CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: . So little choice. . "The Enigmatic Sailor" by Sir Alan Peacock. The Y Service on board ships.

Done: nice & short: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Enigma Variations" by Irene Young who spent several years at Bletchley Park and whose first husband was in the SAS and disappeared over France in 1944, still MIA after all these years.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next:

"Buy Jupiter & other stories" by I. Asimov. Purchased on 10th of December 2024 from Oxfam, being a selection of short stories of varying antiquity.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Includes 2430AD.

Next: "Isaac Asimov: the complete stories Vol 1". Another 500 pager hardback, I only have Vol 1 as it transpires. Unlike "Buy Jupiter" it doesn't list the copyright dates*. .

*Oh yes it does: at the foot of the title page of each story.

So far: "The Ugly Little Boy", "Eyes do more than see", "The Last Question".

Stone me, I read a lot of books. . Maybe I will manage to read many more of those remaining before I peg it.

http://www-graphics.stanford.edu/~to...ther/eyes.html

https://interestingliterature.com/2023/08/isaac-asimov-eyes-do-more-than-see-summary-analysis/

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Enigma Variations" by Irene Young who spent several years at Bletchley Park and whose first husband Leslie Cairns was in the SAS and disappeared over France in 1944, still MIA after all these years.

Done. Sad. Off to Oxfam with it. It's the not knowing that gets you. She died at 98, with dementia, still not knowing.

Next: "One Girl's War" by Joan Miller, being Yet Another Book that The Great She Elephant tried to ban.

'Twas indeed banned in this country but the European Court ruled the ban illegal. .

https://bitsofbooksblog.wordpress.co...n-miller-1986/

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "One Girl's War" by Joan Miller, being Yet Another Book that The Great She Elephant tried to ban.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Next (from another bookshelf): "The life of Maxwell Knight: The Man who was M" by Anthony Masters (1988).

[milanbenes]

wow Dr you're doing really well.

I am currently reading, the restaurant at the end of the universe

and enjoying having reached the stage in life where I can read a book on a school night and have a clear head to digest the words I am reading

Milan.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next (from another bookshelf): "The life of Maxwell Knight: The Man who was M" by Anthony Masters (1988).

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next (from the same bookshelf as the above): "M: Maxwell Knight MI5's greatest spymaster" by Henry Hemmings.

Purchased 7th of August 2019.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Isaac Asimov: the complete stories Vol 1". Another 500 pager hardback, I only have Vol 1 as it transpires.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it, along with the paperbacks Nightfall One & Nightfall Two which contain the same stories or so it transpires, not that I recalled much of them after 40 odd years.

Next: So little choice. . The Fountains of Paradise by A. C. Clarke. Space elevator vs religion.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Night Manager" by J. Le Carre (1993).

Done, thank feck. Odd "ending". Off to Oxfam with it with extreme prejudice. . I have no idea why it stalled so much in the middle but several of these Le Carre novels have done exactly that.

Next: "The railway detective" by Edward Marston. Who appears to have written 100s of books. Goodreads is, specifically in general, Not Impressed.

I appear to have half a dozen which have mouldered on the bookshelf for years. Time for them to go.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next (from the same bookshelf as the above): "M: Maxwell Knight MI5's greatest spymaster" by Henry Hemmings.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

He's not impressed with Joan Miller's account. Glosses over some stuff that the previous book by Anthony Masters covered in depth. Had access to stuff that the previous book didn't, benefiting from the Waldegrave opening up the history of MI5. Inneresting enough, I suppose.

Next: "Blood and Iron" by Peter Mason.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: . So little choice. . The Fountains of Paradise by A. C. Clarke. Space elevator vs religion.

Done: off to Oxfam with it: seems to be a book club edition with failure of the binding imminent. The dedication at the beginning leads to some disturbing stuff, it must be said. .

Next: . Thoughr of reading "Revolt in 2100" by Heinlein, but it turns out there's two versions & I've got them both. Can't be arsed with that then. As it turns out the earlier one is missing the 3rd story in the later book. Gave me a chance to sort out some duplicates which will, in turn, meet Oxfam shortly.

"Backroom Boys" by Francis Spufford.

The first few pages of which set me off on a search for the earliest & lightest warhead that would have fitted in the space of the 900kg amatol of the V2 which turns out to be the MK7 of 1952. Just as well Wernher didn't have that in 1944 then, innit?

Enough to make one weep. £9M to launch a satellite: cancelled by Grocer Heath & his merry men (well there wouldn't be, er, girls would there ).