The best advice I've read for a while.
Currently reading
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I started reading this but couldn’t stay awake.
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Nelson and Sea Power by Christopher Lloyd.
May believed Nelson wouldn't even live to reach the age of 30 such were the illnesses that befell him - scurvy, malaria and yellow fever for example. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of twelve and went on to become Post Captain at the age of twenty.
He was known for not listening to orders and going his own way, bearing in mind that it often took six weeks for orders to arrive in the Mediterranean from London.
A remarkable man in every respect, as was his wife, Frances "Fanny" Nelson, not to mention Emma Hamilton, his lover.
Not many films have been made about Nelson, which is surprising.
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This little gem jumps from the pages.
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A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. It takes place entirely within Moscow’s Hotel Metropole, beginning in 1922 and traveling through all the societal changes and major events of the next 3 decades.
The protagonist is a Russian Count whom a Bolshevik tribunal has sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest. Far from dwelling on all he has lost, this preternaturally upbeat man seizes of the pleasures of each day, and takes the reader through a truly grim and dismal period as if it were Dickens’ “the best of times.”
A fascinating trip. I don’t want it to end.
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Zero Fail, The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. Written by Washington Post reporter and three times Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Leonnig.
At times amusing, generally uneasy-making, recently infuriating, this well-researched book starts with the founding of the Secret Service and brings the story up through the failed insurrection against the US Legislature, Constitution and Capitol.
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Fat Man in Argentina! Tom Vernon’s observations are so different and so worthwhile. Love him.
After a couple of you piqued my curiosity about the book, I finally got my hands on a copy. And nearly immediately found the paperback quietly lurking on our own bookshelves. So we can both read it at the same time.
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On Wings Of Eagles by Ken Follet, a book which a family member found thrown out with some rubbish in the street. (Together with Lie Down With Lions)
My good fortune then, since this is a gripping, unputdownable non-fiction account of how Ross Perot, through his EDS Corporation, planned a daring raid into Tehran to rescue two of his employees who had been imprisoned without charges in 1979.
The Shah was on his way out and Ayatollah Khomeini was about to take revolutionary power.
From the very first page, I knew I couldn't put this book down, it's that well written and the drama escalates with the turning of every page.
It's also the large print version which helps enormously.
On Wings of EaglesThe #1 International Bestseller now in trade paperback—with 16 pages of photos.Number-one bestselling author Ken Follett tells the inspir...www.goodreads.com -
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Side note for those unfamiliar with US History from that time:
It was on the basis of this heroic rescue that Ross Perot made his ill-advised presidential run, splitting off enough Republican votes from George H W Bush to allow Bill Clinton to win the presidency in 1992.
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Side note for those unfamiliar with US History from that time:
It was on the basis of this heroic rescue that Ross Perot made his ill-advised presidential run, splitting off enough Republican votes from George H W Bush to allow Bill Clinton to win the presidency in 1992.
Yes, I know about his failed bid for president and I'll look at that a bit more when I've finished the book. Apparently a film of this was also made, which presumably is along similar lines to Argo.
Anyway, I'm devouring the book at a rate of knots because it's such an absorbing read. Any real life tales of rescue always grab me like this.
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In a tangently similar vein, I recently finished my umpteenth read of Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Never gets less thrilling despite having read it several times.
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In a tangently similar vein, I recently finished my umpteenth read of Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Never gets less thrilling despite having read it several times.
Is that the Shackleton story?
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In a tangently similar vein, I recently finished my umpteenth read of Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Never gets less thrilling despite having read it several times.
I definitely want to read that!
EnduranceThe harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of...www.goodreads.com -
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I've now finished two more Ken Follet books - Lie Down With Lions and Hornet Flight, the latter telling of the Danish resistance in WW2. The first being a rather silly story of a feminist and a CIA agent in Afghanistan.
I'm currently reading On The Beach by Nevil Shute about the aftermath of a global nuclear war with Melbourne being the last city with live inhabitants, but knowing they only have months to live.
Beautifully written in 1957 as the Cold War was gathering pace, it shows us the fragility of life, how people react so differently, how we may handle the inevitability of a certain death and what we may choose to do in out last days.
I can barely put the book down and if there is one character I would like to have met, it would be Moira Davidson.
On the BeachAfter a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cl...www.goodreads.com -
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I’m putting On The Beach on my list. Thanks!
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I’m putting On The Beach on my list. Thanks!
We're now watching the 1959 film with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner. Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire. Shame they chose so many American actors to play Australians and the 2000 remake fixes that. Ava Gardner struggle with the accent as do Perkins and Astaire. Peck is Peck throughout, but the director is a very liberal with his interpretation of the book and author Nevil Shute apparently wanted little to do with the film after a while.
On the BeachIn 1964, atomic war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers…www.themoviedb.orgOn the BeachThe world has finally managed to blow itself up and only Australia has been spared from nuclear destruction and a gigantic wave of radiation is floating in on…www.themoviedb.orgSome more notes for reference:
The continuing relevance of "On the Beach" - Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsThe enduring impact of a movie about the aftermath of nuclear warthebulletin.org -
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I specifically use https://bing.com when searching for films and videos because I find I can make Bing work better for me at video than other search engines. Searching for "On The Beach (2000)" gets a bit obscured because the Leonardo DeCaprio movie "The Beach" was also released in the year 2000. In my version of Bing video search "On The Beach" comes right at the top with a four-part video available on Dailymotion.com. The first section is here:
. The film can be found complete via Bing - but you might have to dust off your Russian or Polish language skills to fully appreciate it!Incidentally, I find Dailymotion a good place to start for TV programmes, mini series and the like that are difficult to find elsewhere. If you are a copyright holder then Dailymotion are bad news because they tend to respond to take-down notices with a Gallic shrug and a typical French "bof." But if you must see the latest "Doctor Who" or "Call The Midwife" then you can expect it to turn up on Dailymotion within hours of first transmission.
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I specifically use https://bing.com when searching for films and videos because I find I can make Bing work better for me at video than other search engines. Searching for "On The Beach (2000)" gets a bit obscured because the Leonardo DeCaprio movie "The Beach" was also released in the year 2000. In my version of Bing video search "On The Beach" comes right at the top with a four-part video available on Dailymotion.com. The first section is here:
. The film can be found complete via Bing - but you might have to dust off your Russian or Polish language skills to fully appreciate it!Incidentally, I find Dailymotion a good place to start for TV programmes, mini series and the like that are difficult to find elsewhere. If you are a copyright holder then Dailymotion are bad news because they tend to respond to take-down notices with a Gallic shrug and a typical French "bof." But if you must see the latest "Doctor Who" or "Call The Midwife" then you can expect it to turn up on Dailymotion within hours of first transmission.
That's an excellent find and beats twenty, ten minute segments on YouTube for sure. I have used Dailymotion before but not for a long while.
Having finished On The Beach which is one of the few books that left me thinking and thinking days after finishing it, I've just started A Planet For The President for the third time. I needed some satire, shall we say.
A Planet for the PresidentThings are not going well for the President of the United States. He wants Americans to be adored by freedom-loving people everywhere. In...www.goodreads.com -
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Will start using Dailymotion and Bing, for searches, right away, bebopalula . Thanks for sharing!
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