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peterjmerrigan

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Posts posted by peterjmerrigan

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    Hello Peter :)

    Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell

     

     

    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

     

     

    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

     

    Sounds like we have a winner! I'm going to have to check it out now... well, not now, I'm at work, but... shhh! ;)

    Anyone Read The Disenchanted Widow?

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    I've just started reading The Disenchanted Widow by Christina McKenna (think she's most famous for The Misremembered Man, but I haven't read it).

     

    I'm beginning Chapter 3 now and it seems pretty good so far.

     

    From Amazon:

     

    It’s 1981 and Belfast is burning. So, too, is freshly widowed Bessie Halstone: she burns with a desire to break with her troubled past. With her feckless husband gone, she leaves home hurriedly with her naughty nine-year-old son, Herkie, and not much else. The Dentist, an IRA enforcer, is on her tail. He’s convinced that Bessie, with her “yella hair all puffed up like Merlin Monroe’s,” has absconded with the takings from a bank heist.

    But car trouble strands mother and son in Tailorstown, a sleepy Ulster village. Bessie finds temporary work as housekeeper for the handsome and mysterious parish priest.

    In the meantime, Lorcan Strong, an artist and a native of the village, is summoned home. He’s been shanghaied into forging paintings for the IRA. It’s work he cannot refuse; his mother and their business are under threat.

    Yet things are not what they seem in quirky Tailorstown. There is a “sleeper” in the village. But who? Bizarrely, it is young Herkie, due to his childish curiosity, who unravels the mystery and saves the day.

     

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    Very true, muggle, but it's finding them that's the issue :). I hate paying through the nose for ebooks / Kindle books and so generally end up reading those self-published, apparently-non-edited, written-by-neaderthal-man novels that go for 99p or £1.99 lol. There are some gems, but mostly not!

    Am I the only one who enjoyed Les Miserablés?

    in The Classics

    Posted

    I haven't heard the audio version, but if it's just a "reading" of the novel and the abridged version, I can picture it :). Thanks for linking me to your review, I've read the first couple of paragraphs but thought I'd come back here and reply before I got sucked in lol. I'll go back and read your full review now.

     

    As for the abridged version cutting out 46 hours of the story, I can say there's a lot the written abridged version cuts out that was integral to the original story - ie:

     

     

    The fact that the boy (I've forgotten his name) was the Thenardiers' son and Eponine's little brother, was never made clear in the abridged version (or in the stage show, in fact!), and yet it was so integral to the story line.

     

     

    Things like that make me decide never to read abridged versions of novels - it's best to read them as the author intended :)

    Stephen King - Doctor Sleep (The Shining Sequel)

    in Horror / Fantasy / SF

    Posted

    I did enjoy The Shining, and hated the film version for getting it so wrong. Looking forward to reading Dr Sleep, but I'm reluctant to pay £9.50 for the Kindle version when I know (as an author myself) that there is absolutely no production costs involved in an ebook. It doesn't matter, to me, how famous or popular you are, you don't have to set an ebook price more than £4 or £5 unless you're just being greedy! (IMHO)

    Everyone has 6 names....

    in Quiz Room / Thread Games Jokes etc

    Posted · Edited by peterjmerrigan

    Your real name:
    Peter J Merrigan

     

    Your detective name:
    (Main character's last name of the book you're reading and your birth month)
    Wharton January

    Your soap opera name:
    (middle name and name of your first best friend)

    John Tony

    Your star wars name:
    (first three letters of last name, first two of middle name)

    Merjo

    Your Superhero name:
    (color of your shirt and the weather outside)

    White Star

    Your Rockstar name:
    (Your favorite color and favourite animal)

    Green Dog

     

    :D

    Looking for a novel I read at uni

    in Book Search and Reading Recommendations

    Posted · Edited by peterjmerrigan

    as with GardenGirl, I too cannot help with naming the book. However, maybe a little extra clues might help someone identify it. What genre was it (crime, thriller, romance, etc)? Any plot key points that might help identify it? Do you remember what the cover looked like (I know it sounds silly but when you've worked in book shops, the amount of "it has a blue cover" queries you get are phenomenal)? Anything that would help spark someone's memory or recognition of the book...?

     

    Oh, and welcome :D

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    I have a recommendation: 'Blood Promise' by Brian McClellan. It's fantasy, but - bear with me! - there's a crime/mystery-ish storyline in it, some intriguing politics and lots of fun action. It's the first in the 'Powder Mage' trilogy, and it's being referred to as 'flintlock fantasy': not so much 'sword and sorcery' but 'guns and sorcery'. I loved it! :D

    Haha, that actually sounds quite interesting from what you've said! I don't really do fantasy novels any more, but I'm willing to give one a go if it's good. I guess all the old fantasy novels/series I read in my teens all became a bit samey and staid. Something new might just be what I'm looking for :D

    Am I the only one who enjoyed Les Miserablés?

    in The Classics

    Posted

    Just scanned through every page of topics in this Classics sub-forum and can't believe no one has mentioned Victor Hugo's Les Miserablés. Am I really the only one who read and enjoyed this epic novel?

     

    Set in the early 1800s, it follows the trials and tribulations of ex-convict Jean Valjean following his release from prison (serving something like 18 years (forgive me if I got that wrong) for stealing a loaf of bread) and the offer of redemption he receives from a clergyman after he tries to steal the church silverware. Valjean goes on to turn his life around, helping (and being helped by) various characters along the way, all the while being hunted down by Javert, a member of the gendarmerie (police). The whole story culminates, rather meaningfully, in the June Uprising in the 1830s.

     

    I'm sure everyone here has either seen the stage show, seen one of the many films or made-for-TV movies, or at the very least, heard Susan Boyle sing her rendition of one of the stage-show's classic titles, I Have a Dream... But how many of you have actually read the novel?

     

    For me, I started with the Penguin Classic - abridged and chopped down to around 200 pages or so, which I picked up for £1 or £1.50. I consumed it within two days and was hungry for more. I felt like the story had so much more to give than was offered in the abridged version, so I immediately hit the bookstore for the complete and unabridged version. I admit the first third of the novel was a bit of a hard slog. There were French words I didn't know, place names I couldn't get my tongue around, and descriptive passages that oftentimes seemed to meander meaninglessly, but I can assure you, if you're tempted to read it, get through that first 500 pages or so (I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me, it's worth it!) and you won't be able to put the book down.

     

     

    The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

    in The Classics

    Posted

    Must add my love and appreciation of Dorian Gray. I loved it so much so that I even wrote my uni dissertation on the book! (Not much point in elaborating on that here - suffice to say my aim was to show modern relevance to classics and that minimal modernisation of classic literature can make said novels meaningful and pertinent to today's societal expectations.)

     

    I have the complete works of Oscar Wilde, falling to pieces now as I've leafed through it so often. It's probably the only anthology or "complete works" collection that I have actually read cover to cover. In fact, if I dig it out, I'm sure I'm holding parts of it together with Sellotape!

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    Thanks for the welcome GardenGirl. I used to be really active on some other forums some time ago but life kind of got in the way lol. It's good to get back into the whole thing and even better if I end up reading a book based on someone's recommendation and actually LOVING it :D

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    Thanks for the welcome, guys. You all seem lovely so far :D

     

    Hi peter :welcomeboard:

     

    Are you an Agatha Christie fan?

     

    Hi Cuppycakes. I've read one or two Christie novels, but probably way less than I should!

     

    See? I've only just joined and there're two recommendations already! I knew signing up here was a good idea lol

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

    in Previous Reading Circle Books

    Posted

    For me, this is one of those books that just gets better with every reading (sorry for coming to this post late!).

     

    There are very few novels whose character names I actually remember - and I haven't picked this title up in 6 or 7 years now - but with Mockingbird, I remember the majority of them - Scout, Atticus, Jem, Boo... To me, this is a book that makes you think - without letting you know that you're actually thinking!

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    Hi Vodkafan. Thanks, I've been recommended Vance before, actually, but I'm not so much a big fan of the whole sci-fi world. I went through my fantasy phase in my teens lol and came out the other side ;). I'll investigate further though!

    Hellooooo

    in Introductions

    Posted

    Hey guys! Nice to e-meet you all!

     

    Just registered and looking forward to snooping around the rooms and seeing who's reading what. Don't worry, I'll keep out of the underwear drawer ;) lol.

     

    A bit about me: Well, I'm Northern Irish originally, moved to England in 1997 and now live in Leeds but spend weekends in Manchester with my other half.

     

    I work in advertising and write my own novels in my spare time, but I'm not here to talk about that lol. I'm here primarily to discover new reading material. I love fiction, literary fiction, some genre fiction (crime/thriller/mystery, the occasional horror), and I'm forever running out of decent books to read. My Kindle goes everywhere with me (yes, I've moved on from paperbacks, though I do still miss the feel of a good book in my hand!) and it's full of drivel I read 2 or 3 chapters of before giving up on them because the novel seems awful. I need something new (and good!) to read :)

     

    Anyway, enough about me... :D

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