For anyone interested
Hi dmorg
We got two of your books, and not only a good read but the one on PTSD was very helpful for us. And I am glad I was just a tiny bit too young to be called up to Vietnam.
Have to say that over our journey, Dept Veterans Affairs have really lifted their game. Did help that we got the best Lawyer on this matter, but reckon they do understand a bit better.
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Thanks, Bacchusfox, I appreciated you buying two books as it helps Legacy. Dept Veterans Affairs have been very good to me, no trouble whatsoever, but I have heard other bad stories from other veterans. Hope your son is going well. Merry Xmas to you and family.
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Not much action in this thread of late.
My current read is the latest effort by the one and only Titus O’Reily (his fifth book) titled 'The 7 Deadly Sins Of Sport’.
As you’d expect, it’s an entertaining and funny read about the various foibles of sportspeople over the years, all delivered with the author’s usual understated humorous style.
Circling back to an earlier post, I risked the wrath of the literary gods by not taking the advice of @Alan_Noonan_10 and instead taking the plunge into the world of J. P. Pomare. Ended up reading all seven of his output to date and enjoyed them all very much.
Was gifted ‘James’ by Percival Everett for Christmas. A retelling of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of Jim the slave. Thought it was an intriguing and bold premise but felt it didn’t quite meet the standards demanded by the weight of the issues covered.
The Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, tells the story from the point of view of Rochester’s supposed mad wife in Jane Eyre.
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Just purchased Gunnawah by Ronni Salt who many will know from twitter
Weekend reading sorted… blurb below
The debut crime novel by Ronni Salt
It’s 1974 in the Riverina. The weather is hot – but the body in the Murray River is stone cold.
A captivating and compulsive crime thriller about guns, drugs and a young woman dead on the money.
When nineteen-year-old farmgirl Adelaide Hoffman applies for a cadetship at the Gunnawah Gazette, she sees it as her ticket out of a life too small for her. The paper’s owner, Valdene Bullark, seeing something of the girl she once was in young Adelaide, puts her straight to work.
What starts as a routine assignment covering an irrigation project soon puts Adelaide on the trail of a much bigger story. Water is money in farming communities, and when Adelaide starts asking questions, it’s like she’s poked a bull ant’s nest.
Someone will do whatever it takes to stop Adelaide and Val finding out how far the river of corruption and crime runs.
Shady deals. Vested interests. A labyrinth of lies. It seems everyone in Gunnawah has a secret to keep. And too many are already dead quiet.
Set deep in the heart of rural Australia during the era of Gough Whitlam, pub brawls and flared jeans, Gunnawah is a compulsive crime thriller of corruption, guns and drugs from Australian Noir’s most arresting new voice.
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Finished Juice by Tim Winton, so so good with the perfect ending. I will be thinking about that book for a while!
Currently reading Question 7 by Richard Flanagan which i am also enjoying.
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I will be keen to hear what you think of it. It is also on my list.
Recently finished reading “The Battle of the Generals” by Roland Perry.
Tells the story of Generals MacArthur and Blamey and their roles in the defence of Australia.
Quite interesting reading about MacArthur from an Australian perspective and how he convinced Curtin to give him control of Australia’s defences.
MacArthur and Blamey did not get on…one is shown as someone who would do anything to get press, whilst the other was a real soldier…but with pretty poor social skills when it came to dealing with the pollies and other military leaders.
If you like WW2 history dealing with Australia, it’s well worth the read.
I got this for Christmas and I’m still on the first section and the jury is still out.
I read a book called Dusk by Robbie Arnott, whom I had never heard of. It’s about a brother and sister who set out to kill a puma that is somehow living in the wilds of Tasmania and killing lots of livestock belonging to local squatters. It takes a fair while before you work out where the story is taking place and at what period of time. The biggest flaw in the book is the ending, which is really just ridiculous when you think about it, but it’s very readable and moves quickly. I’d say it’s okay.
Yeah,it starts off pretty slowly but picks up when his Service escapades are described in more detail and his family dynamics change. Stick with it!.
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I was told a story ( which wasn’t in the WW2 official records) about Blamey and Simpson competing to be the top dog with MacArthur and hiding information from each other on the New Guinea campaign.
Simpson was a mad Essendon supporter and was on the Board post War until he died in 1964. He would have had witnessed a few Premierships.
( Blamey was notorious as a corrupt cop pre WW2).
Lonsdale St or LittleLon brothels ring a bell re Blamey.
I gave up reading Tim Winton as in spite of all the acclaim, there was none of his books
that I liked.
So what is good about this one ?
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Not even Cloudstreet?
I’m back onto these weird contraptions called books.
Been on Kindle and Audible the last few weeks.
The current version, called analogue, or just books, is Liars by James O’Loghlin (who used to be on ABC TV - The New Inventors). Set on the Central Coast of NSW, Joe Griffiths is back in town after a jail term and rehab for drug dependency, a friend with benefits is murdered and Joe’s #1 suspect.
I got a book on Kindle called The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale. She seems to be Australian. but her books are based in England or USA. Not strident, but all her books are about women maltreated by men. I grabbed her other 5 books as well.
And on Audible, I’m onto the second of Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy, The first, Imperium, is about lawyer and orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero’s attempt to get into the Roman senate. The second, Lustrum, is the next stage after Cicero has been elected consul and he fights against Catalina, who’s trying to take over the Roman state with the help of some powerful allies, Marcus Crassus (took down Spartacus, although Pompey the Great claimed credit). It was before Julius Caesar’s heyday but he was no friend of Cicero’s. We studied Sallust’s The Catailine Conspiracy at school - in Latin.
I’ve yet to start on the third, Dictator, where Caesar holds sway over Cicero.
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Cloud street was good, but probably reminded me too much of my Mums family.
Has anyone read The Dry? Watched the film (Eric Bana was great). Am wondering whether the books are worthwhile.