Good things

[macslady]

1) The toes are much better. Still itchy and occasionally painful, but much better than they were on Weds and Thurs when I actually decided not to go to work. My boss called on Weds after I'd texted a colleague asking her to let them know I wouldn't be in, to check I was okay and assure me it would be okay not to go in on Thurs. Another of my

Comments

[talkingtocactus]

it makes a massive difference when bosses/colleagues are understanding/caring about that kinda stuff doesn't it?

i wasn't so sure about the trilogy - i liked the overall idea, but NY really did get the short straw having the middle bit. miami had the interest raising thing of the beginning, and vegas got the big finish, while poor old NY was stuck with the kinda hmm it's the middle what shall we put in here? bit. i don't think they could've done much to get around it though. and mac was ace :)

i never quite "got" pat barker which is odd as wwi really is one of my "babies", i feel like i should get her stuff but i just can't quite connect with it somehow. i'm sure we've discussed this on talk actually.... there is better wwi literature out there, i think, mostly written at the time: sassoon's memoirs are excellent, ditto edmund blunden, and of course there's all that poetry (and i'm not really a poetry kinda person normally!). for me 'all quiet on the western front' is the best one out there, it's just fantastic, even though it was written by the "wrong" side.

oh yeah the TW thing was ace, although a lot of my friends were really angry about ianto!

[macslady]

I think my enjoying the NY part of the Trilogy so much was based on the Mac awesomeness, and I liked Ray a lot too. Plotwise, NY did suffer from being stuck in the middle, but it had chasing and guns and motorbikes, which was good! But Mac was the best thing about it!
Miami I struggled with because I haven't seen any of s7 yet so I didn't understand who these new people were. Plus Horatio kept calling Ray 'Dr Ray' which was very 'H', but shudder-inducing also.

I really enjoyed Barker's books, but it's all a matter of taste, I guess. I REALLY have to get around to reading 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and intend to give Sasson's memoirs a read too, and Edmund Blunden (hadn't heard of him before). The Barker books were the first WW1 fiction I've read, so maybe once I've read more, I'll change my mind.

At the minute, I'm reading 'Echoes from the Infantry' by Frank Nappi. It's the story of a father and his son. The dad fought in WW2 and came back very emotionally fucked up, he could never connect with his wife or kids. The son was very angry and frustrated by this. The plot starts when the son, John, goes to his childhood home after his mother dies to clear it out and decide what to do about his dad, who is starting to go senile. He finds all his dad's Army stuff in the attic, including these letters to his mother that describe some of the stuff he experienced. The story switches between John reading these letters, and the father's (James) recollections and memories of the war. The author does a very good job of describing how confusing and screwed up WW2 was for the men who fought it.
I'm enjoying it so far. It makes me think a bit of Mac and his dad, especially since James, the dad in the book, struggles with closeness and showing emotion, like Mac. He's a lot worse than Mac, actually. But it's an interesting read!

TW was good, but OMG Ianto! I wasn't too upset, though. Jack is my favourite. It's that military coat of his, and the American accent.
He's nothin' compared to Mac, though.
In terms of hot tv men, I also like Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. Wallander is so miserable, and for some weird reason that appeals to me. LOL, I'm weird.

[talkingtocactus]

oh god, i'd forgotten the whole "dr ray" thing, that was just .... :|

i can definitely recommend those ones, and i'm sure i have a whole list of ww1 related stuff i can recommend if you ever run out :)

that sounds quite good actually, it sounds interesting. obviously shellshock/trauma is one of the bits that really interests me, i might just add it to my list (my list is an entire cupboard full of books on my "to do" list at the moment, it shows no sign of getting smaller, maybe i can attack it during the uni summer hols!).

haha i like capt jack too, but not in that way. or kenneth branagh/wallander - as a rule i like things dark/depressing/miserable/bleak but i couldn't get into wallander at all. and i don't get branagh either - obviously he's a great actor (henry v was incredible! young christian bale!) but hot? nooo....