Friends this is my review of the book “By the Mast Divided” by David Donachie which I have read recently. This is the first David Donachie book that I have read, so was not quite sure what to expect.
They are historical novels set in the late 1700's. David goes into great detail setting the scene, of life around this time. Making it very clear that it was not very nice. The star of the book is John Pearce and he is illegally press ganged from the Pelican tavern in London, to the ship HMS Brilliant. David then cleverly uses the fact that John is a landlubber who knows nothing about the Navy to explain to the read what life was like for the average sailor in the Navy at this time. John being literate and educated is popular with his fellow land lubbers who were also press ganged, and gains respect from the real sailors who he works with in the mess. He soon has his first run in with Navel authority and the book then goes on to site a series of failed escape attempts of various ilk. At this time his ship HMS Brilliant, engages in a series of more and more desperate manoeuvres against the French to try and improve the Captains status. John of course is given the most desperate tasks to try and get him killed, but this does not happen. In fact through a very contrived and amusing set of circumstances John succeeds where the Captain had failed. Though to say more would spoil the story for those who have not read it yet. A very enjoyable adventure and as I was given this book as a set of three recently I will be reviewing some more of them at a later date. This was an enjoyable read as book 14 week 11 fiction 14 (audio book 3) non fiction 0
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Friends, this is my review of the book A Sentimental Traitor by Michael Dobbs, which I have read recently. Michael is an author who I have read before, just like Mr Forsyth. When I started the book I did wonder if I had made the right choice, but yes I did.
A real page turner, that gives the right balance to the characters, whilst at the same time progresses the plot along in a logical and absorbing way. So this is another book about Harry Jones, the ex solder with a colourful past who starts the story off as an MP trying to keep his seat in the forthcoming election. At the same time a passenger plane with thirty seven children on board crashes on central London. Sadly everyone is killed, and it is found to have been caused by a missile. There is also dubious financial dealings, that seem to be leading to bankruptcy for Harry, but on the good news Harry has a new love in his life Jemma Laing a primary school teacher. Can she help Harry solve the puzzle, join the dots and save them from disaster? As one zooms through this cracking page turner, we find that they are all linked together, especially when one adds in a mix of the Russians and the European Union. A really good enjoyable story. The only downside was that it was a shame that it came to an end so quickly. This was book 13 week 11 fiction 13 (audio book 3) non fiction 0 Friends this is my review of the book The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth, which I read recently. I was looking forward to reading this book, as previously I had enjoyed reading Fredick's books but sadly this was not the case.
I suppose I should have been warned by the cover, as the quotes on it were all about Frederick as an author and not about the book. The theme of the book is the ongoing war against cocaine. He goes into great detail explaining why the cocaine drugs industry is a problem and what can and can't be done to stop it, which I assume was based on fact though I have not checked it out. If it was not based on fact then it was a total waste of space. The book in the same vane then goes on to list a large number of actions taken around the world to try and stop the cocaine business. These one must assume are fictitious. The trouble was it read as a shopping list of actions. There was no depth to the majority of characters, and realistically it was just boring. Even the final twist was fairly predictable, especially when considering the vast sums of money involved. So all in all not the best book in the world, and a disappointing read. This was book 12 week 10 fiction 12 (audio book 3) non fiction 0 Friends this is my review of the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which I read recently. This was actually one of Pauline's Christmas presents which I borrowed, as I wanted to read it.
Having read the cover, which does not really do it any justice, other than to say “Stunning”, I was not sure what I would make of it, but I was not disappointed. What an amazing book, though it covered potentially a really gruesome subject of a contest to the death. I can remember seeing several films covering such subjects many years ago, where they dwelt extensively In the killing, this was completely different. Our hero is sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen, and from the time she steps forward to take the place of her sister, who has been chosen by lot to represent their district. One can tell the book is going to be different. As life is so hard at home Katniss has learnt how to hunt in order to survive, now she must do it for real in front of the Games Makers TV cameras. Some how beating the other twelve boys and eleven girls and survive, as the rule of the games is kill or be killed. The story follows Katniss, through her struggles and trials as she tries to survive and not get killed. There is a fairly large twist in the story, which I won't mention here so as not to spoil the plot, other than to say does love conquer all? This was a really enjoyable book and of course only part one of a trilogy, so I will have to read the other parts, and I hope they are as good as the first. This was book 11 week 7 fiction 11 (audio book 3) non fiction 0 Friends, This is all about our choice of digital image as our free January 2014 wallpaper at fullersfolio.co.uk "Edinburgh Skyline". This was taken a few weeks ago on a very cold day in Edinburgh and we thought it would make a great wallpaper picture. We had found ourselves coming up to the castle just as dusk was beginning to form. The colours in the sky were amazing just crying out to be captured The hard part was choosing which image should be the one for the calendar Maybe the crane is not quite so classical, so the castle is chosen as the one for this month. We hope you agree with our choice, and just in case you want one without the calendar here it is. We hope you like our choice, and hopefully we have included all common screen size combinations, so you can enjoy it too. There are more free digital wallpapers to be found here... |
Tim Fuller
Dyslexic doodles on photography, food (growing, cooking & of course eating), faith and other fascinating things. This is a personal blog expressing my views. Archives
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