Hungry City: How Food Shapes our Lives, by Carolyn Steel
This is not a gastro-book. Neither is it an escapist holiday page-turner about the joys of food. It’s much better than that. It is a thorough, well-researched, broad-reaching and entertaining essay about how we in Britain have come to have our current relationship with food. This relationship is carefully characterised, using a wide range of sources, as disconnected, lazy and at times purely nonsensical.
In order to get there, the author takes us through the history books, drawing relationships between how we eat (and have eaten) and a myriad of factors such as our predominant mode of production, the architecture of our kitchens, fashion and even our attitude to waste.
It is clear from this well-constructed argument that the author feels not only that there is something fundamentally sick at the heart of our current relationship with food but that just as the Thames Embankment was built under Victoria’s reign to rid the capital of ’the great stench’ via enormous sewer pipes, so we can do something to remedy our current predicament.
Madresfield: One house, one family, one thousand years, by Jane Mulvagh
Madresfield is a grand country house situated by the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. I live nearby and every year what seems like the whole of Malvern go there for its open day (upposedly to admire the daffodils but in reality to have a good nose). However this book is not simply a local history book – hence its inclusion on Bookgeeks. The subtitle of the hardback edition was “The Real Brideshead” – thus Madresfield was the haunt of Evelyn Waugh and the house, its rooms, gardens and the people who lived there were direct inspiration for Brideshead Revisited. The TV adaption that most of us will know the book from was not allowed to film at Madresfield, so Castle Howard in Yorkshire had to suffice for the external shots even though they are not that similar – Madresfield is a wonder of Arts & Crafts evolution. Castle Howard is “Whig propaganda”.
This book is not really the story of the house, but of the Lygon family who have lived here continuously since the twelfth century, keeping records and extending the house as they went. This is almost unique and worth a book of this magnitude. The house itself is testament to the family who lived here and retains at its core the old medieval meeting room. Contrast the haphazard outline of Madresfield with the planned-out symmetry of Castle Howard.
Five copies of Fire by Kristin Cashore to be won [closed]
As recently reviewed by Jennie Blake here on Bookgeeks, the lovely people at Gollancz have given us five copies of Kristin Cashore’s Fire to give away to those who can answer a not-too-taxing question.
Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all – a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she’s more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising. But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her . . . and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power. Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed – a day when, for her king, she has to stand against not only his enemies, but also against herself . . .
Jennie loved it, and if you think you would too, answer this question to be in with a chance to win:
Which of the following is NOT one of the four classical elements, along with fire?
- Earth
- Wind
- Water
Why England Lose by Kuper and Szymanski, and Englischer Fussball, by Raphael Honigstein
Despite the paucity of its coverage within the overwhelming majority of sports media, the literature of football has for a long time thrown up some really interesting reads. Particularly engaging are the ones that come from left-field, or put another way, the ones the nationals wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. Why England Lose is another of these, this time by the guy who wrote Football Against The Enemy, Simon Kuper and my old tutor, the sports economist Stefan Szymanksi.
Their Big Idea, is to borrow statistical methods from the world of economics and apply them to football, in order to see whether or not its cliches and shibboleths hold true. In these post crash, Black Swan generated times, economic statisticians are not exactly Triple-A rated themselves and some methodologies in Why England Lose are indeed as flimsy as those used by a Lehman Brother’s risk assessor. Some of the conclusions are also contenders for this year’s award for stating the bleeding obvious, but having said that there is enough of real interest, enough of that counter-intuitive, statistical jiggery-pokery to make Why England Lose a sort of Freakonomics of sports books.
Dust of Dreams (Malazan Book of the Fallen), by Steven Erikson
Fans of Steven Erikson should know what to expect by now, and Dust of Dreams, the ninth and penultimate instalment of the monumental, genre-redefining Malazan Book of the Fallen, is in every respect classic Steven Erikson. It’s all here in profusion, from his marvellous strengths – a lyrical, poetically infused writing style that’s a cut above any other fantasy writer working today, a deeply involved plot, a tremendous sense of involvement with these characters – to his well-known weaknesses – pages of interior monologues for minor characters, a sometimes overwhelming sense of nihilism, and a plot that takes quite a while to really get going.
Dust of Dreams is actually the first half of the final volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, which as Erikson explains in his foreword, explains the lack of a typical story arc and, unusually for him, the presence of a monstrous cliffhanger of an ending, with the fate of many of our favourite characters left unknown. Perhaps in the same way as the divided volumes of George RR Martin’s last and next books were forced to do, the focus here is on one set of characters in one part of Erikson’s world, the continent of Lether – so we take in Tehol Beddict, now King of Lether but still spryly eccentric, along with his Chancellor (and Elder God) Bugg; the Bonehunters, including favourites Fiddler, Quick Ben, Hellian, Gesler, Stormy et al; the Shake, whose presence in previous volumes was rather tedious but who now start to make sense in the grand scheme of things; various tribes of the plains, including the White Face Barghast, now led by Onos T’Oolan, and the remains of various other tribes; and the gods and Ascendants are of course well-represented too, from the scheming Errant to the newly resurrected Draconus (the timeline for Dust of Dreams overlaps with that of previous volume Toll the Hounds).
A Visible Darkness, by Michael Gregorio
“Michael Gregorio” is the nom de plume of a husband and wife writing team specialising in superior historical crime fiction set in Prussia during the Enlightenment. Anyone looking for reassurance their reading matter is of a slightly higher brow than the usual genre fodder, could do far worse than dive into A Visible Darkness, the third of their Hanno Steffaniis series.
Part of the joy of historical crime series is encountering an unfamiliar but fully realised world. However some of these worlds tend to be more unfamiliar than others. Crime fiction is replete with various representations of Europe in the 30s, Europe at war, Victorian Britain, fin de siecle Paris, fin de siecle Vienna, Tudor London and the rest, but I think it is fair to say the Prussian Baltic in the early 19th Century is not an overworked setting.
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
What is there still to be said about Neuromancer?
William Gibson’s startling novel is revered in certain circles as a genre-defining piece of modern literature, representing a startling glance into an all-too-possible future of ever-greater technology paralleled by ever-diminishing humanity among a growing global underclass.
Since it was first published 25 years ago, Gibson’s debut has helped to spawn an entire genre, earned him legions of fans, and seen the real-world arrival of many of the forebears of his futuristic literary imaginings – and yet it has also escaped the ravenous claws of the Hollywood machine.
Fire, by Kristin Cashore
Fire is an element, a saviour of lives, and a destroyer of them. Fire is a weapon, a protector, and a force of nature. In Krisitin Cashore’s book, Fire is all of those things contained in an astonishingly beautiful and, in the language of the kingdom where she was born, monstrous young woman.
Cashore treads a fine line here. The fantasy trope of the unbelievably beautiful and deadly woman is one that can be both tiring and frustrating for a reader. But here, in Fire, Cashore pulls it off by making Fire, in spite of all of the people and animals flinging themselves at her, human, vulnerable, and worthy of admiration for her actions, not her looks. In fact, Fire’s beauty is an entity all on its own: monstrous and dangerous to those around her and to Fire herself. The land where she lives is populated by such monsters: animals, insects, and humans whose beauty is so astonishing and attracting that it can drive others to their deaths and doom the human unlucky enough to be born such a monster. Fire is doubly unlucky because as a monster and a woman, she inspires uncontrollable desire in some but she prompts others to reveal malice, hatred, and violence. She is also in constant danger from the other monsters in her world, who find her even more irresistible than the other humans. Read more
31 Hours, by Masha Hamilton
Sometimes, even after the last word is read and the final page turned, a book is so full of unique and deftly drawn characters that they seem to continue living, free of the pages, ink, and binding that contained them. Masha Hamilton’s 31 Hours is such a book, and each character, no matter how brief the appearance, is so vibrant and fascinating that the idea of the end of the book, the end of the reader’s ability to follow them as they live their lives, feels like a deep and tragic loss.
31 Hours weaves together the stories of Jonas Meitzner, his family, friends, the city of New York, and the man he knows as Mahmoud. Jonas is vividly present to the reader, and as he struggles to find meaning, we despair and search along with him. This quest for purpose and direction has slowly separated Jonas from the rest of his life and began severing the strings that tie him to the city and the life he grew up in. His gradual isolation has led him, finally, to a secret apartment and a group of extremists who believe that violence is the only effective way to change the minds of mankind. Read more
For Richer, For Poorer by Victoria Coren
For Richer For Poorer is the thoroughly enjoyable memoir of a life spent playing poker by the poster girl for all things BBC4, Victoria Coren. Who would have thought that such a memoir, written by a fully-fledged member of the BBC media classes, could be so engaging? The poker boom is already a few years old and tales of late night debauchery and fortunes won or lost are now ten a penny, yet For Richer For Poorer, although in many ways typical, manages to be both a breeze and something altogether more resonant.
This is because, despite being sister to one of television’s most irritating presences, Victoria Coren is a warmly funny and self-effacing host. Her story of the louche demi-monde of live poker is given real context by being structured around the story of her success in a million dollar tournament at the time of her father’s drawn out death. For Richer, For Poorer, unlike most poker memoirs is saying something about something.
The Cat Inside, by William S. Burroughs
In 1986, as William Burroughs was working on The Western Lands, the final instalment of the epic trilogy with which he closed his career as a novelist, he published a small book with a small print run. That book was The Cat Inside, republished this year by Penguin in a highly desirable ‘Modern Classics’ edition.
It is not a book often listed among the must-read works of this godfather of the beats, yet as an introduction to his writing I can think of none better. Readers who might be put off by the dark world of Naked Lunch, or the labyrinthine experiments of the cut-ups which followed, will find here examples of the many styles Burroughs can employ: the precise, poetic prose of his descriptions; the withering sarcasm of his ‘old queen’ persona; the raconteur, and the angry moralist.
Stop Me, by Richard Jay Parker
howdy doody
on vacation
slim, attractive dreadlocked babe with a fun sticky-out
bellybutton, likes rabbit fur
forward this email to ten friends
each of those friends must forward it to ten friends
maybe one of those friends of friends of friends will be
one of my friends
if this email ends up in my inbox within a week I wont
slit the bitchs throat
can you afford not to send this on to ten friends?
So begins Richard Jay Parker’s inventive crime novel about the self-styled ‘Vacation Killer’; a serial killer for the twenty-first century who sends out a chain email before sending the victim’s boiled jawbone to the police. So far, ten people have been murdered, seemingly at random and across the world, ranging from America to Germany and the UK. Leo Sharpe’s wife disappears during a pre-Christmas lunch and a frantic search ensues. A chain email is sent but nothing happens. Eventually, with no new leads, the search is scaled down and Leo begins to wonder whether “so many people forwarded the Laura email that this time it had actually got back to the sender.”
D-Day: The Battle For Normandy, by Anthony Beevor
Having revitalised military history with his peerless account of the battle of Stalingrad in, er, Stalingrad, Anthony Beevor has since gone on to deliver equally successful books about the fall of Berlin and the Spanish Civil War. Now it is the turn of the Normandy campaign to receive the full Beevor treatment and boys of a certain age will be falling over themselves to make a new addition to their Amazon Wish List.
Although we are not exactly short of WW2 histories, least of all accounts of the Western front, Beevor’s place at the top of the shop is well-deserved. D-Day: The Battle For Normandy is military history as it should be, encompassing both the epic sweep of grand strategy and the experieces of the lowliest private. Furthermore Beevor is unlike most other war junkie historians in that he steps away from the maps and stories of infantry assaults to find out what it was like for those civilians unlucky enough to be living in the midst of the mayhem. Beevor seems genuinely interested in and does not seem to be impatiently marking time until he can get back to the tanks, but his real gift is to use a novelist’s eye for detail to turn his source material into the stuff of vivid high drama
Pandora in the Congo, by Albert Sanchez Pinol
It’s often very tempting when reading books for review to try and describe them to the reader as ‘a cross between Writer A and Writer Z’, or ‘the bastard offspring or Writer B and Writer X’, especially when it’s a new author or the title is hard to categorise – but normally (I hope), I stop myself. While comparisons will always help the reader if they are well-chosen, ‘cross between’ lines are usually a sign of a lazy reviewer who can’t find the words to properly describe what is is they’ve read. This is a shame, because every now and again it’s a device that would come in really useful. I’m not going to do it. But if I was (purely for the sake of argument), I would probably describe Pandora in the Congo as coming over like a cross between H. Rider Haggard and Angela Carter, which is a pretty mind-blowing combination. But obviously, I’m not actually doing that.
Superficially, Pandora in the Congo starts out feeling like a early 20th century adventure story, set, like so many tales of the time (think King Solomon’s Mines) in Africa during that period of massive colonial land-grabbing , exploitation and violence, otherwise known as the Scramble for Africa. Londoner Tommy Thomson is a young writer who quickly finds himself taken advantage of as a ghost writer for Dr Luther Flag, who specialises in churning out 80-page adventure novels full of every African cliche you can imagine – Pygmies, Zulus, elephants, lost tribes, chisel-jawed white heroes and dumb natives. This gives him a degree of ‘expertise’ on Africa that lands him a more unusual job – he is hired by a lawyer to tell the story of Marcus Garvey.
Tattoo, by Manuel Vazquez Montalban
Tattoo is an early, 1974 work by the Spanish crime master Manuel Vazquez Montalban that has recently been translated by the good people at Serpent’s Tail publishing.
For readers of Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano novels, this is where the Sicilian detective got his name, idiosyncracies and plots. Camilleri may have written a number of enjoyable books that together form a mildly diverting series, but they are not a patch on his Catalan inspiration. This is because until his death in 2003 Montalban operated in a different league altogether to the general run of modern European crime novelists. As the cliche probably runs, he is to Barcelona what Raymond Chandler was to Los Angeles.
Hell’s Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson
For me, the memory of a book that I could not finish lives long in the mind, usually with the firm intention that I will go back one day and do it justice. My younger self failed miserably to get on with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, so when the opportunity to read and review Hunter S. Thompson’s seminal contribution to the gonzo journalism movement came along, I grabbed it in the hope of at least partially redeeming myself. Having enjoyed Jay Dobyn’s No Angel recently, which is a very modern take on the Hells Angels phenomenon, I was also interested to go back in to their history, some might say their heyday, the period when they acquired their considerable notoriety and with it their place in popular culture.
When Hunter S. Thompson started hanging around with the Angels in 1964, they were on the verge of their fame – their origins as a gang were debatable and relatively recent (post-WW2), they numbered a few hundred members maximum, were confined basically to California, which is a good place for hooning around on motorcycles most of the year, and were little known outside their home state. By the time he finished his association, finally deterred by getting a ’stomping’, the Angels were regularly making national headlines, and their legend was becoming hard to separate from the reality.
Wounds of Honour (Empire), by Anthony Riches
It is always with a sense of trepidation that one approaches a new author in the field of historical fiction. When it is a genre awash with heavy-hitters like Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden and Wilbur Smith there is always a sense of what is almost sympathy with the newcomer. As a reader you are hoping against hope that this new author will pass muster and be good enough to compete with these long standing names. You want the novel to be entertaining, captivating and give a real sense of the period. Especially when you consider the various periods that have been covered by the heavyweights of the genre, there are some seriously tough acts to follow.
Fortunately Riches does not disappoint. Set during the reign of Emperor Commodus, the action of this debut novel is based in the contested region around Hadrian’s Wall, ever plagued by war. Unruly tribes from the North are counterpointed by the ever present threat of uprising from the Britons living South of the wall. The Roman legions present are having to balance these various dangers as well as the difficulties of defending such a vast area of land with relatively few men.
We Saw Spain Die, by Paul Preston
Seventy years after the fact comes a reminder to democratic liberals everywhere that some things – including some ideas – are on occasion worth fighting for.
The fall of the Spanish Republic in 1939 at the hands of Franco’s Nationalists following three years of bitter civil war, has long been a favourite subject for Western liberals of every stripe. There continues to be an element of misty-eyed wistfulness when it comes to the Spanish Civil War, nonetheless it is easy to see why it remains a popular topic. This was a war where easily identifiable Baddies kicked the life out of easily identifiable Goodies with little of that messy moral ambiguity to worry about.
The Republic’s fight for survival ended in heroic failure with catastrophic ramifications for the rest of the World. Many on the international left saw it coming, saw that the rise of Fascism should be stopped in Spain. Worse, for a variety of self-serving reasons ranging from cynicism and cowardice to good old-fashioned class prejudice, the Goodies were shamefully abandoned to their fate by the other Western democracies. The Baddies on the other hand had no such problems gaining international backing from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, who were in training for a little world conquest of their own.
Passing for Human, edited by Michael Bishop and Steven Utley
The idea that aliens live among us masked as human beings is not new and has been fascinating both writers and readers of SF and fantasy for decades, inspired by antique myths of gods and supernatural creatures taking human form to alter and influence the fate of mortals. It was high time to assemble in one volume the most appealing stories devoted to such a captivating subject.
Praise then to PS Publishing and to editors Michael Bishop and Steven Utley for taking on such a burden.
This reprint anthology collects sixteen tales penned by famous authors such as Ray Bradbury,Robert Silverbeg, Barry N Malzberg, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree Jr, Paul Di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer. Great names or not I’ll focus on the stories which better develop the concept inspiring the book title, Passing for Human. Read more
The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain, by Ian Jack
Ian Jack’s latest collection, The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain, gathers together a series of articles and essays that range far and wide, both emotionally and geographically. From a light question on the reason young girls love dolphins so much to a deep and emotional response to the Hatfield Rail crash, each of the pieces takes a modern topic or set-piece and draws it back to try and answer the question of what came before.
This book, it must be said, is not an exercise in nostalgia. There is no golden age in the past, and no assumption that all things would be better if only they were they way they used to be. Instead, there is an acknowledgement of the illusions of empire, superiority, and isolation that have all but disappeared in the modern digital age. Jack does not elevate these illusions, but he does highlight their loss as he describes a world that has nearly disappeared from living memory. Read more
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