Old news but the guy made a pratt of himself slagging off Charlton for "allowing" woman supporters in the ground a few years ago. A real post-96 fan who discovered football in adulthood and in Italy and then wanted to tell everyone how it should be done.
Hmm, I didn't know that. I loved it mainly for its insight into fan culture, terrace humour and the silly stories it throws up.
Parks didn't seem too bad in it, but he did get swept up in things a bit easily. I can't imagine he'd have been too bothered about Crotone or Grosseto turning up a few years later either.
^^^^ I have. I did not enjoy it all that much. I found it rather derivative. As to filming it .. it would have to be 'art house' .. the book has touches of Pynchon, Kerouac, Joyce, very personal life adventures, or should I say low life adventures. Hard to put on film I should think
The Feast of the Goat by Vargas Llosa about the 30 year dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and his assasination. Never read any Lloasa before and I was blown away by the brilliance of the plotting. A brilliant novel.
The Devil All the Time by DonaRay Pollock: Mayhem and murder in West Virginia and Ohio in the 50s-80s. Serial killers and religious maniacs. Superb prose, similar to Cormac McCarthy. Relentlessly bleak like him as well. Some horrible images.
Queen Lucia by EF Benson: The complete opposite. A classic from the 1920s/30s about a upper middle class women and how she dominates society her small town through little plots and oneupmanship. A sort of cross between Oscar Wilde and P G Wodehouse.
Reading Voices From The Grave, the first half devoted to Brendan Hughes and his account of being a senior IRA man, the second half devoted to David Ervine's recollections of his time in the UVF. Although I haven't got to the Ervine section yet, by all accounts he was a lot more guarded than Hughes in his testimony. The agreement was the two didn't want the book published until after they'd died, hence the title.
very funny. a must for italian football lovers like me
The problem I had with that book was that while he could write he was pretty clueless about football, the tactics and pretty much everything to do with what was happenning on the pitch. Every match seemed to have been pre-writen and then at the end he's say "Verona lost 2-0" and that was it...by the end of the book I was intrigued to know what formation they'd played, what players were dropped/brought in etc. Despite that a fascinating look at Italian life.
Just finished reading "The plot to killing Reinhard Heydrich - Callum Macdonald".
This was the story of Operation Anthropoid and is told from three perspectives, first the early life of Heydrich from a conventional middle-class background and how he joined and was thrown out of the elite German navy after a minor scandal. Subsequently he joined the Nazi party and quickly rose through the ranks combining intelligence, hard work, cunning not to mention a ruthless streak. Secondly, there's a polirtical perspective - Eduard Benes, the president in exile of Czechoslovakia was keen for the Czechs to do their bit in fighting the Nazis, but as he'd been sold out in the Munich Conference in 1938 (where the Czechs lost the Sudetenland and were excluded from the negotiations) he feared that a post-war settlement might be again arranged over the heads of the Czechs. By sanctioning the operation he wanted to do his bit. Thirdly the book looks at the two assassins and the aftermath with the inhabitants of Lidice and Sarkazy being massacred. The two agents were ultimately betrayed by an Czech resistance informer and they committed suicide when the Germans closed in them.
Lastly the book discusses whether it was ultimately worthwhile - which is something I've been mulling. An estimated 5,000 people were executed in reprisals and the Czech Home Army (as the resistance was called) was effectively wiped out and ceased to exist until the latter stages of the war. Czechoslovakia was a main hub for the German war effort, prior to the assassination there had been a campaign of sabotage which all but ended. By then the Final Solution was in operation - something Heydrich oversaw at the Wannsee Conference and he was on his way to the airport to fly to Germany and meet Hitler with the expectation that he was about to be given another job in the Nazi empire.
Has anyone read "confederacy of dunces". Fascinating programme on radio 4 about the many failed attempts to film it. The author seemed very odd too.
On my top 10 books of all time and probably the funniest of them all. Sadly John Kennedy Toole couldn't get it published and committed suicide. His mother found a copy and spent years trying to get it into print. When she did, it want the Pulitzer immediately.
@jints .. Pollock is another master of his craft .. there are just SO MANY really great American writers
There really are so many of them. It's incredible how he manages to pick the right word every time so that plain, straight forward sentences convey every nuance of the situation or character with perfect economy and precision.
'Point of Impact' by Stephen Hunter. Hunter writes superb, fierce, gutsy thrillers. My favourite thriller writer but not so well known in England I don't think. I would highly recommend his books if you like tough, exciting thrillers. The first one I read of his was Hot Springs and then I was hooked.
I love Stephen Hunter .. He's written about a dozen thrillers: violent but realistic violence, imaginative, well researched, excellent varity of topics
I believe Hunter won the Pulitzer Prize a few years back so he's no slouch.
He is the film and (I believe) literary critic for the Baltimore Sun, to which I subscribe and read his stuff from time to time. He won his Pullitzer Prize for his film reviews. (I cheated here a bit and used Wiki to fill in my knowledge gaps). Hunter is a versatile and multi talented writer. I am a few books behind in reading his oeuvre, I must catch up. I must confess though that the last one of his that I read, 'Havana', lacked his usual touch of sardonic humour and was just a little too bloodthirsty even for my taste. If you like Hunter, try Philip Kerr and his Berlin/Wartime Germany novels .. VERY interesting stuff, also John Sandford and the 'Prey' series, seriously good crime writing, better in my opinion than Connelly, Burke or Crais, though 'better' here is a relative term, they are all very good novelists
I agree about Havana. Probably one of my least favourites that he has written. For me the best are Point of Impact, Black Light, Time to Hunt, The Day before Midnight, Dirty White Boys, Pale Horse Coming and Hot Springs. All brilliant.
I will give Philip Kerr a go. I've read a lot of John Sandford and Michael Connelly and both are very good although I'm taking a break from American crime novels at the moment.
This book has won many awards and for very good reasons. It is a quite extraordinary book. The narrator is Death and Death unravels the story of Liesel Meninger (the book thief) who, following the death of her brother, finds a book in the snow at the graveside. - The Grave Diggers Handbook, and although she cannot read, she keeps the book as a memento of her brother. The storytelling combines glimpses of changes in German society but taken together with enticing and vivid characters and the minutiae of everyday life the reader encounters all shades of German society, from committed Nazis to characters such as Hans Hubermann, Liesel's step-father. He teaches Liesel to read and Liesel becomes a book thief, stealing books from the Nazi bonfires. This book illuminates the human psyche in a very life affirming way. It unsettles, provokes, provides tears and laughter and yet still manages to be a page turner.
Finished Lord of the Flies last week, enjoyed it. Now on The Grapes of Wrath which again just reminds me of The Simpsons... "Here's the grapes, and here's the wrath!"
Capital - John Lanchester ... very good, wasn't convinced I'd like but I did
Guns of Brixton - John Timlin ... his first 'big' novel, excellent
Be Careful What You Wish For - Simon Jordan ... still can't stand the bloke but this is a bloody good book, particularly enjoyed the parts about Charlton and also the making of Telstar
Soccernomics - Simon Kuper ... some fascinating 'revelations'about a number of football topics
Capital - John Lanchester ... very good, wasn't convinced I'd like but I did
Guns of Brixton - John Timlin ... his first 'big' novel, excellent
Be Careful What You Wish For - Simon Jordan ... still can't stand the bloke but this is a bloody good book, particularly enjoyed the parts about Charlton and also the making of Telstar
Soccernomics - Simon Kuper ... some fascinating 'revelations'about a number of football topics
I am just finishing Capital ... mmmmmm so so, promised more than it delivered, a bit clichéd but well written
Soccernomics - Simon Kuper ... some fascinating 'revelations'about a number of football topics
Interesting book, though the 'why England lose' chapter was by far the worst (synopsis - we do about as well as we should, given populations size etc), as it's only the red tops that really promote the 'we should be winning the World Cup' thing, I think most football fans out thee accept we do about as well as we hould, jus hope for more.
Half way through first novel of the Forsyte Chronicles. Picked up the whole set in penguin from a junk shop for a bout 50p around 10 years ago and never got around to starting it. Appx 3000 pages long but what the hell as long as my health keeps up I should have another 20-25 years to get through it.
I've been reading I Am Zlatan. I'm not normally a big autobiography fan, but I like the fact that he's not afraid to say exactly what he thinks. And the fact he's a bit of an abrasive personality to many means there's plenty of interest in there.
Luftwaffe Letters by Edward Thorpe .. fictionalised correspondence between 1938 and 1945 between a German fighter pilot, his family, friends and colleagues. Fictional but possibly good and meaningful insights into the change from nationalist arrogance to disillusion of a young 'patriot' who had been brainwashed by the Nazi machine
Just finished the biography of the Universe by John Gribbin. Well written, but some chapters on theoretical physics taxed my weary brain somewhat. just started Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf as an antidote
Comments
Parks didn't seem too bad in it, but he did get swept up in things a bit easily. I can't imagine he'd have been too bothered about Crotone or Grosseto turning up a few years later either.
The Feast of the Goat by Vargas Llosa about the 30 year dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and his assasination. Never read any Lloasa before and I was blown away by the brilliance of the plotting. A brilliant novel.
The Devil All the Time by DonaRay Pollock: Mayhem and murder in West Virginia and Ohio in the 50s-80s. Serial killers and religious maniacs. Superb prose, similar to Cormac McCarthy. Relentlessly bleak like him as well. Some horrible images.
Queen Lucia by EF Benson: The complete opposite. A classic from the 1920s/30s about a upper middle class women and how she dominates society her small town through little plots and oneupmanship. A sort of cross between Oscar Wilde and P G Wodehouse.
This was the story of Operation Anthropoid and is told from three perspectives, first the early life of Heydrich from a conventional middle-class background and how he joined and was thrown out of the elite German navy after a minor scandal. Subsequently he joined the Nazi party and quickly rose through the ranks combining intelligence, hard work, cunning not to mention a ruthless streak. Secondly, there's a polirtical perspective - Eduard Benes, the president in exile of Czechoslovakia was keen for the Czechs to do their bit in fighting the Nazis, but as he'd been sold out in the Munich Conference in 1938 (where the Czechs lost the Sudetenland and were excluded from the negotiations) he feared that a post-war settlement might be again arranged over the heads of the Czechs. By sanctioning the operation he wanted to do his bit. Thirdly the book looks at the two assassins and the aftermath with the inhabitants of Lidice and Sarkazy being massacred. The two agents were ultimately betrayed by an Czech resistance informer and they committed suicide when the Germans closed in them.
Lastly the book discusses whether it was ultimately worthwhile - which is something I've been mulling. An estimated 5,000 people were executed in reprisals and the Czech Home Army (as the resistance was called) was effectively wiped out and ceased to exist until the latter stages of the war. Czechoslovakia was a main hub for the German war effort, prior to the assassination there had been a campaign of sabotage which all but ended. By then the Final Solution was in operation - something Heydrich oversaw at the Wannsee Conference and he was on his way to the airport to fly to Germany and meet Hitler with the expectation that he was about to be given another job in the Nazi empire.
The author committed suicide after he couldn't get it published anywhere.
Red One-----Capt Kevin Ivison GM-----bomb disposal in Iraq, won the GM but developed horrific PTSD.
Dean Koontz----Odd Interlude-----like his writing
since the wife got me a Kindle for Xmas the reading habit has returned 10 books read since she gave it to me.
Couldn't get enough of Chandler in my teens - thought I'd revisit this some 40+ years on
I will give Philip Kerr a go. I've read a lot of John Sandford and Michael Connelly and both are very good although I'm taking a break from American crime novels at the moment.
This book has won many awards and for very good reasons. It is a quite extraordinary book. The narrator is Death and Death unravels the story of Liesel Meninger (the book thief) who, following the death of her brother, finds a book in the snow at the graveside. - The Grave Diggers Handbook, and although she cannot read, she keeps the book as a memento of her brother. The storytelling combines glimpses of changes in German society but taken together with enticing and vivid characters and the minutiae of everyday life the reader encounters all shades of German society, from committed Nazis to characters such as Hans Hubermann, Liesel's step-father. He teaches Liesel to read and Liesel becomes a book thief, stealing books from the Nazi bonfires. This book illuminates the human psyche in a very life affirming way. It unsettles, provokes, provides tears and laughter and yet still manages to be a page turner.
Guns of Brixton - John Timlin ... his first 'big' novel, excellent
Be Careful What You Wish For - Simon Jordan ... still can't stand the bloke but this is a bloody good book, particularly enjoyed the parts about Charlton and also the making of Telstar
Soccernomics - Simon Kuper ... some fascinating 'revelations'about a number of football topics
I'm now on "The Little Sister" and have "The Lady in the Lake" standing by.