Vinylear Posted December 17, 2024 Posted December 17, 2024 On 16/12/2024 at 4:36 PM, The Fez said: Interesting, are you studying constitutional law?
Full Range Posted December 24, 2024 Author Posted December 24, 2024 On 27/11/2024 at 6:43 PM, cazzesman said: sure beats my SyFy and Jack Reacher Happy Reading. Regards Cazzesman My right of reply Over the year I have read these titles from the little free library that I inherited due to its closure 3
betocool Posted December 26, 2024 Posted December 26, 2024 Read this while we had around 40 deg C in Perth It made you feel the heat twice... Cheers, Alberto 1
Cloth Ears Posted January 8 Posted January 8 Just about finished the collection of Scandinavian/Aussie/other crime/spy novels I got with my new (second hand) Kindle. Authors include Mark Billingham Tony Cavanaugh Charles Cumming Kerry Greenwood Gene Kerrigan Camilla Lackberg Stuart McBride Jo Nesbo Yves Sigurdardottir (Icelandic) I haven't attached my Amazon account to it yet in case they all disappear when I do...we shall see after I finish the last one-and-a-half of the Oslo Trilogy 1
David A Posted January 8 Posted January 8 https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/70559c8f-d123-49c4-b522-12e1f14c84aa
betocool Posted January 10 Posted January 10 On 08/01/2025 at 9:58 AM, Cloth Ears said: Just about finished the collection of Scandinavian/Aussie/other crime/spy novels I got with my new (second hand) Kindle. Authors include Mark Billingham Tony Cavanaugh Charles Cumming Kerry Greenwood Gene Kerrigan Camilla Lackberg Stuart McBride Jo Nesbo Yves Sigurdardottir (Icelandic) I haven't attached my Amazon account to it yet in case they all disappear when I do...we shall see after I finish the last one-and-a-half of the Oslo Trilogy If you're into nordic crime check out the Department Q series from Jussi Adler-Olsen (Denmark). There are ten books, last one and the last in the series came out for Xmas. It differs from, say, Nesbo, that it's funnier and it lets the characters develop. Even though the crimes are grisly as there more sarcasm, if that is your cup of tea. Cheers, Alberto 1 1
cafe67 Posted January 11 Posted January 11 lol a little less high brow then some, but entertaining reading in the early days and evolution of a favourite band. 4
Godot Posted January 13 Posted January 13 If history had been delivered like this when I went to school I might have paid more attention. 4
zenikoy Posted January 14 Posted January 14 8 hours ago, Godot said: If history had been delivered like this when I went to school I might have paid more attention. A couple of books I have read this year have had cover "puff quote" endorsements from David Mitchell, never sure which one though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(comedian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(author) 2
Godot Posted January 14 Posted January 14 15 hours ago, zenikoy said: A couple of books I have read this year have had cover "puff quote" endorsements from David Mitchell, never sure which one though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(comedian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(author) “Unruly” by David Mitchell (comedian), ”The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet”, by David Mitchell (author), was great to read for some historical context of Japan when it was essentially closed to foreigners. We have just been to Japan, fortunately predominantly cycling in rural areas. Although we loved the trip and found people there to be friendly and engaging, it was very busy and overrun with tourists in the usual spots, I imagine there are some who would welcome being closed to foreigners again! Of course, complaining about the tourists when you are the tourist is like complaining about the traffic when you are the traffic. “Utopia Avenue” by David Mitchell (author), a great read, especially for those interested in music in the UK in the late 1960s. 3 1
Vinylear Posted January 25 Posted January 25 I raided the Lifeline book fair at the Brisbane Convention Centre. These will go into the 'to read pile'. 2 1
Kahuna Posted February 28 Posted February 28 Saw this advertised on Facebook and sounded right up my alley. Book one of a trilogy, I pulled the trigger on it with the view to reloading with the other two depending on the calibre of this one. (see what I did there?). I do like a decent war story and have read many, both fact and fiction and can say without a shadow of doubt this is the absolute worst one I have ever read. Premise sounds good, young backwoods Finnish lad steps up to defend his country against the Russian horde in WW2. Would of been good if the hero (Hale) had become a casualty early in the piece, say after 3 or 4 pages. A short essay on heroic but tragic sacrifice. Sadly author James Mullins didn't see it that way. **Warning, some spoilers below** The writing is extremely repetitive and unimaginative, uses phrases that belong to another era or genre, (no one is killed, they are slain by Hale, Hale slays them etc). Author apparently wrote historical novels according to the bio. For a bloke who also claims decades in the military, he must of missed all the lectures regarding firearms. Hale uses a Mosin , his own hunting rifle. This is cause for much merriment and derision from his comrades until he points out "it has been fitted with an upgrade kit to bring it up to military standard". This appeases his critics and there is no more said about the matter. He doesn't use a scope either. Doesn't need one, hell of a shot he is. Head shoots the pilot of a strafing aircraft closing at over 400mph. Took him three shots though, so maybe not all that good. Reloads his rifle with stripper clips "smiles and slams it home" every time. Reloads with bullets, not rounds or cartridges. Resupplies by stripping slain Russians of bullets which he places in a bag. Reloads all his clips from the bag and smiles again when he has thirty bullets left over. Still smiling, thinks the thirty "look about the right size" to fit his looted sub machine gun. Not unusual in this genre to devote some space to recognising the dehumanising effect war has on previously innocent backwoods lads. Mr Mullins remembered this plot device from his Dummies Guide to Being an Author. Hale's mum laments the loss of her son's innocence for a page or two before we thankfully get back to slamming, slaying and smiling. Romance too, oh the sweetness among the mayhem..........Treated by a nurse for a minor wound, Hale smiles as "he got instantly lost in her eyes". thankfully managed to find a way out only to encounter his girlfriend while at home to convalesce and "got instantly lost in her eyes" as well. You're doing it wrong,Hale, old mate. Family values run strong through this story, defence of kith and kin and all that. We get to see this when Hale's grandad is heroically slain during an altercation with some Russian home invaders. Holding grandad in such high regard they all smilingly decide to give him a decent burial despite the impending visit by the Russian Commissar (the one with bad teeth, stinking of garlic and vodka, no well worn tropes here) accompanied by a truck full of unsmiling soldiers and an armoured vehicle or two. Upon arrival, said Commissar enquires as to the nature of the hump in the driveway. After a quick recce it is confirmed the hump is the resting place of someone's grandad. This gives the Commissar pause for thought and the reveal of the cliffhanger setup for the next book. I won't be reading it. 1
Vinylear Posted March 1 Posted March 1 I hear you Kahuna. I recently finished Midnight In Some Burning Town by Christian Jennings. Jennings is a journalist who covers special forces operations in various conflicts. I found his embellishment of military action annoying. The book was educational enough though. Have you read David Hackworths book Steel My Soldiers Hearts? In that book he writes about snipers. That took the romance away of looking through telescopic sights and killing someone for me. 1
The Fez Posted March 9 Posted March 9 In 1956, TIME magazine called him one of the defining “form-givers of the 20th century.” Today, Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) remains a locus classicus of modernism for architects and designers alike. 2
Luc Posted March 12 Posted March 12 Wandering through my rather large collection of SF/Fantasy and settled on the well worn dog eared pages of this gem. 1
Recommended Posts