What I'm reading ...

I have started Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy by Tim Harford. I am very familiar with this author from his work on Radio 4. I am confident that this will be an interesting and informative read. Here’s the blurb:

Who thought up paper money? How did the contraceptive pill change the face of the legal profession? Why was the horse collar as important for human progress as the steam engine? How did the humble spreadsheet turn the world of finance upside-down?

The world economy defies comprehension. A continuously-changing system of immense complexity, it offers over ten billion distinct products and services, doubles in size every fifteen years, and links almost every one of the planet's seven billion people. It delivers astonishing luxury to hundreds of millions. It also leaves hundreds of millions behind, puts tremendous strains on the ecosystem, and has an alarming habit of stalling. Nobody is in charge of it. Indeed, no individual understands more than a fraction of what's going on.

How can we make sense of this bewildering system on which our lives depend?

From the tally-stick to Bitcoin, the canal lock to the jumbo jet, each invention in Tim Harford's fascinating new book has its own curious, surprising and memorable story, a vignette against a grand backdrop. Step by step, readers will start to understand where we are, how we got here, and where we might be going next.

Hidden connections will be laid bare: how the barcode undermined family corner shops; why the gramophone widened inequality; how barbed wire shaped America. We'll meet the characters who developed some of these inventions, profited from them, or were ruined by them. We'll trace the economic principles that help to explain their transformative effects. And we'll ask what lessons we can learn to make wise use of future inventions, in a world where the pace of innovation will only accelerate.

Enough - by Dawn French

I really enjoyed this book. It is quite well written, with a good pace and well-drawn characters. It manages to address a very serious subject, while still injecting humour. It is quite emotional, particularly the twist towards the end. I was entertained and made to think - just what I like in a book.

I have one downer: the quality of editing - or lack thereof. At one point there is a flashback, where Etta aged 5 uses the word “ninja”; this word was not in the English vocabulary in 1963. At another point someone is slapped in the face and there is a reference to a “welt”; this word refers to a serious, but not open, wound, like you might get from a whip. Was the editor lazy or incompetent or do publishers skip such editing for high-profile author or are they just saving money. Disappointing either way.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Enough by Dawn French. Although the author is best known as a TV personality, I have always thought that she sounded interesting and was curious about her writing. She was interviewed on the radio and this intrigued me enough to buy the book. Here’s the blurb:

Etta is sixty-eight years old. Happy, healthy and an active participant in her world, she’s gathered her family together for an unforgettable weekend.

Tick.

At 5am that Saturday morning, Etta wakes her daughter, her granddaughter, her son and her daughter-in-law up to lead everyone down to the beach. To ‘Etta’s Hollow’, where a roaring fire has already been lit. Drowsy but delighted – the sun is just starting to rise for a glorious dawn – Etta’s family bask in the beauty of the moment. A memory to be cherished forever.

Tick.

Until twenty minutes later, when Etta announces to her assembled beloveds something as shocking as it is alarming. ‘I have brought you all down to the beach this morning to tell you something important. You see, the thing is, today is my last day alive.’

Boom.

Over the next twenty-four hours, Etta and her family are about to have the most surprising, affecting and life-affirming day of all their lives.

The Finest Hotel in Kabul - by Lyse Doucet

As expected, this was a very interesting read. It is, essentially, a history of Afghanistan over the last three decades told through the experiences of various members of staff at Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul. This makes it very personal and, IMHO, very powerful. It took me a while to read, but it was time well spent.

The author often refers to herself in the third person, using the contracted form of her name that the locals used: LyseDoucet; initially I thought that this was odd, but realised that it made sense, as she was just another reporter, not one of the main protagonists of the story.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet. I am very familiar with this author from her work on Radio 4 and saw her at a book festival last year, talking about her career and this book. Here’s the blurb:

In 1969, the luxury Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened its doors: a glistening white box, high on a hill, that reflected Afghanistan’s hopes of becoming a modern country, connected to the world.

Lyse Doucet first checked into the Inter-Continental on Christmas Eve 1988. In the decades since, she has witnessed a Soviet evacuation, a devastating civil war, the US invasion, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban, all from within its increasingly battered walls. The Inter-Con has never closed its doors.

Now, she weaves together the experiences of the Afghans who have kept the hotel running to craft a richly immersive history of their country. It is the story of Hazrat, the septuagenarian housekeeper who still holds fast to his Inter-Continental training from the hotel’s 1970s glory days – an era of haute cuisine and high fashion, when Afghanistan was a kingdom and Kabul was the ‘Paris of Central Asia’. Of Abida, who became the first female chef after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. And of Malalai and Sadeq, the twenty-somethings who seized every opportunity offered by two decades of fragile democracy – only to see the Taliban come roaring back in 2021.

Through these intimate portraits of Afghan life, the story of a hotel becomes the story of a people.

Precipice - by Robert Harris

As expected, this book was a great read. The story is very well paced, with just the right amount of detail. Also as expected, I learnt a lot about the time period - 1914-15. I now know much more about the beginnings of the war and the circumstances leading up to it. I have always respected the author’s integrity, as I know that he does meticulous research. His “author’s notes” give clear details on what is fact and what is fiction.

An example of something I learned: communications were quite different in those days. Telephone was used, but not much; I guess that only a small minority of people were connected. Telegrams were used extensively for everyday notes and also for international communications - much as we might use email today. The postal service was also much more extensively used. In London there were 12 postal deliveries per day, 6 days a week [a few less on Sundays]! A letter posted in the morning could be relied upon to be delivered before the end of the day.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Precipice by Robert Harris. I am looking forward to reading another book by this tried and tested author, who never disappoints [me]. Here’s the blurb:

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe.

In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.

As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.

Seamlessly weaving fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better, Precipice is the thrilling new novel from Robert Harris.

Reality is not What It Seems - by Carlo Rovelli

This book took a while to read. Despite the book being well written, it is a complex subject and the author addressed it quite well.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Reality is not What It Seems by Carlo Rovelli. Time for non-fiction and what better for light reading than an explanation of quantum gravity. 🙂 Here's the blurb:

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.

Hold Back the Night - by Jessica Moor.

Overall, I thought that this was an excellent book. It fulfilled my main requirements in a fiction book: an engaging story, believable characters and an opportunity to learn something (although there was a slight wrinkle with the last of these - comments below).

The story is set in three time periods: 1959/60, early 80s and 2020. The story was characterised by the events around each of these time periods, respectively: the treatment (torture?) of patients in a mental hospital to “cure” them of their homosexuality, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and the COVID lockdown. There are story threads that run between the timeframes and the author subtly compares the times and events.

A really clever device is used to show that the story is essentially constructed as a recollection from the 2020 version of the main protagonist: the first two periods are written in the third person, but the last in the first person.

In terms of my education, I did learn from this book. Specifically, I now understand much more clearly the inhumane (by today’s standards) practice of endeavouring to “cure” homosexuals. However, I am always a little wary of how assiduous an author's research has been when I spot a glaring error. In this case, it is no big deal, but there is a reference to blood being stored in bags in 1959. At that time, glass bottles were used; bags did not come into use until the '70s. Just me being pedantic perhaps …

What I'm reading ...

I have started Hold Back the Night by Jessica Moor. This is another book which I have, but have no recollection of how that came about. But it looks interesting. Here’s the blurb:

March 2020. Annie is alone in her house as the world shuts down, only the ghosts of her memories for company. But then she receives a phone call which plunges her deeper into the past.

Year 1959: Annie and Rita are student nurses at Fairlie Hall mental hospital. Working long, gruelling hours, they soon learn that the only way to appease their terrifying matron is to follow the rules unthinkingly. But what is happening in the hospital's hidden side wards? And at what point does following the rules turn into complicity - and betrayal?

Year 1983: Annie is reeling from the loss of her husband and struggling to face raising her daughter alone. Following a chance encounter, she offers a sick young man a bed for the night, a good deed that soon leads to another. Before long, she finds herself entering a new life of service - her home a haven for those who are cruelly shunned. But can we ever really atone?

A Different Kind of Power - by Jacinda Ardern

I started reading this book with a biased viewpoint: I had regarded Jacinda Ardern as one of the most influential politicians [or world leaders] of my lifetime. This is simply because she is unusual [IMHO], but thankfully not unique, in being in politics for all the right reasons. She was not interested in power for power’s sake and not looking to financially benefit - her simple goal was [is] to make the world just a bit better for as many people as possible.

I really enjoyed reading her story of how she developed her interest in politics and how that became focussed, culminating [so far] in her becoming Prime Minister of New Zealand. Unlike many political memoirs, she does not spend lots of time telling the reader how great she is or celebrating her achievements. To me, she comes over as a real person, suffering the Imposter Syndrome that most of us seem to exhibit.

In summary, the book delivered on the promises of its blurb. We see [or at least I do] that Jacinda Ardern is very intelligent and driven, with a large dose of empathy and compassion. The world needs more people like that. I very much hope that we haven’t heard the last of this extraordinary woman.

What I'm reading ...

I have started A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern. I always enjoy reading autobiographies and to look into the life of one of the most inspiring [to me] politicians in my lifetime is a very attractive prospect. Here’s the blurb:

The deeply personal memoir from the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to become a mother in office.

Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she became a global icon for her empathetic leadership that put people first. She guided her country through unprecedented challenges, from the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks to a global pandemic. She advanced visionary policies to address climate change and child poverty. And all while juggling first-time motherhood in the public eye.

This is the inspiring story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt changed our assumptions of what a leader can be. A Different Kind of Power is more than a political memoir. Powerfully evocative and refreshingly open, it is a profound insight into how it feels to lead, it asks: what if you, too, are capable of more than you ever imagined?

My Favourite Mistake - by Marian Keyes

I have enjoyed the complexity of this author’s books in the past and this one fits the profile. It’s essentially a “who done it”, where “it” is a series of crimes, but not murder. The threads are a little complex, but make sense. Mostly the story is focussed on the residents of Maumtully and the protagonist’s family and the interactions between them.

A strong thread through the story - alongside the main theme in a way - is the romance. Although this is described well enough, I wonder if the story could have worked well without it? Maybe it is just expected in this type of book. Also I did get a bit confused by the enormous number of characters, but perhaps the complexity of the story needs them.

Anyway, I am sure that I will read more of this author’s work.