Category: Review (Page 5 of 130)

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The completion of the Ledra Palace Hotel was the moment that Cyprus felt that it had joined the modern world. But this was early in the 1050s and the peaceful island life they had enjoyed up until now was about to change forever.

It begins with a King. A mere King of the once magnificent country, Egypt. He has booked an entire floor at the hotel so he can contemplate his troubles in relative peace. He heads down to the bar and asks the barman to make him a drink that doesn’t look alcoholic. The barman makes him a brandy sour. It is a sweet and sour drink that fits his mood perfectly.

There is a sherbet for a young lady, a photographer chooses a beer, Jasmin tea for a poet and the maitre’d of the hotel chooses a coffee. The guerrilla fighter selects a VSOP brandy and this is the first hint in the book that this is also an account of the conflict played out on this Mediterranean island that would split it in two and cause untold suffering and misery for the population.

This is a subtle book that reveals the horrors of strife and conflict. Each chapter has a person at its heart and they select a drink that is suited to their particular circumstances.

I liked the way that the book dealt with this. What starts of as an idyllic place slowly descends into strife, the desires of the characters and the drinks that they choose change. The life they once had has gone and their despondency as life crashes down around them is evident from the prose. It shows how quickly that the life that you know can unravel with conflict. Well worth reading.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

If you are anything like me and have grown up (or allegedly grown up that is), with David Attenborough’s marvellous and sometimes magical documentaries on the world we live in, then you will probably be fascinated by the natural world like me. There are hundreds of books out there on nature and they vary from detailed academic tomes to books that tell a more personal story and how people have discovered how nature is a crutch that they have come to rely on.

And then there is this book, Utter, Earth.

It is unlike any other natural history book that I have ever read. It is a series of tongue-in-cheek essays about all manner of subjects from the naming of your progeny, to what happens when you rub a freshly plucked parrot with a poison frog, what the difference is between shoals and schools and which beetle can survive being run over. I particularly liked the final section of the book where Yuen expands his thoughts on all sorts of living creatures.

I really enjoyed the wired and strangely engaging read on the natural world. It is full of wry and humorous observations on the quirks and wonders on this planet we are on. Reading this is a easy way to collect the weird and wonderful facts that you can drop into conversations when people are least expecting it! It’s a great book.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Humanity is very much the dominant species on this pale blue dot. This dominance means that we have the ability to change and dominate almost everything that we choose to, though we are helpless when nature really gets going.

So how did Homo Sapiens end up as this tour de force? Of all of the hominid species, why did we survive? It is these questions and many others that Sarah Wild sets about trying to answer in this book. Even though we share 98% of our DNA with chimps and some other primates, how we got down the family tree from them to us is a long and complicated path. There are numerous other hominid species that have been found all over the world, though most early species were discovered in Africa.

Working out where they fit in the timeline is helped by the modern dating techniques that they can use, the big puzzle is working out how they are all related or not as the case may be. It is a puzzle that has been keeping scientists busy for years and every time they think they are a little closer to answering some of the questions, new bones are discovered and the picture becomes a little more complicated.

I thought that this was a fascinating story of our past. I also like that nothing in this story is clear cut and that as scientists look at our DNA there are the echoes of past species, neanderthal and Denisovan in particular. This is a snapshot of where scientists are, in tracing our shared history, in the time it took to write this book, more bone discoveries had been made that further complicated the picture. I thought that this book was definitely worth reading.

4 out of 5 stars

Japan has long fascinated me as a country, the culture compared to the UK where I live seems utterly alien. I haven’t visited, but those that I know who have, say it was well worth the trip. Taking a holiday there is probably my limit, I am not sure I could do what Iain Maloney did and move to the country with his Japanese wife Minori.

They chose this option because of the onerous regulations and costs that our present government places on the spouses of UK residents. They chose to live in a rural village too, something that most immigrants to the country don’t do, most stay in the larger cities. This very funny book is the story of his trying to comprehend Japanese culture, fit into village life, understand the language and be accepted despite being the only gaijin in the village.

Even though he is an obvious incomer to the place, the residents of the village also see his wife as an incomer too, She is not from that part of the country, so she has had to build trust with the people there, though she does have a head start on the culture and language. He has some strong opinions about his chosen country, and this book is as much a celebration of the things that he loves as well as the things that drive him to drink. He is Scottish after all…

Coming from a country that is relatively inert geologically, he is spooked by the natural events that happen fairly frequently there, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. However, the one that scared him the most was the alerts for the missile that the ever-friendly North Koreans had fired. A reminder of the tension in the geopolitics of the region.

I really liked this and thought that it had the edge over Abroad In Japan by Chris Broad, mostly because of the bone-dry humour that Maloney has. But to be honest they are both worth reading because of the different experiences that they have of living the country.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Barraud was stuck in a tiny stuffy room in a house on Ludgate Hill. She had an uninspiring job entering figures in the premium register, and it was only the though of the weekend that got her through the week. She had filled in the form for the National Service and promptly forgot about it.

It was only after she received a letter saying that she had been accepted that her life changed forever. She arranged for a week’s training in her home village beginning on the 4th of September 1939 and she would work on the land in various capacities over the next five years during the war. Every day on the farm she used different muscles and there were some days that she could barely walk. She was taught how to use a tractor, and even though she never considered that she was a tractor driver when she compared  herself to others on the farm, she was obviously competent enough not to break it.

The more I see of the average countryman, the more I am sure his slowness is the slowness of certainty: all his life he has pitted his wits and his strength against nature and his wisdom is fundamental.

I really enjoyed this book. Barraud’s prose has an easygoing quality about it and I found it to be descriptive and insightful about farm and rural life, whether it is breaking ice in the water butts to fill buckets, leading a horse across a field hoeing the weeds or the daily routines of feeding the horses and other animals around the farm.

She gets involved with the local library as a way of giving something back to the local community. It had been shut for two years and she was concerned about stepping on toes, but they were delighted to have her and gain access to the books there. The descriptions of the villagers and some of her thoughts on the books they choose makes for interesting reading.

The contrast between this and All Around The Year by Michael Morpurgo is quite stark. Even though they are only set 30 years apart, the methods that they use to carry out similar tasks is so very different. I thought that it was quite amusing that she thought that if anyone had time to realise that she was inept she never would have lasted. I somehow doubt that she was that bad, but you can see how she had such a steep learning curve.

Her domestic arrangements of living with her partner, Bunty, must have raised a few eyebrows in this conservative rural setting. But if she had faced any prejudice or comments from the others in the village, then she didn’t mention it in this book. It would have been nice to hear more about her, but I think that when this was first published in the 1940s that might have been too much for people to read about!

5 out of 5 stars

Those who follow me on the various social media networks out there will know that I buy a lot of books. Far more than I can realistically read, but they make me happy and as far as I see it, a home without books is just a house…

Robin Ince also buys a lot of books. Like hundreds of them a year. He will trawl charity and second-hand bookshops looking for anything that piques his interest. If he likes the look of it, he buys it. Knowing what my house looks like, I do wonder just what his house looks like…

This wonderful book is the account of his travels around the independent bookshops of the UK promoting one of his books and a record of the books that he finds and brings home on his tour. He reads far more fiction than I do, but he has a similar principle, if it looks interesting then he will buy it. I do this with non-fiction books…

I am a bibliomaniac.
There is no cure and I am not seeking one.

Whilst we have similar philosophies on books, I don’t think that I have ADHD like he does, but I do think that I have autistic traits hence why I can see the parallels that I have with him. He is a big fan of independent bookshops which will become very evident if you read this book, and I am too. They offer an alternative curated selection of books that reflects the interest of the bookseller, rather than me feeling that I on the receiving end of a corporate marketing machine. If you have read White Spines by Nicholas Royle, then this is a must-read for you.

4 out of 5 stars

The author provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Miscarriage is one of the big taboos in this country. Almost no one talks about it, and even though it is a fairly common occurrence, you rarely get to hear about those who have suffered. I know of one or two couples where it had sadly happened, but I am sure there are others.

As people are reluctant to talk about it, you will probably never know who in your friendship circles has suffered. If you do come to know it is probably going to be from the bereaved mother-to-be. Rarely do we hear from the father’s perspective.

In this book, Moreton takes us on his journey through the heady days of early pregnancy and the anticipation of welcoming a new individual into the world. It is also a reflective book, he delights in tracing back through various family members in the hope of understanding just what sort of person you might have been.

Even though this is a book about a tragedy, it isn’t a sad book. To me, it felt like a love letter to the child they never knew. It is the story of how they came to be and were made by the generations before. It is also a discovery for him, he learns of family secrets that were unknown until now.

For those who have gone through the grief and trauma of an event like this, this might not be the book they need, but for others, there will be some resonance in the words and art.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

It is said that if you never want to work again, then make a hobby you love a job. I am not totally convinced by this reasoning, as I think that I would probably end up disliking it. For me, a hobby is something that you can use to escape the world and pressures of modern life. But for some people it works, though I think if Jane Cooper knew quite how things would turn out, she may have done things differently.

It began with knitting and the discovery of rare-breed wool. Further research led to a whole new world of rare breed sheep that she knew nothing about. She travelled around the country collecting fleeces from those that had rare breeds and meeting the sheep in question. And slowly but surely she fell for one of the breeds.

The one that sparked her interest was the Orkney Borerary a tiny but robust and hardy breed that can trace its heritage way back to the Vikings who first brought this breed to the islands off the Scottish coast. It is one of the few surviving breeds of primitive sheep and they are hardy and much smaller than the sheep you will see in fields.

Before long she was hooked and she wanted a flock of her own. This prompted a move from Newcastle to the islands itself and this book is her story from taking on a handful of sheep to a flock of over 100. However, her enthusiasm is infectious though and she has persuaded a number of other crofters to adopt the sheep in their flocks.

I liked this book. It is an interesting story of how someone who followed her interests and passion and ended up becoming the sole custodian of a flock of this rare breed of sheep. It has not been an easy journey, there have been setbacks, the abattoir being closed on the island by a short-sighted council being one of the challenges they have had to face. Cooper is one of those people who should be celebrated for her tenacity in keeping the Orkney Borerary alive.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Peter Mayne knew India well. He had grown up there and apart from a short period when he was schooled in the UK he was there until 1949 when he moved to Morocco. The partition of the country happened this time and he ended up as deputy sectary to Pakistan’s Ministry of Refugees & Rehabilitation. When serving in this position, he came to know the Paktun people whose tribal lands bridged the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

After a few years spent in Morocco, he wanted to head back to the region to see what it was like now and to catch up with some of his friends from the past. This book is the story of that journey.

I found it a relaxed and slow-paced travel book, but I hought that it is worth reading for a snapshot of the region in the early 1950s. He is a thoughtful and observant traveller, sensitive to the Paktun’s way of life and their outlook. He is welcomed by all the people that he meets, and manages to catch up with some friends and associates from the past. One thing that did strike me from his prose, is that the privilege and authority that he had when he was part of the occupying force is long gone. The balance has very much shifted, but that said, he is still a valued guest, even though he is subject to the whims and demands of his hosts. This power shift becomes even more evident when he keeps trying to push south into Afghanistan. Permission is eventually granted, but then he cannot find anyone to take him.

His lyrical writing style immersed me in the place; I felt the heat as he did, sat alongside him on the bus journeys as they bumped along the roads and watched the ‘Jawanan’ dance through his eyes. They were most happy people, content with their lot but were so difficult to lead. Their independence had been hard won and they weren’t going to let any country usurp that. I thought that this was well worth reading and a reminder that I must read his Moroccan book.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

I don’t mind insects, they have an essential purpose in the world, whether it is pollinating, feeding vast numbers of other species or even clearing all the crap that everything leaves behind. I generally don’t find bugs creepy, but some people do, and this is the inspiration behind all these authors’ stories.

This is the list of stories included:

The Sphinx • Edgar Allan Poe • (1846)
The Blue Beetle: A Confession • A. G. Gray, Jun. • (1857)
The Mummy’s Soul • Anonymous
After Three Thousand Years • Jane G. Austin • (1868)
A Dream of Wild Bees• Olive Schreiner • (1888)
The Moth • H. G. Wells • (1895)
The Captivity of the Professor • A. Lincoln Green • (1901)
The Dream of Akinosuke • Lafcadio Hearn • (2007)
Butterflies • Lafcadio Hearn • (1904)
Caterpillars • E. F. Benson • (1912)
An Egyptian Hornet • Algernon Blackwood • (1915)
The Wicked Flea • J. U. Giesy • (1925)
The Miracle of the Lily • Clare Winger Harris • (1928)
Warning Wings • Arlton Eadie • (1929)
Beyond the Star Curtain • Garth Bentley • (1931)
Leiningen Versus the Ants • Carl Stephenson • (1938)

None of these stories terrified me, I am glad to say, but there was the odd one that made me shudder, in particular Caterpillars. I thought some were better than others, with my favourite being Beyond the Star Curtain, with The Captivity of the Professor coming a close second.

It is a great little collection that these editors have uncovered from the vaults of the British Library. I liked the intro for each of the authors and a potted history of each story, and even better, it was just before the story, so no flipping backwards and forwards. The stores are as diverse as the insects portrayed. Not all of the stories portray the insects as enemies of us, but those stories are in there if you fancy being creeped out a bit.