B.J Ward

Recently spikesgirl58 posed an interesting question about You Tube suggesting if theres not anything on there you could not  find. Yep , there is some rare stuff not on You Tube. B.J Ward comes to mind with the title track from this album.



This Catfish album has only two tracks uploaded from it , and there is one  track that are worth loading up from it - "Vocal Ease" .  which is the best track on it except for The Loner.

The  only two tracks lifted from it is I Just Wasn't Made For These Times..

and ... The Loner

Soulful female Jazz with vocals by B.J. Ward (singer & voice actress), backed by Dutch band. Track taken fom the album Vocal Ease, released on Catfish (1974) - ft Henny Kluvers (Flute), Frank van Luin, Richard Pullin (Trombone), Carl Schultze (Vibes), Donn Trenner (Piano & Organ), Thijmen Hoolwerf (Guitar), Frank Noya (Bass), Eric Ineke, Cor van den Berg (Drums), George Souto (Percussion), G Matzer (Oboe), Henry Kluvers (Sax), Sem Nijveen, Bennie Behr, Lex Cachet, Lucien Grignard, Ronald Kok, Guus Valten, G. Gerritsen, Carlo Carcassoia (Strings).

Book 52 - Kate Hamer "The Girl In The Red Coat"

Kate Hamer "The Girl In The Red Coat" (Faber & Faber)







The Girl in the Red Coat is Kate Hamer's debut novel. It's garnered lots of attention as a finalist for both the Costa Book Award for First Novel and the Dagger Award. And this is what I love about debuts - there's no history, no expectations of what the story is going to be, no familiarity with the author's style or storytelling - it's a story just waiting for the reader to discover it.

Eight year old Carmel is a dreamer, often getting lost - both physically and mentally. Her single mother, Beth, struggles to keep Carmel with her in public places as the girl likes to hide. And then one day, Carmel hides too well. Her mother cannot find her.......but an older gentleman does. He says he's her grandfather and that her mother has been hurt - Carmel must come with him.....and she does. (The foreshadowing and foreboding that leads up to this is wonderful.)

The Girl in the Red Coat is told in alternating viewpoints/chapters - between Beth and Carmel. Beth's chapters are marked in days - and then years as the search for Carmel continues to turn up nothing. But as readers we know where Carmel is and what has happened to her.

Now, those looking for an intense suspense/mystery novel won't find it here. (Indeed, I could not slot this book into any genre.) Instead, Hamer deftly and intimately explores the aftermath of such a loss/crime/event from two very differing viewpoints. How does life go on? For both. Carmel's chapters were hard to read as they are from a child with no immediate clear picture of the deception that has occurred. But as a mother, I found Beth's just as wrenching as she tries to cope.

Hamer throws in a bit of a unexpected bit with Carmel. Her 'getting lost' has a reason - and her 'grandfather' believes it has a purpose as well. I'm not quite sure how I felt about this part of the plot, but as I said at the beginning, I do like being surprised as I read. And I couldn't stop reading - I wanted to know what happened and if the two would ever be reunited. Are they? You'll have to read the book to find out. The Girl in the Red Coat was a great debut. I recommend it.

Book 53 - Margaret Atwood "The Tent"

Margaret Atwood "The Tent" (Bloomsbury)




This is a great collection of very very short... musings or vignettes. Some are essays, some are poems, but the majority are what I might call musings. And they are fascinating.

The ones that stuck out for me were "The Animals Reject Their Names", a poem which details a sort of un-creation; "Take Charge", which undresses several similar situations through analogy and renders them somehow ridiculous, and somehow meaningful; and "Faster", less than a page long, which is perfectly applicable to our adaptation of technology, and is almost Luddite, but manages not to be.

Atwood is a master craftsperson whose way with words makes you think she's painting on a canvas with them instead of just writing them down on paper. This is the type of book that you can pick up anytime, open to a random page, and enjoy a few pages.

Very enjoyable, very quick to read, but better if interspersed with other reading matter or they all blur together and you don't get the impact.

Sunny Days, Sunny Reading

After the middling day we had on Tuesday the weather has turned out to be gloriously sunny and very warm. I did some sunbathing outside in the gardens of the hostel and finished reading the short Atwood book of vignettes.

Not much else to say about the day really - might have alot more to say about tomorrow when it comes. After the busy Monday my next busy day will be on Saturday and then some major days next wee., So this is just the quiescence before the storm metaphorically speaking.

Loads of charity shop visits coming up after months of being quiet, so expect an expansion of books, and music here. I know that after speaking to bro today he has more books to give me when i see him for the lunch club tomorrow. We are slightly over halfway through the year so i could well achieve the eighty books read easily before Xmas.

I am already onto book number 54 - another short one but fascinating none the less. I have just a couple of massive tomes on the bookshelf to attempt at some point - Wolf Hall and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

May Fodder