Shovelmonkey1 > Recent Status Updates

So I'm going to Iraq to work. Can someone recommend me some good Iraq based reading. Either travel books or a story which is based there?

Second time reading this and it is still a joy.

In some places repetitive but that only serves to hammer home the drudgery and despair of life in Kolyma. Unique stories.

Better than The Passage in some ways... worse in others. But i like it!

From. The passage straight onto The Twelve. Finding these books quite engrossing or i am just easily pleased at the moment!

And already almost at the point of uttering those immortal lines...

This book is a toiler. Must... persevere...

A very surprising book. The flowery cover has disguised the weighty and quite excellent contents.

This book is good, but not what it says on the tin. So far the central character who ties everyone together has been mentioned about five times.

Wow a mixed bag of reviews for this weighty tome here on goodreads. Certain pages are as dry as a piece of biltong but like biltong there's plenty to chew on.

Quite brilliant, and unexpectedly so as I've never heard of this author before and encountered this world book night copy quite by chance.

I want to be absorbed into this but my eyes keep wandering off the page and when I retrieve them i find my brain has forgotten immediately what was on the page!

I am officially re-starting to read this in a few days.

Been reading this very slowly as commuting and work schedule have not permitted me time for concentrated reading of late.

When I am dead, mingle our ashes and bury us together. Nothing says forever like a shared urn.

Ok so i'm not blown away by this but its a pleasant enough commuter read. And now can we get to the fighting already. Also Odysseus is probably now my favourite character. A political trouble shooter, like a ancient Graeco Malcom Tucker without the swearing

Liking rather than loathing thus far

Just looked at everyone elses ratings and it seems this is the book that truly divided my goodreads friend. Some are in camp love-it but just as many set up their tents in camp-you-gotta-be-f***ing kidding me...

I waited for this to come to me via bookcrossing but then i got put to the back of the queue so i figure balls, I'll buy myself a copy. And I'm loving it so far

i am still not scared !

Still waiting for something scary or disturbing to happen...

i think this will be a book I'll persevere with only to think it wasn't quite worth it in the end

So far so readable. Strong characters and clear evidence of detailed historical research.