I've never actually attended the Tour de France and I can't recall the last time I climbed onto a bike, but this three week orgy of pain and controverI've never actually attended the Tour de France and I can't recall the last time I climbed onto a bike, but this three week orgy of pain and controversy is an event I've religiously followed for as long as I can remember. Its the most gruelling major sporting event I can think of and the best stages (there are 21 in all) are those that go up hill - that is, steeply up hill! The mountain ranges of the Alps and Pyrenees feature strongly but there are other climbs too, such as Mont Ventoux, a dreadful drag up a featureless incline which claimed the life of British rider Tom Simpson in 1967.
Most peoples favourite and therefore a stage that features often in Le Tour is the climb up to the ski station at Alpe d'Huez. Massive crowd cover the entire 14.5 kilometre route as the cyclists battle their way up through twenty-one hair-pin bends with gradients on the climb reaching up to thirteen percent. It's always an amazing spectacle and great honour awaits the first climber to reach the summit.
This book details all the famous (and some not so famous) climbs, with pictures, history and statistics providing a comprehensive overview. I not sure when I first bought this book, but it was a long time ago and each year since when the route is announced I pounce on it and study which climbs are included in this years race, hoping that some of my favourites will have been included. It's a fantastic item for any cycling fan to have on his or her bookshelf....more
A few years ago I stumbled across an audio version of The Wolf of Wall Street and found it to be wild, funny and brilliantly ‘performed’ by the readeA few years ago I stumbled across an audio version of The Wolf of Wall Street and found it to be wild, funny and brilliantly ‘performed’ by the reader, Eric Meyers. For anyone who hasn’t heard this story (via the book, the subsequent film or by picking up on the news reporting of the time) it tells of the true story of Jordan Belfort who set up an investment company and became a multi-millionaire by ripping-off investors. He lived a lifestyle of unbelievable excess before the authorities eventually caught up with him. I absolutely loved the book, mainly because Belford’s voice shone through the story which was told throughout in an irreverent and totally over-the-top style. I’m sure that some scenes may have been described in a way designed to maximise the entertainment value but I’ve got no issue with that, it remains one of my favourite autobiographies.
And this time around history repeated itself, I spotted this book in an Audible sale and hadn’t even realised that Belfort had penned a follow up to his first book. Here the story picks up from the point he’s been arrested and takes us through subsequent events as he attempts to come to terms with his predicament and, as best he can, manage the impacts on himself and his family. This book was read by Ray Porter and I have to say he does good a job, if not better, than EM. I truly found myself nearly helpless with laughter at some points, which given the fact that the focus here is on Belford’s arrest, interrogation and subsequent incarceration I think is somewhat remarkable. But once again, this is really down the way in which the story is told and how scenes are framed. Belfort is just a born storyteller.
If you’re in the mood for an interesting true(ish) story and can cope with the fairly extreme profanity that goes with it then I’d definitely urge you to seek out Belfort’s books....more
It all started in the 1820s and 1830s, with a few short lines in Britain, the United States, France and Germany. By the early 1900s the combined systeIt all started in the 1820s and 1830s, with a few short lines in Britain, the United States, France and Germany. By the early 1900s the combined systems totalled over half a million miles. This book is a celebration of what I believe to be one of the most relaxing and pleasurable means of travel, featuring routes in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. It consists mainly of a series of photographs, covering more than two hundred pages. The accompanying text is simply a very brief commentary on each photograph.
Some of the images are stunning. My favourites include:
- Some truly magnificent station buildings such as: Chicago’s Union Station, Antwerp’s Central Station and, of course, Grand Central in New York. But also some much smaller constructions such as Skagway Station in Alaska with impressive mountains climbing in the background and with its buildings a reminder of the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th Century.
- The world’s highest railway viaduct at La Polvorilla, Argentina and another wonderful, but significantly smaller version, at Ribblehead, North Yorkshire in England.
- Some extravagantly appointed trains, such as Hiram Bingham, Cuzco-Machu Picchu, Peru and the Serra Verde Express, Curitiba, Brazil.
- And the view available from the train journeys are varied and, sometimes, breathtaking – like the close-up view of the Matterhorn available from the Zermatt-Gornergrat Railway in Switzerland.
All in all, there are way too many memorable images for me to do justice to here. This book is a must for lovers of train travel or for anyone seeking a memorable travel experience.
My thanks to Amber books Limited and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review....more
Formula One is generally thought of as the pinnacle of motorsport and it follows that those who have become world champion have achieved the very highFormula One is generally thought of as the pinnacle of motorsport and it follows that those who have become world champion have achieved the very highest accolade the sport has to offer. Since it was first introduced, in 1950, the races that comprise the championship have spanned the globe. There have been 33 champions from 14 different nations. To win the overall prize it’s necessary to accrue points from the various races, with the driver holding most points at the end of the season being crowned the winner.
This gorgeous book celebrates the various champions with a section on each. Of course there are a number of drivers who have achieved this feat more than once, the legends of the sport such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and the current champion Lewis Hamilton, but for many it was a once only achievement. Some of the stories told here are extraordinary but there is sadness too, it’s a dangerous sport and when twice world champion Alberto Ascari drove his car into the harbour during the Monaco Grand Prix, in 1955, it was amazing that he survived the incident. Tragically, he was to be killed in his race car just four days later.
I’ve been a follower of this sport for many years and can recall those featured here from Scotsman Jackie Stewart onwards. My personal favourites include British drivers James Hunt, Nigel Mansell and of course Lewis Hamilton. My son is an avid fan and we plan to spend three days at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone later this year. This book is a visual feast for followers of Formula One, with the wonderful photographs supported by brief but informative text. A superb item for anyone who is captured by this exciting and dramatic sport.
My sincere thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review....more
I’ve always wondered why hackers hack. Is it for the kick it gives them or for personal gain, or perhaps a combination of the two? For this reason I wI’ve always wondered why hackers hack. Is it for the kick it gives them or for personal gain, or perhaps a combination of the two? For this reason I was attracted to this memoir of Kevin Mitnick, someone I’d never heard of but a man who became the most wanted hacker of his time, chased for years until his eventual capture by the FBI.
Mitnick was born in Van Nuys, California in 1963 and by the age of twelve he was already developing the art of ‘social engineering’ (or manipulation of individuals) to obtain information or get tasks completed. To supplement this, he also practiced ‘dumpster diving’ (searching bins for useful discarded items or information). In an early example of how these activities helped him, he talked a bus driver into providing him with some information and then sought out a supply of discarded but unused tickets in order to obtain free bus travel throughout the Los Angeles area. By the time he was in high school he had become an amateur radio operator and his fascination with the communications network started to take a hold on him.
Very soon his spare time was almost totally taken up with his exploration of the telephony infrastructure. He would use his skills to obtain passwords that would give him entry into seemingly secure systems and then compare notes and achievements with fellow hackers. It seems that Mitnick just loved the challenge of breaking into company systems and enjoyed the intellectual stimulus of gaining knowledge through his pastime. He and his cohort looked upon the capture of proprietary software as trophies and would seek out spare disk space in company systems to store their captures. Other than the satisfaction of achievement, the gaining of knowledge and the resulting increase in his ability to break into even more systems it seems that Mitnick really didn’t gain anything from these actions. He would sometimes capture huge hauls of credit card information but there is no evidence to suggest he ever did anything to exploit this.
As time passed he did occasionally get caught out and when this happened he’d lose his job and he even served some time in lock-up for his deeds. But he was addicted and he’d soon returned to hacking. He began to target bigger companies and harder to penetrate systems. By this time he was known to authorities and started using cloned cellular phones to hide his identity. In the end he was forced to go on the run, relocating around the country and changing his identity whenever he moved on, until he the FBI finally caught up with him in 1995. He was to spend 5 years in prison before his eventual release. And then, in a nice turn of events, he discovered he was in demand as an expert in the field of cyber security and developed a career as a speaker on security issues and consultant to technology companies – a case of poacher turned gamekeeper.
I loved the element of the chaser and they chased here, it’s an exciting tale and Mitnick shows himself to be resourceful in avoiding the chasing pack and demonstrates an appealing sense of humour along the way. For me the downside to this account is simply the amount of technical detail provided on precisely how he managed to access given systems. Long lists of code are recited as numerous similar events are walked through. This may be of interest to those who relish the fine technical detail but it was way over my head and proved to be a little tiresome.
Overall, it’s an enthralling tale of addiction overriding common sense but with something approaching a happy ending. And though I could have done without some of the fine detail it did add a sense of authenticity to events and certainly didn’t override the sense of tension and anticipation of ultimate disaster that runs throughout this account. Definitely recommended for anyone seeking an insight into this hidden world....more
This is the third audiobook I’ve listened to in the past few months that is focused on Silicon Valley. The first two concentrated on the development aThis is the third audiobook I’ve listened to in the past few months that is focused on Silicon Valley. The first two concentrated on the development and life of specific companies, namely Yahoo and Google, whereas this book takes a look at the culture of technology start-ups. Having previously worked in publishing and at a literary agency in New York, Anna Wiener joined a four-person start-up who were developing an eBook reader app. She was to be the person who knew books amongst this small group of techies. This experience turned out to be short lived, however, as she was soon tempted out to San Francisco where she worked at a data analytics company for the next 18 months. Her third job in a technology start-up, also in the Bay Area, was at an open source software development company – essentially a company that develops software for software developers.
I’d observed from the Yahoo and Google books that a clear distinction exists between technical staff (typically computer engineers or coders) and non-technical staff (sales people, administrators and others in customer facing roles). In short, the technical staff are valued the most. Anna finds this out quite quickly and though it clearly rankles she also finds enough interest and reward to keep her working in this industry for a number of years. She walks us through her various roles, her interactions with people inside the companies and her mindset as she wrestled with elements of her work that clearly don’t sit easily with her.
One element here that I found frustrating is that Wiener seems to have an aversion to names: the people she comes across are simply labelled entrepreneur, technologist, CEO, venture capitalist etc. And the same goes for the companies she works for, uses or simply expresses an opinion upon, these being designated as the Seattle software conglomerate or the social media platform everybody hates. Is there a reason for this or is it simply a style choice? I’m not sure, but I didn’t like it. I did manage to work out some of the companies touched on (I think), with my list including Amazon, Google, Uber, eBay and Facebook. But of course I may be wrong.
The other key thing here – and I found it to be the main thrust of the book – is that in Wiener’s opinion Silicon Valley is run by men, and usually men she doesn’t like very much. She particularly dislikes the way that these men treat the women in their employ. The author, a self confessed feminist, does go some way to explaining how she formed this view and the examples she gives are reasonably persuasive. But for me what fights against this is her obvious antipathy toward the male species in general. Others may disagree but I found it to be a pervasive flavour throughout.
Overall I enjoyed the insight this book provided into how things work in a technology start-up. I also admired the author’s ability to string sentences together, often using obscure words and phrases. But Wiener herself came across as a royal pain in the arse. I know I'll be an outlier here but I'm afraid I found the whole thing to be way too annoying and for this reason I can only award it two stars....more
I’ve always loved castles. When I was a boy my dad, a carpenter, made me a castle as a Christmas present. It had four circular turrets, one at each coI’ve always loved castles. When I was a boy my dad, a carpenter, made me a castle as a Christmas present. It had four circular turrets, one at each corner, and a drawbridge that could be raised and lowered. It’s probably the best present I ever received. And when I worked in Wales for a period I used to take my son to visit castles at Caerphilly and Cardiff – I’m not really sure whether this was for his education or to feed my own fascination with these structures. So when I spotted this book I knew it was something I’d lap up.
It’s a pictorial journey through abandoned hill and sea forts, castles, towers and citadels from Europe to the Americas and from Africa to India and Japan. The structures featured here were built as early as the 6th Century BCE and as late as the 5th Century CE. This collection comprises 150 stunning photographs detailing more than 100 fortifications. My favourites include:
- The intricate fort at Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India, its walls covered in sculptures depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.
- Caught on a misty day, Corfe Castle in Dorset, England, looks stunning perched in a commanding position on a steep hill in a break between the Purbeck Hills.
- The triangular Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland was the only British castle build in this shape.
- Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland is perched on a headland jutting into the North Sea. It was where the Scottish crown jewels were hidden when Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland in 1650.
- The fortifications at Palamidi, Nafplio, Peloponnese, Greece seems to dramatically crawl down the mountain.
A great book to browse through and to dream of times past.
My thanks to Amber Books Ltd and NetGalley for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review....more
Having recently listened to an audio version of In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives it created a desire in me for more informaHaving recently listened to an audio version of In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives it created a desire in me for more information on probably the key forerunner to Google. Yahoo is referenced many times in the Google book, it’s clear they had paved the way for later technology companies to push on and further leverage the opportunities presented by the World Wide Web. In this book a former executive tells of his time at Yahoo and how and why the company later fell from prominence and was ultimately bought by Verizon it what has been called the saddest deal in tech history.
Jeremy Ring joined Yahoo in the mid 1990’s and stayed on for five years. His background had been in advertising and in the course of doing business with Yahoo he’d befriended Jerry Yang, one of the co-founders. At this stage Yahoo was in its infancy and Yang and fellow co-founder David Filo were two of only a handful people working at the fledgling tech company. Yahoo designed a system to categorise web sites, developed a web portal and a search engine and then added an advertising service to generate revenue. They were a pioneer of the internet age in the 1990’s and at its height its website was one of the most visited globally. Ring walks us through his early life and his time at Yahoo and then provides his thoughts on what went wrong with the company after he left.
The autobiographical element (essentially the first half of the book) was interesting enough, particularly a section in which Ring tells of how he was targeted by a blackmailer - a strange and disturbing tale indeed! But the meat of the book is the story of Yahoo. After rising to prominence and creating huge wealth for all the early Yahoo team it started to fall behind other, newer technology companies. According to the author, this boils down to a lack of foresight and innovation, a catastrophic series of missed opportunities (the company, it seems, spurned early chances to buy Google, Facebook and eBay), and a failure to properly integrate the businesses they did acquire. Much of this is blamed on the appointment of a series of badly chosen CEO’s, with Terry Semel receiving the majority of the flak. By the time they brought in a leader that might have avoided the disastrous slide (Marissa Mayer from Google) it was too late.
The format is slightly jumpy and a little repetitive as the author struggles to find a balance between telling his own story and that of the tech giant. The writing style is odd too – a little ‘old fashioned’ and stilted and with many of his points supported by multiple analogies and sometimes a ranting diatribe. The book did, in the end, provide me with what I was looking for, though perhaps not in the way I was looking for it. Therefore, three stars is as high as I can go with this one....more
I knew little about Google other than the fact that it's the name of the company that produced the eponymous internet search engine, which has gained I knew little about Google other than the fact that it's the name of the company that produced the eponymous internet search engine, which has gained a market share of nearly 90% as at April 2019. But I kept hearing how powerful the company was and how it formed one of the big four technology giants, along with Apple, Amazon and Facebook. It was about time I learned a little more about this outfit. In this audiobook, technology reporter Stephen Levy tells of the time he spent meeting and talking to people within the company and expands this to an overview of how Google was first founded and the key activities it undertook in the period 1998 - 2011.
Founded in 1998 by two Stanford University Ph.D students named Larry Page and Sergy Brin, the original focus was indeed on producing a search vehicle for the internet. Page and Brin were themselves brilliant computer engineers and they gradually recruited more very smart people to join them, a process that could drag perspective employees through more than twenty interviews. The growth of the business was built on the back of a focus on volume (gather as much information as possible and build huge capacity by having a massive infrastructure of servers) and exhaustive analysis of the data gathered. The culture of the company was hard working but informal and they believed in experimentation and risk taking - the phrase ready-fire-aim is one that is used to encapsulate their propensity for launching early and for preventing paralysis from the analysis of potential problems.
There are quite a few similarities between Google’s approach to getting things done and the methodology propounded by Facebook and other fast moving tech companies – in essence it amounts to don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good. And this seemed to have worked really well for Google as it quickly expanded from being a leading search company to the dominating force in generating income from advertising too. There’s a reasonable amount of detail here regarding the development of both the search facility and AdWords which, in time, brought in billions of dollars for the company.
There are details of some failures too, most notably Googles attempt to be a serious player in China but also a number of smaller tech companies (mainly start-ups) they acquired who failed to gain the attention or investment that might have made them a success. But as Google grew there were other major successes too, such as: the launch of the Chrome browser, Gmail and Google Maps plus the acquisition and development of Android.
This book ends as Larry Page takes over as CEO, the founders having brought in an experienced executive in Eric Schmidt to head up the company for the previous ten years. I found this account to be a fascinating study of how the daring and brilliance of a couple of bright geeks enabled them to become amongst the most successful (and richest) businessmen in history. It’s an inspiring story which is told in a way that is both easy to understand (for non-techies like me) and riveting in the way I was made to feel a watcher as historically important technical advances were proposed, developed and ultimately brought to market. Highly recommended....more
In 1881 Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, an American with no Arctic experience, led a team of men to explore the upper reaches of Northern Greenland in In 1881 Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, an American with no Arctic experience, led a team of men to explore the upper reaches of Northern Greenland in what became known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. His aims were to record observations relating to branches of physics, meteorology and botany, as part of a more wide reaching plan to establish a ‘girdle’ of stations around the entire Arctic region. Greely also hoped to achieve the accolade of having travelled Farthest North and, if possible, reach the North Pole. It was planned to be a long trip lasting two or more years, with supply ships travelling up to their base to renew provisions on an annual basis.
It’s worth noting that at the time of the trip’s commencement there were still those who believed that beyond the Greenland lay a sea that was a tropical paradise, complete with palm trees. Little, indeed, was known of this area. Greely’s outward journey was difficult enough but he eventually established a base on the Canadian side of the Robeson Channel which he named Fort Conger. From this base he sent out teams to explore regions to the north, east and west. One of his teams did, in fact, reach the most northerly spot yet travelled, in May 1882, and for the most part activities went to plan as a huge amount of data was collected. But problems began when the first supply ship failed to reach them in the Summer of that year – it had to turn back due to the volume of ice blocking the channel. This was compounded in 1883 when the second supply ship became caught up in the ice and sank. As it became clear to Greely that they were not going to receive supplies he decided to close down the camp and head south with his team, hoping that either or both previous re-supply attempts had at least succeeded in offloading caches of food and other essentials at stop off points they’d pass en route - only to find that to a large extent they hadn’t!
The first third of this book deals with the planning for the trip and the period up to Greely’s departure from Fort Conger. It’s interesting enough but really it only serves to pave the way for the horrendous journey they are about to embark on, which takes up the remainder of the book. The sources for this book are many but the largest contributors were Greely himself and members of his team who recorded their own thoughts and accounts in journals that they updated throughout the period. I won’t go into too much detail here as it would spoil it for anyone who is drawn to read this riveting tale, but I will say that the way the story is told ratchets up the tension incrementally as one obstacle after another is thrown at this valiant group. This interpretation of events focuses on the adventure, triumphs and tragedies of the men but also on their unity and brotherhood. It’s a truly exhilarating but heart rending read.
This book certainly puts me in mind of Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage which tracks the the famous British explorer’s exploits in the Antarctic, some thirty years later. Shackleton and Greely faced similar challenges but the outcomes for the two parties vary significantly. I’m hard pressed to state which is the greater book, both are truly enthralling. The bravery and stoicism demonstrated by men on both of these voyages is amazing, and truly humbling.
There is one unfortunate footnote to the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition and it concerns precisely how some of the men managed to survive when the food stock ran down to virtually nothing. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what some of the claims were but, whatever the truth, in his leadership and determination to protect and deliver his team to eventual safety Greely will ever be a true hero in my mind.
I received an advance readers’ edition of this book from St Martin’s Press in return for an honest review....more
I suppose everyone is familiar with DaVinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. It might just be the most famous painting of all time, by anyone. II suppose everyone is familiar with DaVinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. It might just be the most famous painting of all time, by anyone. I once queued up to see it in person, only to discover that I could only view it under the arms of and between the heads of a throng of people who’d beaten me to it. I recall being surprised at how small and how dark it was. I also enjoyed Dan Brown’s conspiracy theory regarding his painting of the Last Supper in his novel The Da Vinci Code, a theory comprehensively debunked in this book. I’d even come across his depiction of The Vitruvian Man, even though I didn’t fully appreciate it’s genesis or significance. So in my mind the great man’s ability to draw and paint was not in doubt, but what of his other gifts? I was less sure of these.
I’d enjoyed the author’s biography of Steve Jobs, a man who he’d spent countless hours with and had also been afforded the opportunity to talk to many of his colleagues and acquaintances. I’d found that Isaacson was able to really bring Jobs to life on the page, but what of a man who’d lived over five hundred years ago, how much could he, could anyone, really know about this man? Well, it turns out that Da Vinci was an incessant note taker, carrying a notebook with him at all times and forever scribbling thoughts, drawing pictures and making ‘to do’ lists. Moreover, over seven thousand pages of these notes still exist to this day! To put this in context, the author points out that this is greater in volume than the total number of emails he and Steve Jobs were able to retrieve to aid the writing of his bio.
Born in 1452, from the start there were a number of things that might have be considered obstructions to his long-term success: he was left-handed, gay, did not receive full formal schooling and had been born illegitimately. What he did have going for him, however, was imagination, perseverance, undying inquisitiveness and startling observational skills. His interests ranged from art to mechanics, mathematics (though he was never to become wholly proficient in this subject), the human body and nature in all its forms. His stance throughout life was not to accept received wisdom but rather to conduct experimentation and observation and then draw his own conclusions. And subsequent study of his notes shows that he had formulated theories and made hugely significant discoveries that were to remain hidden for a hundred years or more as he sadly failed to publish his work. Many of these discoveries were later to be attributed to others who devised their own theories independently many, many years later.
It seems that though he’s best known as a painter he became a reluctant participant in this art as years passed. In fact, there are reportedly only around fifteen paintings have been fully, or mainly, attributed to him. He was a perfectionist who continually worked and re-worked his most famous pieces. His practice was to overlay diluted paint, building up layers until he achieved the desired effect. In fact, he worked on the Mona Lisa for sixteen years and had still not delivered the final version of the painting at the time of his death. His knowledge of optics was way ahead of its time and this meant that he could create effects that were simply not achievable by other artists.
Isaacson’s book is exhaustive in detail and at times exhausting to plough through. I listened to an audio version that ran to over seventeen hours in length and was accompanied by a very informative pdf document of one hundred and eleven pages. The combination of the two actually worked very well and I certainly didn’t feel cheated by not having a full colour hard copy to read through. It’s a comprehensive and thoroughly researched piece of work and though it does lack a little of the closeness to the man embodied in the Jobs book I do feel that I was able to gain a real feeling for Da Vinci and felt a genuine sense of sadness as this account of his life drew to a close....more
I love the whole concept of this book. It’s something I was vaguely aware of but had never attached a label to. Ghost Signs are the evidence a businesI love the whole concept of this book. It’s something I was vaguely aware of but had never attached a label to. Ghost Signs are the evidence a business leaves behind when it’s no longer there. Or to be more specific, it’s the sign displaying the name of the company and sometimes additional details of the enterprise. I’ve seen these locally, I’ve even worked in buildings where this has happened: old bank branches that are now shops or coffee houses. The signs may be carved into stone (as was often the case with old bank buildings in the UK – and similar to the Bowery Savings Bank featured in this book) or, more simply, a name painted directly on a wall adjacent to or above the business premises. Some are small and others cover vast areas of space. A number are barely visible and a few are are pretty well tucked away in dingy corners or below street level.
This book looks at Ghost Signs specifically in Manhattan. In fact, it doesn’t just look at the signs – and supply terrific photographs of the same – it also provides a potted history of each business featured. There’s some brilliant trivia too, interesting facts connecting some of the businesses with specific figures or events. And the book goes further, it sets the scene by running through what amounts to a history of the various neighbourhoods of New York, explaining how each district inherited its name and the way in which they have subsequently evolved. It’s an intriguing way of learning about the city.
I’ve got a few favourites here and they include a tiny sign on Seventh Avenue South on a spot where a five story building called the Voorhis once stood. After being purchased by the city and demolished, in the early 1900’s, it was later discovered that a minuscule triangle of land had been missed in the city survey. The family declined to donate this piece of land to the city and instead installed a sign which says ‘Property of the Hess Estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes’. I also loved some of the signs featuring neon tubing, such as the Rocco Restaurant sign in Greenwich Village, which has been repurposed to advertise a new eatery with a different name, though you can still clearly see the the chipped and peeling evidence of the old name below.
What a great hobby. I know I’ll be looking out for ghost signs wherever I go now and I might even photograph them to start my own collection. I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s essentially a browser but I read the whole thing through in a couple of days, I was absolutely hooked from the start.
My sincere thanks to Schaffer Publishing Limited and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ...more
It’s true that to see, in real life, many of the wonders featured in this book a degree of neck contortion is required. I’ve visited a number of the bIt’s true that to see, in real life, many of the wonders featured in this book a degree of neck contortion is required. I’ve visited a number of the buildings featured here and to appreciate the most dramatic element on show you have to look up. Unfortunately, on at least a couple of occasions I seem to have, at least partially, missed out. At the Sistine Chapel in Rome the ceiling is so high I found it hard to fully appreciate the detail of the amazing paintings (and note that anyone trying to take a photograph was immediately ushered out) and at the Sangrada Familia in Barcelona ongoing construction work partially obscured efforts to fully admire the amazing work above. But in this book the superbly detailed photographs fully display the staggering beauty on show in these buildings and in a wide range of others across the world.
The photographs are amazing, both the large overviews and the detailed breakdowns. Colours are vividly captured and the overall result is, at times, mind blowing. It definitely inspired a desire in me to visit more of these sites at some point. My favourites include the subterranean art displayed across the walls and ceilings in Stockholm’s Metro Stations and the ceramic tiles covering virtually every surface in the Imam Mosque at Asafan, Iran. Many of the images included in this book have a religious context, but some scenes are political in nature and others are hard to categorise. An informative text accompanies each. I was viewing an electronic version but I’d imagine a hard copy of this book would be a wonderful item to own and peruse at your leisure.
My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review....more
As I write this, it’s a little over three years since Cameron resigned as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister. Having led the campaign to remain in thAs I write this, it’s a little over three years since Cameron resigned as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister. Having led the campaign to remain in the European Union, indeed having been responsible for allowing a referendum on the issue in the first place, it was always going to end in tears for him personally if the vote was lost. I’ve always thought him a decent man and really wanted to know more of his story. Also, as it’s the way of most political memoirs to dish the dirt somewhat, I wanted to know what he really thought of the people around him during this pivotal period.
I knew of his posh boy image, but I hadn’t quite realised quite how privileged a childhood he’d had. Old money, boarding school at aged 7, Eton College and Oxford University – well, it doesn’t get much more establishment than that! Throw in links to the Royal Family, and here you have someone who’s been given every opportunity to succeed. And very soon, armed with a first-class honours degree (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), he was on his way.
There’s a little bit here on his upbringing, education, and early career steps, but the majority of the text centres on his time as leader of the Conservative Party and his six years as PM. The tenor of the book is largely formal and factual, and there’s sadly very little time for gossip or name calling. In fact, it all sometimes feels uncomfortably like a presentation or a speech. There are, though, a few occasions where a sense of humour shyly shows its head – I listened to an audio version read by Cameron himself and his gift for mimicry and grasp of regional accents really surprised me. There was, too, a section on the death of his young son, which was truly, heartbreakingly sad.
I’d expected his account of his years ‘in power’ to be largely self justifying and, to a significant extent that’s exactly what I found. He provides lengthy pronouncements on problems he inherited from a Labour government and protracted explanations of the actions he took in an effort to redress these issues. Where any doubt exists as to whether a decision he took or action he sanctioned was, in fact, beneficial for the nation he breaks down his thought process in some detail, listing why he chose a particular course of action and what other other options he considered. I confess that these sections tended to feel clunky and somewhat tedious.
Though he does point out instances where he feels he erred during his time in office, he certainly details what he considers to be his major achievements exhaustively. He also makes it clear who he thinks is principally responsible for these achievements – the words I ordered, I said and I did crop up continually. He confesses that he’s a ‘head under the car bonnet’ kind of guy, and he definitely doesn’t scrimp on the detail. In fact, one point that was driven home to me was just how much detailed knowledge a PM is required to absorb on such a huge range of issues - it really does seem truly mind-blowing and it's clearly not a job for anyone who values seven or eight hours sleep every night.
This is a large book, over seven hundred pages or thirty hours of audio, and a basic knowledge of macroeconomics is useful if you are to fully understand some of Cameron’s more detailed points. But on the whole, this is an easy to follow and highly interesting account of a key time in the UK's history. I know it’s just one man’s view of what happened through this period, but it’s an intriguing perspective all the same....more
I’ve always admired Lynch’s work, I remember being awed, surprised, and sometimes shocked by his early films: The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Wild aI’ve always admired Lynch’s work, I remember being awed, surprised, and sometimes shocked by his early films: The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. And his somewhat surreal television series Twin Peaks was so different to anything else I’d seen (perhaps anyone had seen) before. But I’d lost track of where his career had taken him since, so I saw this book as a welcome opportunity to learn more about the man and catch up on what he’d been up to before and since I’d briefly tuned into him.
It’s a biography but, unsurprisingly, structured unconventionally. In alternating sections, his story is told by a writer, Kristine McKenna, and Lynch himself, who adds some colour to the same time period through a series of reflections and anecdotes. I purchased an audio copy, and it’s narrated by the authors. McKenna’s sections are a little dry in places but very informative – she’d interviewed over one hundred of Lynch’s friends, family, and acquaintances to compile her material. Her voice is somewhat lacking in personality, but I did warm to her as I made my way through the book, and some humour started to peep through. Lynch, on the other hand, has a voice that is both soft and sincere, his slowly lilting diction immediately making me feel at home with him; I liked him immediately, just based on how he spoke!
A few things come across very clearly:
- Lynch is a born artist, a painter, photographer, film director, script writer, and songwriter. And no doubt a few more I’ve neglected to list. - He’s a worker. No, he’s actually a workaholic. - He likes people, and people really like him. But he’s not good at balancing his work and home life – he’s worked his way through quite a few wives. - He’s into transcendental meditation in a very big way.
I was really sad to finish this one, I could happily have listened to Lynch, in particular, for endless hours. If you are interested in filmmaking or if you just enjoy biographies, I’d suggest this is a book you should not miss....more
Paul Theroux is often lauded as potentially the greatest travel writer of his generation and with this book he shows that his power remains undiminishPaul Theroux is often lauded as potentially the greatest travel writer of his generation and with this book he shows that his power remains undiminished.
Mexico is a big country, something like eight times the size of the United Kingdom, and yet its population is only about twice that of the UK. It’s ethnically diverse with just over half of its people identifying themselves as mixed race. It’s rich in natural resources, but its wealth is unevenly distributed, with the top ten percent of the population hogging nearly half of the income and (according to Wikipedia) a third the countries inhabitants are forced to get by on less that $5 per day. And the principle message I get from television and radio is that Mexicans are permanently queued up at it’s border attempting to bust, sneak or climb their way into the promised land that lies to the north. It’s the message that Trump has been blasting out, the ‘build the wall’ mantra he’s been been espousing for years, that appears to have been Theroux’s prompt to explore this land. What’s life really like on the other side of the fence?
Our intrepid traveller sets out a plan to drive along the American side of the border, from San Ysidro in the West to Brownsville in the East, slipping over into Mexico at every crossing opportunity to visit border towns and talk to people on both sides of the divide. Once this exercise has been completed he will head south and drive the length of the country. As always happens when I join him on his journeys, it becomes obvious from the start that he will meet interesting people, unearth thought provoking facts and stimulate a desire in me to step out of my own comfort zone and explore some of the more interesting regions of this big wide world we live in.
Theroux’s border exploration certainly threw up a few early eye opening surprises for me:
- His experience suggests that gringos (particularly those of advanced years – he’s now in his mid to late seventies) are treated with a good deal of respect in Mexico. This contrasts starkly with how Trump and his crew paint the average Mexican and therefore the way in which many who have made the journey in the opposite direction are treated or perceived.
- People living in the border towns in both countries tend to laugh at the idea of building a bigger, better wall: the standard retort being along the lines of if you big a bigger wall they’ll just find a longer ladder.
- The border is certainly very porous, though significantly less so since 911. It’s also clear that there is a ready market for crossings driven partly from people coming into Mexico and travelling north from violent Central American countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Also, increasingly many from Africa, India and Pakistan fly into Mexico and attempt to cross the border into America. There is a steady market for professional criminals (coyotes) who charge hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of dollars to transport these people across the border. But more than this, it’s clear that thousands of Mexicans make the journey across the border daily, quite legally, to work and then return to their homes at the end of their labours. In this sense the border felt to Theroux more like a blur than a clean straight line.
- In Theroux’s earlier book Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads he talked about the loss of manufacturing jobs to factories being set up in Mexico, but what I hadn’t realised is that many of these these are sited literally a stone's throw from the border itself, clearly visible from the American side. Mexicans working in these factories can typically work a ten-hour shift for an average pay of $6.
After completing the border section of his journey he heads south from Reynosa, heeding the many warnings he’s received from both his fellow countrymen and most of the Mexicans he’s met along the way; primarily the advice he received consisted of an instruction not to travel at night and to make sure that his car his was safely protected while he slept. As I read this account of his journey, the people he met and the conversations he had with them, I felt a mixture of envy at the adventurousness of it all mixed in with a pang of anxiety for Theroux’s wellbeing – it’s clear he was taking some risks, certainly more risks than I’d have entertained. On one occasion early on he explored the red light area of a town with the help of a local driver who was clearly reluctant to enter this dingy, threatening neighbourhood, even during daylight hours.
From the start, the author had heard talk of how the cartel gangs fought with each other over territory, how these gangs were often in cahoots with the police and that random kidnappings and murders were common place. In the town of San Luis Potosí he came across a demonstration concerning the kidnap and likely murder of forty-three students a few years earlier, most of the bodies never found. This is the dark side of Mexico. In fact, as he approached Mexico City, Theroux had two run-ins with the police, both as a result of minor (or perceived) traffic violations. In both instances the police officer aggressively demanded money (between $250-$300) or he’d have his car impounded. He was later to experience this again and learn that these shakedowns are routine in a country where corruption amongst the police, local authorities and the government is rife. In fact, it’s a commonly held belief that there is no separation between the police, the military and the narcos. On the flip side, he was to find, particularly amongst uncomplaining people who had the very least, a generosity and kindness of spirit that was restorative.
Through his journey, Theroux describes the what he sees and the places he visits, drops in a little history here and there, ruminates on Mexico’s art and culture and provides a regular dose of interesting and amusing anecdotes. He’s a chatty fellow and he clearly speaks passable Spanish, so he mixes readily with the locals and is able to provide a sense of their perspective on life in this country with its many challenges and significant perils. But he also sees that there is an appreciable upside of living in a place where, for the most part, family is sacrosanct and the old ways are still valued and preserved, particularly in the poorer towns and villages.
In fact, as he travels south, beyond Mexico City, he points out that though the north lies in the shadow of America, teased by its rich neighbour, the south is a place apart, the poorest part of the country. And his experiences confirm a phrase he’d come across before - the past of a place survives in its poor. He’d taught a class to a group of eager writers for ten days in Mexico City and now he’d booked himself in as a student to buff up his own Spanish during a three-week spell at a school in Oaxaca. In the final sections he heads further south still, increasingly delving into the history and culture of this land.
I most enjoyed Theroux’s accounts of the travel itself, talking to people he met along the way, the accounts of his small adventures and his honesty regarding the worries and insecurities he experienced as he travelled. His awe at the dramatic landscapes is obvious as is his displeasure at the ugly urban sprawl that is an ingredient of just about every city he passed through. But above all it’s the overpowering feeling of discovery that shines through. How brave of him to take on such a massive and hazardous trip at an age many are lighting the fire, pulling up the comfy chair and donning the slippers. He’s an intelligent and insightful companion and I’d urge anyone who has an interest in travel to grab a copy of this book – I found it truly inspirational.
My sincere thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review....more
I was a big Bowie fan back in the early seventies, a time when I was in my teens and he was releasing what to me remain his most iconic albums: Hunky I was a big Bowie fan back in the early seventies, a time when I was in my teens and he was releasing what to me remain his most iconic albums: Hunky Dory & Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. He was fresh, his voice just a little off and his lyrics somewhat strange but always conveying a story. I wasn’t quite so enamoured with the albums that followed but in 1983 he released Let’s Dance in which a re-invented Bowie produced a collection of tracks that everyone I knew loved and played to death. And he would, of course, continue to re-invent himself, as he always had – often when I wasn’t watching.
But what of the man? I knew surprisingly little of him really, and I certainly hadn’t perceived him to be a voracious reader. I suppose his lyrics had to come from somewhere; something had to be feeding his mind, planting seeds for the many varied stories he told in his songs. Bowie is described an an autodidact, who struggled with formal education but spent a lifetime self-educating. So it turns out he was a huge reader, reading constantly including sometimes from a library of circa 1500 books he often carted around with him when he travelled. This book provides a list of the one hundred books he considered most important and influential (note – these are not necessarily the books he most enjoyed).
There’s a real mix here. I recognised quite a few but there are only two books (plus one magazine and one comic) that I can actually claim to have read. There are about half a dozen books I’ve sometimes planned to read but haven’t gotten around to yet (by authors such as Hitchens, Martin Amis, DeLillo and Capote), quite a few I really don’t fancy and a fair few more I’d never heard of. There’s a good sprinkling of science fiction, a little philosophy, some poetry and much of the rest is an eclectic mix of the avant-garde and the obscure. Getting on for a third of the books were written before he was born.
The author tries to explain in what way each book was significant for Bowie, what he took from it or how his discovery of the text tied in to a particular song he wrote (for example the phrase homo superior in ‘Oh! You Pretty Thing’ was scavenged from Olaf Stapledon’s science fiction novel Odd John). There’s also a thread of autobiographical commentary running through the piece, so we learn quite a bit about Bowie’s development as a person and as an artist as we make our way through the list of books. In fact, I found one if the most interesting elements to be how the books seemed to help shape the man and that the changes wrought duly steered him towards an ever more off-centre collection of books.
I didn’t find myself wishing to rush out and grab many titles listed here but I did find it a fascinating study of this chameleon of a man.
My sincere thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc & NetGalley for supplying an early copy of the book in exchange for an honest review....more
I’m always somewhat sceptical about books written by investigative journalists concerning political figures, particularly when they don’t feature convI’m always somewhat sceptical about books written by investigative journalists concerning political figures, particularly when they don’t feature conversations carried out directly with the politician himself or herself. What’s the agenda here and what are the political inclinations of the journalist? But this book is penned by Bob Woodward, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was at the centre of the Nixon Watergate exposure. Surely Bob wouldn’t make it up – would he? And the blurb with this book claims that he draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with first-hand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. Ok, that sound pretty authoritative. The focus here is on how Trump makes decisions on major domestic and foreign policies and on the relationships he has with his senior team. It’s explosive stuff.
Without straying into the detail of the text I’ll summarise my take:
- Trump comes across as a fly-by-the–seat-of-his-pants operator. His mind flip-flops from one topic to another seemingly at random. He’s obsessed with news coverage, especially when it directly involves him. He’s hot-headed, knee-jerk in his decision making and is over influenced by members of his family, notably his daughter and son-in-law. He often (maybe usually) makes important decisions without heeding the advice of his team and then proceeds to announce the outcome via Twitter, which might be the first his team get to hear of it.
I suppose little or none of this comes as a surprise – it’s exactly what I would have expected, based solely on what I’ve previously read about the man or witnessed via news coverage.
- Woodward paints a picture of a man with narrow and outdated views, someone who is living in the past when it comes to issues such as the country’s switch from it’s historical position as a manufacturing giant to a much more service focused economy. He has a black and white protectionist view - if he doesn’t feel that it helps America then he’s against it. And he’s a hard man to move because his attention span is short and he refuses to listen to detailed presentations or read briefing papers. He’s pretty much all about the money, no matter what the issue. The result is that his policies are often contradictory and ever changing
Is this the sort of person you’d want leading your country, particularly given the degree of executive power he’s able to exert when compared to, say, a British Prime Minister? The scariest example of his do-it-all-yourself approach is the escalating series of Tweets he directed to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un concerning the size of the ‘red button’ on their respective desks. World War 3? Yeah, we’ll have some of that if you keep rattling my cage!
- So what of his man management skills? Well, what man management skills! He’s a hirer and firer of epic proportions. The hiring seems to be done on gut-feel and the firing is almost always down to differing views on something – i.e. Trump doesn’t work with anyone for long if they don’t share his views on what needs to be done. He’s direct, rude and profane. He’s a classic narcissist and is totally lacking in empathy and sympathy.
Ok, so he’s a tough guy to work with, does this make him a bad leader? I think the answer is yes, if he refuses to listen and won’t change his views no matter what the advice is or the strength of evidence to support that advice.
I kept thinking that there must be an upside to Trump, that as a change agent he might just be the right man to bulldoze through the major initiatives that are needed, to be the leader that will make things happen. But there’s little evidence as yet that he’s able to achieve this as there has been only one significant legislative change thus far under his leadership, that being on on tax reform (as at the date of publication of this book, September 2018). Maybe he’ll yet surprise his detractors and pull something out of the bag, but I fear the odds are against it.
On the evidence of this book, Trump is a simple man – a bully and a liar – who has somehow found himself in a position of incredible power. Will he use it or abuse it? Time will tell, but I know on which side of the fence I currently sit....more
Ever since I read Stephen King’s book Joyland, set in a 1970’s amusement park, I seem to be drawn to anything relating to American Carnivals. In the Ever since I read Stephen King’s book Joyland, set in a 1970’s amusement park, I seem to be drawn to anything relating to American Carnivals. In the UK we had (and still have, to some extent) the travelling fairground and I suppose it had its own attractions, but the ones of my memory were always sleazy and felt slightly dangerous. The American version stimulates thoughts of romance and glamour – at least from afar. So grabbing a look at this book with its many photos of people and rides and all that jazz was a complete no brainer for me.
The pictures were taken between 2010 - 2015, with just a few from the seventies thrown in for good measure. And to my eyes David Skernick has nailed it here. The first thing that leaps off the page is the colour. Nearly all the pictures are big and bold with primary colours blazing away at you. There’s loads of eye catching yellow and skies that are a deep, brooding blue or even jet black. The images assault your senses as your eyes fight for somewhere to focus. There’s movement here too – loads of movement – with blurred images of people flying around on rides called The Fighter and Orbiter and Zipper. Then there’s the people: the clowns, the sword swallower and the Iguana guy, all with faces seemingly carved from years of focus and effort, and maybe boredom too. But my favourite photos featured the stalls advertising the grotesques: The Headless Girl, 3 Eyed Bill, 2 Headed Racoon and others.
This is a book full of fun, excitement and, probably for many, fond memories of visits to the County Fair. I absolutely love it.
My sincere thanks to Schiffer Publishing Limited and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. More information on the book can be found via the link below.
As the Brexit debate continues to rage across Great Britain, I thought it a good time to refresh my knowledge (and memory) of the key events impactingAs the Brexit debate continues to rage across Great Britain, I thought it a good time to refresh my knowledge (and memory) of the key events impacting my homeland throughout, and just prior to, my lifetime. Andrew Marr is a political commentator I’ve always much admired and I’d caught the tail end of the BBC serialisation of this book when it was aired in 2007, always thereafter wishing that I’d tuned in from the beginning. The book picks up events from the end of World War II in Europe and takes us through to the end of Tony Blair’s reign as Prime Minister.
There’s quite a bit of politics here, as you might expect, but plenty of other topics are covered too, including: fashion, sport, music, scientific discoveries and much more. The first thing that struck me is just how much changed in such a relatively short space of time. In the 1940’s GB was in a terrible state, having hocked ourselves up to the eyeballs to finance the war effort; rationing wasn’t to end until 1954, not long before I was born! People were in the mood for something new, and this eventually heralded the hedonism of the Swinging Sixties. The seventies were a time I do remember but it’s sobering to realise that many of the major world events simply passed me by, so focussed was I on my own small world. In the eighties and nineties, I do recall being a bit more tuned in to what was going on around me, but not fully so, and certainly not into the political shenanigans of the day. That said, I was aware of Thatcher and the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentinian troops and the subsequent short war was probably the first time I paid close attention to the evening news bulletins.
Beyond this, the events covered in this book feel a little more familiar but there’s still quite a few political connections I’d missed and lots of detail that was new to me. It’s not a book that seeks to delve in the minutiae, rather it provides an overview and a context for the events and cultural changes of the day. I found it completely fascinating and brilliantly observed by Marr.
The final thing that struck me is just how much has changed since this book was published. The financial crash of 2008 came just after and much has changed in Britain and across the world since. When my son, currently aged 22, looks back on the first 60 years of his life will he be as surprised as I am at the rate of change (I was tempted to say ‘progress’ but I’m not sure that’s necessarily the right word)? Time, as they say, will tell....more
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