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Post by Tibidabo on Jul 6, 2017 11:19:00 GMT
^ You might have just convinced me to buy it samuelwhiskers . I am intrigued to find someone who whinges more than I do!
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Post by Marwood on Jul 7, 2017 19:23:08 GMT
Reading Alec Baldwins autobiography Nevertheless- only got a few chapters in but I'm enjoying it more than a lot of other actors memoirs (I'm reading it as if I have Jack Donaghy speaking the words out loud) - he's still at school at this point but I'm hoping he goes into detail about his, ahem 'creative differences ' with Shia LaBoeuf later on ๐
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Post by anita on Jul 10, 2017 9:24:16 GMT
Can't wait to read the first volume of Andrew Lloyd Webber's autobiography " Unmasked" which I believe is published by Harper Collins on 6th March next year.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2017 10:15:33 GMT
Reading Alec Baldwins autobiography Nevertheless- only got a few chapters in but I'm enjoying it more than a lot of other actors memoirs (I'm reading it as if I have Jack Donaghy speaking the words out loud) - he's still at school at this point but I'm hoping he goes into detail about his, ahem 'creative differences ' with Shia LaBoeuf later on ๐ Alec Baldwin is forever Jack Donaghy in my mind now. Every time I see him I could believe he is JD, even down to his performances as Trump, that could easily have been something the 30 Rock team had devised and pulled off in the show. The autobiog has been in my Amazon Wishlist for a while, hoping it gets an offer on tomorrow for Prime day.
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Post by Tibidabo on Aug 3, 2017 12:16:16 GMT
Just finished "Want You Gone" - the latest Brookmyre / Jack Parlebane title. Outstanding. I recently read Black Widow, my first Brookmyre, and struggled a bit with it. Might give him another go then. I've just read "A Handful of Ashes" which is the second in the Dr Harry Kent series written, believe it or not, by a London medical student under the pseudonym Rob McCarthy. It's probably worth reading the first one, The Hollow Men, beforehand, which is also good but 'Ashes' is much better I think. Lots of medical jargon but done in such a way for us peasants to understand. A bit like reading an episode of Grey's Anatomy or The Night Shift. Forensic pathologist teams up with police DCI to solve a suicide that he suspects isn't a suicide ....you get the idea.
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Post by Tibidabo on Aug 3, 2017 13:18:03 GMT
^Too late to edit and only for the pedantics, but Dr Harry Kent is actually a forensic medical examiner, not a...what I said.
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Post by lynette on Aug 3, 2017 13:28:13 GMT
East West Street by Philippe Sands. About the two lawyers who thought up the legal terms, 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' . Gripping story of their lives and author's family's life focused on Lemberg, Lvov, Lviv in WWII and has account of the Nuremberg Trials. Excellent book. (Not to be flippant but it could inspire at least two Spielberg movies with parts for Mark Rylance..)
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Post by kathryn on Aug 3, 2017 19:40:53 GMT
I just devoured Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher, bought because the ebook was 99p. It's a hoot!
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Post by Tibidabo on Aug 15, 2017 8:34:11 GMT
Thought some of you might like to do this. It's really hard choosing just one and I'm sure my nomination won't make the short list anyway, as it's certain to be full of fantasy stuff, but I'm going to have a go.
Trouble is, what to choose? I want to choose a book that had a massive impact on me at the time of reading. With this in mind I have a few.
Five on a Treasure Island. When I was 10 I was sick with excitement on the day I was going on my first guide camp. I was taking an overnight train and I woke up the morning of departure with long hours to wait and each minute feeling like a week. I'd been given this book for Christmas and it was sitting untouched in my bedroom. Well, I picked it up and read it in one sitting. The day flew past as I was so engrossed and it was definitely my introduction to the crime books I love today.
The Thorn Birds. Just wow. I remember browsing in WH Smiths and a lady standing next to me started waxing lyrical about how wonderful this book was. She convinced me to buy it and I have since read it many times. Sadly, it is one of those books that maybe doesn't do subsequent readings so well and I feel jealous of anyone who is reading it for the first time.
Or do I go for Roald Dahl's The Twits? I have read this so many times to the various kids I've taught as it is such a great book to suck them into reading as it's so naughty and funny and a bit off the wall.
Still on the children's theme, Wonder by RJ Palacio is a book that should be read by everyone over the age of 9 instead of that Harry Thingamy rubbish. A beautiful book about a facially disfigured child that made me cry, mucho.
The Pillars of the Earth. I just loved this, from the informative stuff about building cathedrals back in the 12th century to the cast of characters from good to bad to evil to beyond evil. A monumental saga that had me riveted. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
Hmm. Not sure. But I love Richard Osman's world cup of various things, so I will be nominating something. I'd love to know what other people are nominating.
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Post by peelee on Aug 15, 2017 17:48:49 GMT
A secondhand copy, the 1976 Faber and Faber edition in 1979 paperback form, of The Auden Generation: literature and politics in England in the 1930s by Samuel Hynes. He covers the period 1929-40, and gives each year a chapter in which he considers the wider context of the poems, novels, essays written by writers into whose private lives burst the outside world of the dramatic, alarming Thirties.
The writers considered here being WH Auden, Cecil Day Lewis, Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood, George Orwell, Graham Greene and Rex Warner, all influenced at decade's start by TS Eliot's The Waste Land their postwar realisation from the late 1920s that another world war was likely and that it would involve their generation. It is scholarly-thorough, and reads very well indeed, presenting writers in the foreground yet providing so much context that the brain gets some exercise: not the sort of thing that anything on a mobile phone will offer you.
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Post by peelee on Aug 21, 2017 16:51:45 GMT
Having watched Christopher Nolan-shaped hit film Dunkirk on a cinema screen recently, I was intrigued enough on seeing a secondhand copy of a play text that seemed to shed another light on war-related events in 1940, to buy it and start reading. Three Days in May, written by Ben Brown and produced by Bill Kenwright, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, and may well have toured elsewhere. It is about the British War Cabinet-level conflict that occurred over whether to fight on or do a deal with Hitler. Did anyone here ever see the play when it was staged and if so how did it come across to the audience you were in?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 19:14:15 GMT
Reading Alec Baldwins autobiography Nevertheless- only got a few chapters in but I'm enjoying it more than a lot of other actors memoirs (I'm reading it as if I have Jack Donaghy speaking the words out loud) - he's still at school at this point but I'm hoping he goes into detail about his, ahem 'creative differences ' with Shia LaBoeuf later on ๐ Just finished this and found it interesting but fairly underwhelming. I felt rather cheated with his repeated use of "heres a list of other movies I enjoyed making..." etc.
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Post by bee on Aug 23, 2017 19:08:01 GMT
Having watched Christopher Nolan-shaped hit film Dunkirk on a cinema screen recently, I was intrigued enough on seeing a secondhand copy of a play text that seemed to shed another light on war-related events in 1940, to buy it and start reading. Three Days in May, written by Ben Brown and produced by Bill Kenwright, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, and may well have toured elsewhere. It is about the British War Cabinet-level conflict that occurred over whether to fight on or do a deal with Hitler. Did anyone here ever see the play when it was staged and if so how did it come across to the audience you were in? I saw it at Trafalgar Studios. Warren Clarke played Churchill. My memory is it was very good, though I can't remember too many details now, other than it being a battle of wills between Churchill and (I think) Lord Halifax, who was in favour of negotiating a surrender. Churchill was portrayed as being much less sure about fighting on than legend would have us believe - whether that was based on truth or was an invention of the writer I've no idea - and in a sense that gave the story a bit more depth and helped it be something more than just flag-waving "bulldog spirit" stuff.
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Post by emicardiff on Aug 24, 2017 9:03:24 GMT
Just finished Eddie Izzard's autobiography- very much 'in his voice' and boy does he love a footnote! Very interesting and a lot about his 'process' as a performer, and the real analytical approach he takes to his career. As ever he has a lot of sense to talk about gender identity, and I really appreciate his standing firm on the language he uses personally, and how that has evolved.
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Post by emicardiff on Aug 24, 2017 10:33:02 GMT
Oh I might have to go and re-read that now you mention it.
I'm about to start Graham Norton's novel, which according to my Mother was actually quite good (and the Mother has a low tolerance for poor books). I'm also re-reading 'Fangirl' by Rainbow Rowell which I find a comforting read reminiscent of my own University years.
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Post by mosiemo on Aug 24, 2017 10:43:07 GMT
Oh I might have to go and re-read that now you mention it. I'm about to start Graham Norton's novel, which according to my Mother was actually quite good (and the Mother has a low tolerance for poor books). I'm also re-reading 'Fangirl' by Rainbow Rowell which I find a comforting read reminiscent of my own University years. I'm halfway through 'Holding'. Wasn't really expecting to enjoy it as much as I am, but so far it's a good read
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Post by joem on Aug 26, 2017 21:42:19 GMT
I am currently reading The Kalevala, one of the CJ Sansom Tudor novels and the first Capital book (Marx, not Lanchester).
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Post by Marwood on Aug 26, 2017 22:40:03 GMT
Reading Alec Baldwins autobiography Nevertheless- only got a few chapters in but I'm enjoying it more than a lot of other actors memoirs (I'm reading it as if I have Jack Donaghy speaking the words out loud) - he's still at school at this point but I'm hoping he goes into detail about his, ahem 'creative differences ' with Shia LaBoeuf later on ๐ Just finished this and found it interesting but fairly underwhelming. I felt rather cheated with his repeated use of "heres a list of other movies I enjoyed making..." etc. Now nearing the end - he does seem to skip over a lot of the stuff he's done, but the book would be three or four times the size if he went into details about every film he's done - think its's fair to say he's not Harrison Ford's biggest fan though
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Post by Marwood on Sept 6, 2017 10:54:10 GMT
Got a couple of long(ish) train journeys lined up for this weekend and next week, so am going to be reading Smile by Roddy Doyle while I do so - I haven't read much of his work since the Barrytown Trilogy, and this was the most appealing looking book on offer when I had a browse in the Foyles on the South Bank last night.
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Post by Tibidabo on Sept 22, 2017 21:39:59 GMT
Oh, and I'm really looking forward to reading the new Ken Follett novel that'll be released this September. This has arrived! It is the size of a breeze block! It has maps of Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Priory on the inside cover. Can't wait to get stuck in!๐๐
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Post by Michael on Sept 23, 2017 4:58:00 GMT
Oh, and I'm really looking forward to reading the new Ken Follett novel that'll be released this September. This has arrived! It is the size of a breeze block! It has maps of Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Priory on the inside cover. Can't wait to get stuck in!๐๐ The German edition has 1168 pages. I've read the book over the last weekend - a true Follett and a real page turner. Really enjoyed it and you don't need to know anything from the other two books to follow the story.
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Post by Tibidabo on Sept 23, 2017 7:44:12 GMT
The German edition has 1168 pages. Lol! Only 750 in the English edition - but we all already knew that German words are nearly twice as long as their English counterparts! Can't believe you've had the luxury of reading it in a weekend! Glad you enjoyed it Michael - I can't wait!
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Post by Tibidabo on Oct 19, 2017 16:09:02 GMT
I've read the book over the last weekend - a true Follett and a real page turner. Really enjoyed it and you don't need to know anything from the other two books to follow the story. I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this one Michael. After an entire month I have, sadly, given up on page 300 (of 750) of Ken Follett's latest tome. I think it's awful. The writing doesn't have the usual Follett flow but is more 'He said this,' 'She did that.' The characters are dull - not a patch on Prior Philip, Tom Builder, William Hamleigh, etc etc. There is nothing to replace all the wonderful descriptions of cathedral building or bridge building or the slow realisation of how diseases are spread, as happened when the plague hit. And the forbidden love story is a damp squib compared with Jack and Aliena. I simply kept dozing off. I am bitterly disappointed, having waited ages in anticipation.
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Post by anita on Oct 29, 2017 10:42:42 GMT
My copy of "Must Close Saturday" by Adrian Wright just arrived. [-Not another bloody book! says husband]. Will start it this afternoon.
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Post by joem on Oct 29, 2017 10:55:31 GMT
Currently reading the new Salman Rushdie "The Golden House" and the old noir classic "The Mask of Dimitrios" (Eric Ambler).
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Post by viserys on Oct 31, 2017 12:36:45 GMT
I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this one Michael. After an entire month I have, sadly, given up on page 300 (of 750) of Ken Follett's latest tome. I think it's awful. The writing doesn't have the usual Follett flow but is more 'He said this,' 'She did that.' The characters are dull - not a patch on Prior Philip, Tom Builder, William Hamleigh, etc etc. There is nothing to replace all the wonderful descriptions of cathedral building or bridge building or the slow realisation of how diseases are spread, as happened when the plague hit. And the forbidden love story is a damp squib compared with Jack and Aliena. I simply kept dozing off. I am bitterly disappointed, having waited ages in anticipation. I'm sorry to hear that, Tibs. I've been on the fence about this one, as I quite liked the first two instalments of the saga. Ironically I had the same problem with Follett's 20th century trilogy - I LOVED the first two, Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, but found the third one, Edge of Eternity, completely awful and nearly unreadable - I ended up skimming big parts just to get to the end. I wonder if Follett signs contracts for trilogies but runs out of steam and ideas in the second book, so the third is drivel. There's so much else good stuff to read, I guess I'll pass on this then. I'm presently reading Nicola Griffith's "Hild", a novelization of the life of 7th century (later) Saint Hilda and anglo-saxon Britain. Once I got my head around all the anglo-saxon place names, tribes, etc. and the story picked up pace, it's become an engrossing read about a period I knew absolutely nothing of before.
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Post by Tibidabo on Oct 31, 2017 15:06:11 GMT
viserys , the reviews on Amazon are basically saying that some people are finding it ok as a standalone but anyone who is expecting the Kingsbridge story to continue is bitterly disappointed as there is not much of the story actually set there. (Having only read a third of the book I presumed the setting would revert back to Kingsbridge later as most of what I read was set in Spain and France.) Also, I really don't like real historical characters mixed with fictional ones to the extent they are in Column. It's just weird. One of the main characters is the 'best friend' of Mary Queen of Scots and it's all just a bit meh and another becomes the right hand man to Elizabeth 1. Personally I only think this works in the case of things like Blackadder, where everything is to be taken with a huge bucket of salt. As for Follett being contracted for trilogies, etc. I often think that authors let someone else write some of their stuff for them when they get a bit bored with their characters. I stopped reading Lynda La Plante when I became convinced she'd allowed a teenager to write most of one of her books! (Sheer conjecture on my part of course.) Always leave them wanting more is a mantra that maybe authors should take up when they keep bashing out series that should have reached their natural conclusion.
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Post by viserys on Oct 31, 2017 15:17:59 GMT
Always leave them wanting more is a mantra that maybe authors should take up when they keep bashing out series that should have reached their natural conclusion. Here's looking at you, JK Rowling and your cursed child... ahem. But yea, I agree. To be fair, it's been so long since I read the other Kingsbridge books, I have forgotten most of their plots anyway. I loved the adaptation of "Pillars of the Earth" where I first discovered the young Eddie Redmayne and David Oakes. Follett tends to be a very "black and white" writer with some super-goody heroines and heroes and some moustache-twirling super-baddies, which can also get a bit formulaic.
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Post by Tibidabo on Oct 31, 2017 15:31:42 GMT
I loved the adaptation of "Pillars of the Earth" where I first discovered the young Eddie Redmayne and David Oakes. Follett tends to be a very "black and white" writer with some super-goody heroines and heroes and some moustache-twirling super-baddies, which can also get a bit formulaic. William Hamleigh has to be The Best Baddie ever created.....formulaic or not! Rupert Evans playing Godwyn in World Without End was absolutely terrific as a nasty, conniving little snake. Oh, and David Oakes. Just because.
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Post by The Matthew on Oct 31, 2017 15:36:28 GMT
I stopped reading Lynda La Plante when I became convinced she'd allowed a teenager to write most of one of her books! (Sheer conjecture on my part of course.) Always leave them wanting more is a mantra that maybe authors should take up when they keep bashing out series that should have reached their natural conclusion. Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama was one of my favourite books as a child, telling a story of an alien visitor to our solar system so far ahead of us that they didn't even register that we were here. Then Gentry Lee wrote several sequels to it that threw away the galaxy-spanning scope of the original and made it all about petty squabbles and a bunch of poorly-defined species that didn't much care about anything outside their neighbourhood. The Gentry Lee books are best bought as ebooks, because then it saves you the muscular effort of physically throwing a block of paper into the bin.
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