Showing 1 - 10 of 41
A word to the wise
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/01/2019
» A cloak-and-dagger book again, but this one is the Real McCoy. A veteran CIA operative of three decades, Jason Matthews has seen and done it all. As the saying goes, he knows where the bodies are buried. The theme of The Kremlin's Candidate is that the US is engaged in a second Cold War, brought about by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.
Targeted billionaires
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 08/06/2018
» When a rich man meets his maker, I pause for few moments, not to mourn his life but to wonder what becomes of his wealth. Of no use to him now, is it buried with him? Like the pharaohs, he intends for it to accompany him in his next life? Is it inherited by his son? To do what with?
Double-whammy master
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/02/2018
» By using fire for cooking, Homo sapiens took a step higher on the food chain. It made eating mammoths easier on the digestion. The press was another step. Print replaced cave drawings, clay pressings, stone carvings, papyrus. Books were cloth- or leather-bound.
Tongue-in-cheek
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 19/01/2018
» It has been a while a since I smiled while reading a book. My sense of humour is good and I don't hold back my laughter at something that tickles my funny bone. I find Thai double-entendres most amusing. This reviewer wishes books were funny. Those called hilarious by critics simply aren't.
Food for thought
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 05/01/2018
» A corporal motorcycle courier on the Western Front during World War I, Hitler fancied himself the German Napoleon Bonaparte. While he had good political instincts, a military genius he was not. Still, he had several first-rate strategists and tacticians on his staff.
A hoax in Rome
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 15/12/2017
» When, after suffering horrendous losses, the 3 million-strong Red Army liberated Eastern Europe, Stalin was feeling his oats. Who couldn't they defeat if he gave the order? The Catholic Church was the reply. How many men does the Pope have, he chuckled? One billion, was the reply. The supreme dictator stopped chuckling.
A Chinese empire?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/11/2017
» As a youngster in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I recall men with billboard signs with "The world is coming to an end -- REPENT". The people they passed on the streets shrugged them off. l didn't fully understand what it meant, but I knew that threats aren't to be taken lightly.
A force of nature
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 28/09/2017
» Lee Child was a passable British author when he decided to try his luck in the States. It was a fortuitous decision. While the US doesn't lack detective thriller writers, he proved better than most.
Be prepared
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/06/2017
» A reporter outside my homeland for more than a half-century, I never had the gall to call myself a foreign correspondent, lacking the qualifications of working for an American publication -- my byline in India, Japan and Thailand notwithstanding -- even though Time magazine gave me an honourable mention.
A woman's world
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 12/05/2017
» The payoff of my having spent years as a backpacker and visiting over 50 countries is that I remember them all, some more vividly than others. That gives me an advantage when reviewing the books and movies set in one or more of them, over those who remained at home. Yes, I know that area. No, it's just a set or a bit of poetic license.