They made a cinema version of the "Never let me go". I quite enjoyed the movie, so I am tempted to try the book, though I dread the idea at the same time. "The Unconsoled" drove me into a irrational fury, making me throw the book out of a 2nd floor window... I think I would have commited something insane if I found myself inside a lift at this time...

The book 'Never Let Me Go' is an easy, quite enjoyable read, but at the end you do wonder about human nature.

Very true.

Frederick Forsyth's 'The Cobra' totally up-to-the-minute book on the subject of cocaine smuggling.

Currently reading A Scanner Darkly which was recommended to me by a friend. Whilst its fairly off the wall it was written by the author of, Shutter island, Blade Runner and Total recall. So big respect to Philip K Dick

Currently reading Eddie Rickenbackers autobiography. What a man.

Shantaram - and EVO magazine.

I've been reading a novel by a Swiss author. Actually, an Expat. It's called The Spanish Helmet and the author is Greg Scowen. I saw it in the Orell Füssli English bookshop in Zürich but had already ordered it on Amazon.com
It is based in New Zealand (mostly) and then in Zürich so was interesting to read.

Superfreakonomics.
(And to think just seven years ago I failed an all-important exam because I didn't know anything about Bretton Woods. Not that Superfreakonomics would have helped with that in particular)

More Superfreakonomics is also worth a read.

Dead Man's Grip by Peter James, excellent series

After a failed attempt to read Finnegan's wake I went to the light side, and read "Sunset Park", by Paul Auster. I liked "Brooklyn Follies", "The night of the oracle", "Leviathan" and "Moon Palace". I didn't enjoy the New York trilogy so much (or Travels in the scriptorium), but I gave this one a shot, and it was OK. Rather disappointing towards the end.

I am about to start "The Yiddish Policemen's Union", by Michael Chabon. A few years ago I read "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" which became one of my all-time favourites, but haven't read anything by him since. Looking forward to it.

__________________
The internet makes it easy to be a jerk and forget the person we're talking to is a human. It also makes us see messages from awful people and assume they come from normal peers.

I just finished "The Game" from Neil Strauss. Very good. Highly recommended

I finished "Contagious" by Scott Sigler, a thriller which a sequel to his earlier novel "Infected." Both are recommended, but I strongly recommend not reading Contagious until after you have finished Infected. Spoilers for the first novel are given away in the first chapter of the second book to get new readers up to speed. Also, there is significant character development which will be missed if the first book is skipped.

Infected is about a mysterious new disease that is turning ordinary Americans into psychopathic killers willing to slaughter loved ones nearest and dearest to them. The book follows the efforts of a small team trying to figure out what this threat is and how to stop it. Margaret Montoya, a scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is leading the effort on the medical front, but one of her biggest problem is finding a living victim. CIA agent and Vietnam veteran Dew Phillips is trying to do just that, but it's hard to do when most of the victims have become homicidal lunatics by the time he's found them. Finally, there's former All-American University of Michigan linebacker Perry Dawson, who was a sure bet to become an NFL star before an injury ended those hopes. He's a strong man who has had anger management issue in the past, but takes great pride in keeping that anger under control. You guessed what happens---Dawson gets infected, and the reader slowly watches him succumb to this disease. But Perry doesn't go down without a fight---he actively fights against the infection and against itself, but can the good guys find him before he becomes a killer?

It's trickier to talk about the plot for Contagious without revealing spoilers for the first book, but I'll let one tiny one out----Dawson survives Infected. Now that the government knows what the infection is trying to do (turning Americans into killers isn't the main goal---that's something more sinister), Dawson is working with Montoya and Phillips to find and stop other infected victims. One reason for reading Infected first is that Dawson isn't particularly sympathetic in the beginning, and if you don't know what he went through in the first book, you might not have the patience to see through what he goes through in the second, but it IS worth it. You see more of Perry's humanity come out in the second book, and his biggest fear is that the infection will take him over again and he will become a mindless killer. Phillips and Dawson begin the book as antagonists (carrying over from the last book) but they slowly become friends and to my surprise, this friendship becomes very moving. Characters in Contagious are forced to make difficult sacrifices, and they develop as the book progresses. Other characters die unexpectedly, the survivors must grieve and then carry on. Scott Sigler breaks the rules you expect not to happen in a mindless thriller or a Hollywood movie, and thus you get a better story. You also get one of the best "evil child" characters in all of literature. Chelsea Jewell is a beautiful, precocious 8-year old girl in northern Michigan who becomes infected with the new strain. But for reasons I can't divulge right now, Chelsea isn't simply a victim---she becomes a villain. Basically, she is an unspankable brat who has no conscience and is completely selfish. So although she is still only a child, Chelsea is the one who has to be stopped at the very end.

These books are not only available in English in Switzerland...

http://www.exlibris.ch/buecher-buch/...=9780307406309

http://www.exlibris.ch/buecher-buch/...=9780307406323

They're also available in German:

http://www.exlibris.ch/buecher-buch/...=9783453433632

http://www.exlibris.ch/buecher-buch/...3453433816&s=b

Here is the French version of Infected. (Don't think Contagious has been translated yet)

http://www.payot.ch/fr/nosLivres/nos...?payotAction=1

I think Contagious has been translated into Italian, but I can't find a link at a Swiss bookstore:

http://www.ibs.it/code/9788834717158.../contagio.html

Hope this helps!

The book I'm currently reading is "At Basilisk Station" by David Weber. Imagine Horatio Hornblower in charge of a starship instead of a frigate. Now imagine her as a woman, and you've got Honour Harrington, the protagonist of a very successful sci-fi series by Weber. The best part about this novel? I'm reading it for free---and so can you. I was able to download this to my Kindle from the Baen Free Library, but if you can't do that, you can still read it on-line:

http://www.webscription.net/p-304-on...k-station.aspx

My biggest nitpick? I know Weber is an American author, and Baen is an American publisher---but it's obvious that these characters are British---why not use British spelling?

For those who don't just want to read this book, here are some useful links:

http://www.exlibris.ch/buecher-buch/...=9780743435710 (English---original version)

http://www.exlibris.ch/buecher-buch/...=9783404231942 (German)

http://www.payot.ch/fr/nosLivres/nos...?payotAction=1 (French)

Don't see an Italian translation for this book, but I discovered something else which should please book lovers in Ticino:

http://www.amazon.it/

Hey, great link, thank you. I will try it tonight. I wanted to buy the Michael Chabon "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" ebook for my kindle but alas, it's not available in ebook through Amazon. Oh well, I thought, perhaps I can read it in my significantly smaller screen size Nook...but B&N only offers it in Spanish in electronic format.

So I need to start something new. I'm refusing to read the last book I ever purchased on paper, The Fountainhead (which is pretty thick and heavy). So I think tonight I will give the Baen Free Library a look.

Thanks again !

__________________
The internet makes it easy to be a jerk and forget the person we're talking to is a human. It also makes us see messages from awful people and assume they come from normal peers.

Just started to read another book of Amos Oz.

Oh Amos, I fall in love with you all over again.
You are so good at story telling.

Hi,
I'm reading now Henrich Böll 'The Clown'.
The book is in German. It is a part of my ongoing German-improvement program :-). So far, so good. Before, I tried Max Frisch 'Homofaber', also in German. Couldn't make it to the end. I found it boring.

Regards

Amos Oz Is a wonderful writer, which is why his Kindle books still cost quite a bit from Amazon. They obviously don't need to give them away.

Brian Moore - Beware of the Dog, fantastic sports autobiography even if you arent into rugby