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Meadow337 said:
technically still busy as I am on book two of the series but Raising Atlantis by Thomas Greanias, despite some glaring factual errors (note to budding authors RESEARCH! if you don't know how long an average climbing rope is or how heavy it is CHECK! :p the author has his characters use a rope several hundred meters long CUT it, miraculously without any mention of carrying more rope which is heavy, have another several hundred m's which they cut AGAIN (you NEVER cut your rope!) and still have more later despite having been through several adventures involving water) it was an enjoyable adventure read. Definitely Dan Brown inspired though.
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Haven't you ever heard of MAGIC rope? the rope that never ends, very useful to have around. :D
 
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 4/5

I'd meant to read Gatsby for years, and the new film finally pushed me to actually accomplish the read.
Waste. That is mostly what I thought of whilst reading, waste of time, effort, and...oh, yeah money. Gatsby evidently had some brains, yet he wasted his time searching for, longing for a vacuous wretch like Daisy. Gad zooks. What a waste of space she was.
Not that Gatsby was that great, but he had potential. He had brains, even if he seemed to have used them in, shall we say......in an inelegant manner. Waste and betrayal.
 
The Great Gatsby...one of those books I've never been able to finish. I agree about the wasted life, Pontalba. I think Gatsby is one of my most despised characters.
 
PrincessFiona60 said:
The Great Gatsby...one of those books I've never been able to finish. I agree about the wasted life, Pontalba. I think Gatsby is one of my most despised characters.
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I can't despise him PF, he is mostly misguided and kinda pitiful. It's Daisy and Tom that I find so reprehensible. They deserve each other. :rolleyes:
 
James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for His Father by Len Deighton 3.5/5
It's an (Amazon) Kindle Single.
Informative and rather breezy in it's style.
I'd recommend it for Bond film fans.
 
pontalba said:
James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for His Father by Len Deighton 3.5/5
It's an (Amazon) Kindle Single.
Informative and rather breezy in it's style.
I'd recommend it for Bond film fans.
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Tell me more - I'm a long standing Bond fan (books as well as movies)
 
Meadow337 said:
Tell me more - I'm a long standing Bond fan (books as well as movies)
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There is a lot about the negotiations between Fleming and the various persons involved in bringing Bond to the screen. Lots more to it than I'd thought.
It always has irritated me that the Bond of the film, and Fleming's Bond were so different. Broccoli only bought the titles, and his films only had a passing resemblance to the books...I always knew that, but there was lots more. And many more people involved in "fathering" the film Bond.

Ages ago a friend gave me a bio of Ian Fleming.... The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson . It's quite good. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend it highly.
 
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
4 Stars
Lives intersect and interconnect in a small Colorado plains community. Simple and elegant writing. A pleasure to read.
1356 - Bernard Cornwell
4 Stars
One of my favorite Cornwell characters, the English Archer Thomas of Hookton returns to battle the French at Poitiers, and keep the relic known as La Malice (the sword of St. Peter) out of the hands of a wicked Cardinal, hell bent on becoming Pope.
Fun stuff.
 
The Distant Hours: Kate Morton spins a tale of gothic measure in her 2010 novel, The Distant Hours. Spinster twin sisters, Percy and Saffy Blythe, are living within the ever-dilapidating walls of their once vibrant castle. Since the hauntingly gruesome death of their mother and their father’s ultimate mental and physical demise, the elderly sisters are charged with the care of their intrinsically beautiful, yet wild younger sister, Juniper, who possesses the same ethereal and charming characteristics as Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’. It is set in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s in England during a time of bombings, evacuees, gas masks, and blackouts. At the heart of the story is Raymond Blythe’s published work entitled “The True History of the Mud Man”. Raymond was the trio’s father. The tale unravels a world of mystery, secrets, and sins committed within the stone and mortar walls of Milderhurst Castle. 5 out of 5 stars:rolleyes:
ricksreviews.blogspot.com
 
753C said:
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
4 Stars
Lives intersect and interconnect in a small Colorado plains community. Simple and elegant writing. A pleasure to read.
1356 - Bernard Cornwell
4 Stars
One of my favorite Cornwell characters, the English Archer Thomas of Hookton returns to battle the French at Poitiers, and keep the relic known as La Malice (the sword of St. Peter) out of the hands of a wicked Cardinal, hell bent on becoming Pope.
Fun stuff.
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Love Cornwell...thanks!.
 
pontalba said:
There is a lot about the negotiations between Fleming and the various persons involved in bringing Bond to the screen. Lots more to it than I'd thought.
It always has irritated me that the Bond of the film, and Fleming's Bond were so different. Broccoli only bought the titles, and his films only had a passing resemblance to the books...I always knew that, but there was lots more. And many more people involved in "fathering" the film Bond.

Ages ago a friend gave me a bio of Ian Fleming.... The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson . It's quite good. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend it highly.
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thanks :) I will give it a look see. It's a subject I'm interested in reading.
 
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles 4/5

I guess this is Hardy's best-known work, the tragic story of a young woman who always seems to be on the wrong side of luck. Rather depressing, but beautifully written, with Hardy's usual lovely descriptions of people and places. For some reason, though, it didn't quite sweep me away like "The Woodlanders" and "Far From the Madding Crowd" did, hence my personal verdict is 4 out of 5.
 
A long time since I read "Tess" - should go back and have another read at it. Remember thinking how good it was but the details now escape me.
 
An aimless life, lived on the surface. Salter's All That Is, for me at least, was slightly disjointed in that delineation of time, place, and even characters was not always clear. At least to begin with. That became clear after a page, or three, but it was slightly disconcerting to read about a character and not be sure exactly who it was. His prose is still beautiful, his sense of place is wonderful.

The main protagonist, Philip Bowman, served in the Navy, in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. The war is covered, slightly. But it's more the aftermath, through to almost the present that make up the bulk of the book. Bowman's relationships...his mother, his wife and various lovers.
A bit of revenge, toward the end, that actually shocked me and made me wonder about, and seriously doubt my perception of, Bowman's character all throughout the book.

Interesting character study. :star4:
 
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