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.

View all my reviews

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

View all my reviews

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.

View all my reviews

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.

View all my reviews

Engines of War: How Wars Were Won & Lost on the Railways by Christian Wolmar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Before the advent of mass transport, battles were short, sharp and brutal. Troops only could be supplied with a certain amount of food, relying on scavenging from the local area and they did not require vast quantities of ammunition. With the advent of the railways, armies were suddenly more mobile. Large number of soldiers could be easily moved into a region, with abundant supplies of materiel to support military action.

In this book, Wolmar details all the major campaigns from the Crimean War, the American Civil War, the Boer Wars and the two World Wars and the pivotal role that the intelligent use of railways played in making these far more deadly than every single conflict that went before. He shows how critical battles were won by those who used the railways properly and how others were lost when armies failed to understand the finer detail of timetables and scheduling. There are examples of how it would cause chaos when officers would send a single package with one man in a whole carriage and how Nazi reliance on roads without having the lorries or the fuel meant that the battles did not have the logistical support that they needed. Having delivered their deadly cargos to the fronts, they were then essential in bring out the wounded and deceased. Mostly the trains were used for supplies, but there are examples of armoured trains, guns and even missile launchers that were developed for the cold war.

This book confirms the maxim that an army marches on its stomach and in this book Wolmar has highlighted the role of the railways in wars over the past century. He has managed to make what could have been a dry subject reasonably interesting. It is full of fascinating detail and anecdotes and eminently readable.

View all my reviews

All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Fairview, Connecticut is a quiet, affluent town that not much happens in. That all changes one night when a girl, Jenny Kramer, is viciously attacked at a friend’s party. She is rushed to hospital where her wounds are treated, and is also give a drug that will erase the memories of her assault. The town is shocked and the search for the attacker begins. Jenny is slowly healing, but the emotional turmoil is a struggle, especially as her factual recall of the night has gone. Her father, Tom, is obsessed with finding the man himself and her mother is trying to pretend it never took place at all.

To help recover the little memory she has she is working with a therapist, Alan. He is using a number of methods to try and draw the memories out again. He is helping her parents too; and as the secrets are uncovered from all three of them, the tensions from all of this put a strain on their marriage before rippling out through the to the wider community, bringing to the surface events that have been hidden for years and are probably best forgotten

To read the read the rest of this review go here

2.5 stars overall

View all my reviews

Rice’s Architectural Primer by Matthew Rice
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Until now if I was to stand a look at a building I could tell you the basic elements, windows, doors, roof, gables, eaves and soffits. But there is a lot more to learn for the amateur. In this little book Rice takes us way back to Norman architecture, with an explanation of key design elements of the that time, and illustrated with cheeky little sketches of buildings and details from pilasters to pediments, buttresses to bulls eyes and queen post to quoins.

I really liked the sketches in the book too; they are little freehand ones that have a certain charm, panache and humour to them. There are broad brushed strokes of significant buildings that he recommends you visit, detailed ones of the specific elements that you should look for to date a building and even a set for the brick, stone and other materials that you will find. The explanations are clear as he describes how trends drift from one era to another and significant architects are highlighted in the text. One thing that did bug me was that key elements were highlighted in capitals and so were other random elements. Generally, not a bad introduction to architecture.

View all my reviews

Wall of Stone by Heather Robinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The year is AD 121 and in the far north of Britannia the Twentieth Legion of Rome stands at the very boundary between the civilised world and the savage Picts. The Roman empire is a long way away, correspondence takes an age to arrive and they feel isolated; tensions are rising as the Picts feel that this is their opportunity to strike hard against the Roman might. Maximus ignores orders and decides that stabilising his position and finding the rebels is more important. One local family, the Teviots, seem to hold the key to infiltrating the rebels, but will his actions solve the problem or cause a war.

I rarely read historical novels preferring non fiction history books, but have read the odd ones in the past such as the Shardlake series which I enjoyed. I promised Heather, who I know a little that I would read and review her book. The main characters are solid with a set of good traits and flaws, the peripheral characters were quite light but didn’t detract from the story. I liked the way the plot tied in with the real events and places in Roman times too and there is a reasonable amount of tension in the storyline. Personally I’m not keen on books with romance in them and whilst it does not dominate, it is still a significant aspect of the story. It was still a book worth reading in my opinion, 3.5 stars overall

Disclosure – I received a copy of the book direct from the author in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews