Just finished: . . . and I ran to the library between MLS games to pick up the next book in the series: Post Commander was terrific, and I appreciate the complexity of the Aubrey-Maturin relationship, not to mention Maturin being important in his own right (as opposed to "just" being the ship's doctor).
Dan Brown seems to have gone into hibernation lately. I have enjoyed his books; they are quick reads, and are entertaining. Eye of the Law (A Mara, Brehon of the Burren mystery). The intrepid Brehon solves a case of two murders, set in 16th Century Ireland. Each chapter begins with a quotation of the Brehon Laws, and which is in some way applicable to the events of that chapter. Book 5 in a series of at least 9 so far.
I'm halfway through it and liking it as well. I like how he assumes you read The Fall of Giants and doesn't repeat thing over and over again. That's one of the things that makes GRRM's a Song of Fire and Ice a bit tedious at times
Dashiell Hammett -- The Dain Curse I've read three of these. Started The Dain Curse today; have The Glass Key yet to read.
Book Description Publication Date: June 2, 2011 Far from the massive crowds is a journey which traces the fortunes of Guisborough Town Football Club in the STL Northern League Division 2 as they strive for promotion. The season has more twists and turns than Johan Cruyff as the reader is taken on a North Eastern journey which chronicles not only football in the area, but also the historical and social backgrounds to places which have made them what they are today. Far from the Premiership and far from predictable, this is grassroots football at its best.
Pretty good series especially seeing O'Brian wasn't a sailor. He does catch the nautical genre well though and the time frame. I'm off on vacation in a couple, or 3 weeks. I may have to pick up some of his earliest books and revisit. I like to sail and race and I like history so it all comes together for me. I especially like the covers. I's naval artwork. I don't know when I've spent so much time looking at book covers, the detail is special.
I'm liking the series, he gets deep into the social commentary that others just gloss over. I remember Mosely from after WWII. Yeh, I know, I'm old. I was a kid when he came to do his spiel in post war Liverpool, still trying to get people to listen to him and his brand of right wing socialism. An uncle of mine went to see what he was on about and about 10 minutes into his speech a guy in the crowd became so mad he picked up a half brick and threw it at him, yelling. "I spend four years fighting bastards like you.... and that's when the fight started.
Wow. A friend of mine has been working on a documentary film called "Bad Tattoo.". I'll have to ask if he's familiar with this. In continuing my "Books Turned Into Musical Performances" theme, I'm about halfway through this James Michener's Tales From The South Pacific. in grad school, I read a pretty much all the major WWII American blockbuster novels. But not this one. I'd tried to make my way through some of Michiner's other works, but his prose was just too damn clunky. He's not too bad here.
He does get pretty verbose, doesn't he. Some of the SP tales are pretty good though. I've forgotten, does he mention Quinn's Bar? Only asking because I sailed into Tahiti and went there for a night out many, many, many years ago.....name dropping!!! I tried reading his "Poland" about 6 times, finally tossed it. And Iberia although I enjoyed part of it, I felt it could have been improved, by cutting/editing out about 75% But then they didn't make those into musicals............ Edit: I believe they did with Sayonara though. A semi bio about his 3rd wife.
While not source material, if you do make it to Sound of Music, might I suggest Forever Liesl -- Charmian Carr I stumbled upon this years ago in an effort to find an easily-accessible memoir that I could use to introduce my daughter to the genre. She never read it, but this is a surprisingly charming little book about what it meant to luck into a singular role in one of the world's most iconic movies. Carr is fully cognizant that the role has defined her life, and she's at complete peace with that. This little book is a joy to read.
No mention of Quinn's Bar yet. I'll keep my eyes open. Some parts of this book are better than others. Michener's never going to be discussed with the lkes of Nabakov in terms of his prose style, but he holds his own in this one with James Jones (From Here To Eternity) and maybe even Norman Mailer (The Naked and the Dead) ... But I think he had a better editor on this one than on those later doorstops that I really wish were better. Well, I did read Leslie Caron's memoir... And hey, a quick search tells me it's at the library I have to stop at tomorrow. Since Amazon hasn't delivered Flower Drum Song yet, we'll be watching The Sound of Music tonight. My wife played Liesl in 9th grade, 11th grade, and her Sophomore year of college. I suspect one of us will participate in a sing-along version.
Dashiell Hammett -- The Glass Key My final one of Hammett's five novels. Very good at the halfway point. Hope to finish tonight!
Father in law has been pushing Lee Child on me for a while. He heard that there was a Jack Reacher movie coming out soon, and that he wants to see it (and he rarely wants to do anything with me), so I'm giving this a read. While the mid-range action/plot was easy enough to guess, I'm half way through and have no idea where we go from here. But, this could be the result of great writing, or conversely, really sucky writing....
i generally avoid judging a book until i finish and i'm only a third through this but it's excellent. romain gary was born in russia, flew in the battle of britain with free french forces, was france's consul general in los angeles, was married to jean seberg, won the goncourt twice under different names and, as i am discovering, for very good reason. to add to the good things the english version is not a translation, he wrote the book himself in both languages, in fact it started out as a short story in life.
I quite liked the Child Reacher series, only got a couple more to have read them all. The one they're making the movie of "One Shot" isn't a bad read But! It's going to be really hard for me after reading all the books to put 5 foot 7 inch Tom Cruise into a 6 foot 5 inch part. I prolly will give it a shot...so to speak.
Sounds like someting I'd be interested in, time to bring up my library and see if they can get it for me. Thanks..! Sound a "little" like a friend of mine. I used to work with him in an engineering firm and we'd moonlight at night in the Liverpool clubs as bouncers. He walked out of Poland aged 15 when the German's marched in. Crossed Denmark and found a small boat and eventually got to England. Lied about his age and joined the Commandoes going on a few raids with them. After the war he got bored so went and joined the Foreign Legion. Came back, got an engineering degree, got married and had kids. So just for a bit of something to do at night, we'd go tossing drunks out of places when they got obnoxious. He should have written a book.
They don't list Romain Gary's "White Dog" in my library. they do have a couple of his books and DVD set called "THE LONGEST DAY" Go figure....! Just after we were discussing the movie. Funny old life isn't it????
he was the head screenwriter for the longest day... and samuel fuller, a WWII vet who made the big red one, directed a movie based on white dog.
I did not know that. I don't think I've seen The Longest Day since I've been old enough to pay attention to things like screenwriters and directors.
Black Sun Rising by CS Friedman Started this on a recommendation from my sister. Her tastes don't overlap that much with mine, but after a slightly awkward start, it's looking like a rousingly entertaining fantasy tale.
have just finished and though i would not venture to claim it as one of the geat works of the history of world literature it is a truly excellent book. it's about 1968. it deals mainly with civil rights activism in los angeles, with side trips into the may events in paris, viewed from a personal, particularly wry, unflinchingly candid but above all ferociously lucid point of view. it portrays that time with an exactness and insight that will make anyone old enough to have lived through those days paradoxically nostalgic, but distills an essence from them that can be applied to most of the issues we discuss right now in the P&C board : the tea party, al-qaida, freedom fries, OWS, hurricane katrina and more. and all written down in a way woven just tightly enough that all the threads hold together without tangling but loose enough not to bind. beyond an instinctive but faultless sensitivity to the underlying right and wrong of things, he didn't know quite what to make of it all. he draws no conclusions, but strenuously urges us to try to do so, but under the strict condition those conclusions be neither hasty nor facile, and least of all self-serving.
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card Not originally meant to be a sequel to Ender's Game, Card initially wrote this as a stand-alone story then rewrote it bit by bit to make it a very significant contribution to Ender's story. Only about 1/4 to 1/3 the way in, and I'm definitely hooked. Can't wrap my head around the whole space travel/time/relativity thing though; Ender was born 2,000+ years prior to this story, but is biologically only in his 30s.