At this moment I am reading David Grann - The white darkness a book about Henry Worsley, who has traveled several times to the South Pole Very interesting and perhaps a way to escape the summer heath.
I just finished The Good Lord Bird by James McBride, which is a fictionalized portrayal of 19th century abolitionist John Brown and his attack on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, as seen through the eyes of a young African-American teen boy passing as a girl who joins Brown's "army" to survive after his father is killed. Apparently the novel won the National Book Award for Fiction and was also made into a miniseries.
Graham Moore's The Last Days Of Night is a thriller-like novel based on the "electric war" between Tesla and Edison.
11/22/63 is indeed an excellent "late King" book.
I will recommend something even longer -- a trilogy of doorstop fantasies, in fact, but incredibly good. It's called "The Broken Earth," by N.K. Jemisin; the first trilogy ever to win the Hugo award for all three volumes. (Also the first writer to win the novel Hugo three years in a row; also the first Black woman to win the novel Hugo. For what that's worth.) It's set on what might or might not be a distant future Earth -- if it is, we're talking hundreds of megayears, because the continents have come together again -- where occasional geological "events" cause a "fifth season," i.e., the geological equivalent of "nuclear winter." The first book (The Fifth Season, surprise surprise) begins with a deliberately-induced "event" which destroys the continent's biggest, most powerful city and brings on a disastrous fifth season. Then things get complicated.
After reading this, I ran out and bought everything Jemisin has in print (to date: two trilogies, two duologies, and one short story collection. None of the series are in the same "world" as any of the others; when she's done with a story, she's done with it...)
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I'm reading "Reborn" by F. Paul Wilson. If you've seen the movie or read the book "The Keep," this is another standalone novel in a series of related books. It's really good so far!
Lou, I finished Richard Laymon's "Body Rides." An interesting idea, but not one of the best of his books I read. Still has some pretty weird, risqué stuff in it.
I just read Christopher Priest’s The Prestige which was a 99p Kindle bargain. I hadn’t been aware of it, in spite of there being a movie too, although reading the plot synopsis, it seems a very different tale to the one in the book. I enjoyed it, but thought it might go somewhere different than where it ended up.
I am now half way into David Mitchell’s Number 9 Dream which I read upon publication, but am revisiting as I’m sure it will reveal some new connections and interesting links to his later novels. I did the same with Ghostwritten a while ago, and it was quite revealing. Whilst nothing can be said to be a sequel, I do like the way his stories include characters and relationships that you have encountered before.
Chris - Priest is Nina Allan's partner!
Do you know any of his "Dream Archipelago" works? - I think that they may contain his best writing.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
They're connected by setting, Chris - but also by "mood" - the "how" of being there.
You'll get what I mean, once you settle in with them!
I really liked The Affirmation, and The Gradual, but the short story collection The Dream Archipelago I did not enjoy much. Lots of potential in the setting, but IMO the stories are just not particularly good and he doesn't make much use of the world they're set in. But you may feel differently, so please let us know your thoughts once you read it.
"what's better, peanut butter or g-sharp minor?"
- Sturgeon's Lawyer, 2021
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