What Are You Reading ?

[Tiggi]

I know what you mean, Crazyman.

However, several peeps on our holiday had them, and I had a play with one courtesy of Vera from Austria, and the handleability sold it to me, plus the capability to store 3500 books on it, plus the ability to download cheap books anywhere in the world in a trice.

I'm usually a bit cynical about unnecessary new technology, but I do like gadgets, and these seem very good.

We'll see...

[Music Head]

one last backtrack



Got this while the band was on tour in West Virginia, from my brother-in-law's wife. Read it while in Florida. Daughter saw the movie, said it was ok. That's about how I came away from the read. Maybe if I had been a circus performer in the 1930's I could relate. Story of Jacob, an old man in a nursing home who thinks back to his life as a vet with a traveling circus. The evil circus owner and the sadistic animal trainer are the bad guys. Jacob falls for the animal trainers wife. Bad move. That didn't go over too good. No fear though, the bad guys die in a circus fire and Jacob gets his girl.

Grade - C

[Music Head]

John Howard - Lazarus Rising - 2010



A gift from my brother. Second longest serving PM of Australia's autobiography. Hard for me to get into until he actually became PM. Only because of not knowing who any of the other blokes were. Once he got to that highest office, it picked up. I am a political junkie, so any American politician I would have been with it. Most interesting were the chapters dealing with world events, specifally 9/11 and Irag. Am a fan of Mr. Howards having seen him various times in press conferences with W. His support of those policies, along with Mr. Blairs made me like them. Most here that care, already know my position on those events. One thing with Mr. Howard that I found hard to grasp is the fact that he was a member of the Liberal party, yet considered conservative. Those terms are polar opposites in this country. I now know the Labor party is the equivalent of our Democrat party, which are the liberals here. Just hard to get my brain around. Good book but rather lengthy at near 700 pages. Thanks Lloyd

Grade - B

next up - Fugitive Nights by Joseph Wambaugh
a light read after that one

[CRAZY-HORSE]

glad you liked it MH...
if you remember i had trouble on numerous occasions with your Democrats/Republicans and who was who, what was what....as long as we get it right come polling day, thats all that matters...
we survived the last reccession because of the policies he put in place before he retired...not sure how we'll go this time round with a Labour/Democrat Govt in power who are in total disaray with infighting!

oh yeh... i consider you "my brother" also Ed!

[Music Head]

Nowhere near his best work, but passable. Cops turned PI's investigating a potential assassin/terrorist, so they think. Turns out to be not that exciting. One smart ass cop spills out the one liners faster than Bob Hope, and not near as funny. A little romance, in his mind, with the female leader. Best part was that there wasn't that many prominent characters to keep track of, maybe 6. Some deep novels I get lost trying to keep track of everybody. The killer gets away, and everybody lives happily ever after, except for the dead guy, who was a loser anyway.

Grade - C

next up - Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray by Nick Bruel

[Tiggi]

^ I read The Choir Boys as a teenager. Deliciously dark humour...

[SteveO]

It depends on what you define "conservative" as, MH . Canada now has a strong opposition to the governing Conservatives in the name of the New Democratic Party which are aligned with the Labour Parties of other countries.

The once very popular Liberal Party was virtually wiped off the map. The NDP (New Democratic Party) has replaced the Liberals for the time being as the left party. Having said this, you can support social programmes and such for the common people and still believe in modest spending or if you will a conservative outlook on government spending.

I think it's virtually impossible in this day and age of liberalism...gender equality, sexual preference, etc...to be entirely conservative or entirely liberal ! I think the party names no longer define the philosophy of all its' members.
There is an overlap in party beliefs and policies and it leads to a brownish conclusion ( mixture of Red for Democrats and blue for Republicans or orange for NDP, blue for Conservatives and red for Liberals up here in Canada.

John Howard - Lazarus Rising - 2010



A gift from my brother. Second longest serving PM of Australia's autobiography. Hard for me to get into until he actually became PM. Only because of not knowing who any of the other blokes were. Once he got to that highest office, it picked up. I am a political junkie, so any American politician I would have been with it. Most interesting were the chapters dealing with world events, specifally 9/11 and Irag. Am a fan of Mr. Howards having seen him various times in press conferences with W. His support of those policies, along with Mr. Blairs made me like them. Most here that care, already know my position on those events. One thing with Mr. Howard that I found hard to grasp is the fact that he was a member of the Liberal party, yet considered conservative. Those terms are polar opposites in this country. I now know the Labor party is the equivalent of our Democrat party, which are the liberals here. Just hard to get my brain around. Good book but rather lengthy at near 700 pages. Thanks Lloyd

Grade - B

next up - Fugitive Nights by Joseph Wambaugh
a light read after that one

[TraceNspace]

one last backtrack



Got this while the band was on tour in West Virginia, from my brother-in-law's wife. Read it while in Florida. Daughter saw the movie, said it was ok. That's about how I came away from the read. Maybe if I had been a circus performer in the 1930's I could relate. Story of Jacob, an old man in a nursing home who thinks back to his life as a vet with a traveling circus. The evil circus owner and the sadistic animal trainer are the bad guys. Jacob falls for the animal trainers wife. Bad move. That didn't go over too good. No fear though, the bad guys die in a circus fire and Jacob gets his girl.

Grade - C

I think I'd agree with your rating. It held my attention but I don't want to read it again or anything.

[Music Head]

This was a birthday gift from my granddaughter, from her own shelf. I read it. Some nice illustrations during the half hour read. I guess this guy has a series of Bad Kitty books. This one is about a family that goes on vacation and calls Uncle Murray to petsit the cat and dog. The dog is cool but the cat causes all kinds of problems for poor Uncle Murray. He departs defeated when the family returns. Got a couple of laughs out of it.

Grade - D

next up - Let The Glory Out by Albert Gore Sr.

[simonbrew]

just started Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, really interesting read about American Westward expansion, a topic i definitely didint think i would find so compelling.