could you please give us some idea of the book's content, etc? Thanks.

"Mr. Mercedes" - Stephen King

Double the number and add a zero, and you have my house, ren.

I agree with the opinions of the Kingmaker series, I've read both over the holidays and found them well-written and accurate in the details. The storyline is less interesting to me that the careful creation of the setting and the complexities of the political climate.
I did borrow them from the library, as I'm trying to be economical.
But then I bought Dan Jones' first volume of his history of the Plantagenets with the money I saved by not buying the novels, which was a delight to read and crammed with details and personal opinions as well as facts.
I have a bookcase with books I haven't read yet, I tend to intersperse them with re-reading an old favourite.
I know, I have a book addiction. Having a home lined with bookcases is good insulation against the autumn chills and means I can hibernate and not stagnate.

I went to the library on Friday because I had finished my latest book which was "Imperium" by Robert Harris, as described above, very good book. Although the ending did surprise me.
I went looking for a specific book, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", based on a recommendation from a friend that I have coffee with most mornings. However there were no copies to be had from the library, so I picked up "Reykjavik Nights" by Arnaldur Indridason, the first in a series of detective novels by the Icelandic author. So far so good, I am learning a lot about the geography of a lot of places in Iceland that I struggle to pronounce.

Just finished "Funny Girl" from Nick Hornby. Ren, you are either going to love this one or hate it - it's set in the television world in London in the early/mid sixties.

Ooooer! Intriguing! Now I MUST get that! Normally I like Hornby and that was definitely my era. Fancy you remembering! Thanks.

Finished "Reykjavik Nights", very good story, nicely written, struggled mightily with place name pronunciations. ended up just skimming over words I couldn't decipher.

Went to the library and picked up "The Kraken Project" by Douglas Preston. So far so good, it's a cautionary tale of Smart AI gone rogue.

If you like Hornby you'll probably like it. I enjoyed it a whole lot, but I would have no way of knowing how much he got wrong. He's definitely trying for a feeling of verisimilitude - real people and places and shows turn up all over the book.

Just finished The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. It was pretty good; writing style not really to my preference but I liked the mystery element and I wanted to keep reading to find out what had happened.

Ah Imperium! - a great book, but all Robert Harris's books are good. He's a good writer. His follow up book on Cicero "Lustrum" is also good. Most recently I enjoyed his book "An officer and a Spy". It's about real events but is written like a slow burn thriller. I was gripped.

I've read three of Robert Harris's novels now, "An Officer and a Spy", "Pompeii", and "Imperium". Every one was, not only a very good read, but also a learning experience for me.

Just finished "The Kraken Project", by Douglas Preston. Wow. Very close to science now as opposed to science fiction. Not a boring science book though, very dramatic, very quick flowing. I highly recommend it.

Next up "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", by Stieg Larsson.

Can anyone recommend a book or series dealing with the legends surrounding Arthur, Merlin, the knights and ladies and so on? I watched the TV series Merlin recently on Netflix - well, some of it, I skipped some episodes clearly intended for kids. I have tried Jack White's books (2 of them) but I find his prose so dense...couldn't really get into them. Any other suggestions? Has anyone read something "historical" such as Malory's very early "Morte d'Arthur"? Any advice appreciated; I'm so new to the Forum(s) that this is probably my first post here.

Welcome elmo! I want you to know I am not ignoring you, just researching!