Henry Gee (Dr Henry Gee announced as winner of the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize | Royal Society) is is a palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist and senior editor of the scientific journal Nature. In this book from 2021 Gee undertakes to explain the 3.7 billion years of life on Earth in 319 pages. For billions of […]
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee Read More »
Paul Murray (Paul Murray: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023 | The Booker Prizes) is an Irish writer from Dublin. He has written four novels, the second of which is Skippy Dies (2010). The summary is as follows: We find ourselves in the grand old Dublin institution that is Seabrook College for Boys. Ruprecht Van
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English psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes noted that grief is the price we pay for love. (Colin Murray Parkes – Oxford Reference). Most would agree it’s a price worth paying. It must be a sad human indeed who has never known love. Without some such redeeming experience the world can look pretty bleak, like the ‘sterile
A Book About Love by Jonah Lehrer Read More »
Germany lies at the centre of The European Union both geographically and economically. Despite its recent slow growth it remains the third largest economy in the world by GDP. (List of countries by GDP (nominal) – Wikipedia) How did it get to this position after being shattered and defeated in 1945 at the end of
Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022 by Frank Trentmann Read More »
Mick Herron (Mick Herron – Homepage | Hachette UK) has been writing thriller novels for 20 years now. His first was Down Cemetery Road, published in 2003. This formed the first of the four part Zoë Boehm series. There followed the twelve part ‘Slough House’ spy series (2010-2022) featuring Jackson Lamb. Herron is pleased to
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06 May 2021. This legal detective novel by Angie Kim ( Angie Kim – Author of Miracle Creek, Previously Miracle Submarine (angiekimbooks.com) ) unfolds over four days of trial testimony, and each chapter follows different characters who were present on the night of a fatal explosion at a medical facility in rural Virginia. These are
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In February 2021 concerns across the globe are rightly focussed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Humans will survive this disease, and so far the global death toll is nowhere near the estimated 50 million dead of the 1918 flu pandemic.(1918 Pandemic (H1N1 virus) | Pandemic Influenza (Flu) | CDC) Once the virus has been tamed the
Collapse by Jared Diamond Read More »
Confined to barracks during the pandemic of 2020 many people have found time for reading in a way not possible in their normally frenetic lives. ( Research finds reading books has surged in lockdown | Fiction | The Guardian ). At the same time, community services have come to be valued during this stressful past
Public library and other stories by Ali Smith Read More »
It looks like we’re headed for a long series of mini lockdowns and complex restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combine that with the joys of the Scottish winter, and many will seek an escape into fiction. Any other world might seem preferable to this. Diane Cook (https://dianemariecook.com/) offers such an escape. Cook’s writing has appeared
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook Read More »
