Category Archives: Literature

Book Review: Sue Townsend ~ Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004)

Posted on July 17, 2024 by odeboyz

Unlike Amazon second hand bookshops are a thing of joy and wonder.1 They don’t have brutal efficiency but their customers happily browse. Titles, long forgotten, catch the eye and stimulate the curiosity bud. Was that book as good as remembered? … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Literature, Politics, Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Richmal Crompton ~ William: The Gangster (1967)

Posted on June 12, 2024 by odeboyz

I read the William books in 1950s Leeds. Leeds was grey, grim and far, far away from William’s world. There were no Vicar’s wives calling round for tea. No maidservants, no summer house, barns or fields. And there definitely weren’t … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Humour, Literature, Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Michael Dobbs ~ The Lords’ Day (2007)

Posted on May 29, 2024 by odeboyz

Michael Dobbs is famous for The House of Cards, which has an international audience. A British and American TV series marks its acceptance as a definitive political novel. This is a red-blooded thriller: A Harry Jones1 novel. Jones has the … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Politics, Review, War | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Girl from the north country: Bob Dylan, 1963

Posted on April 25, 2024 by odeboyz

If you’re travelin’ in the north country fairWhere the winds hit heavy on the borderlineRemember me to one who lives thereShe once was a true love of mine If you go when the snowflakes stormWhen the rivers freeze and summer … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, photography | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Colson Whitehead ~ Sag Harbor (2009)

Posted on April 24, 2024 by odeboyz

This is a coming-of-age novel. Its principal character is  a Black-American teenager. Benji is middle-class attending a private prep school, where he, along with his younger brother, are the only black pupils. His parents own a holiday home in Sag … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Review | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Isaac Newton and Other Failures

Posted on April 17, 2024 by odeboyz

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”Winston Churchill People who triumph over failure are the stuff of legends. Seemingly they possess a recipe: “If you do as I do then good things will be yours!” … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance, History, Literature, Science | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Robert Harris ~ Archangel (1998)

Posted on March 27, 2024 by odeboyz

The wonderful thing about Harris is that he’s reliable. He isn’t a book-a-year author featuring drunken, music-loving Detective Inspectors, or psychopathic vigilantes as the principal character. He writes *proper* novels. His stories are carefully plotted. Brilliantly well-written, researched and with … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Jonas Jonasson ~ The Prophet and the Idiot (Translator Rachel Willson-Broyles) (2022)

Posted on February 21, 2024 by odeboyz

Jonasson was faced with a huge challenge when writing this book. His previous book ‘The hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared’  sold three million copies. The novel was a comic novel written in Swedish. Jonasson had … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Literature, Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Tim Dorsey ~ Florida Roadkill (1999)

Posted on January 17, 2024 by odeboyz

Carl Hiaasen created zany Florida novels about the environment, corruption, casual murder and destruction all laced with quickfire humour.  He created a genre. Tim Dorsey cashed in. This book is a mini-homage by including Hiaasen in the narrative. So how … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Literature, Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Ben MacIntyre ~ Agent Sonya (2020)

Posted on December 20, 2023 by odeboyz

Historians often write beautifully and are highly literate. But they don’t create new genres. MacIntyre has pulled off the feat of writing biography, history and thrillers: simultaneously. He chooses remarkable and well documented stories. This provides a structure to work … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Review, War | Tagged , , | Leave a comment