Book Review: I Spy With My Little Eye by Linnea Mills

I Spy With My Little Eye is a non-fiction publication which reflects on a wide variety of modern behaviour and lifestyle choices. Author Linnea Mills examines subjects such as social media use, short-termism is politics and daily life, sexual attitudes, consumerism and celebrity culture among other themes and asks serious questions about the morality of modern society in Britain.

The author uses chapters that are defined by the seven deadly sins and seven heavenly virtues to categorize and dissect the subject matter. That, though, is not to say this is a religious book, it most certainly is not, instead these are used to clearly and effectively define to the reader what the chapter is about using a variety of well-referenced examples delivered in an engaging and easy-to-read style. Although this book deals with serious ideas, it is not a heavy book in either the way it is written nor in size.

Book Review: So Shall We Reap by Colin Tudge

Food continues to become cheaper and accessible through supermarkets, but is it getting better, and is the current supply sustainable? In "So Shall We Reap" author Colin Tudge deals with such questions by linking gastronomy, the hunter gatherer and the rural economy to oil production, health, animal welfare and cut-throat business practices. In this book the reader learns about the global food industry and how it has changed throughout the last century and how these changes have resulted in the call for Genetically Modified Organisms by parties set to benefit economically by their introduction.

Although written by a scientist, who is able to rely on a wide variety of disciplines from which he provides evidence for his arguments, this book is an enjoyable and informative read, linking from one topic to another with great skill in something of a revelationary, but not preachy, style.

Book Review: Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel

In Beatrice and Virgil author, Yann Martel, introduces the reader to a writer who has become famous for a novel that is about animals but finds producing his follow-up book too much of a challenge for him, particularly as his plans are for a novel that takes an original perspective on the holocaust. After rejection from his publisher Henry decides to move his family to another city for a fresh start and it is there that, as unlikely as it may seem, he meets another writer who is struggling to write his own allegorical representation of the holocaust using animals in the form of a play.

I am a great fan of Yann Martel's most famous book, The Life of Pi, so with that in mind I was looking forward to enjoying another piece of masterful storytelling from this author, particularly given the original and unlikely premise; unfortunately I read Beatrice and Virgil instead.

Book Review: Baking Cakes In Kigali by Gaile Parkin

In Baking Cakes in Kigali author Gaile Parkin takes readers into a community of locals and immigrants all of whom interact with the central character of the story, Angel Tungaraza, who is a mother, independent businesswoman and pillar-of-the-community in post genocidal Kigali, Rwanda.

The strength of this book is the moral and emotional fortitude shown by Angel and the large number of supporting characters who are all revealed through their interactions with her; the large majority being meetings with her whilst they are ordering cakes for special events in their lives. It quickly transpires that Angel is most aptly named as she provides many visitors with a friendly ear and gently pushes them towards making decisions that will improve their lives; this is a book about people, their lives and their feelings, trying to get life back to normal after the brutal, historic events of the civil war.

Book Review: Oh The Thinks You Can Think by Dr Seuss

Some readers might think that this is a children's book and as such it can only be appreciated by the very young or those with children; well think again! I read "Oh The Thinks You Can Think" for the first time just a few weeks ago and enjoyed it immensely, not only because of my ongoing appreciation of silliness and child-like charm, but because the book works on a number of levels.

Those who know Dr Seuss's work will know what to expect, word play, made-up creatures with silly names, amusing rhyming text and colourful, surreal illustrations. Those who don't know Dr Seuss will find a world that the imaginative can immerse themselves in; obviously children have the most fertile imaginations, but anyone who has a philosophical mind and/or enjoys childish silliness will appreciate this book for either or both reasons.

Book Review: The Seven Gifts by John Mellor

The Seven Gifts, by John Mellor, is small volume that contains a set of seven delightfully bizarre, short allegorical tales linked together by the story of a boy who is in the process of being tutored by an angel for the purpose of delivering seven gifts that have been bestowed upon earth.

This highly unusual book delivers seven thought-provoking stories, laced with a large collection of some of the most strange and memorable characters that have ever appeared together in a book. Each tale can be read and enjoyed in isolation from the others, however, the linking narrative of the boy and angel make this far more than just a collection of short stories and provides a clearer picture as to the meaning of each tale. So original and full of potential are these stories that readers are sure to examine, at least some of them, several times even though they are easy to read.

Book Review: The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer

The Castle in the Forest is the final fictional work by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer. It is a semi-fictional history of Adolf Hitler's family and upbringing, narrated by a mysterious being who had the responsibility of influencing events to bring out the worst in the young Adolf to mold him into an instrument of evil.

The premise of the story is intriguing and the early chapters draw the reader into a fascinating, but sordid history of the Hitler family with a literary, but readable style which, together with the innate fascination of the subject, turn this into something of a page-turner in its early stages. However, at some hard-to-pinpoint stage the tale seems to lose its way, as if the author lost his train of thought, and it becomes a very different sort of book indeed, becoming more mysterious and allegorical but losing something of its readability for that; in fact it becomes less enjoyable.

Book Review: Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese

Mercury Falls, by Rob Kroese, is a comic novel about the approach of the Apocalypse and how preparations for it by the managements of heaven and hell become compromised by over-complicated bureaucracy and underhand deals.

This amusing story tells how a reporter, an indolent angel and a nerd end up having pivotal roles in the approaching Apocalypse, a world-ending deal that has been forged by heaven and hell after many thousands of years of legal wrangling. The writing here is extremely imaginative, with angels and demons resembling employees of large corporations and heaven and hell appearing like competing companies. Whilst the author creates humour from turning the divine into the banal and poking fun alternately at creationism and modern science, at times the humour is rather esoteric and this may prevent this novel from appealing to a wide range of readers.

Book Review: Tricks of The Mind by Derren Brown

Tricks of The Mind is an insight into the sleight of hand, distractive, memory and psychological techniques employed, so effectively in his performances, by the British mentalist and showman, Derren Brown. Whilst this book examines the way in which people's perceptions, attention and beliefs can be manipulated for magical effect, it is not, however, a instructive manual on how to perform such tricks as predictions, disappearances and feats of memory.

In Tricks of The Mind, Derren Brown very skillfully and often humorously examines psychology, illusion and how people can be made to believe things that are not real in a way that hints at how these techniques are used in his shows. This book effectively lets us into the realm of Derren Brown and shows us what a wide range of ideas, techniques and fields of expertise are required to perform such acts.

Book Review: Thoughts, Life of a Suicide by Dillan Kane

This self-published book, by author Dillan Kane, is an attempt to look at understanding suicide and how those that are left behind deal with the issue. The author is the brother of someone who committed suicide at a young age and someone who has worked in the mental health system with those who have suicidal tendencies.

Whilst this book is written from the heart, I found that the author focuses only on his own feelings and does not really provide an insight into how suicidal people feel or what makes them feel that way. While this publication is about dealing with the aftermath of suicide some understanding of what causes it is relevant. Disappointingly, the story of the author's brother is not really explored properly and I feel that if it had, a more interesting and meaningful book would have been the result.

Book Review: Birdwatchingwatching by Alex Horne

Birdwatchingwatching documents the year-long foray into birdwatching by Alex Horne, an investigation into a hobby that his father has long had and that Alex has never understood. In an attempt to understand his father's passion Alex challenges him to a "Big Year", a year in which the person who sees the most species is declared the winner with the level of competition bringing father and son closer together.

Over the course of a year Alex's growing enthusiasm for birds is obvious and the way in which he delves into all the mysterious aspects of birdwatching is very amusing indeed. The style of this book is one of a naive newby to the hobby of birdwatching, almost birdwatching through the eyes of a child, making great reading for anyone who loves birds, from those with just a casual interest to the hard core "twitcher".

Book Review: My Booky Wook by Russell Brand

My Booky Wook is Russell Brand's autobiography, although, as with all autobiographies by young people, it is only the story so far and readers can expect further editions from this outrageous characters. Written in Brand's characteristic Dickensian style of speech, this book focuses heavily on his teenage years and early twenties; times of personal self-destruction through drug use and "sex-addiction".

In My Booky Wook the author relies largely upon the telling of quite outrageously bawdy anecdotes, outlining Russell Brand's litany of careless and thoughtless escapades as he pursued a course of self-destruction. If these anecdotes were not told in such a bizarre and self-deprecating style they would be offensive, indeed to many they will remain so, but I found many of them made me laugh out loud although at least some of them were quite shocking.

Book Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

Salmon fishing in the Yemen, by Paul Torday, is an original story of the attempt to introduce fly fishing for salmon into the wadis of southern Yemen, which has catastrophic consequences. This story revolves around a British fisheries scientist and his efforts to find a way of succeeding with the visionary project of a Yemeni Sheikh, and also on how members of the British government hijack the scheme for a vote-winning photo opportunity.

This book is written in a very unusual style, being a collection of documents; diaries, police reports, memoirs, letters and e-mails which at first feel rather awkward, but as the book progresses, the reader becomes comfortable with what is a rather original style which makes a fairly average book into something that stands out from others. This construction of the novel means that many of the documents are very personal to the characters, and this means that the characters become quite developed, although the ending perhaps leaves one wanting a little more from some of the main protagonists.

Book Review: The End of Nature by Bill McKibben

The End of Nature, by Bill McKibben, is a book about environmental issues, largely revolving around global warming and climate change. Here the author tries to explain why man has now changed every corner of the earth through his negligence in altering the climate and in the first few chapters he makes some interesting philosophical points that the reader may agree with or not; the point about how man has created a new type of nature in creating a climate which has been altered is thought provoking.

This new, updated version contains an interesting introduction by the author where he comments on how many of the predictions of climatologists have now come true and how we now live in the age of global warming - it is no longer something that could happen but something that is happening now. However, after the introduction and first few chapters the author rather labours his point, which is actually a fairly simple and easy-to-understand one.

Book Review: The Sneetches by Dr Suess

In Dr Suess's "The Sneetches" there are two kinds of almost identical creatures differentiated only by whether they have a star on their belly or not. Sneetch society operates such that those with stars on their bellies are the elite who attend frankfurter roast parties on the beach whilst those without stars are the outcasts - a sort of apartheid system, racism based upon the smallest of differences. This system prevails until a travelling salesman, Sylvester McMonkey McBean arrives on the beach with his star-on machine and convinces the starless Sneetches that for $5 they will get a star and become part of the elite. Later the same salesman convinces the original star-belly Sneetches that stars are out of fashion and for $10 they can take a turn in his star-off machine. So long as the Sneetches have money chaotic scenes of these weird creatures going in and out of Sylvester McMonkey McBean's machines ensues; it's hilarious but with potent messages.

Book Review: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is the story of Jurgis and his family who are attempting to make their fortune in the stockyards of early 20th century Chicago. Jurgis is a Lithuanian immigrant who quickly learns that although wages are "high" in America, so are the expenses and is if this were not enough to contend with there is an army of conmen, corrupt officials and greedy employers ready to cheat the family out of their hard-earned wages.

The early parts of this book describe the deplorable conditions in which food is manufactured and workers are worn down and eventually cast aside and the story quickly becomes one of hardship and misery with very few moments of happiness. However, I found that the characters, particularly Jurgis, are ones that I could care about and each downturn of fortune that they suffer made me feel for them and people like them around the world who still work in such conditions.

One fault of the book is that everything that could go wrong for the family does go wrong; family members gradually die off, Jurgis ends up in prison, homeless, injured, adopts the life of a tramp etc. and this stretches the credibility of the plot. Towards the end The Jungle becomes something of a propoganda piece for socialism and loses its way - finishing with a disappointing and idealistic rant. Whilst the story does an excellent job of highlighting the follies of ultra-capitalism the author seems to portray socialism in a rather niaive way.

These faults aside, The Jungle is a great story of woe about a character that most working men can relate to and I found myself turning the pages hoping to find that poor Jurgis would finally get a break.

The Jungle is a thought-provoking story about interesting characters but is not likely to make the reader feel good about the world; possibly the most depressing novel I have ever read but compelling all the same.

Score: 8.5/10

Book Review: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is the allegorical tale of how a group of mistreated animals successfully revolt against the human occupants of a farm and set up their own state where "all animals are equal". However, it does not take long before a new hierarchy is established and the pigs take over the daily running of the farm, quickly becoming corrupted by luxuries such as television, beds and alcohol.

This is a wonderful satire of extreme left-wing ideology and remains as relevant today as it was on its publication in 1945 employing a plot which is engrossing and surprisingly simply told considering that it deals with fairly complex political issues. The characters are equally as memorable as the plot, with only the hardest reader failing to be moved by the demise of Boxer, the hard working horse who tries his hardest to increase productivity. Similarly, the dictatorial Napoleon becomes a loathsome character backed by his secret police of the guard dogs and his "minister" of propaganda.

Book Review: The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres

Louis de Bernieres has created a quite unusual novel here which is essentially about the battle between a corrupt military and the increasing opposition from simple villagers and forest dwellers. There is, however, much more in this book than that, with a multitude of characters who must deal with such upheavals as kidnap, death of loved ones and violence. In fact one of the weaknesses of this book is the fact that it deals with so many themes and characters that none of them are properly explored and the simple plot becomes lost among them.

Having said this, I did laugh out loud a number of times at the author's sardonic humour and he does an excellent job of giving the reader a satirical look at the machinations of the military regime. One character that is well developed is the army captain who accidentally becomes a torturer, rapist, kidnapper and murderer in his attempt to complete his job efficiently - a real insight into how people become part of an oppressive regime.

Book Review: Earth in the Balance by Al Gore

Earth in the Balance (subtitled "Forging a New Common Purpose") is a superbly researched, comprehensive and holostic discussion of worldwide environmental policy, written in an accessible and readable style. Al Gore himself says that, "writing this book was part of a personal journey in search of a true understanding of a global ecological crisis and how it can be solved", and the style in which it is written takes the reader along a logical path of discovery themselves. Gore's style is to lay out the facts for the reader to see themselves and to argue logically what problems these lead to and what solutions might be sensible without preaching.

Gore makes use of diagrams and graphs to illustrate his point, but only where necessary and does well to avoid turning this book into a scientific treatise, particularly when covering subjects such as global climate change, soil erosion, peak oil production and genetically engineered organisms. It is also worth noting that this book was published in 1992, which clearly refutes any accusation that Gore's Nobel Peace Prize was won on the back of "jumping on the bandwagon" - this is a life's passion, not a populist move.

I came upon this book by chance, when a friend left it in my apartment and I found it an interesting and enlightening read. For those who wish to learn more about how environmental and economic issues fit together this is a great book to read, although at the end one may find oneself rather depressed when reflecting upon the isolated and reactionary ways our serving polititians attempt to bungle their way towards dealing with these issues. My only criticism of this book is that towards the latter third, Gore tends to repeat himself, perhaps in an effort to get his message through, but he makes it so compellingly in the first place that repetition is a little annoying.

I would highly recommend this book to budding environmentalists (it certainly proved useful during my degree in conservation) and to eco-sceptics alike so that both parties can form enlightened arguments.

Score: 9.5/10

Book Review: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess

The story of Green Eggs and Ham uses a vocabulary of just 50 words to teach us not to judge things before trying them. This wonderful book is most certainly one of the best from Dr Suess and was read aloud by the Reverend Jesse Jackson on television as a tribute to the author upon his death in 1991. The persistent Sam-I-am attempts to foist the rather unappealing dish of Green Eggs and Ham upon his nameless victim and Sam-I-am's persuasive technique has often been interpreted as an allegory for methods used by telemarketers.

This amusing tale begins with Sam-I-am proffering Green Eggs and Ham in a fairly conventional fashion, but quickly progresses to tempting the sceptic to try the meal in more adventurous surroundings including within a box or with a mouse as a dining companion. As the story progresses the situations in which the poor victim is asked to try Green Eggs and Ham become progressively more ridiculous such as in a tree or with a goat.

The crazy situations Dr Suess dreams up along with the wonderful rhyming text creates a very funny story for both children and adults alike and the wonderful expressions on the faces of all the characters in the illustrations are memorable in themselves.

I would recommend Green Eggs and Ham to anyone who enjoys books and of course, the kids will love this, as I did when I was a child, and parents will love reading this to their children. However, if you have never read Green Eggs and Ham you must do, whether or not you have children.

Green Eggs and Ham - Information about the characters, video clips and Green Eggs and Ham products.

Score: 10/10