Monkeyshines

Author: James

  • Book Battle 3: Akira Book 5 vs Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction

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    After allowing weapons in the previous battle, it only seems natural for these books to properly tool themselves up. I’ve written about the first 4 Akira books before (part one, part two); they’re written by Katsuhiro Otomo, and volume 5 is the penultimate book in the series. Adrian Mole and the WMD is, clearly, the…

  • Links

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    Many websites and blogs have lists of links somewhere, but I haven’t got one in the menu bar here, because I think they’re often not much use if there’s no context. So I’ll take this opportunity to gives ‘props’ or ‘shout-outs’, or whatever the kids say these days, to some of my favourite sites. Firstly…

  • Book Battle 2: The Girl Who Played with Fire vs One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

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    I rather enjoyed my first book battle, so thought I’d stage another bout, with my latest reads, which don’t have much in common other than unfeasibly long titles. If you’ve been living in a popular-trend-proof room for the last few years, The Girl Who… is a thriller by Stieg Larsson, the sequel to The Girl…

  • Cats Rodents I Have Known – Katie

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    Katie came into my life when my friend Jane brought her along when we got a house together. She was a cute, friendly hamster, named after the eponymous heroine of What Katy Did. Her tenure overlapped with that of Binky, but fortunately his predatory instincts begin and end with a catnip mouse. He showed curiosity…

  • Cats Rodents I Have Known – Madison J. Holdsworth

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    I remember, quite vividly, carrying home a little gerbil from the pet shop in New Eltham (now long gone) in a rather flimsy little cardboard box. As a voracious reader of Dick King-Smith’s books, I decided to name him after the eponymous parrot in Harry’s Mad, whose full name was Madison. I have grown up…

  • Book Battle: Fathers and Sons vs Eve Green

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    James
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    I recently read Eve Green, by Susan Fletcher, on the strength of it garnering glowing reviews and having won a major award. I was utterly underwhelmed, and looked to Amazon to see what real people thought of it. Opinion is divided: it’s either a beautiful, mysterious evocation of Wales or a dull trudge through an…

  • Present Tense Book Review – Fathers and Sons: Part 2

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    (Part One of this Present Tense Book Review.) This is a book that really makes you think about the universality of human nature. It sets before you a series of characters, male and female, from different generations, and different classes, and describes their interactions simply but effectively. And then throws in some musings on the…

  • Present Tense Book Review – Akira: Part 2

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    (Part One of this Present Tense Book Review.) I’ve recently read volumes 3 and 4 of Akira, and the story has now diverged quite a lot from that of the film (I did wonder how the film plot was going to stretch to over 2000 pages). Much of the action of book 3 was rather…

  • Cats I Have Known – Baldrick and Nursie

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    Baldrick and Nursie were my neighbour’s cats, named after characters in Blackadder (actually, Baldrick was originally called ‘Black-and-white-adder’, due to his coat colour, but it hardly rolls off the tongue). They overlapped with our Fluff, and I remember Baldrick’s first encounter with her: he was still a wee kitten, and she was sleeping on what…

  • Present Tense Book Review – Fathers and Sons

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    This week I’ve gone for a classic novel by Ivan Turgenev. I like a little bit of Russian literature every now and then, and this is a good ‘un. The title tells you the main theme of the book, and it thoughtfully explores the characters of men (and the odd lady, which the emphasis on…