Black Swan

The perfectly judged prose that distinguished Human Croquet is fully in evidence in Case Histories, and a new frisson here comes from the genre-stretching that Atkinson is indulging in. In some ways, this book could almost be seen as a new take on the crime novel (not the first genre one would expect the author to tackle), but the crime elements here Atkinson uses are peripheral. The protagonist here is a former police inspector who now makes a living as a private investigator. Jackson Brodie is making ends meet in a sweaty Cambridge summer and trying to deal with his own failed marriage. But if his life is adrift, perhaps Brodie can justify his existence via his belief that he can do some good for the people he encounters in his job. But he is to find that he will be irrevocably changed by those he is trying to help.

As a vividly created cast of characters surround the beleaguered Brodie, all the novelistic skills that shone in Atkinson's earlier books are fully in play. Those deluded into thinking they've picked up something resembling a standard private eye novel will find something much more rich and strange; Atkinson goes from strength to strength.--Barry Forshaw
Great read, 2010-02-17
One of those unfortunately rare books which you can't put down until you've finished it. I read it in two days - no mean feat with two young children around! An extremely satisfying read. I've just ordered the next two Jackson Brodie novels and can't wait to get started on them.

The book's mystic religiosity is steeped in Robertson Davies' Deptford trilogy, and the fatal baseball relates to the fatefully misdirected snowball in the first Deptford novel, Fifth Business. Tiny, symbolic Owen echoes the hero of Irving's teacher Günter Grass's The Tin Drum--the two characters share the same initials. A rollicking entertainment, Owen Meany is also a meditation on literature, history and God. --Tim Appelo
A beautiful story of friendship and faith, 2010-02-12
Owen Meany, diminutive in height and weight and with a voice that almost defies description, other than he speaks in capital letters, has been he firmly believes placed on this earth for a purpose. His life long and best friend John Wheelwright tells Owen's story, which is inevitably as much John's the story too. It is also a story about faith.

Owen is a character and a half, despite his small size and fragile appearance, an appearance that makes most girls and women want to hug him and mother him, he has a commanding presence, he is not one to be ignored. Neither is he someone easily dissuaded from his chosen course, in fact if Owen has it in mind to do something, nothing will get in his way. Above all he believes his life has a purpose, and he means to fulfil that purpose. Throughout he has the unerring support of John, even though John might not understand all that is happening, or necessarily agree with his friend.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is a beautiful story very well told. It is carefully crafted, and in addition to the gradual unravelling of Owen's purpose, there are several other themes running throughout the story. It is in part this gradual revealing of matters that holds one's interest, often we will know a particular outcome of events very early in the story, but what lead up to or caused that outcome, we may not know for some time, in some cases not until the end. We won't realise either that some seemingly irrelevant actions will prove crucial to the outcome.

While that makes for a fascinating read, above all it is the Owen's character, and the unquestioning friendship between Owen and John that makes this a very special story. John narrates that account from the 1980s, and while updating us on what is happening in his life then he spends most time looking back to the 1950s and 60s when they grew up, and he frequently puts the action into context by reminding us of significant news events of the period with which many of us will be familiar. He does also speak his mind occasionally about the attitude of Americans and America's involvement in international affairs, and at times indulges his interest in literature. He also has something to say about religion and the nature of faith.

This is also at times a very funny story, in fact it contains some of the funniest passages I have read anywhere. The description the the children's pageant is a prime example, it is a perfectly straight and very detailed account of events, it makes no effort to be funny, yet it is hilarious. But above all this is a very touching and moving story, heartbreaking at times; towards to end I frequently had to have a break in order to cope and prepare myself for what was coming next. This is one book that will be with me for a long time to come

Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.

Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country. --Barry Forshaw
Simply stunning, 2010-02-18
This is an unforgettable story that will remain with you for a long time. I loved the simplicity and humanity of this book. Liesel, her family and Max and some of the most beautiful and believable characters you'll come across; caught in a desperate situation to survive against all odds.

You wouldn't expect that WWII could be taken from such a unique angle and turned into a masterpiece of dignity that reflects the best that humans have to offer. This is probably one of my favourite books of all time.

In fact, it dawned on him that "I didn't know the first thing about the only planet I was ever going to live on". The questions multiplied: What is a quark? How can anybody know how much the Earth weighs? How can astrophysicists (or whoever) claim to describe what happened in the first gazillionth of a nanosecond after the Big Bang? Why can't earthquakes be predicted? What makes evolution more plausible than any other theory? In the end, all these boiled down to a single question--how do scientists do science? To this subject Bryson devoted three years of his life, reading books and journals and pestering the people who know (or at least argue about it); and we non-scientists should be pretty grateful to him for passing his findings on to us.

Broadly, his investigations deal with seven topics, all of enormous interest and significance: the origins of the universe; the gradual historical discovery of the size and age of the earth (and the beginnings of the awesome notion of deep time); relativity and quantum theory; the present and future threats to life and the planet; the origins and history of life (dinosaurs, mass extinctions and all); and the evolution of man. Within each of these, he looks at the history of the subject, its development into a modern discipline and the frameworks of theory that now support it. This is a pretty broad brief (life, the universe and everything, in fact), and it's a mark of Bryson's skill that he is able to carve a clear path through the thickets of theory and controversy that infest all these disciplines, all the while maintaining a cracking pace and a fairly judicious tone without obvious longueurs or signs of haste. Even readers fairly familiar with some or all of these areas o! f discourse are likely to learn from A Short History. If not, they will at least be amused--the tone throughout is agreeable, mingling genuine awe with a mild facetiousness that often rises to wit.

One compelling theme that appears again and again is the utter unpredictability of the universe, despite all that we think we know about it. Nervous page-turners may care to omit the sensational chapters on the possible ways in which it all might end in disaster--Bryson enumerates with cheerful relish the kind of event that makes you want to climb under the bedclothes: undetectable asteroid colliding with the earth; superheated magma chamber erupting in your back garden; ebola carrier getting off a plane in London or New York; the HIV virus mutating to prevent its destruction in the mosquito's digestive system. Indeed, the chief theme of this sprightly book is the miraculous unlikeliness, in a universe ruled by randomness, of stability and equilibrium--of which one result is ourselves and the complex, fragile planet we inhabit. --Robin Davidson
Amazingly engaging and eye-opening, 2010-02-16
This book started me on reading others, mostly on the scientific strides from the 18th and 19th century.