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[sidewinder]

On 31/12/2018 at 0:52 PM, sidewinder said:

An Xmas present read, so far so good.

Some of the events I recall either seeing or hearing about on the Beeb. Also vividly recall the early BBC2 evening news bulletin rebroadcasting the main US CBS Vietnam war news of the day before. A ‘WTF’ moment was what I later realised was Walter Cronkite introducing film of B-52 bomber formations over jungle, taken from above (probably from an accompanying F-4 I guess). Those sort of things as a youngster tend to stick in the memory like limpets. Reading the book, this is likely to have been one of the ‘Linebacker’ raids, possibly over the Central Highlands.

After watching a repeat of Burns ‘Vietnam’ series last night I have come to the conclusion that the bit of film must have related to the An Loc bombing raids, Easter 1972. Timing feels about right. Amazingly, there is a transcript of the CBS news broadcast that night to confirm it. It was a Wed night and I would have seen this on a Sat or Sun. Two/three days delay whilst they transferred the film footage across the Atlantic to the Beeb would be about right.

End of geek interjection..

Edited January 2, 2019 by sidewinder

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[kinuta]

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Edited January 2, 2019 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[soulpope]

[paul secor]

I've been a little under the weather, and haven't had the energy to read something substantial, so this is it right now. Entertaining at least, even if somewhat padded and redundant.

[Brad]

7 hours ago, paul secor said:

I've been a little under the weather, and haven't had the energy to read something substantial, so this is it right now. Entertaining at least, even if somewhat padded and redundant.

Hope you feel better. 

[paul secor]

2 hours ago, Brad said:

Hope you feel better. 

Thanks. I'm getting there.

[Brad]

Good to hear 

[soulpope]

[jlhoots]

Rachel Kushner: Telex From Cuba

[kinuta]

[Brad]

On 1/4/2019 at 8:38 AM, soulpope said:

I have picked this up and have waded into it. It’s considered the best single biography of Churchill. 

[T.D.]

Bit late to the party with this. Reads somewhat like a collection of expanded magazine articles (which I think it is), but pretty darn good, though absolutely terrifying IMO. Further comments suppressed due to potential political content. Disclosure: I've read most of Lewis's books, and we worked at the same firm back in the Liar's Poker days.

Edited January 6, 2019 by T.D.

[kinuta]

4 hours ago, Brad said:

I have picked this up and have waded into it. It’s considered the best single biography of Churchill. 

I suppose you mean a single volume autobiography.

It would have to be truly stellar to be better than William Manchester's The Last Lion.

[Brad]

9 hours ago, kinuta said:

I suppose you mean a single volume autobiography.

It would have to be truly stellar to be better than William Manchester's The Last Lion.

Yes, I meant single volume.  Obviously, nothing could top Gilbert’s multi volume biography. Based on my reading over the years about the various Churchill biographies, I’m not sure Manchester is held in that high regard.  However, I haven’t read it.  

Anyway, here are a couple of reviews of Roberts’ book. 

https://literaryreview.co.uk/cometh-the-hour

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/books/review/andrew-roberts-churchill-winston-biography.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront

[soulpope]

45 minutes ago, Brad said:

Yes, I meant single volume.  Obviously, nothing could top Gilbert’s multi volume biography. Based on my reading over the years about the various Churchill biographies, I’m not sure Manchester is held in that high regard.  However, I haven’t read it.  

Anyway, here are a couple of reviews of Roberts’ book. 

https://literaryreview.co.uk/cometh-the-hour

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/books/review/andrew-roberts-churchill-winston-biography.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront

Didn`t  read William Manchester's The Last Lion .... the Andrew Roberts euvre strikes me as captivating read ....

[ejp626]

Finally made my way through the last of the Updike Rabbit novels.  Yea.  Rabbit is Rich is still my fave, though there were some interesting sections in Rabbit at Rest as well.  In a day or two, I'll get to the novella Rabbit Remembered from Licks of Love.

Today and perhaps tomorrow, I'll be reading The Letter Killers Club (NYRB).

The next several weeks will mostly be the classic classics - Homer, Virgil's The Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, probably some Horace.

[Matthew]

The Devil's Advocate by Morris West. I really didn't expect too much going into this book, just a light vacation read, but there is an old style humanism to it that I find attractive. 

Edited January 6, 2019 by Matthew

[Matthew]

This Our Exile: Short Stories by Joshua Hern

Edited January 11, 2019 by Matthew

[paul secor]

D E Stevenson: Miss Buncle's Book

[porcy62]

At this very moment I am in a George Simenon mood, reading his "hard novel's" as he referred to his non Maigret novels.

Edited January 11, 2019 by porcy62

[Brad]

1 hour ago, porcy62 said:

At this very moment I am in a George Simenon mood, reading his "hard novel's" as he referred to his non Maigret novels.

A couple of years ago I read his Act of Passion. This was one of his hard novels. 

[porcy62]

I read all his Maigret's novels and I loved them. A publishing house bought the copyrights of his works for Italy just before he died, they are publishing all his works in a very nice edition. It's always a pleasure holding in hand a nice book instead of a cheap paperback.

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by porcy62