Sunday, October 31, 2010

Summer Reading List

Well, for some of you October 31 means Hallowe'en, but for me (and most other students in Australia) it means exam crunch time. So unfortunately its time to take a hiatus from reading enjoyable literature and start reading and re-reading boring, uninteresting lecture notes.

Just to keep you interested, here's a non-exhaustive list of what I intend to read this summer. Some of these are new reads, some are favourites that are needing some TLC. Making this list gives me something to look forward to doing in all that free time that used to be taken up with procrastination study :)

Mary Queen of Scots - Antonia Fraser
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
The Red Queen/The White Queen - Philippa Gregory
The Namesake - Jhumpi Lahiri
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
Watership Down - Richard Adams

Hope all of you out there are finding exam preparation bearable - just hold out for summer!!! And if you're in the northern hemisphere, I hope you have a great holiday season! See you in a few weeks!

xx

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Virgin's Lover - Philippa Gregory (2004)

The Virgin’s Lover is the third in a series of books about the Tudor monarchs. It follows on from the success of Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl detailing the relationship between Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary. This novel deals Anne’s daughter Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen and her eponymous lover Robert Dudley. Breaking away from the classroom history lesson, Gregory delivers a story filled with real characters and a vivid insight into 16th century politics.

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance/Politics

Synopsis:
The year is 1558 and twenty-five year old Elizabeth I has been crowned Queen of England. For her, this is the fruit of years of uncertainty and neglect and her moment to finally rise to glory. For her followers it is their chance to redeem themselves after the persecution of the old queen. Among them is Robert Dudley, son of a disgraced courtier. Dudley is handsome, captivating, sexually alluring to the young Queen…and married.

In the countryside, Dudley’s wife Amy awaits him with all the love and adoration of a newly married bride. She desires above all a quiet country life with him as her constant companion. Far from returning her love, Dudley soon begins to see her as a nuisance and burden. As his intimacy with the Queen grows, he begins to dream about the ultimate prize – being the husband of Elizabeth and King of England.

Review:
Everyone learns about Elizabeth I at school, but what we don’t learn is the person behind the name. Philippa Gregory brings the queen to life, and brings a whole host of interesting characters along with her. The Virgin’s Lover is definitely not a history book, although the main characters are all real. It is a re-imagining of a time long past, building a rich background to fit the facts.

The characterization throughout is splendid – Gregory shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of all her players. Elizabeth is a complicated mix of naivety, ruthlessness, youth and political animal. She is realistically shown as being torn between her love for an unsuitable man, and her destiny to be a powerful Queen. By far, she is the most fascinating character in the book. Her rival Amy Dudley comes in a poor second. Although the loving yet betrayed wife should get some automatic sympathy, Amy becomes more irritating as the story progresses. This is partly due to her constant bewailing and partly because the reader wishes she would eventually punch her unfaithful husband in the face.

The Virgin’s Lover has a great political edge to it. The time spent on Amy’s perspective can feel dragged on due to the lack of action. However, the action occurring back at court is so fraught with sexual and political tension that the reader is compelled to keep reading on. This book is especially interesting when you consider that Elizabethan England was still very much a man’s world, and the new queen was constantly threatened by opposing political factions. At the centre of the story is the question of her marriage – who will be her consort and the ‘real’ ruler of England?

Although much more can be said about this book, the real point of the review is to rank its readability. I would say this is a must-read if you already enjoy politics and/or history. Be warned though, this is not a textbook (there are multiple historical inaccuracies that the author has ignored in order to create a more interesting story). If not, this may not be the book for you. It does have a crime/suspense element to it, but I feel that some people may find it daunting and arduous to complete. And if you enjoy this one – check out the rest of the Tudor series at http://www.philippagregory.com/work/tudor/
x

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Temple - Matthew Reilly (1999)


Author Matthew Reilly is a homegrown Australian who couldn’t catch a break with publishing his first novel Contest at age 19. He took a gamble and self-published it – and man, did it pay off! Now, Reilly has more than ten novels under his belt and movie deals in the works. Temple is one, if not the best, of the bunch. My boyfriend handed me this book with the surety that it would not appeal to a feminine person such as myself. Well the joke’s on him! Turns out archaelogy, science fiction, military and a large helping of gore are just my cup to tea…

Genre:            Science Fiction/Techno-Thriller/Historical Fiction

Synopsis:
Mild-mannered professor of languages, William Race, gets made an offer he can’t refuse when the US Army comes knocking at his door. He is given the chance to translate an ancient and zealously guarded text that tells the location of an Incan temple. Within that temple is an ancient idol with the potential destructive power of a thousand nuclear weapons. The Army wants that idol very badly. Unfortunately, they aren’t the only ones after it.

Race is drawn into the story of the Incan prince Renco and his mission to protect the mighty idol from the Spanish Conquistadors. As the situation in Peru becomes more and more dangerous, Race must rely on Renco’s story in order to survive. Surrounded by enemies who want the idol for their own purposes, Race must cast off the professor and become the unlikely hero.

Review:
If a book could be a person, this one would be Indiana Jones but with the Terminator’s arsenal of weapons. Although well written, Temple is hardly high literature. It has a boyish, video game feel to it that makes it incredibly entertaining but not incredibly satisfying. In fact, I could easily see this becoming a successful box office hit à la Raiders of the Lost Ark. Reilly tries hard to make the characters multi-faceted and dynamic, but doesn’t approach the fluidity and realism of Dan Brown (whose character Robert Langdon is a near-composite of William Race, although Temple precedes Angels and Demons). Reilly also links the past and present to make a parallel between the modern professor and the Incan prince. At times, the intense action and incredible amount of violence take away from the actual story (hence the video game feel) but the interweaving of the two stories is skillfully done. A definite plus of this story is its unpredictability – there are more twists and turns than Space Mountain. It makes it a book that is hard to put down.

Read this if you enjoy the action, adventure type of novels (and movies!) or if you’re a Dan Brown fan. Matthew Reilly is known for writing fast-paced adventure novels, and Temple is no exception. Don’t be put off by the thickness of the book – it’ll be so gripping that you’ll be asking for more.  If this isn’t your thing, I encourage you to try something new and just read the first chapter. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
x

Monday, October 11, 2010

Bad Science - Ben Goldacre (2008)

For the author, this book is meant to be a wake up call to the ignorant consumers of the world. Ben Goldacre is an Oxford alum and psychiatrist who believes that pharmaceutical companies and prophets of alternative medicine are just taking us for a ride. The book is based on his weekly column in the Guardian (also titled Bad Science). It has spent time in the top 10 on Amazon and was shortlisted for the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. For more information on Ben Goldacre (he gives free speeches if you’re willing to pay his transport costs…) and his fight against bad science, visit www.badscience.net.

Genre:            Non-fiction/ Pseudoscience/ Social Commentary

Synopsis:
Without giving too much away, the main tenet of Bad Science is homage to evidence-based science. Evidence-based science is that which uses the current best evidence in making decisions. In the simplest terms, it means science that can be backed up with real, meticulously reviewed, facts. When it comes to many things that modern society holds dear – fad diets, miracle cures, anti-ageing cosmetics – evidence-based science takes a backseat to clever marketing. Ben Goldacre, a self-professed ‘nerd evangelist’, attacks the quackery of products that are marketed to an unsuspecting audience with no evidence to back their amazing claims. Among his targets are homeopathy, anti-ageing moisturisers, Brain Gym, detox, nutrition therapists, and the media.

Apart from making fun of the more asinine alternative forms of medicine, Goldacre also discusses the importance of knowledge when it comes to your own health. In particular, he explains in quite simple terms how medical trials are conducted and how the results can be interpreted in order to make them more favourable for public consumption. While being both humorous and cutting, Goldacre makes us think twice about trusting someone else with our health.

Review:
As a medical student, this book appeals to me on a deeper level than it might a person with no health-related background. The evils of misguided quacks that Ben Goldacre explores are the same that (real) health professionals today have to deal with. If everyone had read this book before trying a new pill or diet, it would sure make life easier for their doctors.

Although it could easily be a 300-page rant about the stupidity of the modern consumer, Bad Science instead manages to be empowering to the reader. Some of his examples of bad science are downright hilarious. I particularly enjoyed the test to show that Aqua Detox was a load of hokum (Detox and the Theatre of Goo, pg 8). Goldacre also touches on some genuinely scary results of bad science. He attacks Gillian Keith, the Scottish nutrition guru, who claims to have a PhD and be an expert in nutrition. Hundreds of people follow her advice, which includes basing your diet on the location of your acne. He also criticises the media for over-simplifying medicine to the extent that facts become distorted.

If you have a parent/partner/friend who just loves doing detox, or buying collagen-infused face creams, or thinks vaccination is useless – I suggest buying them this book for Christmas. If you are curious about how you’re being made a fool of without even knowing it, or just want to have a laugh at people that are, then this book is a must-read. It’s funny, interesting, thought-provoking and uplifting. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

x

ps. Some further links if you're interested...
Gillian McKeith's official website - http://www.mckeithinteractive.com/
Ben Goldacre's Twitter - http://twitter.com/bengoldacre
Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isnt (British Medical Journal). - http://www.bmj.com/content/312/7023/71.full