CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Official and Confidential: the secret life of J. Edgar Hoover" by Anthony Summers.

Done! Off to Oxfam with it!

Did dear old J. Edgar get offed by Nixon's Plumbers? We shall never know.

Next: TBD "Bodyguard of Lies" Anthony Cave Brown. Another 800 page tome.

Been through El Alamein.

Now on to Admiral Canaris. <spoiler> He had a bad end though that's about 600 pages on </spoiler>

Ooo look: a review from the CIA:

https://www.cia.gov/static/c3b3880e5...rd-of-Lies.pdf

[vetran]

"Be careful what you wish" for is done..
Sadly ex lord Archer is getting a bit tedious.

Off to John Grisham or back to the old lag?

decisions, decisions!

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Right to Know" Clive Pointing.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it.

Governmint ministers are lying bastards, including Tarzan and his little sock puppet. Who'd have thunk?

Fixing the selection of the Judge in the case was a nice touch that backfired just a tad.

And of course the lying bastards souped up the Act in 1989 because the Jury letting Pontin off upset The Great She Elephant.

Next: TBD "The Ancestor's Tale" by the High Priest of Evolution & Atheism, one Richard Dawkins.

There's 27 pages of bollox before he even gets started.

A mere 600 pages to go. Assuming I'm able to tolerate it.

Since it starts in the present & chapter by chapter goes into the past, maybe reading it in reverse might be an idea.

<a bit later>Stone me, page 427, only another 200 pages to go, we've currently reached half a billion years ago and ancestor: the fruit fly: apparently eye genes are conserved. Or something. It get confusing. I think the selfish gene is somewhere buried in a bookcase. I wonder if I'll survive long enough to read it.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester: how the OED got started.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it!

Poor old sod was as mad as a hatter. The bit where he cut his penis off with a penknife was a bit eyewatering.

Next: "The Right to Know" Clive Pointing.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Conspiracies of Silence" by Barrie Penrose & Simon Freeman, 1986, even more of a door stop than the previous one, being a telling of the story of the then recently deceased Anthony Blunt (Soviet spy & Surveyor of the Queen's pictures).

Well there was a lot of buggering about in that. .

Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester: how the OED got started.

[jamesbrown]

Just finished Leviathan Falls, last of the Expanse series, at least the main nine books, not all the novella. Bloody good - for anyone with a science background, you really appreciate the level of research the two authors put into this. Enjoyed the ending/epilogue.

[Dark Black]

Revisited some SciFi I read when a teenager (way back when the Earth's crust was still warm).

The Giants Trilogy - James P Hogan

1. Inherit The Stars
2. The Gentle Giants Of Ganymede
3. Giants' Star

According to Wikipedia there are a couple more he wrote later on - may try to track them down later

[vetran]

The sins of the father - book 2 in the Clifton chronicles by that ex Lag Jeffery Archer. Nice easy reading. Spoiler there are prison scenes in it.

done, ok read

"best kept secret" tried reading on Kindle but found it hard work ordered the paperback which has a gift aid tag on it, seems some second hand book vendors frequent charity shops.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Look! It was fiction!

Next: "Mother Tongue": Bill Bryson 1990. Didn't know I had this one, it was cunningly concealed on a bookshelf.

In addition: "The Weapon Shop" by A. E. Van Vogt, 1942, being the 2nd Weapon Shop short story following on from "Seesaw". It must be 40 years since I read "The Weapons Shops of Isher".

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

I think the "Weapons Shops of Isher" reside unloved in a box down in the garage*. Dear old A. E. was friendly with that chap who invented his own religion, apparently, old ElRon.

Next: "Conspiracies of Silence" by Barrie Penrose & Simon Freeman, 1986, even more of a door stop than the previous one, being a telling of the story of the then recently deceased Anthony Blunt (Soviet spy & Surveyor of the Queen's pictures).

*No they don't, they're on the bookshelf behind this chair.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Of Time and Stars" Arthur C. Clarke.

Containing two I really like: "Sentinel" and "Encounter at Dawn" (aka "Encounter in the Dawn") both looking across aeons of time, the first rather more than the latter.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Look! It was fiction!

Next: "Mother Tongue": Bill Bryson 1990. Didn't know I had this one, it was cunningly concealed on a bookshelf.

In addition: "The Weapon Shop" by A. E. Van Vogt, 1942, being the 2nd Weapon Shop short story following on from "Seesaw". It must be 40 years since I read "The Weapons Shops of Isher".

I suspect it's rather closer to 50 years, on reflection.