Off Topic Art & Literature

Dickens's Hard Times is very appropriate.

The beauty of that book is the figurative language that he uses to set the scene. He is a master depicting people and their characters, (I wonder how he would have portrayed the current UK PM), critical with regard to the education that was provided and the hypocracy of certain aspects of the times.

 

I love secondhand bookshops. Recently went up to Shropshire and stayed at Bishops Castle. Some cracking bookshops there.
When I worked in Petersfield I used to go to the bookshop there, despite the owners questionable football fetish .....

 

Just finished the Tennison series by Lynda La Plante. There is nine in the series but only 5 in audible which I listened too. A very good series well worth the read or to the ear. Trying some R.A. Comley books recommended by my local library.

 

Ides

I have to admit that this is the book that put me off reading through the Dickens' novels which I had previously enjoyed. I tend to read books by one author until I pick up one which underwhelms. This story started off as a critique about the education system and then mutated halfway through to describe the problems in the new towns in the industrial North. It struck me when I was reading it that Dickens had suddenly changed his mind halfway through as to what it was going to be about. I was really unsatisfied with the book having previously read Emile Zola's superior "Germinal" which deals far better with the latter topic. Subsequently, I found out that Dickens wrote the book which is one of his thinnest because he needed some income because another novel (I believe "Nicholas Nickleby") was taking so long to write. Effectively "Hard Times" was written by Dickens with a view to earning his some ready cash and I wonder whether this was why it was so disappointing. Muh prefer "David Copperfield" and "Great Expectations."

Picking up Beddy's comments about finishing a series of detective novels, I have only four more Bernie Gunther novels to read of the 14 in the series. I have just finished "Greeks bearing gifts" which is set in 1957 and concerns an insurance case regarding a sunken boat full of treasure taken from the Jews from Thessalonika by the Nazis. The timeframe also deals with the creation of the EEC and Greece's effort to join whilst still trying to sort out it's legacy from the Nazi occupation. I always feel that the author Phillip Kerr put in a good shift regarding the historical research and was surprised to learn about the West German Chancellors Konrad Adenauer's Nazi connections. The was a lot of wheeling and dealing done by Germany during the creation of the EEC and this included the exoneration by Greece of the war criminal Max Mertens which ultimately facilitated their membership. I had never considered that the formation of the EEC and West Germany's role in it had been quite so grubby. "Greeks bearing gifts" is probably the sunniest of the books in the series which are generally much darker in tone and tend not to put anyone in a particularly good light.

 

Sorry to say the Comley books I started were ok but not to my taste. So tried LJ Ross series with DCI Ryan. Goodness me what a change.!! So far listened to 3 in the series, Holy Island, The Sycamore Gap and Heaven field. All based in the North west of England. Any one lost for a book or two to read during lock down I would certainly recommend this series. The story lines are good with unexpected twist and turns throughout. Suggest you try them

 

I forgot to say I’ve just read “Sentinel”, the latest Jack Reacher book by Lee Child. This time Lee collaborated with his younger brother Andrew, who also writes thrillers under the name of Andrew Grant.

Sentinel is as good as any of the other Reacher books, although considering he must have aged chronologically since the first book was published in 1997, when the character was in his late thirties, he still seems in pretty good nick!

 

North East
You weren’t a navigator in the navy, were you?
I’ve read them all (LJ Ross) and think another one is due soon.

Edit due 30th November. Book number 17.

 

No........Thankfully not........Obviously another of my my least good subjects.........

 

I read some of his a while back when I was able to read comfortable . I might try them again in a while...the listening version obviously.

 

Just finished book 12 of the DCI Ryan series didn’t enjoy the last one so much. Now on Penshaw much improved.

 

Have you tried the DI Kim Stone books, by Angela Marsons?
Set in the Black Country/midlands and the team has a good rapport quite similar to that of the DCI Ryan team.
Must be read in chronological order to understand the references to Stone’s past and what makes her tick, but they are a good read.

 

Thanks for that I just might give them a try in the new year. Merry Christmas to you all....

 

just shows what my memory’s like I have already read through quite few of hers a couple of years ago. I went to investigate and it kept telling me it was already in my library. Looking for another crime writer now.

 

As I and a few others have said before, there are a couple of good ones, both writing books based in America. One is Michael Connolly, who writes the Harry Bosch detective books, as well as the Mickey Haller legal thrillers. The other is Lee Child, who writes the superb Jack Reacher stories.

 

Are

Are you reading my mind I have just downloaded the first 4 of his Lee child Jack Reacher series!

 

David Baldacci is another US based great crime writer.

 

I love all three of those authors but Connolly is head and shoulders above the other two, then Baldacci, then Child

 

Trouble is where I am listening to the books the American drawl does get on my wick a bit. They in turn always think we are Australians!!

 

I am one third of the way through Dan Simmons "The Terror" which is a re-telling of the ill-fated John Franklin expedition to find the North West Passage in 1845. In reality, the expedition founded when survivors of the expedition tried to flee from the two boats, the "Erebus" and "Terror" which has been trapped in the ice for a number of years. In this book, Simmonds reimagines this disaster by introducing a mysterious creature that preys on the sailors. I am not usually a fan of science fiction and whilst the story might be seen as a load of twaddle, Simmons makes this seem all too credible. The book is about 900 pages long which is a length I would normally find off-putting yet this book is impossible to put down. It is hugely compelling one third of the way through yet the final section of the book is supposed to be even more exciting.

 

Great book, Ian. I loved it. I have enjoyed a few Dan Simmons books