May 31 2007

Three Men in a Boat

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 1:00 pm

Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome

Yet another title that describes the book most succinctly, though there is a dog as well. Embarrassing as it may be, I have to confess that before I started reading the book, I assumed it had a connection with the ‘butcher, baker, candle stick maker’ nursery rhyme in some way!

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Set in a more idyllic, tranquil time (for those fortunate to be upper middle class), the book follows the exploits of the three (relatively) young men and there holiday trip from Kingston to Oxford, mainly on the river Thames.
I can tell I’ve already lost a number of blog readers, so I should quickly point out that there is large dollop of humour within the book. Although set some 120/130 (?) years ago, a lot of the humour regarding people foibles and the interplay between similar people still stands up well, even in this modern world.

If any readers out there have actually gone a back to basics boating holiday, and have read this book, I’d be interested to hear what they thought of the accuracy within the novel.

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May 31 2007

The Old Man and the Sea

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:37 pm

The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

This time Mr Hemingway did manage to capture and hold my imagination and interest. We find ourselves in Cuba, in a small fishing village. The old man of the title has been fishing a very long time, and has a apprentice/assistant who cares about the man as more than just a teacher/boss figure in his life.
The old timer goes out to sea, and carries out a long drawn out battle with a Merlin. (Think I spelt that right… a big fish basically.)
The author manages to capture the simple & difficult life the fishermen all went through, and I found myself actually caring what happened to the fisherman, a lot more than when I was reading ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’.
Although set a long time ago, the tension that is built up does a good job in captivating you, and even though I usually choose to read SciFi or Fantasy type books, I was glad I finally got around to reading this.

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May 31 2007

A Farewell to Arms

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:05 pm

A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

This book is at least semi-auto biographic for Hemingway. He did go and volunteer for service in Italy during WWI, and is assumed to have had a romance that inspired the other half of this book’s content. Personally, I did like the description of the futility if many types of war, but didn’t really warm to the love story/romance side of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I read it, probably more than For Whom The Bell Tolls, for example (review coming in a few days), I was just expecting something a little different I suppose. I did quite enjoy reading the portrayal of the priest as a real human being rather than simply a plot device conveniently present whenever morality needed to be raised as a subject.
The main character starts out content enough in his ambulance duties, but after being badly wounded in a battle, he starts to lose his taste for war (despite meeting his GF at the hospital), and becomes more self-centred. He eventually deserts and well, you’ll need to read the book to find out more 🙂

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May 27 2007

Do Fish Drink Water?

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 9:38 am

Do Fish Drink Water? – Bill McLain

In a very similar vein to the Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? book I reviewed earlier, the main concept is that people have asked Bill McLain a lot of questions over the years, and he researches the answers. Where permission has been given, he puts the Q&A on his website, and eventually made this book.
If fascinating facts to quizzical questions interest you, then this may well be the book for you. However, there is certainly an American inclination to the questions, and a few of the answers are either out of date now, or plain wrong. That said, it was an interesting read, and I mean to go and check his site out soon.

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May 27 2007

Recoil

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 7:40 am

Recoil – Andy McNab

The 9th in the Nick Stone series, Recoil does feel quite similar to other books in the series, but then again I read these sorts of books because I enjoy them, not to actually challenge myself intellectually or anything.
The main character is in Switzerland, recovering from his last book/job, and is coming to terms with losing one of his best friends. His rich girlfriend tries to help him re-acclimatise, but her father doesn’t help much.
The girlfriend works for a charity, and disappears off to the Congo, which concerns Nick. Cue lots of fighting and details on using weapons. Nick had been to central Africa some two decades past, and has some unpleasant flashbacks.
We have the normal army chatter, obvious bad guys, crooked Ruperts (commissioned officers), helpless innocents and large explosions. If you’ve read all his books, you will end up buying this, even if it is just more of the same; if this book doesn’t interest you, you’re not going to care about the plot repetition with only minor tweaks…

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May 26 2007

Blackout

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 4:15 am

Blackout – Chris Ryan

I’ve actually read a number of Chris Ryan’s books, but as these reviews are only covering the books I’ve read since emigrating to Kazakhstan, this is the first time one of his has cropped up.
I got this book, and the next similar Andy McNab one, at Christmas, when I normally ask for these sorts of books. Some intellectuals have complained about these books being formulaic, and without much originality. I would not argue a great deal to be honest, but sometimes it can be nice to simply veg out when reading a book. Especially if your stomach is still busy trying to digest a few days of over feeding, as well as your liver freaking out at the Vodka & Baileys suddenly assaulting it 😉
In this book, we see an SAS soldier (Josh Harding) regain consciousness, but sadly not his memory, in a desert. The story quickly leads into three cities suffering electrical blackouts. Authorities worry it is a terrorist cell. The story follows Josh’s efforts to rediscover who he is, why he is where he is, and of course, what is behind the black outs.
OK, so hardly ground breaking in itself, but like I said, I was happy enough reading it.

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May 26 2007

Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 3:55 am

Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? – Various contributors from the New Scientist magazine

If you or even a 4 year old (eternal fans of Why…. conversations) has ever posed that question, this book should keep you occupied, and even provide answers to strange queries.
I remember reading my Dad’s New Scientist when I was younger, and making myself reading the ‘normal’ topics, then gleefully skipping the jobs section, to get to the sweet spot of NS – the Last Word column, strangely enough on the last page. A bit like reading the news stories before allowing yourself the light relief of a comic strip 🙂
If you don’t get the idea of the book from the above description, it probably isn’t for you 🙂
Oh, and thanks Dad for the intro to the magazine, and sending one over recently.

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May 26 2007

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 3:13 am

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein

I returned to reading Sci-Fi with this novel, and despite some misgivings with its title, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing.
The story (strangely enough) revolves around the moon, which has been setup as a sort of prison/penal colony, a bit like Australia was a few centuries ago. In the same way as Australian citizens quickly gave birth to children, who had committed no crime, the new lunar generations find themselves on the moon, having done nothing wrong.
The book is set in the future, towards the end of the 21st century, with the main character being a computer tech who works for the lunar authority. He finds out that the main super computer on the moon has evolved well beyond its initial programming, and is self-aware.
The inhabitants on the moon are not happy with their situation, which see the governments on Earth take all the moons resources at an artificially low price, and give none of the benefits. A revolution ensues, and things don’t go to plan…
Oh yeah, ever wondered where the phrase There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch came from? Apparently this novel has the first recorded instance of it!

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May 26 2007

Forrest Gump AND Gump & Co.

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 12:09 am

Forrest Gump AND Gump & Co. – Winston Groom

I’ve decided to review both books, as there are obvious comparisons to be made between the books and the film. First off, the edition I read of Gump & Co contained a preface by the author detailing his disliking of the handling of the film.
Pretty obviously, I had seen the film prior to reading either book. I would still recommend reading both books, even if you have seen the film. Certainly the film will pop into your mind when you read the books, especially at points where the original books differ from the movie.
One major difference from the film is that Forrest actually possesses some intellectual skills, when it comes to Physics, and also you will find quite a few extra situations that weren’t included in the movie. Some of these were probably excluded to stop the film from being too long, but others include Forrest smoking too much weed and some sex scenes. A few sections of the sequel (Gump & Co.) were used in the film.

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May 25 2007

The Tin Drum

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 9:35 pm

The Tin Drum – Gunter Grass

This book is set around the time of WWII, well just before and after as well, but the Nazi’s rise to power occurs during the main character’s (Oscar) growing up. This takes place in Danzig (Poland), and Oscar stops (allegedly as a conscious decision) growing physically, after having fallen down some stairs in the family shop. There are two important factors in Oscar’s life – his piercing, nay shattering scream, and his tin drum(s).
Women also play a large role in his life, from the moment of his birth (which he claims to recall very well), to his attempted conquests. I’ll not reveal why he ends up there, but most of the story is told with Oscar being in an asylum, which doesn’t seem to actually bother Oscar too much.
This book has apparently received a lot of acclaim in the genre of German post-war novels, and I’m not going to argue with the professional critics on this one 🙂

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