The Plot Against America

This book has taken me a long time to read. It was recommended as one of the best books of 2004.
While it cannot be doubted this is a very clever book in concept and, being Roth, very well written, it never captured my soul.
To me a good book will not let me put it down. This book I could put down at any stage and not be upset by the interruption. The characters were well drawn but I just left it with the impression that the story never raised itself beyond the great idea of what would have happened if...
All in all 4/10

Quite a week

Well this has been a major week for news. A pope dies and clogs up Rome, an election called in the UK, Saul Bellow is dead in the US, Prince Rainier is dead in Monaco and one of our biggest clients is close to dying and taking us down with it. Thank goodness the baseball season has started and Chelsea beat Bayern 4-2.

Betrayal in Naples

Read this book in a few days and really enjoyed it. It has a great pace and would be a fantastic read for those people who have to read the last page as it tells you what happens on the first page.
There are some great pictures of Naples drawn and the varying betrayals going on are dizzying.
I still don't know how his landlady fits into the picture though. A great holiday book providing you are not going to Naples 9/10

More books

PG Wodehouse-Some Jeeves title
Great train read. Made me smile and passed the time of day. Just what I wanted. 8/10

Naples '44
A great picture of Naples as it emerged from war. Not so much the city but the people. I didn't want this book to end and would love to find a similar diary updated to the 21st century. 9/10

Norweigan Wood

Finished this book yesterday.
I really enjoyed it. The prose-even in translation-is effortless and captures the dilemmas and heartache faced in love, and the finality that death brings and doesn't bring as well as anything I have read.
Like any modern novel it ends with so many questions. It is a book I will be churning around for weeks to come. 9/10

AMSTERDAM

AMSTERDAM

This is one of my favourite Brel songs. The above site is great in that it has many lyrics to Brel songs.

There are a number of things this world needs including
1. A good english biography of Brel and
2. A book of lyrics with English translation

or maybe I just need to improve my French!

Latest Books

Of Water and Spirit
Think the title is correct. It was about the initiation rites in an African tribe and the clash of culture with Western christianity. I read this soon after a novel-Jonanthan Strange-about magic in England and I had to keep reminding myself that this was based on real life experience. All in all it was a fascinating book which raised more questions than it answered, and that was part of its enjoyment. 8/10

The Da Vinci Code
I enjoyed this although it was not written in a great prose style. It was exciting and although it may be total drivel -it was a novel for goodness sake-it kept me hooked until the end. I wouldn't read another of his books but this one gets a 7/10

so little time

Must buy presents
Must write cards
Must steal a tree
Must kiss an elf
Must send a letter to the North pole
Must phone home
Must find a turkey
Must buy wine and spirits
Must drink same
Must sing a carol or two
Must I?

Jonathan Strange

Have just finished Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange. It was a fascinating book. I felt compelled to keep reading-by the magic or the force of the writing- and would say I enjoyed it.
It is a book about magic which is not a subject I would normally choose but this was good. I never fell inlove with any of the characters. There were no heroes or heroines just victims of the all encompassing magic. It was not a feel good book but it was a good read.
I did get fed up with all the footnotes which added largely nothing. If I had to rate it I would give it 6/10.

what if.....

What if work was enjoyable every day and didn't cause stress.

What if pigs could fly

What if Plymouth Argyle won the premiership

Wha if politicians told the truth

What if....

Things I like about you

You are beautiful
You are funny
You are always there when I need you(well nearly always)
I have known you for thirty years and you are still interesting
You cook well
You are supportive when I cook!
You are caring
You always look for the best in people
You like holidays and so do I and the house can look after itself because we can't afford to
You give me space when I need it and are so forgiving-well apart from when you are really pissed off but that is not often
You like Tolstoy
You love jazz and Mahler

And a million other things that will come to me

The things we write

I wrote an email 2 days ago.
The beauty of email is that it is so easy, so fast and delivered at the press of a button.
The trouble with email is that it is so easy, so fast and delivered at the press of a button.
Maybe I had drunk a little too much or maybe I was tired, stupid- I don't know but the fact of the matter is I pressed send as soon as I had written it and it was gone.
I have not had a reply so I don't know how it was received and I certainly regretted sending it all day yesterday.
I like snail mail. It gives you time to change your mind between the last full stop and the mailbox.

Recent Books

A Year in the Merde
This is a funny book in places as the author gives a fictional description of a first year in Paris. It made me laugh in places but having just read cooking with Fernet Branca this did not come close. I left the book not really knowing whether he liked the French and it would have been good if it was clear on this. I also got fed up with the female conquests. Can't help feeling the author was trying to achieve in print what may not have been forthcoming in real life. Rating 4/10

Stasiland
This was a fascinating book. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a novel but based on true stories from East Germany and the effect on lives of the Berlin Wall. It is very well written and extremely moving in places. I would recommend it highly. Rating 8/10

Migraine

This is painful. I cannot look at the screen for the pain in the left side of my head, I cannot concentrate on anything and as this is now 36 hours since it started I am fairly low. Surely in this technogical age we can find a cure for this.

Emlyn Hughes

BBC SPORT | Football | Football great Emlyn Hughes dies

I was never a Liverpool supporter but Emlyn Hughes, like John Peel was part of my growing up. He is part of my memories of youth, of moments shared with my brother, of tensions lived through final score and Match of the Day. Thankfully sweet memories live on but with a death become more remote somehow.

The View

The View is a restaurant at Whitsand Bay in Cornwall.
It has fantastic views(hence the name!!) over the Cornish coast toward Rame Head.
The food is great or it was today although the service is not for those in a hurry.
For those interested in things culinary I had Cornish cod-although I am not sure how you confirm the origins of a cod-served on a bed of crushed new potatoes and green beans followed by a rather good apple and calvados tart. All this washed down with a good sauvignon from Chile and followed by a snooze. Life is good.

Fernet Branca

This stuff is something else. Thick dark and with a taste somewhere between mouthwash and cold tea, it has the kick of a proverbial mule and that something else that will make me go back for more!

Bjork

I have now listened to Bjorks new album-Medulla- about half a dozen times and it is fast becoming one of my favourites.
On first listening it left me cold but it definitely repays perseverance.
It should also be listened to alone so that it can seep into your soul like a marinade.
If you get the chance listen to it and give it time.

Wild as a wallaby's underpants

My mother was a fount of bizarre sayings. What do they mean. I am sure a wallaby would be wild if you tried to place him in underpants but to be as wild as them....I don't know. Here are some more of these bizarre sayings:

My hands are rough as badgers
I'm as stewed as an owl

Mind you I now find myself doing it and somehow on the internet where a journal becomes a blog they seem oddly at home. Anyway I feel as trashed as a goat so am signing off.

Wet and windy

How very British to talk about the weather! It was extremely wet and extremely windy along the SW coast yesterday. Trainlines closed(although that is not unusual), roads flooded and sea walls collapsing. All the SW coastguard were called out and I loved it! There is something about extreme weather that is exhilarating. I think it is the perspective it brings in terms of the fact that we have not tamed nature. Long after I have gone the sea will still be battering the shoreline, the wind will be tearing branches from trees and the rain will wash away man made constructions.
I love the first part of TS Elliot's Dry Salvages that puts it so much better than me.
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/tseliot/7068
" The sea has many voices, many gods and many voices"

Wild weather also brings a sense of freedom, don't you think? It makes me want to join in its wildness and throw off restraint for a while.

Ah well, back to work :-)