Milo MInderbinder

This is the excellent two year journal of the second and last Antarctic expedition by Captain Scott between 1910-12. I find with most published diaries/journals that within a few pages you know if it will be to your liking. From page one of this book I was in for the ride. Apart from a glittering career in the Royal Navy, Scott was a very eloquent journal writer, and it shines through on every page. This was real deal polar exploration in an era when parts of the world like Antarctica might as well have been on another planet in their remoteness. The book starts with Scott’s team voyaging South on the Terra Nova from New Zealand chronicling their two month sea journey before they land in the frozen wilderness at the edge of the world. What follows is Scott’s musings on Antarctica, its wildlife, weather, and geology. Before their trek to the South pole, the team carry out scientific experiments, photography, and the building of a solid base camp in which to dwell. He writes in awe at the wildlife and other worldliness of the terrain, and speaks fondly of the excellent team of engineers, scientists, and fellow explorers. Not to mention his observations of the dogs and horses they have brought with them to aid the expedition’s speed. As most of us know, Scott and the men that accompanied him to the South pole perished on their journey back to the base camp, and even when reading this dead man’s words its still enthralling even though you already know how the story ends. This isn’t a tv presenter spending a couple of weeks eating seal burgers with a camera crew and some confused looking Inuits, this is the story of men who ventured into mostly unknown territory, thousands of miles from civilisation for two years with no way of communicating with the rest of the world, and in the South pole team’s case knew they had to negotiate their way back over approx 800 miles of freezing hell. To the end Scott records everything in detail, and even as he was on the edge of his own death managed to draft letters to the wives and children of the men who had already passed away, detailing their bravery and other attributes. This Oxford World’s Classics edition includes photo’s and has a great introduction detailing Scott’s life, the build up and planning for the expedition, and the aftermath following the finding of the teams bodies some eight months after they died. An amazing tale, and even though Scott didn’t live, the reader can see that in his final two years, most of his days were filled with the wonderment of nature and the thriving team spirit of this very fine band of men. An excellent and inspiring read.

Catch 22 had exactly the same effect on me J. Another great one for me is Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Similar slightly to C22 in the way it inspires you to question any person or structure of authority. It also inspired me to not settle for an awful job listening to awful bosses for the rest of my life.

I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ages ago so this is a re-read for me. But as this was my first foray into this Kindle business so I thought I’d go with a book and author whose style I know. Liken it if you will to taking an old and trusted friend to an awkward hospital appointment. First things first. TAOTS is the joy of a tale that I remember. Accessible for any adult who has ever been a kid (that’ll be everyone then). Mark Twain is razor sharp when it comes to wit, sarcasm, and a keen eye for the human condition and uses this with full force in this excellent book. The hopes, fears, and joys of being a kid fill every page and the conversations between its supremo scallywag Tom and his partners in crime Huck Finn and Joe Harper are brilliantly told and are the like of which we have all had as junior naïve dreamers. A book that could be related to and enjoyed by readers in Warsaw, Sao Paulo, Inverness or anywhere else on the planet. A universal and timeless classic. Now on to this Kindle business. The current Mrs. M got one of the first ones that was available to buy but I in my blissful Ludditeness have shunned it and have defended my beloved print and paperbacks against this digital satan but this year as I read more and more positive things about kindles I thought I should at least give it a go. Know thy enemy and all that. With many out-of-copyright titles available to download for nothing there was really no reason not to take a leap of faith into the world of the ebook. As I started reading on the kindle it felt a bit like reading a text message, but after a few pages it became very natural. The font was of a very readable style and size and the screen has no glare. One of my fears had been that it would be a strain on the eyes but this is not the case and I found I would read more in a sitting than I would with a printed paperback. The design and shape of the kindle make it easier to read than a paperback because you don’t need as much elbow room so its ideal on a bus or train. One of the big advantages of it for me personally, because I spend all of my dinner hour reading, is that you can lay it flat on a table and read whilst you eat which can be a bit of a pain when you are trying to eat a sandwich and are simultaneously wrestling with a 600 pager of a paperback. So to sum up, even though I enjoyed the reading experience of a kindle and will be treating myself to one in the new year, I fundamentally believe that there is room for both print and ebooks. One of the downsides to the Kindle is that a lot of new books still cost more or less the same as their printed versions but you are only getting a download instead of the physical product of a paperback which is a bit of a rip off in my opinion. Also for me, the printed novel is one of the greatest things in the history of the human race, and the feel of a weighty book and the crease of the spine has a charm that can’t be quantified. Both formats will be a part of my future reading habits so here’s a toast to both the old and the new. Cheers! Kindle titles I have downloaded for my next ebook adventures: The American – Henry James Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics - Volume 2 – Thomas D’Arcy McGee* *Then again I might not bother to read that last one and just wait for the Hollywood blockbuster of it to hit the big screen.

Sorry, that should read "two thirds through it" "not three thirds through it." I apologise for my apalling maths!

Hi Sadya. I read EOE before I watched the film. The film is various parts of the book clumsily cobbled together. There were some great acting performances but the characters in the book are so much better constructed. The film begins at the point where if you were reading the book you would already be three thirds through it. I can't recommend the book thouroughly enough. In my opinion (which doesn't count for much) I would class East of Eden as one of the greatest artisitc achievements of the last century. Its that good.

East of Eden should never have been made into a film. Even if it did have an amazing performance from James Dean in it. The book is such an epic story that it was doomed as a film as even the best director in the world couldn't possibly fit the whole plot into a couple of hours of film.

“With full dark he came forth, a solitary traveler going south. He walked all night. Not even a dog spoke him down that barren road.” A brother and sister in turn of the last century Appalachia. A baby is born between them in secret. The story starts just before the birth of the child and then segues between the story of the sister (Rinthy) and her brother (Culla). This is such an original tale and one that leaves you with the dual feeling of being a bit edgy but also fulfilled as a reader because its just so well written. The dialogue is written in this strange Anglo-American vernacular that I could read and read forever. McCarthy has the very rare knack of giving you only a few descriptive words and then letting your imagination flesh out in full technicolour a woodland scene or a barnyard. He puts you IN the book. I could write and write about CM but none of it would do him the praise he deserves. A great storyteller and I thoroughly recommend this book. Fantastic writer!

Thanks for recommending those books Sue. I can see this forum is going to cost me money. I already give the guys at Amazon far too much from my wages!

Thanks for the indepth response Julie. I'll look out for the Ted Kennedy book. Ten years ago I was on a scholarship from an English college and studied Politics in the U.S and since then I have sought out good American political biogs. My favorite this year was Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Waterstones in the last few years have been very good at doing inspiring informative displays of books from certain genres. Be it ‘European Writers’, ‘Best Short Stories Collections’, or ‘Classic Crime’ etc. Until I went in the other week I had never heard of the writer Norman Collins. LBTM was in amongst titles in a particular display by writers like Barry Hines and Stan Barstow. I suppose it was some kind of ‘Best of British’ or ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’s' promotion. Originally written in 1945 LBTM is one of the recent Penguin print of ‘Vintage classics’ range. I Had a look at it and thought it could be worth a bash. Good thinking on my part. This is easily my book of the year. The setting is a rooming house/lodgings at No.10 Dulcimer Street, Kennington, London. The characters are the occupants of this address. Amongst them the fragile-but-fearsome landlady Mrs. Vizzard, the young rebel without a clue/promising mechanic Percy Boon who see’s London and the world as his for the taking, Connie the ageing nightclub cloakroom attendant, the mysterious Mr. Squales, and (my personal favourites) the brilliant middle-aged couple Mr. and Mrs. Josser. The first chapter starts on Christmas eve 1938 and describes Mr. Jossers retirement day from the company he has worked for all his life. We are then taken through the intertwining tales of the residents of Dulcimer Street in the lead up to WW2 and the book ends exactly two years later in 1940. Collins envelopes the reader in late 1930’s London, the politics, the architecture, the food, the weather, the fashions, and the humour of what must have been a very strange time to be alive in England’s capital. This is a such a well written book that I would recommend it to anybody who likes, er, reading books! Collins humour is razor sharp but he can also nail you with some of the sadness that befalls certain characters. This is an excellent funny, touching, and euphoric read. As I mentioned earlier I don’t know much about Collins, but he wrote a few books before this one and was a part of the left-wing publishing house that first published Orwell’s ‘Road to Wigan Pier’ he had a period at the BBC and then jumped ship and challenged the monopoly of the Beeb and became one of the big hitters at ATV through the 50’s and 60’s. I just wish that people with his insight, humanity and striking wit were still in charge of what gets on the telly. I’d definitely watch more of it if this bloke was running things.

This is the story of a man, not a myth. Evan Thomas has steered clear of Kennedy cliché’s and a rehashing of the uncountable volumes of already published histories of the Kennedy family and has presented a great impartial biography. The first chapter of this book is entitled 'Runt'. A good harbinger for an honest biography I thought as I began reading. Robert Kennedy was the overlooked son of Joe and Rose Kennedy's brood. The quiet sensitive boy who sat at the far end of the dining table with his sisters whilst his older teenage brothers Jack and Joe Junior were encouraged to go over current news events and what was happening at their respective schools and colleges with the patriarch of the family. Robert was driven through his younger years and his late teens by a need to be accepted by his father and family. Both Joe Junior and Jack had distinguished military careers and saw active service in WW2, but Robert missed out on an opportunity to impress and to win respect by only being eligible for service in 1947. The first part of the book details Roberts’s patchy academic career and his awkward formative years in various Ivy League academies and colleges as well as the oddness and strange life of the orthodox catholic and loyally close Kennedy clan. Although the book details JFK's 1960 presidential campaign and election it doesn't detract too much from the books main subject of the life of Robert Kennedy. Thomas explains Robert Kennedy's rise into the highest echelons of the U.S. Government, and how he both helped and hindered his brother (RFK was as far as I can see, and I may be wrong, the only thirty-something to ever have the ear of any President of the United States of America). Yes this book goes through the usual things linked to the Kennedy administration I.e. Cuba, Organised crime complications, the shadow of J. Edgar Hoover, but it flattens a lot of the drivel that has cascaded through the years and has become what people believe as the truth about that era and the Kennedy's. There's some great insightful stuff about the pow-wows between the Kennedy's and big hitters like Secretary of State for Defence Robert McNamara and other Joint Chiefs of Staff and trusted advisors. All the way through the book you are constantly reminded of the best and worst sides (of which their were many) of RFK's character and personality. What come across in this is that neither Robert Kennedy or his brother the president were the superhuman icons of righteous causes that they have been remembered as. JFK, like most politicians through history, was a pragmatist who would only move on something controversial if pushed hard enough. What comes across about Robert Kennedy is that after being thrown in at the deep end as a young man with regard to working in national government, at the time of his death, he was becoming a man of strength and conviction who had little patience and a real hatred for the jobs-for-the-boys senatorial fraternity. He had started to make big inroads into tackling inner city poverty in America (one of the first, if not the first government figure, to introduce tax breaks to big companies who would open factories in no-go boroughs and suburbs), and with his relative youth was heralded as the second chance for America in a turbulent decade. He was an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Often contrary, contradictory, and flawed in many, many ways (aren't we all), but a good man in a strange time working on the best way forward for a relatively new country. For the Kennedy family, the after effects of two of its sons both murdered within five years of each other at a young age (Robert 42, Jack, 46) to me are unimaginable, but I'm sure they are aware of the catalyst that Robert was toward the end of his life in trying to change American society for the better. Overall, a great read about an interesting political figure.

Hello Everybody, Just found this forum. Where to start. I'm an avid reader of fiction and biographies mainly. I'm a big fan of American writers like John Steinbeck, Tom Wolfe, Cormac McCarthy, and Joseph Heller (I nicked the Milo name from one of his characters). I like the aforementioned writers but enjoy anything thats good. Big fan of all kinds of music. Big Neil Young fan and love all the big hitters from the sixties like The Stones, Byrds and Beatles. I'm also a total nut about Motown and Stax. I'm 38 years young (and none the wiser from any of the 38). I hope this is ok as an intro. I'll post up a review of a book I read recently. Look forward to being on here!