What I've been reading

The Girl with the Louding Voice
by Abi Daré

"As a third wife in a small Nigerian village, fourteen-year-old Adunni is expected to fade into silence. But Adunni will not keep quiet. She's smart, funny and curious, with an infectiously joyful spirit. And despite adversity awaiting her at every turn, she's set on getting an education, no matter the cost."

An interesting conjunction of poverty and wealth within Nigeria, but also bringing together European/first world and Nigerian/third world life and attitudes. I was hooked from the start and it didn't disappoint, with a cliff-edge approach to peril for the young heroine that left me unsettled to just the right extent. I shall pass this one on with my recommendation.

Black and Blue
by Ian Rankin

narrated by James MacPherson

"Bible John killed three women, and took three souvenirs. Now a copycat is at work - nicknamed 'Bible Johnny' by the media, he is a new menace with violent ambitions. The Bible Johnny case would be perfect for Inspector John Rebus, but after a run-in with a crooked senior officer, he's been shunted aside to one of Edinburgh's toughest suburbs."

I managed to follow the plot despite the audio format, so the writing and characterisation must be good. I didn't find it all that interesting, though. Hard to say why - it's set in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen within the oil industry, and Rebus is fairly interesting, but I didn't warm to him all that much, or fear for his safety in the difficult bits. So now I've read an Ian Rankin book, which was the main reason for choosing it, and I don't think I'll bother with any more.

Free Time!
by Vajragupta Staunton

"We and time are intimately intertwined. It is not something we are in; it is something that we are. That means we have a choice about our experience of time: what we do with our minds and our hearts, with our thoughts and emotions, will condition the quality of the time we live in."

A second read of this book which has a lot of truth and sensible advice within it. My relationship with time is almost as bad as my relationship with food. I'm always trying to pack as much into my days as I can, and when I don't fit something in I tell myself "There isn't enough time." But in fact there is plenty of time, and I choose what to prioritise - will I read a book or do my tax return? I divide jobs into 'work' and 'leisure' and justify reading the book on the basis of getting a mix of the two, and this isn't necessarily wrong, but I'm going to bring my characterisation of the choices into the open. I haven't done my homework for my Buddhist class today because I chose to watch a film last night, and that's OK.

Under the Knife
by Arnold van de Laar

"From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder, to Bob Marley's deadly toe, this book offers all kinds of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating theatre."

I picked this up from dad's shelf recently, remembering that I lent it to him. I don't think he read it - he was usually enthusiastic about accepting this kind of offer but often didn't follow through by actually reading the book. It's rather interesting in a 'History of Medicine' kind of way, and good enough to reward another read so I'll probably keep it for now.

The Order of Time
by Carlo Rovelli

"From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe."

This was an extraordinary book, a serious scientific explanation of the concept of time but written in an almost poetic way and beautiful to read. It also hit the sweet spot for me by reiterating what I already knew and adding just enough to make me feel like my mind had been expanded. I was already aware that there is no universally accepted time that is 'now', but I had only applied this at planetary distances rather than for two people in the same room. It completely blew apart my understanding of spacetime and then put it together again, and I would definitely be keeping this book if it weren't from the library!