Social Blunderer

One of the best history books I have read this year. Brown has a cinematic style of writing that is highly engaging. There is a rich cast of real-life heroes including soldiers Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki and Kats Miho, and conscientious objector Gordon Hirabayashi. Brown’s has a knack for making you very fond of Nisei we meet meaning that every indignity that is placed upon them by a deeply racist American nation is also felt by anyone reading their accounts.

I got a real feel for the complex emotions and motivations that caused these men to serve a country that had treated them and their families so abominably. Even Hirabayashi who refused to enlist did so out of a sense of duty to America. In fact, Hirabayashi’s story might be my favourite, the bravery he needed was just as great as any of those serving in the 442nd.

It is wonderful that this book shines a light on the overlooked contributions Japanese Americans made in WW2. Despite all the awful things they endured I found the book uplifting. A must-read read for ww2 buffs.

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Part biography and part reportage If You Were There is an affecting look at missing people in the UK. The best non-fiction changes your perception by making you aware of things.

The difficulty of defining what a missing person is, for example. It was not something I had previously considered, but once Garcia explains why it is troublesome to characterized who is and isn’t missing, it is hard to believe I overlooked it.

Garcia explores the emotional fallout from his father walking out on him when he was a child and mixes this with interviews of professionals who work to find missing people and people whose family members have gone missing.

While reading the book, I picked up a lingering scent about the futility of looking for someone who either doesn’t want to be found or, for one reason or another, can’t be found. The sad emptiness of those left behind. Garcia talks to these people with understanding and empathy. Reading how they fill the void either with misplaced hope or the indignant desire to change things or something else was heartbreaking.

Garcia writes with clarity and does a superb job of weaving his personal accounts with those to whom he talks. It is a striking book that packs a punch both emotionally and intellectually. One of the things that Garcia eloquently illustrates is how rarely there is a clear resolution to these cases, even in those where the missing are found. It is powerful stuff.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. You can buy the book using this affiliate link.

There is gaudy quality to the palette that Albon’s employs that signposts that there is something more sinister about the book than would first appear.
As a character study on the corrupting influence that avarice can have on someone, The Delicacy is perceptive and subtle. Raised by an eccentric mother far from the mainland, brothers Rowan and Tulip have differing takes on their agricultural lives. From the off, Rowan is far more at ease farming, while Tulip is itching for more. Using an unexpected inheritance, the brothers set out to create a new life on the mainland. Rowan taking responsibility for farming their late aunties land and Tulip cooking the produce in a restaurant.
After a difficult start to their new life on the mainland, the discovery of a rare mushroom turns their fortunes around.
Much like Breaking Bad, one of the book’s central questions is: How much is enough?
The way the stakes are slowly ratcheted up makes Tulip’s actions throughout understandable if despicable. From the way he starts treating employees to the dismissive way he deals with his brother’s concerns, Tulip becomes someone for whom the appearance of success is as important as success itself.
If there is a flaw with the book is that it is somewhat predictable. How the rare mushrooms that are cultivated aren’t the shocking twist that Albon may have intended. However, some surprising revelations keep the suspense alive.
Albon’s is a perfect fit for the story. Seeing the brush strokes is a joy, and the thick lines of both the lettering and characters add heft to the page. It really is a cheerfully pretty book to look at. Everything seems so pleasant.
For me, though, the writing and dialogue are the stars. In many ways, The Delicacy reminded me of the film How To Get Ahead In Advertising. The same seam of black humour and satirical criticism is present in Albon’s graphic novel.
This is an elegantly told story with well-written characters and sumptuous art. A superb achievement.

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I don’t want to damn A Strange and Brilliant Light with faint praise. I enjoying reading the book and Lee make many thought-provoking points about the potential impact of AI. Like the best Sci-fi, it uses speculative technological developments to explore the way people and society respond to change.

The world-building for the most part is well done, a sort of near-future where robots (or Auts) are slowly taking jobs away from regular folk. Lee has a good ear for dialogue and writes some cracking exchanges between the characters. Lee also captures perfectly the creeping sense of worthlessness that people out of work feel and why having a purpose is so important. The best sequences in the book depict how people working for large corporations work long hours and are asked to complete tasks at an inhuman speed. Lee does a great job of bottling the fear of not wanting to stand out, of not being seen as lazy, of being sacked from a job you hate.
That said it is let down by a clumsy structure. Three separate prologues and the three POV characters occasionally made it hard to follow the narrative. None of the protagonists really got their hooks into me. I felt it could have been streamlined a bit. Part of me wonders if it would have worked better as a TV show where the change of perspective would have been smoother.

Lee writes about relationships very well. The way the characters allow small slights to add up, how difficult they find it to turn to those they love when they feel like they have wronged is something Lee captures well.
It never really soars as a character drama though. The solutions proposed by the characters to the problems they face are nowhere near a clever as Lee seems to think they are. It is the kind of book that ambles along and is entertaining enough. I had a pleasant enough time reading it but was hoping for something a bit more impactful given the themes to book explores.

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I found Wolf’s Den to be a challenging read. There are many scenes of sexual violence, and the quite frankly horrifying experiences that some of the characters go through while not described in gory or salacious detail meant I felt the need to put the book down.
That I picked up it again is a testament to the gripping plot and the engrossing characters. Determined Amara, gentle Dido, self-assured Victoria were my favourites. Felix is truly detestable as the owner of The Wolf Den, a ruthless pimp and loan shark that controls his brothel through physical and psychological abuse. I wanted to scream at him (and worse) because of some of the cruelty he inflicts.
It is not all darkness and despair. Ultimately Harper has written a book about survival. The extraordinary instinct humanity has to find a way to survive even in the direst circumstances is a thread that runs through the story. There is plenty of humour in the book, much of it from Victoria, who is a bit like Samantha from Sex in the City, constantly making vulgar comments and egging the rest of the gang on. Amara is a smart and resourceful protagonist that is easy to root for, and most moments of levity involve her bonding with the other sex workers under Felix’s yolk.
In parts, it reminded me of Sansa POV chapters in Game of Thrones. The constants anxiety of hiding emotions, the mentally exhausting process of plotting and planning, the dread of not knowing who to trust. Like Martin’s, the research that Harper has done makes the world of Pompeii rich and palpable.
As a historical novel, Harper has written something remarkable. It is a piercing look at how sex and power are intertwined and how both genders use one as a tool to gain the other. What Amara and the other sex workers in the Wolf Den are subjected to by men is abhorrent. Harper writes superbly well, showing a deft hand at creating characters that get under your skin in both good ways and bad. I’m not sure I enjoyed it, but it has lingered with me.

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Gladwell is a marvellous writer. In The Bomber Mafia, he explores how ethics and principles affect our decisions. There is smooth almost conversational assuredness about the way he writes. It is like listening to your smartest most eloquent friend tell you about something interesting he has just discovered.

The Bomber Mafia story is not one I had heard of before. It is a wide-ranging one that covers battlefield ethics, technological innovation, politics, and culture.

One of the key takeaways for me is how people identify and solve problems based on their personalities. We are introduced to some great characters in the Bomber Mafia from the genius inventor of a bombsight to two airmen who have vastly different approaches on how to defeat the enemy.

The other takeaway is that we need to be careful about thinking that technology will save us, that we just need that one key invention to solve our problems. It doesn’t it, and in some ways it never has. What we choose to do with innovations and how we approach the inevitable moral quandaries they pose is something we all have to wrestle with.

As with all Gladwell’s work, he occasionally takes leaps logic of that are not necessarily justified by the facts or goes off in tangents that are perplexing.

On the whole as a history of the American airforces contribution to WW2 and the lasting legacy that has had on all future military engagements The Bomber Mafia is enlightening and engrossing. As a study of what humans do under immense pressure it is thought-provoking.

Buy the book here and they will kick me some money.

From the opening page I found The Devil You Know to be thoroughly gripping.

The mix of true crime and psychological study might sound lurid or exploitative but Adshead and Horne write with sensitivity. The importance of empathy is at the heart of book. While the book does not go into gory details it is unflinching in the way it approaches the crimes that been committed. Adshead does not seek to make excuses only to understand how she can help those who are in her care.

Each chapter is dedicated to one patient. The conversations Adshead has with her patients are fascinating. I found the chapters about David and Charlotte to be especially memorable. The writing style is somewhat economical but is full if humanity and insight. While it is easy to read in the way that it is written some of the content is harrowing.

I found it to be one of those books where you think to yourself I’ll read just a few more pages before I go to bed and those pages end up being entire chapters.

Much of the book is about perceptions. Ones we hold go ourselves and those of other people. If you’re interested in understanding why people do terrible things and what we can do to help them then this is essential reading. An enlightening and entertaining read that is among the best books I have read this year.

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