Arcadia Discussion Zone

You had me at Jimmy choos, you had me at Jimmy choos.

Oh Rain, if I didn't know you better, I'd think you were just teasing me.

My favourites are the Faraway Tree series, the Famous Five series and of course you cannot go past the Noddy and Big Ears books for a little light relief.

I am currently reading The Golden Thread of Time by Crichton E.M. Miller, thanks to Sheila.
Thank you so much Sheila.
It is a great read, although I'm having to read and re-read some portions. I'm not finished yet but I came across something cool on ebay. Check it out.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Magnifying ... 2314e4a9cb

How did the celtic cross get in there????
It said you can only see it thru polarized lenses....why?

I thought I would post this review because it introduces other books.

one of the old boys up in the village stopped for a chat the other day while i was out doing a bit of re-fencing after the storm.
He had been a refugee from Alsace during the war and had been sent down here to the Limousin with a load of other frightened kids. The germans arrived here on their way up from slaughtering the innocent villagers at Oradour s/Glane, as the news filtered through and spread, he remembers being taken hurriedly by an old woman and put under her skirts as she went out into the reeds and marshes of the local fields. The germans arrived en masse, roaring drunk and shooting anything that moved and he stood there under her skirts in the water and waited for them to go.

The germans then stormed out of the village, past our farm and the whole lot of them parked up and spent the night sleeping off their hangover and killing spree, on the bordes of the Grande Etang just a few meters away from where i sit.

I found something very interesting yesterday evening that seems to go along with this thread. Having to do with Operation Paperclip, eugenics, Rockefellers and actors being paid to make the news. There are a lot of videos to watch on the website.

Things that make you go hhmmmm.....

http://wellaware1.com/

Thanx for that humming.

And BTW: free good ole Leonard - in jail since feckin' 35 years!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier

Replace the words "Nelson Mandela" by "Leonard Peltier" in that song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgcTvoWjZJU

Oh, and check this out....I posted about another shooting at VA Tech in early December.
If you check the first video, where he exposes what was going on back in 2007; Part 1 vid at 18:22....they are interviewing a girl that is a former CBS intern....she was here again for the most recent murder.





Only her hair is a bit darker this time. Same girl, no mistake.

If I see her at a local gas station or something....I'm gonna knock the shit out of her. Everytime she comes up here, people die. She KNEW before hand that people were going to lose their lives. For a job? WTF?

I don't care....I've already been to the psych ward....I'm a crazy women for sure....let me see that bitch for real.

I'm very fortunate that I didn't get sent to the pysch ward at Saint Albans, where Cho went. It was closer, but full, I think. Thank gawd.

Dyncorp, the private standing army that committed war crimes in Bosnia, has access to Saint Albans through a local economic development initiative that I used to work for.

Dyncorp was also part of economic development for VA Tech (Dan Bannister, now dead). VA Tech wrote the white paper that got Dyncorp off the hook for killing people during operation Plan Columbia. Dyncorp had the contract for spraying the killer stuff.

I know too much. Fuck 'em.

The Rockefellers and the Fords, through grants, have control of VA Tech....which makes sense considering the proximity of the school to West Virginia, which has been long controlled by the Rockefeller family. Now, think about the fact that Va Tech invented cloning and is now developing nano biotechnology. Can you say eugenics? You should see the franken-farms they have up here. They even own McCormick's farm in Raphine, VA. I've posted about all of this before. It's here on the forum, all you have to do is search for it.

From Postscript magazine for March - http://www.psbooks.co.uk

"The Man who Outshone the Sun King"
The rise and fall of Nicolas Fouquet
by Charles Drazin.
Pub Heinemann, 2008
338 pages £6.99 HB

The young tax collector Nicolas Fouquet rose to become one of the most brilliant figures at the court of Louis XIV. A collector of fine books and beautiful women, his financial genius bankrolled his sovereign's incessant wars and extravagant building projects. Then, suddenly, he fell, sentenced to life imprisonment for treason. His real crime, as this gripping and sympathetic biography makes clear, was to outshine the Sun King, for which he paid a terrible price, ending his days in a bleak Alpine fortress.

just shows what happens when you ostentatiously and flagrantly blow your own trumpet too loudly......you're gonna piss someone else off that's for sure...and he did, big time.

Thanks for that Nicole.

The Friar of Carcassonne by Stephen O`Shea is a great book is anyone is looking for a holiday read

In his latest book O’Shea tells the story, little-known outside of academic circles, of the dramatic events in Carcassonne at the turn of the 14th century.

Set against the backdrop of Inquisition against the Cathar heretics, he revealingly captures the suspicions and resentments of the Languedoc area of southern France at this time. Vividly describing this wonderfully sleazy and corrupt world, O’Shea introduces us to the Franciscan friar Bernard Délicieux, his (flawed) hero of events.

Bernard reacted indignantly and bravely to the persecutions of the Inquisition, speaking out against the inhumane and excessive practices of the Dominican inquisitors; memories still revolted at such tales as the old lady on her deathbed, tricked into admitting her heretical beliefs and then “hauled through the town and thrown on a bonfire”. The symbol of religious oppression was the Wall, the Inquisition’s notorious prison in Carcassonne.

Noting the parallels with the Bastille, O’Shea narrates Bernard’s spirited – and often violent – resistance, culminating in rallying the townspeople to storm the prison and release its prisoners (but only temporarily, alas).

Already marked as a troublemaker, Bernard thereby placed himself at the very centre of religious and political intrigue in the region. He cleverly exploited the turmoil of the times to win over, for a while at least, the French king Philip the Fair.

Bernard appeared at the royal court, decrying the falsified registers of the inquisitors as “a mountain of lies” and revealing how the Dominicans abused their powers to unlawfully appropriate the properties and wealth of innocent victims. He warned that such was the anger of the people that revolt was in the air.

Philip listened, as Bernard knew he would. Just a year previously the French had suffered a humiliating defeat at Courtrai at the hands of Flemish rebels and Philip could not afford another revolt at the other end of his kingdom. But political tides turned and Bernard overplayed his hand, alienating his powerful supporter, and as others died away he was left exposed to retribution.

In 1317 he was captured by the papacy, tortured by his own Franciscan brothers and, with sad irony, immured in the Wall where he soon ended his days.

O’Shea is a popular historian. This can show in some oversimplified views of medieval society and some may find the literary embroidery of his novelistic style a little jarring (“Pope Boniface looked out over the multitudes with satisfaction”).
http://www.historyextra.com/book-review ... arcassonne

Thanks, looks worth a read.

A painting for the lovers of books!

I see that Kate Mosse's new book, Citadel, is now available in hardback and on Kindle. It's the third part of her Languedoc trilogy, following Labyrinth and Sepulchre, both of which I enjoyed, and this one sounds very promising. Set in WWII, it's about a female French resistance fighter and the hunt for an ancient codex. I just downloaded my copy, and see that the opening scene is set in Coustaussa. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Citadel-Kate-Mo ... 900&sr=8-1

Isn't it weird how even new books are discounted immediately?
Even WH Smiths are offering it at 50% off now.

TD

Great book, couldn't put it down

Did you pay full price?
TD

Yes, i bought it the same day it came out


COME FORTH THE SPIRITS OF THE AIR

For the record, I paid eleven pounds (or, £10.99) for the Kindle version from Amazon. The hardback price there is £9, a fairly hefty discount on the "notional" RRP of £20. I was a bit torn as to whether to buy the slightly cheaper hardback, or whether to put it on my E-reader, but I didn't want to wait for it to arrive in the post, so went for the Kindle option, in order to be able to start reading it straight away.

Which as it's lunchtime, I'm now about to do .........

You will love it Richard, all the places she writes about will be familiar to you and you have probably visited most of them

Third part ? There's the Winter Ghosts perhaps ? As one reviewer on Amazon correctly observed a good read for winter nights, and brought back memories of driving up through the Ariege - Ussat les Baines etc. Actually KM got a bit of flak as Winter Ghosts included word for word an earlier short story of hers - The Cave. But I liked Winter Ghosts, even - silly me tried to find on the map the village the hero of the tale lodged in .

I think it's being billed as a trilogy in the sense of a recurring theme / character (apparently), and it has the same time-slip structure as Labyrinth and Sepulchre, this time jumping back and forth between WWII and the mid-4th century.

But yes, I agree about Winter Ghosts being a really good read for a winter's night, very atmospheric, and actually my favourite Kate Mosse so far.

Citadel is very promising, from what little I've read (it's a slightly daunting 151 chapters!), and I like her descriptions of Carcassonne in summer time, and the characters seem interesting. And the capitelles feature in the prologue in Coustaussa.

The December edition of the 'Postscript' book catalogue arrived and contains some great stocking fillers.

John Aubrey and Stone Circles by Aubrey Burl
For the Soul of France - Cultural wars in the Age of Dreyfus by Fred Brown
Mary in Western Art - Marian Iconography by Tim Verdon
Miraculous Rhymes- the writings of Gautier de Coinci
Sacred Geography - Deciphering hidden codes in the Landscape by Paul Devereux
Paul was not a Christian - The 'original message of a misunderstood Apostle by Pam Eisenbaum
Scripting Jesus - the Gospels in re-write by L M White
The Red Sweet Wine of Youth - British Poets of WWI
Angels: A History by D A Jones

Something for all and at reduced prices.

http://www.psbooks.co.uk/

TD

for all those that liked Pillars of the Earth and World without end by Ken Follett

The new mini series of World without end starts here in the UK this weekend...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvDP_opSbzA