Compilation of news reports and articles before, during and shortly after: Black Monday, emerging markets crisis, internet bubble and sub-prime crisisCompilation of news reports and articles before, during and shortly after: Black Monday, emerging markets crisis, internet bubble and sub-prime crisis. Interesting read although some of the articles (especially on Black Monday and internet are a little tedious). Lewis provides a very limited commentary on each crisis as well as some of the better articles (all written at the time). ...more
Story set immediately before and during the first year of the Siege of Leningrad - it focuses around 5 characters: a dissident writer Mikhail, his nurStory set immediately before and during the first year of the Siege of Leningrad - it focuses around 5 characters: a dissident writer Mikhail, his nursery-school teacher daughter Anna, his son Kolya (as his Doctor wife - the strong willed Vera - died in childbirth, Anna effectively is Kolya's mother) and Marina (a reclusive and discredited artist friend of Mikhail, who comes to live with them after the siege and who it becomes clear was a once lover of Mikhail) and Andrei (a Doctor who works on a volunteer force with Mikhail, visits Anna to tell her he is wounded but OK and then gradually becomes her lover and eventually moves into their appartment). Another two characters (literally in a fable from the Napoleonic attack on Russia told by her father) and figuratively throughout are hunger and the winter.
The book is mainly in the present tense which seems to fit well the immediacy of the story and the day-to-day (if not hour-to-hour nature of their existence and fight for survival). Anna is normally the main character (despite the book being written in the third person) so the occasional sections shifting to another character (in particular the passages switching to Pavlov - the logistical planner for Leningrad's hopelessly inadequate food supplies - can jar).
Similarly as the siege takes hold and food supplies dwindle and almost disappear the book and characters close in on themselves and their appartment and on simple survival and the need for sustenance and this fits the author's terse but poetic writing style.
A haunting tale which I found incredibly engrossing (at the time one of my very young children wasn't eating very well and I found it hard to not somehow think that this was a crucial matter of her health; also I was tired and felt reluctant to succumb to sleep because it might be like surrendering to the cold and not waking up again) as well as beautifully written. The story is extremely readable - easy to and best read in a few sittings.
Some of the details are terrible - such as the baby opposite who dies of malnutrition from its young mother's inadvertent ignorance and neglect, the bodies left dead in houses (given the cold there and the impossibility of burial). The description of cold and hunger and its physical and psychological effects (with Andrei acting as an excuse to introduce scientific detail) are shocking but compelling.
There are great reference to Russian literature (especially Pushkin), the author describes the Baltic seasons beautifully and gives a good insight into Stalinist Russia....more
Incredibly detailed and comprehensive (in fact far too long to act as anything other than a reference book or a book to be dipped into) guide to the cIncredibly detailed and comprehensive (in fact far too long to act as anything other than a reference book or a book to be dipped into) guide to the crusades including the Holy Land crusades, the crusades against heretics in France, Muslims in Spain, pagans in North Eastern Europe and even against dissident Christian groups. Interesting angle is the theological position on war – starting as condemnation, moving to an uneasy accommodation with the Saxon warrior class, then to imposition of penance on soldiers, then to remission of sins for those killed, to suddenly indulgences for all taking the cross, through to the parallel preaching of the cross alongside explicit calls to take the cross. This is described in great detail and interest which seems less excessive than the detail used to describe actual campaigns and particularly the recruitment campaigns...more
Long and extremely complex novel – very hard to categorise and incredibly wide-ranging and ambitious.
Womanising astronomer Max Delius REVIEW FROM 2005
Long and extremely complex novel – very hard to categorise and incredibly wide-ranging and ambitious.
Womanising astronomer Max Delius (son of a Nazi collaborator who had his Jewish wife – Max’s mother – killed: note this is almost autobiographical as Mulisch had a Jewish maternal family killed in camps and a collaborator father) meets by chance with absent-minded linguist Onno Quist (son of an ex-Prime Minister) and the two strike up a deep almost exclusive friendship, which they only open to musician Ada Brons. Ada has a child actually by Max (having had a relationship first with Max and then Onno) although all characters believe it is probably by Onno. When Ada is put into an irreversible coma in a car crash, Max is seduced by her mother Sophia and racked with guilt that he might be the child’s natural father – he proposes successfully that the two of them bring up the child. Max is eventually killed by an asteroid when he realises an apparent error in astronomical data and further the errors which mean special relativity and quantum mechanics breakdown in the fraction of a time after the big bang could in fact be explained by another body - (the implication is) heaven.
What seems like chance to the characters – most particularly the meeting of Max and Onno is in fact carefully choreographed by unnamed beings – the implication is that they are angels – one more junior and the other very senior. Through their discussions we find that humanity via Francis Bacon made a pact with the devil – in which he gave them scientific progress. Gradually they have taken on most of the powers of God and his angels – the last remaining area being the ability to create life itself, which, with the decoding of DNA underway, is imminent. Accordingly (and this only really emerges in the later stages) God has decided to remove the 10 Commandments from earth and take them back to heaven and then leave earth to its own devices.
Max/Onno have a remarkable friendship – they seem to believe they are “super-men” and spark each other in many forms of religious/political/moral/philosophical musings, including a trip to Cuba to watch Ada play in a cultural programme where they accidentally become delegates at a international subversive/terrorist conference (this conference eventually costs Onno his place in a coalition government years later as well as being where Quentin is conceived).
The part where Quentin grows up with Max/Sophia in an eclectic mix of characters in a set of flats built into an old castle is the hardest to follow and least enjoyable – I found it hard to differentiate the characters or understand the many artistic musings. Onno goes into hiding when his political career is ruined and Max then dies and Quentin decides to seek out Onno.
Last part of the book is the quest of Ouentin firstly to find his father and then to locate a mysterious Citadel he sees in his dreams. While exploring Rome he concludes that the ten commandments were not in fact lost but were removed from the temple at Jerusalem by the Romans and then stored in a church in Rome. He then locates the two tablets and returns them to Jerusalem. Part contains much on history of church, architecture of Rome and Jerusalem but is interesting.
REVIEW FROM 2008
The book is compelling and in fact at times breathtaking in its sheer scope and bewildering array of ideas (the only criticism that can be made is that in presenting Onno, Max and Quentin’s intellect as beyond normal – a fact confirmed by the “angels” – he is effectively crediting himself – the real author of their ideas – with the same genius).
This time around the castle part although still a little disorientating is important as the cast of characters there gives Quentin the essential education he needs (art history, languages, architecture, archaeology, even lock picking) both to envisage and complete his task.
In retrospect having heard Mulisch speak on Siegfried, the theme of the holocaust but beyond that and very specifically the person of Hitler is ever present in the book.
Effectively a follow up to Case Histories. Jackson is living in France but visits Edinburgh for the festival as Julia (now his girlfriend although unwEffectively a follow up to Case Histories. Jackson is living in France but visits Edinburgh for the festival as Julia (now his girlfriend although unwilling to commit to a relationship) is acting in the Festival (and acting distantly to Jackson).
Story is very and indeed overtly convoluted and connected. At one point Jackson says "A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen." but the ludicrous plot and interrelations between characters strain credibility and much as the writing is good – pacy, descriptive and evocative (particularly the character of Martin) this as well as the unrelenting unpleasantness of crime and death stop this being a really good book. ...more
Very well written albeit extremely detailed account of the issues leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in the First Century ADVery well written albeit extremely detailed account of the issues leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in the First Century AD.
The first and longest section of the book is a meticulous examination of all aspects of Roman and Jewish culture effectively trying to tease out what led to the clash but often simply serving as an excellently written (but often seemingly undirected) account of Rome/the Roman Empire (emphatically not the Republic) and Judaism/Jerusalem. This covers areas such as morals, identities, attitudes to family and associations, politics and legal issues, diversity and toleration. The main conclusion is that although there were clearly issues that Romans found strange about Jews there was a lot of toleration (not least their dispensation from worshiping roman gods) and no real reason for Jerusalem and the Jews to have special treatment.
The second section covers the destruction of Jerusalem and the following events. The central thesis is that the destruction of the Temple was accidental but that then the new Roman Empire Vespasian (who by co-incidence was leading the Roman response to the Jewish revolt) and his son Titus then felt they had to portray it as a deliberate act, especially as Vespasian needed to establish his credentials as a military leader. This in turn led to a policy of vilification of the Jews, a policy continued by subsequent emperors who also had only the Jewish war as an association with military glory or who wanted to prove their descent from emperors who did.
The last part of the book briefly covers the rise of the Church (mainly put down to Constantine’s vision and conversion) and the interaction of the Christians with the Jews (who in fact kept their distance from the Jews which had the advantage of being distanced from their vilification but also the disadvantage of not getting their religious dispensation) and a last chapter of anti-Semitism.
Really outstanding account – superbly written and coming across as very well researched and argued. ...more
8th in the Eagle series (no longer branded as such).
The book tells off a battle over the Desert Kingdom of Palmrya being fought over by Rome and Parth8th in the Eagle series (no longer branded as such).
The book tells off a battle over the Desert Kingdom of Palmrya being fought over by Rome and Parthia via a civil war between the two ambitious younger sons of the King (one backed by Parthia, with Rome reluctantly backing the other) which then turns into a mass battle between Rome and Parthian forces (both settled in Rome’s favour due to the efforts of Macro and Cato and despite the negligence and incompetence of Cassisus Longinus).
Disappointing story – lacking in any real insights the clunky and laboured dialogue and repetitive action is only too apparent, while the story doesn’t really seem to take the characters forwards at all – in fact it would have been better combined with (or even replacing) the 7th story ...more
Story of Eric – a Debt Advisor in an Advice Centre who is himself in severe debt and who makes dubious use of the skills and inside knowledge he has pStory of Eric – a Debt Advisor in an Advice Centre who is himself in severe debt and who makes dubious use of the skills and inside knowledge he has picked up both on legislation but also on how creditors will act, to keep the knowledge from his girlfriend (who believes him to be more of a corporate tax advisor) and fund a reasonably comfortable lifestyle on a small salary.
During the course of the story, Eric’s situation increasingly comes to a head (mainly as one creditor decides to get a sale order against his house) and he moves to blatantly illegal schemes (in particular working with a client Doreen to spend as much as she can on the various credit lines she has secured, selling or using the goods, all prior to declaring bankruptcy and then later working with her on the submission of a fake funding request for a new style advice centre) while at the same time receiving increasingly bizarre and dangerous caravan-themed threats from an unknown source.
The story of Eric’s debt advice and own financial shenanigans is interwoven with two other accounts – one of a man and a woman trying unsuccessfully to kill a man they have taken hostage (at the end of the story it becomes clear the hostage is Eric, the man [and blackmailer] is a loan shark Mr Friday who Eric has put out of business by counselling all his clients that his loan agreements are unenforceable, and the woman Doreen) the other of his teenage friend the bizarre punk Spangles/Julie who wants him to trepan her and then gets in contact again at the time of the story to request this again (he tries and fails and she then tries with a drill and kills herself).
The main part of the story is very entertaining. Details of Eric’s debt advice (financial statements, creditor offers, and bankruptcies) are very familiar. His own exploitation of his techniques (e.g. taking his main account up to just before when the bank start bouncing direct debits, then cancelling these and any payments in the account but making use of the many cheque books he ordered just before this and the guarantee card he still has, then offering them a 50% settlement funded from his next account) are almost painful to read. However the Mr Friday and particularly Julie stories are simply bizarre and too farfetched....more
Series of chapters on “anomlies” in economic models – such as Winners Curse, Endowment Effect, Co-Operation and Ultimatum games. Each chapter is co-wrSeries of chapters on “anomlies” in economic models – such as Winners Curse, Endowment Effect, Co-Operation and Ultimatum games. Each chapter is co-written with another expert and starts with an anecdotal example (often by way of a scenario where you are posed a question by a client/relative about how to act in a situation) lots of summarised published work and a short analysis. A good summary/reference book although the meat of each chapter is more like a dry literature review than any attempt at popular science....more
Part biographical popular science book consisting of Mandlebrot’s musing on his works and in particular how they relate to market behaviour.
Although Part biographical popular science book consisting of Mandlebrot’s musing on his works and in particular how they relate to market behaviour.
Although he is clearly opinionated and sure of his own correctness and insight and convinced of his contraryness, he is not as hectoring or smug as Taleb and also more prepared to admit that as of now he cannot turn his work to a definitive investment method beyond simple (but profound) insights into market behaviour.
He stresses simplicity of models and ideas and that the aim of his research is to capture simple models which can describe seemingly complex behaviour or patterns (which is after all the central tenet of chaos theory and fractals).
He is therefore very dismissive of the attempts of the CAPM or Black Scholes adherents to add more and more corrections to their models every time another anomaly is found (he is more critical of GARCH models than Fama-French not least as Fama was one of his students). He is also clear that in many cases he is unsure of underlying causation of the patterns he sees (although he hazards some very heuristic guesses) but thinks a model of outcomes is more appropriate than a theory of causes.
Key ideas which he seeks to bring together are: power law distributions and their ubiquity in nature and in economics and investment compared to Gaussian distributions; the concepts of Fractals and of how simple Fractal charts can be used to produce very believable price charts when compared to random walk type models); the idea of “memory” (and hence time dependency) in both natural and economical/investment time series; the idea of replication on scale – so that a price chart of daily movements looks like a price chart of monthly or yearly movements; (probably least explained but very central to bringing many of these thoughts together) the idea of “trading time” so that some periods of real time with market stability are only short periods of trading time but that contrary huge amounts of trading time can sometimes take place in only a few hours or days of real time.
Very well written book, compelling because of the sheer range of his ideas, the number of years over which he has advanced them, their gradual development, their vindication in 2008 3 years after the book was written, and the clearly written writing style. ...more
The book basically claims that a group which is: diverse (with lots of differing views including some which may be very biased or very naive, rather tThe book basically claims that a group which is: diverse (with lots of differing views including some which may be very biased or very naive, rather than succumbing to expert blindness or group think); decentralised (so that the group’s view is not in fact dictated or “decided” by one person); aggregated (so that notwithstanding this there is some way to aggregate the views to a group view rather than simply being unjoined and disorganised) and independence (so that it people don’t take their views based on what others think) will outperform individual experts.
Examples are Google, Linux and “Ask the Audience”.
The book equally concentrates on when groups can underperform and examples missing one of the key features are: Bay of Pigs, Columbia Shuttle Disaster, US Intelligence failure to predict 9/11 and stock market bubbles (which were the main feature of Charles Mackay’s 1840’s “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” which this book is deliberately named after while at the same time contradicting).
A good read with interesting ideas (but not brilliantly written or earth shattering) ...more
Part autobiography and part biography of a City – the grainy black and white photos match the slow paced gently evocative text. A good book to dip intPart autobiography and part biography of a City – the grainy black and white photos match the slow paced gently evocative text. A good book to dip into although there is some form of progression to the wandering text....more
By author of Robert Millar biography and who rode as part of the Scottish Commonwealth team which was the last which “mainly rode for the tracksuit”. By author of Robert Millar biography and who rode as part of the Scottish Commonwealth team which was the last which “mainly rode for the tracksuit”.
Insightful and interesting book – really a Chris Hoy autobiography interspersed with details of the Team GB cycling set up (albeit with a heavy sprinter focus which is in fact in contrast to the initial pursuiting bias of that set-up).
The book is excellent in conveying a good sense of each – Hoy’s dedication and single mindedness (despite clearly being a thoroughly nice and decent individual) and the huge attention to detail of the GB camp (the employment of an ex-criminal psychiatrist being more interesting than the obsession with equipment). There is also an excellent chapter on Keirin racing.
The author becomes very dismissive of road racing as being drug dominated and this at times leads to a loss of perspective on the outrage he feels over the Keirin being exed from the Olympics (despite that fact that Hoy’s very success in winning 3 other golds shows that track cycling is hardly underweighted in gold medals, especially (and this is the other area he completely fails to convey) given the minority status of it even within cycling and hence lack of top level competition. ...more
Widely seen as one of the first ever mystery novels, the book uses the same narrative as The Woman in White of successive retrospective narrations by Widely seen as one of the first ever mystery novels, the book uses the same narrative as The Woman in White of successive retrospective narrations by characters of facts only they can accurately relate (although this tome exclusively so with no narrator).
Less engrossing than “Woman in White”, not least due to the absence of suspense in what is really a victimless crime. Collins attempt at one of the first literary detectives (Cuff based on the real life Wicher) is excellent (drawing as it does on some plot elements from the real murder at Road Hill House) but the book fails where Cuff does with the actual resolution being long winded, implausible and sensational. Cuff, Rosanna and the Robinson Crusoe obsessed Betteredge are the best characters but come early with many of the remainder (being either grotesques/parodies (Jennings/Clack) or blank canvases (not least the two main protagonists Franklin and Rachel). ...more
Excellent account of the rise of Arsenal as force and in particular the role played by Arsene Wenger (and to a lesser extent David DeiReview from 2008
Excellent account of the rise of Arsenal as force and in particular the role played by Arsene Wenger (and to a lesser extent David Dein) in that rise.
Good (clearly based on interviews with Dein and Wenger) but not comprehensive (e.g. the authors don’t really understand either the complete financial position or the situation with Edelman’s abrupt departure) inside view on goings on at the club.
Only real bias or surprise is the lack of condemnation or even mention of Usmanov’s wider business interests.
The easy to read book initially seems to lack structure but is much stronger towards the more recent (and the book although published in July 2008 already has details on some summer transfers – hence is completely up to date) years and in particular in its analysis of Arsenal’s (and Wenger’s) successes and also limitations since moving to the Emirates.
The book concludes: firstly that Wenger’s achievements make him one of the great all time managers - both in what he has done on shoestring resources and in his role in transforming the club (its reputation, its ground, even its training ground) although interestingly little mention is made of his role in transforming English football; secondly that his modus operandi of producing entertaining football on a low budget and attracting talent which either blossoms or can be sold on is integral to the finances of the club particularly given the number of long term deals such as naming rights and sponsorship; thirdly that a strong second voice to challenge Wenger’s blindspots while also providing a much needed succession plan would be very important if looking unlikely. ...more
Non-fiction account of a real life Victorian murder – of a 3 year old Saville Kent, which gripped the nation.
Summerscale while producing copious reseNon-fiction account of a real life Victorian murder – of a 3 year old Saville Kent, which gripped the nation.
Summerscale while producing copious research and detail (while avoiding the speculation and insight into characters true minds of fiction) manages to produce a gripping account of the immediate aftermath crime and the attempts to resolve it.
The book concentrates on Jack Wicher (one of the first ever plain clothes detectives) – who going against the common view that the murder was by Saville’s Dad after Saville found him in bed with his nursemaid, instead concludes that it was Constance (one of the children of Mr Kent’s first marriage) and produces circumstantial evidence (a strange episode of how Constance attempts to make it look like the laundress has lost one of her nightshirts – which Wicher believes to have been bloodstained) and motive (the disturbed Constance is jealous about how Mr Kent’s governess supplants his first wife – her mother – and on her death becomes his second wife – and Saville’s mother – and continues to discredit her mother. She then murders Saville as a way of enacting punishment on her stepmother, she also confirms Wicher’s deductions re the nightshirt.
Summerscale’s other achievement is to weave into the story: the invention of plain clothes detectives and the skills of detection/surveillance/espionage; the backlash against the intrusion of detectives which offended both the Victorian ideas of class and of the inviolability of a gentleman’s home; the rise of crime fiction – both sensational novels and the rise of fictional detectives, with in “Moonstone” the calm, rational detective somehow sanitising a sensational plot and making its reading acceptable (while at the same time somehow obscuring the horror of the crime – in an afterword Summerscale confesses that in writing the book she almost forgot that there was actually an innocent victim).
In many ways similar ideas emerge to Arthur & George – Wicher despite probably being correct cannot achieve a conviction which only comes about due to a confession (which particularly due to it being to a controversial high church Anglican has more overtones of old fashioned religion than the new modern science of detection) and even then the actual situation is ambiguous (with the possibility that Constance may have been covering up for the joint involvement of her brother William).
This is in contrast to the usual world of detective novels where everything is wrapped up and the niceties of convincing a jury and the inadequacies of wholly circumstantial evidence are overlooked....more
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
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Books:
2008
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