And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
10.0
Rate It
Book
A masterpiece of investigative reporting, And the Band Played On is the definitive history of the...
The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan
Book
Ian Bradley's Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan has established itself across the world as the...
Regional Impacts of Resource Developments
C.C. Kissling, M.J. Taylor and N.J. Thrift
Book
Originally published in 1984. Australia is a resource-rich country deriving a significant proportion...
Time After Time
7.0
Rate It
Book
Number one bestselling author Louise Pentland is back with her brand new novel that will make you...
Time Travel 1980’s
ClareR (5721 KP) rated The Paris Library in Books
Mar 2, 2021
In 1930’s - 1940’s Paris, we follow Odile, a young woman who wants to be a librarian in the American Library. She gets her dream job - much to her parents dismay. She meets and falls in love with a young police officer, but life begins to get much more difficult when the Germans invade France, occupying Paris. Odile’s twin brother is imprisoned in a camp after he is captured on the front, and her Jewish subscribers at the library are forbidden from going there. Odile’s wartime experiences are fascinating to read about, and I really enjoyed these flashbacks.
We also meet Lily in the 1980’s - Odile’s neighbour in the small Montana town that they both live in. They become good friends when Lily decides that she wants to write a school report about France during the Occupation. Odile teaches Lily to speak French, and they share a love of books. Odile becomes a grandmotherly figure in Lily’s life, and I loved the relationship between the two of them.
I found this book so interesting: when I was reading about Lily, I was desperate to know what would happen in the next Paris flashback, and when I was reading about Odile’s Paris, I wanted to know what would happen to Lily in her next section. I would say that this is the sign of a good book!
The Parisian sections weren’t gratuitously violent - in fact the Nazi heading the library department of the invading forces seemed to be a reasonable man. It’s made clear that the characters don’t like the Germans, and we’re told that Jews go missing, but the German’s themselves are very low key. This is about Odile’s experience, and Lily’s life in the 80’s. And the power of books.
The bravery of the Parisian librarians was admirable, especially as they could have been imprisoned or killed if their acts of resistance had ever been revealed.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book - it was a pleasure to read.
Sohng: Prisoner of Fate (Tales of Arca #1)
6.0
Rate It
Book
n a world of hidden secrets, all will be revealed in this Dark, Science Fiction, Fantasy Adventure....
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated The Secret History in Books
Jan 3, 2018
Surrounding a misfit at an exclusive New England college, Richard finds kindred spirits in the five eccentric students of his ancient Greek class. He becomes engulfed in their dark secrets and things spiral out of control.
The atmosphere surrounding this group of elitist college students smacks of a wannabe Great Gatsby - there's a sense of self-importance, entitlement, and grandeur, of self-indulgence and pretence. While this worked to an extent in terms of characterisation, it also made for a great exasperation for the reader. The characters are so unlikable that you don't even care about what happens to them. And they do appear to be grotesque caricatures of 19th century archetypes bolted on to an otherwise standard 1980's drink and drugs college environment.
The characters lacked depth, although Tartt attempted to mirror them in the Greek stories they studied. In essence it is a good story with some stylish writing but also some dull and tedious conversations and descriptions. Disappointing.
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder in Podcasts
Jan 5, 2018 (Updated Jan 5, 2018)
From corrupt police officers, phone hacking, and eventually murder, Morgan was a private investigator looking into bribery of police officers, some by journalists in the 1980's. For those aware of the phone hacking scandal, it seemed to only get traction and recognition in the last ten years, yet was apparent two decades prior to this. Morgan was found bludgeoned to death in his car, and since then his family have found ample evidence to show widespread cover-ups, and a botched investigation in order to keep the crime underwraps.
Journalist Peter Jukes alongside family members created this podcast to expose the truly horrifying scale of this issue. It is another well-made, engrossing, albeit cautionary tale about how much we can trust our institutions and how much they prop each other up for support. Worth the listen.