READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

Finished 'The Citadel' yesterday. Wonderful story. I shall have a look at another oldie on working class struggle, 'Fame is the Spur' by Howard Spring (1940). I remember it starts with the Peterloo Massacre.
Sue, you'll enjoy it if you do, a good human story and of course Cronin has put a lot of himself in there....

[Wendyf]

I've just started "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx. I love the film, but her writing style is taking a bit of getting used to.

[Stanley]

That rings a bell Wendy, can you remind me what it's about?

[Sue]

I will look into that one Stanley. I always like to have a book or two in reserve for when I have finished the current one

[Wendyf]

The Shipping News is about an outsider & loser called Quoyle who fails at everything. His parents commit suicide and his wife runs off with one of her many lovers having sold their two little girls to a pornographic film maker but she is killed in a car smash. Quoyle is persuaded by a visiting aunt to start afresh and return with her to their ancestral home on Newfoundland where he takes a job as a reporter on the local paper, covering the shipping news.
That's as far as I have got...I'm hoping things improve for Quoyle!
The film starred Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench and is a joy to watch. (Well, I think it is anyway.)

[Stanley]

Thanks Wendy, you've solved my small mystery. I saw and enjoyed the film on TV and that's where it got into my head.

[Stanley]

Enjoying Fame is the Spur.

[Stanley]

Finished Fame is the Spur, next for shaving is another oldie, H G Wells, 'History of Mr Polly' and 'War in the Air'.

[Stanley]

Mr Polly going down well. We often forget how good a Socialist Wells was, I'd forgotten the chunks of Marx he quotes in the story....

[Nolic]

Have you read his "Kipps". Forget half a sixpence its about the folly of snobbery and upwards social mobility. Nolic

[Stanley]

Yes Comrade, and time I read it again. Have started 'War in the Air'. In 1921 he had to write a new preface to point out he wrote the original before 1907, two years before Bleriot flew over the Channel. Even then he said that air power would completely change war. There's a lot of good stuff in these old books.....

[Tripps]

I did Kipps at school sort of pre-GCE. Can't remember anything about it. I sometimes think back to my schooling, and despite enjoying reading, they managed to make reading this book a chore. I like Mr Polly though - probably because I've seen it on TV several times. First with John Mills, then more recently with Lee Evans. I'm not a fan of his . but he did a good job - I think I recorded it. Some good words there - I particularly liked "arsonical".

[PanBiker]

I found this book on the shelf in the cottage we rented down in Devon. Read it cover to cover in a day, could not put it down.

Tank Twins - Eastend-Brothers in Arms - 1943-45

The story of twin brothers, Stephen (author) and Tom Dyson and their service in the same tank unit from D-Day through to occupation of Germany. Written from notes in an illegal diary kept throughout active service. Gripping if you are into military history, written by a bloke at the sharp end.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Ian, I've found a nice hardback on Bookfinder and ordered it.
War in the air goes well. The chapter on the attack on New York describes the 1907 equivalent of 9?11 and is very accurate!

[Stanley]

Finished 'War in the Air'. A good read and uncanny in its predictions. He even foresaw the credit crunch but then he had read Marx....... I'll have a think about what I dip into next. Might wait for the tank book I ordered yesterday....

[Stanley]

Ian, I'm expecting the tank book today.......

[Wendyf]

I finished "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed it and can recommend it especially to anyone who is drawn towards a simpler, tougher life!

[Gloria]

Panbiker, just collected Tank Twins from the library for O.H. to read. On a quick flit through it looks very interesting. It shows Pegasus Bridge, my Dad was in 6th Airborne and parachuted there, so it has much added interest.

[Stanley]

Mine hasn't arrived yet... Olympics holding the posts up?

[Stanley]

I've been reading Puck of Pook's Hill again, I never tire of it. Tank Twins arrived yesterday, beautifully packaged, mint hard back (Cover price £16.95), never been opened. I shall finish Puck and then settle down to tanks!

[Stanley]

Decided to read Rewards and Fairies, the companion volume to :Puck, before going on to the Tank Twins. The two Kipling books are so sooothing, they leave me in a very relaxed mood, just the way to be when you go into the shed and do serious measurements!

[Stanley]

Don't know how that smiley got in there! Read all of Tank Twins except the last couple of chapters yesterday. Good story but of course not enough technical detail about the tank and the guns for me. I shall have to do some furtling. Late in the war some Churchills had the 17 pounder fitted I think which was a much more effective gun than the older 75mm. But for all that it's a good read and I have enjoyed it.

[Stanley]

It was some Shermans that had the 17pdr fitted, they called the conversion the Firefly because that's just what the tracers loo like, they are travelling so fast. Finished the twins and decided I had to read Patrick Wright's book, 'Tank' again.....

[Stanley]

'Tank' is proving better on the re-read which is saying something! Came across a lovely quote for use by those who have criticisms of the monarchy and aristocracy. In 1917, once the decision to use tanks had been made a château was requisitioned at Bermicourt in France and the surrounding land was used for workshops and demonstrations. Celebrities were invited to see demonstrations of the tanks to gain support for the venture at home. There was a 'momentary awkwardness' during the visit of HRH the Duchess of Argyll: the princess was so overcome by the sight of the tank rearing up as it climbed a five foot bank that she lapsed into her native tongue and exclaimed "Gott, wie Kolossal es ist" Oh dear..... Good accounts of the saving tanks like the one on Letcliffe and also of the use of tanks in 1919 to intimidate the strikers.

[EileenDavid]

Just finished a book called "the band played on"about the band who played on the Titanic. It was about John (Jock) Law Hulme from Dumfries but mentions a Wallace Hartley from Colne who was the band leader. It's written by Jock's grandson whose the editor of the Daily Express. Put's a different slant of the romantic concoction of the films. Eileen