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Brahms Four

@brahms_four

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Slowly reading my way through life

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Some Bookstagram synergy.
Was tagged by @a.dark.story for ”5 Before the End” and by @brewreadandweep for ”Fall TBR” so this combines the two.
Apart from these five, I’m also eagerly awaiting October Country by Ray Bradbury in the mail. I thought it a fitting read this month.

It’s been a terrible week with a lot going on at work and at home, but I have some hope for next week.

Have a superb Sunday! by @brahms_four

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a day ago

Wheel of Time Wednesday

I was reminded last week that I have these graphic novels. As far as adaptations go, I think they do a good job. I also had New Spring, but I haven’t been able to find it on the shelves. I’ve realised that I lost quite a number of books over the years and assume it must have disappeared when moving.

The Great Hunt is also currently being adapted and hopefully I can get all of them as well.

Happy Wednesday! by @brahms_four

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5 days ago

The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers

“‘I’ll grant you, then,’ Duffy said, counting off the points on his fingers, ‘that this East versus West struggle may be a higher – or deeper – thing than simply a dispute between Charles V and Suleiman about the ownership of some land. Also, I can’t rule out the possibility that the weapons of war include magic. Fine!’”

The tide of war has washed up the Irish mercenary Brian Duffy in Venice. There he is recruited by Aurelianus to be a bouncer at a Viennese inn the old man owns.
What at first seems like an easy assignment for Duffy becomes increasingly difficult with both himself and the inn being the target for supernatural attacks. All the while Turkish armies are marching towards the city, eager to kick in the door to the Holy Roman Empire.

I went into this not knowing what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. I liked the blending of history with Arthurian legends and magical beer with some sprinkling of humour on top. I will need to check out some more of Powers’ books.

The main character of the Duffy from Ireland also reminded me that I need to continue the Sean Duffy series of detective stories.

So many books, so little time…

#drawingofthedark #timpowers by @brahms_four

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8 days ago

All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred…

It’s Saturday and my history nerd side is excited.
Got my hands on (almost all) of Henry Paget’s A History of the British Cavalry.
While I’m scared of horses (they’re too big and temperamental for any sane person to like) I do admit they have some use.

I guess I someday have to pay a king’s ransom for the missing fifth book, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

I also had work today and got no reading done, but hopefully I’ll finish my current book tomorrow and then I’m returning to the Sharpe series.

As always: stay safe!

#history #cavalry #nonfictionbooks by @brahms_four

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9 days ago

PB TBR 📕📗📘📙

Was tagged by @shona_reads_in_devon many thanks!

Perhaps not the greatest variety with Bernard Cornwell and Agatha Christie doing most of the heavy lifting, but they’re among my favourites.
This also reminded me that I need to get to Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes sooner rather than later.

I’m currently reading The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers and it has me hooked. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before picking it up, but so far it’s a great fantasy story about war and sorcery at the siege of Vienna. by @brahms_four

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11 days ago

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

“Time is so strange and life is twice as strange. The cogs miss, the wheels turn, and lives interlace too early or too late.”

The summer of 1928 has just begun and twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding of Green Town, Illinois, doesn’t want to miss a thing.
In a series of more or less connected episodes that range from incredibly mundane to the fantastical, we get to know Douglas and his friends and neighbours.
While this story isn’t overtly supernatural like Something Wicked This Way Comes, the tone is very similar and Bradbury’s writing brings out the wonderful even in ordinary events.

I think at least parts of the book were originally written as standalone short stories and sometimes the connection between the different parts is a bit weak, but a central theme for most of them is the passing of time: The old colonel claims to remember Lincoln and also makes expensive phone calls to Mexico City just to hear the street life and relive his younger days. There is also the old tram that is being retired in favour of modern buses and then there’s old Mrs Bentley who is distraught that the children can’t understand that she was once as young as they.
Finally there is of course the grandfather bottling the summer days in his dandelion wine.

There is also a serial killer thrown in there for good measure!

While I liked Something Wicked more, this was still a nice read and I love the cover art.
I’m planning to get my hands on Bradbury’s October Country for next month but right now I don’t know what to read.

Apropos of nothing, I liked that the word “apropos“ was used in this book. It’s a great little word and I don’t see it often in English.

I hope you’re all having a satisfying Saturday and that you have something amazing to read.
Stay safe!

#dandelionwine #raybradbury by @brahms_four

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16 days ago

Nonfiction haul

Some recent additions to the shelves.
I didn’t find the third part of John Masters’ memoirs nor Signal 250 with the dusk jacket but one cannot get everything one wants in this world.

My plan right now is to read one of the Zulu War books and then go over to the American Revolution and Lafayette but that may change depending on my mood.

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday.
Myself, I’ve been highly productive so far, did some cleaning and cooking, voted, read a little and went for a walk. by @brahms_four

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22 days ago

September stack

Was tagged by @shona_reads_in_devon many thanks!

While I do miss the long summer days so far September has been good to me. Found some nonfiction I’ve been searching for and am also eagerly awaiting some packages with a random assortment of books.

I also realised that Halloween is fast approaching and I need to plan some suspenseful reading.

Happy Saturday! by @brahms_four

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23 days ago

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester

“Hornblower felt sympathy as well as contempt. He himself had been too much of a coward even to give voice to his apprehensions - too much afraid of what people would say about him.”

I remember loving the Hornblower TV-series from the late 90s with Ioan Gruffud and I’m happy to report that I felt the same about the book.
I think chronologically speaking this is the first book of the series and we meet Hornblower just after he has joined the Royal Navy during the wars with France.
It’s a very fast paced story with each chapter being a more or less self contained adventure.
The character of Hornblower himself is less sombre, more nuanced and dare I even say somewhat darker than I expected with secret doubts and episodes of frenzy. All in all it was a fun read.

I think I will need to add the Hornblower novels to my reading plans as a Naval equivalent to the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell.

As it’s Thursday I drink to a bloody war or a sickly season and wish you all fair winds and following seas.
I’m off reading some Ray Bradbury.

#hornblower by @brahms_four

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25 days ago

Funerals are Fatal by Agatha Christie

“Let us hope that our murderer - if there is a murderer in this affair - is intelligent and superior and thoroughly pleased with himself and unable to resist painting the lily.”

Death stalks the Abernethie family.
First the head of the family, Richard, dies but as he was neither young nor in the best of health it doesn’t seem suspicious but for the remark by his sister Coras after the funeral “But he was murdered, wasn’t he?”
What could have been simply a faux pas by a absent-minded older relative takes a sinister turn when Cora herself is found murdered.
The family’s solicitor Entwhistle needs help and he contact the world’s greatest detective Hercule Poirot.

I think this is my fourth Poirot and while I did enjoy it I think it has a somewhat weaker plot than the others, this is most likely because I for once managed to guess the killer before the big reveal.
In this one Poirot enters late in the story with much of the legwork being done by others and I thought it a nice twist compared to the formula of the others I’ve read.
Another thing that separated it from the others is the setting, I don’t think the year is ever given but the entire thing has a distinctive postwar feel of austerity compared to the interwar luxury of the Orient Express or cruises on the Nile.

As a sidenote, this edition shows its age in having advertisements for not only other books but also cigarettes. It was a different time…

Now I’m off to sea with mr Hornblower and I wish you all a great Sunday!

#herculepoirot #agathachristie by @brahms_four

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a month ago

Bismarck’s War by Rachel Chrastil

”To Karl Marx, the siege of Paris and the Commune that followed were the true harbinger of socialism.
To Giuseppe Garibaldi, the war pitted the Universal Republic against the forces of monarchism and clericalism.
To Pope Pius IX, the war spelled the destruction of the temporal power of the Catholic Church.
Finally, the conflict between France and the German states was a war of emotions, from start to finish.”

A very informative book about the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. I previously only know about the general outline of this third and final of Prussian chancellor Bismarck’s short victorious wars of German unification and this provided much needed knowledge.

While it’s dwarfed by the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the century the conflict still transformed Europe.
For the victorious German states it not only brought about the unification of most Germans in a single nation state but also established this new Germany as the dominant power on the continent.
The French on the other hand saw the loss of border provinces and collapse of the Second Empire and subsequent rise of the Third Republic.

This is neither here nor there but I do recommend the physical copy of this one. I tried to listen to parts of it while at work but the narration didn’t work for me.

While I’m planning to read more about this war I’m currently pivoting and am thinking about getting into some Agatha Christie.

#bismarck by @brahms_four

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a month ago

Some used books I recently bought.

Been wanting to read both Hornblower and Perdido Street Station for ages so I’m especially happy with finding those. The rest seem interesting as well but a couple I only got because of the cover art.

I hope everyone is doing well.
I’m currently reading some nonfiction about the Franco-Prussian war and depending on how it goes that might make me go down a rabbit hole and ordering a bunch of books about European history of the late 19th century.

Stay safe and happy reading!

#bookstack #usedbookstore by @brahms_four

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a month ago