Reviews and Comments

The whole panoply of Greek mythology retold in Fry’s inimitable voice. I hadn’t realized that the whole bunch of gods, godesses, demigods, nymphs, and naiads were such a petty, jealous, vindictive lot.

Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations. Nicely written. Too short!

A sprawling history of the famous silk road and its offshoots, the civilizations they nurtured, the empires and power centres that rose and fell along them. An excellent history but also a primer for understanding the forces that continue to shape the region today.

A fair dinkum who-dunnit set in Australia. Who did it? Only they who have read it know.

We tend to think the way we experience the world is the way it is. But animals, using or emphasizing different and other senses than our five, may experience ‘reality’ in entirely different ways. Young leads us on a deep dive into the sensory experiences of animals.

Inspired by Dicken’s David Copperfield, the novel, set in rural Kentucky circa 1980-2000, centres around Demon, a trailer park kid who got kicked around to various foster homes, briefly became a local high school football star until a knee injury put an end to that, and sent him crashing into a life of opioids and addiction. His one talent, drawing, helped with his ultimate redemption. A theme running through it, like that of the Dicken’s novel, is that of institutional poverty and its effects on the lives ordinary people. Though it held my interest, the book was ultimately too long.

An aristorcat—a count—is sentenced after the Russian revolution to house arrest at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow where he remains for the next 30 years. A thin premise for a book? Not on your life. The author unfolds a rich and nuanced story of this extraordinary man’s life, plots, and liaisons, with the tumultuous years of mid-20th century Russia as a backdrop. The pages are generously spiced with commentaries, asides, and diversions on culture, literature, art, music, science, philosophy, food, drink, and politics. And at the end, the reader is rewarded with a thrilling conclusion worthy of a great spy novel. Brilliantly written with charm, wit, humour, and insight.

Basically a police procedural, but set in England and New England in the mid 1600s. An obsessive official hunts for fugitives responsible for the death of the king when Oliver Cromwell took power. Harris recreates life in both old and new worlds in this period piece. Good, but could have been shorter.

The importance of water to mankind, past, present, and future. Lots of facts, figures and statistics which makes this an informative read, but the writing is a tad pedestrian.

Orwell went to Spain as a journalist but soon signed up as a partisan to fight in the Spanish civil war in the late 1930s. Excellent account of his own experiences and of the chaos that reigned during that period. The political landscape was extremely complex with multitudinous factions and ever shifting alliances.

A murder mystery/psychological thriller with an intricate, he-said, she-said plot. Good writing. Tracks the descent i to madness of the protagonists. Good plot/character development. Edge of the seat suspense. Some scenarios were improbable, but hey, it’s fiction. For me, a little too much time spent in the thick weeds of psychopathic, manipulative relationships, but that’s only me and, upon reflection, the book wouldn’t have worked without it..

Everything you want from a high adventure, high adrenaline story of the days of sail. And all true.