What I'm reading ...

I have started La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman, my next book club book. Having read some of the author’s work before, I am optimistic ...

The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939–1945 - by Max Hastings

This book has a lot going for it. Lots of detail about intelligence activities in WW2 and numerous stories and anecdotes about the activities of agents etc. The book is clearly very well researched, so I am confident of the accuracy of the information. However, for me, it was all too much. I managed to read about one third of the book and found getting there rather hard work. Ultimately I felt that there was a very nice 200-page book in here - it just needs someone to to do thorough editing. I did learn lots of interesting things, but there comes a point when it is time to move on ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started reading The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939–1945 by Max Hastings, my next book club book.  A good time for some meaty non-fiction, I think, and this should fit the bill.  Here’s the blurb:

In ‘The Secret War’, Max Hastings examines the espionage and intelligence machines of all sides in World War II, and the impact of spies, code-breakers and partisan operations on events. Written on a global scale, the book brings together accounts from British, American, German, Russian and Japanese sources to tell the story of a secret war waged unceasingly by men and women often far from the battlefields but whose actions profoundly influenced the outcome.
Returning to the Second World War for the first time since his best-selling ‘All Hell Let Loose’, Hastings weaves into a ‘big picture’ framework, the human stories of spies and intelligence officers who served their respective masters. Told through a series of snapshots of key moments, the book looks closely at Soviet espionage operations which dwarfed those of every other belligerent in scale, as well as the code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park – the greatest intelligence achievement of the conflict – with many more surprising and unfamiliar tales of treachery, deception, betrayal and incompetence by spies of Axis, Allied or indeterminate loyalty.

The Standing Chandelier - by Lionel Shriver

This book is described as a novella and it is, indeed, quite a short book, even though the story covers quite a long timer period. It is not so much a story about events, but more an exploration into a number of people’s response to those events and the feelings engendered. I guess I might say that it is a study of emotional intelligence. The key issue is whether a man and a woman can be truly platonic friends. The author does not attempt to give a definitive answer, but does a good job of pushing around the subject for thought and discussion.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Standing Chandelier by Lionel Shriver. I wanted a quick read while I am travelling and this is described as a novella [just 129 pages]. This author always impresses me. Here’s the blurb:

When Weston Babansky receives an extravagant engagement present from his best friend (and old flame) Jillian Frisk, he doesn’t quite know what to make of it – or how to get it past his fiancée. Especially as it’s a massive, handmade, intensely personal sculpture that they’d have to live with forever.
As the argument rages about whether Jillian’s gift was an act of pure platonic generosity or something more insidious, battle lines are drawn…
Can men and women ever be friends? Just friends?

Dead Tomorrow - by Peter James

As usual with this author’s work, I enjoyed the ride. It was just what I needed for a long aeroplane flight. The story had the complexity that I have come to expect, but there was no real, unexpected twist at the end. Two things linger with me: Early in the book a guy has a motorbike accident and is later declared dead. We are just left to assume that he is the potential liver donor that is mentioned towards the end. The backstory about Sandy progressed by a small step; does each book add just a tiny bit more?

What I'm reading ...

I have started Dead Tomorrow by Peter James. Time for some escapist fiction and this author’s work is just the job. Here’s the blurb:

The body of a missing teenager is dredged from the seabed off the Sussex coast, missing vital organs. Soon after, a further two more bodies are found . . .
Caitlin Beckett, a fifteen-year-old in Brighton will die if she does not receive an urgent transplant. When the health system threatens to let her down her mother takes drastic action and goes to an online broker in black-market organs. The broker can provide what she wants, but it will come at a price.
As Detective Superintendent Roy Grace investigates the recovered bodies, he unearths the trail of a gang of child traffickers operating from Eastern Europe. Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a race against time to save the life of a young street kid, while a desperate mother will stop at nothing to save her daughter's life . . .

The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District - by James Rebanks

My interest in sheep, to be frank, is very limited and mainly focussed on their role in providing Sunday roast. However, I am always interested in other people’s lives, how they live them and what perspective they have on the world. This book delivered. The content is an interesting mixture of general discussion of life on a Lake District farm and stories from the author’s and his family’s life. It is well written and has a genuine feel to it - I can hear the author’s voice. A few philosophical points are slightly laboured, but I feel that can be forgiven, as they are the expression of some deep seated emotions and beliefs. I expected to say that the book made me want to visit the area and to some extent it does, however, I am left wondering whether tourism is really a benefit to the people there.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks, my next book club book. Looks to be something different. Here’s the blurb:

Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. A Viking would understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells.
These modern dispatches from an ancient landscape tell the story of a deep-rooted attachment to place, describing a way of life that is little noticed and yet has profoundly shaped this landscape. In evocative and lucid prose, James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year, offering a unique account of rural life and a fundamental connection with the land that most of us have lost. It is a story of working lives, the people around him, his childhood, his parents and grandparents, a people who exist and endure even as the world changes around them. Many stories are of people working desperately hard to leave a place. This is the story of someone trying desperately hard to stay.

How to Be a Husband - by Tim Dowling

I went straight on to this book, as I wanted some light holiday reading. Here’s the blurb:

The much-loved Guardian columnist asks what it takes to make a husband, and looks to his own married life to provide the answer.*
*Anything resembling advice should be taken at reader’s own risk.
You’ll never get divorced if you never get married. Not even your granny minds if you live in sin anymore. And if you’re single you can choose curtains without somebody else butting in. So why bother with marriage? It can’t just be an easy way round having to buy your own deodorant.
Guardian columnist Tim Dowling is a husband of some twenty years. His marriage is resounding proof that even the most impossible partnership can work out for the best. Some of the time.
So while this book is called ‘How To be a Husband’, it’s not really a how-to guide at all. Nor is it a compendium of petty remarks and brinkmanship – although it contains plenty of both. You may pick up a few DIY hints. You might learn that while marriage is founded on love, it endures through bloody hard work. Most likely it will make you whimper with the laughter of painful recognition.

I am a regular reader of the author’s newspaper column and expected more of the same - sharp observations that make me smile. I was not disappointed. The book investigates numerous aspects of 21st Century life and how a marriage - or, in particular, a husband - fits into it. I found myself highlighting various turns of phrase that I enjoyed and learned some new, useful words [like “uxorious”]. I will continue to look out for the author’s work - both his writing and musical performances.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - by Gail Honeyman

I enjoyed this book, as I felt it was well written, humorous without being trivial and well paced. Someone told me it was “heart warming”; I think that is a nice summary.

When I started the book, I quickly assumed that Eleanor was autistic - or, at least, had a tendency that way. By the end of the book, I concluded that she was the product of nurture - her traumatic experiences - and not nature.

I particularly enjoyed the twist concerning her mother at the end. It was nicely done and took me by surprise.

I will be interested to see what the author comes up with in future.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - a very popular book that is riding high in the charts right now and has been recommended to me. Here’s the blurb:

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.
One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.
Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?

The Black Echo - by Michael Connelly

I enjoyed this book. It is a reasonably complex murder mystery, with various back-stories. For me, the complexity and the detail was just about right. Some of the language is very odd [to me] - I assume it is LAPD-speak. For example, if you “make” someone, it means that you recognize or identify them. This did not impair my understanding - at added to the atmosphere. The book is set a quarter of a century ago. There are frequent references to pagers and  much rushing off to find pay-phones. It made me happier to be living in 2018.

Overall, I found the story to be well paced and easy to read and I was always happy to get back to it. I may well read more in the Harry Bosch series at some point.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Black Echo by Michael Connelly, my next book club book. Just a little daunted by 500 pages! Here’s the blurb:

LAPD detective Harry Bosch is a loner and a nighthawk. One Sunday he gets a call-out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. At first sight, it looks like a routine drugs overdose case, but the one new puncture wound amid the scars of old tracks leaves Bosch unconvinced.
To make matters worse, Harry Bosch recognises the victim. Billy Meadows was a fellow 'tunnel rat' in Vietnam, running against the VC and the fear they all used to call the Black Echo. Bosch believes he let down Billy Meadows once before, so now he is determined to bring the killer to justice.

A Normal Family: Everyday adventures with our autistic son - by Henry Normal

Having encountered the author in person, I had expectations of this book. I anticipated a straightforward, honest account of what it is like to live with a parent an autistic child. And that is what I got. I feel that I have gained interesting insights into a world of which I am never likely to have very direct experience. In some ways, I think the book is squarely aimed at readers who are in a similar situation to the author. However, even if I fall outside of the intended audience, I hope that I may be just a little better at interacting with any autistic people that I might meet and appreciate the challenges of their carers. IMHO, it is a worthwhile read for the “lay reader”.

What I'm reading ...

I have started A Normal Family: Everyday adventures with our autistic son by Henry Normal. We saw the author, who was giving a talk at a local poetry festival and he unashamedly plugged his book. We immediately purchased a copy and I am assured that it is a good read. It is certainly a subject that interests me.  Here’s the blurb:

Johnny is nineteen. He likes music, art and going to the beach. He is also autistic - in his case that means he will probably never get a job, never have a girlfriend, never leave home. And over the last nineteen years this is what his father, TV producer and comedy writer Henry Normal and his wife Angela have been trying to come to terms with.
This is a book for anyone whose life has been touched by autism - it's about the hope, the despair, and the messy, honest sometimes comical day-to-day world of autism, as well as a wonderful, warm book about the unconditional, unconventional love between a father, a mother and a son.

Notes from an Exhibition - by Patrick Gale

I found this book riveting; always looking forward to the next spell of reading it. The structure is similar to A Perfectly Good Man insofar as it is non-linear. Each chapter is introduced by the exhibition notes to a picture and the text appertains to that time period. Reading the book is like completing a jigsaw - the total picture gradually emerges. But there are pieces missing, where the reader is left to imagine what is in the gaps. It is all I can do to read something other than another of Gale’s books, but I will be back for more soon!

What I'm reading ...

I have started Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. I rarely read two books by an author in quick succession, but this is the second time that I have read one of Gale’s books and immediately wanted to read another. Here’s the blurb:

Celebrated artist Rachel Kelly dies alone in her Penzance studio, after decades of struggling with the creative highs and devastating lows that have coloured her life. Her family gathers, each of them searching for answers. They reflect on lives shaped by the enigmatic Rachel - as artist, wife and mother - and on the ambiguous legacies she leaves them, of talent, torment and transcendent love.

A Perfectly Good Man - by Patrick Gale [redux]

I have just re-read this book, as it is my next book club selection. It is nearly 3 years since I read it last time, so I had forgotten the details, only remembering that I had enjoyed it before. I think I enjoyed it even more this time around. I rarely read a book twice, as there are so many books I have not read and so little time. But this makes me rethink my approach.

I stand by all my previous comments. I now realise that the non-linear presentation of the story is actually the way we recall the past and this is why it does not feel unnatural. My only slightly negative thought is that I do not really understand why Phuc was so angry at his adopted parents, but I suspect my emotional intelligence is limited ...

I have just bought the book's predecessor, Notes from an Exhibition. 

The Rosie Project - by Graeme Simsion

After my initial feeling of identifying with Don, I quickly realized that, although I understood his logic and way of thinking, he was a lot worse than me! The story is laugh-out-loud funny in places and other bits are cringe-worthy embarrassment, but, to me, it was all quite credible.

As the story progresses and we get to know Don better, he is also rapidly developing as a person. Like Don, the other characters are mostly quite well drawn and the story progresses at a good pace.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I was entertained, but also made to think. An interesting aspect of the story is, if Don were told the ending at the start, he would have deemed it impossible. However, as the reader, I found his transition, leading to the climax of the book, quite believable.

I am not 100% sure that I want to read book 2, although the reviews are quite strong ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. This book was recommended to me as being a very amusing, but not trivial read. Here’s the blurb:

Love isn't an exact science - but no one told Don Tillman. A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don's never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner. Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman' - throwing Don's safe, ordered life into chaos. But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he's feeling?

My first impression is that I identify with Don rather a lot and wonder if it will read more like a self-help manual than a novel.

Dead Man’s Footsteps - by Peter James

As with the previous books in this series, I very much enjoyed reading this one. The pace is good and the amount of detail just about right. As usual, there are a number of threads that come together in a complex way and every chapter seems to end with some kind of cliff-hanger that pulls me in to read more, as the resolution is likely to be 2-3 chapters on. Overall, I kept turning the pages and didn’t guess everything before the end. Next time I was very recreational read, book #5 is to hand.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Dead Man’s Footsteps by Peter James. Nice to relax into another in this series. Here’s the blurb:

Amid the tragic unfolding mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and ne'er-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifeline: to shed his debts, disappear and reinvent himself in another country. Six years later the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman's body in a storm drain in Brighton leads Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton.

The Essex Serpent - by Sarah Perry

This book was recommended to me and is my latest book club choice. Here’s the blurb:

London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Along with her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge.
On arrival, rumours reach them that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for superstition, is enthralled, convinced that what the local people think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar, who is also deeply suspicious of the rumours, but thinks they are a distraction from true faith.
As he tries to calm his parishioners, Will and Cora strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves at once drawn together and torn apart, affecting each other in ways that surprise them both.
The Essex Serpent is a celebration of love, and the many different shapes it can take.

I found this book an enjoyable read, with a good pace and excellent writing style. The legend of the serpent is used as a vehicle to tell the story of a number of people’s lives and loves and the complex interactions between them. We also get a good picture of late Victorian life in a number of contexts.
I thought that the characters were well drawn and Cora, in particular, quite interesting. The story has good pace and the ending is not rushed. Although the story does have an ending of sorts, I would have liked to know exactly what happened to Stella. Did she die? If so, did Will and Cora progress their relationship?
Looking at the author’s previous book and her forthcoming novel, I will be inclined to read more.

Your Life In My Hands - a Junior Doctor's Story - by Rachel Clarke

This book was quite a straightforward read, as the writing is very competent, so it flows well. Some tighter editing would have been helpful, as with many modern books, as there is some repetition.

There are two strands to the book, as is hinted by the blurb. The big one is the discussion of the NHS and its decline resulting from the lack of funding. I was not uninterested in this topic, but I did feel that the message was rather repetitive. The author’s passionate concern about the NHS shine through and I guess her spelling it out in such detail was inevitable.

The other thread was the description of her medical work. This was the part that I really enjoyed, finding a lot of it quite emotional. Thinking back on the book, the medical stories are the part that will stay with me.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Your Life In My Hands - a Junior Doctor's Story by Rachel Clarke, my next book club book. Here’s the blurb:

How does it feel to be spat out of medical school into a world of pain, loss and trauma that you feel wholly ill-equipped to handle?
To be a medical novice who makes decisions which - if you get them wrong - might forever alter, or end, a person's life?
To toughen up the hard way, through repeated exposure to life-and-death situations, until you are finally a match for them?
In this heartfelt, deeply personal account of life as a junior doctor in today's health service, former television journalist turned doctor, Rachel Clarke, captures the extraordinary realities of ordinary life on the NHS front line. From the historic junior doctor strikes of 2016 to the 'humanitarian crisis' declared by the Red Cross, the overstretched health service is on the precipice, calling for junior doctors to draw on extraordinary reserves of what compelled them into medicine in the first place - and the value the NHS can least afford to lose - kindness.
Your Life in My Hands is at once a powerful polemic on the systematic degradation of Britain's most vital public institution, and a love letter of optimism and hope to that same health service and those who support it. This extraordinary memoir offers a glimpse into a life spent between the operating room and the bedside, the mortuary and the doctors' mess, telling powerful truths about today's NHS frontline, and capturing with tenderness and humanity the highs and lows of a new doctor's first steps onto the wards in the context of a health service at breaking point - and what it means to be entrusted with carrying another's life in your hands.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science - by Richard Holmes

Another book club book, which looked interesting. Here’s the blurb:

Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes’s dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement.
The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery – astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical – that together made up the ‘age of wonder’.
In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period’s celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner’s lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.

The book was interesting, but it was far too long and, hence, took me an age to read. I enjoyed a lot of it - particularly the details of the lives of some of the scientists and the connections between them. I could live without all the poetical stuff.

The Good Companions - by J.B. Priestley

Phew! This book took a while. I started it, under the impression that it was quite short. I read it on my Kindle and the details said that it had around 100 pages; it is actually rather over 600 pages!

The story is long and quite detailed, illustrating some interesting angles on aspects of life in England a century ago. It is well written, with excellent descriptive sequences and a lot of humour, but it is too long. I think a third of it could be edited out - as I feel it would be in a modern book - and the story would be tighter, but lose none of its richness.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but the excessive length would deter me from reading any of the author’s other work.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley, my next book club book. Here’s the blurb:

Three unhappy characters, Jess Oakroyd, Miss Trant and Inigo Jollifant flee from their old lives to seek adventure on the open road. Fate brings them together and into the presence of a broken-down theatrical touring company. Throwing caution to the winds they save the group and set off on an unforgettable tour of the pavilions and provincial theatres of England.
First published in 1929 in a time of deepening economic gloom and worldwide political unrest The Good Companions won The James Tate Black Memorial Prize for fiction, caught the public’s imagination and became a publishing phenomenon. Vigorous, optimistic and at times supremely comic it is also an exploration of English life, reaching deep into the decaying towns, dingy seaside lodging houses, market fairs and fading traditions of the 1920s. An England Priestley knew better than any other author of his day.

Not Dead Enough - by Peter James

As expected, this book delivered. The story is typical of the author’s style - complex, with lots of detail and no shortage of surprises. I will admit that I figured out the most likely explanation for some of the mysterious happenings quite early on, but this did not ruin the story at all. I kept turning the pages as the book became more unputdownable.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Not Dead Enough by Peter James. I am becoming a bit addicted to this series. Not great literature, but a good, page-turning read, which is what I needed just now. Here's the blurb:

On the night Brian Bishop murdered his wife he was sixty miles away, asleep in bed at the time. At least that's the way it looks to Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who is called in to investigate the kinky slaying of beautiful socialite, Katie Bishop.
Roy Grace soon starts coming to the conclusion that Bishop has performed the apparently impossible feat of being in two places at once. Has someone stolen his identity or is he simply a very clever liar?
As Roy Grace digs deeper behind the façade of the Bishops' outwardly respectable lives, it becomes clear that everything is not at all as it first seemed. Then he digs just a little too far, and suddenly the fragile stability of his own troubled world is facing destruction . . .

Mating in Captivity - by Esther Perel

This book was something of a “curate’s egg” - it was good in parts. Overall, I found it rather disorganized and never quite felt that I knew in what direction it was going. I rather expected an analysis of “the problem”, some instruction on how to overcome it and some reports on success stories. Instead, it is a very broad look at the issues and challenges with longer term relationships, with hints on how they might be optimized. I expected an instruction manual; I got some inspirational reading. So, all was not lost.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel. Time for some non-fiction. This looks like - and may be is - a self-help book, but I was not looking for any particular help. We heard the author talking on the radio and she seemed to speak a lot of common sense and express herself very eloquently, so we thought that reading her well renowned book might be interesting.  Here’s the blurb:

When you love someone, how does it feel? And when you desire someone, how is it different?
In Mating in Captivity, Esther Perel looks at the story of sex in committed couples. Modern romance promises it all - a lifetime of togetherness, intimacy and erotic desire. In reality, it's hard to want what you already have. Our quest for secure love conflicts with our pursuit of passion. And often, the very thing that got us to into our relationships - lust - is the one thing that goes missing from them.
Determined to reconcile the erotic and the domestic, Perel explains why democracy is a passion killer in the bedroom. Argues for playfulness, distance, and uncertainty. And shows what it takes to bring lust home. Smart, sexy and explosively original, Mating in Captivity is the monogamist's essential bedside read.

Looking Good Dead - by Peter James

Having enjoyed the previous book in this series, I had high hopes for this one. I was not disappointed. The book is well paced, with just the right amounts of complexity and the occasional surprise twist. The chapters are quite short, so it is great to just dip into for a few minutes, when a reading opportunity arises. I found it fairly unputdownable after the first 100 pages or so.

I observe that many people seems to enjoy these books and binge read all of them. I will read more, but I will keep them ready for when I want a relaxing, but engaging read.

What I'm reading ...

Time for some escapist fiction, so I have started Looking Good Dead by Peter James. Here's the blurb:

Tom Bryce did what any decent person would do. But within hours of picking up the CD that had been left behind on the train seat next to him, and attempting to return it to its owner, he is the sole witness to a vicious murder. Then his young family are threatened with their lives if he goes to the police. But supported by his wife, Kellie, he bravely makes a statement to the murder enquiry team headed by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a man with demons of his own to contend with.
And from that moment the killing of the Bryce family becomes a mere formality - and a grisly attraction. Notice of Kellie and Tom's deaths has already been posted on the internet. You can log on and see them on a website. They are looking good dead.

The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us - by Alice Roberts

Overall, I found this book to be a fascinating read. It is very logical and goes into lots of detail. I really liked the idea of exploring evolution and embryology at the same time. I think that a scientific education and a lifelong interest in science help me a lot, but I did think that detailed parts could be skipped without missing anything vital.
Some of the editing was a little lax. There are places where a term is used, but not defined until later. In other cases, a concept is explained then the explanation repeated soon after. I am being picky, as the overall quality of writing is very good. The author manages to bring a lot of herself and her personality to the writing.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us by Alice Roberts, my next book club book.An interesting change of pace and topic. Here’s the blurb:

Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It's a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes - including why as embryos we have what look like gills - to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.

All the Light We Cannot See - by Anthony Doerr

Overall, I thought that this was an excellent book. I found the story engaging and well paced. I was having trouble putting the book down well before the end. The characters were well drawn and quite believable. Telling the story from essentially three viewpoints, but not being totally strict about this, worked well. Initially I was confused about the fragmented timeline, but, in due course, I found the non-linear presentation of the story increased the drama. The ending was not rushed and most loose ends were tied up.

When I read a novel, I like to learn something about the world. In this case, I gained some insight into the lead-up and outbreak of war in both Germany and France, which I found very interesting. The thing, that marred the book for me, were some [what I believe to be] factual errors:

• In 1942, a German office puts down his ballpoint pen. Biro patented the ballpoint in the UK in 1938 and they did not come into widespread use for another decade.
• In 1974, someone in France dials a number in Germany. In the UK, we did not get direct-dial for international calls until 1978; it seems unlikely that France was 4 years ahead.
• In 1942, Etienne is very excited about the radio broadcasts he has heard. He comments that he had even heard from a station in Pakistan - a country that came into existence 6 years later.

The book won the Pulitzer, so what do I know?

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.

What I'm reading ...

I have started How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life by Jordan Ellenberg. I wanted something different to read, away from fiction, and saw this at an airport and made a note. Here’s the blurb:

The Freakonomics of math--a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands
The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn't confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do--the whole world is shot through with it.
Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It's a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does "public opinion" really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer?
How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician's method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman--minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia's views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can't figure out about you, and the existence of God.
Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is "an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength." With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - by Joanna Cannon

I really enjoyed reading this book. It had almost everything I look for in a novel: a host of well-drawn characters and a sensibly complex story line with numerous interwoven threads. Two timelines is also a way to make the story more intriguing and I clearly remember the hot summer of ‘76. Telling large parts of the story through the eyes of a child is not 100% original, but it works well here, often adding a little humour as well as an interesting perspective.

I really enjoyed some of the language usage; examples:
“smell of scraped plates”
“I watched my mother’s face argue with a smile”
“Mrs Morton sat near the front so God could hear us better”
“rattling like a pebble in a life made for two”
“The front room and the sitting room are both ticking-clock empty”
“a quarrel of sparrows”

I look forward to future books by this author.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon, my next book club book. At a glance, it appears to have the kind of complex story that I enjoy. So I am optimistic. Here’s the short blurb:

Mrs Creasy is missing and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands.
And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined…

The Winter Ghosts - by Kate Mosse

I am not really sure what to make of this book. I enjoyed reading it and the quality of the writing was, IMHO, very good. The scene descriptions were extremely vivid. My challenge is being asked to accept something that resists rational explanation. I can stand back and accept that apparently irrational things happen in real life, so having this as a basis for a story is fair enough.

I was troubled by the perspective - initiated by the book’s title - that this is a ghost story. I do not believe in ghosts, but, if I did , I am not sure that I would expect them to speak in 20th Century English/French despite being alive so many years before, when the language [Occitane] was quite different.

Overall, I think the writing quality might induce me to sample other work by the author.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse, my next book club book. I have often heard the author on the radio, but not read her work before. Here’s the blurb:

The Great War took much more than lives. It robbed a generation of friends, lovers and futures. In Freddie Watson's case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. Unable to cope with his grief, Freddie has spent much of the time since in a sanatorium.
In the winter of 1928, still seeking resolution, Freddie is travelling through the French Pyrenees - another region that has seen too much bloodshed over the years. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Shaken, he stumbles into the woods, emerging by a tiny village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful local woman, also mourning a lost generation. Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories of remembrance and loss. By the time dawn breaks, he will have stumbled across a tragic mystery that goes back through the centuries.

The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns - by Arnold Bennett

This proved to be an enjoyable read overall. The story is not remotely believable and the same may be said of most of the characters, but I think that this was the author’s intent. I guess Denry is the kind of person who “if he fell down a drain, he would come up with a new suit”. The story is amusing and has some good twists and turns. Sometimes it was predictable, but I was also surprised from time to time.

I was surprised to find that, even though it never felt difficult to read, I made very slow progress and it took me quite a while to work through the 169 pages.

The language of the book is rather old-fashioned, but that is inevitable, given its age. I made much use of my Kindle’s built-in dictionary, but it was stumped from time to time. After a while, I “got my ear in” and enjoyed the style. Some language that I found interesting:

“He was not only regarded by the whole town as a fellow wonderful and dazzling, but he so regarded himself.”
“He spent far more on clothes alone than Denry spent in the entire enterprise of keeping his soul in his body.”
The use of the word “realty”, meaning “real estate”; no longer used here, only in the US.
The use of the word “tatterdemalions”. [It means tattily dressed people.]
A reference to an untidy person being “anyhow”. That is what my grandmother used to say.
A comment on chocolate manufacturers imprinting their “Quakerly names” on their products.

I am not sure whether I will explore more of the author’s work, as I am not sure what I might learn from his books [and I do like to learn stuff, even from fiction]. But, I guess if I feel like an easy, nostalgic read, I might.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett, which is my next book club selection. I think that this will be a change of pace! Here’s the blurb:

The Card is a short comedic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911. It was later made into a 1952 movie starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark. It chronicles the rise of Edward Henry ("Denry") Machin from washerwoman’s son to Mayor of Bursley (a fictitious town based on Burslem).

Stranger in a Strange Land - by Robert Heinlein

It was interesting to read this book again after so many years. The book is somewhat dated in its assumptions about future technology [it is set about now, I think] and social mores [like a lot of smoking seems to be happening]. That aside, I was impressed by the core idea, which was to introduce a very alien culture, but without the need to introduce bug-eyed monsters. As Mike is Human, but raised by Martians, he slowly introduces all the novel ideas. Although it is a sci fi book, I think it is really a study of Human nature.