Books To Recommend ?

I always thought Henry was a fat bastard.


On the subject of the BBC and it`s strange ways, why the fuck are they delaying MOTD for this Proms bullshit?
 
Made the BIG mistake of watching Troy this evening. Ended up arguing with my wife about some of the facts of the story. I did the Aeneid II at school and she did another book. Then at the end it turns out the film was "inspired by Homer's The Iliad".

(And I thought that one was trained in Ireland.)
 
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The accuracy was shocking, wasn't it??? I loved the way they tried to make out the entire war went on for only a few weeks.....

Why would anyone make a film "based on" a book, story or historical event then change it radically?? May as well remake the whole thing and give it a new name!
 
I'm about to start Marley & Me (John Grogan), which I got for my wife last Christmas and which she says is brilliant. She's only just got round to passing it on to me.

I'm looking forward to it.
 
I've just finished A Quiet Belief In Angels and the rest of it didn't disappoint, a lovely read. Michael Connolly has it about right when he calls it "haunting and beautiful".
 
I've just finished reading "The Man" by Irving Wallace. It's an old political novel (1970's) about a freak incident that leads to the ascension of a black man to the presidency (how absurd!).

Found it absorbing- especially given the American campaign.
 
The Reckoning by Sharon Penman: the last Prince Of Wales' struggle with Edward 'Longshanks'. The third in the triology and so beautifully told, she makes one feel one knows the characters in reality and are so touched by their fates. The second book, Falls The Shadow was very good but felt a bit rushed as she tried to pack in perhaps too much, but back to the form of Here Be Dragons with this episode.
 
Bethren, Crusade and Requiem by Robyn Young, a triology following the adventures of Will Campbell, a Templar, from Scotland, to the Holy Land, to France, back to Scotland and several places in between involving Wallace, Longshanks et al. A good old fashioned yarn with more thrills for the hero than ten James Bond films, set during a fascinating historical time.
 
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow. I'm about 2/3 through at the moment, bit slow to get going but really getting into it now. About a young girl who's father is a witchfinder in 1600s England, how he convicts his own sister-in-law of witchcraft and his daughter subsequently tries to disprove the notion of evil spirits through scientific experiment based on Issacc Newton's Principia Mathematica - sounds like hard work but good stuff!
 
Ghost is the first Harris novel i read and i loved it. Far better than i expected... Pompeii is my next one.

reading Gideon Haighs latest colelction of cricket writings. he is the finest sports writer around i believe

and a Choice of enemies - Lawrence Freedman. US and the middle east. Just started. Beautifully written and very well balanced although not short of a strongly made point or two
 
Pompeii is a good book, I agree.

Just finished Nefertiti by Michelle Moran [a novel] and it was fantasitic. I couldnt recommend it more highly.
 
Wall and Piece by Banksy.

Not the most wordy tome, but a good reflection of his genius and humour.
 
redhead said:
Just got that, haven't had time to read it yet. Thanks for recommendation.
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You're very welcome. Just on to chapter two of William Marshal: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, by David Crouch, which is cited as the best purely factual read by Elizabeth Chadwick.
 
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Just finished reading Supernature and The Romeo Error by Lyall Watson. They were cult books in the seventies, but I was a bit too young to take it all on board properly at the time.

It was interesting to see that many of Watson's observations and theories still stand up to examination, while noting that some procedures that are commonplace today (such as nerve conduction studies to determine whether a nerve is "alive" or just compressed) were barely into the experimental stages then.

At the time that he was writing telepathy was just something that cranks believed in. Paranormal investigators now conduct experiments in conditions that will exclude it. We've come a long way in a very short time.

Currently halfway through The Templars by Piers Paul Read.
 
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Just finished Capricornia by Xavier Herbert, written in the 1930s and focusing on relationships between whites and aboriginies (hope that's an acceptable way of putting it). It's fictional but really interesting, not the same plot as the 'Australia' movie but I think the book probably influenced the plot of the film somewhat. Having said that, don't be put off if you didn't like the film.
 
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