-
Book review, The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
I read this about a month ago, but it's percolating through my mind, especially with politics the way it is right now. I wasn't initially sure it was a good book, but anything that percolates round one's mind for a month probably is ( Read more... ) -
Looking back on 2016
While for the world in general 2016 was bad, it was generally ok for me - I am thinner and richer than at the end of 2015, and don't seem to be suffering my usual winter down-ness although I do currently have a horrendous snotty cold. The last couple of months of 2016 were pretty bad because we were trying to get an air source heat pump installed* ( Read more... ) -
Death's End by Cixin Liu (final book in Three-Body Problem trilogy)
This is a brilliant book, in the sense that I struggled to put it down and that it made worlds shift in my head.
( Spoilers, and also very minor spoilers for The Once and Future King by T H White ) -
Book review - Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Stowe
This came in a compendium of American Classics along with "Twelve Years a Slave", which is impossible to review as it is substantially true. About all you can say is "I am so sorry that happened to you mate, I can't believe people thought that was remotely OK ( Read more... ) -
Book review - Games People Play by Eric Berne
I read this for book club, which does at least make me read stuff I wouldn't read anyway. I can't wait to find out what everyone else there thinks of it ( Read more... ) -
Stuff I learned from wandering around Iceland for two weeks
Bjoern and I are just back from a two-week tour of Iceland, including hiking with a group around the desolate highlands in the middle of the country. The 330,000 population is mainly around the coast, where the sea makes the temperature a bit more conducive to life. A cold desert looks a lot like a hot desert except for the temperature and the fact ( Read more... ) -
TV series review - Misfits
Bjoern and I have been watching all five series of "Misfits", a BBC TV series about young offenders caught in a freak storm that gives them random sort-of-super powers. It's a bit cruder than my usual taste but some bits are simply hysterically funny, some bits heartbreakingly sad, and in general it is so good that we named the non-Chase-line ( Read more... ) -
The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (book review)
This was a very useful book to me professionally but I also enjoyed it. Enron was the big natural gas pipeline/ energy trading company which went bankrupt in 2001 amid allegations of securities fraud, accounting fraud, market manipulation, and reckless shredding ( Read more... ) -
Book review, The Saxon Stories by Bernhard Cornwell (Spoiler: Alfred the Great wins).
B and I have been watching The Last Kingdom. As a Wessex girl I thoroughly appreciate the story of how Wessex stood against assorted Vikings when the rest of the UK had fallen. The title sequence is *awesome*. And Alfred is brilliant - neurotic, ridiculous in his judgemental and misogynistic religion, not generous or likeable, and yet clearly a ( Read more... ) -
A few books
I am in New York again, and as usual up at jetlag-o'clock and avoiding prep for my panel later. I am insanely perky now after going out at 5am to get coffee, but expect this to fade rapidly when I actually need the energy, so am coasting for a bit.
Some books I have read.
( Neal Stephenson's Seveneves, with spoilers )