en-US Fri, 29 Nov 2024 06:22:24 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 58950516 Every night, above our heads, a drama of epic proportions is playing out. Diamond planets, zombie stars, black holes heavier than a billion Suns. The cast of characters is extraordinary, and each one has its own incredible story to tell.

We once thought of our Earth as unique, but we have now discovered thousands of alien planets, and that’s barely a fraction of the worlds that are out there. And there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on every planet in the Solar System. But amid all this vastness, the Milky Way Galaxy, our Sun and the Earth are home to the only known life in the Universe �� at least for now.

With a foreword from Professor Brian Cox, and access to all the latest stunning NASA photography, Andrew Cohen takes readers on a voyage of discovery, via the probes and telescopes exploring the outer reaches of our galaxy, revealing how it was formed and how it will inevitably be destroyed by the enigmatic black hole at its heart. And beyond our galaxy, the expanding Universe, which holds clues to the biggest mystery of all �� how did it all begin? We now know more about those first moments of existence than we ever thought possible, and hidden in this story of how it all began are the clues to the fate of the Universe itself and everything in it.]]> 256 Andrew Cohen 0008389322 Barbara 5
I have been trying to keep up to date with our expanding universe via podcasts and other online sources.

]]> 4.24 2022
author: Andrew Cohen
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves:
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In brief - "The Universe" was a mind-boggling, challenging read for me but I tottered bravely to the end and found a new interest.

I have been trying to keep up to date with our expanding universe via podcasts and other online sources.


]]> 373572 Earth, the acclaimed author of Trilobite! and Life takes us on a grand tour of the earth’s physical past, showing how the history of plate tectonics is etched in the landscape around us.

��

Beginning with Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in Roman times helped spark the science of geology, and ending in a lab in the West of England where mathematical models and lab experiments replace direct observation, Richard Fortey tells us what the present says about ancient geologic processes. He shows how plate tectonics came to rule the geophysical landscape and how the evidence is written in the hills and in the stones. And in the process, he takes us on a wonderful journey around the globe to visit some of the most fascinating and intriguing spots on the planet.]]> 480 Richard Fortey 0375706208 Barbara 5
Fortey's personal charm illuminates the tales of his geological adventures and his elegant prose enhances the rich subject matter.

I not only look on my local environment with a fresh eye, thanks to Richard Fortey, but have developed an extra affection for and interest in our besieged planet.


]]> 3.91 2004
author: Richard Fortey
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:
A book I have read and re-read.

Fortey's personal charm illuminates the tales of his geological adventures and his elegant prose enhances the rich subject matter.

I not only look on my local environment with a fresh eye, thanks to Richard Fortey, but have developed an extra affection for and interest in our besieged planet.



]]> 264288
But these people live on the brink of seismic change--10,000 years of climate shifts culminating in abrupt global warming that will usher in a fundamentally changed human world. After the Ice is the story of this momentous period--one in which a seemingly minor alteration in temperature could presage anything from the spread of lush woodland to the coming of apocalyptic floods--and one in which we find the origins of civilization itself.

Drawing on the latest research in archaeology, human genetics, and environmental science, After the Ice takes the reader on a sweeping tour of 15,000 years of human history. Steven Mithen brings this world to life through the eyes of an imaginary modern traveler--John Lubbock, namesake of the great Victorian polymath and author of Prehistoric Times. With Lubbock, readers visit and observe communities and landscapes, experiencing prehistoric life--from aboriginal hunting parties in Tasmania, to the corralling of wild sheep in the central Sahara, to the efforts of the Guila Naquitz people in Oaxaca to combat drought with agricultural innovations.

Part history, part science, part time travel, After the Ice offers an evocative and uniquely compelling portrayal of diverse cultures, lives, and landscapes that laid the foundations of the modern world.]]> 664 Steven Mithen 0674019997 Barbara 5
I'm in Libya at the moment and taking a rest before accompanying the author's fictional traveler through the last of the continents, Africa.

It's been a slow journey and I'm tottering now but it's also been an absorbing experience - helping me also to weave together threads of facts I'd remembered or picked up here and there in my reading.

I particularly enjoyed re-visiting Western Asia and the Americas.





]]> 4.10 2003
author: Steven Mithen
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:
I'm just finishing my second trip though "After the Ice" - long enough after the first for me to have remembered it only vaguely.

I'm in Libya at the moment and taking a rest before accompanying the author's fictional traveler through the last of the continents, Africa.

It's been a slow journey and I'm tottering now but it's also been an absorbing experience - helping me also to weave together threads of facts I'd remembered or picked up here and there in my reading.

I particularly enjoyed re-visiting Western Asia and the Americas.






]]> 9302087 463 Philip Ball 0199780072 Barbara 3 3.25 2010
author: Philip Ball
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/09/19
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
Hmmm. A bit dry. Besides, I disagreed with him about a few value judgements and I am never wrong!
]]> 203164357 The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize �� a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick - except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick�� is DC Reggie Chase.

The crumbling house - Burton Makepeace and its chatelaine the Dowager Lady Milton - suffered the loss of their last remaining painting of any value, a Turner, some years ago. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.

Jackson, a reluctant hostage to the snowstorm, has been investigating the theft of another The Woman with a Weasel, a portrait, taken from the house of an elderly widow, on the morning she died. The suspect this time is the widow’s carer, Melanie. Is this a coincidence or is there a connection? And what secrets does The Woman with a Weasel hold? The puzzle is Jackson’s to solve. And let’s not forget that a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace.

All the while, in a bid to make money, Burton Makepeace is determined to keep hosting a shambolic Murder Mystery that acts as a backdrop while the real drama is being played out in the house.

A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.]]> 320 Kate Atkinson 0385547994 Barbara 5
I love her clear-eyed, wry, touching, scathing, amusing novels - so full of allusions and, in this case, of encounters with old friends.]]> 3.70 2024
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves:
review:
Kate Atkinson can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned so I forgive her for making me begin the book three times before I got a firm grasp of the many goings-on.

I love her clear-eyed, wry, touching, scathing, amusing novels - so full of allusions and, in this case, of encounters with old friends.
]]> 18818806 The Turning-Point of My Life, How to Make History Dates Stick, The Memorable Assassination, A Scrap of Curious History, Switzerland, the Cradle of Liberty, At the Shrine of St. Wagner, William Dean Howells, English as She is Taught, A Simplified Alphabet, As Concerns Interpreting the Deity, Concerning Tobacco, Taming the Bicycle, Is Shakespeare Dead? According to Wikipedia: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European royalty. Twain enjoyed immense public popularity, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. American author William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature."]]> 224 Mark Twain 1463791992 Barbara 4 3.92 1870
author: Mark Twain
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1870
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 45032 488 Jane Austen Barbara 5 3.86 1814
author: Jane Austen
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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review:

]]> 322963 The Watsons is Jane Austen at her storytelling best. Author of the masterpieces Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Jane Austen (1775��1817) is one of the most beloved novelists of all time.]]> 67 Jane Austen 1843911450 Barbara 5 3.50 1805
author: Jane Austen
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1805
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
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]]> 59139637 Hippocrasy, rheumatologist and epidemiologist Rachelle Buchbinder and orthopaedic surgeon Ian Harris argue that the benefits of medical treatments are often wildly overstated and the harms understated. That overtreatment and overdiagnosis are rife. And the medical system is not fit for purpose: designed to deliver health care not health. This powerful exposé reveals the tests, drugs, and treatments that provide little or no benefit for patients and the inherent problem of a medical system based on treating rather than preventing illness. The book also provides tips to empower patients—do I really need this treatment? What are the risks? Are there simpler, safer options? What happens if I do nothing? Plus solutions to help restructure how medicine is delivered to help doctors live up to their Hippocratic Oath.]]> 304 Rachelle Buchbinder 1742237355 Barbara 5 4.15
author: Rachelle Buchbinder
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 29117952 16 Adolphe Adam 0193431750 Barbara 1 1.00 1997
author: Adolphe Adam
name: Barbara
average rating: 1.00
book published: 1997
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves:
review:
Banal arrangement, hard to sing without gagging.
]]> 61722898

When Richard Fidler came across the account of Ibn Fadlan - a tenth-century Arab diplomat who travelled all the way from Baghdad to the cold riverlands of modern-day Russia - he was struck by how modern his voice was, like that of a twenty-first century time-traveller dropped into a medieval wilderness. On further investigation, Fidler discovered this was just one of countless reports from Arab and Persian travellers of their adventures in medieval China, India, Africa and Byzantium. Put together, he saw these stories formed a crazy quilt picture of a lost world.

The Book of Roads & Kingdoms is the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age; an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India. Imperial Baghdad, founded as the 'City of Peace', quickly became the biggest and richest metropolis in the world. Standing atop one of the city's four gates, its founder Here is the Tigris River, and nothing stands between it and China.

In a flourishing culture of science, literature and philosophy, the citizens of Baghdad were fascinated by the world and everything in it. Inspired by their Prophet's commandment to seek knowledge all over the world, these traders, diplomats, soldiers and scientists left behind the cosmopolitan pleasures of Baghdad to venture by camel, horse and boat into the unknown. Those who returned from these distant foreign lands wrote accounts of their adventures, both realistic and fantastical - tales of wonder and horror and delight.

Fidler expertly weaves together these beautiful and thrilling pictures of a dazzling lost world with the story of an empire's rise and utterly devastating fall.

Praise for Ghost Empire

'...thanks to the stylish cleverness of an exceptionally curious and talented man, we can feast on what strange magic the city brought - and still brings today - to the world beyond. I am speechless with admiration. - Simon Winchester

'Fidler's story leaves its readers with a sense of faith in the renewing, illumination, social powers of historical narrative.' - Sydney Morning Herald

Praise for The Golden Maze

'The times, the places and the people are vibrant, arresting and breathing ... This is the magic and power of this work.' - Favel Parrett, The Age]]> 448 Richard Fidler 1460715276 Barbara 5 4.11 2022
author: Richard Fidler
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/05
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]]> 28912289
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.]]> 518 1347905782 Barbara 5 5.00 2005
author: Henriette-Lucy de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 139399948 In the seventh installment in the Strike series, Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult.

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . .

Utterly pulse-pounding, The Running Grave moves Strike's and Robin's story forward in this epic, unforgettable seventh installment of the series.]]> 960 Robert Galbraith 0316572101 Barbara 4 I do enjoy the Robert Galbraith mysteries but, for the first time, I became bored by the blandness of the prose, the plodding development of the plot and having to keep up with a cast of dozens (and dozens).

But I'd paid for my copy so I pushed on till, at about page 300, it suddenly became rivetting and remained rivetting, on and off, to the end.

I would rate this Galbraith mystery 3 and a half but, out of loyalty to an author whose work I have enjoyed, I'll give it a 4.
]]> 4.56 2023
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/19
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves:
review:

I do enjoy the Robert Galbraith mysteries but, for the first time, I became bored by the blandness of the prose, the plodding development of the plot and having to keep up with a cast of dozens (and dozens).

But I'd paid for my copy so I pushed on till, at about page 300, it suddenly became rivetting and remained rivetting, on and off, to the end.

I would rate this Galbraith mystery 3 and a half but, out of loyalty to an author whose work I have enjoyed, I'll give it a 4.

]]> 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Barbara 5
I suspected there would be a slackening of narrative tension as the incident-packed early chapters spun out into a yarn of slow life and monotony in ice-bound remotest Newfoundland. But there were surprises, horrors and enchantments to keep me fascinated right till the last chapter.

And, off-hand, I can't remember recently meeting a more sympathetic main character than the hero.

Work hard at this novel in the beginning, stick with it and you'll end up completely charmed. I promise.

]]> 3.88 1993
author: Annie Proulx
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/16
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves:
review:
The densely metaphorical prose of the opening chapters and the font size of the UK (Fourth Estate) edition almost defeated me. Then I invested in some reading glasses and continued the close reading and occasional re-reading of sentences that Annie E. Prouxl demanded.

I suspected there would be a slackening of narrative tension as the incident-packed early chapters spun out into a yarn of slow life and monotony in ice-bound remotest Newfoundland. But there were surprises, horrors and enchantments to keep me fascinated right till the last chapter.

And, off-hand, I can't remember recently meeting a more sympathetic main character than the hero.

Work hard at this novel in the beginning, stick with it and you'll end up completely charmed. I promise.


]]> 19958436 'The masterwork of a great genius' William Makepeace ThackerayA novel of intense emotional power, heightened atmosphere and fierce intelligence, Jane Eyre dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom on her own terms. Its heroine Jane endures loneliness and cruelty in the home of her heartless aunt and the cold charity of Lowood School. Her natural independence and spirit prove necessary when she takes a position as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of a shameful secret forces her to make a terrible choice. Edited with an Introduction and notes by STEVIE DAVIES]]> 271 Charlotte Brontë Barbara 0 4.34 1847
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1847
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves:
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]]> 36992483
On the first, she ventured further south than any human had ever been. On the second, she vanished with her 129-strong crew in the wastes of the Canadian Arctic.

Her fate remained a mystery for over 160 years.

Then, in 2014, she was found.

This is her story.]]> 334 Michael Palin 184794812X Barbara 0 to-read 4.26 2018
author: Michael Palin
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 39863488
Dark, suspenseful, and deeply atmospheric, The Lost Man is the highly anticipated next book from the bestselling and award-winning Jane Harper, author of The Dry and Force of Nature.]]> 340 Jane Harper 1250105684 Barbara 5 4.12 2018
author: Jane Harper
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves:
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]]> 58085260
Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have—older than language. In Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do.

Fueled by his own spatial shortcomings, Kemp describes the brain regions that orient us in space and the specialized neurons that do it. Place cells. Grid cells. He examines how the brain plans routes, recognizes landmarks, and makes sure we leave a room through a door instead of trying to leave through a painting. From the secrets of supernavigators like the indigenous hunters of the Bolivian rainforest to the confusing environments inhabited by people with place blindness, Kemp charts the myriad ways in which we find our way and explains the cutting-edge neuroscience behind them.

How did Neanderthals navigate? Why do even seasoned hikers stray from the trail? What spatial skills do we inherit from our parents? How can smartphones and our reliance on GPS devices impact our brains? In engaging, engrossing language, Kemp unravels the mysteries of navigating and links the brain’s complex functions to the effects that diseases like Alzheimer’s, types of amnesia, and traumatic brain injuries have on our perception of the world around us.

A book for anyone who has ever felt compelled to venture off the beaten path, Dark and Magical Places is a stirring reminder of the beauty in losing yourself to your surroundings. And the beauty in understanding how our brains can guide us home.]]> 256 Christopher Kemp 1324005386 Barbara 5 4.01
author: Christopher Kemp
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/09/14
shelves:
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]]> 869359 472 La Marquise de La Tour du Pin 1417905395 Barbara 5 4.50 2005
author: La Marquise de La Tour du Pin
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/09/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 11543850 0 Frances Burney Barbara 0 currently-reading 5.00 2010
author: Frances Burney
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 2153405 Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience from Harvard University.

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what's it's like to literally lose your mind...]]> 292 Lisa Genova 0595440096 Barbara 3
I had thought I was buying a novel but I'd bought a case-study of a generic character.]]> 4.32 2007
author: Lisa Genova
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/08/16
shelves:
review:
A helpful self-diagnosis tool for those of us who are reaching the age of looming incompetence. As soon as I had given myself the all-clear I put the book down.

I had thought I was buying a novel but I'd bought a case-study of a generic character.
]]> 17624192 Peter Atkins wants to change all that. In What is Chemistry? he encourages us to look at chemistry anew, through a chemist's eyes, to understand its central concepts and to see how it contributes not only towards our material comfort, but also to human culture. He shows how chemistry provides the infrastructure of our world, through the chemical industry, the fuels of heating, power generation, and transport, as well as the fabrics of our clothing and furnishings.
By considering the remarkable achievements that chemistry has made, and examining its place between both physics and biology, Atkins presents a fascinating, clear, and rigorous exploration of the world of chemistry -- its structure, core concepts, and contributions.]]> 144 Peter Atkins 0199683980 Barbara 0 to-read 3.68 2013
author: Peter Atkins
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60041226 A timely and paradigm-shifting argument that all members of a democracy must participate in elections, by a leading political expert and Washington Post journalist Americans are required to pay taxes, serve on juries, get their kids vaccinated, get driver’s licenses, and sometimes go to war for their country. So why not ask—or require—every American to vote?

In 100% Democracy, E.J. Dionne and Miles Rapoport argue that universal participation in our elections should be a cornerstone of our system. It would be the surest way to protect against voter suppression and the active disenfranchisement of a large share of our citizens. And it would create a system true to the Declaration of Independence’s aspirations by calling for a government based on the consent of all of the governed.

It’s not as radical or utopian as it in Australia, where everyone is required to vote (Australians can vote “none of the above,�� but they have to show up), 91.9 percent of Australians voted in the last major election in 2019, versus 60.1 percent in America’s 2016 presidential race. Australia hosts voting-day parties and actively celebrates this key civic duty.

It is time for the United States to take a major leap forward and recognize voting as both a fundamental civil right and a solemn civic duty required of every eligible U.S. citizen.]]> 224 E.J. Dionne Jr. 1620976773 Barbara 5 3.87
author: E.J. Dionne Jr.
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/04/28
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]]> 54831529 A deeply powerful, poetic and compelling book on the challenges facing our world, from one of Australia's most experienced journalists and international commentators, Stan Grant.

History is turning.

In only a few short decades, we have come a long way from Francis Fukuyama's declaration of the 'end of history' and the triumph of liberal democracy in 1989. Now, with the inexorable rise and rise of China, the ascendancy of authoritarianism and the retreat of democracy, the world stands at a moment of crisis. This is a time of momentous upheaval and enormous geopolitical shifts, compounded by global pandemics, looming world depression, Islamist and far right terror, and a resurgent white supremacy. The world is in lockdown and the showdown with China is accelerated - and while the West has been at the forefront of history for 200 years, it must now adapt to a world it no longer dominates. At this moment, we stand on a precipice - what will become of us?

Stan Grant is one of our foremost observers and chroniclers of the world in crisis. Weaving his personal experiences of reporting from the front lines of the world's flashpoints, together with his deep understanding of politics, history and philosophy, he explores what is driving the world to crisis and how it might be averted. From China to North Korea and Northern Ireland to South Africa and the Middle East - Stan captures this moment of democracy in retreat and authoritarianism on the march. He fears for the worst, but begins to chart the way forward. There is bitterness, anger and history here, but there is also the capacity for negotiation, forgiveness and hope.]]> 304 Stan Grant 146075803X Barbara 5
Grant is a Wiradjuri man who, as a boy, was a demon reader and who, against all the odds that were facing a young man of his background and time, became an outstanding journalist. I bought this book because I'm trying to educate myself about China and he was a frontline reporter for CNN in China and other parts of Asia - I was more than informed, I was fascinated. In the case of his reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan I was horrified.

Grant examines his experiences in the context of history and through the lens of the political philosophy of which he is an obsessive student. (Actually, I don't mind if he never mentions Hegel again). His predictions of the future for liberal democracy and the post WWII peace are ....sobering. I don't entirely share his pessimism and, if I've understood him correctly, I'm more enthusiastic about liberal democracy.]]> 4.23
author: Stan Grant
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/13
date added: 2022/04/13
shelves:
review:


Grant is a Wiradjuri man who, as a boy, was a demon reader and who, against all the odds that were facing a young man of his background and time, became an outstanding journalist. I bought this book because I'm trying to educate myself about China and he was a frontline reporter for CNN in China and other parts of Asia - I was more than informed, I was fascinated. In the case of his reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan I was horrified.

Grant examines his experiences in the context of history and through the lens of the political philosophy of which he is an obsessive student. (Actually, I don't mind if he never mentions Hegel again). His predictions of the future for liberal democracy and the post WWII peace are ....sobering. I don't entirely share his pessimism and, if I've understood him correctly, I'm more enthusiastic about liberal democracy.
]]> 10361594 436 1165637731 Barbara 5 3.81 1869
author: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de Sévigné
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1869
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 283533 560 Frederic M. Wheelock 0060956410 Barbara 5
The subtitle of Wheelock's Latin is "based on the writings of Cicero, Vergil, and other major Roman authors". My incentive for undertaking a course in the language was to be able to read the poetry and maybe a bit of the prose and I am very much enjoying the book's SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE.

The course stretches me and demands that I get re-acquainted with the structure, with the bones, of the language - and I'm getting a similar satisfaction out of that as I've had from solving a crossword puzzle.

Much later. I'd got up to I think it was the pluperfect subjunctive passive when the Covid restrictions eased and I put Wheelock aside for a while, maybe till the next lockdown.]]> 4.13 1956
author: Frederic M. Wheelock
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/18
date added: 2022/02/18
shelves:
review:
This textbook is helping me get exactly what I wanted out of a course to bring my Latin back from the dead (I'm up to Caput 14 of 40 of the 7th edition).

The subtitle of Wheelock's Latin is "based on the writings of Cicero, Vergil, and other major Roman authors". My incentive for undertaking a course in the language was to be able to read the poetry and maybe a bit of the prose and I am very much enjoying the book's SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE.

The course stretches me and demands that I get re-acquainted with the structure, with the bones, of the language - and I'm getting a similar satisfaction out of that as I've had from solving a crossword puzzle.

Much later. I'd got up to I think it was the pluperfect subjunctive passive when the Covid restrictions eased and I put Wheelock aside for a while, maybe till the next lockdown.
]]> 341167 320 014044405X Barbara 5
For others who are interested in getting a closer acquaintance with her letters, French texts are online at . I found the footnotes helpful.]]> 3.92 1725
author: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de Sévigné
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1725
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/18
date added: 2022/02/18
shelves:
review:
I have become a close acquaintance of Mme de S, who was so clever, so well-informed, so wry and so soft-hearted. She was a witness to history - being acquainted with life at the centre of power, Versailles. And better still, because she had the respect and even friendship of many of the most interesting men and women of her country and time.

For others who are interested in getting a closer acquaintance with her letters, French texts are online at . I found the footnotes helpful.
]]> 43582376 A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.

A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.]]> 450 Bill Bryson 0385539304 Barbara 5 4.30 2019
author: Bill Bryson
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/19
date added: 2022/02/18
shelves:
review:
A useful text for dipping into and fleshing out the bare bones of what think I know of the subject. Bill Bryson is always good company.
]]> 49078674 What if you found out that your family isn't yours at all? How far would you go to protect them? A gripping new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl Before. . . .

Pete Riley answers the door one morning and lets in a parent's worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, a stranger who breaks the devastating news that Pete's son, Theo, isn't actually his son--he is the Lamberts', switched at birth by an understaffed hospital while their real son was sent home with Miles and his wife, Lucy. For Pete, his partner Maddie, and the little boy they've been raising for the past two years, life will never be the same again.

The two families, reeling from the shock, take comfort in shared good intentions, eagerly entwining their very different lives in the hope of becoming one unconventional modern family. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an official investigation that unearths some disturbing questions about the night their children were switched. How much can they trust the other parents--or even each other? What secrets are hidden behind the Lamberts' glossy front door? Stretched to the breaking point, Pete and Maddie discover they will each stop at nothing to keep their family safe.

They are done playing nice.]]> 416 J.P. Delaney 1984821342 Barbara 4 3.99 2020
author: J.P. Delaney
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/10/30
shelves:
review:
A satisfying puzzler/thriller. Once I'd got into it I became thoroughly immersed.
]]> 16147571 Constance Campbell Petrie Barbara 5
Tom Petrie (1831-1910), explorer and grazier, arrived in the then convict settlement of Moreton Bay in 1837. His reminiscences of what was to become the colony of Queensland were recorded by his daughter, Constance, in 1904. The book includes a fascinating record the life and customs of the aboriginal population, whose dialect he spoke and in whose activities he was invited to participate. An Australian classic and an important source for researchers of early Aboriginal / White settler conflict��. ]]> 4.29 1992
author: Constance Campbell Petrie
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/08/03
shelves:
review:
I began a group reading of Tom Petrie's Reminiscences for Librivox. We found it a marvellously interesting book. Our summary reads:

Tom Petrie (1831-1910), explorer and grazier, arrived in the then convict settlement of Moreton Bay in 1837. His reminiscences of what was to become the colony of Queensland were recorded by his daughter, Constance, in 1904. The book includes a fascinating record the life and customs of the aboriginal population, whose dialect he spoke and in whose activities he was invited to participate. An Australian classic and an important source for researchers of early Aboriginal / White settler conflict��.
]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Barbara 3
I think "Sapiens" is based on a course given to undergraduates a couple of decades ago so the contents would naturally be not quite up-to-date with topics that I've been following avidly. That's OK, we expect that and make adjustments.

It's reasonable for the author to fall into teaching mode but I am not an undergraduate and I've already formed my own opinion about many of the topics being treated. I began scanning pages to get at the meat of the matter, the data, again.

Though I've put the book down, I've left it on the bedside table for more scanning and, hopefully, to become fully engaged with it after giving it a break.]]> 4.34 2011
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/01
date added: 2021/07/30
shelves:
review:
I left this book at page 191.

I think "Sapiens" is based on a course given to undergraduates a couple of decades ago so the contents would naturally be not quite up-to-date with topics that I've been following avidly. That's OK, we expect that and make adjustments.

It's reasonable for the author to fall into teaching mode but I am not an undergraduate and I've already formed my own opinion about many of the topics being treated. I began scanning pages to get at the meat of the matter, the data, again.

Though I've put the book down, I've left it on the bedside table for more scanning and, hopefully, to become fully engaged with it after giving it a break.
]]> 54443313
Emerging from a collection of disparate city states 150 years ago, no other country has had as turbulent a history as Germany or enjoyed so much prosperity in such a short time frame. Today, as much of the world succumbs to authoritarianism and democracy is undermined from its heart, Germany stands as a bulwark for decency and stability.

Mixing personal journey and anecdote with compelling empirical evidence, this is a searching and entertaining exploration of the country many in the West still love to hate. Raising important questions for our post-Brexit landscape, Kampfner asks why Germany has become a model for others to emulate, while Britain still languishes in wartime nostalgia and fails to tackle contemporary challenges. Part memoir, part history, part travelogue, Why the Germans Do It Better is a rich and witty portrait of an eternally fascinating country.]]> 320 John Kampfner 1786499754 Barbara 0 to-read 3.94 2020
author: John Kampfner
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 428557
Comedy of errors --
Two gentlemen of Verona --
Taming of the shrew --
Love's labour's lost --
Midsummer night's dream --
Merchant of Venice --
As you like it --
Much ado about nothing --
Merry wives of Windsor --
Twelfth night --
Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida --
All's well that ends well --
Measure for measure --
First part of King Henry the sixth --
Second part of King Henry the sixth --
Third part of King Henry the sixth --
Tragedy of Richard the third --
Tragedy of King Richard the second --
Life and death of King John --
First part of King Henry the fourth --
Second part of King Henry the fourth --
Life of Henry the fifth --
Life of King Henry the eighth --
Tragedy of Titus Andronicus --
Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet --
Tragedy of Julius Caesar --
Tragedy of Hamlet --
Tragedy of Othello --
Tragedy of King Lear --
Tragedy of Macbeth --
Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra --
Tragedy of Coriolanus --
Life of Timon of Athens --
Pericles, Prince of Tyre --
Tragedy of Cymbeline --
Winter's tale --
Tempest --
Poems and the sonnets.]]> 1517 William Shakespeare 0760759391 Barbara 5 4.60 1623
author: William Shakespeare
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1623
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 56950860
Imagine being afraid you’ve gone insane, and living in terror that all who know you might find out. Imagine trying to describe your ‘altered state�� to a succession of doubting psychiatrists.

And now imagine that lasts for sixty years.

**

Carol Prisant lives in Manhattan with an almost-embarrassing, but beloved. three-pound dog, and she writes. But she used to be, in no particular a page at a library—when there were pages and people used libraries—a model, an antiques dealer, an appraiser, and a restorer of old houses. For the past 31 years, Carol has been the New York editor of the UK magazine, The World of Interiors. She’s authored three books of Antiques Roadshow Primer (a New York Times best-seller); Antiques Roadshow Collectibles (the companion volume); Good, Better, Best (the connoisseurship of antiques) plus Dog House (a tender memoir) Catch 26 (a novel) and Seven Shrinks (a not so tender memoir).]]> 215 Carol Prisant Barbara 4
But now I read that, as a young woman, she suffered from extreme anxiety with neurological results:

"Imagine going to sleep one night as yourself—the emotional, anxious person you’ve been all your life—but on awakening, not being able to recognize your face and body in the mirror. No longer feeling empathy, joy or love. But feeling no anxieties at all."

We accompany her through six decades of expensive and frustrating psychoanalysis by uncomprehending "shrinks" before her condition was diagnosed. However Ms Prisant doesn't describe continuing to "feel no anxieties at all", certainly not about her family or air-travel.

A wrenching but fascinating read.]]> 4.38
author: Carol Prisant
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves:
review:
Carol Prisant is a dazzling writer and I've followed her since I came across an article about her distinctive and beautiful Manhattan apartment (was it in our shared favourite magazine - "World of Interiors"?). So I discovered that, as well as having style and wit, she shared my love of classical music and of the Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian.

But now I read that, as a young woman, she suffered from extreme anxiety with neurological results:

"Imagine going to sleep one night as yourself—the emotional, anxious person you’ve been all your life—but on awakening, not being able to recognize your face and body in the mirror. No longer feeling empathy, joy or love. But feeling no anxieties at all."

We accompany her through six decades of expensive and frustrating psychoanalysis by uncomprehending "shrinks" before her condition was diagnosed. However Ms Prisant doesn't describe continuing to "feel no anxieties at all", certainly not about her family or air-travel.

A wrenching but fascinating read.
]]> 92697
In these essays on travels in Italy written from 1872 to 1909, Henry James explores art and religion, political shifts and cultural revolutions, and the nature of travel itself. James's enthusiastic appreciation of the unparalleled aesthetic allure of Venice, the vitality of Rome, and the noisy, sensuous appeal of Naples is everywhere marked by pervasive regret for the disappearance of the past and by ambivalence concerning the transformation of nineteenth-century Europe. John Auchard's lively introduction and extensive notes illuminate the surprising differences between the historical, political, and artistic Italy of James's travels and the metaphoric Italy that became the setting of some of his best-known works of fiction. This edition includes an appendix of James's book reviews on Italian travel-writing.]]> 310 Henry James 1426449305 Barbara 4
Like most people who've been there, Henry James and I love Italy with a passion. I enjoyed revisiting and learning and researching as I read along and had a chance of seeing Italy through the eyes of a cultivated art-lover.

Yet I am ambivalent about this work. It is rich and dense and historically interesting. We see Italy from before its unification to the pre-war years through the sensibilities of a highly refined and insightful observer. The earlier essays, in particular, delighted me.

Unless they were revised decades later for publication in book form.

The revised essays and the last essays are examples of the notorious "late style" of Henry James. Sometimes this reader just wanted to smack him for being willfully obscure.]]> 3.63 1909
author: Henry James
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1909
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves:
review:
This is a review of the original 1909 edition of "Italian Hours" which, as it was out of copyright, was the edition I used to record the work for Librivox. That volume contains a collection of essays covering decades of James's Italian travels - ranging from his twenties to his old age (the age of the automobile).

Like most people who've been there, Henry James and I love Italy with a passion. I enjoyed revisiting and learning and researching as I read along and had a chance of seeing Italy through the eyes of a cultivated art-lover.

Yet I am ambivalent about this work. It is rich and dense and historically interesting. We see Italy from before its unification to the pre-war years through the sensibilities of a highly refined and insightful observer. The earlier essays, in particular, delighted me.

Unless they were revised decades later for publication in book form.

The revised essays and the last essays are examples of the notorious "late style" of Henry James. Sometimes this reader just wanted to smack him for being willfully obscure.
]]> 9240564 72 Jane Magrath 0739020498 Barbara 5 5.00 1993
author: Jane Magrath
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 6139116 80 Jane Magrath 0739016377 Barbara 5 4.60 1993
author: Jane Magrath
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 20376659 538 James Boswell 551876250X Barbara 5 5.00
author: James Boswell
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 51807232
Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.

As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .]]> 944 Robert Galbraith 0751579939 Barbara 4
We meet up again with the agreeable and interesting principals - Cormoran Strike and Robin - and encounter an enormous cast of extras, including psychopaths and their grisly deeds. I did not solve the puzzle (good!).

I loved the quotidian aspects of the novel including the details of visits to various places and venues in England. However, I worry about the unhealthy diets of the protagonists - will they survive long enough for another Cormoran Strike novel? I hope so. 5 stars the enjoyment I got out of this complex novel but 4 stars overall because, though its 930 something pages weren't a bother for me personally, that is a bit l-o-n-g.

PS: I've just read some one star reviews criticising the book for being transphobic. I've thought and thought and I am baffled at what could have inspired these reviews. ]]> 4.32 2020
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/03
date added: 2020/12/02
shelves:
review:


We meet up again with the agreeable and interesting principals - Cormoran Strike and Robin - and encounter an enormous cast of extras, including psychopaths and their grisly deeds. I did not solve the puzzle (good!).

I loved the quotidian aspects of the novel including the details of visits to various places and venues in England. However, I worry about the unhealthy diets of the protagonists - will they survive long enough for another Cormoran Strike novel? I hope so. 5 stars the enjoyment I got out of this complex novel but 4 stars overall because, though its 930 something pages weren't a bother for me personally, that is a bit l-o-n-g.

PS: I've just read some one star reviews criticising the book for being transphobic. I've thought and thought and I am baffled at what could have inspired these reviews.
]]> 189589
These centuries, as the author demonstrates, were the era in which the most deeply rooted of ancient institutions disappeared for all time. By 476 the Roman empire had vanished from western Europe; by 655 the Persian empire had vanished from the Near East.

Peter Brown, Professor of History at Princeton University, examines these changes and men's reactions to them, but his account shows that the period was also one of outstanding new beginnings and defines the far-reaching impact both of Christianity on Europe and of Islam on the Near East. The result is a lucid answer to a crucial question in world history; how the exceptionally homogeneous Mediterranean world of c. 200 became divided into the three mutually estranged societies of the Middle Ages: Catholic Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam. We still live with the results of these contrasts.]]> 216 Peter Brown 0393958035 Barbara 0 to-read 4.09 1971
author: Peter Brown
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2484949 Of course, rewriting a page-turner from the past offers some major perils, not the least of them being comparisons to the original. Carey, however, more than withstands the test of time, alluding to the formality of Victorian prose without ever bending over backward to duplicate it. In addition, his eye for physical detail--and the ways in which such details open small or large windows onto character--is on par with that of Dickens. Here, for example, he pins down both the body and soul of a household servant: "Miss Mott was lean and sinewy and there was nowhere much for such a violent shiver to hide itself. Consequently it went right up her spine and disappeared inside her little white cap and then, just when it seemed lost, it came out the other side and pulled up the ends of her thin mouth in a grimace." Throw in a wicked mastery of period slang, a subplot about Victorian mesmerism (of which Dickens was, in fact, a practitioner), and an amazing storytelling gift, and you have a novel which meets and exceeds almost any expectation one might bring to it.]]> Peter Carey 070223043X Barbara 0 to-read 3.82 1997
author: Peter Carey
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15166035 Tom was over sixty years old when he told his life story to his daughter Constance. As a member of one of Brisbane's founding families, he grew up on the colonial frontier. His eyewitness count of the family's early days in Brisbane Town is unmatched for its lively historical detail.
Tom had a lifelong friendship with the Aborigines, and he tells of their material culture, customs and beliefs. In writing this book, Constance and Tom tried to correct some of the popular stereotypes about Aboriginal people.
This new edition of Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of Early Queensland features an illuminating and challenging introduction by Mark Cryle, which reveals the first published details of the life of the author, Constance Campbell Petrie.]]> 323 Constance Campbell Petrie 0702223832 Barbara 5
Tom Petrie (1831-1910), explorer and grazier, arrived in the then convict settlement of Moreton Bay in 1837. His reminiscences of what was to become the colony of Queensland were recorded by his daughter, Constance, in 1904. The book includes a fascinating record the life and customs of the aboriginal population, whose dialect he spoke and in whose activities he was invited to participate. An Australian classic and an important source for researchers of early Aboriginal / White settler conflict��.
]]> 4.25 1992
author: Constance Campbell Petrie
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/03
date added: 2020/07/23
shelves:
review:
I began a group reading of Tom Petrie's Reminiscences for Librivox. We found it a marvellously interesting book. Our summary reads:

Tom Petrie (1831-1910), explorer and grazier, arrived in the then convict settlement of Moreton Bay in 1837. His reminiscences of what was to become the colony of Queensland were recorded by his daughter, Constance, in 1904. The book includes a fascinating record the life and customs of the aboriginal population, whose dialect he spoke and in whose activities he was invited to participate. An Australian classic and an important source for researchers of early Aboriginal / White settler conflict��.

]]> 10838291 207 Paul Jennings Barbara 0 to-read 4.41 1964
author: Paul Jennings
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15240437 2272 James Boswell 0198113048 Barbara 5 5.00 1790
author: James Boswell
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1790
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 17332356 The Guardian editor’s account of a remarkable musical challenge during an extraordinary year for news

As the editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger’s life is dictated by the demands of the twenty-four-hour news cycle. It is not the kind of job that leaves time for hobbies.
�������� But in the summer of 2010, Rusbridger determined to learn, in the course of a year, Chopin’s Ballade No.1 in G minor, one of the most beautiful and challenging pieces of music ever composed. With passages that demand feats of memory, dexterity, and power, even concert pianists are intimidated by its pyrotechnical requirements.
�������� Rusbridger’s timing could have been better. The next twelve months witnessed the Arab Spring and the Japanese tsunami and were bookended by The Guardian breaking two major news stories: WikiLeaks and the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. It was a defining year for The Guardian and its editor.
�������� In Play It Again, Rusbridger recounts trying to carve out twenty minutes a day to��practice, find the right teacher, the right piano, the right fingering—even if it meant practicing in a Libyan hotel in the midst of a revolution. He sought advice from legendary pianists, from historians and neuroscientists, and even occasionally from secretaries of state. But was he able to conquer the piece?
�������� A book about distraction, absorption, discipline, and desire, Play It Again resonates far beyond the realm of music, for anyone with an instinct to “wall off a small part of . . . life for creative expression.”]]> 416 Alan Rusbridger 0374232911 Barbara 0 to-read 4.08 2013
author: Alan Rusbridger
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2443 560 Mark Twain 0812967054 Barbara 4 3.83 1869
author: Mark Twain
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1869
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 13071220 This is a pre ISBN edition.

Includes stories and tales from Lewis Carroll, John Keats, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Arabian Nights, Charles Kingsley, Daniel Defoe, Rudyard Kipling, Jonathan Swift, Aesop, Charles Dickens, and many more. Illustrated throughout with fine pen and also includes eight full colour plates.]]> 416 John R. Crossland Barbara 5 4.80 1933
author: John R. Crossland
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.80
book published: 1933
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 52576769 480 Philip Rucker 198487750X Barbara 5
A detailed, carefully authenticated account from more than two hundred sources close to him of the behaviour in office of the most powerful person in the history of my country's great ally, the most powerful person in the world at the moment and, for all I know, the most powerful person who has ever lived.

Gripping accounts of chaos and destruction. Depressing reading but, if you need a break, you can relive the moments of mindbendingly malicious stupidity selectively via the index.

A valuable historical record but "Sad!"]]> 4.10 2020
author: Philip Rucker
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/03/21
shelves:
review:


A detailed, carefully authenticated account from more than two hundred sources close to him of the behaviour in office of the most powerful person in the history of my country's great ally, the most powerful person in the world at the moment and, for all I know, the most powerful person who has ever lived.

Gripping accounts of chaos and destruction. Depressing reading but, if you need a break, you can relive the moments of mindbendingly malicious stupidity selectively via the index.

A valuable historical record but "Sad!"
]]> 533863 264 Vladimir Korolenko 141010866X Barbara 0 to-read 3.94 1886
author: Vladimir Korolenko
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1886
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 835458 The Pursuit of Love satirizes British aristocracy in the twenties and thirties through the amorous adventures of the Radletts, an exuberantly unconventional family closely modelled on Mitford's own.

The Radletts of Alconleigh occupy the heights of genteel eccentricity, from terrifying Lord Alconleigh (who, like Mitford's father, used to hunt his children with bloodhounds when foxes were not available), to his gentle wife, Sadie, their wayward daughter Linda, and the other six lively Radlett children. Mitford's wickedly funny prose follows these characters through misguided marriages and dramatic love affairs, as the shadow of World War II begins to close in on their rapidly vanishing world.]]> 192 Nancy Mitford 0140007113 Barbara 5 3.94 1945
author: Nancy Mitford
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 988379 468 186046548X Barbara 5 4.43 1999
author: Henriette-Lucy de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 20906681 Trois personnages et, au milieu d'eux, un chien, qui détient la clef du drame... Plein de poésie et de vie, ce court récit, d'une fulgurante simplicité, est aussi un grand roman sur la fidélité. Etre loyal à ses amis, se battre pour ceux qu'on aime, est une qualité que nous partageons avec les bêtes. Le propre de l'être humain n'est-il pas d'aller au-delà et de pouvoir aussi reconnaître le frère en celui qui vous combat ?]]> 156 Jean-Christophe Rufin 207013797X Barbara 4
It turned out not to be a sentimental story about a dog (though there was a dog and plenty of sentiment). It was very French in that it also dealt with ideas - set, as it was, in a time of war and social upheaval. To mention another theme (also very French!) would be to give away the ending.]]> 3.67 2014
author: Jean-Christophe Rufin
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/21
date added: 2020/01/21
shelves:
review:
This was a gift from a French friend and I needed my Android as a dictionary.

It turned out not to be a sentimental story about a dog (though there was a dog and plenty of sentiment). It was very French in that it also dealt with ideas - set, as it was, in a time of war and social upheaval. To mention another theme (also very French!) would be to give away the ending.
]]> 32226533 276 Henry Offley Wakeman 1361548495 Barbara 4 4.00 2015
author: Henry Offley Wakeman
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/10
date added: 2020/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 333295
Against the backdrop of plague, civil war, and regicide, with John Milton composing diplomatic correspondence for Oliver Cromwell, Christopher Wren drawing up plans to rebuild London, and Isaac Newton advancing the empirical study of the world around us, Tomalin weaves a breathtaking account of a figure who has passed on to us much of what we know about seventeenth-century London. We witness Pepys’s early life and education, see him advising King Charles II before running to watch the great fire consume London, learn about the great events of the day as well as the most intimate personal details that Pepys encrypted in the Diary, follow him through his later years as a powerful naval administrator, and come to appreciate how Pepys’s singular literary enterprise would in many ways prefigure our modern selves. With exquisite insight and compassion, Samuel Pepys captures the uniquely fascinating figure whose legacy lives on more than three hundred years after his death.]]> 528 Claire Tomalin 0375725539 Barbara 5
We get to know the diarist, his wife, his servants, his friends, his scientific and musical interests, his triumphs, his humiliations. And, of course, there's Pepys the sex pest.

We see Samuel Pepys as a witness of public events during a chaotic century for his country - the teenage Londoner and Cromwellian at the beheading of Charles the First; the mature Pepys who witnessed the Plague, the Fire of London, the founding of the Royal Society and the revolution of 1688. We are shown his career as a famous naval administrator who remained loyal to his master, James the Second, and the intellectually curious book collector who had a wide circle of friends - a few with names even more familiar to us than his.

An engrossing account not only of an individual life, but of a time and place. ]]> 3.84 2002
author: Claire Tomalin
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/08
date added: 2020/01/08
shelves:
review:
The Samuel Pepys who is revealed in his diary is as interesting a personality to us as he was to himself. Thanks to Claire Tomalin's marvellously detailed presentation we have context and explanation.

We get to know the diarist, his wife, his servants, his friends, his scientific and musical interests, his triumphs, his humiliations. And, of course, there's Pepys the sex pest.

We see Samuel Pepys as a witness of public events during a chaotic century for his country - the teenage Londoner and Cromwellian at the beheading of Charles the First; the mature Pepys who witnessed the Plague, the Fire of London, the founding of the Royal Society and the revolution of 1688. We are shown his career as a famous naval administrator who remained loyal to his master, James the Second, and the intellectually curious book collector who had a wide circle of friends - a few with names even more familiar to us than his.

An engrossing account not only of an individual life, but of a time and place.
]]> 17272455
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.]]> 178 Logan Pearsall Smith Barbara 4
A caveat: the book was published in 1912 and the language has galloped off in many directions since then. On the other hand, I did find the author’s attitudes surprisingly modern, sceptical and liberal.
]]> 4.00 1912
author: Logan Pearsall Smith
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1912
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/20
date added: 2019/12/20
shelves:
review:
I’ve been following the excellent and entertaining “History of English�� podcast - - I’m up to episode 93 “The Two Arthurs�� - and nothing I have heard in this series struck me as contradicting what Logan Pearsall Smith has to say about the development of the language in its historical context.

A caveat: the book was published in 1912 and the language has galloped off in many directions since then. On the other hand, I did find the author’s attitudes surprisingly modern, sceptical and liberal.

]]> 18114087 How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch?

If our technological society collapsed tomorrow, perhaps from a viral pandemic or catastrophic asteroid impact, what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible—a guide for rebooting the world?
Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, accurately tell time, weave fibers into clothing, or even how to produce food for yourself?
Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances.��The Knowledge��describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. This would allow survivors to learn technological advances not explicitly explored in��The Knowledge��as well as things we have yet to discover.
The Knowledge��is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.]]> 352 Lewis Dartnell 159420523X Barbara 5
But who needs an apocalypse? This was a well-written and entertaining course in basic science and technology with many references to the development of such knowledge over the millennia. As at school, I enjoyed the chemistry lessons and skipped some of the physics.]]> 3.74 2014
author: Lewis Dartnell
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/08
date added: 2019/11/08
shelves:
review:
Come the apocalypse, I'll at least have a basic understanding of how any surviving humans might be able to rebuild communities and the technologies necessary to sustain them.

But who needs an apocalypse? This was a well-written and entertaining course in basic science and technology with many references to the development of such knowledge over the millennia. As at school, I enjoyed the chemistry lessons and skipped some of the physics.
]]> 18517 To the Lighthouse is made up of three powerfully charged visions into the life of one family living in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change. A moving portrait in miniature of family life, it also has profoundly universal implications, giving language to the silent space that separates people and the space that they transgress to reach each other.

There are very few exceptional and miraculous novels that have the power to change their readers forever. To the Lighthouse is one of them.]]> 209 Virginia Woolf 0156907399 Barbara 5 3.80 1927
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1927
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/10/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 13757390 Scott Price is the chair of the Piano Department at the University of South Carolina and holds a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Oklahoma. He has given master classes and recitals throughout the United States and Southeast Asia. His recordings are featured in Alfred's Premier Piano Course.]]> Scott Price 073902227X Barbara 5 5.00 2001
author: Scott Price
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/10/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 564979 256 Nancy Mitford 0060129883 Barbara 5
Her not-unsympathetic portrayal of Louis XIV and life in his glittering, gossipy Versailles (with its occasional horrors) fascinated me.
]]> 3.84 1966
author: Nancy Mitford
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/22
date added: 2019/10/22
shelves:
review:
I read a second-hand, beautifully illustrated copy of "The Sun King" because I loved Nancy Mitford's humour (often black) and her glittering, gossipy style.

Her not-unsympathetic portrayal of Louis XIV and life in his glittering, gossipy Versailles (with its occasional horrors) fascinated me.

]]> 40606741 It is hard to overstate just how unusual Europe was towards the end of the age of the dinosaurs. It was a dynamic island arc whose individual landmasses were made up of diverse geological types, including ancient continental fragments, raised segments of oceanic crust, and land newly minted by volcanic activity. Yet even at this early stage Europe was exerting a disproportionate influence on the world.

About 100 million years ago, the interaction of three continents—Asia, North America and Africa—formed the tropical island archipelago that would become the Europe of today, a place of exceptional diversity, rapid change and high energy.

Europe: A Natural History is full of surprises. Over the millennia Europe has received countless immigrant species and transformed them. It is where the first coral reefs formed. It was once home to some of the world’s largest elephants. And it played a vital role in the evolution of our own species.

When the first modern humans arrived in Europe 40,000 years ago, they began to exert an astonishing influence on the continent’s flora and fauna, and now, Europeans lead the way in wildlife restoration—there are more wolves in Europe today than in the USA. This enthralling ecological history is more than the story of Europe and the Europeans, it will change our understanding of life itself.]]> 368 Tim Flannery 1925603946 Barbara 5
But, in "Europe: a natural history", he applies himself to the palaeontology, geology, evolution of life in, and the colonising of, the archipelago that became Europe. As the story begins some 100 million years ago, though I found it fascinating (particularly the geology), it was at times challenging. I became even more involved in the tale when it moved on to the more recognisable flora and fauna of the Pleistocene in Europe.

Some snippets:

[about human-Neanderthal hybrids] "The flowering of artistic expression....unique in human evolutionary history....I find it astonishing that their novel creations were works of art, rather than the new weapons or the stone tools characteristic of earlier advances."

[after describing the warm embayment of the Atlantic Ocean that was the Paris Basin and its marine sediments... which formed] "...the famous Paris stone ...whose warm creamy-grey colours give the city an unmistakeable beauty...the fossils that had been unearthed [in rocks deep below the Left Bank, by Cuvier] and at Montmartre "where mining from gypsum to make plaster of Paris almost undermined the famous hill".

"Today, among all of the Mediterranean's unique island mammals, there is a single survivor - the Cypriot mouse (Mus cypriacus) - a species so obscure and small that it was not even recognised as being distinct from the house mouse until 2006. Was there ever a sorrier story of human ignorance and overexploitation than this? That every island from the coast of Turkey to the pillars of Hercules has been emptied of its natural treasures, one by one, until just a single mouse was left."

"As a result of this long history of invasions [from Africa, from the East, from Western Asia, central Asia, ...steppe nomads, Arabs and Turkic peoples, going back all the way to Neanderthal times] every European living today is of widely mixed heritage, as our variable eye, skin and hair colour and form suggest."

"...after WWII Europe's human population began to stabilise and to concentrate in the cities and coastal plains....in the more remote and hard-scrabble regions ... nature is starting to creep back. The ecology of Europe has, in just a couple of generations, shifted so dramatically as to usher in a bewolfing (and perhaps a bewitching) of the continent....The lifestyles of the Europeans are very different from those of the rest of the world's population, which is concentrated in mega-cities without access to wild areas."

]]> 4.19 2018
author: Tim Flannery
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/16
date added: 2019/10/16
shelves:
review:
Tim Flannery has been an engaging and informative advocate of the application of the results of scientific research to the conservation and management of our antipodean environment.

But, in "Europe: a natural history", he applies himself to the palaeontology, geology, evolution of life in, and the colonising of, the archipelago that became Europe. As the story begins some 100 million years ago, though I found it fascinating (particularly the geology), it was at times challenging. I became even more involved in the tale when it moved on to the more recognisable flora and fauna of the Pleistocene in Europe.

Some snippets:

[about human-Neanderthal hybrids] "The flowering of artistic expression....unique in human evolutionary history....I find it astonishing that their novel creations were works of art, rather than the new weapons or the stone tools characteristic of earlier advances."

[after describing the warm embayment of the Atlantic Ocean that was the Paris Basin and its marine sediments... which formed] "...the famous Paris stone ...whose warm creamy-grey colours give the city an unmistakeable beauty...the fossils that had been unearthed [in rocks deep below the Left Bank, by Cuvier] and at Montmartre "where mining from gypsum to make plaster of Paris almost undermined the famous hill".

"Today, among all of the Mediterranean's unique island mammals, there is a single survivor - the Cypriot mouse (Mus cypriacus) - a species so obscure and small that it was not even recognised as being distinct from the house mouse until 2006. Was there ever a sorrier story of human ignorance and overexploitation than this? That every island from the coast of Turkey to the pillars of Hercules has been emptied of its natural treasures, one by one, until just a single mouse was left."

"As a result of this long history of invasions [from Africa, from the East, from Western Asia, central Asia, ...steppe nomads, Arabs and Turkic peoples, going back all the way to Neanderthal times] every European living today is of widely mixed heritage, as our variable eye, skin and hair colour and form suggest."

"...after WWII Europe's human population began to stabilise and to concentrate in the cities and coastal plains....in the more remote and hard-scrabble regions ... nature is starting to creep back. The ecology of Europe has, in just a couple of generations, shifted so dramatically as to usher in a bewolfing (and perhaps a bewitching) of the continent....The lifestyles of the Europeans are very different from those of the rest of the world's population, which is concentrated in mega-cities without access to wild areas."


]]> 732562 "Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere") is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written circa 1797 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 and featuring a gloss. Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it was a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature.

It relates the events experienced by a mariner who has returned from a long sea voyage. The Mariner stops a man on his way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The Wedding-Guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience, fear, and fascination as the Mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: for example, the use of narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, or the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood each different part of the poem.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772��1834) was an English poet, critic and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England, and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (1792) and 'Kubla Khan' (1816), as well as his major prose work 'Biographia Literaria' (1817).]]> 77 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 0486223051 Barbara 5 3.95 1798
author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1798
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/10/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 33585236 60 Barrie Carson-Turner Barbara 5 5.00
author: Barrie Carson-Turner
name: Barbara
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 844662 224 Evelyn Waugh 0141187484 Barbara 5 3.69 1928
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1928
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 27086439
Unpublished correspondence - that delight of the eager biographer - is not to be had in the case of Madame de Stael, for, as is well known, the De Broglie family either destroyed or successfully hid all the papers which might have revealed any facts not already in possession of the world.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.]]> 290 Bella Duffy 1331649684 Barbara 5
]]> 3.50 1887
author: Bella Duffy
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1887
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/01
date added: 2019/09/17
shelves:
review:
There is exhaustive research behind this stylish, intelligent, 1887 biography of the famous Frenchwoman. I had not heard of the author, Bella Duffy, and was delighted by her sound grasp of the times and of her subject. And by her dry wit.


]]> 36986450
Deep Time Dreaming is the passionate product of that journey. In this original, important book, Griffiths investigates a twin revolution: the reassertion of Aboriginal identity in the second half of the twentieth century, and the simultaneous uncovering of the traces of ancient Australia by pioneering archaeologists.

Deep Time Dreaming is about a slow shift in national consciousness. It explores what it means to live in a place of great antiquity, with its complex questions of ownership and identity. It brings to life the deep time dreaming that has changed the way many Australians relate to their continent and its enduring, dynamic human history.

When John Mulvaney began his fieldwork in January 1956, it was widely believed that the first Australians had arrived on this continent only a few thousand years earlier. In the decades since, Australian history has been pushed back into the dizzying expanse of deep time. The human presence here has been revealed to be more ancient than that of Europe, and the Australian landscape, far from being terra nullius, is now recognised to be cultural as much as natural, imprinted with stories and law and shaped by the hands and firesticks of thousands of generations of Indigenous men and women. The New World has become the Old ��]]> 384 Billy Griffiths 1760640441 Barbara 5
Lake Mungo - Mungo Woman and Mungo Man

Learning about how the original Australians managed the land, particularly by fire, and the insights into the technologies they used.

How thermoluminescence dating rolled back human habitation of our continent to [at least] 65,000 years ago so that "the New World had become the Old".

The results of recent genetic studies revealing that there had been a single, large but diverse founding population.

The distinct regional identities that were retained over millennia - this is in accord with the impressions I've gathered from reading about our coast-dwelling Turrbal people (not mentioned in the book).

That the linguistic, technological and symbolic capabilities required for the 100km deep sea voyage to Northern Australia proves, in the words of Stan Grant that "When the first footprints of my ancestors touched the northern shoreline of the land, humanity itself had crossed a threshold."


]]> 4.32
author: Billy Griffiths
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/06
date added: 2019/09/06
shelves:
review:
A well-written and detailed look at the development of Australian archaeology. Highlights for me:

Lake Mungo - Mungo Woman and Mungo Man

Learning about how the original Australians managed the land, particularly by fire, and the insights into the technologies they used.

How thermoluminescence dating rolled back human habitation of our continent to [at least] 65,000 years ago so that "the New World had become the Old".

The results of recent genetic studies revealing that there had been a single, large but diverse founding population.

The distinct regional identities that were retained over millennia - this is in accord with the impressions I've gathered from reading about our coast-dwelling Turrbal people (not mentioned in the book).

That the linguistic, technological and symbolic capabilities required for the 100km deep sea voyage to Northern Australia proves, in the words of Stan Grant that "When the first footprints of my ancestors touched the northern shoreline of the land, humanity itself had crossed a threshold."



]]> 26082164
British Library, Historical Print Editions

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.

The HISTORY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection provides histories and analyses of society, culture, education, crime, and family life. Providing a unique perspective of everyday life in the 18th and 19th centuries, readers of these works can study earlier developments that formed our modern society.

++++
The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition
++++

British Library
Thrale, Hester Lynch Piozzi; Martinengo-cesaresco, Evelyn Countess;
1892.
327 p. ; 8º.
10129.bbb.32.]]> 384 Hester Lynch Piozzi 1240931840 Barbara 4
But she is lots of fun - fascinated by details and by differences of culture. The book is full of stories, conversations, observations and opinions of Italian social habits. We share Hester's everyday life and though she is, understandably, less inclined to detailed description of landscapes, art and architecture than Goethe, she shares his love of Naples.

Caveat: Hester style is bubbly - words trip over themselves, parentheses and sub-clauses multiply till many sentences are well over 100 words long (I counted 225 words in one) and left me in suspense for the decisive, anchoring verb. ]]> 4.00 1789
author: Hester Lynch Piozzi
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1789
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/22
date added: 2019/08/23
shelves:
review:
Mrs Piozzi was wonderful company on this journey through late eighteenth century Italy. I read her book in concert with Goethe's "Italian Journey". Goethe, a year or so after Hester, chose to travel and live as independently and anonymously as a famous personality could but Mr and Mrs Piozzi seemed to have rejoiced in the pleasures of Society at every point of their journey. Hester, though an enthusiast about Italy and its classical past, is a somewhat less magnanimous towards its modern customs than Goethe.

But she is lots of fun - fascinated by details and by differences of culture. The book is full of stories, conversations, observations and opinions of Italian social habits. We share Hester's everyday life and though she is, understandably, less inclined to detailed description of landscapes, art and architecture than Goethe, she shares his love of Naples.

Caveat: Hester style is bubbly - words trip over themselves, parentheses and sub-clauses multiply till many sentences are well over 100 words long (I counted 225 words in one) and left me in suspense for the decisive, anchoring verb.
]]> 43107933
Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It’s picturesque, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network—and back across the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.]]> 352 Kate Atkinson Barbara 5 Another wry, dark, sardonic, humane, amusing, clever mystery featuring Jackson Brodie (and Yorkshire). Some of the mysteries are given extra resonance from recent scandalous and newsworthy revelations.

I'm not sure that Kate Atkinson could ever disappoint me though I thought at one point that a few too many loose ends were being tied up by a character's stream of consciousness. Happily, all hell soon broke loose again in true, abundant, Atkinson style.
]]> 3.90 2019
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/20
date added: 2019/08/20
shelves:
review:

Another wry, dark, sardonic, humane, amusing, clever mystery featuring Jackson Brodie (and Yorkshire). Some of the mysteries are given extra resonance from recent scandalous and newsworthy revelations.

I'm not sure that Kate Atkinson could ever disappoint me though I thought at one point that a few too many loose ends were being tied up by a character's stream of consciousness. Happily, all hell soon broke loose again in true, abundant, Atkinson style.

]]> 9992959 299 Thomas Browne 0460010921 Barbara 5 4.64 2013
author: Thomas Browne
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 832491 512 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 0140442332 Barbara 5
It was wonderful to have access to the great man's generous and honest insights and judgements in a translation polished by another great poet. It helped that I enjoy reading about rocks! I kept thinking how Goethe would have been thrilled to learn of the tectonic forces that created the Alps and gave Italy her varied and lovely landscapes (not to mention Vesuvius, which pelted him with them when he dared to climb to its crater.)

Snippets:

Seen tonight from the Molo. The moon lighting up the edges of the clouds, its reflection in the gently heaving sea, at its brightest and most lively on the crest of the nearest waves, stars, the lamps of the lighthouse, the fire of Vesuvius, its reflection in the water, many isolated lights dotted among the boats...


...the splendour of the objects by which I am surrounded makes me forget myself and carries me as far and as high as my innermost being permits. There is only one Rome in the world. Here I feel like a fish in the water....


I have never been so happy in my life as now.




*en route, he gave a lift to a harper's young daughter.]]> 3.90 1816
author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1816
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/07
date added: 2019/08/07
shelves:
review:
Goethe set out for the land where the lemon trees grow* in September 1786 and returned from his Italian journey after almost two years of emotional and artistic enrichment and education. He visited the Republic of Venice and Naples under the Bourbons, both in their last days. His adventures in beautiful Sicily made me long to visit it.

It was wonderful to have access to the great man's generous and honest insights and judgements in a translation polished by another great poet. It helped that I enjoy reading about rocks! I kept thinking how Goethe would have been thrilled to learn of the tectonic forces that created the Alps and gave Italy her varied and lovely landscapes (not to mention Vesuvius, which pelted him with them when he dared to climb to its crater.)

Snippets:

Seen tonight from the Molo. The moon lighting up the edges of the clouds, its reflection in the gently heaving sea, at its brightest and most lively on the crest of the nearest waves, stars, the lamps of the lighthouse, the fire of Vesuvius, its reflection in the water, many isolated lights dotted among the boats...


...the splendour of the objects by which I am surrounded makes me forget myself and carries me as far and as high as my innermost being permits. There is only one Rome in the world. Here I feel like a fish in the water....


I have never been so happy in my life as now.




*en route, he gave a lift to a harper's young daughter.
]]> 6527835 James Boswell Barbara 5
'He has made a chasm which not only nothing can fill up, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up. Johnson is dead let us go to the next best:—there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson.']]> 4.50 2003
author: James Boswell
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2013/10/15
date added: 2019/07/20
shelves:
review:
So sorry to read the last of Johnson's conversation. As one of his friends says:

'He has made a chasm which not only nothing can fill up, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up. Johnson is dead let us go to the next best:—there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson.'
]]> 11005912 444 James Boswell Barbara 5 There is fascination for me in the copious detail of eighteenth century English (and Scottish) history - the great figures of the time and many bit players and odd bods coming vividly to life. A more moving, immediate and personal biography than I had expected.

Also funnier, because of the bon mots and exchanges in that golden age of wit - Johnson, John Wilkes, Joshua Reynolds and others - and I relish the eighteenth century prose too.
]]> 4.33
author: James Boswell
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2013/03/24
date added: 2019/07/20
shelves:
review:

There is fascination for me in the copious detail of eighteenth century English (and Scottish) history - the great figures of the time and many bit players and odd bods coming vividly to life. A more moving, immediate and personal biography than I had expected.

Also funnier, because of the bon mots and exchanges in that golden age of wit - Johnson, John Wilkes, Joshua Reynolds and others - and I relish the eighteenth century prose too.

]]> 44425746 Michael Wolff, author of the bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury, once again takes us inside the Trump presidency to reveal a White House under siege.

With Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff defined the first phase of the Trump administration; now, in Siege, he has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side. A stunningly fresh narrative that begins just as Trump’s second year as president is getting underway and ends with the delivery of the Mueller report, Siege reveals an administration that is perpetually beleaguered by investigations and a president who is increasingly volatile, erratic, and exposed.]]> 352 Michael Wolff 1250253829 Barbara 4
Out of gratitude for the excellent story-telling and the sometimes hair-raising detail I would have given the book 5 stars except that I attributed an insinuation about a relationship between the President and one of his circle to the wrong person. I was suprised by an indignant denial from a prominent political figure followed by outrage from a Washington insider- these have shaken my faith in Mr Wolff a little and have led me to deduct a star from my review.

]]> 3.54 2019
author: Michael Wolff
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/07/11
shelves:
review:
4 stars for a well written book full of astute insights that transmute a leaden, profoundly unsympathetic character and his mostly talentless entourage into objects of morbid fascination - into solid gold.

Out of gratitude for the excellent story-telling and the sometimes hair-raising detail I would have given the book 5 stars except that I attributed an insinuation about a relationship between the President and one of his circle to the wrong person. I was suprised by an indignant denial from a prominent political figure followed by outrage from a Washington insider- these have shaken my faith in Mr Wolff a little and have led me to deduct a star from my review.


]]> 9928818 272 P.G. Wodehouse 0393339440 Barbara 5 4.24 1947
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 341292 A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell's The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides recounts their tour of Scotland in 1773. While Johnson focuses on Scotland itself, Boswell is even keener on presenting his friend to the notables of his homeland. Together they form a complete account of a fascinating journey, two intriguing personalities, and of a society coming to terms with itself after a period of drastic upheaval.]]> 430 Samuel Johnson 0140432213 Barbara 5 3.50 1775
author: Samuel Johnson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1775
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 42444379 496 Ed Vulliamy 1783783362 Barbara 5
I speed read the passages concerning his enthusiasms for the sorts of non-classical music I don't have much experience of and I couldn't face some of his experiences as a war correspondent in various parts of the world, as a result of which he describes himself as suffering, literally, from "shellshock". As a resident of a nearby part of NY, Vulliamy witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers and the aftermath at close quarters and gives raw details I had been unaware of.

Highlights for me:

Shostakovich and his position as a composer during Stalin's reign receive many interesting pages. Vulliamy records his interactions with survivors (of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra) and the famous performance of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony in August 1942

Music in Terezín (Theresienstadt) and the profoundly musicality of the mass-murderer Hans Frank.

Wagner and the intense positive and negative reactions to his music.

Conversations with Daniel Baremboim and with Palestinian members of the West-Eastern Divan orchestra (a project of Baremboim and Edward Said).

I was drawn to attempt this book by learning that Vulliamy was going to write about Schubert! and a performance of Winterreise by Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis!. Even better, Paul Lewis shares with the author some of his thoughts on interpreting Schubert. And deplores Brexit.]]> 4.50
author: Ed Vulliamy
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/10
date added: 2019/06/10
shelves:
review:
In 500 densely written pages Ed Vulliamy reflects on his life as a war correspondent "and how music �� from Sarajevo to the Paris attacks �� can reveal truths when words fail."

I speed read the passages concerning his enthusiasms for the sorts of non-classical music I don't have much experience of and I couldn't face some of his experiences as a war correspondent in various parts of the world, as a result of which he describes himself as suffering, literally, from "shellshock". As a resident of a nearby part of NY, Vulliamy witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers and the aftermath at close quarters and gives raw details I had been unaware of.

Highlights for me:

Shostakovich and his position as a composer during Stalin's reign receive many interesting pages. Vulliamy records his interactions with survivors (of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra) and the famous performance of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony in August 1942

Music in Terezín (Theresienstadt) and the profoundly musicality of the mass-murderer Hans Frank.

Wagner and the intense positive and negative reactions to his music.

Conversations with Daniel Baremboim and with Palestinian members of the West-Eastern Divan orchestra (a project of Baremboim and Edward Said).

I was drawn to attempt this book by learning that Vulliamy was going to write about Schubert! and a performance of Winterreise by Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis!. Even better, Paul Lewis shares with the author some of his thoughts on interpreting Schubert. And deplores Brexit.
]]> 46165 This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the Jazz Age, based on Fitzgerald's original manuscript. In this definitive text, This Side of Paradise captures the rhythms and romance of Fitzgerald's youth and offers a poignant portrait of the "Lost Generation."]]> 275 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0684843781 Barbara 5 3.66 1920
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1920
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/06
date added: 2019/06/06
shelves:
review:
I abandon any idea of criticism when I read F. Scott Fitzgerald. Just let myself be seduced by the high gloss and sheer "rightness" of his style.
]]> 431645 290 Donald E. Westlake 0709074611 Barbara 5 3.65 2002
author: Donald E. Westlake
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/06
date added: 2019/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 42118857 A New York Times-bestselling author explains how the physical world shaped the history of our species

When we talk about human history, we often focus on great leaders, population forces, and decisive wars. But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the south-east United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea. Everywhere is the deep imprint of the planetary on the human.

From the cultivation of the first crops to the founding of modern states, Origins reveals the breathtaking impact of the earth beneath our feet on the shape of our human civilizations.]]> 352 Lewis Dartnell 1541617908 Barbara 5 4.15 2019
author: Lewis Dartnell
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/06
date added: 2019/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 38746485
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]> 426 Michelle Obama 1524763136 Barbara 5
Now I've read her book and I really, really like her. ]]> 4.42 2018
author: Michelle Obama
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/06
date added: 2019/06/05
shelves:
review:
I was predisposed to like Michelle Obama but I didn't expect to end up being so absorbed by her story - by the descriptions of her own experiences and background, also the insights into public life in the US.

Now I've read her book and I really, really like her.
]]> 1341646 476 Les Murray 1857543696 Barbara 5 4.14 1992
author: Les Murray
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/04/30
shelves:
review:
Farewell and adieu Les, from the estuarine, imaginary city.
]]> 39022876 Flying Circus to The Meaning of Life. Now, Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this entertaining memoir that takes us on an unforgettable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding school through his successful career in comedy, television, theater, and film. Coming of age as a writer and comedian during the Sixties and Seventies, Eric stumbled into the crossroads of the cultural revolution and found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of George Harrison, David Bowie, and Robin Williams, all of whom became dear lifelong friends. With anecdotes sprinkled throughout involving other close friends and luminaries such as Mike Nichols, Mick Jagger, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels, and many more, as well as the Pythons themselves, Eric captures a time of tremendous creative output with equal parts hilarity and heart. In Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, named for the song he wrote for Life of Brian (the film which he originally gave the irreverent title Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory) and that has since become the number one song played at funerals in the UK, he shares the highlights of his life and career with the kind of offbeat humor that has delighted audiences for five decades. The year 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Pythons, and Eric is marking the occasion with this hilarious memoir chock full of behind-the-scenes stories from a high-flying life featuring everyone from Princess Leia to Queen Elizabeth.]]> 290 Eric Idle 1984822586 Barbara 3 I like Eric Idle and he has provided me with some of the most agreeably hysterical moments of my life but.... I'm too provincial for these frothy tales of the famous friends and the years of sex, drugs and rock and roll so I've given up halfway.
]]> 3.87 2018
author: Eric Idle
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/04/02
date added: 2019/04/02
shelves:
review:

I like Eric Idle and he has provided me with some of the most agreeably hysterical moments of my life but.... I'm too provincial for these frothy tales of the famous friends and the years of sex, drugs and rock and roll so I've given up halfway.

]]> 41688 New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

Part fairy tale, part mystery, part coming-of-age novel, this novel tells the story of Isobel Fairfax, a girl growing up in Lythe, a typical 1960s British suburb. But Lythe was once the heart of an Elizabethan feudal estate and home to a young English tutor named William Shakespeare, and as Isobel investigates the strange history of her family, her neighbors, and her village, she occasionally gets caught in Shakespearean time warps. Meanwhile, she gets closer to the shocking truths about her missing mother, her war-hero father, and the hidden lives of her close friends and classmates. A stunning feat of imagination and storytelling, Kate Atkinson's Human Croquet is rich with the disappointments and possibilities every family shares.]]> 352 Kate Atkinson 0312186886 Barbara 5
Kate Atkinson always gives me a lot to puzzle over, a good deal to laugh about, a lot of literary references to relish and occasional jolts of terror. ]]> 3.71 1997
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/26
date added: 2019/03/25
shelves:
review:
After...ten? years, I re-read Human Croquet s-l-o-w-l-y and enjoyed it ten times as much as I had remembered. Perhaps it was too clever for me the first time? Too densely packed?

Kate Atkinson always gives me a lot to puzzle over, a good deal to laugh about, a lot of literary references to relish and occasional jolts of terror.
]]> 35696171
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.

Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature–tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking–which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.

With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.]]> 576 Steven Pinker 0525427570 Barbara 5
Months later:

I bought my own copy and read on with the same concentration and enthusiasm. I skimmed the last chapter and a bit but only because I felt in sympathy with the author's defence of scientific, quantitative methods of understanding the history and ways of the world and was not in need of further convincing. I've lent my copy to a friend. ]]> 4.18 2018
author: Steven Pinker
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/26
date added: 2019/03/25
shelves:
review:
I was prompted to read this book by listening to a podcast talk by Stephen Pinker. I have found the statistics he quoted cheering and his optimism is very appealing. I love facts and the title itself agrees with my own biases. I had just reached a point where I had to stop and think hard about the benefits to society of economic inequality and gazillionaires... I'll have to be thinking for a good, long while as it's the old story - the whole library system seems to have only one copy and it's in demand.

Months later:

I bought my own copy and read on with the same concentration and enthusiasm. I skimmed the last chapter and a bit but only because I felt in sympathy with the author's defence of scientific, quantitative methods of understanding the history and ways of the world and was not in need of further convincing. I've lent my copy to a friend.
]]> 35657511 Warlight is a vivid, thrilling novel of violence and love, intrigue and desire. It is 1945, and London is still reeling from the Blitz and years of war. 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, are apparently abandoned by their parents, left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and grow both more convinced and less concerned as they get to know his eccentric crew of friends- men and women with a shared history, all of whom seem determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all he didn't know or understand in that time, and it is this journey - through reality, recollection, and imagination - that is told in this magnificent novel.]]> 290 Michael Ondaatje 1787330729 Barbara 4
I enjoyed trying to solve the mysteries which each novel presented, took notes, puzzled over them and was, happily, mostly wrong. "Warlight" was the more self-consciously literary novel of the two and I read it with great care. The first person narrative lingered longer over descriptions and introspections than I'd hoped it would. This method, of course, gives the reader the development of the personality of the narrator as well as of the plot. All is seen through his eyes and guessed at through his intuitions - characters and events.

I can't give "Warlight" 5 stars because I found the narrator dull company - solemn, long-winded and self-obsessed. I'd have liked him to record more direct speech to help me form my own opinions about the people he met. I don't think I smiled once during the reading and there were times when I would have given up if I hadn't paid for my copy. But there were times when I looked forward to reading on....so, 3 and a half starts rounded up to 4.]]> 3.55 2018
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/12/15
date added: 2019/03/24
shelves:
review:
Michael Ondaatje was only the name of a highly regarded author to me and I thought it was about time to make his acquaintance. Having no idea what "Warlight" was going to be about I was surprised to find myself reading of mysterious things and places whose significance I could begin to guess at from having encountered them in another recently published novel. Even a character from the other novel seemed to have re-appeared, under a slight disguise. Both novelists had done their research! And the subject matter is fascinating.

I enjoyed trying to solve the mysteries which each novel presented, took notes, puzzled over them and was, happily, mostly wrong. "Warlight" was the more self-consciously literary novel of the two and I read it with great care. The first person narrative lingered longer over descriptions and introspections than I'd hoped it would. This method, of course, gives the reader the development of the personality of the narrator as well as of the plot. All is seen through his eyes and guessed at through his intuitions - characters and events.

I can't give "Warlight" 5 stars because I found the narrator dull company - solemn, long-winded and self-obsessed. I'd have liked him to record more direct speech to help me form my own opinions about the people he met. I don't think I smiled once during the reading and there were times when I would have given up if I hadn't paid for my copy. But there were times when I looked forward to reading on....so, 3 and a half starts rounded up to 4.
]]> 6167 485 Rose Tremain 0743418263 Barbara 0 to-read 3.98 1999
author: Rose Tremain
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 5015
Later, as Perowne makes his way through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors, a minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him. But it is not until Baxter makes a sudden appearance as the Perowne family gathers for a reunion, that Henry's fears seem about to be realised.]]> 289 Ian McEwan 1400076196 Barbara 0 3.64 2005
author: Ian McEwan
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 3661
Sixteenth-century Europe is teeming with change and wars are being waged by princes and bishops and the repercussions of Luther are being felt through a convulsing Germany. In a remote corner of Poland a modest canon is practicing medicine and studying the heavens, preparing a theory that will shatter the medieval view of the universe. In this astonishing work of historical imagination, John Banville offers a vivid portrait of a man of painful reticence. For, in a world that is equal parts splendor and barbarism, an obscure cleric who seeks “the secret music of the universe�� poses a most devastating threat.]]> 242 John Banville 0679737995 Barbara 5 3.67 1976
author: John Banville
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 18282962 160 Mel Hynes Barbara 0 4.22 2013
author: Mel Hynes
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 14343018 161 Mel Hynes 1600763332 Barbara 5 4.60 2012
author: Mel Hynes
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 22496904 198 Mel Hynes 1499540973 Barbara 5 4.44 2014
author: Mel Hynes
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/02/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 54276 256 August Kubizek 1853676942 Barbara 4 4.17 1973
author: August Kubizek
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/12/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 31463 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780141439655

Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. The first of his works set in the fictional county of Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.]]> 433 Thomas Hardy Barbara 0 3.96 1874
author: Thomas Hardy
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1874
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 41219713 560 Mike Carlton 0857987801 Barbara 5
Reading of the writer's encounters with and his insights into the great and the petty was a reliving of my own experience, at several removes, of decades of Australian public life. The interest never flagged and almost no discordant notes were struck there.

We were also in concord about Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin canon ("a work of genius").]]> 4.00
author: Mike Carlton
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/28
date added: 2018/11/28
shelves:
review:
I was somewhat put off by what seemed to me flippant cynicism in the youthful Carlton till I toughened up a bit, decided that he's a bloke and a journalist after all, and settled down to enjoy the rest of his career. Being out of the geographical reach of the "on air" Carlton, I got to know him through his lively columns in the SMH online. I was always entertained and I still miss them.

Reading of the writer's encounters with and his insights into the great and the petty was a reliving of my own experience, at several removes, of decades of Australian public life. The interest never flagged and almost no discordant notes were struck there.

We were also in concord about Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin canon ("a work of genius").
]]> 37946414
Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.]]> 343 Kate Atkinson 031617663X Barbara 5 A young Londoner is drafted into the (secret) service of her country during the dramatic days of the Second World War - the events and personalities of which we witness through her cool eyes.

As always Kate Atkinson is a teasing plotter and a wry but generous observer of human nature. I kept notes of my speculations and, by the end of the novel, I had seldom and only glancingly hit on the solutions to its puzzles.

Absorbing.

]]> 3.44 2018
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/10
date added: 2018/11/10
shelves:
review:

A young Londoner is drafted into the (secret) service of her country during the dramatic days of the Second World War - the events and personalities of which we witness through her cool eyes.

As always Kate Atkinson is a teasing plotter and a wry but generous observer of human nature. I kept notes of my speculations and, by the end of the novel, I had seldom and only glancingly hit on the solutions to its puzzles.

Absorbing.


]]> 23492802
Since its inception, the Internet has morphed from merely an extension of traditional media into its own full-fledged civilization. It is among mankind’s great masterpieces—a massive work of art. As an idea, it rivals monotheism. We all inhabit this fascinating place. But its deep logic, its cultural potential, and its societal impact often elude us. In this deep and thoughtful book, Virginia Heffernan presents an original and far-reaching analysis of what the Internet is and does.

Life online, in the highly visual, social, portable, and global incarnation rewards certain virtues. The new medium favors speed, accuracy, wit, prolificacy, and versatility, and its form and functions are changing how we perceive, experience, and understand the world.]]> 272 Virginia Heffernan 1439191700 Barbara 2 3.44 2015
author: Virginia Heffernan
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2018/10/19
date added: 2018/10/19
shelves:
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]]> 28170940 “I seen a kid killed…He strangled it, up by the horse.��

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been—Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.]]> 650 Robert Galbraith 0751572853 Barbara 5
I like J. K. Rowling's take on the world and I found her latest crime story a very satisfying way to read myself to sleep. ]]> 4.19 2018
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/10/11
shelves:
review:
London, in all its variety, stars again as a character in a Robert Galbraith mystery - a particularly extended mystery this time, whose minor characters come from all ranks of modern British society.

I like J. K. Rowling's take on the world and I found her latest crime story a very satisfying way to read myself to sleep.
]]> 41460327
"Join Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty on his extraordinary adventures around the globe.

Doherty’s dazzling schedule can leave his head spinning. So what happens when he lifts his gaze and asks: ‘What the hell am I doing here?��

Doherty has kept a journal about the far-flung destinations his work has taken him to for more than thirty years. His observations and discoveries in The Incidental Tourist make for perfect armchair travel."
]]> 234 Peter C. Doherty 0522871739 Barbara 4 3.58 2018
author: Peter C. Doherty
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/09/30
date added: 2018/09/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 192955
In "The Proud Tower", Barbara W. Tuchman brings the era to vivid life: the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy; the Anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; the Peace Conferences in The Hague; and the enthusiasm and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized by the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the night the Great War began and an epoch came to a close.]]> 588 Barbara W. Tuchman 0345405013 Barbara 4 4.13 1965
author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Barbara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/09/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 1249958 Reginald Hill 0006510744 Barbara 4 3.63 1971
author: Reginald Hill
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 1249959 363 Patrick Ruell 0586205462 Barbara 4 3.72 1987
author: Patrick Ruell
name: Barbara
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]>