James Hannley > Recent Status Updates

Wouk brings WWII Pacific US Navy life aboard a minesweeper alive. This is filled with 3 dimensional characters and drama as seamen and officers contend with a tyrannical, incompetent and cowardly captain.

Gerald, the youngest is a naturalist so, his study of plants,and animals is primary to stories,about the family and friends. It is absolutely charming and will sstisfy those who are smitten by the wonderful PBS series

There are eight mysteries in this collection and are probably short stories vs. books. You've got to be a serious anglophile to enjoy these. They are period pieces of the 1950s. The village Anglican priest is single and rides a motor cycle. He has strictly platonic romances and solves murders for the local police. The BBC/PBS dramas based upon these are better but are pretty weak mysteries and there's actual sermons

Some of the stories later in this volume are downright grim. A fellow murders,his,brother and is haunted by him in his study. Some 10 sailors ona sinking ship are trapped in the captains quarters starving and resort to cannibalizing the cabin boy. A dozen English are under seige in India and desperately await rescue by a Army Squad. One of them, fearing thw worst poisons them all right before they're rescued.

Charming characters and setting in the quaint English town of Grantchester. Sidney is a complex character. He is young and single and, as a Anglican priest and canon at the nearby Oxford university, elegible. He has two girlfriends of quite different circumstances and temperment. They provide a subplot interlude from the pursuit of criminals Sidney is obliged to make under his,sense of duty to his parishioners and...

Will this cause me to rethink my views on history and social development?

Of all the excellent stories in this Kindle volume of 120 short stories of Arthur Conan Doyle I have read so far, "The Man From Archangel" stands out. Doyle's rich, descriptive prose is abundantly present but it is the tale of three star crossed people that compelled me to.share the story upon my conclusion. The plot is suspenseful and exciting and the characters are so lively.

The Captain of the Pole Star is a very exciting adventure aboard a whaling ship that is hunting inside the arctic circle. All the stories preceding it are very good, too. You wouldn't know, unless you're Australian that the "Western" genre applies to that country as well as the USA.