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About Me
I like music, Lego, and farting around on the internet. This is home to my discoveries, opinions and ephemera.
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The House of Silk
The House of Silk is Anthony Horowitz’s Sherlock Holmes story, written in the style of Conan-Doyle, and thus perhaps it’s a little unfair of me that throughout this book I found myself thinking ‘would Holmes act like that?’ or ‘would Watson say such a thing?’ - problems that clearly never trouble me in Sherlock Holmes books written by Conan-Doyle himself, since if they appear in one of those stories, then clearly that’s what Holmes or Watson did do or say.
Since, in truth, Horowitz has done a good job here. The House of Silk is an engaging and satisfying story that pulls many different themes and tropes from the Holmes canon and ends up creating a story that, even if it doesn’t quite at times ring true as an original, is still an enjoyable read.
If I have any criticism, it’s that Horowitz is a little too generous to himself with the range of characters he chooses from. Indeed, this book has appearances from the Baker Street Irregulars, Lestrade (in a pleasingly different light from usual), Mycroft, and even one other character who ends up being shoe-horned in in a rather unsatisfying manner, Watson makes many more references to other stories, where in the actual books, there’s relatively little cross-referencing.
All that said, The House of Silk is a well-written story, contains some charming details from Watson explaining what has happened after the last of the previous stories were published and an afterword which is even rather moving. Although, as is inevitable with books of this type, it sometimes strays into pastiche as much as loving tribute, I find it difficult to imagine anyone doing a considerably better job other, of course, than Conan-Doyle himself.
Review: The Book of Kings by James Thackara
Twelve years old, but still one of the most cutting reviews I’ve ever read:
“What sets Thackara apart is quite a simple fact. He can’t write. After a while, the incredulous reader starts to play a game: to open the book at random and try and find a tolerable sentence. Save your effort - you will never win. Thackara is always ahead of you, with his uncanny knack for the not-quite-right word and the yer-what turn of phrase. “You could not see his parents’ intricate cultivation, nor that the ball was in the Palazzo Farnese, just after the war.” “Justin’s friend was not in the courtyard, but the fountain was.” “The Hanoverian battery commander, Egbert, was as delighted as a music conductor to show off for his guests behind the embankment wall.” These examples are taken entirely at random. It is all at least as bad as this, and some of it is worse to an unspeakable degree.”
UPDATE: If you want to know what he thinks of himself, his own website and clearly self-authored Wikipedia page are quite absurdly terrible.
This book is certainly interesting, and if you’ve read nothing about Steve Jobs in the past, you might find some of the contents reasonably intriguing - Jobs was an fascinating, if extremely difficult person. However, if you have read a few books about Jobs in the past, firstly you’ll know where a good proportion of this material comes from, and secondly you’ll realised how much of a missed opportunity this book really is.
The fact is that Isaacson had pretty much unfettered access to Jobs over a long and illuminating period of his life, and yet through clearly knowing very little about the technology, he seems repeatedly to have failed to have asked him any questions that gives an insight into Jobs you couldn’t have got by just reading works by a couple of biographers that knew their stuff much better.
The more this book progresses, the more you realise quite how much of a huge, missed opportunity it was, and an opportunity that can never be granted to another person again. What a tragic waste.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming
Still not an amazing book, but better and marginally less preposterous than some of the more recent Bonds. It’s not particularly discriminatory either, as Fleming books go, despite being lazily sexist more or less throughout.
The plot’s not bad and placing an unarmed Bond in danger in a comparatively plausible way is quite well done. The overall conspiracy is, of course, utterly ludicrous, but although it’s spoken of as being plausible, it’s never really suggested in the book that this is the case, so maybe we’ll let Fleming off that one.
Overall, reasonably enjoyable Bond fare.
Buy On Her Majesty’s Secret Service on Amazon
How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran
A delightful, charming book - one of the funniest I’ve read in years - that sets out politely what is wrong with society when it comes to its relationship with women, and what can be done to fix it. Moran doesn’t pull her punches, but neither is she either unkind or unfair, and the end result is a fantastic polemic, that any sensible human being can only come to agree with.
And did I say how funny it is? I did, yes, but I’d still like to say it again. It’s only idiots that think that women can’t be funny, but should you come across any, this is a book you can throw in their general direction. Buy the hardback. Aim for the balls.
Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
The first half of this book is quite a good story, not particularly overblown, and generally inoffensive, but for the second half, Fleming really pulls out all the stops and creates a ludicrous finale that not only makes little to no sense, but also manages to squeeze yet more racism and sexism, mixing in some as yet unseen female homophobia for good measure. Sigh.
Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Tim Harford
Interesting, well-written book that often explains complex economic details in very simple language (indeed, it includes one of the best explanations for the credit crunch that I’ve read anywhere). The premise, that setting up systems so that there is room for failure, is persuasive and Harford is the first to point out areas in which the simplest version of his theory is likely to fail, and therefore hones it as he goes. A really excellent read.
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
Being a Fleming book, there are a few opportunities he takes to insult broad groups of people (in this one he concentrates on patronising women and treating everyone in Eastern Europe like some sort of terrible sub-species) but that aside, this is an excellent book. The story is engrossing (featuring relatively little of Bond), exciting, expertly told and with an intriguing ending. It’s no wonder that this made one of the better films too.
The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World by Jonathan Powell
Although there is a lot about Machiavelli in this book, and there’s some interesting advice on running a government tied back to the Florentine thinker, in fact this book is far more interesting as an insight into the workings of the Blair government.
To be fair to Powell, he points up a fair number of failures in Blair’s decisions (and, by extension, his own and the other members of the team). However, mostly this is an in depth hatchet-job on Gordon Brown and his followers. Now this might be well aimed and entirely fair - I don’t really know enough about the subject to judge - there are certainly a number of anecdotes that, if true, make Brown sound not only flawed, but actually mentally ill.
Taken for what it is, an entirely biased (and admittedly so) insight into the Blair years it’s a fascinating document. Little is made of what seems, at least now, to be the defining decision of the Blair years, however - following Bush into Iraq. It’s not glossed over entirely, and Powell makes some sort of case as to why Blair made the decision that he did, but the arguments put forward are less than persuasive and if explored in detail actually amount to a pretty damning inditement of Blair’s decision (although Powell clearly doesn’t intend it that way). Indeed, when it comes to Iraq, perhaps Brown’s indecisiveness and contentment in not being liked could well have saved a lot of blood and treasure.
The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World on Amazon
Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson
Them is Jon Ronson’s rather lighthearted journey through the world of various extremists, including Muslim fundamentalists, white supremacists and a range of conspiracy theorist loons. Ronson, like Louis Theroux, approaches each of these groups in a spirit of trying to understand them, and because of this granted much more access than he would have been in other circumstances, giving great insight into these generally rather shady worlds.
In fact, Ronson appears to rather like quite a lot of the people involved, even as he clearly disagrees with the things they hold dear. And although the book is funny, and full of rather charming asides that show the absurdity of the positions of these groups, it seems to be done with respect for the people themselves, which makes for a much warmer and more interesting insight into these people’s lives.
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
Another Bond book down, and the question is, who has Fleming been insulting this time? Well, Diamonds are Forever is relatively light on dated reflections on race, and although there’s the usual smattering of sexism, and a new, but unexplored journey into homophobia, actually this book isn’t too bad on that front.
However, it’s not the most engaging of stories, although it is certainly better than Moonraker, and it’s nice to see Felix Leiter back.
)It’s A PC World by Edward Stourton
Being a BBC presenter, Edward Stourton is not unfamiliar with the world of PC, and the danger that might come should he say the wrong things when on air. Unlike many books of this type, this is not a vitriolic attack on political correctness, indeed, what he’s written is extremely well balanced. He runs through many occasions where the politically correct aims can be dangerous, and counter-productive, but at heart he says:
“like the Siren voices which nearly distracted Odysseus from a true course as he sailed home from Troy, PC-ers have a genuinely appealing song to sing. PC may not be a properly formulated political programme, but it is, in the best sense of the term, a liberal dream, an expression of the conviction that the world can be a better place. At its heart lie very basic and simple aspirations - that we should not be insulted because of the colour of our skin, for example, or suffer discrimanation because we are disabled”
And that doesn’t seem too terrible does it?
Moonraker by Ian Fleming
Having worked at his misogyny in Casino Royale, and racism in Live and Let Die, I was intrigued to see who would offended by the end of Moonraker. The answer, if anyone, is German people and maybe a smattering of Russians, but offence-wise this book is surprisingly tame.
Unfortunately, at the same time, the first half of it is rather tedious. Following Bond and M while they’re at M’s casino is interesting enough, but the investigation into the clearly villianous Hugo Drax drags on interminably, before the resolution eventually arrives.
)Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I first came across this book through the film, which is itself excellent. The book however, takes the themes of humanity’s capacity for turning a blind eye to terrible things (especially for reasons of self-interest) to further, if still rather subtle, extremes.
The book is packed with horrible themes, all of which become clear as plot unfolds, but it’s the matter-of-fact accepting tone of the protagonist that makes the horror seem all the worse. As the truth of the world she lives in becomes clearer through her journey from school to young adulthood, she accepts everything with barely a cross word.
An excellent novel, beautifully written, and well worth reading, whether you’ve seen last year’s film or not.
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)For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker by Victoria Coren
I’d always quite liked the idea of this book. I know little about poker, but I find it intriguing, and I’ve enjoyed Victoria Coren’s writing in the past. Honestly, though, I never expected to enjoy this as much as I did. Her absolute love of the game and its history comes through on every page.
It covers an interesting time for poker, since as the book starts it’s still a game kept broadly within the confines of casinos, the odd seedy club and a few home games, but by the end of the book, it’s one of the biggest games being played worldwide.
The book probably contains some good hints for people who know their poker. Since I can only really speak for people that don’t know their poker, I can say that it also contains a good amount of info for someone pretty much aware of the rules, but of little else. The ins and outs of the games are spread out through the chapters as well, so although you’ll come across some poker theory from time to time, most of the story involves the tales of Coren’s own playing and the people she comes across, who are an unusually interesting bunch.
If you’re interested in poker, even vaguely, I recommend this as a good read.
(For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker on Amazon
