SA Footy

My neighbor gave me a copy of "Camino Island" by John Grisham for my Birthday. I haven't read a Grisham novel for 20-30 years but remember him as a writer of suspenseful and twisty thrillers. Where has that gone? An absolute chore to read. First 20 pages detailed a crime and I thought was setting up for a detective type thriller. Next 280 pages of self indulgent bullshit, most of the characters are either writers or book dealers and there are endless details of how hard it is to be either, completely uninteresting characters with completely uninteresting back stories, lots of walking on the beach staring wistfully into the sunrise/sunset.

Writers writing about writers is like movie makers making a movie about making a movie, as I said, indulgent and only of interest to those in the business. Last 20 pages resolved the side issue of the crime.

Felt obligated to finish it as my neighbour is a voracious reader and is sure to ask my opinion of the book. Is it a sin to lie to an elderly lady?

Edit: Just had a look at a couple of reviews, seems I am not alone in my view.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/book ... isham.html
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-r ... ino-island

I've probably read 15 or so Grisham books and have enjoyed the majority of them, but will steer well clear of that one.

Something I've noticed about his books is that the female characters and generally attractive and have good legs.

Read this recently. Very good.
One of the reviews on the cover used the word "disturbing" to describe it, and I thought "Huh? It's only a book about teenage sport".
But having read it, it certainly was - the pressure on, and privilege allowed to, these kids so young and where some of them ended up which the author was able to revisit in the 25th anniversary extra material.
Also made me realise how lucky we are in Australia to be able to play competitive amateur sport as adults whereas for most of these kids it was the highlight and end of their careers and they hadn't even finished high school. Wish I had have read it in my mid-20's when I at times I wasn't playing as good footy as I would have liked.

On to this one now.
Haven't looked through to see if others have reviewed it, but I'm really enjoying it and not many books make me laugh out loud.

I have just started reading

A Thoroughly Unhelpful History of Australian Sport byTitus O'Rielly

Hope its as good as his web stuff

Just finished 'P.O.W. - Australian prisoners of war in Hitler's Reich' by Peter Monteath and am going to start 'Australian Prisoners of War' by Patsy Adam-Smith this evening. First one was an interesting read.

A humorous and very interesting bunch of case studies that look into what exactly makes up a psychopath. Ronson's self-deprecating tone and his 'investigative journalist on a never ending quest' style (there's kind of a Louis Theroux vibe going on) makes it worth a read, and the people he interviews are weird but compelling at the same time.

About a third of the way through. Takes a bit to get used to the writing style, but I'm enjoying it.

HH3 wrote:About a third of the way through. Takes a bit to get used to the writing style, but I'm enjoying it.

My turn, I got the conch: "Sucks to your ass-mar, piggy!"

(edit) to stay on topic - I'm on Jean-Paul Sartre, "The Age Of Reason". A soap-opera; not uninteresting but will likely not get a second reading.

HH3 wrote:

About a third of the way through. Takes a bit to get used to the writing style, but I'm enjoying it.

when is your year 9 English essay due???

'Fromelles & Pozieres - In the Trenches Of Hell' by Peter Fitzsimons.
'The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean' edited by Peter Burness.
'The World Almanac 2019'

I've just discovered that I have a couple of great uncles buried at the Western Front.
These battles make Gallipoli look like the Mad Hatter's tea party.

Absolutely fascinating in the detail it goes in to on the murders

Funnily enough I just finished reading a book on another notorious serial killer.

The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare by Don Davis.

Can smash through true crime stuff like no ones business.

I inherited most of Ann Rules catalogue from my mother in law. She'd be happy to know I'm hitting it pretty hard.

I've just finished reading The Crimes of Josef Fritzl: Uncovering The Truth by Stefanie Marsh & Bojan Pancevski about the deranged father from Austria who kept his daughter Elisabeth captive in the cellar of their home for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.

The book also goes into some detail about the prevailing conservative mindsets in Austria holding over from Nazi German times in which domineering fathers, privacy and what goes on inside a families home is really only their business all played a part in helping to keep Elisabeth down there.

In the past I've read plenty of books on serial killers and the like but in a lot of ways I feel the prolonged nature of the captivity of his daughter and the levels of sheer depravity involved perhaps make him even more detestable.

Jagged a piece of history today, a 1947 copy of the MCC Laws of Cricket.

Just finished "The Wall" by John Lanchester.

Dystopian fable set in a world where sea levels have risen and a huge wall has been built around Great Britain to keep out "others". The protagonist is a bloke doing two years compulsory service as a guard on the wall. Starts out with an existential bent as this guy muses about the nature of his life, but the plot turns in such a way as to make parallels with issues in modern Britain: nationalism, Brexit angst, asylum seekers.

Unsatisfactory ending, but otherwise well worth the read.

Got this on Saturday. I was looking for a book on Mawson, but they didn't have it, so settled for Flinders.

This just landed on my desk.

Had to get it from the UK Book Depository, so there was a couple of week wait on it.

Can't wait to get into it.

HH3 wrote:This just landed on my desk.

Had to get it from the UK Book Depository, so there was a couple of week wait on it.

Can't wait to get into it.

Sat down and read 106 pages in one sitting. Only put it down because I dont want to get through it the day I got it.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk