What I'm reading ...

 I have started Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking. Time for non-fiction again and this short book looks like just the job. Here’s the blurb:

The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work.

Is there a God?

How did it all begin?

Can we predict the future?

What is inside a black hole?

Is there other intelligent life in the universe?

Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?

How do we shape the future?

Will we survive on Earth?

Should we colonise space?

Is time travel possible?

Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe and unravelled some of its greatest mysteries. But even as his theoretical work on black holes, imaginary time and multiple histories took his mind to the furthest reaches of space, Hawking always believed that science could also be used to fix the problems on our planet.

And now, as we face potentially catastrophic changes here on Earth - from climate change to dwindling natural resources to the threat of artificial super-intelligence - Stephen Hawking turns his attention to the most urgent issues for humankind.

Wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, passionately argued, and infused with his characteristic humour, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, the final book from one of the greatest minds in history, is a personal view on the challenges we face as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next.

Circle Of Friends - by Maeve Binchy

This book was everything that I’d hoped for. It was a long book with a complex story-line, but a straightforward read that was never taxing. Binchy’s books always have a lot of characters, with complex relationships between them. This one was just like that, and, with only one tiny, unimportant exception, I never lost that thread. There are about three points in the story when an unexpected dramatic event occurs which is almost like a reboot - just when you thought things were going smoothly …

I am sure that I’ll be back to read [or re-read] more this author’s work.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Circle Of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Some years ago I had a spate of reading Irish authors and very much enjoyed Maeve Binchy’s work, so I thought I would like reading another one of them. [Of course, with my bad memory, I may find that I have read it before!] Here’s the blurb:

Generous-hearted Benny Hogan and the elfin Eve Malone have been best friends for years, growing up in sleepy Knockglen. Their one thought is to get to Dublin, to university and to freedom...

On their first day at University College, the inseparable pair are thrown together with fellow students: beautiful but selfish Nan Mahon and the handsome Jack Foley.

But trouble is brewing for Benny and Eve's new circle of friends and, before long, they find passion, tragedy – and the independence they yearned for.

Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking - by Matthew Syed

This book totally delivered to me. It describes the idea behind diverse thinking and illustrates it with numerous real world stories. In some, it has succeeded and, in others, failure is linked to not applying diverse thinking. The book is well written and fairly easy to read with a very clear explanation of the ideas. I will look out for other work by this author.