Books, Books, Books, Chapter XIV

I am not going to let the world get me down! I have been reading some very exciting books. If you click on some of these, you'll be taken to Amazon. If you buy from them, then the Living by Giving Trust will make money. Please do think about it. Thank you.

1) House of Cards. This book is all about politics and could be about politics today! It's fictional and is about the Chief Whip, Francis Urquhart finding out from the Prime Minister that there will be no reshuffle. Urquhart had hoped he would get a better job and found this unfair. From that point on, he manipulates situations to destroy the Prime Minster and many of his colleagues, so that he can be more powerful. The character was wonderfully played on the telly by Ian Richardson and I could imagine no one else whilst reading the book. I read the novel so quickly because it was amazing. I am looking forward to reading the next two!

2) Fatherland. Oh wow. This is a novel I have wanted to read for many years. I started reading it in the mid-nineties, but lost the book and never bought it again. A huge mistake. I finally bought this version last year and once I started reading it - could NOT put it down. The premise is "What if Hitler had won World War 2" and what the world would be like. More importantly what would Germany be like a few years later - a corrupt society? Yep! It's a murder mystery story and one that is full of resentment, hatred, lies and so much more. This is the authors first book - I am ready to read more. Brilliant.

3) Edward I (Penguin Monarchs): A New King Arthur? I love little books like this, which give you a very clear overview of a period of history. It doesn't go into great details, but it does go into enough detail to give you a feel of this great monarch. He was not a bad king, but nor was he a good and holy king - he was a king that had a job to do and my did he do it! As a leader he was great; and as a politician, he was even better! Read this book - it's brilliant. There is a whole series of these too.

4) Welcome to Just a Minute!: A Celebration of Britain’s Best-Loved Radio Comedy I picked up a celebration of Just a Minute on CD recently and enjoyed listening in my car on my daily drive to the hospital (I am OK, just old!). The programme is 50 years old! Anyway, I then searched for a book about it, because I enjoyed listening to the great Kenneth Williams; Sheila Hancock; Paul Merton; etc on the CD. This book provides many wonderful anecdotes and quotes from the long series; and Nicholas Parsons is a very good writer. Parsons does not hold back on how he feels about some of the guests, too. A must listen and a must read!

Right, that will do for now. I will return soon with some more books.

What a break!

Sometimes I look at another blog and see that it hasn't been updated for so long. If I've enjoyed reading it, that becomes quite annoying. However, I may been one of those people - though I have seen much worse - as ever I am not really sure anyone is reading my thoughts thoughts! C'est la vie!

Here are some more books that I have recently read and HIGHLY recommend. Click on the links if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :) I supported them recently, and though I've not been to any of their events, I have supported them as much as possible. This is one way I can do that.

First up: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot). I've read a few of Agatha Christie's classics and have now started from the beginning of Monsieur Poirot. I'll follow these through in the order that they are intended (according to Christie). This book was a good beginning, explaining how Captain Hastings knew Poirot, and how they first meet Inspector Japp. The story was excellent and kept taking us down a dead end. I highly recommend this excellent book.

Next, I always need facts: Who Governs Britain? This excellent book is part of the new Pelican books series of thinking books. I do enjoy the politics of the UK and this book shows all the intricate bits and pieces. What did I learn? That no one really runs this country - especially not the Prime Minister! Well worth a read. This man also writes very well and kept me interested throughout.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Series) - everyone should read this book (and the next two too!). This author sadly died before he became famous. I loved this book so much, and it was full of excellent twists and turns. Some things I never ever expected. It's also very sinister and quite nasty is some parts. I think the novel is about the real world not being very nice - instead it's a tough place, but sometimes every one of us gets a chance to win something big. Read this novel, it's well worth every turn of a page. I am currently reading the second book and I am already hooked!

Finally, Sovereign: 3 (The Shardlake Series). I am not going to talk too much about this. These books are perfect and their historical details feel so real. You want the characters to do well and you feel part of their lives. The depiction of Henry VIII is wonderful too. The best bit? An excellent twist or two. Read ASAP!

Books, Books, Books and some recommendations! Ch 13

At least if I update this occassionally, I'll be able to provide a good list of books that I've read - and ones that you might be interested in reading too. I truly HIGHLY recommend them all. Click on the link to the books if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :)

As well as Doctor Who books (see my last blog update), I also read lots of other fascinating books too. Here is one of the classic Science Fiction books by JG Ballard: High-Rise. This is a very scary, gripping and tense book about a tower block that becomes very insular and a tribal mentality begins. It's a book about how easy it is possible for society to collapse when there are no outside influences - neighbours with sizzling jealousy and eventual hatred. It's a fascinating view on what could happen if the "Survival of the Fittest" mentality becomes the first thought of a group of people.

Another book themed on how society can go wrong is Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (Penguin Modern Classics). It's a slightly different take on High-Rise. This time the animals overthrow the evil human farmer, and begin to live in an equal society. However, very quickly the pigs take on the leadership, and they revert back to human ways of thinking. The other animals become second-class citizens. Well worth the read and Orwell will keep you hooked throughout.

A final book for now and another science fiction book was The Reviver written by a new author called Seth Patrick. I don't want to say much about it, because I think people should read it first. It belongs at the top of the sci fi genre, as it was so so good. Buy it today. Please. You'll not regret it. Here are some more notes on it from the author themselves.

Books - Chapter 12

I am afraid that I have been very busy and been away from home too much. I ended up having to rehouse my cat because I was in LA so much. However, it has enabled me to read more and thus I'll start listing books here again. I love my blog and I would not want to see it wasted. I must have some fans as there are hits and visits on this blog.

Here are some more books that I have recently read and HIGHLY recommend. Click on the links if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :) I supported them recently, and though I've not been to any of their events, I have supported them as much as possible. This is one way I can do that.

In my last blog (a year or so ago!), I talked about some of the Doctor Who books I was reading, especially as it was the 50th Anniversary. Here are some more books and Target books that I've read since. But first, what are Target books? Target are the people that published loads of novelisations for the stories on TV...and many are pretty good. :)

First up, I read Doctor Who and the Web of Fear, which is a really excellent tale. I read this before they had rediscovered most of the television episodes, and I am quite pleased I read it first. Normally you can read these books, and suspect that your mind is picturing the sets far better than they were on screen. However, this time, I rather think they were a lot better than even my imagination. It's all very eerie as a book and I highly recommend it. I am not sure why they have not reprinted this like so many others. If you click on above, you'll see a link to purchase it.

Second, I read Doctor Who-The Macra Terror, which is another interesting story, because we will never see it on DVD again (so far!). Unfortunately this time, I suspect the Macra were really terrible, but the book means you don't have any special effects worries - which is a good thing. It's quite a creepy little story and one that had me hooked for most of the time. Weird and wonderful.

Now, I moved on to Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice which is a completely new adventure for the Second Doctor. It feels like the black and white era (that I remember watching as a kid) and feels like one of Pat Troughton's stories. Wonderful. I got a bit lost sometimes, but all in all worth the paper it was typed on. Highly recommended.

And, then I moved back to Target, and read Doctor Who: Dragonfire by Ian Briggs. I quite liked this, though again the book makes the snow and cliff tops sound real (watch the episode, the fake snow is embarrassing). It's a much more interesting novelisation than the book below, and there were lots of extra bits not in the TV episodes that helped the plot make much more sense. This was a McCoy era story.

My final book for now (I promise to write this more regularly!), was Doctor Who-The Mysterious Planet. This is a Terrance Dicks novelisation of a Colin Baker story. I quite liked this story on TV, though many did not, and Dicks simply writes a novelisation of the scripts. It was OK, but I think he could have tried to provide a bit more detail to the whole thing. I must dig out the other books of this season, and see if they were better (or worse!!). The problem was the premise is a bit boring (Doctor on trial), and Dicks doesn't try to make it more interesting. Perhaps he wasn't allowed to, especially as he later wrote a novel (The Eight Doctors (Dr. Who Series)) that tried to sort out some of the issues with the 14 part series. All in all I gave it 6/10.

Books, Books (Chapter 11)

Here are some more books that I have recently read and HIGHLY recommend. Click on the links if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :) I supported them recently, and though I've not been to any of their events, I have supported them as much as possible. This is one way I can do that.

I am a Doctor Who fan, especially a Hartnell fan (first doctor). It's also the 50th anniversary this year, so in amongst other books, I've decided to read some of the old Target novelisations (novels of the TV episodes). A lot of these are hard to find these days, but I highly recommend people try. :-)

First up is Doctor Who-Marco Polo. It's a really good read, especially as I don't think I watched it back in 1964. I also find the soundtracks quite hard to follow, so I am now experimenting by reading these Target novels first, and then listening to the CD. This method works very well, so I'll keep doing it this way - The Crusaders is next. The novel itself is very simple to follow, but this is not a bad thing at all. I also suspect that the description of the landscape and journey look much better in my mind than they did in the TV episodes! It's a good adventure story, and well worth a read. 8/10. 

Next up, I read Doctor Who and the Crusaders. The novel itself is very well written (though in an old style) and has some excellent illustrations too. I read the 2011 version, which has an excellent introduction and an excellent conclusion - fitting it perfectly in to the time of its initial publication (i.e. the 1960s). The story is so very good, and like Marco Polo probably describes amazing landscapes that would not have looked so good on screen - though unlike Marco Polo, I could (if I wanted) go and look at episodes 1 and 3. 9/10

Finally, I've read Doctor Who - The Myth Makers The novel itself is very well written and done so in the first person as Homer. This sometimes makes it quite difficult for Cotton to follow the actual plot of his script, but it is still a very good way of telling the story. This also distinguishes the novelisation from others and that is very much a good thing. The book came out in the 1980's, when a lot of Target novelisations had already come out - so a change in style is a good idea. Cotton is obviously a classicist too - because he knows his Trojan war history - and even explains why Homer was supposedly blind; and thus why he writes about a Cyclops in the Odyssey. All in all a good tale. Well worth buying a second hand copy from somewhere. 8/10

More to come...

Books X

Here are some more books that I have recently read and HIGHLY recommend. Click on the links if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :) I supported them recently, and though I've not been to any of their events, I have supported them as much as possible. This is one way I can do that.

I love reading by the way! Can you tell? I've always got five or six books on the go, which is a bit silly - but then I eventually find one I finish; and then move on to another one I've half-read. To be honest, it's very easy to start reading a book on a long train journey and get bored of the reading - so it's good to have another book waiting to be read. So, this is why I end up with a few books on the go - but it works for me at the moment. Anyway, here are some books that I've read over the last few months, and I really do highly recommend them all!

This is an oldie book, but there's nothing wrong with that! Is there? No! The Real Benny Hill is a really great, great book, and so interesting. Benny Hill was such a sorry and lonely figure - but then I suspect he was OK with this. The book is written by one of his friends and is a really intimate and beautiful portrait, but it is also one that tries to understand Mr Hill. Pick up cheap copy today? Use the link above.

Secondly, if you're interested in the family background of Princess Diana, you can't do better than The Spencer Family by Charles Spencer. It provides another intimate portrait - this time of a famous family throughout lots of English history, and then a VERY famous family after Diana Spencer married Prince Charles. Well recommended.

And finally for now, and away from the biographies, here's my next recommendation, which is a classic: King Solomon's Mines (Oxford World's Classics). If you want to read a classic Victorian-era novel, full of adventure and high-jinks, then you can't go far wrong with this book. Read today.

More soon! :)

Books IX

Here are some more books that I have recently read and HIGHLY recommend. Click on the links if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :) I supported them recently, and though I've not been to any of their events, I have supported them as much as possible.

As you can probably see, I've not had time to update this recently, but that's because I have been travelling the world. Why? Well, because I am in my 70's and have always wanted to see a bit of this world I read about. This has meant that I've had an opportunity to read (mainly dog-eared copies) a few books, which I will outline below (and in further blogs)...

The First World War: John Keegan is a really excellent historian and author. The First World War was a truly awful tragedy, and should never ever have happened. This book looks at all the causes, the after effects and then looks into the different fields of war - East; Africa; Gallipoli and then the Western Front. If you want a good introduction with lots of detail - here is the book for you. Read today.

As you will have seen in my last blog (see here), I love any historic book - especially if it's Roman stuff. However, I also like novels written about the era. The next book I read recently was Roman Blood (Gordianus the Finder 1). What a book this man has written and he describes the period so brilliantly and makes it feel so very real. I must read more of this authors books, and have now purchased Rubicon so I can read much more. I can't recommend these books as much as I do. Get it today, the author (Saylor) is well worth a read.

If you have not read any Adrian Mole books, you really must. I've just read the next edition, Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (Adrian Mole 4), and it was truly excellent. I can't wait to read the next one now.

More updates soon, but please keep reading; and let me know what you think! :-)

Books VIII

Here are some more books that I have recently read and HIGHLY recommend. Click on the links if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :)

The Odyssey (Penguin Classics): This is the all-time classic mythology piece from Ancient Greece. This story (by the mysterious Homer) is about a great Greek hero of the Trojan war era: Odysseus. He is the King of Ithaca and in Homer's The Iliad (Penguin Classics), he is seen characterised as a very resourceful and clever man (who had the idea of the Trojan Horse). Unfortunately, unlike the other Achaean Kings, he does not get home straight away and a number of fascinating adventures ensue. Odysseus is also constantly at odds with the great sea-god, Poseidon and he requires the support of the goddess Athena to get him through it. I don't want to give too much more away, but Odysseus meets such fascinating creatures, such as a Cyclops; The Sirens; Scylla and Charybdis; and so much more!

I love and still love this book - it really is a brilliant story AND one of the oldest ever in western civilisation. I highly recommend this book. 10/10.

Doctor Who: Shada: The lost adventure by Douglas Adams is lovingly novelised (and edited) by the great Who author, Gareth Roberts. I don't want to spoil this book, but it really is a beautiful masterpiece and I highly and utterly recommend any fan of Adams or the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who buy it and read it today! You will not regret it at all! 9/10. :)

Another book recommendation

I've just finished the first book of CJ Sansom's series about a hunchback lawyer. It is so very rare to find historical fiction that actually makes you think and feel like you are in the time being described. However, Sansom perfectly manages it in Dissolution (Shardlake).

The novel is set during the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and in these pages we meet or hear about great historical figures like Cromwell; Anne Boleyn and so many others. However, we also get to read how a monastery and its monks must have felt during the time of Henry VIII's changes, and it is a really amazing depiction. We also get to hear Shardlake (the main protagonist) sharing his view of how good he thinks the changes are, and how annoyed he gets with the monks.

I couldn't put this book down, please go out and read it today!

Dissolution (Shardlake)

Reading II

Dear readers,

I promised to let you know what I had managed to read over the last few weeks. If you remember, I have purposely said that I will try to avoid TV for one day of the week, so that I can read something. Otherwise, I'll never get round to it!

Here are some of the books that I've read (and I've even included a number out of ten to help with some recommendation!). Each book has a link to Amazon, so you can get one yourselves (if anyone reads this!!):

The Sword of Shannara: Shannara 1 (Shannara Series) : this is a really excellent book by Terry Brooks, and is the beginning of an AMAZING set of books. I've read this before, but I had to read it again, and I am so glad I did. 10/10. If you want to start these fantasy books, please start with the Sword of Shannara. Simply the best.

A Christmas Carol (Puffin Classics) : As I was reading lots over the Christmas period, I decided that I had to finally read this classic. And it really is a classic and a lot more detailed that those Disney or Muppet movies!! Well worth reading - whatever the time of year. 8/10.

QI The Book of the Dead : If you love QI and a bit of history, you'll love this book. I did. It was full of great well-known people; and the not so well-known people of times gone by. Well recommended. 9/10.

Whatshisname: The Life and Death of Charles Hawtrey : I really enjoy the Carry On films, and I am always curious about the stars long since dead. Here's one of the stars who had a very sad life, and one who is often forgotten by biographers. Charles Hawtrey was an enigma and this book shows there was more to Mr Hawtrey than getting drunk and liking young men - read it if you like the Carry On films. 8/10.

I think I did pretty well this month, I am now reading another Shannara book (The Elfstones of Shannara: Book Two of the Shannara Trilogy (Shannara Series)) , but I'll leave my thoughts till next month. I've also got another couple of books I want to read too. Until next time, enjoy these books!!

JJW Griffiths