GOING TO THE WARS - Max Hastings

 

This is a memoir of Max Hastings trips to conflicts all over the globe over several decades.

Biafra, Vietnam (several times), Northern Ireland, Israel, the Falklands and several others.

He writes in a very honest fashion regards himself (he's basically a coward he says) and how many other journalists flat out don't like him because of his perceived advantages (class) and his contacts.

This isn't a campaign journal just his memories of events and people he shared them with.

Like all of Hastings writing its very accessible.

THE EIGHTH DWARF - Ross Thomas

Los Angeles, 1946.  It was ex-OSS man Minor Jackson who finally pulled the drowning dwarf out of the actor's swimming pool.  It was also the start of a relationship that would pitch him into a post-war whirlpool of corruption and murder.

No one before or since has has written a ' caper' like Ross Thomas.  He has never written a bad sentence or a dull paragraph.  All his books are immensely entertaining, hard to find believe it or not.  I see Briarpatch has been made into a TV series so hopefully there is a resurgence in the availability of his stories.

TARZAN OF THE APES - Edgar Rice Burroughs

Finally found this to read.  Its outrageously ridiculous, completely over the top,but it is entertaining and you can see that how it developed a following when it was published in serial form in 1912.

Saying that I'll give the other two dozen or so Tarzan books a miss.

THE SCARECROW - Ronald Hugh Morrieson

One of my favourite authors, a great New Zealand author but he gets zero recognition.

From a previous entry:

This is the world of 14 year old Neddy Poindexter and and his mate Les in small town New Zealand in the mid 20th century.

This small town is visited by rape and murder and along the way we glimpse the idiosyncrasies of the people living in this town.

Very very dark, very very wonderful.  Small town NZ exposed.  The myth of the simple clean new Zealand way of life is exposed here as simply that, a myth. Here we have endemic drunkenness, boredom and frustration.

A great read.  Morrieson should be compulsory in schools.