The Books Thread

[Ian]

Listening to the audiobook of the Richard Laymon horror classic Endless Night. 16 year old Jody is staying over with her best friend when the home is invaded in the night by a pack of human-flesh-wearing serial thrill killers. The family is butchered, but Jody manages to get her and her friend's 12 year old brother out of the house - but the nightmare is far from over. The pack dare not allow any survivors or witnesses and will go any lengths to finish them off. The daughter of a soldier turned cop, Jody is a tough kid - and she's going to need to be... Remember reading this 20 years ago and it's just as f*****g terrifying on audio. A real edge of the seat nailbiter, and not for the faint-hearted!

[fish]

...when the home is invaded in the night by a pack of human-flesh-wearing serial thrill killers...

I hate it when that happens.

[snaps]

...when the home is invaded in the night by a pack of human-flesh-wearing serial thrill killers...

I hate it when that happens.

I remember it If it was set in Sweden they would say 'Excuse, but would you mind removing your shoes first?'

[snaps]

'The Year of Living Danishly'[/size] [size=150]Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country[/size] by Helen Russell

Bought for £1 from British Heart Foundation bookshop. Obviously an unloved and untouched Xmas present - the original price £8.99 - It has given me much joy and laughter - well worth paying the full-price for. a real-life story full of adventure, laughter, frustration, that will make you feel glad to be alive.

Helen Russell, at 33, a highly ambitious journalist but burned-out executive. UK editor of the International Marie Claire magazine. Happily married to a successful 'boyish' business executive. Mutually prosperous but feeling the 'no-fun' effects of living inside the goldfish bowl of corporatist life. Unable to conceive a child for no apparent physiological reasons.

He is 'headhunted' by the Danish company 'Lego' (the childrens interlocking plastic bricks company) his childhood fantasy. Throwing caution to the wind, they accept and commit themselves to the unknown, albeit for a taste for Scandinavian Noir TV serials.

The book documents, month-by-month, Helen's attempts (alongside her husband) to enagage with Danish culture in Jutland, sometrimes succesfully, most often not with hilarious consequences. As a bona fide investigative journalist she sets herself the basic question 'why is this the World's happiest country' ?

Her answers, thoroughly researched, are a shock to the system. Economically the highest taxed system in the world. Likewise, the most generous benefits available to all. On a social level, the most tolerant and liberal but at the same time socially conservative and 'law-abiding',

A thoroughly fascinating read. Eye-opening but at the same time not afraid to challenge the 'Danish norm' in daily life- from the point of view of an 'outsider'

Have fun reading, I know that I have.

[fish]

'The Year of Living Danishly'

Sounds like a great read.

[Ian]

The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber. Shocking true story of the American male nurse who may be the country's worst serial killer, murdering up to 300 patients over 16 years at nine hospitals. Even more alarming are the general uselessness and sometimes even outright corrupt hospital administrators, who have their suspicions but never call the police and just fire him, at which point he just goes and gets a job at another hospital and starts all over again. In some cases they actively cover up blatantly suspicious deaths and even tried to block the police investigation, all for the sake of saving their reputations and avoiding litigation.
Scary stuff.

[Ian]

Death in the Air by Kate Winkler Dawson. The gripping true story of the toxic fog that killed thousands over the course of five days in 1950s London - and a rather more human serial killer operating in the area at the same time. A compulsive read.

[bruno]

The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber. Shocking true story of the American male nurse who may be the country's worst serial killer, murdering up to 300 patients over 16 years at nine hospitals. Even more alarming are the general uselessness and sometimes even outright corrupt hospital administrators, who have their suspicions but never call the police and just fire him, at which point he just goes and gets a job at another hospital and starts all over again. In some cases they actively cover up blatantly suspicious deaths and even tried to block the police investigation, all for the sake of saving their reputations and avoiding litigation.
Scary stuff.

In Italy a diabolical pair (male doctor, female nurse) went on killing old people. Maybe he killed his own father too (no definite proof). She killed her own mother and husband, then said to him (tapped by the police): "if you want, I'll kill the children too" [dead husband's sons].
He used to say: "I am like god" because he could decide who lived and who died.
She: "Once in a while I have this fancy to kill someone, I need it."
Somebody was intimidated, someone was silent because the hospital reputation would have suffered from it...
When an ambulance went in with an old patient, he phoned to paramedics: "Take the patient to me, I'll apply my own method." Many people, probably everybody, knew.

Heady stuff, folks

I don't know if someone will make a film from this...

http://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/artico ... refresh_ce

[fish]

...I don't know if someone will make a film from this...

Bloody Hell!
Is this a work of fiction or did it really happen?


Hi Bruno.

[bruno]

Bloody Hell!
Is this a work of fiction or did it really happen?


Hi Bruno.

Hello fish.
it really happened in a serene small town some miles from me.

[Ian]

Terrifying.

[fish]

Terrifying.

It's hard to feel safe anywhere these days.