211 posts
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Post by peelee on Nov 1, 2017 17:35:44 GMT
Speaking of JK Rowling, I am two-thirds of the way through The Cuckoo's Calling, the first book by Robert Galbraith, which I was given as a birthday present in 2013. It's been an enjoyable bedtime-reading experience so far.
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 2, 2017 14:30:37 GMT
Has anyone read the new Dan Brown, Origin? I ask because, for the first time ever, I am listening to it in audio book version. I have a new long drive to work and my favourite radio station changes to opera on every roundabout and is sketchy the rest of the time, so thought this seemed like a good idea. I am trying to decide if it's the book or if it's just me. I keep zoning out. Really badly zoning out. The whole point is to take my mind off work, which is not happening. I wonder if I'm zoning out because a) I'm just not used to audio books and need to persevere or b) because the narrator is horrendous or c) because the book's rubbish! I know Dan Brown comes in for a lot of stick, but I'm positive if I'd had the Da Vinci Code in audio version I'd have taken an even longer route to work as it was perfect escapism........or would I? Anyone got any comments?
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2,557 posts
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Post by viserys on Nov 2, 2017 19:55:19 GMT
I haven't read Origin (yet?) but I found that Dan Brown gets old very fast. The first book by him I read was Angels & Demons and I loved it. The second was DaVinci Code which I thought was "okay", then I read the third one (I have actually forgotten the title already, the one set in Florence) and was getting really tired of the same-y style, the oh so many last-minute saves by Langdon, the bland female sidekick, the long-winded descriptions (which you can at least skim in a book, but not in an audio book).
So you might just be bored by the fact that Dan Brown basically keeps writing the same book just set in a different European town, or it may be the narrator or perhaps the location? I have never tried listening to audio books, but I figure it's something I'd do in a sunlounger or on a train but not in the car where I need to focus on driving too much to immerse myself in the story.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 20:00:37 GMT
I love audio books, but I can NOT listen to them in the car. I find it impossible to concentrate on the story in the car and get so sleepy. Long journeys for me are concert downloads or soundtracks I can sing along to. Audio books are for bedtime!
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 2, 2017 20:38:19 GMT
or it may be the narrator or perhaps the location? The narrator is awful. He does a pretty good Spanish accent and a passable English one, but the voice he puts on for the female lead reminds me of David Walliams being silly. It's tedious. The location is the reason I bought it. I lived in the 3 Spanish cities where it is mainly set and know the names of streets and the buildings that are mentioned. I love this, but even find I tune out during these descriptions and have to rewind. the bland female sidekick, She is. She really is. And soooo beautiful. *yawn* I can NOT listen to them in the car. And maybe that's the problem. Maybe driving takes more concentration than we realise we give it, especially in rush hour. I really appreciate your comments viserys and @elanor. It's interesting to hear what you think. I wonder if it would be worth having another try, but going for a narrator like Stephen Fry who would be amusing or Roger Allam who I could listen to recite the phone book. (I have no idea if they record audio books - they are just examples.)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 21:37:52 GMT
For me, my love of audio books started as a small child when my mum read me bedtime stories. I always wanted one more, so she recorded herself reading them and gave me a cassette player so I could relisten. She'd read me one then go downstairs, and I'd listen to another couple. I've listened to stories in bed ever since. I only have one tape of my mum reading left, and it's adorable - she sounds so different being 40 years younger, and she reads so well. And I can hear me chiming in every so often to ask what a word means or to point at something in the picture. Anyway, nowadays my favourite audio books are the Shardlake books read by Anton Lesser, the Jane Austen novels read by Prunella Scales and the TimeRiders novels read by Trevor White. I also love the Lord of the Rings radio drama from the 80s, which I remember listening to on the radio first time round.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 21:39:39 GMT
Ooh, I also really like Tim Piggott Smith reading Lord of the Flies.
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2,557 posts
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Post by viserys on Nov 11, 2017 16:13:10 GMT
Not exactly a big read but... I got a large coffee table book called "London Theatres" by Michael Coveney and Peter Dazeley for my birthday which is a really nice thing to have. I'm missing a few of the smaller theatres but otherwise the coverage is very extensive with interesting background stories for each theatre and most importantly, lots of great photos.
They allow me a peek into the theatres I still haven't got around to visiting and draw my eyes to so many amazing little details in theatres I know but which I never noticed. I think some of the big pictures of the auditorium are very useful in combination with Theatremonkey's website.
So, anyway, if you're soon facing "What would you like for christmas?" questions by relatives and friends, I'd definitely recommend this.
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1,315 posts
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Post by tmesis on Nov 13, 2017 16:11:36 GMT
I'm half way through Isy Suttie's 'The Actual One.' It's a highly recommended memoir (although she would find the term way too poncey) about growing up and relationships. Some hilarious tales of awful stand up gigs and fringe theatre. It's very well written, quirky and lovable.
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 15, 2017 19:42:52 GMT
Well, I finally finished the audio version of Origin. Don't ask. No idea. Nada. Regardless of the poor narration, I fear it's no Da Vinci Code.
I still needed to find something to occupy my long journeys to work so I hatched a cunning plan....in fact, No Cunning Plan if truth be told! I am now listening to Tony Robinson's self-narrated autobiography and it's perfect! Funny anecdotes, loads of gossip and it doesn't matter if I miss a bit as there's no plot to keep up with. I'm not that far in, but by the time he was 15 he'd been understudied (and bullied) by small faces (I first accidentally typed that as faeces) Steve Marriott, been taught PE at school by Ron Pickering and had his first crush severely crushed backstage by Marti Webb when he was brought down to earth to discover that she didn't even know his name after several months in the cast.
Every year he receives a royalty cheque amounting to £4.85 for his footsteps making the sound of Oliver's walk up to ask for more in the original cast recording. (The boy singing Oliver was wearing plimsoles so they couldn't use him!)
I'm really enjoying it and Tony (sorry, Sir Tony....and I won't give away the hilarious story of what happened when he went to tell his mother-in-law he was receiving a knighthood) manages to keep the tone neutral without sounding too self-satisfied.
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1,115 posts
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Post by Stephen on Nov 15, 2017 20:14:57 GMT
I'm currently really enjoying 'Balancing Acts' by Mr Hytner. Thus far he's been very open and honest about his time at the National. It's great!
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1,510 posts
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Post by anita on Nov 24, 2017 10:20:12 GMT
"London Theatres" by Michael Coveney & Peter Dazeley came yesterday. I've only had a brief glance at it so far & while there are a few interesting inclusions, there are so very many omissions I find it unbelievable. There are 13 major west end theatres that should be featured but aren't that I 've spotted - probably more.
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2,557 posts
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Post by viserys on Nov 30, 2017 20:26:17 GMT
Can anyone recommend a good book about Broadway? None of those "Best 50 musicals in Broadway history" things - something like the West End Producer books for London or even a fictional story set in the world of Broadway musicals or something filled with anecdotes about Broadway... Hard to describe really, but I'm looking for a christmas gift for an American friend with an interest in Broadway.
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Dec 7, 2017 16:41:38 GMT
I bought This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay for my medical student daughter for Christmas and decided to read it to see if it might put her off. (It actually might, if truth be told.) Anyway, it is absolutely hilarious - and occasionally heart-rending - and could be a good stocking filler for people who like this sort of thing. (Purchase from Amazon for £7.49 currently, not Waterstones where I paid a humungous £13.99 (that included £3 off!) for 268 pages.) It won't be for everyone - it's very graphic and Dr Kay spent several years on obs and gynae so there are lots of stories of childbirth, be warned! Also, um, it falls to the obs and gynae department to, er, retrieve, shall we say, objects that have been mislaid in places that never see the light of day. Suffice to say that I no longer have Kinder eggs on my Christmas list and we'll leave it at that.... Kay writes well - the book takes a diary form with short entries and I presume some of the stories are slightly embellished for our (often laugh-out-loud) amusement. Be warned that it is also shockingly candid about the 12 hour night shifts junior doctors get thrown into and the astronomical responsibility they have from the day they leave medical school. Recommended.
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Jan 24, 2018 19:53:56 GMT
Popped into Waterstones and decided to treat myself to a guilty pleasure - the third in the Jojo Moyes, Me Before You series entitled Still Me.
It has just come out and is half price. (Still £10. Eeek.) I got to the till.
"Have you got a Waterstones card?" Chirruped the girl.
"Oh, er....." burrow, dig, people in queue tut....come up with Temptations card, Paperchase card, Nero card, Costa card.......rummage rummage.....
"It's green and black," added the girl, helpfully.
"Aha! Is this it?"
"Yes, thank you.......You've got £19.50 on there. Would you like to use it now?"
WHAT? WOW!
Bargain! I even got change!
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4,038 posts
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Post by kathryn on May 21, 2018 22:04:04 GMT
Digging this thread up because I just finished a book some here might like: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel.
It opens with an actor dying onstage during a production of King Lear just before the outbreak of a deadly flu pandemic, and partly follows a troupe of travelling actors and musicians 20 years after the ensuing collapse of civilisation.
Obviously it’s not the most cheerful book ever, but well-written and thought-provoking!
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2018 12:57:48 GMT
I bought This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay for my medical student daughter for Christmas and decided to read it to see if it might put her off. (It actually might, if truth be told.) Anyway, it is absolutely hilarious - and occasionally heart-rending - and could be a good stocking filler for people who like this sort of thing. (Purchase from Amazon for £7.49 currently, not Waterstones where I paid a humungous £13.99 (that included £3 off!) for 268 pages.) It won't be for everyone - it's very graphic and Dr Kay spent several years on obs and gynae so there are lots of stories of childbirth, be warned! Also, um, it falls to the obs and gynae department to, er, retrieve, shall we say, objects that have been mislaid in places that never see the light of day. Suffice to say that I no longer have Kinder eggs on my Christmas list and we'll leave it at that.... Kay writes well - the book takes a diary form with short entries and I presume some of the stories are slightly embellished for our (often laugh-out-loud) amusement. Be warned that it is also shockingly candid about the 12 hour night shifts junior doctors get thrown into and the astronomical responsibility they have from the day they leave medical school. Recommended. Second this. Brought from Tesco recently for £4! Great value and great read. Currently into the third installation of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihlation trilogy. Really enjoyable read, ranging broadly on the sci-fi scale. Going to have to re-read the full trilogy at some point as there’s parts I feel I’ve missed rushing through.
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Jun 14, 2018 18:56:52 GMT
I love Amazon sorcery! At lunch time I decided to splash out on Mark Billingham's latest Thorne book (published today) and it has just arrived at my door (via the neighbour's, but we'll gloss over that...boom boom!) Looks like Hendricks is in this one too, so I'm hoping for some good pathologist's jokes.
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211 posts
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Post by peelee on Aug 9, 2018 14:41:16 GMT
I'm nearing the end of The Lost Summer: The Heyday of the West End Theatre by Charles Duff, published by Nick Hern Books in 1995. It takes the career of actor, producer, director Frith Banbury and his various working and personal relationships as the organising idea for consideration of both well known and now less remembered plays, writers actors and producers of the 1940s-1960s in London's 'theatre land'. This probably makes it a bit lopsided—it is certainly not a text book—yet within its set limits it is systematic but also anecdotal, and I've learned something from it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2018 14:18:11 GMT
Giving this a bump.... Any recommendations for new reads? Any thoughts on the recent Man Booker '18 shortlist and winning book?
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1,093 posts
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Nov 5, 2018 20:44:54 GMT
Not new, but I found Covering Shakespeare in a library the other day. If it's half as bitchy and gossip as Covering McKellen I'll be happy.
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55 posts
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Post by carriesparkle on Nov 6, 2018 17:51:29 GMT
Not new, but I found Covering Shakespeare in a library the other day. If it's half as bitchy and gossip as Covering McKellen I'll be happy. It isn't as good, and lots of the stories are repeated!
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1,510 posts
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Post by anita on Nov 7, 2018 10:10:16 GMT
Have just got from the library Eric Idle's autobiography & the Richard Briers biography.
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5,582 posts
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Post by lynette on Nov 7, 2018 11:30:28 GMT
Have just got from the library Eric Idle's autobiography & the Richard Briers biography. Let us know what you th8 k of the Richard Briers. I was quite surprised by some of his story.
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1,177 posts
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Post by joem on Nov 7, 2018 22:26:33 GMT
I have just finished the very overrated "We That Are Young" (a pointless rehash of King Lear set in modern India) by Preti Taneja) and am nearing the finishing-line on a contemporaneous biography of Alfred the Great. To recover from these I've started "On The Bone" the 18th novel of the very readable Inspector Ikmen series by Barbara Nadel, set in Istanbul.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2018 23:10:04 GMT
I bought This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay for my medical student daughter for Christmas and decided to read it to see if it might put her off. (It actually might, if truth be told.) Anyway, it is absolutely hilarious - and occasionally heart-rending - and could be a good stocking filler for people who like this sort of thing. (Purchase from Amazon for £7.49 currently, not Waterstones where I paid a humungous £13.99 (that included £3 off!) for 268 pages.) It won't be for everyone - it's very graphic and Dr Kay spent several years on obs and gynae so there are lots of stories of childbirth, be warned! Also, um, it falls to the obs and gynae department to, er, retrieve, shall we say, objects that have been mislaid in places that never see the light of day. Suffice to say that I no longer have Kinder eggs on my Christmas list and we'll leave it at that.... Kay writes well - the book takes a diary form with short entries and I presume some of the stories are slightly embellished for our (often laugh-out-loud) amusement. Be warned that it is also shockingly candid about the 12 hour night shifts junior doctors get thrown into and the astronomical responsibility they have from the day they leave medical school. Recommended. I heard him on the radio recently, talking about this book, and thought it sounded like a good read.
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2,302 posts
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 8, 2018 14:37:09 GMT
Any recommendations for new reads? Been meaning to share this one. Right up my alley being both crime and theatre. 'If We Were Villains' By M.L. Rio (no, me neither.) This is a whodunnit, set in an elite US conservatoire, involving 7 final year Shakespeare drama students. They are so pretentious that they constantly quote Shakespeare at each other in their everyday lives. I thought I'd like this aspect more than I did - I'm quite up on my Shakespeare, but they quoted so much from his more obscure plays that I didn't recognise more than I did. lynette, this is probably one for you! The book begins 10 years after graduation with Oliver, one of the 7, about to be released from prison, having served 10 years for murdering/causing the death of one of the other 6. The policeman who prosecuted him is not convinced of his guilt and thinks he is covering for one of the others and he meets with Oliver in an effort to get him to admit the whole truth. Set over 5 acts (of course!) which are all flashbacks leading up to, and a little beyond, The Death, each act starts with a prologue set in the present. These drama students, a close-knit bunch of friends, are annoying, entitled and so incredibly arrogant that in their own minds the lines between acting and real life begin to blur; fight scenes are taken too far and they start to really physically hurt each other as their hidden animosities begin to surface. Who might have wanted another one dead and the reason why Oliver (if, indeed, he did) took the rap are plentiful. It could have been better - the characters are not particularly well drawn (making the first few chapters difficult as we try to remember who is who.) But I thought it was an original take on a whodunnit and I absolutely loved the ending.
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5,582 posts
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Post by lynette on Dec 7, 2018 14:41:32 GMT
Is the right place for this guys? About the Daniel Rosenthal exited NT letters? I’ve just finished this. Some tasty nuggets of gossip come through but what does come through very clearly is the iron grip that Stoppard, Hare, Bean and Bennett have on the NT repertoire. Women hardly feature in any capacity - a designer here and there and v early on Peggy Ramsey. Marianne Elliot mentioned. But to be honest a long list of the declining power of play writing with successes being mainly the funny ones or the deeply sentimental. This book is good accompaniment to his History of the NT which has loads of detail about the money! And other stuff. Both good for ‘did you knows?’ over the Xmas lunch table.
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3,470 posts
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Post by showgirl on Dec 7, 2018 15:55:52 GMT
Being on sick leave from my voluntary job I've read more books in the last 3 weeks than I normally read in a year - and I love reading; it's just that the time would always be at the expense of something else. I stick almost exclusively to fiction as I struggle with anything else.
So I've read a huge variety recently, though I confess to including a lot of Elin Hilderbrand novels which I think must the the US equivalent of what we'd call an "airport novel" - or possibly "chick-lit", but I know the latter term is contentious. Anyway, they're the reading equivalent of fast food and though at times I didn't feel up to anything more demanding, read too many in succession and you feel the lack of something more nourishing.
The most challenging read was the english translation of Uwe Tellkamp's long (1,000 page) novel, The Tower, about life in East Germany immediately prior to the fall of the wall. I'd had it on my reading heap for months and had been looking forward to it, but though I persevered I was very disappointed by the treatment of such a promising subject and the style was very very off-putting: full of purple passages and endless description, which I hate. There are fascinating books to be written on that subject but for me, this wasn't one of them. I moaned so much that OH is now reading it and says he's enjoying it, but even he can only take a little at a time.
For light relief I also read a few crime novels (not my usual genre), but the implausible plots were annoying. My favourite type of book is somewhere in between all the above, ie reasonably literary, with credible plot and characters; hence I enjoyed an older novel by David Lodge which I hadn't read: Deaf Sentence. He was always one of my favourite authors when I was younger but as his output tailed off, so I was less aware of what he was writing.
Ideally there'd have been a new Kate Atkinson (one of my favourite writers), but I'd already read, and been somewhat disappointed by, her latest (Transcription), so no luck there.
And having confessed to my guilty pleasure in reading Elin Hilderbrand, I surprised myself by picking up and enjoying the 2nd novel in Kevin Kwan's "Asia" series (for want of an umbrella term). I hadn't even known that there was a trilogy and I hadn't read the first, Crazy Rich Asians, but I had seen the film and my local library had the second book, China Rich Girlfriend, so I devoured that in a matter of hours, though all the footnotes were irritating - reminiscent of a textbook - and I couldn't begin to understand all the layers of snobbery and one-upmanship in China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
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5,582 posts
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Post by lynette on Dec 8, 2018 7:42:22 GMT
Crime with a good plot, try Sara Paretsky. The later ones are excellent. I have the very latest ready for Xmas reading as antidote to Xmas Strictly!
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