The Fourth Estate by Jeffry Archer

 

This is a book about two media barons. Both were so desperate and ruthless to overtake each other's empire. Richard Armstrong who hailed from an obscure Jewish family from the eastern part of Europe.

 He lost his family and nearest ones during the ravage invasion of Hitler's army. By changing his original name Lubji Hoch to Richard , fought behalf  England and eventually his interest in the media brought him to launch a daily. His success in the venture made him powerful in other aspects too.  

On the other side, in Australia, Keith Townsend son of a renowned media baron wanted to extend his family business entire world.

 Keith was an Oxford educated and money was not a problem for him. His prime rival was none other than Richard Armstrong. 

The whole book is all about their plans, strategies and weaknesses and conspiracies etc. Some readers said that the author built the same story line in Kane and Abel but I have never read it.

Novel goes slowly and lot of pages consumed in building two main characters elaborately. The global scale war between two media barons to invade the territories of each other's circulation explained how employees were used and thrown at times.

 Their desperate struggle led to destruction and were thrown into debts anyway. The novel first published in 1996 and afflicted with some legal issues. 

Rumors  were there that the concept has been drawn from the real incidents of Maxwell and Murdoch.   

--- Murthy

#fourthestate  #jeffryarcher  #mediabarons  #fiction

Why are some books so nostalgic?

 

We read many works. The story in them takes us to place somewhere. Be it a city, a town, a village... and even after reading it once and putting it away, those places do not leave us so quickly. 

We keep mentally traveling there. Unless the author is writing with a great imagination , we don't really feel it. Is this an art..? if it is so, we don't find it in all writers equally ! 

There should be some magic converting the scene into letters that would invoke to see pictures with our mind's eye.  

For instance, if we read Charles Dickens, we will go to London, if we read Thomas Hardy, we will go to Wessex, if we read Mark Twain, we will go to Mississippi, if we read William Faulkner, we will go to the inland areas of the southern part of America. 

Jane Austen has lived in a rural area all her life, and all that beauty can be seen in novels like Pride and Prejudice. Of course, all these are meant to be virtual purely.

Where does all that beauty come from? Any place, has a color and a taste. It is embedded in the surroundings, people and atmosphere. 

When it is painted as it is without any judgment, an honesty emerges. There lies the true beauty in the words. The right and selective words sometimes show a picture in front of us.

 We can't say, every time, a great writer would do such wonder but sometimes that happens and then a reader can't forget all along his life for that quality of description. 

One more thing, if we read Joseph Conrad, we feel like we are sailing on the sea. Because he lived like that. It is doubtful that whether all those who sailed on the sea wrote like that or not. 

It seems that the art of visualizing a feeling very skillfully is something like meditation deeply and in such people that blooms smoothly for reaching the people. In every unforgettable classic , we find more and more of such portrayal characteristics to enhance the emotional imageries. 

I think Somerset Mom and Graham Greene's stories are influenced by their travels, the characters are in various places with living creatures.

 There is something special to say about Ruskin Bond who lives in Mussoorie in our country. While reading his works, the hills, ants, trees, ants, animals, insects, etc. in the Himalayan slopes just keep lingering in our mind's eye.

--- Murthy Kvvs

A Day to Cherish

 A farewell program arranged in the premises of SNAM ZPS school of  Narsapuram, recently. And it was all about to bid adieu to the staff  who have gone out on transfer and promotion. School children entertained with mesmerizing songs and dances. Reminiscences exchanged by every one in line of recalling the good old days. All the invitees have been given welcome note right from gates of the school. Dazzling and colorful cultural activities added more pep to the D-day. Narsapuram high school is one of the most accommodated and well equipped ones when considered the schools in the district. And which has been constructed by the NRI brothers belonged to the same village.

On the occasion , school staff and school management committee  honored Dr. N. Madhusudan Rao to obtain a Doctorate in Hindi from Osmania University. Ex - staff donated some contribution to the school to enhance the development activities. Present Head Master Sri Bolla Venkateswarlu thanked them and he said that he would continue the good work until the last day in his service. Sweets were distributed to all the children. SMC chairman Sri M. Vidyasagar and all other invitees including ex-staff have participated in the gala event and said that their stint at the school was a major milestone.  

A Magic Fiction

 

  

Recently read this socio fantasy novel. It's a unique mix of fantasy, magic, black magic, yoga and a sort of  thrilling story of Hindi block buster movie. Further more, dealt with the rights of LGBT people.  Story set in Delhi with an array of characters like Jai Gill and his family members who all adept at black magic, in western sense, witches. But they teach Yoga classes for well off people and keep earning very well.

Rajani sahab and their family  came into the neighborhood  with a conceit motive. Friendship turned rivalry for a weird reason. Secret organizations move with secret missions. You have to read and know it. That's much better. Some unusual and bizarre rituals would also be known while performing sadhana. At climax, we feel that it is an apt material for some Hindi movie to scare people and keep minting money. Writer Zorian Cross is a theater person, perhaps that quality makes the book dramatic and sometimes interesting with suspense creation.

Available with Amazon.   

Cattle lingering

 The cattle was just being gone outside. Some were drinking water in a feeble stream. After that, they would go to further deeper into the forest. No people were there except the shepherd and so they were at their freedom. Have clicked it around the place of Venkatapuram mandal, Mulugu District. Once upon a time it was in the part of Bhadrachalam division. 

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Goats in search of food

 

Clicked the goats at Parnasala. They were busy with grazing and after a few yards ahead, there was Godavari river.

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Winner stands alone

 

Superstitions are common to all , of course, maybe different people have different ones.Some are age old and some modern,of what ...? It could be anything,let me speak my mind first.Thus ,you understand my pain and shattered confidence in detail.This is all about Paulo Coeolho and his novel The Winner stands alone.
Prior to this, I have read some books of Paulo and understood his insight about  the daily routine where many have failed to write in a simple and possible profound style.

This time with the novel cited above not up to the mark in any aspect.Wondered at how poor the narrative looked pale and uninteresting all through the theme delving  into it.That may be called faltering or something ,but it utterly failed to move the reader to further pages,Subject is about scintillating and glitzy world.Already fiction kings attempted them like nothing to leave.Theme is classy and it is all about Cannes film festival,flashy stars,manipulating bigwigs and Super class that knows and plays all intimidating tricks to endure their empire at any cost.

In such kind of festival, our hero Igor and heroine Ewa entered with their own missions.Igor,a Russion business man experienced with Afghanisthan war in his early days.Ewa,his wife ,a designer  but eloped with a fashion magnate of Arab origin called Hamid.Igor came here to get back his sweetheart at any cost and starts eliminating some persons in the part of his play.He keeps signalling all these by messages.In brief,this is all the story.Several characters like Gabriela,Jasmine and Savoy come one by one to support the narrative.

It's all about a murder mystery all through the story.Meanwhile,the details and anecdotes of Cannes ,a small town in France come up to entertain us ,how the nondescript meagerly populated place evolved as a center for flashy stars and so on.Future models and their plans even to the level of sleeping with nobody revealed in its own way.Igor, though killed some persons for the sake of getting his wife back seemed not convincing.And one can raise against it for this silly thought though there were number of ugly ways to do the same.And Igor never thought of being punished with his highly sophisticated technics of killing innocents.

The story and conceiving both are so poor . Suspense is the key, but anybody can guess the  conclusion. Paulo Coelho underestimated the prudence of the reader. Sometimes we get bored and his insights looked lengthy when he thought of saying something high philosophy.

----- Murthy kvvs

#TBRChallenge2023

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