Don’t expect too much. It reads like a first draft. I can’t understand why they felt necessary to publish the work.
We shall see. The reviews are favourable perhaps mixed with a little reverence for the past work.
I am sure I have spent .99p on a lot worse books.
How is the Bowie book going Lorro, is it interesting?
Peter
Hi Peter,sorry meant to comment earlier. I enjoyed the book,it is quit detailed and different to any other books on Bowie,and I do have quite a lot. The emphasis is largely on the music/ lyrics and not his life story,which has been covered numerous times.All in all I’d recommend it to any Bowie fan,but not for anyone with just a casual interest,hope this helps.
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Thanks for that, it sounds like something I would like - I will see if I can pick it up, many thanks.
Peter
Tucked away for the weekend I have started to re read the Bernard Sampson books by Len Deighton.
Australian Shiraz,couple of interesting cheeses and some ripe mangoes will keep the body ticking over.
One commentator remarks on the dark,sourness of the prose.
Certainly fine reading. I might have to borrow from my heating rebate to buy the full set on Kindle. Our libraries have no copies. Omnibus print too heavy.
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An uncanny treat. Two hardback volumes in slip case Strangers and Pilgrims from Tartarus Press of Walter de la Mare’s short stories. These are beautifully printed with a good sized font for my ageing eyes. I enjoy a well-written ghost story. This collection contains well known tales like ‘All Hallows’, ‘Seaton’s Aunt’ and ‘Out of the Deep’ but also some which are unfamiliar. Most older British people will know de la Mare’s poem ‘The Listeners’ from school and some younger ones the anthologised
‘John Mouldy.’ De la Mare has a limited range of material, but he can make the flesh creep if you are willing to enter his imaginative world of dream.
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Picked this up at a charity shop today.
I’ve yet to read any of it that doesn’t make me laugh out loud.
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Beautifully written very tender novel about coming to terms with your past. Backdrop is the Troubles in NI.
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Was one of the best books I’ve read over the past 12-18 months…Business, leadership, the general zeitgeist around media convergence…Highly recommend - you can read it in two sittings.
‘Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics’ - Dylan Jones.
Picked up this 2020 hardback doorstopper at a bargain price after watching Mr Jones’ interview on ‘A Word in Your Attic’ podcast hosted by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth (link below).
The book covers the period '75-'85, weaving together the rapid changes in society, technology, economy, politics and therefore music over the decade. (I think his chosen period to straddle the '70s and '80s, concluding with Live Aid, makes sense.)
Very enjoyable Sunday afternoon read, and accompanied by some Spandau on the turntable.
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Looks insteresting, might be one for the upcoming summer vacation. The wallpaper is still one of the best ever posted on the system thread.
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East West Street by Philippe Sands published in 2016 by vintagebooks.com
A book that has added poignancy right now because it is about the development of international law on genocide and crimes against humanity - legal arguments for which started developing between the first and second world wars, focussed by, amongst other things, treatment of Jews in eastern Europe, and the various invasions and incursions associated with Russia, Poland and Ukraine both prior to and during WW2.
My father was born and spent the his youth and young adulthood in the town that is central to the book, now called Zhovka. Located just a few miles north of Lviv, it was part of Poland until the end of WW2, but became part of Ukraine / USSR in the deals at the end of the war. One of my dad’s brothers was rounded up by the Germans and executed at Auschwitz - he wasn’t a jew, instead his ‘crime’ was being “a member of the intelligentsia” (he was a lawyer). My father was taken by the Russians and transported to be slave labour in Siberia. Both of these acts agains human rights are included in the book. (For me making all the more real the limited things he had told us.
The subject matter includes other events in the latter half of the 20th century and into the present century, such as Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
I’m halfway through at present. The style of writing I don’t find easy going, but the content is fascinating, and certainly not just because of my personal family history: With what has been happening in Ukraine this year everything in the book about the development of law relating to genocide and crimes against humanity is given a fresh perspective.
It is a modern book, written by a current practising lawyer who is also a professor of law in USA, and who has direct involvement now in the subject matter. He is the grandson of one of the leading lawyers involved back before WW2, and in part is his grandfather’s biography, but a lot more besides.
The name of the book is the name of the main central road in Zhovka - the street where the author’s grandfather grew up.
If the subject of genocide and crimes against humanity is of interest, or if the history of the area currently known as Ukraine is of interest, then I commend this book
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This book is a photographic account of social history in the making. Jim Marshall is the photographer of the Summer of Love. Ranging from BW to colour and from portraits to amazing crowd pics, Marshall gives the reader a touching portrait of this long gone wonderful period of our inner history. Awesome book, great photos, we’ll written.
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