What book are you currently reading?

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#441 Post by Boac » Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:09 am

TGA wrote:as OPS at Cunard Eagle categorized the approach as simple!
Indeed it was, a classic procedural NDB/ILS, often flown a part of a basic I/R. Difficult to work out why it should have gone wrong, especially since the localiser should have rushed across the instrument panel at some point.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#442 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:22 am

Boac wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:09 am
TGA wrote:as OPS at Cunard Eagle categorized the approach as simple!
Indeed it was, a classic procedural NDB/ILS, often flown a part of a basic I/R. Difficult to work out why it should have gone wrong, especially since the localiser should have rushed across the instrument panel at some point.
Looking at the background of the pilots the Captain, Philip Watts, who was the handling pilot, was a much-decorated ex-WW2 RAF pilot with considerable experience and well regarded. The First Officer, Murray Smalley, was less experienced but regarded as sound. It is a puzzle indeed!
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#443 Post by Ex-Ascot » Thu Jul 21, 2022 7:30 am

Revenge by Tom Bower. Released this morning. I have only got as far as Nutmeg going to college but it seems that most of the things she says about her school days are a load of tosh. Her father did everything he possibly could to help and pay for her ambitions.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#444 Post by Hydromet » Thu Jul 21, 2022 8:06 am

About half way through "Corporal Hitler's Pistol" by Thomas Keneally. It flashes between WW I and 1933, and touches on issues of PTSD, religion, sexuality and domestic violence. and is a well-told story.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#445 Post by OFSO » Thu Jul 21, 2022 2:00 pm

The Burra Mem'sahib is also reading the Tom Bower book. Silence and pursed lips so far.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#446 Post by Ex-Ascot » Thu Jul 21, 2022 6:49 pm

50% through it. Unbelievable. The bitch is going to sue but Bower always makes sure he is 100% rock solid.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#447 Post by Ex-Ascot » Fri Jul 22, 2022 4:25 pm

Finished, brilliant.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#448 Post by Opsboi » Mon Aug 01, 2022 6:18 pm

Caught up with Sara Cox's 'Between the Covers' Wed night (BBC2), one of the featured books was "Exactly What You Mean" by a guy called Ben Hinshaw

He did his synopsis of the book to camera, and some of the locations looked desperately familiar from my youth

It turns out some of the book is set in Guernsey, where he lives

Something clicked with me, so I emailed him to ask if the name Dennis Hinshaw meant anything to him -"I'm now well into my 60s, but as an occasional Guernsey resident (I was schooled and universitied off-island) your name and location reminded me of a wonderfully avuncular man who always welcomed me back home when I made my return to our local, the 'Prince of Wales'. He was always interested in what I'd been up to, and despite only being in my late teens / early 20s, I always thought of him as a true friend."

I was delighted to hear that my old mate was the author's grandfather, and that Ben was genuinely thrilled to hear a complete stranger share fond memories, particularly as he was only 4 when Dennis died in 1985

Makes me feel very old, of course, but I've ordered the book (which got rave reviews on 'BtC')

Will report back, but it's already made me smile and raise a glass to the lovely old bugger Dennis...

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#449 Post by G~Man » Mon Aug 01, 2022 7:05 pm

Currently reading:
41LNiGVFkXL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
41LNiGVFkXL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg (19.12 KiB) Viewed 513 times
A profound and soul-nourishing memoir from an African girl whose near-death experience sparked a lifelong dedication to humanitarian work that helps bring change across the world.
B-) Life may not be the party you hoped for, but while you're here, you may as well dance. B-)

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#450 Post by TheGreenAnger » Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:06 pm

G~Man wrote:
Mon Aug 01, 2022 7:05 pm
Currently reading:

41LNiGVFkXL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

A profound and soul-nourishing memoir from an African girl whose near-death experience sparked a lifelong dedication to humanitarian work that helps bring change across the world.
Just bought the book on your say so.

On the subject of African literature, I was listening to Radio 4 last night and caught the dulcet tones of this lady, Margie Orford who was one year behind me at UCT. She, as was I, was lucky enough to have J M Coetzee as a tutor. I liked Coetzee for his monkish silence, clearly as good as he was at Mathematics, Afrikaans and English, as he was at silence. He worked on the mathematical models for the BAC TSR-2 with IBM in the UK before he settled for the life of an English-speaking author, veritable polymath that he was and still is, in between being deported from the USA for anti-Vietnam war activism, teaching nincompoops like me, and winning the Booker and the Nobel prizes as well. Basically, a good bloke, who taught me all I know about generative grammars before I Backus–Naured out, despite winning the class medal for African literature in 1984, on a tangent thereafter leading to a 5-degree descending glideslope to this damned posi! =))

Margie is a brave woman, having been arrested for political activism in 1985 and writing her exams in prison, but not as brave as Janet Cherry who was tortured by the security police and still stands as an icon in my mind, despite the fact I am not even nearly aligned with her politics!

Give Margie's stuff a whirl. she's a good writer and a good woman. She is originally English, if that makes the partisan here feel better.

TGA
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#451 Post by G~Man » Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:22 pm

TheGreenAnger wrote:
Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:06 pm
Margie is a brave woman, having been arrested for political activism in 1985 and writing her exams in prison, but not as brave as Janet Cherry who was tortured by the security police and still stands as an icon in my mind, despite the fact I am not even nearly aligned with her politics!

Give Margie's stuff a whirl. she's a good writer and a good woman. She is originally English, if that makes the partisan here feel better.

TGA
I will check her out--Thanx
B-) Life may not be the party you hoped for, but while you're here, you may as well dance. B-)

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#452 Post by Pinky the pilot » Tue Aug 02, 2022 5:25 am

Currently reading my way through the series of novels about Richard Bolitho written by Alexander Kent.
Just about to start the 13th in the series "The Inshore Squadron.'

Previously went through the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#453 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:00 pm

I presume you have read C.S. Forester's Hornblower - the other Napoleonic seaman series?

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#454 Post by Pinky the pilot » Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:38 am

I presume you have read C.S. Forester's Hornblower - the other Napoleonic seaman series?
Regrettably not. Vaguely remember reading one many years ago but not the series.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#455 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:48 am

Also highly recommended:
Patrick O'Brian's series that was the basis for the movie "Master and Commander".

PP

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#456 Post by Smeagol » Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:57 pm

Nothing too scholarly on my bedside cabinet, just a novel by Peter May, The Night Cafe. This is the latest in his Enzo Macleod series. All his novels are of the murder mystery genre but he writes a good story with vivid descriptions of places, the Outer Hebrides being the setting for the Lewis trilogy.
Found my first Peter May novel in a charity shop and have kept a look out for them since. Thoroughly recommend his output.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#457 Post by Opsboi » Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:19 pm

Smeagol wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:57 pm
Nothing too scholarly on my bedside cabinet, just a novel by Peter May, The Night Cafe. This is the latest in his Enzo Macleod series. All his novels are of the murder mystery genre but he writes a good story with vivid descriptions of places, the Outer Hebrides being the setting for the Lewis trilogy.
Found my first Peter May novel in a charity shop and have kept a look out for them since. Thoroughly recommend his output.
Decent batsman in his time, I'm told

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#458 Post by Smeagol » Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:28 pm

Bloody clever too, since that Peter May has been deceased for 28 years :) :)
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#459 Post by fin » Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:48 pm

Smeagol wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:28 pm
Bloody clever too, since that Peter May has been deceased for 28 years :) :)
In America, being dead apparently does not stop book writing. Tom Clancy has probably written more books since he died than before.

I have seriously questioned the ethics of HUGE letters of the dead author vs tiny, if any mention on the cover as to who wrote it.

That said, I count two writers as some of my current favorites: Mark Greaney and Marc Cameron, both writing very enjoyable best sellers in their own name, and both of whom were or maybe even still are "Tom Clancy".
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#460 Post by TheGreenAnger » Thu Aug 11, 2022 1:22 pm

Currently reading "The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution" by History Professor Edward Constant.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isb ... 1185527778

The book is very interesting albeit expensive if you purchase it from Amazon, but nowhere as interesting as Constant himself.
Edward Constant II (born 1942/43) is a former Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, and convicted of aggravated assault and attempted homicide.

He earned his doctorate from Northwestern University in 1977, and since 1976 had been a member of the Carnegie Mellon history department. He was noted for his publications on the evolution and impact of technology. In 1982 he was awarded the Dexter Prize of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) for his book titled, "The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution". Constant's main theory was that engineering occurs in 'communities of technological practice'.

In 2004 was convicted by an Allegheny County jury trial of attempted homicide and aggravated assault. On May 26, 2002, a police officer came to the Constants' home on a domestic disturbance call after reports of Constant loud argument with his wife inside their home at night. The officer was shot in the chest by a .44 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, but survived the attack because he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Constant was arrested after police shot him in the posterior, in a barrage of bullets. Constant's attorney used the defense that the professor and his wife were drunk when he committed the shooting. He was sentenced to 14½ to 29 years in prison. At the time of his sentence, Constant was 61 years old, and described as being in failing health.

The first trial was overturned after a juror came forward to report that Judge David Cashman's tipstaff, Mary Feeney, made inappropriate comments that could have swayed the panel. At a hearing before the administrative judge 10 jurors confirmed this and the administrative judge ordered a new trial for Constant in July 2004. He was reconvicted in 2005.[1] The sentence imposed was 14½ to 29 years in prison.[2]

In 2013, the conviction was again overturned and a new trial ordered. Constant pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to 11 to 25 years in prison. With credit for time served, he is now eligible for parole.
- Wikipedia

Not very collegiate of the feisty Prof. Just goes to show why cops are always very careful during "domestics!" Nothing can enrage one more than a spouse!

=))
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