Category Archives: Non-fiction

Review: ‘The woman who died a lot’ by Jasper Fforde

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It’s 2004 and Thursday Next is in semi-retirement after a terrible accident which has left her unable to visit the BookWorld and means she has had to give up her Jurisfiction job. Her old mob SO-27 are back in business, but she’s not getting the job of leading them. Instead she becomes Wessex Chief Librarian.

Unfortunately, Swindon is due to be smote by a pillar of holy fire, unless Thursday’s daughter Tuesday can fin a way to get the anti-smiting shield to work. Then of course there is the additional problem that Friday Next is going to kill Tuesday’s boyfriend Gavin.

Jasper Fforde’s seventh Thursday Next novel is as surreal and entertaining as the first, with the additional bonus that it us internally consistent, so it makes marginally more sense, because I’ve been there before. Thursday as got older and wiser, the characters are developed further and the plot is as unique as ever.

Review: ‘Girl least likely to’ by Liz Jones

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4th July 2013

Simon & Schuster UK

Liz Jones is Fashion Editor at the Daily Mail and a columnist for the Mail on Sunday, having worked in the media for the last 30+ years.

Born in 1958 the youngest of seven children to an ex-army captain and a housewife, Liz Jones grew up in a variety of places around Essex wearing handmade and hand me down clothes, but dreaming of working for Vogue. She never quite managed it. Anorexic at 11 and still obsessed with food, having it all and losing it all because she never felt good enough, Ms Jones has considered herself a failure from a young age and has striven to be better.

I think I’ve occasionally read her column, for the simple reason that when I’m at my grandparents flat and I haven’t anything with me to read, it’s the only vaguely honest and interesting piece I can find in the paper. This autobiography is the same; the writing is fluid and moving. I read it in a single sitting.

One review described the book as ‘laugh out loud funny’. I disagree; it’s sad, with odd moments that are funny in hindsight, but must have been embarrassing or painful at the time. A vivid example of how a strong work ethic and success can mask low self-esteem, this is a powerful story.

Rose

Review: ‘From Codpiece to Three Piece: The History of Fashion’

History Today

Kindle Edition

July 2013

UlinkaRublack, Patrick Little, Christina Walkley, Lois Banner, Quentin Bell, Carol Dyhouse, Stella Mary Pearce  and Eileen Ribeiro

£2.05 from Amazon.co.uk

 

This small e-book contains eight articles spanning 60 years of scholarship and publishing. They focus on fashion, not just what clothes were worn when, but attitudes to clothing, and the things they indicate about the wearer, and also how people viewed the clothing worn by their ancestors, and how it was depicted in art.

Ranging from the changing attitudes to the wearing of fur to how fourteenth century artists depicted classical subjects to the question of precisely how dull Cromwell’s clothes were, this is a fascinating collection of articles. There is nothing new here; in fact I recognised three of the articles as I’ve read History Today regularly for the past eight years. The older articles were interesting, though; sixty years is a long time in academia and the attitudes of the writers to their subject’s is as interesting as the subjects themselves.

I’ve never bought one of these collections before (although it would be more precise to say my oldest friend bought me it since I used the gift card she gave me for my birthday – thanks Fi!) but I think it’s well worth the price. They are great resources, containing the best articles History Today has published on a particular subject. I would have liked a new, original article to go with the collection though; I think it would have made a nice touch.

Review: ‘Bright Young Things; Life in the Roaring Twenties.’ By Alison Maloney

2012

Virgin Books

 

 

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Described in the blurb as a ‘sweeping look at the changing world of the Jazz Age, as life below stairs vanished forever, loose morals ran riot, and new inventions made it seem anything was possible’, this book gives an entertaining glimpse in to the lives of the Bright Young People, the wealthy young Mayfair set who ran riot in London in the Nineteen Twenties. Presented in a gossipy tone, with first-hand accounts from those who were part of the group of friends dubbed the ‘Bright Young People’ by the popular press, and the generation of ‘Bright Young Things’ they led and inspired. The central cast of aristocrats and artists loom large in a playful narrative of all night dancing, freak parties, treasure hunts through London, immodest fashions and heavy drinking. The more staid members of their age group and class, the debs, and the attitudes of their parents to the antics of the hedonistic set are also covered.

The focus is primarily on London; however there is some reference to the United States and Paris. As Jazz was a large part of the lifestyle of the Bright Young Things, this isn’t surprising. The spread of this form of music from the southern United States across the Atlantic to London and the on into Europe is fascinating, although the author doesn’t go in to a great deal of detail.

Also covered in the book are references to changing sexual attitudes, and the growth of consumer ‘labour –saving’ goods as more people had access to electricity and servants became rarer.

 

While this book is subtitled ‘Life in the Roaring Twenties’ it doesn’t really give much of an insight in to life for those who weren’t wealthy and educated, and living in London. Bare mention is given to the lives and aspirations of working and lower middle class people, who presumably had ambitions and needs as well. It’s very gossipy in nature, relying on published diaries, letters and autobiographies/biographies for much of the detail. The ‘flapper’, her dress, attitudes and occupations are a recurring feature of the book.

I didn’t feel that the author really put meat on the bones of the subject, although the origin of certain terms originating in, or associated with, the decade are explained and there is a decent bibliography at the back. I’d say this was quite a good book for GCSE students wanting a bit more information about the Twenties, and those wanting an overview of the decade. At the very least it’ll get people started and then they can move on to more detailed studies of the decade.

 

 

Review: ‘The Science of Discworld IV Judgement Day’ by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen

Ebury Press
2013

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I had plans for this afternoon, then I thought ‘I’ll just read a bit, I need to finish it before Thursday’; the afternoon disappeared. If that’s not the best compliment to a book I don’t know a greater one.

This is the forth installment of the ‘Science of Discworld’ books, the first was published in 1999 and as the authors point out things have changed in the last 14 years.

Theories have been tested in new ways and been modified as new information had been made available. And that is the central argument of this book. Science is uncertain and ever questioning. Faith does not question, it merely ignores data that doesn’t fit.

Interweaving this discussion with a short story about Roundworld, the pretty bauble accidentally made when the Wizards of Unseen University made a booboo in the first Science of Discworld book, the authors illustrate their arguments using the best method possible when trying to explain concepts to Pan narrans : storytelling.

A radically fundamental sect of the Church of Om demands that the wizard hand over Roundworld. The Patrician decides to hold a tribunal into the matter. Into this milieu comes Margery Daw, librarian of Four Farthings, London, England, Earth. Highly educated and intelligent, with a firm belief in truth, and also the best runner at Roedean in her day, Margery has been transported to Discworld by the Unseen University’s Great Big Thing. Purely accidentally.
Continue reading “Review: ‘The Science of Discworld IV Judgement Day’ by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen”

Review of several e-books

I had a bit of a foray in to Amazon the other day and found several free e-books (thanks to the freebie page at  http://www.everythingbooksandauthors.com) and read them quite quickly. Most were short stories but one,‘Georgiana Darcy’s Diary’, is probably more of a novella. Since I took the time to read to them I thought I should probably review them.

Georgiana Darcy’s diary: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Continued

Anna Elliott, with illustrations by Laura Masselos

2011

Wilton Press

It’s 1814 and the war with Napoleon is coming to an end, Elizabeth and Darcy have been married a year, Georgiana is 18 years old and still living at Pemberley with them, and their Aunt De Bourgh has organised a house party. She’s trying to marry Georgiana off too some suitable gentleman.

Georgiana feels the need to start writing a diary again, and starts writing about her life. Sick of the fawning fortune hunters, Georgiana is in love with her cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam. Unfortunately rumour tells her he is engaged to someone else, and when he returns to Pemberley to recover from a wound taken at Toulouse she is determined not to give in to her feelings.

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young lady of rank and property will have packs of money- or land-hungry suitors yapping around her heels like hounds after a fox.‘

In the interests of not giving the whole plot away, all I’ll say is the denouement of the storyline is fairly obvious. I mostly liked the story but was slightly unsatisfied by it. I would be interested to read the other two books in this Pride and Prejudice Chronicles, Pemberley to Waterloo, and Kitty Bennet’s Diary.

3/5

 

Cait the Cat Burglar (55 Portobello Road)

Christine London

2013

 

Cait is a waitress, stranded in London as she tries to earn money to send home to her sick mother and sister in America. Bribed and threatened in to becoming a thief by the sinister Rothwell, Cait tries to steal the work of an Australian musician. The first time she fails miserably. There were croquet hoops involved.

At work the next day her target comes in for a meal and Cait finds herself questioning her resolve.

 

This short story is entertaining, although I found it a little too soppy for my taste and too much ‘fairy-tale ending’. I’m not sure I’d bother to read the series of books that this short story is a part of.

2/5

 

How to talk to girls at parties, A short story

Neil Gaiman

2006

Headline

Originally published 2006 and republished as an e-book 2013 with an exclusive first chapter from Neil Gaiman’s new book, ‘The ocean at the end of the lane’, due out mid-June. Vic and Enn are going to a party Vic heard about from his friend Alison, unfortunately they end up at entirely wrong party with interesting consequences. It’s a fun little story, but then I like Neil Gaiman’s work, having read a couple of his books. He’s a truly original writer.

4/5

 

A Little Bit of Everything for Dummies 20th Anniversary Edition

John Wiley & Sons, Inc

2011

This book is exactly what it says on the cover, a sample of their published work since the first …For Dummies book in 1991. Covering everything from Windows 7 to Puppies to Sex, this book is an interesting one to flip through.

3/5

 

And that’s the lot for now.

Bye,

Rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review: “Atheism: Genetics to Geology and Much More Science” by Maurice de Bona Jr.

I offered to review this book because the title suggested it would be of interest to someone of my education and background. I was wrong. Within the first twenty pages I became frustrated by the author’s polemic, ignorance of the subjects, scientific and historical, on which he was commenting, disjointed arguments and outdated assumptions in statements such as ‘’Under monotheism, man shifted from a maternally structured society to a paternally structured society’’ and ‘’There was a time religious men feared science.’’

Among the basic mistakes the author makes is to suggest that matter can’t be created or destroyed only change form, and that ‘Electricity, for example, is a faster moving, less consolidated form of matter than the matter that comprises a rock.’ He is wrong, it is energy which is neither made nor destroyed but merely changes form. It’s called the conservation of energy. Electricity is the movement of electrons through a substance and rocks are made up of atoms in a crystal structure.

The author makes contradictory statements as well as blatantly incorrect ones. He also displays latent racism and sexism on occasion. Examples:
(1) ‘The average European cranial capacity is 90 cubic inches. The Hottentot natives have a capacity of about 65 cubic inches. Some Hindus have capacities as low as 45 cubic inches. This approaches the capacity of gorillas.’
(2) ‘Women, in general, have a greater sensitivity to emotions, such as love, than men. They are less capable of separating love and sex than men. Many women convince themselves that sex without love is impossible.’
He has a terrible habit of dumbing down his prose, assuming all readers will be as historically uneducated as well as scientifically ignorant, and that all atheists have the same beliefs as he does, despite claiming that he doesn’t.
I looked at the sources the author provided. Only four were less than ten years old, many much, much older. With such outdated attitudes I am not surprised he had had to find outdated sources to back his assertions.
The author clearly has a problem with religion but his sweeping generalisations about the nature of religion and the religious, and his ham-fisted attempts at scientific refutation of some religious beliefs does nobody any good. His tract may provide those with no education some basic, if inaccurate, knowledge, but anyone with even a basic education will be frustrated with this book.

Don’t bother with it.

It took me a good couple of months to read and I had to force myself to finish it. I wanted to punch the author after about ten pages. The spelling is atrocious (even if one takes Americanisms into account) he’s bombastic and insulting. Sorry I got really riled by this book. If you believe in something poorly disguised insults to your intelligence and education will not convince a person to take someone’s arguments seriously. if you are already an atheist or agnostic poorly constructed sources will do nothing to strengthen your resolve. Scientific arguments for evolution and the obvious great age of the Universe are strong enough that the this sort of pamphlet are no longer necessary.

Rant over, sorry again,

Rose

Review: The wisdom of the Shire: A short guide to a long and happy life

Noble Smith

Hodder & Stoughton

2012

As I said yesterday, I don’t read self-help books but I got sucked in by the Tolkien canon concept. There’s a reason for this; I get the feeling that the authors of such books are a bit smug. They might not be, but why would you write a book telling people how to live, or reach enlightenment, or how to pull, if you don’t believe that you know it all already and are kindly dispensing your wisdom to the world? So I’m a bit cynical; I don’t care how long you’ve been a Tolkien ‘enthusiast’, otherwise known as a fan, have you got something new to say, or are you just taking advantage of the fact that the ‘Hobbit’ films are popular at the minute?

As it turns out Mr Smith has nothing new to say on living a good life: sleep when you’re tired, only take what is sufficient to life, don’t be greedy or grasping, be a good neighbour and friend, treat the earth with respect and be a part of your community. None of this is new, but using the characters from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as his exemplars is. Much of the information asterisked as footnotes are obvious, irrelevant to the main text or things already known by those who are fans of Middle Earth.

All that being said, Mr Smith is passionate about the subject and that is obvious from his writing and the personal examples included affected me. His plan for a small ‘Hobbit garden’ is an interesting extra, he missed out Sam’s nasturtiums though :D. Most of all it has pushed me back to my copy of The Lord of The Rings, which sits accusingly on my bedside table, demanding to know when I am going to carry on reading it? The answer is, later, after I’ve made my pack up for work tomorrow.

I wouldn’t particularly recommend this book as weekend reading, but if you happen to see it in the library and like Middle Earth it would be a new approach to the works of Tolkien.

Bye,

Rose