Life from Elsewhere: Journeys Through World Literature by Amit Chaudhuri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collection of literature has been drawn from ten leading writers from all around the world. The themes of freedom and movement are quite prescient at the moment; and it is this that the authors have chosen to explore in their writing. These stories come to us from all around the world, from places of conflict like Syria and Palestine; an author tries to define where they live and another chooses to defy. We have stories of growing up and another author who feels links to his home country.

The best thing about this is its diversity. Each author has a distinct voice and perspective on their life and the world around them. As there are ten authors and each piece is translated by another person, you don’t get a seamless and even quality; but then that is an aspect of life too. Worth reading for a world view different from my own.

I received a free copy of this from Netgalley for providing a honest review.

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The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Non-fiction by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Up until now, Neil Gaiman has been known as a fiction writer, giving us delights like Neverwhere and American Gods and is the creative force behind the equally amazing and disturbing Sandman series of graphic novels. I first came across him in the collaboration with Terry Pratchett that is Good Omens. When I first read it I hated it as it wasn’t Pratchett enough for me. The second time I came across him was when a book group I am in was reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This melancholy story is an adult fairy tale as a man relives the moments of his childhood with the strange happenings that went on. It blew me away. Since then I have read lots and lots of his books. I like the twists he adds to classic fairy tales, his children’s books enthral and scare at the same time. Best of all he has an imagination that literally knows no bounds. His latest book, The View from the Cheap Seats is his first foray into non-fiction, collected from the articles, speeches, obituaries and sometimes just random stuff he has written.

I did not want to be nailed to the truth; or to be more accurate, I wanted to be able to tell the truth without ever needing to worry about the facts.

The dedication is to his son Ash – these are some of the things that your father loved and said and cared about and believed a long time ago, and so he sets his agenda of subjects that have formed his opinions, shaped his writing and influenced his life. There are pieces on art and music, books and comics, authors who became friends and collaborators. Tales from his childhood as he read his way through the local library and in the process discovered worlds that existed inside the covers. He celebrates the idea; an element that is invisible and contagious, cannot be supressed and is impossible to control. The introduction to books are great, encouraging you to read before coming back to him to carry on the conversation that he has started and to tell you why that book is important to him and why it should be to you too.

I learned that we have the right, or the obligation, to tell old stories in our own ways, because they are our stories, and they must be told.

Gaiman’s mind is like an ocean of infinite width and fathomless depth and in this not insubstantial book he shows us the wealth of ideas he has drawn on and dropped in this ocean. These influences have stretched his imagination and given us, the reader, a series of books and graphic novels that are rich, deep twisted and dark. I liked his fond memories of writers, particularly favourites of mine, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. They were great friends of his, who he misses every day and it brings out happy and sad memories for him. It is full of useful advice too, extolling the virtue of setting your sights high as it is no more effort to produce something cool than it would be to produce something only average and that the only way to do things right is to do them wrong first. Even though he brings all of these things to your attention, persuades you to read and discover the things that made him who he is, there is still something that he does to make his books have that little extra something, that 45 degree skew, that enthrals and scares at the same time.

Brilliant stuff from a master wordsmith.

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It’s on the Meter: One Taxi, Three Mates and 43,000 Miles of Misadventures around the World by Paul Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

Like most great ideas, this started in a pub; why not drive the iconic London cab from Tower Bridge all the way to Sydney, just see how much it would ring up on the meter. After they sobered up, they still though it was a good idea, and this was why they found themselves clicking ‘buy’ on a cab not long after. If only they knew they just what they were letting themselves in for…

Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. Ernest Hemingway

First though, their new vehicle needed prepping. It was given a full service, new tyres and a roof box were fitted. Leigh, the trip’s mechanic, welded in extra seats and he even decided to fit a winch, just in case. The decided to use the journey to raise money for the Red Cross and thought whilst they were there that it would be nice to set a world record as well. Their leaving day fast approached and Europe and the world beckoned.

They were intending on using the Couchsurfer website to find people to stay with on their trip, as well as pulling in favours from friends to make it as cheap a trip as possible, the days driving around Europe were a fun filled, alcohol fuelled blast. As they came closer to the Middle East and Iran, they suddenly realised that it was going to be a lot more dangerous. The people there were lovely, but they found that stopping to take photos in a restricted area was not the cleverest idea… However, that was a piece of cake compared to the journey through Pakistan where they were accompanied by armed guards. India next where they absorbed the sights and smells scared themselves witless on the roads and the acquired the odd bug or two. In Tibet and China they needed an official guide as their car was not Chinese registered, and so they collected Fred. It was a bit of a culture shock for him to be in the same car as three 20 year old English guys. After China came Laos and an opportunity to make their once in a lifetime trip even bigger.

This book is full of amusing anecdotes and occasionally some very scary moments. Remarkably, they managed to survive all the trials and tribulations of being stuck in a small car for over a year. The idea of taking random people they met as passengers was great, as they brought their own personalities to the trip was a great idea; some of them even joined the guys twice. I liked the way that the two authors wrote from their own perspectives, for me it works so much better that having a homogenised text. If you want an alternative travel book to read, you can’t go far wrong staring with this one.

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Hunter Killer: Inside the Lethal World of Drone Warfare by T. Mark McCurley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Everyone has heard of drones, those unmanned, mysterious planes controlled remotely from an air-conditioned office on a military base in America. However, drones are the future of military flying technology as they are now a key counterterrorism tool. They contain cutting edge technology, powerful cameras to zoom right in to verify that the correct target has been located and are armed with Hellfire missiles, packing a lethal punch. McCurley is uniquely qualified to part the curtains on this secret world; he was one of the guys who volunteered to serve and has since become commander of a squadron and written the operating manual for the entire Predator programme.

McCurley recounts his time spent in the squadrons he served in, describing the missions that he flew or was involved with and the emotions he had in his role. When based in America he was flying sorties over Afghanistan and in no danger, but it was a struggle though to drive home through the Los Angeles traffic with the images still rolling round his mind. That all changed when he was posted to Iraq and placed on the front line. They were still flying remote, but they occasionally had insurgents fire RPGs at the base. He made is briefly back to America, before being deployed to Africa to continue the work tracking Al Qaeda operatives and running a squadron that was last in the line for logistic support.

It is a strange book in some ways, it is dry, full of technical and military jargon and on the other hand compelling as McCurley describes the missions tracking his targets. It is terrifying too, when you stop to consider where they can go and what they can do when they get there. It was thought that the removal of pilots from the front line and turning the killing into a video game would sanitise what they were doing; but the impression that you get from this book is that they are far more affected than regular pilots who do not have the high spec cameras to see the targets before and after. The writing is reasonable and worth reading if you have an interest in military technology.

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Retreat from a Rising Sea: Hard Choices in an Age of Climate Change by Orrin H Pilkey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It suffered from an immense category five hurricane with 174mph winds combined with a 28 foot storm surge. Safety measures put in place failed, either because of poor design or substandard materials. Two thousand deaths and $100b of damages later it was one of the worst storms ever to hit America.

So far…

To read the rest of this review go here

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How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery by Kevin Ashton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some of mankind’s greatest creations and inventions have not been discovered in the way that people think; rather than the ‘eureka’ moment where something suddenly makes sense, the process is a series of small steps and failures as the design or idea is refined. In this book, Ashton, draws on various examples and anecdotes to bring us the history of invention.

The orchid that produces the vanilla pod is a wonderful thing, the exotic flavour from the pods are used in so many things now, ice cream being the obvious, but you will find its scent in famous perfumes. Until the middle of the nineteenth-century no one knew how the flowers were fertilised, or if there was a way that they could improve this artificially. It was a small boy who demonstrated that they could be fertilised very simply and gave birth to the multi-million dollar industry that we have today. He explores just how man learnt to fly, hence the title of the book, with the foolhardy parachutists of Paris to the Wright brothers who solved each problem of flight before tackling the next. There are examples of critical breakthroughs that individuals had, like the re-invention of the vacuum cleaner and the development of the stealth bomber after one engineer decided to prove that it was possible.

This was a really enjoyable and accessible read for those interested in the creative process. I particularly liked the chapter on the can of coke where he shows just how many countries and processes are required to get the 330ml of soft drink in your fridge. Ashton is best known for the invention of the phrase ‘internet of things’, and phrase that many have not come across as yet, but will hear of soon. In this he blows some myths out of the water about the creative process, demonstrating just how the iterative method is so much better. He also describes how creative type struggle in the corporate world where uniformity and blandness are celebrated rather than genuine innovation and development. Overall a very interesting book.

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Savannah, Georgia is the oldest city in the Deep South; beautiful and unique it is full of neat squares, shaded cobblestone streets, parks, and historic buildings. But in the 1980’s the city was gripped by the events that happened in Savannah’s grandest mansion very late one night. Was the death of Danny Hansford, a male prostitute, murder or self-defence?

In this narrative, Berendt introduces us to the place that is Savannah, as well as the characters of the time that made this such an entertaining place to live. We meet the Lady Chablis, a transgender drag queen and dancer, Minerva the voodoo priestess, the well-heeled ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club and the man at the focus of the story, Jim Williams. He was tried four times for the murder of Hansford, three times in the city before the final trial elsewhere in the state. Berendt builds a picture of the city as much as the people, and you get a sense of the magnificence of the houses and the people. He builds the tension magnificently, bringing to life the society that really didn’t know what to believe as the trials were underway. He highlights the undercurrent of tension between black and white, this is the deep south after all, and how Williams was able to move at all levels of society.

It is very well written and even though it isn’t far short of 400 pages, took very little time to read. I liked the way he wrote about the characters and made the city feel so real, but there were flaws. But even though it was non-fiction, I felt that there were too many embellishments and it felt more like fiction at times. It has made me want to visit the city though as it feels very atmospheric.

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