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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries IX – The Colossus of Rhodes by Caroline Lawrence
“Nothing has waned in these stories…I finished this one and immediately reached for the next.” Here we are now at the ninth of seventeen books in this series of adventure tales set in the Roman world of AD 80. After the emotionally harrowing trauma of the last few books (especially…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Star Wars – From a Certain Point of View by various
“…absolutely excellent for all true Star Wars fans.” I won’t deny it, I’m not ashamed: I am a die-hard unabashed Star Wars fan. I was there for the original movie in 1977 and lived, dreamed and ate Star Wars with my very soul for the time leading up to seeing…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries VIII – The Gladiators from Capua by Caroline Lawrence
“…fantasy rooted deeply in historical reality.” I said in my review for book VII that I would be grabbing this one and reading avidly. I described it as a ‘Goblet of Fire’ moment because the adventures the four young detectives in this series had, up until this point, been cosy.…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Empire and Sexuality by Ronald Hyam
“…Hyam’s book has not aged too well.” I can’t remember when or where I first heard about this book. It certainly wasn’t a personal recommendation. No one I know would even conceive that such a book exists at all! I’m fairly certain it was a reference I came across while…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries VII – The Enemies of Jupiter by Caroline Lawrence
“After this storm, I think there’s more in the distance…” I remember the first time I read the fourth book of the Harry Potter series (The Goblet of Fire). Up until then, the books had been fun and brilliantly written children’s books – Narnia for a modern age, if you…
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Continue reading →: Review: The Story of Human Language (The Great Courses series) by Professor John McWhorter
“…I learned a lot more about McWhorter’s sexual preferences than anything else…” This audio book series is a collection of 36 lectures given by John McWhorter, reputedly a world-renowned expert on language, in the early 2000s (around 2004, I think). Almost immediately, he incurred my wrath while just introducing the…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
“…pure drug-like joy to read…” I’ll start by saying that I am not a detective fiction fan. Murder mysteries do nothing for me. I don’t read them, I don’t watch them on TV other than very occasionally or if they are classics like Sherlock Holmes or other such frivolous fun.…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Neuromancer by William Gibson
“A brilliant, prophetic novel…but not perfect.” In the 70s and 80s I was an absolute confirmed sci-fi freak and loved, not just the new stuff akin to my age at the time – like Star Wars and Star Trek – but also all the old classics such as Asimov, Anne…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries VI – The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina by Caroline Lawrence
“It is no wonder that Lawrence won awards for making Roman history interesting.” Continuing my series of reviews on the entire Roman Mysteries series by children’s author, Caroline Lawrence, I have finally, definitively read the first book I hadn’t read before or knew anything about. My goodness, how good it…
Hello, I’m Ken.
Welcome to Write Out Loud, my blog dedicated to all sorts of things to do with writing.
This page will be updated constantly every week with book reviews and writing-related stuff.
The blog is the baby sister of my personal blog kenthinksaloud where I write ‘Monday Murmurings’—insights into life and philosophy. Get a clever take on politics with ‘Wednesday Banker,’ and ‘Future Friday’ for the latest in psychology, environment, and tech.
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Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing) 