Brian.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis Synopsis Mere Christianity is C.S. Lewis's forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief. First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books - The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality - Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis saw as the fundamental truths of the religion. Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, C.S. Lewis finds a common ground on which all those who have Christian faith can stand together, proving that "at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks the same voice." (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts I've been dipping in and out of various bits of religious writing over the last 20 years or so in an attempt to come to a personal conclusion on it all. This book is considered a classic in Christian discourse along with some of his other writings. I try to be balanced in my thoughts/reviews when reviewing books on religion although I will admit that this is tricky to do. I try to focus on the writing and not so much on the content unless I find it to be particularly flawed. I did sit down to read this book with the knowledge that it is often cited by people as being behind their converstion/acceptance of the Christian faith. In truth I don't really have a huge amount to say about this book as it left me largely unmoved. There were some thought provoking passages but each time I felt Lewis was building to some kind of meaningful conclusion on a topic it would peter out. I wanted something that would really get my brain working but I just couldn't find it. When I had finished the book I just couldn't see any parts that would have been sufficient to convert someone into a Christian. I am acutely aware that this is probably an unfair position to view the book from as this was never (as far am I'm aware) Lewis' aim. However, it is often cited in praise for the book by other people and sometimes books become something other than they were initially meant to be. I can appreciate a book even if I don't agree with it's arguments if it is presented in a way which makes logical sense to me. I felt this was when I read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. I disagreed with his conclusion but his case we well thought out if flawed in places. Trying to prove the unprovable is always going to be an immensly difficult task and I should probably change my approach when reading these kinds of books. Fundamentally I will probably never be convinced by any religious discourse which is based on theism. It's a step to far for me without conclusive proof. Proof which has been impossible to provide so far in our history. 2/5 (It was ok but it wasn't for me).

Cold Fall by John Gardner Synopsis The night that Flight 229 blew apart on landing at Washington's Dulles Airport, and the almost four hundred passengers aboard were killed, a mission began that would become an obsession for James Bond. Who was responsible for destroying the British-owned aircraft? Was it a straightforward act of terrorism, an assassination aimed at only one person, or a move to put the airline out of business? For Bond the search for answers has a personal meaning: his former lover and old friend the Principessa Sukie Tempesta is listed as one of the ill-fated passengers. In this white-knuckle 007 thriller, John Gardner sends master spy James Bond on the most complex and demanding assignment of his career. Across continents and through ever-changing labyrinths of evil, Bond follows the traces of clues into the center of an organization more deadly than any terrorist army - a fanatical society code-named Cold, Children of the Last Days. What he finds there could very well spell his own last days. (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts Book number 16 and the final entry in the John Gardner series of James Bond books. I thought that this completed the series for me but then realised that the collection I bought from a charity shop doesn't include two books that were used as the basis for movies. This is a decent enough end to Gardner's Bond series but it does suffer from some of his usual flaws. The story gets going and then stalls a few times. There are chunks of the book where nothing much happens and I found these a bit of a struggle to get through. I'm also not a fan of the fact that Gardner's Bond often falls deeply in love with women in his books. This doesn't sit well with the traditional image of Bond and is the reason that his marriage to Tracy always stands out as a huge life event for him. In a change to previous books this one covers years instead of weeks or a few months. This long time frame shift is handled quite poorly and the passage of time is pretty much covered with just one sentence. There are call backs to previous events in Bond's life including his aforementioned marriage and some of Gardner's earlier characters make a come back. The main 'baddie' is a bit of a shift from previous books and I was left wondering if Gardner opted to do this in the last book in case there was a negative reaction to this. To sum up, this was a bit better than Gardner's usual fare but still suffers from his usual flaws. 2.5/5 (It was ok).

So many bugs going round at the moment. I was floored with the flu for 3/4 days in January and I’ve come down with something similar this morning. On the reading front I have recently started The Dark Tourist by Dom Joly. It is a collection of his stories from traveling to untypical places. For example, his first trip was to go skiing in Iran.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire Synopsis Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children No Solicitations No Visitors No Quests Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter. No matter the cost. (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts Every so often I go looking for lists of book recommendations. If a book pops up numerous times I tend to add it to my wishlist. This was one of those books but I can't think what lists I was looking at when I found it. I avoid reading any reviews as I want to come to a book without any preconceived ideas so I had no idea this was a fantasy novel until I started it. Fantasy is a genre I have only really dipped my toes into so bare that in mind if you read this as it's not entirely 'my thing'. The story revolves around Nancy, a new arrival at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. Wayward children are those who disappear into parallel worlds for a time and then feel displaced when they return to our realm. The children don't experience the same things when they are 'away' as they visit different worlds. The Home helps them process these emotions. Some children will eventually return to the other world they previously visited while others never will. To revisit their alternate world requires a doorway. The locations of these doorways is a mystery and can appear at any time. Although I am not a fantasy reader I quite liked this book. It's only a short read and I read it in a few sittings. The characters are all unique and developed well enough despite the short length. Quite quickly I realised that this book is aimed towards young adults but still 'adult' enough for older readers. I know why YA exists as a separate genre but I've always felt that if a book is good enough then age demographics don't really matter. The book touches on a range of themes, one of the most important being LGBTQ and self identity. I thought this was a decent read but I probably won't read the next book in series as it isn't really my thing. 3/5 (It was decent).

The Spring 2023 catalogue has just dropped through my door and once again there are some nice looking additions. I'm not sure I will be indulging though as they have put their prices up once again. I'm pretty sure my collection of the Ian Fleming written James Bond books is complete but I'll have to double check. They used to be £38 a book which was always on the steep side but now they are just shy of £47 a book.

Last night I finished Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. I started two books, one fiction, one non-fiction. The choices are Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

Last night I finished Soldier: Respect is Earned by Jay Morton and started Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire.

Soldier: Respect is Earned by Jay Morton Synopsis With four years in the Parachute Regiment, ten years in the SAS and two Everest summits to his name, no one is better equipped than Jay Morton to reveal what it takes to become the best of the best. Soldier is Jay Morton’s masterclass in mindset, strategy and excellence. Drawing on his extraordinary personal experience, it provides in-depth, comprehensive lessons and practical takeaways. Whether serving as an elite soldier, training as a high-level shooter or becoming an expert in HALO (high-altitude, low-opening) and HAHO (high-altitude, high-opening) parachuting, Jay has always strived to be at the very top of the game. More than most, Jay knows that military service develops skillsets you’d never dreamed of having, and which can be applied to our day-to-day lives. We are prone to underestimating ourselves, but physical and mental endurance and resilience – as well as realising our own full potential – are well within our reach. (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts I picked this up at my local Waterstones to complete a 'buy one, get one half price' deal. I think the last time I watched SAS: Who Dares Wins was the series when Jay started with the show and was a mole in the contestants group. That was back in 2020 and I only managed a few episodes as I felt the show was getting too dramatic. I think some of the ex special forces guys on the show have come across really well, and some, not so much. Jay was one of the former so I decided to give his book a go. I'll start with some positives. The book is well laid out and written well enough. Jay comes across in an engaging way and drops in stories and anecdotes from his time in the SAS where appropriate. It would be easy to come across as arrogant having performed at an elite level in the military but Jay never does. Now for the negatives. There are a few times where the use of things like 'The 7 M's', and 'The 6 P's feels really forced and unnatural. The biggest negative though is probably a little specific to me. I don't feel like this book brings anything new to the every growing list of self-help books written by ex-members of the military. Someone who hasn't read many of these will probably find value but I thought it was only ok. 2/5 (It was ok).

I've got a few of them and while they are ok, I do wish they would make them a little bigger, say the same size as the standard Penguin Classic editions.

Yeah, I'm not sure what got into me. Sometimes I just devour books and other times I struggle to get through more than a few pages and nothing sticks.

I'm still spending much more time watching movies instead of reading books. In the last week I have watched the following. The Karate Kid Part II - 3/5 Daybreakers - 2.5/5 The Karate Kid Part III - 2.5/5 Full Metal Jacket - 5/5 Full Metal Jacket is my favourite movie of all time and I treated myself to the 4k UHD version of it. Watching it in 4k is a great experience.

The first two months of the year perfectly sum up how my reading tends to go. I read 13 books in January but only managed 2 in February.

SeaFire by John Gardner Synopsis Sir Maxwell Tarn is missing. The self-made tycoon, mastermind of a global empire that embraces some highly unusual activities, has vanished with the beautiful Lady Tarn - right from under the noses of a crack surveillance team, supposedly in the flames of a dramatic automobile accident. Now James Bond and the newly reorganized Double-Oh section of the SIS must move quickly to discover what really happened to Sir Maxwell and expose him and his operation for what they really are. With Fredericka von Grusse - Flicka - his stunning partner introduced in Never Send Flowers, Bond follows a maze of trails from England to Spain to Israel, and then to a picturesque German village overrun with neo-Nazis. Evidence of a diabolical scheme leads Bond and Flicka to Puerto Rico, where the pair must move quickly both above and below water to thwart Tarn and his master plan before his cache of deadly weapons destroys much more than a few pristine islands in the Caribbean. (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts The penultimate book in the John Gardner Bond series of books. Fredericka von Grusse, Flicka, is back with Bond and they are very much in love. They plan to marry and so there are a few call backs to his former wife Tracy from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. This is another book where Bond is up against a very rich individual rather than a state sponsored actor. Max Tarn is a tycoon with fingers in many pies, some of which are dubious at best. Tarn is killed along with his wife but Bond has suspicions that all isn't what it seems and is sent to investigate. This is one of Gardner's better attempts at a Bond book but he has definitely fallen into a bit of a formula. This isn't really that surprising considering he wrote 15 books over a period of 20 years but it does get tiresome after a while. One to go. 3/5 (It was ok).

Titan Sinking: The Decline of the WWF in 1995 by James Dixon Synopsis Throughout the history of the WWF, there have been times of prosperity and times of hardship, cycles that shape the ethos of the company by forcing changes to its infrastructure and on-screen direction. The one constant throughout three decades of change is Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the stalwart puppet-master who captains the ship. Unflinching, thick-skinned, and domineering, McMahon has ultimately outlasted all of his competition and come out on top of every wrestling war he has waged. In 1995, he very nearly lost. Titan Sinking tells the tale of one of the most tumultuous, taxing and trying years in WWF history. Vince was reeling from a nightmare first half of the decade as the year commenced, but having seemingly steered the company through an image-shattering five years, he looked to rebuild his ailing brand and rediscover the magic formula that made his promotion such a juggernaut in the eighties. As each week passed, more and more problems behind the scenes began to unfold, plunging the WWF on the bring of crisis. This book gives the inside story of all of it: with detailed accounts of incidents from Syracuse to Montreal, from the Kliq to he BSKs, Vince's new hope, to his various creative flops and failures. Find out the real story of the year, and learn how 1995 brought WWF to the brink. (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts I imagine this is a book that won't interest many, if any, members of the forum as it's about the WWF. I have fond memories of watching wrestling with my friends as a kid. At the time it was huge. The characters and the storylines were, on the whole, fantastic and kept us engrossed week after week. What we were largely unaware of, was what went on behind the scenes and this book fills in these blanks. The book is pretty well written but I don't think it will draw in anyone who doesn't already hold an interest in the subject matter. By its nature, wrestling likes to muddy the waters between fact and fiction so parts of the book naturally contain rumours. It would probably have helped if Dixon had managed to interview more people involved but I appreciate that this would have been quite tricky for a number of reasons. There are 3 books in this series and I look forward to reading the next one as it involves the attitude era and wrestlers like Brett Hart, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, etc. This was where wrestling was at its peak in my opinion. 3/5 (It was good).

I'm not a big reader of fantasy type novels but I loved Neverwhere, I thought it was a superb book.

I read loads in January but struggled a bit this month so I have been watching movies instead. It's a bit of a mix of old and newer stuff. All Quiet on the Western Front - 4/5 Cop Car - 3/5 Boiling Point - 4/5 The Hatchet Wielding Hitchiker - 1/5 The Hunt for Red October - 3.5/5 Shooter - 2.5/5 Hereditary - 3.5/5 Kiki's Delivery Service - 4/5 3:10 to Yuma - 3.5/5 Howl's Moving Castle - 3/5 Looper - 3.5/5 The Karate Kid (1984) - 3/5 Boiling Point is the movie that really stood out for me. It is a true one-take film without any cuts or edits. If I remember correctly they did 4 performances of it and picked the best for release. Stephen Graham is always great in whatever he does but the supporting cast here are all very good, especially Vinette Robinson. I haven't felt tension like this watching a movie for many years. It's really worth watching.

I do a bit of scale modeling. A coat of matt varnish will solve your gloss issues.

I've abandoned Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason. I've given it a few goes but I just can't get much past about 70 pages. The translation seems to be rather flat to me and I just can't get on with it.

I haven’t seen Manhunter, thanks for the info, I’ve added it to my ever growing Watchlist. I’m not sure I’ll be able to see William Petersen as anyone other than Gil Grissom from CSI though. 😀

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris Synopsis A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname—Buffalo Bill—is stalking women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter—Hannibal the Cannibal—who is kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of "The Silence of the Lambs"—an ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction. (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts This is the second book in the Hannibal Lector series and probably the best known due to the fantastic movie. I read the first book in the series, Red Dragon, in May 2021 and really liked it. I was a little worried about how this would fare because the movie is one of my favourites. I'm happy to say that my fears were unrealised, the book really stands on its own. The plot and writing is great but the one thing that really stood out to me with this book is the strength of the characters. Pretty much the only link to the first book is Jack Crawford and unusually for a series of books he isn't the main character. Despite being more of a supporting character he is as well thought out and written as Lector and Starling. This pattern remains there for all the characters. Even the peripheral ones are properly formed, well considered, and uncliched. Even Buffalo Bill has nuance and isn't just purely evil. Obviously having seen the movie multiple times helps bed characters in the mind but I still believe the book excels in this regard. It's fair to say that I loved this book. The plot is complicated enough without being convoluted and it is graphic without being gratuitous. Another thing that really stood out to me is the careful way it handled the discussion of trans people between the FBI and medical experts. Baring in mind that this was written in 1988 it is pretty forward thinking in that regard and really avoids demonising a whole community for a cheap plot device. I look forward to reading the next in the series, Hannibal. 5/5 (It was excellent).

Don't worry about being a bit quiet, unlike most things in modern life, the forum moves at a leisurely pace. I'm over my flu now which is a good thing as I'm back at work tomorrow. I don't tend to get ill but this really knocked me for six. I haven't felt that rough since my first Covid jab but this lasted longer.

She’s not scared of people but definitely wary of them. She’s found a place on a chair in the kitchen under the table out of sight which she seems to like at the moment. She does seem a lot quieter and wandering around less today but I was told just to let her do her thing during the early days.

No one knows for sure. The person who found her said she had been coming into her garden for a while and thinks she is about 6 months old. The vet thinks about 8-9 months. It’s our first time with a cat (I grew up with dogs) and so far it’s been fascinating to see how different they can be around people.

Meet Libby who we just collected today. She is a rescue who we first met about 4 weeks ago and she seemed to like us straight away. Although she’s only been home a few hours she seems to have settled ok so far. She did try to hide under the kitchen units for a while but soon came out albeit rather dusty.

I finished two books yesterday. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris which I thought was superb, and Titan Sinking by James Dixon which was a good read but nothing special. I've come down with flu so it will likely be a few days until I get round to typing up my thoughts.