pontalba

Adolf Hitler by John Toland and Hitler, A Study in Tyranny by Alan Bullock are a couple on my shelf that I found informative. Also The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester was an interesting study of the Krupp family, munitions makers to Hitler. A book I've wanted to get a hold of is Onward Christian Nurses, Edith Cavell by Diana Souhami. It is the story of an English nurse [Matron] that was executed by the Germans during WWI in Belgium.

I've now read two of Laura Lippman's Edgar Award winning detective series starring Tess Monaghan and well worth it they are! The first of the series, Baltimore Blues is a little unusual IMO for a first of a series. It's good. Yes, it has the usual setting up and introducing of running characters, but it's got an excellent detective story as well. I read it on my Kobo, and am considering buying the hard copy. I've acquired a few more of Lippman's books, and intend to collect all of them. Tess is a woman looking for something to do. The newspaper she reported for has been bought out and she is left in the dust as redundant. Collecting unemployment, and rowing are the only two certainties in her life until her practice partner is accused of murder. She turns her reporting skills to another use to help exonerate her partner, and her life is turned upside down. There are a few twists, but this isn't what I'd call a brain buster by any means, but most enjoyable. The Last Place is farther down the list of Lippman's books, and a few years later than the first one, and is more complex and more disturbing. It's an interesting psychological study and Lippman's sense of place is wonderful describing the Baltimore, Maryland area, making the area a character in itself.

We watched Kiss of the Spider Woman last night. Good film.

Quite often the pictures are not with the text that is explaining them. I don't mean the captions, but the actual part of the story that goes with it, and like Kylie, I have a bad memory, and have to refer to them fairly consistently. I'll pour over them many times before, during and after. But Janet, I certainly admire your method and stick-to-it-tivness! I couldn't manage.

I read Sandor Marai's Esther's Inheritance last night. It's only a short [148 p.] almost novella. I'm still debating with myself about it. It was an enjoyable read and certainly makes me think, so that's a good thing.

I wonder the same myself, haven't a clue. I do have to think that even if e-readers, ordinary ones, the black and white variety that I have, don't. And even if they do, I have to say that I still prefer the book in hand for pictures as well. Call me old fashioned or a dinosaur, but that's my preference.

I just finished A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley, and I will say the series is improving by leaps and bounds. I was slightly skeptical at the first one, and found the second one much improved, and this, third one, excellent. First books in a series are always difficult, so much set up, introducing of characters is involved. This has turned into a first rate series, one that I will certainly continue to follow with pleasure. Flavia de Luce is a wonderfully mature girl that admits that it isn't long since she was a child, and finds it difficult to converse with 'children'. Not is she only brilliant, she has a way about her that is interesting. Her thought processes are intricate she exhibits a sense of who she is, and the responsibilities of her family and herself to the surrounding characters. The mysteries themselves are improving too, to my mind, and will continue as the peripheral characters are developed and fleshed out. I can highly recommend this series.

Yes! Keep going, and bear in mind that this is the first of a trilogy......

That does sound high for it, especially for an e-reader! We bought it at the Borders going out of business sale, and while I can't remember the price, it was reasonable, as I'd not have paid that much! I do recommend the hard copy though, the pictures are wonderful of Dench throughout her career, and in so many costumes. I have another by/about her around here, more of a pictorial review sort of thing. Can't find it at the moment, or remember the name though.

I've reread the first two of Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills. I hadn't read them in, must be 20 years. This series was one of my most favorites for many years, and I still enjoyed them tremendously. Stewart puts a very human cast on Merlin the Magician with enough magic left to satisfy. Honor, battles, Kingship, passion, love and sacrifice all entwine for a magical, but very human story that thrills to this day. I've can also recommend and furthermore by Judi Dench, to fans of the Dame. It reads a bit breathlessly, has wonderful anecdotes of her life, so far. Her energy is absolutely amazing.

While I was a little disappointed in the ending, I didn't consider it a "Hollywood" ending. FWIW, I believe a typical Hollywood ending would have been a lot soppier. I do agree that it didn't mesh with the rest of the film though. I take it you mean the tacked on part where Mattie made her rounds? I have read the book, and seen the John Wayne version. It's been many years since I have seen JW's though, and can't even say I remember the ending. I do remember it as a "John Wayne" movie, one of his typicals. That is not a bad thing though, IMO. Just different from the book. I don't think you can go wrong seeing the firm. I can recommend the book though, as it will fill in some of the small holes the film leaves. There is some change in the order of things, not to eithers determent I believe. I particularly enjoyed the language style of the film, it stuck very close to the book.

Just finished watching all three episodes...borrowed the DVD from the library, and they are going on my Amazon Wish List as well. I resisted as long as I could, and finally couldn't stand it anymore. I really didn't think it could be that well transposed to the present. I wuzz wrong! I do like the idea of the two sides of the coin...on one side, the World's Only Consulting Detective, on the other the World's Only Consulting Criminal. Moving in tandem so to speak. My OH thought that Mycroft was Moriarty as well, but I thought he looked to "civil servant[ish]" for Moriarty. The idea of the guy at the end purporting to be Moriarty, fronting for Mycroft is interesting. Dunno if it'll pan out that way or not. The rivalry between Mycroft and Sherlock, so different from the original, and that is the main thing that gives credence to that theory [for me]. Loved the ending!

Finally received the DVD of Sherlock. Love it.

LOL Will suffice, to say the least. Although...for a Nabokov/detective story, I could recommend The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, or even Laughter in the Dark. The latter isn't a real detective story, but a great take on motivations. But all of VN's are IMO. Not that I've read all yet, only about half.

I don't know why I feel such reluctance to read The Sea, The Sea. I'd even found it at one point, and I just couldn't manage to pick it up. It's downright embarrassing! At one point I will read it, I'm not shutting the door, but I just can't seem to move toward it at present.

We are working our way through As Time Goes By with Judi Dench. I've seen in a couple of times, but OH hasn't, and he is enjoying it as much as I do. It's such fun to see him laugh at it as much as I do, and go Awwwww!

Is this Restless the one by William Boyd? If so, I love it, and another by him The Blue Afternoon. Just finished that earlier in the week, loved it, have ordered the next in the series. SueK, yes, this was my first Cadfael. I did enjoy it very much, and am assembling the entire series so I can read them in order. I've got 6 so far, out of the 20 I believe is the total. I just this week read Therapy in what amounted to one sitting. Fantastic! I wrote a little about it on my 2011 books read list.

I tried to pick up Falling Man by Don DeLillo again, I'd begun it at the start of the year. I don't think I'll continue, it's a bit too "navel gazing" for my taste at present. So, I still don't know what is next.

I did actually, could hardly bear to put it down to eat dinner. Haven't done that in ages and ages! Re Nabokov...I found Fitzek's twists and take on human nature and the nature of "truth" to be verra twisty. Thus Nabokovian to my eyes. That is the extent of any similarity, Fitzek's prose is clean and clear, nothing flowery about it, although his descriptive powers are excellent.

Busy couple of reading days here. Finished A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley, and just tonight Therapy by Sebastial Fitzek. Smashing! Received in mail today Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek Cotillion by Georgette Heyer The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge The Queen's Lover by Vanora Bennett

I seem to have been on a reading tear the last couple of days, perhaps making up for time lost. I finished my first Ellis Peters Brother Cadfael mystery, A Morbid Taste for Bones, an interesting first of the series. I'll definitely read more of them as it's a nice story line, and I like Cadfael's character. I am sure as the series continues the characters will become more rounded, and the interplay will become complex. This one involves a saint's bones and where they should be located, and by whom. A murder mystery without too much mystery. I think the series will be more valuable because of the peripheral story lines, not the mysteries they contain. I also finished The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley this afternoon and although the first part was clever, it took a little too long to develop. The last half of the book moved quite well, and was an interesting murder mystery, with an ending one might not expect. I've already ordered the next one in the series. I love the main character, the 11 year old Flavia de Luce. I can't wait to see how she turns out. Bradley has done well with her IMO. Tonight the corker though! I didn't go up to the road for the mail till about 5:30 this evening, and came back to the house with 4 book parcels. Four! /happiness/ One of which was Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek. I sat down here, at the desk, and started to read. I thought I'd read the first few pages to get the taste of it. I'd ordered it second hand through Borders for only a few dollars. Unlike myself, I'd gone ahead and ordered a hardback without a dustjacket. I hardly ever do that, as I'm usually quite picky about that sort of thing. Phew! Verra happy not to have missed this one. Really. A twister mystery I haven't read in a long time. In fact Fitzek must have taken "twisty" lessons from Nabokov. An eminent psychiatrist loses his 12 year old daughter. She simply disappears within a half hour of his having brought her to see an allergist for an illness that has plagued her for the last 11 months. The next thing we know, 4 years later, we find him strapped down in a clinic coming off of some powerful medications. The story he tells his doctor boggle the mind. What is real? What happened to his daughter, to him, and who is the woman novelist that visits him on his practically deserted island in the North Sea? She claims to be a patient referred by a colleague of his. Where is the doctor's wife? And why is everyone lying to him? The double U-turn at the end of this novel left me exclaiming out loud several times, even to the last 3 or 4 pages. I read it in a little less than 4 hours, that included time out for dinner prep and rapid eating. Highly recommended.

We watched The Sicilian Girl tonight. Based on a true story. Brilliant film. Sad as heck.

Between the second hand book store, Barnes & Noble, and the mailbox..... Nell Gwyn, Mistress to a King by Charles Beauclerk The Vertigo Years Europe, 1900-1914 by Philipp Blom Churchill's Secret Agent by Max and Linda Ciampoli The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery The Diary by Eileen Goudge The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng 61 Hours by Lee Child Managed a few pages in A Morbid Taste for Bones.

Fantastic news, congratulations! I am in awe. Great success sticking to your program! I've lost a few pounds, but haven't really been dieting officially. Cutting down some, smaller portions, and going against the usual advice of eating many small meals a day. LOL through experience I've found eating one small meal, and one medium meal a day works for me. Maybe a small treat in-between. We haven't been to the gym in a week, mostly because of all the time consuming dumb things life throws at one. Haven't given it up by a long shot though. We'll get lots of exercise tomorrow though, moving furniture around, and shelving books on the new bookcases arriving tomorrow.....at last!

I liked the original Battlestar Galactica, only saw a few pieces of the new one and opted out. Bleech. We've watched House of Cards, and To Play the King, on hand for either tonight or tomorrow night is The Final Cut...last of the trilogy. Love it. Love it. Love it!! I'd only seen the first part when it played on TV here. Did I mention I love it?