Read: The Case of the General’s Thumb by Andrey Kurkov ★★★★☆ 📚 Ukrainian police and Russian KGB race around in a confusing and occasionally daft plot. The characters as lost as the reader. If you see a backward shooting gun in the first act…
Tag: Book
Read: This Is Your Mind On Plants
Read: This Is Your Mind On Plants by Michael Pollan 📚 ★★★☆☆
Three chapters, opium, caffeine, and mescaline. The opium one was recycled from some time ago, it would have been interesting to read more about the opiate crisis in modern times in the USA and the drug companies.
The coffee chapter was quite fascinating, given it is the one of the three I use. The social/political aspects were an interesting introduction to the area.
The mescaline chapter dug into some Native American/American Indian information and ideas. Including that some prefer the name Indian to Native American. I found this and the surrounding politics of mescaline more interesting that the effects of the drug.
Read Second Place by Rachel Cusk ★★★★☆ 📚 pretty intense narrator who is obsessed with self absorbed artist.
Read: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
Read: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby ★★☆☆☆ 📚too much driving and gun fighting for me. I should have read the blurb🤣 I can see some folk loving it, as it is exciting and tight.
Read: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Read: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell ★★★★★ 📚 I enjoyed everything about this, the detail of life at the time and the natural world and the sadness. The idea of Shakespeare as almost a secondary character is solid.
Read The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka
Read The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka ★★★★☆ 📚 told by a ghost or spirt, it covers the lives of two folk, a Brixton boy and Nigerian girl. Both places far from my ken, educating but never dull.
Read: A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin
Read: A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin ★★★☆☆ enjoyed this tale of older Rebus.
Read: Music Love Drugs War by Geraldine Quigley ★★★★★ 📚
Beautiful book about a group of youths in 1981 in Derry in the midst of the troubles. Their difficulty in expressing themselves & sharing feelings is heart-wrenching. I raced through this.
Read: All the Pieces Matter
All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire by Jonathan Abrams ★★★★☆ 📚
Quotes from the actors, writers, producers, directors & others involved. Going through the series in order. I’ve watched all 5 series several times through and this makes me want to watch it again.
Read: The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson
Read: The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson ★★★★☆ 📚
Great read, a mix of the history of the study & natural history of eels with the author’s eel fishing with his father. The list of folk who studied eels runs from Aristotle through Freud to Racel Carson. Includes a bit of recent Swedish social history, the mystery & plight of the species. loved this.