Books - Comments by mickey rat

Books - Comments by mickey rat

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
mickey rat 28th Oct 2019		Book Debbie Harry - Face It (2019)	Autobiography. Classy first U.K. hardcover edition, quality glossy paper, includes numerous artwork illustrations and vintage photographs.
mickey rat 30th Jun 2019		Book Guy Deghy - Cafe Royal (1955)	A social history of the old Cafe Royal in London, including detailed accounts of the behaviour of its many famous (and infamous) regular customers, including Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Frank Harris and Aleister Crowley. Includes photographs and other illustrations.
mickey rat 15th Jun 2019		Book Ion L. Idriess - Madman's Island (1938)	This is Idriess's account of his experiences stranded on Howick Island with a companion (who went mad) on the Great Barrier Reef north of Cooktown in the 1920s. His original 1927 account (his first published book) was heavily fictionalised at the insistance of his publisher, but this 1938 re-write was categorised as "true adventure" so I've listed it here as non-fiction although it includes some dialog between the two men.
mickey rat 7th Jun 2019		Book Paul Steinberg - Speak You Also (2000)	This is the author's account of his survival tactics in Auschwitz and an answer to Primo Levi's disparaging description of him in his If This Is A Man.
mickey rat 31st May 2019		Book Mona Stuart Webster - John McDouall Stuart (1958)	My favourite Australian explorer - a hardy loner who shunned fame, travelled light with a small group on horseback, living off the land while expensive government expeditions floundered. He was sponsored by an Adelaide entrepreneur and after six attempts traversed the unknown heart of Australia from Adelaide to near where Darwin is now, and back again.
mickey rat 30th May 2019		Book John Newton - Slaver Captain (2010)	John Newton is best known as the composer of "Amazing Grace" but before he became an abolitionist clergyman he had a very different career as the captain of a slaving ship. I can remember reading the harrowing but matter-of-fact log of one of his ships with daily accounts of how slaves were purchased in West Africa, the nightmare of the Middle Passage and eventual sale of the survivors, when I was a teenager and not connecting him to that wonderful song until many years later. This book includes his memoir and illuminating letters.
mickey rat 26th May 2019		Book Jack Kerouac - The Town And The City (1951)	Jack Kerouac's first book (as John Kerouac), published six years before On The Road. My copy is a rare first U.K. edition but unfortunately is a worn ex-library copy with the expected rubber stamps, pasted card pocket and no dust jacket.
mickey rat 25th May 2019		Book W. Heath Robinson - Bill The Minder (1982)	This one's a gem. 25 cm x 19 cm, hard cover, an exact repro of the first Hodder & Stoughton edition, written and illustrated by Heath Robinson. Worth having just for the numerous bizarre illustrations.
mickey rat 24th May 2019		Book Arthur Koestler - The Thirteenth Tribe (1977)	Intriguing book which suggests that modern European Jews are not descended from the twelve tribes of Israel but from the Khazars of Asia who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages as a political move.
mickey rat 24th May 2019		Book Arthur Koestler - Dialogue With Death (1988)	Koestler's account of his death sentence and his time in a Falangist prison during the Spanish Civil War. He was eventually released as part of a prisoner exchange after lobbying in the U.K. where he was employed as a war correspondent by the News Chronicle.
mickey rat 23rd May 2019		Book Mungo Park - The Life And Travels Of Mungo Park (1864)	This is Mungo Park's own account of his first journey in West Africa in 1795-1797 (first published in 1799) plus an account of his (undocumented by him) second journey in 1805 culminating in his death in Nigeria in 1805. There's also a chapter detailing later European expeditions.
mickey rat 23rd May 2019		Book James C. Malin - Indian Policy And Westward Expansion (1921)	Examines US Government policy regarding Native Americans in the Pre-Civil War period.
mickey rat 23rd May 2019		Book Leslie Hewes - Occupying The Cherokee Country Of Oklahoma (1978)	Addresses the forced removal of Cherokees from their homeland in Southern Appalachia to the so-called Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma, the establishment of communal farming settlements by the Cherokee, and the gradual erosion of their autonomy by white squatters and continuing Federal legislation through the 19th Century. Interesting to note that the Cherokee had black slaves even before the relocation.
mickey rat 22nd May 2019		Book Wilma Dykeman - Highland Homeland (1978)	A social history of The Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina (southern part of the Appalachians) from the Cherokee Nation to National park, illustrated with numerous period photographs. This area familiar to readers of Cormac McCarthy's early novels (and his more recent The Road).
mickey rat 21st May 2019		Book Floy A. Brown - Rehabilitating Historic Hotels (1980)	The Peabody is a luxury hotel in Memphis, well-known to generations of blues researchers and blues tourists headed for nearby Beale Street. Pre-war record companies sometimes recorded local blues artists in the hotel. ( see here). Although this booklet doesn't mention this aspect of its history it includes a number of period photographs and detailed descriptions of its interior.
mickey rat 20th May 2019		Book Captain W. E. Johns - Biggles WWII Collection (2012)	A not so guilty pleasure. I'm pretty sure this is an almost straight reprinting of a "Biggles omnibus" which I had as a boy in the mid '50s. All four stories had been previously published as separate books. Biggles Fails To Return was a personal fave and on recently re-reading it I was still entranced, despite all the dodgy dialogue and observations which wouldn't stand muster in the 21st century. An observation: I read somewhere that W.E. Johns insisted Biggles never actually killed anyone, but I'm almost 100% sure that in Biggles Delivers The Goods he comes across two Japanese soldiers abusing the body of a dead British pilot (putting a lighted cigarette between the pilot's lips and laughing) in the jungle and Biggles shoots them both dead. Needless to say this passage (if I didn't imagine it) has been excised from this edition.
mickey rat 17th May 2019		Book Shaun Tan - Cicada (2018)	Addresses discrimination and bullying in the workplace. Words on back cover: Cicada tell story. Story good. Story simple. Story even human can understand.
mickey rat 17th May 2019		Book Shaun Tan - Rules Of Summer (2013)	Wonderful artwork, guaranteed to terrify young children.
mickey rat 17th May 2019		Book Shaun Tan - Tales From Outer Suburbia (2008)	Bizarre stories and brilliant illustrations.
mickey rat 17th May 2019		Book Shaun Tan - The Lost Thing (2014)	Brilliant picture book by very talented artist. The front cover picture is a cheeky pinch from Jeffrey Smart's iconic Aussie painting "Cahill Expressway" (see here). And here's the animated version: [YouTube Video]
mickey rat 17th May 2019		Book Shaun Tan - The Arrival (2009)	A silent graphic novel about the migrant experience, beautifully presented and bound. I have to say this is one of my favourite books of the 21st Century. Amazing artwork that must have taken him years to complete.
mickey rat 15th May 2019		Book Terri Macnicol - Echoes From Skippers Canyon (1968)	New Zealand local history. Have vivid memories of going there as a child in 1955 and 1956 and one time our old car breaking down and dad working under the bonnet as it got dark - a lonely place at that time and quite scary.
mickey rat 15th May 2019		Book C. S. Lewis - Out Of The Silent Planet (1952)	Hi ppint. I'm sure you're right. I know nothing about Pan editions. Verso of title page indicates it's the 13th printing of the 1952 edition, printed in 1971. I probably should have entered 1971 as pub. date. Just noticed too that it has an ISBN number: 0330021729. I'll put in a make correction note for mods.
mickey rat 14th May 2019		Book C. S. Lewis - Out Of The Silent Planet (1952)	My copy is 13th printing, 1971
mickey rat 14th May 2019		Book C. S. Lewis - Voyage To Venus (1953)	My copy is third printing, 1956.
mickey rat 13th May 2019		Book Murray Waldren - The Mind And Times Of Reg Mombassa (2009)	Reg Mombassa = Christopher O'Doherty of Mental As Anything. A talented artist and a very interesting man.
mickey rat 5th May 2019		Book Various Authors - The Book (1986)	s'ok now. Thanks mod.
mickey rat 5th May 2019		Book Various Authors - The Book (1986)	Sorry Jim, messed up title must have selected something from drop down list - have submitted correction for mods.
mickey rat 5th May 2019		Book Gerri Hirshey - Nowhere To Run (1985)	Oops. Thanks - I'm still feeling my way with entering books. Hopefully a mod can sort it.
mickey rat 2nd May 2019		Book John Broven - South To Louisiana (1987)	My copy is fourth printing, October 2010.

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