by Thomas Mann A Review 'Cases of recovery were rare; eighty out of a hundred of those infected died, and in a horrid way, for the disease struck with savagery and often presented itself as the most severe "dry form".' Usually regarded by scholars and critics as a novella, Death in Venice has the characteristics …
Author: Andrew G Lockhart
My name is Andrew Lockhart and I grew up in Coatbridge, Scotland. I studied at Glasgow University. After spending three decades in planning, statistics and international sales and marketing, I am now an author, family historian and owner of Magda Green Books. Apart from writing (and reading great books) and blogging, my other interests are science, music of all sorts, and traveling the world.
Homo Deus
A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari WARNING! - This book contains spoilers - spoilers of liberal humanism, and possibly of the whole human experience. 'People are usually afraid of change because they fear the unknown. But the single greatest constant of history is that everything changes.' Harari's earlier book Sapiens challenged us …
Sapiens
A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 'We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology.' Around two-and-a-half million years ago in the course of evolutionary history, something remarkable happened, something with stupendous consequences for this planet on which we all live. A quite unremarkable ape-like creature …
Bookheathen Interview – M.M. Holaday
I'm pleased to welcome to by blog M.M. Holaday, author of The Open Road, to be published this week by Five Star, a division of Cengage Learning. M.M.Holaday (Nan to her friends) is a former reference and rare book librarian, and The Open Road is her debut work of fiction. The Open Road is a …
Strangers
異人たちとの夏 by Taichi Yamada 'With lips locked, we fell to the tatami and quickly forgot the arietta. Later that same evening, everything came to an end.' Strangers is a teasing, creepy ghost story from Japan. I think the original title means something like 'the summer of the strange people' - I do hope I've got …
Not all universes are the same (3)
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman "While the beasts of prey, Come from caverns deep, View'd the maid asleep." These three lines by William Blake from his poem The Little Girl Lost preface the first chapter of The Amber Spyglass, the final volume of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Aficiandos of Blake will know …
Not all universes are the same (2)
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman The Subtle Knife is the second book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. At the end of Northern Lights, we left Lyra on the bridge from her universe to another. Now the author leaves us in suspense to introduce a new protagonist. Will Parry is a twelve-year-old boy …
Not all universes are the same (1)
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman ‘Lyra looked, and there was no mistake. Pantalaimon clutched at her, became a wildcat, hissed in hatred, because looking out with curiosity was the beautiful dark-haired head of Mrs Coulter, with her golden daemon on her lap.’ The main protagonist in Northern Lights is Lyra, a twelve-year-old girl who lives …
All About Dust
Browsing in the local Waterstone's bookstore today [which I often do on Friday afternoons], I was delighted to see they are already promoting Philip Pullman's new work, to be published on October 19th. Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, was a sensation when it was originally published in the late nineties. Its controversial subject matter raised …
The Politics of Hate
The Unknown Soldier by Gerald Seymour I don't usually do politics on this site. However, in writing about this book, politics are bound to come into the article somewhere. Though I have never read any of Gerald Seymour's books until now, I do remember him as a roving journalist for Independent Television. He often reported …
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