Reviews and Comments

The descriptions of lives and particularly deaths of the people in the area, now Belarus, at the time of WW2 make grim reading. In some respects the events of the time have kept the people in a mediaeval existence today, while, for example the people of Poland, just across the river have moved on. The character of Andrusha Sawoniuk reminded me of the chapter "Petty Tyrants and Psychopaths" in Corruptible I did find the details of the cross examinations and legal wrangles a bit too detailed, and it could have been edited down without losing much.

An excellent read to explain how in some situations power is abused if it gets into the wrong hands.

Features the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh at the time of its creation.

Espionage fiction, with more realism than most. I have enjoyed others in the series.

The original events took place in a part of the world which was troubled then, and still is today, while the modern narrative concerns justice and the legal process, so it should be an interesting, if disturbing, read.

It is interesting to consider the two preachers, Rachel in the Pantanal and Father Phil in the Trinity Church in St Michaels

Looking forward to Fire Court - the next in the series

Set in a period of English history I do not know much about, and I find historical detective fiction is a good route to learn about life in other times and places

Like many of Grisham's books the central character is s lawyer who is keen to leave the legal profession - none of them seem to have considered the option of becoming a writer of courtroom dramas as an alternative career !

This book, written by an expert on infectious diseases, starts with a description of his inadvertent release of a piece of misinformation on Twitter, and the following chapters describe how ideas, as well as germs, spread or not.

This was in the days when every domain on the Internet could be published in an Appendix in a book

A classic of Software Engineering, with clear explanations of the thought process behind the design from pioneering programmers. Read many years ago, and the principles behind it have stood the test of time well.

Interested to read his view on what happened to the place of truth in politics.

Loved What If? and was delighted to be given a signed copy of What If? 2 for Christmas.

I found the similarities between the cotton farming community and the Lewis Islanders of The Lewis Trilogy were interesting. Both are economically living on the edge, working extremely hard just to survive. A strongly fundamentalist church plays a strong part in people's lives, on the Sabbath at least.