January 9, 2023
December 26, 2022
December 4, 2022
October 23, 2022
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester
This is the first book in the Horatio Hornblower saga, being written as a prequel. It is a series of short stories telling his tale from arriving at his first post through his promotion to Lieutenant.
The author shows his knowledge of tall ships in its handling, manning and in damage. I found it useful to keep a nautical dictionary at hand, but the details are not needed for a full appreciation of the stories.
I found the stories interesting, well-paced, well-told and hard to put down.
October 6, 2022
September 28, 2022
September 16, 2022
September 5, 2022
August 15, 2022
August 1, 2022
Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft by Brooks Landon
This is a Great Courses video series on crafting sentences. It walks its audience through different sentence types and goes into the rhythm of a sentence, discussing the value of longer and shorter sentences and why. There are a lot of examples, it wanders into ideas from antiquity and touches on the bad ideas and why they are bad.
Overall, it provides a wealth of information and will enhance the audience appreciation of a well-written sentence.