knowing full well this thread is doomed...
since following hockey normally consumes approx 71% of my free time; there is lots of free time to fill, ( downloaded all five seasons of The Wire this morning. yeah, i've already seen it ) and i've been 'catching up on some reading'. i greatly enjoyed each of the five novels on this list. if you've got a recent favourite, please post.
thank you to wikipedia for much of the folowing content;
1. The Bishop's Man, Linden MacIntyre.
The Bishop's Man is a novel by Canadian writer Linden MacIntyre, published in August 2009. The story follows a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill who became so successful at resolving potential church scandals quickly and quietly that he had to accept a position at remote parish on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to give himself a low profile. MacIntyre, a native of Cape Breton, released the novel amidst the on-going sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese in Nova Scotia. The book was awarded the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Canadian Booksellers Association's Fiction Book of the Year. Critics gave positive reviews, especially noting MacIntyre's successful development of characters.
2. Capital, John Lanchester. great read. loved it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012...chester-review
3. Quality of Mercy, Barry Unsworth. sequel to Sacred Hunger, (Sacred Hunger is a historical novel by Barry Unsworth first published in 1992. It shared the Booker Prize that year with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.
The story is set in the mid 18th century and centres around the Liverpool Merchant, a slave ship employed in the triangular trade, a central trade route in the Atlantic slave trade. The two main characters are cousins Erasmus Kemp, son of a wealthy merchant from Lancashire and Matthew Paris, a physician and scientist who goes on the voyage. The novel's central theme is greed, with the subject of slavery being a primary medium for exploring the issue. The story line has a very extensive cast of characters, some featuring in only one scene, others continually developed throughout the story, but most described in intricate detail. The narrative interweaves elements of appalling cruelty and horror with extended comedic interludes, and employs frequent period expressions.) which i read several years ago. Quality is his last book, as Unsworth died in june.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...nsworth-review
4. Live By Night, Dennis Lehane. one of my favourite novelists. starting one of his books is a bit like breaking the limb you are sitting on, high up a tree. thrilling rides, many collisions, you can't stop. Lehane has written several books that have been made into movies, including, Shutter Island, Mystic River, and Gone Baby Gone.
this book is the sequel to The Given Day ( The Given Day is a novel by Dennis Lehane published in September 2008; it is about the early twentieth-century period and set in Boston, Massachusetts, where its actions include the 1919 police strike, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the thriving Greenwood District was known as the "Black Wall Street". Lehane has said he intends to write at least two follow-up novels. In October 2012 Lehane released his first follow up novel, "Live By Night." )
5. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel.
Wolf Hall (2009) is a multi-award winning historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family seat of Wolfhall or Wulfhall in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII of England, through the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.[1][2] In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".[3]
The book is the first in a planned trilogy; the sequel Bring Up the Bodies was published in 2012.[4]
i've just begun Bring Up the Bodies. clearly, i enjoy the historical fiction genre.
