Be Excellent To Each Other

16. "The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen" by Linda Colley

I've always been a bit of a constitutional nerd, believing that all society's ills can be cured by the correct balance of powers between the various branches of government and its citizens, with clear rights and responsibilities for all. Comparing different countries' constitutions, trying to understand what works, what doesn't, and what we can learn from is an endless form of intellectual fun for me. So this book was a natural choice for me, but I was surprised and fascinated by its contents.

Rather than a dry retelling of the origins and forms of the usual suspects (which in most comparative government courses is a mix of the US, Germany, and the UK, with a spattering of other examples to illustrate certain points), this is a vast review of the history of constitution making over the past 500 years and across the globe.

Colley's main argument is that the spread of the printing press coupled with the chaos of warfare made the idea of constitution-writing a great tool for nascent rulers to establish their states (shades of Eddie Izzard's "do you have a flag?") and bargain with their subjects in exchange for taxation and conscription. Pitcairn Island is used as an example of how ideas about constitutions are spread and how the exchange of ideas, aided by the printing press and the ship, went viral very early on. She also shows how even failed constitutions provided a folk memory that could be used by revolutionaries in times of revolt to provide a basis for their own legitimacy.

It's a compelling read, spotlighting people, places, and events that I hadn't come across before, and reminding us that an interconnected world is not a 21st century idea.

Summoning chinny

17. "Feet of Clay" by Terry Pratchett

More pointed social satire with the Watch.

16.) The Seeds of Time - John Wyndham

Collection of short sci-fi stories from the 1950s. They're mostly pretty interesting - "Dumb Martian" is clever, and "Survival" and "Compassion Circuit" could be made into creepy little horror short films if done well, and "Pillar to Post" could easily make an excellent, if confusing, time travel movie. They're 70 years old so they come with all the standard notes about old fashionedness - especially the gender politics of it all. Anyway, good little stories from a classic British sci-fier.

These next four are from a 'bad' series about the same character Zack Walker.

9. Linwood Barclay - Bad Move
Zack moves to the suburbs from the city thinking there will be less crime and more moral there. Zack is naïve. A few murders as usual, some pretty obvious, some not so much. A couple of the story lines were really obvious, a couple of twists that I thought were really clever and some ridiculousness with a snake. I did feel bad for him at time though (Zack, not the snake).

10. Linwood Barclay - Bad Guys
Zack is back in the city and back as a reporter in the local newspaper on the city desk - as such, he gets to report on some crime. We are introduced to a new character, a private detective called Lawrence who I would totally want to meet in real life. Of course Zack manages to get himself into the thick of it again, but gets out alive.

11. Linwood Barclay - Bad Luck
This one had some really obvious story lines and a couple of twists again. Has a bear killed his dad? Do terrorists live on his dad's property now? Deals with domestic violence and cultism. Enjoyable read - easily kept me hooked.

12. Linwood Barclay - Bad News
This book made me feel really sorry for Zack, his marriage was affected and he kept apologising for just trying to do the right thing. In some instances I think I would have made the same choices, so why he was always in trouble for that and felt he had to keep apologising annoyed me a bit. Still an interesting book and deals with the morality Vs legality issue. More domestic violence and sexual assault/rape in this one, so be warned. It's not graphic though.

Enjoyed the series, particularly the last three books. I should add that they are all pretty easy reading, which is what I want when I have time for a couple of chapters before bed.

I'll definitely be reading the rest of his books (in fact I've already started my next one).

17.) Salem's Lot - Stephen King

Spooky Vampire Shenanigans! This really reeled me in but seemed to fizzle out at the end - the last 50 pages took me about 10 days to get through.

1 - "The Explorer" by James Smythe

I read this several years ago, and re-read it recently, as he has finally released the third book in the series, with a fourth on the way. He's an excellent author. The book is told from the perspective of a journalist on board a new space mission that aims simply to go as far as it can away from Earth, and then turn round and come right back.

Needless to say, things very much do not go according to plan.

It really conveys some of the helplessness and loneliness of being in space, in a ship you don't really know how to use. And it's super interesting, if you like that sort of thing.

Just finished ‘M. Son of the century’. Amazing book about mussolini, told like it is a novel. Really weird to be so close to a dictator. The writer himself got all paranoia writing it. Antonio scuracchi. https://www.amazon.com/M-Son-Century-An ... B08KFQHLMH

18. "The Anglo-Saxons" by Marc Morris

Fast-paced look at the history of the England after the Romans disappeared but before the Normans came. Pretty comprehensive about the key families, the divisions, the Vikings, and Rex Factor fans will be relieved to know that Dunstan remains a knob. I would perhaps like more about every day life but as an overview of what happened before William the Bastard it's a good introduction.

The print version has colour plates of various Saxon hordes but they came out mono on my Kindle.

18.) Lusitania: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age - Greg King & Penny Wilson

Fairly interesting book on the sinking of the Lusitania. Skewed very heavily to the lives of the first class passengers, presumably because there's just more written sources about them, but there was almost no mention of third class passengers or the ordinary crew members. The actual sinking and the investigation afterwards get pretty short shrift.

13. Linwood Barclay - Trust your eyes

One of my favourites so far. Ray goes home when his father dies and has to deal with his brother who has the ability to memorise maps. There's some really clever writing in this one, although there was one really jarring chapter. I don't know if it was an editorial decision to shoehorn in what makes the online maps (like the Google cars), but as the book was written in 2012 I muttered a bit and then forgave it. It felt like the author has a first-hand take on the assumptions made about individuals with schizophrenia and how these are perceived and treated. I'd definitely recommend it.

19. "How to Make the World Add Up" by Tim Harford

An extended edition of Radio 4's excellent "More or Less", more or less. Would have preferred to see a wider scope of examples than just Britain and the US, but a useful reminder about how to avoid statistical follies nonetheless.

Bit of a "holiday reading" boost this week!

19.) The Trouble with Peace - Joe Abercrombie.
The follow-up to No 7. above. Suffered a bit from "middle book of a trilogy" syndrome, but still very good. Wouldn't start here though, it assumes a quite a large amount of knowledge of "the world". Looking forward to it all wrapping up in the next one.

20.) Time's Eye - Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter.
Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey! Sci-Fi bunkum where the army of Alexander the Great, along with some Victorian British troops, fight Ghengis Kahn. All very silly, but well enough written that you allow it to go through. Perfect sci-fi beach read, but nothing more.

21.) The Destroyers - Douglas Reeman.
All of Douglas Reeman's books are essentially the same. Some boats fight some other boats. Some one has trouble with authority, authority has trouble with them. A fiery red head teaches someone to love again. More fights. More boats. Duty and honour prevails.

22.) Ripley Under Ground - Patricia Highsmith.
Follow up to "The Talented Mr Ripley" - not quite as good, didn't have quite the level of cat-and-mouse, will-he-won't-he of the first book. But a good story and Ripley is the same ol' charming sociopath. I really like Highsmith and I shall read more!

14. Linwood Barclay - Never Look Away

Suprise - another one I enjoyed, but this was different. It is basically the origin story of the character David Harwood. An interesting exploration of how we don't always know those closest to us and the effect that loss can have.

15. 1linwood Barclay - Clouded Vision

This was a short story easily read in one sitting. I found it a bit meh to be honest, although the thought process of the 'psychic' made me smile.

20. "It's All a Game: a Short History of Board Games" by Tristan Donovan

Easy to read article-style chapters on the history of various board games. The first few, and in my view best, chapters look at the ancient origins of gaming before a quick jump to the 1860s and the original "Checkered Game of Life" and then onto the social history of Monopoly, Cluedo et al. The final chapters on modern gaming spends a lot of time on Pandemic (pre-pandemic), Twilight Struggle, before turning to the legend of Catan.

Enjoyable and easy read, and the interviews with key designers are interesting but as with all short introductions I'm left slightly dissatisfied wanting to know more about stuff that's mentioned in passing or omitted entirely .

It does contain the sickest burn on The Game of Life I've read (albeit with reference to its original "checkered" incarnation):

The designer of the Game of Life just died, so I'm going to imagine you've read this shortly after publication, which they delayed till he could no longer by bothered by it.

https://www.honoraryunsubscribe.com/reuben-klamer/

No, thanks for the link!

Wow! This is True ... I used to read that avidly back in the early 2000s.

There's every chance you recommended it, and I've just stuck with it (even though his style kind of annoys me).

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Cage of Souls. I picked up some other book of his in a kindle offer, then lost confidence in it, decided he was one of the self-publishers who are always on offer and never read it. Then I spotted this one was nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award, and figured he must be good. And he is! It's a post-apocalyptic story, of the last shreds of human society and how they survive, in the style of an epic story told by an unreliable narrator who is bookish, rather than a man of action. It's full of monsters and action, with a whole new world as a backdrop. Great.

23.) Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully
A technical and detailed, but still fairly readable, history of the famous battle. Everything is covered, from Japan's grand strategy to the number of torpedo loading trolleys per hanger deck. One for people who are very interested only, but I really do recommend it if this is your bag.

21. "Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett

I decided to take a break from the Watch and read something from the "witches" line on the ever-helpful chart. Good fun as ever.

16. Linwood Barclay - Never saw it coming

A bigger and better version of the previous quick read. Same story, but bigger. There's a bit more info about the original offence in the first one I think, but not enough to make it worth reading both. Some of the chapters were even identical. I wouldn't have read Clouded Vision had I known. Oh well, good enough to keep me entertained before I went to sleep each night.

Are you Sponsored by Linwood Barclay

Jazzy’s just starting a Barclays Bank.

I wish. Got seven more books to buy yet.

24.) Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome
A bit of an old favourite that I've probably read about 10 times now. A jolly pleasant read that's a bit travel book mixed with comic novel mixed with random anecdotes and stories ( to say nothing of the dog ). However, my kindle edition had "analysis and summary" every few chapters that I can only assume was written by a sociopath in Bulgarian and then run through Google Translate.

Absolutely love this book! Can re-read it endlessly , and have also had a train compartment to myself due to cheese. I am definitely a graves and church person.

Three Men on the Bummel has its moments but I find the original more memorable.

Oh dear, I've left this for a bit too long. Here we go:

14) The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett
A collection of stories that are weird and occasionally borderline horror. It's not until near the end that you figure out that It's okay, but it's not great.

15) The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
This is a good read, perhaps at its best when it's going on about the stupid internal politics of a book club and not fighting vampires. It's slow-moving and then finishes in a bit of a rush, and it's light on the vampires, but it's one of the better modern vampire novels nonetheless.

16) Camp Slaughter by Sergio Gomez
Teenagers go to a literal cabin in the woods, and a bad man kills them. Meh.

17) Aliens: Infiltrator by Weston Ochse
It's the prequel novel to the Aliens: Fireteam Elite video game, and I was about half way through it when the game was released and dropped a load of spoilers on me. Not bad, but light on the actual aliens. A middle of the road aliens book, if you want good ones read the trilogy consisting of "Earth Hive", "Nightmare Asylum", and "The Female War". Then read Aliens: Phalanx which is Game of Thrones meets Aliens and is great.

18) Rabbits by Terry Miles
What if there was a secret game revolving around solving puzzles that people played? What if playing that game made things in your life get really, really weird? Hard to say too much about this one without spoilers, but it's a good book and worth your time.

19) A Medium-sized Book of Boring Car Trivia by Sniff Petrol
Exactly what it says on the tin. Except it's not boring, I loved it. Pages and pages of car facts, such as "The engine in the Nissan GT-R is canted slightly forward so that when it tips back under hard acceleration, it forms a perfect straight line with the shaft taking drive to the transaxle thereby minimising friction at the time when this would be most beneficial." It's free on Kindle Unlimited, but it's much better in hardcopy in your bathroom.

20) Holy Cow by David Duchovny (yes, that David Duchovny)
It's a first-person story about a cow who doesn't want to be slaughtered and hatches a plan to go live in India and become a goddess. Absolutely worth your time.

As a person failing to learn the banjo, I have a natural affinity with George.

I love Holy Cow. I read it a few years ago, and I read it only because it was written by David Duchovny, because as much as you weirdos love Gillian Anderson do I love David Duchovny. Foxy.

It was worth the read though

Same.


I'm reading a book by her now. Well, I was until the new Jack Reacher book torpedoed it.


Same. If you haven't watched Californication, do yourself a favour and watch Californication.

22. "Fake History" by Otto English

Enjoyable rant about the use and abuse of history, and how myth-making is endemic across history. I liked the use of "FFS" to mean "Fake Family Stories", and how comforting tales are not just restricted to the national level.

23. "Son of Groucho" by Arthur Marx
The memoirs of the son of a famous comedian who is forever being overshadowed and associated with his more famous, and by the sounds of it pretty cruel, father.

21) Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child
So as you may know, Lee Child is stepping away from writing the Jack Reacher books and handing them over to his brother Andrew. This is a massive deal, as the Jack Reacher books are hugely popular and I don't know of another author who handed such a phenomenon over to someone else while they were still alive. But anyway, this is the second book written by the both of them, but I can see more of Andrew creeping into this one - especially in the way he forms sentences. They are tiny, and it took a little while for my brain to stop jolting to a stop at the end of each of them. Here's an example:

As Craster pointed out, it's not a fucking poem!
Anyway; It's a good book! Once you get over the above it's classic Reacher, with lots of mysteries being solved with common sense and baddies getting punched with big fists.

That is going to be tough to read, that is a shame. It is next on my reading list.

Hannah Rothschild - The Impossibility of Love. A prize nominee, which must be why I grabbed it when a Kindle deal. It's about a painting, which at the start is about to be sold for a huge sum, and the people involved, mostly the super-rich who are going to bid. Perhaps tipped off by the author's name, I felt this was a bit too keen on the lives of the super-rich, and I hated this within a few pages. The story was - just - good enough to get me to finish it. I still hate it, and its fussy language, inability to describe technology (or, more likely, attempts to describe technology to those who don't know, but it's still clunky). A few short chapters are from the perspective of the painting, who ('who') I also loathed. The pretentious twat - think of a Lee and Herring sketch, one the author, telling us that ahhh, but that's the point, and the other me, the reader, telling you that no, not ah, because it thinks it is clever, and it is not. Most of the characters are cardboard cutouts, and the rest of the satire is 'smack you round the head, they're horrible' style, with no subtlety. For all that, it was just about good enough to finish.

17 Linwood Barclay - A Tat on the Window

All about the detective Cal, so really enjoyed it - I can't unpicture him as Mike Ehrmantraut.

24. "A Libertarian Walks into a Bear" by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

A small New Hampshire town becomes a honeybot for libertarians seeking to create a Randian utopia. Unfortunately, the local ursine population are way ahead of them when it comes to living without government.

A fascinating and at times hilarious (and hilariously tragic) account of life in Grafton, New Hampshire and the trouble with trying to implement your political fantasies whilst living in a community. Oh, and there's a bit of a bear problem.

Joanna Glen - The Other Half of Augusta Hope. Two lives, Augusta and Parfait, from different countries written in alternating chapters, with the two lives overlapping and eventually intersecting. It's mostly about Augusta, who is a funny and self-reflective twin. Lovely.

HG Wells - War of the Worlds. Fairly short, the start and finish are a bit overly familiar but still a good read.

Robert Harris - V2. About the rockets, end of WW2, from the side of the Germans launching them and the Brits attempting to stop them. It's good, but not exactly a thriller. It feels like he really wanted to write about the subject and then pasted a story on. But it works and the ending is surprisingly neat, given that 85% of the way through I still didn't really know what he was doing with it.

Gideon the Ninth: what could be an absolutely cracking book gets hamstrung by the purposeful changes in tone. It goes from really good writing to jarring casual prose which reads like teenage fiction. Whereas some critics hailed this is as brilliant, they are wrong. A few times it works well, and pulls a lot of tension from a situation, which apparently is the intention, it misses more often than not. The ending seemed a bit drawn out and rushed, too.

It's a shame, as there is a superb story in there, and half the time it is well told. Could do with characters that weren't meat scenery for the most part, too, as who is who doing what can get confusing.

It looks as if JBR might actually make it 52 books this year! Go for it! We're all rooting for you!

25.) The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
A sci-fi retelling (ish) of The Count of Monte Cristo that has left me somewhat divided. Clever, twisty and not outdated in the way that a lot of 1950s sci-fi is, it still never quite hooked me in. Lots of clever ideas and you can see it's influence in later cyberpunk novels but it's not going to be one i revisit any time soon, i think.

Dawn French - Because of You. Two mothers have babies in the same hospital. One baby doesn't make it, and stuff happens as a result. I thought it was terribly written, but got to the end. A couple of decent laughs, and an emotional near-finale, ruined for me by an "oh, come on, don't do th... oh, you're going to!" actual finale.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic. Classic sci-fi from the 70s. Aliens visit earth undetected - did they know, or care, that humanity existed? - then depart, leaving six sites full of danger, technology and potential profit. 'Stalkers' explore the zone trying to take stuff out. Introduced the word stalker to the Russian language, apparently. It's a bit quirky (translation things partly, perhaps), and sometimes feels more of a thought experiment than a story, but I enjoyed it.

Thank you for the support. I read a few without putting them here, because they weren't good. I might need to dig them out to make the numbers!

If you're looking for some high-quality quick wins, I can't recommend Max Porter's Lanny and Grief is the Thing with the Feathers highly enough.

They are both tough reads at times, but astonishing pieces of work (and very short!)

Does James Patterson count? He didn't hand over the Alex Cross books, but he has written everything else for years as JAMES PATTERSON and some other dude.

Which I suspect means "Some other dude wrote it and James Patterson might have read it and given some notes".

I think it's more along the lines of - "Here's an idea, go and write it as I don't have the time" which soon became, "Yeah that idea sounds fine, go write it".