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Toujours Provence
Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle Published: 1992 I read Mayle’s A Year in Provence almost two years ago now and really enjoyed it. I’m not sure why it took me so long to read this follow-up book, as it’s really more of the same (in a good way). Toujours Provence begins just after A Year in Provence has been published. Peter and his wife are more situated in their home now and are continuing on with their lives in the south of France. The first book gave a month by month account of their first year as expats, and I found some topics would occasionally drag on a bit because…
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Ender’s Game
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card Published: 1985 Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison I’ve been meaning to get to this one for years. A (now fading) lack of interest for science fiction combined with all the talk of Orson Scott Card being a bit of a dickhead contributed to my negligence, but the upcoming movie finally pushed me to read it. Ender Wiggin, the third of three genius children in his family, is recruited at the age of five to join an elite military training school after showing an aptitude for command in the first few years of his life. Civilization on earth narrowly avoided annihilation in two long…
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Navel-Gazing
He was always doing that these days. Everything he saw became a symbol of his own existence, from a rabbit caught in headlights to raindrops racing down a window-pane. Perhaps it was a sign that he was going to become a poet or a philosopher: the kind of person who, when he stood on the sea-shore, didn’t see waves breaking on a beach, but saw the surge of human will or the rhythms of copulation, who didn’t hear the sound of the tide but heard the eroding roar of time and the last moaning sigh of humanity fizzing into nothingness. But perhaps it was a sign, he also thought, that…
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Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score by Darwyn Cooke Format: Original Graphic Novel Published: 2012 Publisher: IDW Publishing This is the third of the four Parker novels that Darwyn Cooke is adapting to graphic format, and I’m going to be sorry to see it finish with the next book. I just love these. An amateur crook is planning a heist, and he wants to bring Parker on. It’s a big heist, requiring a big team, and the organizer is a newbie, so Parker’s first instinct is to walk away. When he finds out the plan, and the target – an entire town – his temptation and restlessness prove too much. He…
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Chocky
Chocky by John Wyndham Published: 1968 This is my third John Wyndham novel, and he’s quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. I love this older, pulpy science fiction. He has very creative ideas, but I wouldn’t say the ideas themselves are the main focus, as with some science fiction. They’re more of a backdrop for really interesting character interaction. The premise of Chocky is simple – a young couple’s adopted child, Matthew, has begun hearing a voice. The story is told from his father’s point of view, and he isn’t too concerned at the beginning. Their youngest, Matthew’s sister Polly, had an imaginary friend for about a year when…