What I'm reading ...

I have started All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, my next bookclub book. I have heard good reports of this book. Here’s the blurb:

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II, from the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr.
When Marie Laure goes blind, aged six, her father builds her a model of their Paris neighborhood, so she can memorize it with her fingers and then navigate the real streets. But when the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.
In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, is enchanted by a crude radio. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent ultimately makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure.
Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All The Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work.

Dead Simple - by Peter James

This book ticked all the boxes for me. It was a complex story, but not confusing, which took some very interesting surprise turns. I thought that the characters were well drawn for the most part. I reached the unput-downable phase very early and the story, with short chapters and very good pace, kept me turning the pages. The final resolution of the story was not clear until the very end.

Two things make this book somewhat unusual. The author did not rush the ending. In many books, one is left with the impression that, seven eighths through, the author had got bored and rushed to finish it. The other unusual thing is that the story is told in one, clear timeline and this is used surprisingly effectively from time to time.

I was pleased to see that there are a dozen or so more books in this series. I already have a couple on my Kindle and will be reading them in due course.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Dead Simple by Peter James. I wanted something entertaining to take me through a brief holiday before I need to start my next book club book and this one was recommended. Here’s the blurb:

It was meant to be a harmless stag-night prank. A few hours later Michael Harrison has disappeared and his friends are dead.
With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace - a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife - is contacted by Michael's beautiful, distraught fiancée, Ashley Harper.
Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison's whereabouts is saying nothing. But then he has a lot more to gain than anyone realizes, For one man's disaster is another man's fortune . . .

How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life - by Jordan Ellenberg

Although this is essentially a technical book, it kept me engaged and it was not a hard read. There are lots of memorable stories [that are easy to re-tell], including “the missing bullet holes”, “the Baltimore stockbroker”, 2 states claiming 125% of the employment increase one month and a technique to send self-correcting data messages by repeating bits/characters [which is very analogous to safety critical system design]. The author is clearly enthusiastic about his topic and that is somewhat contagious.

Although I am totally OK with reading US English, I did find the extensive use of American football and baseball as examples tedious, as these games are a complete mystery to me. There is the odd bit of sloppy writing. For example, a reference to “3 alternatives” - surprising for a mathematician.