panTravel Asia by train! Enjoy the way a white writer chooses to detail the many flavours of poverty, squalor, bureaucracy, civil unrest and corruption it has to offer! 🤦🏼♂️ The author then seems to be dismayed that things are not messy when he gets to Japan. 🤷🏼♂️ The part on Russia seems to devolve into a (really cold)fever dream, but I admit I was skimming towards the very end. 1/?
I have to keep reminding myself this is non-fiction. The writing definitely gives "I'm going on an adventure!" novel vibes.
pickThis is an interesting tour of how the London Underground developed, and how it in turn caused London to develop and expand. It details the rivalries between the companies that originally owned the individual lines, and the key players who made the system what it became. The history and the architecture of the system fascinates me.
Book 3 of February
Book 13 of 2024
#ReadAway2024
@Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES
so-soToo many coincidences and too much involvement from a sheepdog gave silly undertones to what could have been an intriguing investigation. While the story was interesting, the anamosity between some characters and arguments between others lessened my enjoyment of this novel. Most of the Railway detective books that I have read so far have been a pleasurable, comfort and believable read. Let's hope this series doesn't continue on the down-line.
pickThe previous story of the railway detective I found disappointing. I also found this book slow and labouring at the start, it was as if the author had lost his way. Gone was the exciting openings I had associated with the books in this series. The slow start was hiding, what turned out to be a really interesting case with some exciting moments. Although it was obvious where the diary and cash was hidden the ending was more than satisfactory.
so-soA little more gruesome than some of the other Railway Detective series, I found the story just as entertaining although disappointing. A measure of predictability in the slow investigation and with some ludicrous decisions made by the the two, previously intelligent and calculating fugitives which could lead to their capture, it was not on a par with earlier novels.
Taking a breather and getting some quiet reading time in by the tree. Also enjoying the new blanket I got for Christmas 🥰
pickWhile there were no train crashes in this novel someone did get killed by one. Apart from the journeys taken by the Detective and his Sergeant the crimes to be investigated in this story took place away from the railway. The investigation itself made an interesting read and with an abundance of prime suspects it was quite difficult to ascertain who was responsible until the very end. Another good case for Edward Marston's Railway detective.
For #decemberdreams today we have the gorgeous bookish Christmas tree at st pancras station this year!
#wintergames #snowangels @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
To the author's credit, he does ruminate in detail on the negative effects of the American occupation and subsequent abandonment in the context of the Vietnam War. 2mo
I could say this was published in 1975 and it was a product of its time, but I think that serves more as warning to prospective readers than an absolution. 2mo
⚠️racism/xenophobia,misogyny, ableism, transphobia (? Managed two different anecdotes joking about sex with women with penises 🙄), black face (in theatre), mention of SA (in erotic art) 2mo