Friends
This is my review of the book Emperor – The fields of swords by Conn Iggulden which I read recently. This is the third book in the series about the life and times of Julius Caesar. When we were the other side of the world it did not seem that strange that we had internet connection problems but back at home we are brought back to reality of living in rural Scotland, as we had a power cut for five hours. Of course this means no central heating, mains light or internet. As were were first told it would only be a short time we did not bother to get the generator going, but we were very pleased that we have a gas hob for cooking and a wood burner for heat and lots of candles. Our friends who live in more urban areas find it hard to believe the number of power cuts we get. Still this is nothing to the life that the Romans lived, and our biography of Julius Caesar now moves to his Gallic campaigns. Julius has taken his legions north to battle the Gallic tribes. But as his successes mount, overwhelming ambition and new alliances begin to threaten his one true friendship, with Brutus. Marcus Brutus was instrumental in the conquest of Gaul and so in restoring Caesar’s reputation as a hero of Rome, but slowly the cracks in the friendship start to appear, as Julius wants to restore the old ways of Roman, but wealth ambition and family ties all get in the way. I will record this as book 23 week 21 fiction 21 (audio books 4) non fiction 2
0 Comments
Friends
This is my review of the book Lord Tony's Wife by Baroness Orczy which I have listened to recently as a librivox recording, https://librivox.org/lord-tonys-wife-by-baroness-emmuska-orczy/ l whilst driving around. This story publish in 1917 is the continued story of the Scarlet Pimpernel series. It is a story full of suspense, double crossing and drama. The story is in three parts firstly an initial tragedy that sets up the story, the second part is all about Yvonne and Lord Tony eloping. Then the year moves to 1793 and in Nantes, France, the hunting of aristocrats goes on. The Yvonnes father kidnaps her under false pretences. They think they are going to The Netherlands but end up going to France, where Chauvelin is waiting. The final section is how Lord Tony persuades his friend The Scarlet Pimpernel to assist him in trying to free Yvonne and her father, from Chauvelin and Pierre Adet. Will Lord Tony ever even see his wife again? This book is an exciting, romance of the French revolution. If I had read it rather than listened to it then I would have classified it as a page turner. Certainly it kept my attention whilst travelling up and down the motorway. All good fun. I will record this as book 22 week 21 fiction 20 (audio books 4) non fiction 2 Friends
This is my review of the book Emperor – The death of kings by Conn Iggulden which I read recently. This is the second book in the series of four about the life and times of Julius Caesar. As a young officer in the army he is serving on board a war galley. The ship is captured by pirates is captured and he is abandoned on the North African coast. The families are asked for a ransom to get them back, which they pay. Julius vows to get revenge and the money back so he gathers a legion of men powerful enough to gain vengeance on his captors and to suppress an uprising in Greece, he returns to Rome a hero. At the moment of his triumph, Julius finds he must fight again. A savage rebellion threatens the city, led by a gladiator named Spartacus… This was a good page turner of a book and really wet my appetite for the next book in the series, which I will hopefully read soon. I will record this as book 21 week 21 fiction 19 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends
This is my review of the book 48 Hours by J Jackson Bentley which I read recently. This was the first book I read on a Kindle. I found it very strange not having pages to turn but soon got used to it. It certainly makes it easy to read. The star of the book is Josh Hammond and he receives a text on his Blackberry that he will have to pay a £250,000 ransom within 48 hours or be killed. Firstly he thinks it is a joke, but when people he knows starts dying he knows that the blackmailer is serious. He gets a beautiful bodyguard and then sets about raising the money and trying to find who is doing the blackmailing. With the time deadline and death as the ultimate inspiration this book has all the ingredients of being a real page turner and it is, all be it in my case flipping the screen. It is an exciting plausible book that whizzed along. The London background as a setting was believable as well, making it an enjoyable read. Though I have never read any of J Jacksons books before I will look out for them in the future. I will record this as book 20 week 21 fiction 18 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends
This is my review of the book Emperor – The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden, which I read recently. This book is the first of a series of books on the life and times of Julius Caesar. This book deals with his early years. At school I studied Roman history which included this time, and I have been to see Shakespeare's play about Julius. In both cases the person presented as Julius was very different to that of the one presented by Conn Iggulden. I know with time our views of history change but I did find this perspective very interesting. The story is full of all the staples of a Roman tale, gladiatorial combat, power struggles, betrayal and civil war with citizen fighting citizen. All the ground marks required by to give Julius the perfect start in life to enable him to become one of the greatest Romans of all. This is book one of a series and I will hopefully be reading the rest soon. I will record this as book 19 week 21 fiction 17 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends
The observant will have noticed that there has been a gap in my blog entries for a few weeks. This has been due to travelling the other side of the world and the related problems of getting a reliable internet connection that would work with weebly allowing me to update my blog. Then have got back to the uk there is of course the mountain of tasks that need to be done and writing blog articles I am afraid drops down the list but I will try to catch up with my book reviews before writing about other things, This is my brief review of the book The Innocence of Father Brown by G K Chesterton. The book is really just a collection of short stories, that were published in various magazines, each one is a story unto themselves. The hero of the stories is the “little” priest Father Brown, and how he solves or prevents crimes. In most cases it is the small things that he notices or does that traps the criminal. For example puts salt in the sugar bowl and if there is not a complaint then the person who has just taken the salt thinking it was sugar is up to no good. The stories also contain several famous quotes within them – one that appealed to me was - “Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.” ―G.K. Chesterton, he Innocence of Father Brown The book contains the following short stories:-
I will record this as book 18 week 21 fiction 16 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends,
This is my review of the book Never Go Back by Lee Child, which I read recently. This is the continuing saga of the ex-miltary cop Jack Reacher. On his continuing progress hitch-hiking around America he has come back to his old military unit the 100th Military Police. His reason for coming back is that he spoke to the current commanding officer Major Susan Turner and he liked her voice. So he decided that he would come back and ask her out for a meal. Sadly as soon as he crosses the bases threshold things start to go wrong for him. He is accused of the homicide relating to an event that occurred 16 years ago. Along with that a paternity suite comes out of the wood work for a daughter he did not know anything about. Added to that as ex-military he is co-opted back into the army so he has to obey army rules. Then he finds that Susan the person who he had gone to the base to see in the first place is now missing – locked up in a guard cell accused of bribery. Somehow though the most amazing series of twists and turns Jack manages to solve a major corruption mystery and clear his name, but you would not guess how he does it without reading the book, so I won't spoil the plot any more. Other than to say that numerous laws are broken, bones broken and guard cells broken out of during the course of the story. All adds to the fun. This is an enjoyable readable book. A real page turner as the saying goes and was certainly better than a lot of TV that was on over Christmas. This was book 17 week 13 fiction 15 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends,
This is my review of the book Exit Music by Ian Rankin which I have read recently. I like a lot of the population have loved reading Ian's books about Inspector Rebus, and for this reason have had the book on my shelf for many months, waiting for the right time to read and enjoy it. This Christmas time has been the right time. The plot line is complex, yet certainly to me entirely believable. It is all about Russian money, a G8 summit at Gleaneagles, wealthy bankers and potential bribery of officials, drugs and of course the odd murder or two. What a wonderful mix and into this is the fact that Inspector Rebus is about to retire and only has a few more days left in the force. When Inspector rebus starts asking questions of those officials at the highest level in government and banking circles, ripples start flying everywhere and soon the repercussions on Rebus not to rock the boat are so strong that he forced to hand in his warrant card early. Now the story takes an interesting twist can our famous inspector solve the crime now he is not a policeman. Fortunately he has a good team that can help him and with the wonders of mobile phones the case progresses. It does have a very good series of twists and turns in the plot line that add to the story. Other reviewers have said that it is “The best crime novel you'll read this year” and I can't disagree with that. To say much more would start to spoil the plot line. So with that I will record that this was a really good read as book 16 week 13 fiction 14 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends,
This is my review of the book A Life Worth Living by Nicky Gumbel which I finished a couple of days ago. (though I have read it before in a previous decade!! oh that makes me feel old). This book is a study on the New Testament book of the Philippians. The Philippians was written around 2000 years ago by the Apostle Paul and expands on the theme that Jesus Christ had made his (that is Paul's ) life profoundly worth living. As we find in the book Paul then goes on to expand why this is the case. Though Philippians only has four chapters – A Life Worth Living has nine and they all explore different aspects of how our lives change once we know Jesus Christ. The chapter heading are
Each chapter expands a short passage of scripture by looking at historical examples along with the practical implications of what the text might mean to someone today. The themes and context are easily understood and relevant both to the original text they are referring to along with everyday life. The book is very readable and inspiring, which is probably why it has been reprinted on numerous occasions. The book is also marketed as a follow up to the Alpha course - Alpha is a series of interactive sessions that freely explore the basics of the Christian faith. www.alpha.org , though it stands as a good book to read on it's own even if it is not following on from an Alpha course. The book is packed with quotes and I will recount just one that appealed to me – so often people are full of self importance,”One such VIP who was full of his own self-importance was irritated by what he considered to be incompetent service from his new steward at his club 'Do you know who I am?' he thundered. No Sir' was the reply, 'but I will make enquiries and then come back and let you know'” Paul's take on this is Phillipians 2 1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Anyway I won't get distracted and spoil the book for you if you read it yourself. (You can listen/watch Nicky Gumbel giving the series of talks on which the book was based on the Alpha website) This was book 15 week 12 fiction 13 (audio books 3) non fiction 2 Friends
This is my review of the book The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, which I have listened to recently as a librivox recording Over the last couple of weeks having spent quite a bit of time in the car it was good to have a good story to listen to. It certainly helps pass the time away. It was so good that as we got near to the end my average speed got less so we arrived home just as the last chapter was ending. Perfect timing. But I am getting ahead of myself. This is book three of book four in the Scarlet Pimpernel series depending on which list one is going by. It is September 1793 and French Agent and chief spy-catcher Chauvelin is determined to get his revenge for the previous humiliations dished out to him at the hands of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Chauvelin travels to England as an official representative of the French government tasked with looking after the interests of French citizens, but this is only a cover and his real purpose is to trick Sir Percy Blakeney into returning to France, where he can be captured and put to the guillotine. On the guise of a challenge to a duel Sir Percy is forced to travel to Bologune. Sir Percy's wife Marguerite is tricked into going to France to watch and help with the duel, but she is captured and put into prision. The whole town of Boulogne is held to ransom with the threat of death on the breadwinner making sure that she does not escape. Chauvelin seems to have hatched the perfect plan to capture and humiliate Sir Percy and stop the exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel. But all is not quite what it seems. This was a really good story, as it painted the scene and built the tension slowly up bit by bit. On the face of it it did seem as if Chauvelin had got Sir Percy Trapped. We spent a good few miles discussing how the Scarlet Pimpernel was going to get out of this alive, which of course is one of the problems of doing a series. The star has to escape to live for another day. This was a good book really well read by Karen Savage and a very enjoyable story. Probably listen to next in series when next driving. This was book 14 week 12 fiction 13 (audio books 3) non fiction 1 |
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
November 2015
Categories
All
|