Category: Review (Page 127 of 133)

Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order by Paul Vigna
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Money supposedly makes the world go round. It doesn’t; that’s physics; but it is the lifeblood of business and the system that controls it, governments, banks, brokers and the other middlemen have made and lost fortunes with it and with that control comes power. Cryptocurrencies might be something that you have heard of, but like most people you are probably unaware how this new form of money is aiming to revolutionise the concept of money.

Bitcoin is probably the best known of these new cryptocurrencies. They are beginning to offer a genuine alternative to regular currencies, allowing people without access to credit and banks a way into global finance. This new money is a peer-to-peer type verified by technologies such as the blockchain and encryption allowing the bypassing of regular money channels. It is not subject to regular laws either, it was extensively used on the Silk Road website for illegal transactions and has gained some notoriety, however it is democratic and anyone can mine the coins to spend how they choose.

It is an interesting book about a new form of cash and whilst the authors do their best to explain it in simple and straightforward terms, it is at time very technical and complex. It is worth reading though, especially if you have an interest in technology or finance; but be prepared to be baffled at times.

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Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Landscape by Francis Pryor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Stonehenge. Just the name can conjure up that iconic image of the standing stones and sarsens against the background of the Salisbury Plain. Rightly so, it is a World Heritage site, but it is an enigma as it actual purpose can still only be speculated about. Was it a celestial calendar? Or a ritual site? Perhaps it was used for sacrifices, or used as a focus for the Neolithic peoples who built it. Whatever its purpose, we know that the area has been used for millennia as a place of significance with the first man made changes being made around 3000 BC.

Pryor is an expert in the Bronze and Iron Ages, but his particular speciality is Flag Fen, a huge site in Cambridgeshire that was used extensively for ritual purposes. Whilst he is not an expert on Stonehenge, he does have a gift for seeing the landscape as those people would have done. In this book he draws on the very latest in archaeology and research to give us a broad history of the monument, explores how a range of people have seen and used the site ove the years and considers the context of the site in the wider landscape.

Pryor’s ability to immerse himself in the age and the ability of see the landscape through their eyes, means that we get an expert view of the way that it evolved and changes, without descending into dry academic speak. As well as the rigorous writing, the book is full of excellent photos, high quality plans and beautiful pictures of Stonehenge. It is comprehensive without being complicated and well worth reading.

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Dirt Music by Tim Winton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Georgie Jutland has drifted into Jim Buckridge’s life. Widowed, he is a thriving fisherman in the Australian coastal town of White Point. Her relationship with his sons is tense and she has never really settled into his home or the wider community. Georgie is looking out the window very early one morning and sees a boat slip into the water to fish illegally. Buckridge and the other residents of White Point detest poachers.

The man in the boat is Luther Fox, formerly a musician but is now a loner since his family were killed in a freak accident. These two isolated individuals are inexorably drawn together and begin an intense affair. The residents of the town are not best known for their tolerance and it is a place of violence and secrets. Their liaison is full of risk and if discovered the danger is immense…

I have only read one of Winton’s books before, the excellent Lands Edge which is a memoir on his life at the coast in Australia, but this was the first foray into his fiction. He has managed to write a really powerful book with some great flawed characters and a tense plot. The writing is stark and sparse, and like the outback is intense and evocative. It has a really good ending too; very cleverly done. Must read some more of his fiction soon.

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The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Koth had been a simple innkeeper in the town of Newarre for a while. A traveling scribe, calling himself Chronicler, is rescued from the Scrael, lethal spider-like creatures by Koth. Realising that there was more than meets the eye to this innkeeper, Chronicler offers to write his story. Koth reveals that he is actually Kvothe, renowned musician, fabled magician and legendary fighter, and agrees to spend three days telling his story.

Starting with his childhood, he tells of the time spent travelling with the Edema Ruh, a travelling band of performers. It is a happy time for him, even more so when they are joined by Abenthy, a gentle man who teaches him about the world and some elements of the ‘sympathy’ magic that exists in this world. He witnesses him call on the Name of the Wind one day and vows that he will learn this skill at the university. Tragic events and a lucky escape from the mythical Chandrian causes him to end up in the city of Tarbean as a beggar where he has to survive on his wits. He is still driven by the desire to reach the university to learn more of the magic that Abenthy taught him. So begins the next phase and possibly most dangerous phase of his life.

I have heard lots of good things about this book, but this is the first time I have read anything by Rothfuss at all. And it was a really good story; it had a great plot, with a good build up of tension and twists galore. I liked too the mediaeval world that he has created; it feels real whilst infused with magic and dark elements. It did feel a little YA, not always a problem, and I didn’t like the spoilers in the book concerning Kvothe and another character. I want to find out for myself as I read it. Looking forward to getting my hands on the next one, 4.5 stars overall.

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Under the Tump: Sketches of Real Life on the Welsh Borders by Oliver Balch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strangely enough, the only reason I know about Hay-on-Wye is because of the books. This Welsh town has over 20 bookshops and is the host to a huge literary festival at the end of May. When the writer Oliver Bach decided to move to the village of Clyro, just outside Hay; he wanted more than to immerse himself in a world of books, put down roots and make it a maybe make it a place he could call home

Compared to London and Buenos Aires where he had lived before it was utterly different, and he wasn’t to settle into village life with his family. He is ably assisted by the Victorian diarist, Francis Kilvert, a curate who wrote about the village in the 1870’s. Bach wanted to see how much had changed since then, as well as find out just what had stayed the same. Like all newcomers, he is treated coolly at first, but ever so slowly, people warm to him. The village is full of characters, he meets local councillors, activists, hippies and a family that have dropped of grid. Hay even has its own King, self-appointed of course. Being a rural community, agriculture is a major part of the economy and he spends time with the local young farmers groups, finding out just what keeps them entertained and helping out at a function.

It is a nicely written book and he is honest in his opinions of the qualities and flaws of country living. Initially he feel like an immigrant, but the longer he spends there he finds that he is not the only incomer; there are others that even a few generations on feel like they are still new. I particularly liked the history of the area that he discovers, uncovering details about where he now lives and the houses and landscape around. As interesting as it was to read though, there did not feel like there was a huge amount of depth to the book. Just need to arrange a trip to Hay now…

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Bradley Wiggins: My Hour by Bradley Wiggins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cycling is full of great races, The Tour, the Giro, Paris-Roubaix. These are tough, and few have the capacity to win, but these are all undertaken with lots of other riders. There is one cycling record that is even more gruelling than these; The Hour. Those that have set a new record join an elite club; those that have won the Tour de France and set a record are the crème de la crème.

One man.

On paper it looks simple enough, how far can you cycle for one hour. But this is one of cycling and sports toughest events mentally and physically. If you start hard and fast you’ll fade by the end, if you start slow, then you’ll never be able to reach your target. It is a discipline that requires a metronomic speed around the track with fraction of second differences each lap. Many riders who have undertaken, including the great Merckx, it say it is the hardest thing that they have ever done.

One bike..

The UCI have changed the rules several times on the type of bike and position the rider can use. They can now ride with a regular time trial machine. Naturally the bike Wiggo uses is very technical advanced. They spent a large fortune on the Pinarello Bolide and is pure excellence for the bike geek, it includes custom printed titanium set of handlebars, reduced friction chain, redesigned front fork and a carbon frame designed in conjunction with Jaguar. It is a thing of beauty.

One hour…

He takes us behind the preparation for this attempt. But as a team they had nothing to go on, so they designed their own programme building of stamina and utilising the famous ‘marginal gains’ that UK cycling is now known for. Scattered throughout the book is profiles of those that have taken on this challenge and won; these men were heroes of Wiggins, and with this he joins their ranks. The photography in the book is brilliant, there is a mix of informal portraits, arty bike shots and dynamic image as he hurtles around the velodrome. It is a really enjoyable read by one of my favourite sportsmen as he takes on that clock.

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The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is post World War II, but in this alterative future Roosevelt had been assassinated in 1933 and America had never emerged from the great depression. The Axis powers won and America is now under the Nazi’s on the east coast and Japan invaded and established the Pacific States of America (PSA) on the west coast. The Rocky Mountain States are now a neutral buffer zone. With the Nazi victory came sweeping changes across Europe, genocide in the African continent and they mastered space.

In this strange new world, PKD has scattered a cast of characters that are loosely linked. Bob Childan owns an antiques shop specialising in Americana relics some of which have been bought through the Wyndam-Matson Corporation. Frank Frink, who is secretly a Jew and a previous employee of Wyndam-Matson, discovers that the antiques are fakes, and walks away with a sum of money to start a new business with another colleague. His ex wife, Juliana, is now living in the neutral zone, and has begun a relationship with an Italian truck driver called Cinnadella. A Swedish industrialist named Baynes has recently arrived and is asking for a meeting with a Nobusuke Tagomi, a Japanese trade official, who had visited Childan’s shop to buy a gift for him. Several characters in the book are reading the banned novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by Hawthorne Abendsen, who according to lore lives in a guarded home called the High Castle. This novel within the novel has its own alternate history, our future, where the Allies have won World War II. Throughout the book, some of the characters use the ancient divination text of I Ching to help them make decisions even though the choices presented are not always what they want.

I have come to like PKD books. Not all of them are great works of literature, but they all manage to mess with your head. In this parallel world, he has conceived a future with the Axis powers running most of the western world and still causing horrific acts. The story is woven with tension, from Julianna realisation about her boyfriend’s intentions, the power struggles at the top of the Nazi hierarchy and the potential for another world war. I liked the overlapping coincidences in the novel within from our world and the new parallel world that he conceived. Whilst the plot is not hugely strong, it’s a book that makes you think about the paradox of alternative futures and what the world might have been like. Good stuff. 3.5 stars.

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Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Brings You 90% of Everything by Rose George
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There is a high chance that you are reading this on some sort of screen that arrived in your country in a container, or box, having been shipped across the oceans of the world to the high street shop of your choice. The ship that brought it was one of 40,000 that ply the world’s oceans carrying 80% of everything you purchase and 90% of the energy that you consume.

This huge global business is safely out of sight and out of mind; you’ve probably never even thought about it.

To find out about this secret behemoth, George has travelled the across the seas on container ships and naval vessels, talking to officers, crew, engineers, chaplains and dockworkers to see if she can scratch the surface of it. It is an industry that deliberately chooses opaqueness; ship owners sail under flags of convenience, regulation is scant and rarely enforced and the law seems not to apply at sea. She speaks to those who track some of the 10,000 containers that fall overboard each year, environmentalists who are trying to tell us just how polluting the ships are and goes to Somalia to see the modern pirates being tried.

In this book George concentrates more on the effects of the shipping industry, both positive and negative, considers the challenges that it faces as costs are driven down and the implications of further changes to come. Rightly so, she gets angry about lots of things, pirates, the scant respect of the law and the conditions that some crews have to suffer. This is an industry that uses the flag of convenience to escape taxes, responsibility for environmental disasters and has no desire to change at the moment, but she does get drawn into the almost romantic notion of ploughing the oceans bringing goods from faraway places. It is a good companion book to Down To The Sea With Ships by Horatio Clare. 3.5 stars

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Down To The Sea In Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men by Horatio Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you take a look around you at some of the things that you own, almost all of the have arrived in the country in a box. A container box that is. These containers are shipped in their millions back and forth oceans and round the world every year.

Clare was invited to be the writer on board for the Maersk Group, to see how these veins of the capitalist world work and operate. He joins the first ship at Felixstowe, the UK largest port, on its journey from there to Los Angles via Suez and Hong Kong. On the ship he is allowed free access anywhere, and to meet and speak with the crew and officers with the aim of finding out just what makes these vast vessels tick.

His second journey takes him from Antwerp to Montreal. It is an older ship, that reeks of diesel, and they are travelling into a huge storm in the atlantic. On this journey he finds out just how dangerous this journeys can be for the crews.

It is a fascinating book to read as Clare gets to the heart of the shipping industry and the people that run these ships. The size of some of these ports is huge, I know I have seen the Hong Kong port, and everything is organised down to the last detail, so much so that on his first journey they dock to the minute have travelled three quarters around the world. Clare manages to convey well the feelings and the pressure that the crews feel, as well as recounting some of the stories from other ships some of which are terrifying. Did drag a bit at times, but otherwise worth reading.

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Pit Stops, Pitfalls and Olive Pits: A literary license to enjoy driving escapades throughout scenic Italy by John Tabellione
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Italy. It conjures up images of blue seas, espresso coffee, sunshine, fine foods, medieval cities, ancient ruins and olive groves. Evocative things that make a holiday in Italy great. John Tabellione has been to Italy many time clocking up thousands of miles from Bologna to Palermo and scaring himself on the twisty coast roads of Amalfi. Drawing on this experience, he has written a guide to navigating the entire driving process in Italy; from rental nightmares, driving down tiny streets not much wider than your car and what to do when you meet a bus on a hairpin bend. This is a combination of travelogue as he takes you to various locations meeting family members and a self-help manual for surviving the Italian roads

Some of this was really lovely to read, the descriptions of the food and cities made me want to head back to Italy. But I’m not sure that I’d want to take a driving holiday there though; I have driven in Italy and at times it can be terrifying especially in the cities and he does have sound advice for would be drivers. I would have preferred the ‘pit stop’ advice to be moved to the back and heard more about his travels and personal stories. Not a bad little book though.

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