bookshelves: published-1996, tbr-busting-2013, summer-2013, under-500-ratings, sciences, series, winter-20152016, re-visit-2016, under-1000-ratings, lit-richer-jan-2016, lit-richer, mystery-thriller, eng-lon-kensal-green, mathematics, a-cut-above, adventure, author-love, beautifully-put, betrayal, blackmail, character-growth, conspiracy-theories-abound, contemporary, eye-scorcher, games-people-play, if-it-wasnt-for-bad-luck, look-behind-you, midlife-crisis, moidah, revenge, tricksy, conflagration, families

“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”― Niels Bohr

11 hours 55 mins read by Paul Shelley.

Blurb: The presumably childless Harry Barnett, living a quiet, aimless life in Britain, receives an anonymous call informing him that his son, a brilliant mathematician, is comatose. Worse, the son's condition is probably not accidental. His notebooks are missing; people around him are dying under mysterious circumstances. Harry, introduced in Goddard's Into the Blue, finds a new sense of purpose with the discovery that he is a father, and he begins to investigate what happened and why. The answer lies under layers of deceit, greed, fear, madness, and genius and leads Harry into unexpected byways...



HAH - many have read this since I last did - it goes in the 'under 1000' shelf now. If I remember rightly, this does suffer middle of trilogy syndrome...

LATER - ooo, how wrong I was in thinking this subsidiary, the passing of time can distort memory - I love the science conspirarcy here.

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”― Isaac Asimov

4* Into The Blue (Harry Barnett #1) (1990) - re-visit 2016
3.5* Out of the Sun (Harry Barnett #2) (1996) - re-visit 2016
CR Never Go Back

5* Past Caring (1986)
5* In Pale Battalions (1988)
3* Play To the End (1988)
4* Painting the Darkness (1989)
4* Take No Farewell (1991)
3* Hand in Glove (1992)
2* Closed Circle (1993)
3* Borrowed Time (1995)
TR Beyond Recall (1997)
4* Caught in the Light (1998)
4* Set in Stone (1999)
3* Sea Change (2000)
1* Dying to Tell (2001)
3* Days Without Number (2003)
3* Sight Unseen (2005)
2* Name to a Face (2007)
1* Found Wanting (2008)
TR Long Time Coming (2009)
TR Blood Count (2010)
WL Fault Line (2012)

3* The Ways of the World (The Wide World Trilogy #1) (2013)
WL Intersection: Paris, 1919 (2013)
TR The Corners of the Globe (The Wide World Trilogy #2) (2014)
WL The Ends of the Earth (The Wide World Trilogy, #3) (2015)

bookshelves: published-1976, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, summer-2013, tbr-busting-2013, fraudio, winter-20152016, jan-2016-litricher, lit-richer, tbr-busting-2016

Description: With this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed how humour and tragedy dwell in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life.

Had this onhold for so long that this visit is a complete reboot. Carver wrote as Hopper painted, maybe the connection is the diner, combined with spartanism, oh and voyeurism of course.



1: Fat
2: Neighbours
3: Note
4: The Idea
5: They’re Not your Husband
6: Are you a Doctor?
7: The Father
8: Nobody Said Anything
9: Sixty Acres
10: What’s in Alaska?
11: Night School
12: Collectors
13: What do you do in San Francisco?
14: The Student’s Wife
15: Put yourself in my Shoes
16: Jerry and Molly and Sam
17: Why Honey?
18: The Ducks
19: How About This?
20: Bicycles, muscles, Cigarettes
21: Are These Actual Miles?
22: Signals
23: Will you please be quiet please?

3* What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
3* Cathedral
TR Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories
3* Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

bookshelves: dip-in-now-and-again, ancient-history, skoolzy-stuff, history, ttc, winter-20122013, roman-civilisation, slaves, under-50-ratings, spring-2014, autumn-2015, nonfic-nov-2015, nonfiction, tbr-busting-2015

36 half hour lectures.

4. The Roman Way of War
5. Celtic Europe and the Mediterranean World
6. The conquest of Casalpine Gaul
7. Romans and Carthaginians in Spain
8. The Roman Conquest of Spain
9. The Genesis of Roman Spain
10. Jugurtha and the Nomadic Threat



Constantine, Algeria

11. Marius and the Northern Barbarians



12. Rome's Rivals in the East
13. The Price of Empire
14. Julius Ceasar and the Conquest of Gaul
15. Early Germanic Europe
16. The Nomads of Eastern Europe
17. Arsacid Parthia
18. The Augustin Principate and Imperialism
19. The Roman Imperial Army

Whipped through these last few lectures, so am now on a mirroring timeline with Trajan re Portus.




4* The Vikings (Great Courses, #3910)
TR Secrets of Sleep Science: From Dreams to Disorders
TR Turning Points in Modern Times: Essays on German and European History
4* Myth in Human History (Great Courses, #2332)
3* History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev (Great Courses, #8380)
TR Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature (Great Courses, #2310)
4* Rethinking Our Past: Recognizing Facts, Fictions, And Lies In American History
OH A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts (Great Courses, #8470)

bookshelves: translation, tbr-busting-2013, summer-2013, paper-read, one-penny-wonder, prague, published-1922, re-visit-2015, spring-2015, play-dramatisation, lit-richer, unfinished-by-author

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05tbw1m

Revisit 2015 is via Radio 4 drama. I shall re-read the book at the same time.



It was late in the evening when K arrived.

From wiki:Kafka began writing The Castle on the evening of 27 January 1922, the day he arrived at the mountain resort of Spindlermühle (now in the Czech Republic). A picture taken of him upon his arrival shows him by a horse-drawn sleigh in the snow in a setting reminiscent of The Castle. Hence, the significance that the first few chapters of the handwritten manuscript were written in first person and at some point later changed by Kafka to a third person narrator, 'K'.

Brod placed a strong religious significance to the symbolism of the castle. This is one possible interpretation of the work based on numerous Judeo-Christian references as noted by many including Arnold Heidsieck.

The book ends mid-sente (my jokette)

Schloß Friedland The castle that inspired Kafka.

The writer Franz Kafka stayed in Špindlerův Mlýn in the early 1920s, when he was writing one of his most famous works, The Castle.

As with The Trial, the victim here, K, is up against anonymous and oppressive governing forces. Absurdity abounds, which makes for claustrophobic reading. It is night-time more than day, and the locals are twisty characters who distrust this new arrival with disdain.

It is useful to remember that Kafka was a German-Jew, and although he didn't put much weight on his Jewishness, it seems to have influenced his writing. It is generally to be understood that this was not a good time for Jews, nosiree, and it became worse.

bookshelves: series, britain-scotland, summer-2013, published-1933, winter-20142015, aberdeenshire, under-500-ratings, paper-read, one-penny-wonder, fradio, play-dramatisation, class-war, industrial-action, general-strike, tragedy, tbr-busting-2015, historical-fiction

Edited with an introduction by Tom Crawford
Dedication: To George Malcolm Thomson.
Map of Segget

Opening: The Borough of Segget stands under the Mounth, on the southern side, in the Mearns Howe, Fordoun lies near and Drumlithie nearer, you can see the Laurencekirk lights of a night glimmer and glow as the mists come down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0505l3m

BBC description: Lewis Grassic Gibbon's powerful sequel to Sunset Song dramatised by Donna Franceschild. Atmospheric drama about Grassic Gibbon's best-loved character, Chris.

Now married to Robert, a young and idealistic minister, Chris and her family move from the crofting village of Kinraddie to the mill town of Segget in Aberdeenshire. Living in the wake of the Great War and during the build up to the General Strike, they find themselves instrumental in the small town's epic class struggle.

Tensions within the town grow as Chris and Robert help the spinners prepare for strike action. But nothing can prepare the family for the tragic events that are about to unfold.
Starring Amy Manson and Robin Laing.
Directed by Kirsty Williams.

It seems highly likely that both author and spinners had read Tressell's 1914 'The Ragged Philanthropists'.

"Not a penny off the pay,
not a minute on the day."

5* Sunset Song
4* Cloud Howe