James Clavell: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers)
Wars of Louis Quatorze (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
There hasn't been many English language films about the 30 years war but I reckon this is one that comes to mind to me at least. It's not a really historically accurate film from a costume point of view but it has its good points :) I suppose nowadays its most famous for its score by John Barry. Although lengthy the text alongside of this video says it all - Rotten tomatoes reviews here The Last Valley...
the purest of treats (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
He never graduated high school. He laid brick and cinder blocks for a living. Sometimes he pointed out houses and other buildings he had worked on. He used to tell me, "I worked hard, very hard." He started reading seriously as a young boy. He knew a lot about history and geography. When I knew him he read mainly fiction. He liked most kinds of popular novels but especially ones that were...
Guitars and Life (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
I've not done a review of the last few books... Excavation and The Last Oracle by James Rollins I discovered Mr Rollins earlier in the year and quiet liked the first book I read - it was a wizz bang non stop global thriller. You know the type where the characters don't spend days in departure lounges or immigration queues so that the plot can move fast from one location to the next. Both these were...
Liquor Barn's Party Line Blog (Free subscription) | 10/10/2009
Btms^ for Saturday October 10. Drink Forecast for Today (DF 4 2day): A PINT of Guinness 2 toast 2 playwright Harold Pinter, born on this date in 1930. Cheers today to… the Cardinals who take on Southern Mississippi in their Homecoming Game, and to the Cats @ South Carolina! Hop Heads Delight! Sheltowee Hop-A-Lot IPA is back in [...]
GameSetWatch (Free subscription) | 09/29/2009
Photographer Jennifer Lyseng recently shot a photo series of game disks and manuals from Infocom's classic adventure titles, presenting them with relevant objects (e.g. like a sword and a stone for Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur ). The images were commissioned by Rick Thornquist, who is writing a book on the history of Infocom's games. He plans to use the photos in the book and as backdrops for interviews...
The Hungry Bookworm (Free subscription) | 09/29/2009
I had always wanted to read this series of books by James Clavell but somehow or other, though I had bought a couple of the books years ago, I hadn't gotten around to reading them until recently. I started with Taipan as I found Shogun somewhat intimidating to start with, and I found it engrossing reading. The book painted a fabulous picture of HongKong's start as a colony, a lonely, forsaken outcrop...
online video conference | online ed (Free subscription) | 09/28/2009
Samurais, geishas, ninja, daimyo, emperors, wars, battles, ships, love, romance, intrigue and a whole bag more - it has to be 'Shogun' by James Clavell. Posted by caughtredhanded in Film & Books | Socs: 8
The Fill in the Gaps 100 Project (Free subscription) | 09/26/2009
For my 100 list, I'm not really going for anything specific - this is a list of books I've had recommended to me NUMEROUS times, and then others that have been gathering dust on my TBR list, and then a few new ones that I'm looking forward to. This is my semi-final list - it may change a little as I iron out the kinks, or maybe it'll stay pretty much the same. I'm open to recommendations on books,...
[CinemaRatty] Lattest Articles (Free subscription) | 09/20/2009
The Fly (1958 Extremely Trashy Directed by: Kurt Neumann. Written by: James Clavell, based on the short story by George Langelaan Plot: A science guy (David Hedison) invents a teleportation device for...
The Velvet Blog (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
The Onion AV Club has a fun piece about encounters with celebrities . Since The Velvet Blog is starved for comments, I'll open up the topic here. Any celebrity run-ins you'd like to share? When I was fresh out of college, my first job was as an editorial assistant at publisher William Morrow. I met quite a few writers and celebs peddling books there. In passing: Roddy McDowall (tiny!), Barbara Mandrell...
Erik's Choice (Free subscription) | 09/09/2009
Finished Rick Perlstein's Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008), as epic and wild a tale as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and James Clavell's Shōgun. The main difference is that the events in Nixonland really happened, and I personally remember some of them being revealed in the news at the time. To anyone who thinks Nixonian smear tactics were an anomaly,...
composite drawlings (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
Go away. Aren't you gone, yet? What's wrong with you? Good gravy, I've given you all the time in the world, it seems, and you still stand here with your mouth open and your hand out. Well, I have no food for you, and even less of anything else, so why are you still hanging around? Oh, I see, you think that, as a medium, I might just be able to offer you some great secret. Well, brace yourself. I'm...
Tilting at Windmills (Free subscription) | 08/19/2009
Over at Risky Regencies , Carolyn has posted a list of her favorite historical novels. She then invites the readers to leave a comment or make a blog post with our own lists. Add to the basic question the fact that she allows books which were not historical when written. And, clearly states that she (and therefore, by inference, WE) can make up the rules for the list. WHOA- do you have hours to read...
The Kindle Reader (Free subscription) | 08/18/2009
This is part two of the list of 100 best beach books chosen by the audiences of National Public Radio. See the previous Kindle Reader post for part one. Kindle-worthy titles are listed below in bold type. Kindle holdouts are in italics and link to dead tree editions of the book. Of the 100 titles on the complete list, 68 are now available in Kindle editions. 51. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 52....
Jacket Copy (Free subscription) | 08/16/2009
If you weren't at Book Soup yesterday afternoon, you missed the Goodreads book swap. The social-networking-through-books website provided tables where people brought books to give away -- and where they gathered to take away books left by others -- all...
Videos