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Post by osnafrank on Jul 2, 2020 15:55:40 GMT
I could have sworn I had a copy of Duma Key and I was all excited to read that next, but I can’t find it anywhere.😩 So help me out, guys...pick one of these for me, please. I’ve never read anything by Dean Koontz before. I’m leaning toward The Husband, mainly because it has larger type and my eyeballs are tired. View Attachment
I'm not a big Koontz fan but "Whispering Room" was pretty good. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2020 15:59:23 GMT
I could have sworn I had a copy of Duma Key and I was all excited to read that next, but I can’t find it anywhere.😩 So help me out, guys...pick one of these for me, please. I’ve never read anything by Dean Koontz before. I’m leaning toward The Husband, mainly because it has larger type and my eyeballs are tired. Yup... The Husband. |
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Post by Wicked Esther on Jul 2, 2020 17:10:50 GMT
I could have sworn I had a copy of Duma Key and I was all excited to read that next, but I can’t find it anywhere.😩 So help me out, guys...pick one of these for me, please. I’ve never read anything by Dean Koontz before. I’m leaning toward The Husband, mainly because it has larger type and my eyeballs are tired. Yup... The Husband. Yeah, I guess I'll go with this one. I have to say that I really don't like the cover...and the teaser on the front about getting the wife back in exchange for 2 mil is doing nothing for me... But I want to see what Koontz is like and this is the book I've heard mentioned the most. |
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Post by grant87 on Jul 3, 2020 13:00:34 GMT
I'm currently reading The Office: The Untold Story and the new anthology Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 4, 2020 21:26:51 GMT
@kurben
Have you read any of Mr Guillou's Espionage/Spy novels? Like the Carl Hamilton series?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2020 21:52:13 GMT
Yes i have read them all actually. Not as good, i think, as the Arn books. The first 2 perhaps 3 are good i think but the series are at least 10 books long. Then he wrote a sequel long afterwards to the series that i actually liked, Madame Terror it was called. In these books it is much more clear, since they are taking part in present time, that his political leanings is to the left. Especially in madame Terror. The first three are Coq Rouge, The Democratic Terrorist, In the Interest of the Nation. Guessing at what their english titles would be.
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 4, 2020 22:33:29 GMT
Yes i have read them all actually. Not as good, i think, as the Arn books. The first 2 perhaps 3 are good i think but the series are at least 10 books long. Then he wrote a sequel long afterwards to the series that i actually liked, Madame Terror it was called. In these books it is much more clear, since they are taking part in present time, that his political leanings is to the left. Especially in madame Terror. The first three are Coq Rouge, The Democratic Terrorist, In the Interest of the Nation. Guessing at what their english titles would be. |
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 4, 2020 22:39:44 GMT
Just found out that Stellan Skarsgård played Hamilton, of course, Hollywood's favourite Swede.  I love Peter Stormare personally.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2020 19:49:54 GMT
Just found out that Stellan Skarsgård played Hamilton, of course, Hollywood's favourite Swede. I love Peter Stormare personally. Well, his the great century series is a bit uneven. It starts with three young brothers and follow them and their descendants through the century. What i like is that we see many events and often from a different point of view. One of the brothers, during WW 2 is leaning towards the german side of things. It is extremely rare that a main person is leaning towards the BAD side and at the same time is a, in the bottom of it, a nice wellmeaning character. I have no doubt thats a very true image for the time in sweden. But thats just an example. Depending on where he centers his book different characters take center stage through they are related. The series gets weaker when it gets closer to the real time in about the 70,s and 80,s but up to and a bit after second world war it is good. But this is no action series really, this is a historical novel series. Yes, Guillou is certainly a character. As a young journalist he made a big scoop that told that there existed a secret burueu controlled by the security police that even the parlament didn't know about. It was completely unknown. it cooperated with CIA and Israel and registered opinions from persons leaning to the left in society. They had spies abroad and had organized breakins at foreign embassies. He was correct but both he and two others were accused by the security police for treason, they were spies according to them. Never very clear who they spied for since they published their findings in a wellknown newspaper. But they were condemned and Guillou spent a year in prison. Since then he has been accused several times of being a spy for Sovjet and Russia by the Security police (they hate him) but has never been able to prove nothing. And that first prison sentence ws actually a joke. Every paper in sweden has a publisher that takes responsibility for whats printed in his paper. But he wasn't accused just Guillou and his coauthor and photographer. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2020 20:05:47 GMT
Right now i'm reading Kalmarunionens tid (In the time of the Kalmar Union) by swedish professor Lars Erik Larsson. It is the late middle age of sweden and the nordic countries. It begins when the danish queen Margarita wins a big victory over the german prince Albrecht at Åsle in Sweden 1386. She decides to form an union that would incorporate Denmark, Norway (including Shetlands isles and the Orkneys and Iceland And Greenland), Sweden (including Finland and parts of balticum). She for that porpose adopt a slavish prince named Bogeslav and change his name to the more Nordic sounding Erik and makes him King of Sweden. Thats the beginning. As time passes by a certain national feeling start to rise in sweden. The Noblemen dont want to be ruled by a foreign king dominated by Denmark. Several uprisings take place in the next century, the 15,th century. It all ends when the last uprising is successful when Gustav Vasa is crowned King i n 1521. Its an interesting time and i look forward to getting deeper into it. It is about 135 years of nordic history that was very important in deciding how swedes, danes and our neighbours look at eachother for a long time.
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 6, 2020 14:29:04 GMT
Right now i'm reading Kalmarunionens tid (In the time of the Kalmar Union) by swedish professor Lars Erik Larsson. It is the late middle age of sweden and the nordic countries. It begins when the danish queen Margarita wins a big victory over the german prince Albrecht at Åsle in Sweden 1386. She decides to form an union that would incorporate Denmark, Norway (including Shetlands isles and the Orkneys and Iceland And Greenland), Sweden (including Finland and parts of balticum). She for that porpose adopt a slavish prince named Bogeslav and change his name to the more Nordic sounding Erik and makes him King of Sweden. Thats the beginning. As time passes by a certain national feeling start to rise in sweden. The Noblemen dont want to be ruled by a foreign king dominated by Denmark. Several uprisings take place in the next century, the 15,th century. It all ends when the last uprising is successful when Gustav Vasa is crowned King i n 1521. Its an interesting time and i look forward to getting deeper into it. It is about 135 years of nordic history that was very important in deciding how swedes, danes and our neighbours look at eachother for a long time. |
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 6, 2020 14:34:53 GMT
I am currently getting into John Buchan's book, Oliver Cromwell. A great account of the English Civil War and the following rule of the Commonwealth of England, and I also appreciated the military accounts of Cromwell and his army. A very balanced account of Cromwell, commending him where it was justified and criticising him where justified. But it is obvious that the historian is Pro-Cromwell at moments. I believe that Theodore Roosevelt also write a book on Cromwell as well.
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Post by neesy on Jul 6, 2020 14:47:16 GMT
I'm currently reading The Office: The Untold Story and the new anthology Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles. Hi Grant! What do you think of that first book? Is it any good?
Great to see you posting here! 
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Post by Wicked Esther on Jul 6, 2020 15:14:27 GMT
I'm almost done reading The Husband by Dean Koontz.
I guess the nice way to put it would be to say that I'm underwhelmed.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 16:56:34 GMT
I am currently getting into John Buchan's book, Oliver Cromwell. A great account of the English Civil War and the following rule of the Commonwealth of England, and I also appreciated the military accounts of Cromwell and his army. A very balanced account of Cromwell, commending him where it was justified and criticising him where justified. But it is obvious that the historian is Pro-Cromwell at moments. I believe that Theodore Roosevelt also write a book on Cromwell as well. |
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Post by neesy on Jul 6, 2020 17:04:18 GMT
I am currently getting into John Buchan's book, Oliver Cromwell. A great account of the English Civil War and the following rule of the Commonwealth of England, and I also appreciated the military accounts of Cromwell and his army. A very balanced account of Cromwell, commending him where it was justified and criticising him where justified. But it is obvious that the historian is Pro-Cromwell at moments. I believe that Theodore Roosevelt also write a book on Cromwell as well. So what did the English language come from?
My Mom's family is from Scotland but my Dad's ancestors were French (French Canadian from Quebec)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 17:05:34 GMT
I have, for the moment, abandoned history and am enjoying a spy novel. Double image by Helen MacInnes, a scottish-american author that wrote quite good spy stories from the beginning of the 40,s to the beginning of the 70,s. Her husband worked for the MI6. Her first books are taking place during the war and then during the cold war. Unlike Lecarre, that i think is overrated, her main character is seldom a spy of some kind but an ordinary person thats get dragged into an intrigue of spies by accident. He is often surrounded by spies of all colors but he is an example of the ordinary man.
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Post by neesy on Jul 6, 2020 17:10:00 GMT
I have, for the moment, abandoned history and am enjoying a spy novel. Double image by Helen MacInnes, a scottish-american author that wrote quite good spy stories from the beginning of the 40,s to the beginning of the 70,s. Her husband worked for the MI6. Her first books are taking place during the war and then during the cold war. Unlike Lecarre, that i think is overrated, her main character is seldom a spy of some kind but an ordinary person thats get dragged into an intrigue of spies by accident. He is often surrounded by spies of all colors but he is an example of the ordinary man. That sounds really good - I will have to go look her up and see if the local library carries any of her books
c017
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 17:26:43 GMT
Regarding your question re languages. That is definitely not true. Once upon a time scandinavian could be said to be one language including what is now, Swedish, danish, norwegian and icelandic. According to linguists the language that now is closest to the scandinavian of yore is Icelandic. But the others developed in different ways and are now distinct. It is true that most people can with some tries find a mix that can be understand by all, that was how we communicated with our danish neighbours at my old countryplace. But often swedes have difficulties understanding danes when they are speaking pure danish. And the norwegians, after our union broke down in 1905, has distanced themselfes languagewise very much from swedish. So by now they are clearly different languages. Closely related yes and words in common and all that but distinct. So what did the English language come from?
My Mom's family is from Scotland but my Dad's ancestors were French (French Canadian from Quebec)
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 6, 2020 17:31:22 GMT
I have, for the moment, abandoned history and am enjoying a spy novel. Double image by Helen MacInnes, a scottish-american author that wrote quite good spy stories from the beginning of the 40,s to the beginning of the 70,s. Her husband worked for the MI6. Her first books are taking place during the war and then during the cold war. Unlike Lecarre, that i think is overrated, her main character is seldom a spy of some kind but an ordinary person thats get dragged into an intrigue of spies by accident. He is often surrounded by spies of all colors but he is an example of the ordinary man. |
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I love Peter Stormare personally. 
