The Fear Index - by Robert Harris

I read this book in almost a single sitting - the dubious benefit of a day spent on trains and an aircraft. The story is fast-paced and detailed - just like I would expect from this author. It is more Dan Brown than Stieg Larsson in style, except that I have the impression that it has been subject to the rigorous research that I would expect from Harris and it is not littered with technical errors that seem to characterise Mr. Brown's efforts.

It is a gripping story, but I confess that, at the end, I am not 100% certain that I know what was going on. Had the computer system actually started behaving in amazingly "intelligent" ways or was Hoffmann actually losing his mind? Maybe it is supposed to be ambiguous. 

What I'm reading

I have started The Fear Index by Robert Harris. I thought that it was time for fiction again and wanted something to stretch me a little. I have enjoyed previous books by this author, but they have always been historical novels. As he has a background in history, I have come to trust his integrity and I am confident that I will learn something. This is his first foray into contemporary fiction, which will be interesting. Here is the blurb:

His name is carefully guarded from the general public but within the secretive inner circles of the ultra-rich Dr Alex Hoffmann is a legend – a visionary scientist whose computer software turns everything it touches into gold. Together with his partner, an investment banker, Hoffmann has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that tracks human emotions, enabling it to predict movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions. But then in the early hours of the morning, while he lies asleep with his wife, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of their lakeside house. So begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him. His quest forces him to confront the deepest questions of what it is to be human. By the time night falls over Geneva, the financial markets will be in turmoil and Hoffmann's world – and ours – transformed forever.

How to Make a Tornado - New Scientist

This book delivered as advertised. It is a edited selection of more off-the-wall reports from New Scientist over the years. The material is assembled logically and introduced and contextualized in a witty manner. As a life-long collector of useless facts, I found it a compelling read.

What I'm reading

I have started How to Make a Tornado, which is published by New Scientist magazine. I thought that it was time for some non-fiction and a science book might be a good choice. As I have always enjoyed collecting random, useless information, this book seemed idea. Here is the blurb:

Science tells us grand things about the universe: how fast light travels, and why stones fall to earth. But scientific endeavour goes far beyond these obvious foundations. There are some fields we don't often hear about because they are so specialised, or turn out to be dead ends. Yet researchers have given hallucinogenic drugs to blind people (seriously), tried to weigh the soul as it departs the body and planned to blast a new Panama Canal with atomic weapons. Real scientific breakthroughs sometimes come out of the most surprising and unpromising work. How to Make a Tornado is about the margins of science - not the research down tried-and-tested routes, but some of its zanier and more brilliant by-ways. Investigating everything from what it's like to die, to exploding trousers and recycled urine, this book is a reminder that science is intensely creative and often very amusing - and when their minds run free, scientists can fire the imagination like nobody else.

Holes - by Louis Sachar

A good read. This is a slightly convoluted and complex story, where past and present events conspire together make the tale. It is also a study of human nature, with some good and bad conclusions. I kept turning the pages, as I was always confident that something was going to happen - and I was not disappointed. I liked all the little twists and unlikely connections and coincidences. I kicked myself for not spotting one connection that is only spelled out in the closing pages of the book. My only concern was that the whole story was a grand metaphor for something. If it was, it went right over my head.

What I'm reading

I have started Holes by Louis Sachar. I wanted an undemanding novel to read and I acquired this a while ago, then my daughter told me what an excellent book it was. Here's the blurb:

Stanley Yelnat's family has a history of bad luck going back generations, so he is not too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre. Nor is he very surprised when he is told that his daily labour at the camp is to dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, and report anything that he finds in that hole. The warden claims that it is character building, but this is a lie and Stanley must dig up the truth. In this wonderfully inventive, compelling novel that is both serious and funny, Louis Sachar has created a masterpiece that will leave all readers amazed and delighted by the author's narrative flair and brilliantly handled plot.

The Dirty Life - by Kristin Kimball

This was a delightful book. The author managed to present an interesting balance between addressing various angles: the story of her moving to the farm; her relationship with Mark; the operation of a farm; food and cooking; their friends and families. Her writing is very evocative - in particular, the bits about food made my mouth water. It was an interesting contrast to a previous book I read about a couple setting up a farm in the UK. I enjoyed the factual stuff about how things on the farm worked, but also found the passage about the death of a horse quite emotional. Overall, it made me think about the way we run our lives and where our food comes from.

What I'm reading

I have started The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball. My partner stumbled across this and recommended it. I think a biography is good after a complex novel. Here is the blurb:

When Manhattan writer Kristin Kimball arrived to interview Mark on a Pennsylvanian farm, she was wearing high heels and a crisp white shirt and had been vegetarian for thirteen years. That evening, she found herself helping him to slaughter a pig. By the next morning she was tucking into sizzling homemade sausages drizzled with warm maple syrup, and within a few months she'd given up her life in the city and moved with Mark, their combined savings, and a dozen chickens to a derelict farm in a remote corner of upstate New York. They gave themselves a year to transform 500 badly neglected acres into an organic community farm. Passionate, inspiring and gorgeously written, this is a story about falling in love with a man and with a different way to live, complete with runaway piglets and dew-fresh lettuce, sceptical locals and a wedding in a hayloft.

Case Histories - by Kate Atkinson

I guess this was a "typical" Kate Atkinson book: multiple story lines, which are connected in some way or another; lots of characters, some of whom are not all they seem; multiple timelines, sometimes obvious, other times a chapter takes place just before the previous one. All in all, a read that needs a fair amount of attention or getting lost is inevitable.

The author also has the knack of tell the reader just enough, but no more, information than they need to figure out what is going on. On finishing it, I sat back to wonder whether I got everything. Was Laura's killer who I thought it was? Was the girl with yellow hair Tanya?

Overall it was a good story, that demanded my attention and kept me turning the pages. All I ask from a book really.

What I'm reading

I have started Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. A while ago I read the 4th in the Jackson Brodie series, Started Early, Took My Dog, and enjoyed it, so I bought the first 3. This is the initial one. Here is the blurb:

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet – Lost on the left, Found on the right – and the two never seem to balance.Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected…

The Sense of an Ending - by Julian Barnes

I am not sure about this book. It is basically the [fictional] life story of a guy. It is told in two [long] chapters. The first covers his school days into early adulthood; the second is set in his old age and is all about him figuring out what really happened in earlier years and understanding why various people behaved like they did. There is an interesting twist at the end, which makes some sense of it all and provides a real ending [closure] to the story.

I essentially enjoyed reading the book, but felt vaguely unsatisfied when I had finished.

I will now wait, with interest for the Booker Prize announcement ...