January and February 2014 Reading

Our current Reading Box in 2014 is quite full.  

Reading of books in italics has been completed in 2014.

  The idea behind this post is to spark off possible reading choices of F Fiction or NF Non Fiction books by you the reader in a similar way to books we have found on other's web sites.

  Benchmarks for the History Books have been listed to private a reference point for readers of this post and what opposition new books being read have to contend with before being placed on our books to keep bookshelves .

  1.0  Modern History

 Recent and old benchmarks:- 

  F - Books read in 2012 and 2013

 The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, Never Forget by Angela Petch, The Garden of the Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. A Half a Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink - a translation, Winter by Len Deighton and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

NF - A sample of the many books we have as non-fiction good reads.  

Nab End and Beyond by William Woodruff, Evidence in Camera by Constance Babbington Smith, Defeat into Victory by William Slim, War Diaries 1939 to 1945 by Alan Brooke, Wild Swans by Jung Chang and Under Fire Oliver North. These for a start to set a high bar.

Current Reading

 •NF The Sky Wept Fire: My Life as a Chechen Freedom Fighter by Mikail Eldin. Carry over from 2013. Reading this to gain a better understanding of events and wars in Chechnya. Reading on …

 •NF A History of the World - by Andrew Marr. Writing a history of the world is a ridiculous thing to do ... How about that for an opening line! A present. – Like the captions … Picture of Hitler – ‘He told the world just what he intended to do: the world refused to  believe him.’ Also in category 2.0 below Reading on …

 •F The Yellow Birds. Kevin Powers – Read like an autobiography. On completion not sure about the book. We think it may become memorable. The difficulties and horrors of carrying out a war in close contact with civilians or fighters posing as civilians. Completed.

 •NF The Railwayman - by Eric Lomax. We have had this book for a long time unread but read as film released before we saw the film. Completed. May be added to our benchmarks. Very interesting and educational book leading us to order Sir Richard Atcherley Prisoner of Japan and Ronald Searle's book of sketches as Patti looked at during the film.

 •NF John Betjeman On Trains – Jonathan Glancy. Not a fan of the latter but enough of Betjeman to make it very readable.

 •F The Gift of Rain – by Tan Twan Eng – Yet to start. High hopes given The Garden of the Evening Mists.

 2.0 Pre 1900 History

   F Benchmarks

• F Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett, Robert Harris Pompeii and his series about Cicero – a tutorial in politics.

 F Current Reading

•F The Last Kingdom (The Warrior Chronicles, Book 1) by Bernard Cornwell. – Started, but not carrying us away reading on …

 •F Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon – Started, but not carrying us away reading on …

 3.0 Other

 •F Assassin - by Tom Cain. Read book in 24 hours did little for us.

 •F The Abomination (The Carnivia Trilogy) by Jonathan Holt. Read book in 24 hours did little for us.

 •F Kiss me First by Lottie Maggoch – Not the easiest of reads but we are hooked into finding out how the book ends.

 •F Life after Life – Kate Atkinson – Purchased yesterday. Comes highly recommended, but so have many other books we have not liked.

 •F A small Death In Lisbon– Robert Wilson – Yet to make other than a token start … recommended with Winter by Len Deighton

 4.0 Books being read to help Allrighters’ Writing – We Hope!

 •F - A Little, Aloud: An anthology of prose and poetry for reading aloud to someone you care for by Angela Macmillan – A real gem.

 •F - A Little, Aloud, for Children - by Michael Morpurgo – Another real gem.

 •F - This Isn't The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You - by Jon McGregor. Short stories on the strange side but he has us hooked! Been reading this on and off for months.

 •F - Zoo Time- by Howard Jacobson. Densely written but to us very funny. Hard to read more than a few pages at a time.

 •NF - Sieze the Day Shirley Billing – Carried over from 2013. This will help us in the completion of a non fiction book about our Ocean Sailing.

 •NF - Writers' & Artists' Guide to How to Write – Harry Bingham. As some say it is as good as Stephen King’s On Writing we will persevere. John Braine’s book Writing a Novel is another of our benchmarks.

 •NF –Self Editing for Fiction Writers 1993 – Renni Browne and Dave King. Came highly recommended. Booked has been highlighted by a previous reader. Looks promising as we are reading about areas Iwe have already been pulled up on.

Somehow we also need to find time to write and self edit!

Good reading. Please provide recommendations of further reading as comments.

The Allrighters'