Spice It Up with Dune by Frank Herbert

Click here to get the Dune novel on Amazon Click here to get the Dune picture book on Amazon Click here to get the 2021 Dune movie on Amazon I read this sci-fi masterwork on the eve of the second Dune movie release in March 2024, to find new writing inspiration outside my usual genres. Published in the sixties, it’s a lot older than me and I don’t read sci-fi (er, yeah - I have some catching up to do). My read was triggered when the first movie appeared on Netflix a month back. I wanted to see…

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The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

  • Post category:Reviews
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Stepping out of my usual genres, I ended 2023 reading (well, skimming really) 'The Hunger Games' to find new writing inspiration in a masterwork. I’m guessing you've been there, done that ... but TBH, teen fantasy isn’t aimed at me and the binge was only triggered when the new fourth instalment was recommended. 'The Running Man' - a 1980s, Arnie, all action flick - flashes through my mind for survival games. The Hunger Games (Book 1) Click here to get it on Amazon Diving into Collins' world is a breeze. The prose flows effortlessly, with perfect analogies for vivid story moments. I often pictured Collins churning out word…

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Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas

Click here to get Road to Surrender on Amazon This book focuses tightly on a handful of politicians and senior military officers involved in America's decision to bomb Japan, as well as Japan's surrender in World War II. I scanned from about chapter 5, so this is not a review, but I'd suggest the audiobook if it grabs you. On the eve of the new film Oppenheimer and Biden's moral outrage at Russia's nuclear sabre-rattling over Ukraine, this book reveals the uncomfortable reality of America's atomic bombing in 1945. Japan's fanatical war-mongering elites incited and marched their country to its…

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Review of Atonement by Ian McEwan

Click here to get the Atonement book on Amazon Click here to get the Atonement movie on Amazon The last week of May / start of June marks an anniversary of the evacuation of Britain’s Expeditionary Force from the shores of Dunkirk in World War 2. Atonement is a movie and a novel set at the time. I saw it several years ago and read the novel recently to look at adaptation. Chances are you’ve seen or heard of it, especially with an all star cast on screen.  Atonement is a tragic romance set in South East England…

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Review of Checkmate in Berlin by Giles Milton

Checkmate in Berlin is a narrative non-fiction book detailing the fate of Berlin following the Allied and Soviet conquest of Nazi Germany in 1945. It begins with the city’s apocalyptic fall and ends with the lifting of the Soviet blockade which surrounded its western sectors in 1949. An epilogue notes the formation of NATO and the UN. Though he died just days before the conquest, America’s Roosevelt supplied much of the materiel (weapons and supplies) for Russia’s campaign against Hitler as well as most of the European and all of the Pacific firepower. It was his dream to set up the UN to…

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