Oct 1, 2008
Blood River: A Journey To Africa’s Broken Heart – Tim Butcher
More than a hundred years ago, Henry Morton Stanley famously found the lost Dr Livingstone with “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”, and a soundbite which became more well known than the country in which it was spoken was born. Stanley was the first European to travel the length of the Congo River in Central Africa, before he played an instrumental part in the downfall of that enormous country. King... read more
Sep 5, 2008
The Food of Love – Anthony Capella
I have taken more than a month to write this book up. And, what’s worse is that it has been more than a month since I have actually finished a book! Can you imagine?! Me?! Oddly enough, I am part way through about 8 books at the moment and I have decided to stop this summer silliness (seeing summer is now completely over here in London – it is raining outside, just like it has been for at least... read more
Aug 13, 2008
Copper Fire – Suzanne Woods Fisher
I was asked to read and review Copper Fire by Suzanne Woods Fisher as part of her virtual book tour. This book, as I understood, was a sequel to Suzanne’s earlier novel, Copper Star where we were first introduced to Louisa – one time resistance fighter in Germany during the Second World War – now settled with her new husband and his son in Copper Springs, Arizona. Copper Fire finds... read more
Aug 5, 2008
Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley – Pope Brock
If someone casually mentioned to you that they had discovered the secret to eternal youth and vitality, would you sit up and listen? If they then told you that in order to achieve this, and the rampant sex drive which would naturally accompany it, you may have to undergo surgery, would you ask for more information? What, then, would you say if you were told that this secret required you to go under the... read more
Aug 4, 2008
The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai
I am not sure what it is about books chosen for the Man Booker Prize. Yes, they can be beautifully written. Yes, they can conjure up powerful imagery. But sometimes they get so bogged down in their own ‘literary-ness’ that they forget to simply tell a good story. The Inheritance of Loss suffered from this Booker Prize affliction just like so many of the others do. That is not to say it... read more
Jul 22, 2008
The Demon-Haunted World – Carl Sagan
I am a podcast addict as any of you who know can attest. I listen to an awful lot of podcasts about an awful lot of things, but my particular favourites are podcasts dealing with science, scepticism (or skepticism depending on which side of the pond you are from), astronomy, rationalism, evolutionary biology and critical thinking. In all of them, I kept hearing mention one book – The Demon Haunted... read more
Jun 27, 2008
Any Book You Want in the Time It Takes To Make Coffee
I was reading about this – the Espresso Book Machine – recently and I have to say that I am completely blown away by this. Blackwells have announced that they are going to be installing these amazing machines in 50 of their stores across the UK and after watching the video of how they work, I just can’t wait. I love browsing around Amazon and tracking down books which you are unlikely to... read more
