is isbn 9780593061923 and Mr Elton writes a book about the failures of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, not very interesting except that a left winger wrote it.
0/5 bananas.
December 10, 2009
November 27, 2009
Breakfast on pluto
is a book by Patbrick McCabe isbn:0330352938, which is also a name of a song, and a censored film adaption, thus why i read the book.
a catholic priests son
Irish catholic priests who don’t use a cock lock (my blog) whom end up with out of wedlock children called Patrick who loves to be known as ‘pussy’ (image) and go do things catholics dont usually do.
The book is rather short and frames the 1970’s northern irish troubles with an engaging guide.
3/5 bananas.
October 30, 2009
Unseen academicals
is isbn: 9780385609340 and by Terry Prachett. It is his first post Alzheimer announcement book in the discworld universe – although whether it is an adult or child version is something i did not know until reading it (a useful idea in a series like his).
I suppose it is an adult discworld title and it finally explains the cyptic remark about local journalists not beng able to cover the football match on saturday.
Theres a lot of characters in this book, but they do wonder in and out of focus about the development of a sport. The running jokes wax and wane accordingly and being a subject (football/rugby) i don’t particularly like makes it not one of the better discworld books.
Its full on multicultural message also got a little tiresome, however it has bananas in. and an ape.
A wondering 2/5 bananas.
October 29, 2009
Amazon kindle rewrites books now too
Oh the joys of drm, and copyright lawyers. Moral: dont buy a kindle or from amazon
October 23, 2009
Lords of Finance
Is a book isbn: 9780434015412, by Liaquat Ahamed which i have been waiting for a long time to read behind a queue of people who it appears take two months to read 50 pages.
The book is brief at 500 pages (excluding notes) and details the collapse of the world banking system in 1929, and the events that led to it. Unlike most economic texts this is not dry and boring detailing the people, and the influence of politicians into high finance.
Well worth the read 5/5 bananas.
It presents the arguements of lack of liquidity and the gold standard verses no gdp and mass unemployement, and that ‘national interest versus protectionism well.
Required reading for the monkey house.
October 19, 2009
Riverworld – A weird book and chioce for the veneral disease tv channel.
Riverworld book 1 is titled ‘to your scattered bodies go’, it has no isbn number as i was reading an 1971 version. The book by Philip Jose Farmer, has the usual end of the 1960’s bizarre s/f book design by someone called Vinent di Fate.
Tahmoh Penikett who whines
Mr Farmer (who is now dead) wrote an additional four books, which it the vd channel (thats syfy) decided to turn into a tv series with Tahmoh Penikett who was the whiner in bsg and married the cylon.
The book it appears has been severely adjusted for tv since the book itself is crap. It involves famous people of the past ending up alive again in quest to find up why they left earth or something.
Goring (the nazi) and Richard Burton (an who stared in Equus (imdn:/tt0075995) dies about 777 times and experiences all levels of odd human belief systems before being told he is interesting by alien things.
Book 1 is pretty awful by my standards 0/5 bananas.
October 16, 2009
Casanova behind the myth.
isbn: 9780340922149, is a book by Ian Kelly which explores the legacy of Casanova, a venetian who most of us know for his acts of sex.
This book reveals the gent who travelled widely, saw much, seduced, suffered for his seductions, escaped from prison, dueled, helped write with Mozart, and ran a lottery in france, not forgetting an attempt at writing science fiction.
The book straightens out Mr Casanovas dates , verifies his account from the various publishers versions and presents the man not just for acts in the bedroom.
5/5 bananas.
October 13, 2009
The quiet war, Paul McAuley
Is a book isbn: 9780575079335, and has something for everyone. The book was featured on an s/f site that does not allow comments from anywhere but the US which makes it a bit crap for those of us who dont live there.
Back to the book it is part war/spy/green and is set where the US does not exist the eu, a pacific rim state, and a Portuguese billionaire familiy setup (with slaves) run the earth post global warming, with dissident humans living on the moons of Jupiter.
There a a few characters but occasionally the book gets mired in a subject like soil revival, or throws in new characters. If you ignore the diversions indicated the book flows quite well and sets up a conflict but it stops for a second book to take over at the end and a nobody winning deadlock to boot.
Occasionally theres some good observation, and at times some humour to lighten the load. Its a wide subject area and things do get lost so i gave it 3/5 bananas.
October 12, 2009
The Worsborough man
The 1983-1984-1985 English miners strike was a bitter clash. It devastated the coal mining industry and those who worked in it. It also made the labour party electable with the divorce between unions and the party of the left.
Coal Miners or there union caused the defeat of both a conservative and a labour government in the 1970’s and so this beast would have had to have been tamed by somebody sooner or later.
The reaction to tame it was Margaret Thatcher, and despite what other parties might think about her and the actions that took place stopped three day weeks and made governments govern rather than being beer and sandwich vendors for union leaders and business.
Isbn 9781845296148 is a book by Francis Beckett and David Hencke called marching to the fault line which takes a 25 years plus look at the dispute and provides an interesting left wing view of the strike which the acknowledges faults on both sides.
Worsborough (near Barnsley/Sheffield) is the village where an Arthur Scargill came to prominence and in his early days did good on being union rep. Eventually he became leader of the mineworkers union the num.
Instead of the politicians clashing on idealogy it was him against government, Scargill was outclassed on the third attempt of regime change as the rules where rewritten and old demons returned to haunt the num.
If you go back far enough somebody will have a grudge – the mineworker grudge goes back to 1926 in britian, and they would have claimed that they where better trade unionists than others making those other trade unionists untrustworthy. The end of the second world war saw that the miners became government employees
The strike (illegal or not under law) is well documented, the book details the posible breakthroughs and downright strange dealings by the Barnsley centric Scargil and close friends to travellers of the union cause during the year that collasped the industry.
Many have suffered as a result and Billy Elliot (my blog) has ensured it has become not just an dull strike.
5/5 bananas.
October 2, 2009
The man who invented history, travels with Herodotus, Justin Marozzi
Herodotus the man with beach towel.
Is isbn: 9789719567117 and revisits the places this old greek also visited. The book at times s a little tenious with the link and the clash between east and western cultures both then and now but Herodotus (wiki) is on the nail on most things and appears to pass the authentic test on most things based on what is presented in this book.
Not bad for the man who you should know as the father of history.
3/5 bananas.
