What I've been reading

What Lies Beneath
by Peter Faulding

"The arresting memoir of murder, investigation and justice from Britain's leading forensic search and rescue experts. Recovering bodies, finding discarded remains, identifying unmarked graves and saving people from locations and situations too dangerous for the normal emergency services are all in a day’s work."

A bit too much autobiographical detail, and much too much self-congratulatory content. Not all that well written either - he's a search and rescue expert after all, not a writer. But it's not bad when he sticks to describing the facts of the cases, and contains a little reminder of the times when Swampy was underground, defending us all against the Newbury Bypass.

Carrie's War
by Nina Bawden

"Evacuated from London to Wales during the Second World War, Carrie and her brother are sent to live with the very strict Mr Evans. In trying to heal the breach between Mr Evans and his estranged sister, Carrie does the worst thing she ever did in her life."

A children's book from my Classics list that I picked up from the book swap shelves in Leamington station on my way to Stoke-on-Trent. Easy to read of course, and a satisfying story to fill the journey.

Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
by Carlo Rovelli

"Our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. On a wondrous journey we are invited us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist."

Another book from this wonderful author who explains the most complicated material in a way that I can (mostly) grasp, although don't ask me to explain anything but the simplest bits. I particularly like the historical timeline where the theories of time and space are proposed and then revised, so that space and time and particles and fields gradually morph into covariant quantum fields. Another idea that is proposed is the idea of space and time as a process rather than as things, which is how Buddhism views life, the universe and everything. And hooray for getting rid of infinity, which has always made my brain feel like porridge.