Last book bought

Larger Than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s - R. Barton Palmer

Seems suited to me.

A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Writings- Dickens

might as well, I seemed to have gradually built a collection up. Need to buff my Waugh collection a bit soon.

War and Peace

Past Imperfect, Julian Fellowes

The Kennedys- Amidst the Gathering Storm/ A Thousand Days in London 1938-1940, Will Swift

A Heart at Fire's Center arrived in the mail today.

Glad you finally got it, Brandon. :)

Couple of Christmas books -

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY - Erik Larson
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
TEN YEARS IN AN OPEN NECKED SHIRT AND OTHER POEMS - John Cooper Clarke

I had a shed load of books for Christmas.

Tolkien - Mr. Bliss
Hitler's Holy Relics
Freddie Mercury biography
Colditz : The German Story (written by a former guard at Colditz)
SAS Operation Storm
Queen : 40 years
Tower (history of the Tower of London)
A Train In Winter (story of 230 female French Resistance sent to Auschwitz)
The Making of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Katharine M. Briggs - Folk Tales of Britain (Folio Society book - plus 3 more books on order from the Folio Society)
Scottish Castles
a book on Reiki

I also picked up, whilst shopping -

The Doomsday Testament - James Douglas
The Devil Will Come - Glenn Cooper
Dhampir - Barb and J. C. Hendee (charity shop - looked cheesy and fun)
Senna and Prost
The Nosferatu Scroll


I really don't know where to start.

So much dosh, yet so much tosh. :x

Well, I'll enjoy 'em.

Ah, Colditz the German Story. I've got the three PR Reid books and after seeing the 70s drama interested inthe German one...chap who wrote it had a fictionalised version of himself in the drama.

there.

There are some characters in the BBC Colditz that I'd love to know who they were originally based on, and their stories. They are all meant to be 'real' characters, although some are composites.

Ravenstone wrote:

There are some characters in the BBC Colditz that I'd love to know who they were originally based on, and their stories. They are all meant to be 'real' characters, although some are composites.

I forget them exactly now. The late Edward Hardwicke was obviously Pat Reid (like John Mills in Colditz Story) but the others I couldn't name them exactly. The drama was as true as it could be to the events as people knew them up until then even down to that chap faking (to the point of reality) mental illness to get out or the Poles, the French...and the glider with the redoubtable Jeremy Kemp. Thrilling title theme back when shows had those kind of memorable themes.

8 January 2011.


De Schilder van de Schaduw ''2009'' (El pintor de sombras 2009) from Esteban Martin (Spain)
The english title is: The Painter of Shadows

Story about Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

http://www.crimezone.nl/web/Thriller/9789061125808_De-schilder-van-de-schaduw.htm (Dutch)
The book started with a interview with old Pablo Picasso in 1973. Pablo Picasso past a way in 1973, so this interview take place in the year he died. Subject be his painting: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon (Eng) http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon (Dutch)

The Italian Secretary- Caleb Carr (Found this by accident while I was reading House of Silk the new Sherlock Holmes novel.)
The Alienist - Caleb Carr (never read it but liked it sequel)
The angel of Darkness - Caleb Carr (lend my copy some years ago to someone I have no contact with anymore, so in order to read it I bought a nice used Hardcover for €2,50 so I can ead this novel again. I remember being very impressed with it.)
The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld (similar fare as the Caleb Carrs wih glowing critisms)
Gideon's Corpse - Preston & Child - any new books of them I generally aquire, wasn't impressed by their last Gideon book but am willing to try. They have build up that amount of credit with their writings.

pre-ordered:
The Sisterhood of Dune - Herbert & Anderson While I am a great Fan of the original 6 Dune novels and think they are vastly superiour to the novels of Junior & anderson they are a somewhat guilty pleasure for me.

I read The Italian Secretary a few years ago. Starts well, but very disappointing in the end. It was meant to be a short story, but he didn't manage to finish it in time for the anthology, so he padded it out for a 'novel' and it really shows. Good basic premise, but not enough for a full-length story.

A review I wrote for some crime site -

Quote :

The Italian Job

The Italian Secretary : A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes
Caleb Carr
Publisher : Little Brown
ISBN: 0316730831


Perhaps it was my own fault; perhaps I simply expected too much. Whatever the reason, this small, slim volume failed to do much except whet my appetite for what could have been.

Carr is, reportedly, an excellent author. I have never read any of his other works, but I have it on good authority he’s very good, and I believe it. But this too-long-to-be-a-short-story-and-too-short-to-be-a-novel tale left me disappointed.

The Italian Secretary of the story is Rizzio, Mary, Queen of Scots, unfortunate friend and confidante. The tale involves some sinister murders mirroring the sorry end of Rizzio, and has Holmes and Watson dashing up to Scotland to solve them in case Her Gracious Majesty, Victoria, should find herself the victim of some dastardly plot or other.

The train journey to Scotland takes up most of the book, which is not an auspicious start. The idea of Rizzio as the Italian Secretary is rather neat and also sweet; it works. Holmes is well written, as is Watson, and Mycroft is a large (could he be otherwise?) part of the story. However, where it all falls down is there is a terribly rushed feeling to the whole piece. Holmes laughs and smiles somewhat more than I’m completely comfortable with. Watson has the wrong gun completely, which is a small but nevertheless rather unforgiveable crime. The ending is sudden, as though Carr realised there were something far more important to be getting on with, so tagged a quick, obvious ending to the whole thing. The unexplained appearance of an unknown gentleman at the end of the story also has an unnecessary and somewhat messy feel to it.

The afterword explains some of this; The Italian Secretary was initially meant to be a short story in a Holmes anthology; however Carr got carried away with the story and wrote somewhat more than necessary for inclusion in the anthology. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be carried away far enough.

All in all, The Italian Secretary is not a bad read. I just wish Carr had given more thought and time to it, rather than leaving us with what appears to be one ‘thrown together on the hoof’ rather than a fully fledged plot, with more depth to characters, and a far less obvious denouement. A sad case of a Missed Opportunity.

As for Interpretation of Murder, I couldn't finish it. And I tend to finish most books, no matter how bad they are, unless they are really bad. In this, I think it was the irritating habit of constantly putting Freud on a pedestal, and making Jung the pale imitation. As I much prefer Jung to Freud, I took exception. As least Jung wasn't a cocaine addicted sexual deviant with a Messiah complex.

I finished The Italian secretary and indeed it lost steam well into the story. Which is a shame.

Have started with the Alienist and that one reads very easy and is so far one hell of a story. It is about a person who practices some sort of forensic psychology before it excisted. Before psychology was really accepted. And he does paint an intrigueing pictire of New York 1896. A scary place to live.

Treason's Harbour, Reverse of the Medal and Clarissa Oakes to complete my Patrick O'Brian collection (well his Aubrey set). Bugger is that how I've gone about buying them (as I find them in charity shops or someplace) they all mismatch. These three were from the same set with those fantastic artworks on the cover and totally clash with the editions I got from the Works.
Must have some form of OCD with books.

Yesterday I bought my own copy of THE CAMBRIDGE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF MODERN BRITAIN VOLUME II: ECONOMIC MATURITY, 1860-1939. Sort of worried I won't understand the plot having not read Volume I.

Filmjaarboek 2008 also 2001 en 2006.
Film year books Include all movies released in The Netherlands in 2001, 2006 and 2008.


The Making Of Eragon (2006) / Wit Licht (English title: The Silent Army) - The Making Of (2008)
Inside books about those 2 movies. Translation from the text on the cover: Eragon - A view on the filming of the fantasy novel, with a litle 100 never seen before color pictures.


Walt Disney van Mickey Mouse tot Disney Land (1975) / Het Bommelfilmboek (1983)
The last one is with drawings from the animated movie: Olie B Bommel - Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel (Translation: As you understand what i mean.)

Ravenstone wrote:

a cocaine addicted sexual deviant with a Messiah complex.

That reminds me of someone I once loved. I guess there's a lot of it about.

Anyway, just bought Ethan Frome. Been meaning to read it for 30 years. Realised recently I better not put it off much longer ...

James Bond onder het mes (Original title: Double O Seven, James Bond: A Report)

The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them

http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Practice-Hell-German-Concentration/dp/0374529922

Much Misunderstood: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them

by J7wild

CAMP FEMA

by Joe Biden