by Shoshana Zuboff
This book is very hard to summarise in what is effectively my book list but it will stay with me for a long time.
On the negative side it probably labours its point by being a bit too long and having Google and Facebook as target number one without widening that out too much may put some people off, However, that aside this is a masterpiece. The laying bear of what the tech companies are about is relentless and breathtaking in its scope. In 1996 I thought google was the best thing I had ever seen. That naivety now lays in ruins.
The compare and contrast with totalitarianism is excellent and the third section on where do we go from here was scary and very thought provoking. I would urge anybody interested in technology and/or the future of our society to read this book 9/10
Sunday, April 26, 2020
You Would Have Missed Me
by Birgit Vanderbeke
Another moving story by the author of the Mussel Feast.
This story is told by a seven year old east german who on the face of it wants a kitten for her birthday but it soon gets darker than that. The ending was problematic for me but the tension through this short narrative and the humour were great 7/10
Another moving story by the author of the Mussel Feast.
This story is told by a seven year old east german who on the face of it wants a kitten for her birthday but it soon gets darker than that. The ending was problematic for me but the tension through this short narrative and the humour were great 7/10
Monday, April 13, 2020
A Song for Drowned Souls
by Bernard Minier
The second novel featuring the French detective Martin Servaz and his colleagues.
This is again set in the Pyrenees and features Martin's nemesis, Julian Hirtman. What I like about this is the way Hirtman is a presence throughout the novel but not anything to do with the murder that is central to the plot. Lots of dead ends before the killer is unearthed but a great page turning read 7/10
The second novel featuring the French detective Martin Servaz and his colleagues.
This is again set in the Pyrenees and features Martin's nemesis, Julian Hirtman. What I like about this is the way Hirtman is a presence throughout the novel but not anything to do with the murder that is central to the plot. Lots of dead ends before the killer is unearthed but a great page turning read 7/10
Thursday, April 02, 2020
One Good Turn
by Kate Atkinson
Another Jackson Brodie novel. This one is set in Edinburgh and Jackson has moved on. He now lives in France and has retired from his private detective business. He is in Edinburgh with one of the characters from the last novel but things are not going well. However, he witnesses a road rage incident one morning and is quickly drawn into the drama of the novel. I have to say this is a bit like Ian Rankin meets the keystone kops! However, it just about holds together and their is a lovely little twist at the end. 7/10
Another Jackson Brodie novel. This one is set in Edinburgh and Jackson has moved on. He now lives in France and has retired from his private detective business. He is in Edinburgh with one of the characters from the last novel but things are not going well. However, he witnesses a road rage incident one morning and is quickly drawn into the drama of the novel. I have to say this is a bit like Ian Rankin meets the keystone kops! However, it just about holds together and their is a lovely little twist at the end. 7/10
Actress
by Ann Enright
There is something about this book that is glorious. I cannot put my finger on what it is exactly but the way characters unfold and draw you into their lives is wonderful. The actress of the title is shown to us by her daughter and it is a wonderful tale of love in an almost any town, any family setting-apart from the shooting perhaps. 8/10
There is something about this book that is glorious. I cannot put my finger on what it is exactly but the way characters unfold and draw you into their lives is wonderful. The actress of the title is shown to us by her daughter and it is a wonderful tale of love in an almost any town, any family setting-apart from the shooting perhaps. 8/10
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