Brian's Book Log - Ongoing

[Hayley]

16 hours ago, willoyd said:

I am a big Holmes fan (grew up with a father who was an expert in the subject, and led guided walks following him round London), but there's no doubt in my mind that the real strength of the books is in the short stories.

I just wanted to say that that's very cool! 

 

3 hours ago, Brian. said:

 

I have a single book containing all the novels which is what I'm planning to work through. There is a section at the back called The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes which I'm assuming are short stories. If they are short stories I will probably dip in and out of them while I'm working my way through the novels.

I'm sure Willoyd can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think there are only four novels (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, Hound of the Baskervilles and then The Valley of Fear). The Case Book is a collection of short stories and so are The Adventures, The Memoirs and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. 

Totally agree with Willoyd that The Hound of Baskervilles is the best novel!

[willoyd]

4 hours ago, Hayley said:

I'm sure Willoyd can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think there are only four novels (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, Hound of the Baskervilles and then The Valley of Fear). The Case Book is a collection of short stories and so are The Adventures, The Memoirs and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. 

Totally agree with Willoyd that The Hound of Baskervilles is the best novel!

You're spot on about the novels. 

The Case-Book was the last of the short story collections, published in the 1920s, some years after the others. 

There were, in fact, 5 short story collections: in chrono order of publication they were The Adventures, The Memoirs, The Return, His Last Bow, The Case-Book.  They don't represent the chrono order of when the different cases took place - but that's a bit iffy to sort out anyway!  I would, however, recommend reading them in order of publication, as there are one or two important threads that followed through in publication order (above all else, I would definitely read The Memoirs before The Return - it really doesn't make sense the other way round).  All in all, 4 novels and 56 short stories.

Edited November 2, 2022 by willoyd

[Brian.]

I had no idea there were only 4 novels. The short story collections are presented in publication order so I’ll read them in that sequence. The books also has illustrations from The Strand magazine which is a really nice touch. 

[Hayley]

22 hours ago, Brian. said:

The books also has illustrations from The Strand magazine which is a really nice touch.

That is a nice touch! I found a single volume of The Strand in a little second-hand bookshop years ago and I was most excited about the Sherlock illustrations!  

[Brian.]

Time for my next update and another two books completed.

 

A Murder of Quality by John le Carre (3/5)

This is George Smiley book number 2 and we still haven't got to the world of espionage yet. In this book George Smiley is asked to do a favour for a friend and look into a letter she had recieved. The writer of the letter says that she thinks her husband is trying to kill her. By the time George arrives at the posh school the letter came from the wife is already dead. This was a pretty decent read, helped in no small part by it's brevity (150 pages). There is nothing amazing here but I did enjoy le Carre's criticism of the private schooling.

 

The Vaccine  by Joe Miller, Ugur Sahin, and Ozlem Tureci (3/5)

Another Kindle book, this one is about how a small company in Germany called BioNTech developed the first Covid-19 vaccine. An interesting book because it investigates not only the technological side of developing a vaccine but also how international politics game into play. It also stands out that the two people behind BioNTech, husband and wife paring of Sahin and Tureci have Turkish roots. Another very interesting part to the story is how BioNTech were a cancer treatment company and not into making vaccines. At the outbreak of Covid-19 they decided to put what they know into trying to develop an MRNA vaccine for Covid. This was a huge risk for the company but it clearly paid off.

 

 

[Brian.]

Three more books finished in the last two weeks.

 

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (4/5)

Time for one of my pet hates. I don't like it when publishers, and too a lesser extent writers, adopt something from a book which has had recent publishing success. I remember a glut of book titles along the lines of 'The Girl Who' or 'The Girl On' after The Girl on the Train proved to be a runaway hit. Similarly, ever since the success of The Tattooist of Auschwitz there has been a spate of titles following 'The (insert job or title) of (somewhere significant)' format. This irritates me to such an extent that I will purposefully avoid these kind of books. Ok, rant over.

Despite my reservations about the title, the synopsis sounded interesting enough that I decided to give this one a go. The fact that the book is partly based in Syria also helped sway me. The book starts with husband and wife Nuri and Afra in the UK awaiting processing for their application for asylum. The rest of the book tells the story of their journey to this point and also their application process.

This is a book packed with emotion and really puts into perspective the suffering many asylum seekers go through. Throughout the book I was struck as to how much detail there was in the asylum seekers journey so it wasn't a surprise to find out that Lefteri volunteered at a migrant camp in Athens in her earlier life. There is no doubt that this helped her shape the characters and the plot in a way that really tells their story.

 

Before the Frost by Henning Mankell (3/5)

Almost exactly four years ago I read the last book in the Kurt Wallander series and said goodbye to a character I had come to love reading about. I knew that Kurt appeared in this book which is about his daughter Linda and her becoming a police officer but as the time line was jumbled I decided to give it a few years before picking it up. When I finished The Troubled Man, Kurt had retired and was slowly losing his mind and his health. It felt odd reading a book set before this time period and I was also aware that this was meant to be a trilogy that stopped after one book. These things all combined to make me concerned that this book wouldn't live up to my hopes.

I'll start by saying that this isn't a bad book and I don't think Mankell could write a bad book, but it just didn't feel write. Linda as a character is pretty annoying and constantly makes really bad decisions. Perhaps this was Mankell's way of portraying her as someone who has little experience with police work. Kurt was always a bit of a grumpy git when he was struggling with things, but in this book he comes across as completely unsociable and impossible to work with. There is a real disconnect between Kurt in this book and Kurt in the other books which I did not get on with.

Despite these failings (in my eyes at least) I have given it 3 stars because the plot works well and it is well written. I have really struggled to read in recent weeks but this book kept me interested throughout when many others have been put aside.

 

Das Reich by Max Hastings (2/5)

This is one of the earlier books written by Hastings and is about the 2nd SS Panzer division. To achieve this aim Hastings doesn't concentrate soley on the Panzer division but jumps between the perspective of French resistance fighters and British SOE operatives. It's an admirable attempt but I feel as though it just doesn't work as desire. Around the time this book was written Hastings also wrote The Battle for the Falklands, and Bomber Command. Both of these books follow a much more tradition format and timeline and as a result felt a like a more cohesive work when I read them.

I persevered with it despite getting a bit bored with it at times and I've never done that with a Hasting book before.

[Brian.]

It was my birthday last week so I treated myself to some new books.

 

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

The Unwomanly Face of War - Svetlana Alexievich

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire

The Earth is Weeping - Peter Cozzens

A Storm of Swords pt 2 - George R.R. Martin

hmmm It, I’ll Start Tomorrow - Action Bronson

Fighting for the French Foreign Region - Alex Lochrie

How to Read and Why - Harold Bloom

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before - Dr Julie Smith

 

[Hayley]

Happy birthday for last week! 
 

3 hours ago, Brian. said:

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

Was this the new folio one? That was one of the new ones that stood out to me! 

[Brian.]

7 hours ago, Hayley said:

Happy birthday for last week! 
 

Was this the new folio one? That was one of the new ones that stood out to me! 

No, it’s the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition. I tend to only buy Folio Editions of books I love and I haven’t read this one yet.

[Hayley]

1 hour ago, Brian. said:

No, it’s the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition. I tend to only buy Folio Editions of books I love and I haven’t read this one yet.

Same here on both counts, so I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it. If it is brilliant then the folio version is beautiful! 

[Brian.]

The Tesseract by Alex Garland (2/5)

I've been impressed with both The Beach (the book) and the movies that Alex Garland has been involved in so when I spotted this in a local charity shop picking it up was a no-brainer. Once again we are in the far east, this time instead of a Thai island this book is set in the Philippines, and specifically Manila.

The book covers three stories which at the end all converge together in a frantic conclusion. The three stories are all from different social and economic backgrounds. We have a group of street kids, a foreign gangster, and a middle class parent just putting her kids to bed. I'm sure there was meant to be some great social commentary here but it was all a bit lost on my simple brain.

I think the most obvious thing to say about this book is that it isn't The Beach. That was told in a traditional linear fashion and while reading it you can instantly tell it would make a decent movie if treated correctly. This book is more of an effort to read and one that I didn't think gave up rewards for my efforts. Not a lot happens and most parts of the individual stories are left unanswered and unexplored. The non-linear timeline actually works quite well in this case and without it I think the book would have been missing something. Ultimately however, I was left feeling a bit meh by the time I had finished. It was ok. I read it over the course of two evenings and there was just enough to keep me interested but nothing more than that.

 

Next up The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

 

 

 

[Brian.]

 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett(4/5)

As I have already mentioned in a previous post, this isn't the kind of book I would have bought had it not been part of a special offer. I am aware that earlier in my reading life I have been pretty fixed in my reading choices and I have been trying to expand that in recent years. This book is kind of part of this aim and I have been trying to read more books about race amongst other things.

 

The book is about the Vignes twins and the generations either side of them. The twins are brought up in a poor, small, southern American black community called Mallard. This community is odd in a few ways. The people there are fair skinned black people and there is definite divide between those who could pass as white and those who are darker skinned. The other oddity is that Mallard is so small that it doesn't appear on any maps and is pretty much anonymous to anyone who doesn't live there. The Vignes twins escape Mallard at the age of 16 to pursuit a life elsewhere in America. Eventually one of the sisters comes back to Mallard and continues to live a 'black' life whereas the other breaks all ties and lives as a white woman. 

 

I appreciate that this probably sounds a bit convoluted but Bennett handles this really well in the book. The story does start off pretty slowly and I was concerned that I would find it a trudge. However, the story jumps forward a bit and we end up following the daughters of the twins and this is where the book really hits its stride. Their lives are interesting, they are great characters, and the issues they deal with feel real and important. Talking of issues, this book covers a lot of bases. Off the top of my head Bennett covers racism, colour, domestic violence, LGBT issues, class issues, identity issues, and probably some others that I've missed.

 

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was really well written and deals with some big issues in a real but sensitive ways. It does lose a star for me however because I think it tries to do too much at the same time. This could have been fixed by either making the book longer or dropping some of the topics. As an example, there is a trans character who features a lot who I wanted to learn more about but we never learn too much about them. The male characters in the book are not really fleshed out and in particular one of the sister's partners is barely developed despite featuring on a regular basis. These reservations aside, I think this is a really good book. It's one of the few books this year that has kept me awake at night because I wanted to know what happens.

[France]

I agree this was a great book, I loved it.

[Brian.]

Due to a combination of getting older and not being mindfull enough I have been fairly immobile since last weekend with a neck/back injury. As a result I have been reading more than usual and have finished 2 more books.

 

Echoes of War: The Story of H2S Radar by Bernard Lovell (3/5)

This was lent to me by someone I work with. He had been after this book for quite a while but struggled to find it as it is out of print. Bernard Lovell was the lead engineer of one of a few groups working on the development or radar during WWII.  This book is his personal account of how it all went and the challenges both he and his teams had to overcome.

When I finished this book I struggled to come up with a rating for it. The content is really in depth and covers ground that I doubt is covered in any book other than a textbook. However on the other hand, I found it fairly turgid in places and it was a bit of a struggle to get through. In the end I settled for a half way score because I think it is a good book with a caveat. That caveat is that I think it will only be of use to those with an intense interest in the subject matter and/or with a good understanding of radar. Some of the technical stuff covered is pretty complex and although I have a rudimentary understanding of radar much of it went completely over my head.

 

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (4/5)

I'm not a big reader of Sci-Fi but it is a genre that I want to get more into as I like to watch Sci-Fi TV series and movies. My history with books in this genre is really mixed. I have generally liked things from 'classic' authors like Isaac Asimov, HG Wells, and Jules Verne. My record with more modern authors hasn't been great although I should point out that I haven't dipped my toe too far into that water. That's where this book comes in. I have recently been updating my reading 'wishlist' by reading various blogs etc and this book kept coming up. The synopsis is as follows

 

Quote

"1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredicatable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists' deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces."

 

This sounded very intriguing to me while at the same time not really giving too much away. I found a copy in my local library and decided to give it a go.

 

At the start of the book there is a small list of the main characters, who they are, and how they relate to each other. This is a really good addition which I found myself referring back to for a while as I got used to the characters. The problem I had is that I am not used to Chinese names (the author is Chinese) and because some of them are fairly similar sounding I got confused who was who. This did pass after about 100 pages though as there aren't a huge amount of characters to contend with. Talking of characters, that is probably the weakest part of the book. With the exception of a rogue policeman called Da Shi none of the characters are particularly likeable. This is because there isn't really anything in the way of character development. But somehow that never really matters as the focus seems to be on what is happening instead of who it is happening to.

 

I found the science of the Sci-Fi really interesting and when added to the philosophical and political elements of the book I just couldn't put it down. I tend to read in chunks, taking small breaks on a regular basis. With this book I found myself sitting there reading for extended periods without feeling like stopping or getting fatigued. When I did take a break, often because I had too rather than wanting too, I found myself thinking about what was going on in the book. In particular there is a section of the book about a human computer which I thought was very cleverly done and will stick in my mind for a long time.

 

It's fair to say that I really really enjoyed this book. I plan to read the next book in the trilogy by the end of January so that I don't forget too much and I really want to know what happens next. It's by no means pefect though. There are some parts of the science which felt a bit janky and the other major character group (I won't name them to prevent a slight spoiler) aren't great, but the novel as a whole is good enough to overcome these issues in my opinion. It is really admirable that Liu Cixin managed to get as much politics and philosophy into the book without it feeling forced or overdone.

[poppy]

Back/neck injury sounds nasty, Brian. Hope you improve quickly. More time for reading would be the only consolation.

[France]

I picked up the Three Body Problem at a book fair a few months ago and it's been languishing in the bookcase, now I really want to read it.

 

Hope you get better soon. Last time I had a serious neck problem I ended up with a baby! (Long story, but being in too much pain to remember pills had a lot to do with it).

[Brian.]

9 hours ago, poppy said:

Back/neck injury sounds nasty, Brian. Hope you improve quickly. More time for reading would be the only consolation.

 

Thanks. It's definitely on the mend but it's a slow process.

 

50 minutes ago, France said:

I picked up the Three Body Problem at a book fair a few months ago and it's been languishing in the bookcase, now I really want to read it.

 

Hope you get better soon. Last time I had a serious neck problem I ended up with a baby! (Long story, but being in too much pain to remember pills had a lot to do with it).

 

I think I'm safe on the baby front 🤣

I was planning on waiting until next year to read the next book in the series but if my local library has it I will pick it up tomorrow. I can't stop thinking about it and I don't think I can wait too much longer to carry on with it.

[Brian.]

I keep picking up books other than The Dark Forest to read so it might have to wait until the new year. I've just finished The Premonition by Michael Lewis which is up to the standard of his previous work. I've made a start on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle and I will probably make a start on Chris Blackwell's autobiography later tonight.

[Brian.]

I've decided to finish the year off with something light and easy to read The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth.

[Brian.]

4 books finished since my last update.

 

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carre (5/5)

This is the third book in the George Smiley series and we finally get to some espionage. The story follows Alec Leamas who is running agents in East Germany. There is a leak and slowly but surely all of Alec's agents are killed off. After the final death he hopes that this will be the end of the problem but he is convinced to go deep undercover to bring down the head of East German Intelligence.

This is a superb book and I can see why it is largely considered to be le Carre's best work. The tension builds up really slowly inline with the story until it becomes almost suffocating.

 

The Premonition by Michael Lewis (4/5)

I have read most of Lewis' work and have been impressed by all of it. This perhaps didn't grab me as much as some of his other work but I suspect that is because the pandemic is a story we are all familiar with. What we probably aren't familiar with is the story behind the people who spotted trouble coming and had to really battle to be heard. This book is written from an American perspective but still stands as a warning to all of us about ignoring experts because what they are telling us is unpalatable.

 

The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth (3/5)

A solid if unspectacular thriller about an ex solider who is recruited to infiltrate a terrorist attack before it happens.The story is pretty far fetched and requires the suspension of belief but is nonetheless entertaining.

 

The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin (2/5)

I really didn't know whether to give this one or two out of five. The main reason it doesn't get one star is that I reserve that rating for books I hate. The blurb on the back of the book claims to "share the principles of learning and performance" but it really does not do this. What we get instead is a biography with some very poorly explained aspects of Waitkin's learning process. The thing that Waitzkin fails to grasp is that he has a special talent that the rest of us don't have. He has the rare ability to combine natural talent with extreme focus. This ability is not something that one can learn. Sure, we can all improve, but the lessons on learning in the book are all ethereal and don't contain any real substance.

The writing is good enough that it saves the book from being a total disaster as long as you have an interest in Waitzkin, Chess, or Tai Chi. If not, then this is one to miss.

[Chrissy]

The Spy Who Came in From The Cold is an excellent read. It has been many years since I (somewhat reluctantly) read it, but I was taken by surprise by just how compelling a story it is. 

 

 

[Brian.]

I'm going to try and return to the longer form of reviews that I used to post up until about 2016. I can't guarantee that I will do this for every book I have read but I will do my best.

[Brian.]

The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin




Synopsis
Josh Waitzkin knows what it means to be at the top of his game. A public figure since winning his first National Chess Championship at the age of nine, Waitzkin was catapulted into a media whirlwind as a teenager when his father’s book Searching for Bobby Fischer was made into a major motion picture. After dominating the scholastic chess world for ten years, Waitzkin expanded his horizons, taking on the martial art Tai Chi Chuan and ultimately earning the title of World Champion. How was he able to reach the pinnacle of two disciplines that on the surface seem so different? “I’ve come to realize that what I am best at is not Tai Chi, and it is not chess,” he says. “What I am best at is the art of learning.”
(taken from Goodreads)


My Thoughts

Being a fan of chess this book has been on my radar for a few years now. I have listened to short conversations between Waitzkin and various podcast hosts over the years but didn't really know too much about his story. The strapline of the book declares 'an inner journey to optimal performance', and I was interested to see how Waitzkin learns and how well it would translate to others.

 

I may as well start by saying that this book does not deliver any  really tangible lessons on learning or how to learn. The only two things that I took away are to concentrate on the fundamentals, and to focus on the long term goal. Neither of these statements is new or brings anything new to the table. Waitzkin instead focuses on his life and how when he learns something he experiences it in an ethereal way. It's clear that his learning experience is unique to him and pretty much him alone. He is an outlier, an extremely talented individual who is able to focus in a way that few others can. He is also able to dedicate all of his time and energy on his current project in an obsessive way. I say this is not to detract from his achievements but to point out that he was written an autobiography and not a book about how to learn.

 

As a result of the misleading title I wavered between one and two stars for this book. My knowledge of chess coupled with the interesting parts about Waitzkin's experiences with Tai Chi where enough to save it from one star. Waitzkin is a fascinating character who has lead a very interesting and unique life. I imagine one of the reasons this isn't an instructional book is that his methods just don't translate to us mere mortals. It's a bit like Messi trying to explain how he plays football to Dave down the pub. They can both kick a ball but Messi occupies a different realm and only those who share this realm can understand.

 

2/5 (I was ok).

[Brian.]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle




Synopsis
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the series of short stories that made the fortunes of the Strand magazine, in which they were first published, and won immense popularity for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The detective is at the height of his powers and the volume is full of famous cases, including 'The Red-Headed League', 'The Blue Carbuncle', and 'The Speckled Band'. Although Holmes gained a reputation for infallibility, Conan Doyle showed his own realism and feminism by having the great detective defeated by Irene Adler - the woman - in the very first story, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.
(taken from Goodreads)


My Thoughts

Last year I decided to work my way through all the Sherlock Holmes stories and this is number 3 for me. I read the first, A Study in Scarlet in late 2020, and then last year I read The Sign of Four. It wasn't until I made a post on here about The Sign of Four that Hayley and Willoyd told me that there are only actually four novels, the rest being short stories. The first two books were novels so this was my first foray into the short stories.

 

I thought the novels were good but having read this collection I think that the short stories work better. The stories all flow really well and contain just the right amount of detail without spoon feeding the reader. Interestingly we also see Holmes being bettered by in some ways, something that I did not expect. Where the stories really excel in my opinion is the dialogue, especially between Holmes and Watson. All of the stories are good but my two favourite ones were The Readheaded League, and The Adventure of the Beyrl Coronet.

 

4/5 (I really liked it).

[Brian.]

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides




Synopsis
Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago.

 

When she shot her husband in the head five times.

 

Since then she hasn't spoken a single word.

 

It's time to find out why.
(taken from Goodreads)


My Thoughts

This is another one of those books that has found its way onto my extensive wishlist but I can't remember why. Aside from crime novels I generally don't read much in the was of thrillers so this was a bit of a departure for me. Alicia Bereson has been detained in a secure psychiatric hospital for killing her husband. Ever since the murder she has been silent. Her sole communication has been a painting she did immediately after the murder. We follow Dr Theo Faber who has given up a secure and relatively comfortable job in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital because he wants to work with/treat Alicia. This is as far as I will go regarding the plot as I don't want to inadvertently post any spoilers.

 

So, at the start of the story we don't know why Alicia killed her husband or if she did kill her husband for sure. We also don't know why Theo seems so driven to work at the hospital she is being held at. This is an interesting premise and the book started off pretty well. I have to admit that it did keep me guessing up until the last 30 pages or so. I also flew through this in 2 days which is generally a sign that I find a book pretty well written. Reading reviews once I had finished this book it would seem that a lot of people either love it or hate it. I sit somewhere squarely in the middle.

 

While the premise is good and the writing is solid I think that Michaelides has tried to squeeze in too much story. There are loads of tangents which go no where and far too many loose ends when the story comes to a climax. When I finished I found myself wondering why he included some of these as they don't add anything to the story at all. Another weak point are the characters. No one wants a character portrayed as perfect and dislikeable characters can work very well in a book. However, in this case I found every single character dislikeable. There was not a single one I was rooting for and I didn't care what happened to any of them.

 

Despite these criticisms, I did enjoy the book but I feel it could have been better had it been handled in a different way. I notice that Michaelides has written another book featuring a therapist/pyschologist called The Maidens but The Silent Patient hasn't made we want to rush out and read it.

3/5 (I liked it).