August in books

Devoted in Death (J.D. Robb, 2015)

Lt. Eve Dallas comes crashing back to reality when her first day back from holiday finds her standing in a freezing cold alley, over the tortured and murdered body of a much-loved musician. Carefully etched into his body are the letters 'D' and 'E' inside a heart. She soon realises that his murder is part of something much bigger and much worse, and the race is on to find and stop the star-crossed lovers and their sadistic games before their body count gets much higher.

Five stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Brotherhood in Death (J.D. Robb, February 2016)

Lt. Eve Dallas is pleasantly surprised to find herself heading home early and without an ongoing case. And then she is intercepted by the department's top profiler, and her close friend, Dr. Charlotte Mira. Mira's husband, Dennis, found his cousin, Senator Edward Mira, badly beaten in their late grandfather's house. The next thing Dennis remembers is waking up on the floor, with a bump on his head and Edward gone, along with any evidence he was ever there. Eve's latest case leads her to a secret brotherhood, as its other members follow Edward's fate.

Five stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Countenance Divine (Michael Hughes, August 2016)

In 1999, a computer programmer, Chris, is trying to fix the Millennium Bug while also trying to figure out himself and his colleague Lucy, who is working on a mysterious art project. In 1888, Jack the Ripper stalks the back alleys of London, following the instructions of his master. In 1777, William Blake, poet and engraver, has a spiritual vision, and believes that he can resurrect Milton. In 1666, John Milton finishes reciting his epic, by which he will be remembered forever, but the air is thick with Popish plots and Restoration fears, not to mention the smoke from the Great Fire of London.

Five stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Tell My Dad (Ram Muthiah, June 2016)

FBI agent Joshua Theaker is tasked with finding a murderer. This murderer has a specific pattern: he kills paedophiles shortly after they have abducted a child, unties the child and makes sure that they are safe, then calls 911 and leaves, but not before writing the message "Stay away".

Four stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Last Days of Night (Graham Moore, September 2016)

May 11th 1888 is a tasking day for 26 year-old lawyer, fresh out of law school, Paul Cravath. First he witnesses a man burn alive in the sky above Broadway, a workman trying to untangle the new electrical wires from the old telegraph wires, then he receives a telegram from Thomas Edison. Edison has won the race to the patent office for the lightbulb, and is now suing his only remaining rival, George Westinghouse, Paul's first and only client, for one billion dollars. It only takes that first meeting with Edison for Paul to realise that he is out of his depth. However, there is one thing which Paul shares with Edison: a compulsion to win at all costs.

Five stars. BOOK OF THE MONTH. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Metamorphoses Ovid translated by Arthur Golding, 1567)

Metamorphoses (from Greek μετά meta and μορφή morphē, meaning "changes of shape"), is a Latin narrative poem in fifteen books describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. It was described by Ezra Pound as "The most beautiful book in the English language."

Five stars.

An Unsafe Haven (Nada Awar Jarrar, August 2016)

Set in contemporary Beirut, An Unsafe Haven focuses on a small group of friends. Hannah, a journalist, grew up in Beirut, where she now lives with her husband Peter, an American doctor whose marriage to Hannah, as a woman, hasn't given him citizenship and therefore he is unable to practice medicine. Maysoun works for Red Cross and moved to Beirut from Baghdad, where her mother still lives, to escape the conflict. Anas, his German wife Brigitte, and their two children live in Damascus, but Anas is visiting Beirut for the opening of his new exhibition. They live closer to the conflict than the rest of the characters, and Brigitte has accused Anas of being willing to endanger the lives of their children, in order to maintain the illusion of Syria as home.

Four stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language (David Crystal, 1988)

The definitive survey of English in all its global variations. Despite the astonishingly widespread use of English, each speaker makes it his own. Whenever we write or speak we give away a great deal about ourselves by our choices in pronunciation, dialect, vocabulary and grammar. This fascinating book explores the way the language has developed, and examines the factors that unify it and the variations that divide it both nationwide and worldwide.

Four stars.

Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe, 1592)

The tale of a learned German doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. There are florid visions of an enraged Lucifer, duelling angels, the Seven Deadly Sins, Faustus tormenting the Pope, and his summoning of the spirit of Alexander the Great. But Marlowe created equally powerful scenes that invest the work with tragic dignity, among them the doomed man's calling upon Christ to save him and his ultimate rejection of salvation for the embrace of Helen of Troy.

Four stars.

Purity (Jonathan Franzen, 2015)

Purity switches between the stories of several characters, whose lives overlap so that the more you read the clearer the overall picture becomes. Purity "Pip" Tyler, cynical and untrusting, stuck in a dead-end job and laden with student debt, knows nothing about her parents except that her mother's name, Penelope Tyler, isn't real. Desperate to find out who her father is, Pip accepts a job offer from Andreas Wolf, the charismatic founder of a WikiLeaks-type organisation, The Sunlight Project, who grew up in East Germany with a less-than-normal childhood. But Wolf, ironically, has secrets of his own, which involve a Denver journalist Tom Aberant. Tom, who, after a distastrous marriage, is in a relationship with fellow journalist Leila Helou, who is still married to an ageing novelist.

Four stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Knight of the Burning Pestle: Francis Beaumont (Francis Beaumont, 1607)

Three lines into the play, two outspoken audience members hijack the play and demand a new one, also demanding that the actors incorporate their apprentice, Rafe, into the case. What follows is an absolutely hysterical and absurd forced collaboration of the "old, original" play and the "new one" featuring a grocer turned errant knight.

Four stars.

Total Chaos (Jean-Claude Izzo, 1995)

Fabio is walking through the streets of Marseilles with his cousin when two fourteen year-old lads pick a fight with him. They are pulled apart by a stranger. Fabio starts a new school in September, and on the first day the same two lads, Ugo and Manu, walk up to him and shake his hand. They become inseperable, until one day Fabio has a change of heart and leaves a life of crime behind to become a cop. Years later he finds himself standing over the body of Ugo, shot dead by police after gunning down the man who killed Manu. Fabio is the last one left.

Three stars. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...