Category Archives: Book Reviews

Review: Inequality by James K. Galbraith

Inequality

What Everyone Needs to Know®

by James K. Galbraith

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Published By: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 1st April 2016

Edition: Paperback

ISBN: 9780190250478

Price: £10.99

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Review: ‘A World From Dust’ by Ben McFarland

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A World From Dust

How the Periodic Table Shaped Life

by Ben McFarland

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Gravitational waves

Since I’m writing about science at the minute it might seem like a good idea to write about the LIGO discovery earlier this week of gravitational waves, the final prediction of Einstein’s 1916 Theory of General Relativity to be confirmed. This could be tricky, I only have a glancing understanding of relativity, I’ll have a go though.

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The niece wanted to know

How glow sticks work. It’s quite handy that I happened to write my dissertation, way back in 2003, on the subject of luminescence since that’s what we’re talking about. Unfortunately, I can’t find my dissertation or my OHP slides – yes we were still using overhead projectors at Durham University in the early 2000’s – so I’ve actually had to look things up, mostly Jablonski diagrams. I had a really good one that I used for my dissertation, but like I said, I can’t find them.

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Review: ‘How English became English’ by Simon Horobin

How English Became English
A Short History of a Global Language

Simon Horobin

From amazon.co.uk
From amazon.co.uk

Published by: Oxford University Press                                                                                                                       Publications date: 28th January 2016                                                                                                                       Edition: Hardback                                                                                                                                                             ISBN: 9780198754275                                                                                                                                                     Price: £10.99

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Review: ‘Benjamin Franklin in London’ by George Goodwin

Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father

George Goodwin

Publication Date: 16th February 2016
Edition: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780300220247
Price: $32.50

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Review: ‘Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World’ by Tim Whitmarsh

Battling the Gods

Atheism in the Ancient World

by Tim Whitmarsh

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Review: ‘Witches Protection Program’ by Michael Phillip Cash

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Chelshire Inc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles                                                                                                                                                                      Published: 14th May 2015                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Paperback                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ISBN:9781511411349  
Blurb
 Witches Protection Program is filled with adventure & suspense Michael Phillip Cash creates a tongue-in-cheek alternate reality where witches cast spells and wreak havoc in modern day New York City.

Michael Phillip Cash is an award winning and best selling author of horror, paranormal, and science fiction novels. Michael currently resides on Long Island with his wife and children.

My Review

Firstly, the plot; it has a great deal of potential and could be extended from this novella in to a full novel or even a series. I was disappointed with certain aspects – such as the explanation for Bernadette’s great conspiracy, and the reason Wes lost his original position. They just weren’t ambitious enough. If that was all I wouldn’t be too bothered but the insistent and weakly developed romantic plot irritated me.

Secondly the writing: not bad, although tension would drop in all the wrong places.

Characters: All the men are heroes of one sort or another, and all the women are horrible (either physically or psychologically) or weak. Returning to Bernadette, all her actions are predicated on the assumption that the romantic rejection by her sister’s husband would make her hate all men and want to lock them up in internment camps. Or Scarlett, who’s jealousy of Morgan should somehow drive her mad with power lust. It all tickled at something, and then I realised what it was. Straw-feminist arguments advanced by misogynists include ‘feminists hate men’, ‘women hate each other’, and ‘women compete for male attention’; I’m sure the author isn’t a misogynist, but his book read like an MRA fantasy, complete with the handsome white man coming in to save the day and get the, equally white, younger, pretty girl.

I really hope that is the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ aspect of the book.

Overall, I was underwhelmed by this book, although the idea itself has a lot of potential.

2/5