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Archives for September, 2015 - Page 2
Red Horse by M.J. Logue [Book Review]
Red Horse by Logue My rating: 5 of 5 stars Red Horse is set at the beginning of the First English Civil War in 1642. The primary characters are Captain Hollie Babbitt and his young Cornet Luce Pettitt. Babbitt is a grizzled and damaged English mercenary back from the continent to fight for Parliament. Pettitt fights from conviction and conscience, he is a distant relation to the Earl of Essex. This sets us up nicely for a tale from a cavalry viewpoint with the odd glimpse of higher command. There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off naive and relatively innocent. I could identify my…
Influential Books – Ten Books You Should Read
Some of my most influential books A friend recently did a facebook list of the ten most influential books that had the most impact on his life, and he tagged me in it. This got me thinking. I found it hard to identify ten influential books. I firmly believe that every book you read is an influential book and has some sort of impact on your life. One of the issues I have is that I’ve read a lot of books. I’m reading 50-60 books a year just now. I read more before the internet. Doing an OU degree also cut down my reading rate. In 2012, just before my daughter was born, I gave up my study for her bedroom. I filled over 20 crates with books to keep, the ones I thought that I might re-read or refer to later. I gave…
A Splash of Kindness by John Starley Allen [Book Review]
A Splash of Kindness by John Starley Allen My rating: 4 of 5 stars A Splash of Kindness by Allen is a feel good book. Full of anecdotes about how little kindnesses have had a much larger impact on how other people see the world. You cannot help but be uplifted when you read A Splash of Kindness. Most of the anecdotes come from the lives of the author’s immediate family or friends, although some have come from other sources. Each chapter features a single story about how one kind intervention has helped someone draw themselves out of a dark place and feel good about contributing to the rest of the world. Where possible at the end of the chapter there are some sources attributed, so you can check out the stories for yourself if you are so minded. There’s…
New Books of 2015 pt.6
New Books of 2015, When I started this series of articles on my new books of 2015 I've acquired I thought that I would do three or four of them, one covering the books I'd got around my birthday, another about now covering books I'd picked up over the summer and a final one in late December summarising where I'd got to. It never occured to me that despite being restrained in my book acquisition that I would have acquired 50 books by the end of August (and there are a few more on pre-order that I expect to arrive later this year). Anyway, there are 11 books in this instalment, bringing the running total to 49. I've read 18 hard copy books and have a few more that I'm part of the way through. At this stage I have to…
The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett [Book Review]
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Shepherd's Crown is a fitting end to the Discworld stories. There was no diminution of the characters or story telling, despite Pterry's illness he kept this one up to his usual standard right to the end. I'm sure he knew that The Shepherd's Crown would be his last Discworld book, there are some interesting nods to that in the story. The Shepherd's Crown This is a Tiffany Aching story, although it also includes the other witches, and the Lords and Ladies too. There are some interesting new characters too, not just old favourites. I particularly liked Geoffrey, the calm weaver, and the old boys of Lancre who helped with the denouement. The Nac Mac Feegle are in there too, along with some of the lyrics from the Steeleye…