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Off Topic Art & Literature

Discussion in 'Southampton' started by Beddy, Nov 26, 2019.

  1. ......loading......

    ......loading...... 25 undefeated

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    I am also part of the Ian Rankin Rebus love in. If you like Rebus I think you would also love the Matt Scudder mysteries by Lawrence Block.
     
    #781
  2. Ian Thumwood

    Ian Thumwood Well-Known Member

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    "Exit Music "was written in 2012 and deals with a number of issues albeit Scottish Independence always seems to be a strong feature in alot of the books. You get the impression that Sir Ian Rankin is not a fan. Indeed, the character of Megan McFarlane in "Exit Music" is effectively a caricature of Nicola Sturgeon. What is interesting is that "Exit Music" concerns dodgy Russian businessmen trying to get a foothold in Edinburgh and some of the points are very relevant today.
     
    #782
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  3. Le Tissier's Laces

    Le Tissier's Laces Well-Known Member

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    Am on holiday, so took advice on here to start the Jack Reacher books. Have just finished Killing Floor, the first one.

    Now I realise it’s potentially sacrilege to do so on here, but my god it has plot holes as big as a planet, and it’s really quite badly written! I mean, it’s a fun ride, but do they get better??
     
    #783
  4. ChilcoSaint

    ChilcoSaint What a disgrace
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    It’s all about the character of Reacher really. He’s a superhero and is therefore immortal, and when he’s on a case he is ruthlessly singleminded. I have read and enjoyed every one of the books, but I agree about the plot holes, huge suspensions of disbelief are required sometimes. The stage Reacher walks on is the whole of America, and sometimes beyond, which allows for a vast variety of plot lines, and yes, the writing does get generally better, although subject to downward deviations at times. The next book, Die Trying, is written in the third person which gives a different perspective on Reacher’s character.
     
    #784
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  5. saintrichie123

    saintrichie123 Well-Known Member

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    My birthday soon, just found out one of our friends has bought me Frannys book, anyone on here read it? And is it a good read ?
     
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  6. Beddy

    Beddy Plays the percentage

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    Sorry mate not an author I know or a book title
     
    #786
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  7. saintrichie123

    saintrichie123 Well-Known Member

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    C874101E-208F-4D51-9D7E-47CFAA702FA8.png
     
    #787
  8. San Tejón

    San Tejón Well-Known Member

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    Would just like to re-iterate how good the DCI Logan books are. Author is JD Kirk.
    Reading book 5 in the series now and I find myself literally laughing out loud at some of the banter, which I need to control as I often read my book whilst having a quiet beer in one of the local bars.
    Great camaraderie in the team with record amounts of urine being extracted, amidst the tales of murder in Scotland.
     
    #788
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  9. davecg69

    davecg69 Well-Known Member

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    Received this today after getting the recommendation from our very own Vin.
    **** me! What an amazing book! I’m loving it and hating it at the same time. Absolutely incredible …. :emoticon-0104-surpr:emoticon-0104-surpr


    upload_2022-6-24_11-59-28.jpeg
     
    #789
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  10. The Ides of March

    The Ides of March Well-Known Member

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    The Railway Detective

    By Edward Marston

    This is a crime thriller set in the middle of the 19th century in the UK, a period when the country was approaching its peak in terms of its political and economic influence around the world. This pre-eminence was, perhaps, showcased at the Great Exhibition in 1851.

    I chose to read this book because I enjoy reading fiction set within a framework that is real. In addition, I was attracted by the cover which portrays Euston station as it was at the time, a splendour of architectural extravegance and style.

    The plot centres around Inspector Robert Colbeck’s attempt to find the criminal masterminds behind the rail robbery of the London to Birmingham mail train. A series of what appear to be unrelated murders hinder his progress to unravel the people responsible for these crimes.

    The main protagonist is the detective himself who finds his work obstructed by his obdurate superior, Edward Tallis who takes orders from no one, and certainly not from a person of a lesser rank.

    One passage stood out for me, and as the book was published in 2004, (with the UK’s manufacturing sector reduced in importance and with it, the loss of trade skills) I sense the use of irony in the words he applies to Colbeck’s mind as he sets the scene on the train’s approach to Birmingham.

    “As the train was approaching Birmingham and he was able to look through the window at the mass of brick factories and tall chimneys that comprised the outskirts. It was a depressing sight, but, having been there before, he knew that the drab industrial town also boasted some fine architecture and some spacious parks. What made it famous, however, were its manufacturing skills and Collbeck read the names of engineers, toolmakers, potters, metalworkers, builders and arms manufacturers emblazoned across the rear walls of their respective premises. Through the open windows, he could smell the breweries.”

    For those of us who like both detective stories and social and economic history, this is an interesting book to read,
     
    #790

  11. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

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    A+
     
    #791
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  12. ChilcoSaint

    ChilcoSaint What a disgrace
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    Thanks Ides, I shall look into that, sounds right up my street!
     
    #792
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  13. Le Tissier's Laces

    Le Tissier's Laces Well-Known Member

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    It's not literature as such, but am reading a book about psychology (it's not a self-help book, fear not) called Us by Terrence Real.

    It's one of the most interesting, and what's more, important books, I've read in ages. Everyone would benefit from reading it.
     
    #793
  14. The Ides of March

    The Ides of March Well-Known Member

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    please log in to view this image


    Winners and Losers by Catrin Collier

    Published 2004

    The setting for this novel is in the coalmining town of Tonypandy in the heart of the Rhondda Valley during the years 1910-1911 when the town itself and wider área is beset by the miners’ strikes wanting better wages and working conditions that the employers were unwilling to give.

    Police, not only from the local área but from all over England and Wales, were called in to monitor the protests that were quite violent as the strikers’ picket lines blocked the way of blackleggers to enter the mines. Having read the book, violence was meted out by both the striking miners and the pólice. The author leaves you in little doubt as to who were the provocateurs and who were simply the fall-gays in the ensuing drama.

    The plot centres around two of the main female protagonists, Megan an 18 year old girl who is unable to find work other than in the lodging house where the pólice reside, and Sali, who has a family background in the retail business.

    For almost two-thirds of the book, the story centres on the trials and tribulations of Megan and her relationship with her fiancee, his family, her own family and with those who interact with her. In the final third, Sali becomes the main protagonist as she and her children come to terms with the gaoling of her husband Lloyd, his brother Victor and their father Billy.

    A number of themes are covered in the book. First there is the bigotry of Megan’s father who is opposed to the relationship between his daughter and Victor because he is Catholic while he is Baptist.

    Another strong theme running through the book is that of fairness or the lack of it, from the owners of the mines to negotiate a fair settlement to the one-sided reporting of events in newpapers and jounals, and the heavy sentencing of the leaders of the strike committee.

    Collier paints a vivid picture of the poverty of the time with many of the people living in filth, squallor, with children going hungry as well as being in poor health and ridden with lice. Many were fed due to donations given to the “Kitchen” run by the churches in the town.

    Many people ran up debts due to not being able to afford even the basic necessities of life.

    One other theme that runs through the book is sexism as portrayed through the characters of two of the pólice officers.

    Having just read the book, I can see there are parallels today with “soup kitchens,” debt, poverty, and children going without the basic necessities. The book answers the question how it is possible when the laws of society favour the owners of the production, when the media portray strikers in a bad light, when politicians of a certain persuasión seek to divide people so they fight each other rather than join together to confront those inflicting such injustices.

    Although the characters are fictional, the events and setting are very real. If you can, read it!!
     
    #794
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  15. Ian Thumwood

    Ian Thumwood Well-Known Member

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    Switched from fiction for a bit to indulge in the nostalgia fest that is Jon Spurling's "Get it on" - an accout for football in the 1970s. I have to admit that I am very particular with football books which can tend to be pretty poor as a rule. I think the quality has imporve in the last 10-20 years and Spurling's book was impossible to to put down. I read it in three days.

    I think that most people posting in here are of the same generation as me and will find this book fascinating, even if a lot is actuallty very familiar, It is curious to think how many famous footballers from that era have slipped from the memory. All the usual suspects are in the book, many of whom had been interviewed personally by the writer. It is a terrific read yet I wish there was more of it and perhaps a little bit about the lower leagues or even Scottish football which is generally overlooked in this publication. I found the chapters fascinating and it stirred some memories for me of teams from that era like QPR, Forest and WBA who younger people will be surprised to learn offered some of the best football of the time. It does seem like another world and characters like Brian Clough now seem a lot less appealing and acceptable in these times. One of the wierdest memories this book evoked was footballers taking part on BBC's "Superstars" which would never be accepted in these days whereas the players were encouraged to participate back in the 1970s. If you enjoy football nostalgia, this is a brilliant read and it does not shy aware from the less savory elements of the game such as hooliganism, racism and outtight cheating.
     
    #795
  16. The Ides of March

    The Ides of March Well-Known Member

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    “From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading"

    Groucho Marx
     
    #796
  17. Ian Thumwood

    Ian Thumwood Well-Known Member

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    Just fnished Jose Rizal's "Noli me tangere" which is the great Philippine epic novel. It was published in Germany in 1887 and is a coruscating depiction of the Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines at that time. My girlfrien is a Filipina and I have an interest in books so it was obvious that this novel would cross my path atsome point. Rizal is a kind of cross between Shakespeare and Horatio Nelson in the Philippines where his two novels exposed the injustices and cruelty of the time which was on another scale to the kind of thing we here about the British empire. There is a line in the book suggesting that Spanish control was 300 years behind the times and had effectively left Philippines floundering in medieval conditions.

    The book itself starts off rather like "Ivanhoe" with the main protagonist returning from an enlightened Europe to find his father had died in prison and that society is not as liberal as he had imagined. His reforming tendencies involve the building on a school but the machinations of both thepolitical authorities and the various factions within the Catholic church culminated in him becomeing implicated in a rebellion. The tone of the book then seems to owe something to Thomas Hardy before the events in the novel evenutally coalesce in to something far more sinister. For a book written in the 19th century, the romantic elements and some of the prose are of it's time in the English translation I have yet there are chapters in there which Insuppose we would call "black comedy" which effectively translate as being both funny and resonnating today.

    I was expecting to be disappointed with the book and have to say that Rizal was something of a genius, almost morphing in to a politically charged version of Jospeh Conrad by the end. In my opinion it is probably a book where you would have to familiar yourself with the history of the time for it to make sense and there are still elements in there which I am sure I had missed and which would have meant something to the audience he was writing for. A sequel apprarently sees the hero of this book totally disillusioned and becoming involved in sedition against the the brutality of the Spanush. For his part , the "Noli" partly replicated Rizal's own experiences and ulitmately let to the ship he was leaving PH on was forced to turn around so that the author could face a trial for treason. He was ultimately found guilty and shot by a firing squad in 1896 . Within three years, America was at war with Spain and the latter we quickly routed albeit hostilities between the Americans and the Filipinos continued until 1902 in what proved to be America's first Imperial endeavour.
     
    #797
  18. Le Tissier's Laces

    Le Tissier's Laces Well-Known Member

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    Just about to read Matt Dickinson's book about MU's 99 treble winning year. I know I'll have to slightly read it through gritted teeth, but I do love a Roy Keane story, and Dickinson is an excellent writer.

    Will report back.
     
    #798
  19. The Ides of March

    The Ides of March Well-Known Member

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    Hilary Mantel – Bring up the Bodies

    Where would you place this in terms of genre? For me, it is a historical drama in which the characters and events are real, but the writer has some licence in formulating a certain character of the main protagonists through their words, deeds and actions, and how others saw them.

    The book is the second in a trilogy of Thomas Cromwell. I need to read the first as well as the third, but in this book the reader is made to feel sympathetic towards Cromwell as he is portrayed as a humble servant of the King as he was born a commoner and for much of the book he remains exactly that at the court, and mixing with those from a much higher social class. Another factor in his favour was that he believed that the rich need to recompense those who “were turned off the land, labourers without labour, sowers without a field. England needs roads, forts, harbours, bridges. Men need work. It’s a shame to see them begging their bread, when honest labour could keep the realm secure? Can we not put them together, the hands and the task.”

    The then Parliament knocked back his ideas. Que sorpresa!!

    He realised that the Treasury needed money so perhaps this was central to the dissolution of the monasteries, to wealthy families paying dues to the King if one of their number was arrested on a charge of treason.

    I feel there is a negative attitude towards Anne Boleyn with the language used, in which she is often referred to as the “King’s Concubine,” as well as engaging in witchery such was her alleged ability to seduce Henry himself, and grabbing the attention of other courtiers. It would seem that Henry himself is not deemed that great as there is a reference to the size of his manhood with that of Henry Norris's.

    The book is a fascinating insight to the history of the time, although bear in mind the writer regards Cromwell rather benignly whereas another author would take a different view.
     
    #799
  20. ChilcoSaint

    ChilcoSaint What a disgrace
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    What a strange twist of fate that the previous post on this thread should be about one of our greatest authors.

    Hilary Mantel, twice a Booker Prize winner, dies at 70

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63007307

    RIP Hilary <rose>
     
    #800
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