Books Read in 2015: 7. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients – Ben Goldacre

On 10/02/2015 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Genre: Science, medicine

Narrative Style: Scientific discourse but with a conversational, informal tone at times.

Rating: 4/5

Published: 2013

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: Goldacre explains the problems with modern medicine and posits ways to improve it. He looks at the issue of missing data, biased trials, drug companies concerned with profit not health and suggests ways in which the situation can be changed.

I went to see Goldacre speak when he was promoting this book back in 2013 so it really is quite disgraceful that it has taken me until now to read it. I got distracted into reading Bad Science first. It had been in the back of my mind for a while so it was good to finally get round to it.

Reading this book was a lot like seeing Goldacre speak. Although some of the concepts he explains are difficult, his clear style and enthusiasm for the subject make it easier to take in. Goldacre is extremely passionate about what he believes needs to be done in medicine – in fact, so much so, I felt a little worried for his sanity if none of the changes he longs for came to pass. It really is refreshing to read the point of view of someone so open and honest about what he believes.

This book didn’t really surprise me – that in itself is a depressing comment on the state of medicine currently – but reading all the different problems that Goldacre outlines made me realise the scale of the problem and the difficulties that are faced when trying to sort it all out. As a patient, you assume that your doctor has the best information at their fingertips. You trust them. It is extremely worrying to think that between them and knowledge, sit the drug companies, hoarding the information like gold hungry dragons. As with so many other areas of modern life, the drug companies are running medicine and the NHS like they are profit making organisations not the means to avoid pain, suffering and death.

I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as Bad Science. The main reason for this was that it was so focused. Of course, I knew it would be but I think I possibly didn’t need all the information that the book contained and I actually felt exhausted at the end. It was pleasing to see that some progress has been made by Goldacre and his supporters although it is impossible to say at this stage what effect these changes might have. Here’s hoping they go some way to fixing the problem.

Books Read in 2015. 6. The Hell You Say – Josh Lanyon

On 04/02/2015 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Genre: Crime, GLBT

Narrative Style: First Person, Chronological

Rating: 4/5

Published: 2006

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: This is the third book in the Adrien English series. Angus, Adrien’s assistant at his bookstore has been receiving threatening phone calls. Adrien foolishly loans him the money to disappear for a while. Foolish because it soon becomes apparent that Angus is involved in some sort of demonic cult and, as usual, Adrien feels compelled to investigate, getting himself into all sorts of trouble as a consequence. Adrien is still sort of involved with closeted cop Jake Riordan. Even Adrien isn’t exactly sure whether to call it a relationship and Jake certainly doesn’t. That word is reserved for the woman he is also involved with.

Although this was a really good read, it has probably been my least favourite so far. The main reason for this is that the romance between Adrien and Jake came to a dead end when Jake announces he had got his girlfriend pregnant. Maybe this is a good thing for Adrien in the long run but I was hoping that it would run the other way and he would realise that Adrien was who he really wanted. Of course, I am sure that Jake will still be involved in future books in the series but it would seem unlikely that his and Adrien’s relationship will ever be anything other than on again, off again which is a bit depressing.

The thriller elements were all in place and, as usual, Lanyon walks between sending up typical genre expectations and using them to fool the reader. There are a suitable number of red herrings and blind alleys and Adrien is always flying of on a whim which makes him an interesting narrator. The tension between the cold unemotional detecting of Jake and the police and Adrien’s more hysterical, intuitive style adds another element of tension to both the mystery and their romance.

Adrien is a sympathetic narrator. His voice is warm and funny as he sends himself up and over-dramatisises. He is easy to relate to and feel concerned for. As well as everything else he has to deal with, his mother announces that she is getting re-married and the descriptions of Adrien’s encounters with his three new step-sisters and ultra masculine new father are extremely amusing.

It was tempting, as always, to go to read the next instalment straightaway but I have a lot of other things to read for challenges. And I don’t want to hurry through them too quickly because then I’ll be at the end of the series. Besides, I need to have some books in reserve that I know are going to be good so that I can turn to them when I’ve read something not so great.

Books Read in 2015 – 5. A Room Swept White – Sophie Hannah

On 28/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Genre: Chick-lit, Detective

Narrative Style; A mixture of first and third person with extracts from books and articles.

Rating: 2/5

Published: 2010

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: Fliss Benson is sent a card with sixteen numbers on it. She has no idea what they mean. On the same day, she is put in charge of a documentary about miscarriages of justice – specifically women who are thought to have killed their children. Then one of the main focuses of the documentary, Helen Yardley, is found murdered and in her pocket is a card very like the one that Fliss received.

The premise of this novel was intriguing and emotive. Women who are accused of killing their children often provoke extreme reactions in people and I was curious to see how the subject would be handled. Unfortunately, Hannah allows the narrative to be muddled by too many different narratives and ideas. At first, I thought that the novel would be about Sids and the likelihood of that happening in more than one child from the same family but Hannah throws in high levels of blood salt, babies that appear to have been shaken and babies that reacted adversely to immunisation. To me, this muddied whatever point she was trying to make (and in actual fact, I’m not sure what that point might have been) to the point of incomprehension.

Of course, for all this to work, there had to be an evil doctor. Judith Duffy has given evidence in a number of cases and in Helen Yardley’s case claims that it would be virtually impossible for two babies in the same family to have Sids. This was clearly based on the real life doctor who said that the chances were one in 73 million. Of course, as Ben Goldacre has pointed out, this is erroneous and Hannah does quite a good job of showing us why the doctor was wrong. At least, at the beginning. About half way through, she changes tack and we are meant to view Duffy with some sympathy. And we are also supposed to believe that she becomes friends with one of the women that she helped to jail. This stretched my disbelief to the very limit.

Perhaps the most annoying element of this novel was Fliss Benson. The only narrator to have annoyed me more is Ana from Fifty Shades of Grey. Fliss is a bundle of insecurities, always doubting herself and bursting into tears. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that all female protagonists should be strong or good role models or anything as crass as that but she really was annoying. I wanted to slap her, I really did.

At the beginning of the novel, she is promoted to creative director of the company she works for for no readily apparent reason except that the old creative director Laurie Natrass has found a new job. It is as if Hannah couldn’t imagine a woman being successful except at the whim of a powerful man. Of course, Fliss is in love with Laurie despite the fact that he is exceptionally unloveable which causes a lot of mooning and moaning which I could really have done without.

The most successful elements were definitely the third person descriptions of the police investigation and I know I would have enjoyed this more if it had been a straightforward police procedural. And if I’d been convinced by the ending. In fact, I found the last third of the book really difficult to finish. I only did finish it because I wanted the closure even while I knew it was going to annoy me. It is a while since I’ve been so relieved to finish a book.

Books Read in 2015 – 4. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

On 23/01/201523/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn TBR Challenge 2015Leave a comment

Genre: Post-Colonial, Feminist, Classics

Narrative Structure: Various first person accounts

Rating: 3/5

Published: 1966

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: This tells the back story of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. It starts with her childhood and her mother’s story and then moves to tell the story from Rochester’s point of view when he meets her and then she resumes the story when they are in England.

Reading Challenges: TBR Challenge

Time on Shelf: This is one of those books that has been on my metaphorical shelf for a long time. Although I only bought this copy about three years ago, I first heard of Rhys’ novel about twenty years ago when I was doing my first degree.

I enjoyed this less than I expected to. It wasn’t a bad story but I expected to love it and I just didn’t. Maybe that was the problem.

I didn’t really take to Antoinette as a narrator although she did not narrate the entire novel. The first part is from her point of view and again, certain parts are narrated by her later in the novel. As a child, she watches her mother’s life ruined by her marriage and the hatred of fellow islanders. The family fall prey to violent attacks, one of which results in a fire that kills Antoinette’s brother and sends her mother into madness. Her husband is unable to understand and instead hides his wife away. This foreshadows Antoinette’s experience with Rochester (although he is never actually named).

Rochester narrates the next part and it is quickly clear that while he is sexually attracted to Antoinette, he does not love her and the marriage has been for money. He does not understand or even try to understand his new wife and she resorts to Obeah ( a sort of voodoo) to try and control him. He falls prey to the gossip of Daniel who claims to be Antoinette’s illegitimate brother who impugns Antoinette’s reputation and demands money to be kept quiet. There is a clear gulf between the two, caused mostly by the patriarchal society in which they live and the fact that Antoinette with her Creole heritage fits in with neither the black Jamaican nor the White Europeans.

At first, I felt a bit sorry for Rochester. He seemed as much a victim of the time as Antoinette but then he began to act more cruelly towards her – openly committing adultery, for example – I realised that while he had been used, he was still the one who was ultimately in control of the situation. He had all the power, Antoinette had to resort to black magic to try and gain some control.

Finally, they arrive in England and Antoinette has control of the narrative again. Now she is clearly unbalanced and her husband adds to this by keeping her locked in the attic. However, she manages to roam around the house at night like a dream reminder of Rochester’s casual cruelty. She dreams of setting fire to the house and the novel ends as she seems about to bring this dream into reality.

The final part was probably the most successful. I’m not sure that Rhys really captured Rochester’s voice or convinced me of his motivations. Antoinette’s narration was most successful when she was maddest and about to exact her revenge. Ultimately I didn’t feel much about the ending or all the way through really. There is no doubt that this is a clever novel but it left me feeling a little cold.

Books Read in 2015 – 3. Farewell, My Lovely – Raymond Chandler

On 17/01/201517/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn Book Reviews, Eclectic Reader Challenge 20153 Comments

Genre: Private Eye, Hard-boiled Detective

Narrative Style: First person, chronological

Rating: 4/5

Published: 1940

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: Moose Malloy is looking for his old love Velma and Marlowe starts to investigate when he is contacted for what seems like a routine case. There would seem to be no link between the two cases but quickly Marlowe finds hostility on all sides and things become a lot more complicated then they seemed.

Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge – Genre: PI Crime

I had intentions of reading more Chandler. I read The Big Sleep and really enjoyed it and was thinking it was about time I read the next one so when I saw that one of the genres for this year’s Eclectic Reader Challenge was PI crime, I didn’t hesitate.

There is no easing into the story here. You are dropped straight into Marlowe’s seedy little world. Every detail counts as the story quickly gets quite convoluted and no one is quite who they seem. The pace is lively and it was difficult to put down.

Marlowe really suffers in this story. He is bashed on the head a large number of times as well as being pumped full of all sorts of horrible drugs. He spends a lot of his time with his head spinning and stomach churning. Not that this stops him, you understand. Marlowe is not the sort of man to be laid low by anything. He just has another whisky and carries on. I like the toughness of the characters – not just Marlowe but all the other men and some of the women too. There is no sentimentality here – this is a hard world and it takes hard people to survive. There is no time for feeling sorry for yourself.

What really makes Chandler’s novel sing is the prose. Marlowe is all bruised one liners and smart retorts. I kept imagining Humphrey Bogart growling out some of the lines. Some of the descriptions are just fabulous – ‘The voice of the hot dog merchant split the dusk like an axe’ for example or ‘She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket’. It’s all so sharp and the prose never wavers for one second. There is very little breathing space for the reader who is always fully immersed in the horror of Marlowe’s world.

I didn’t see the ending coming at all. Maybe a sharper reader could have put it together but to be honest, I’m always quite pleased if I haven’t managed to work it out. It was a good ending, one that tied everything together successfully and was completely satisfying. I will certainly be reading the next one.

Books Read in 2014 – 2. Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett

On 14/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Genre: Humorous fantasy

Narrative Style: Third person from a variety of points of view.

Rating: 4/5

Published: 2013

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: A new invention has arrived in Ankh Morpork and it quickly grabs everyone’s attention. Particularly those with anoraks and notebooks. The steam engine has arrived and is definitely hear to stay despite the efforts of those who wish to stop progress whatever its form. It falls to Moist Von Lipwig to try and keep the railway safe which means pleasing Lord Vetinari, nobody’s idea of an easy life. Moist will need all skills as a scoundrel and a few more besides to survive this adventure.

This was a Christmas present from my husband. It felt like high time that I got round to reading it, having read all the others. Normally, Pratchett’s are purchased the minute they are released but I’m not a big fan of the other books with Moist Von Lipwig so I didn’t rush this time.

It was so long that I’d forgotten what a pleasure it always is to read a Discworld novel. Especially one with such good subject matter. There is no doubt (in my mind, anyway) that there is something fascinating about the steam engine and something elegant that more modern trains just cannot compete with. Pratchett captures this perfectly in his descriptions of Iron Girder and of her creator’s love for her. Simnel, the engineer with the flat cap and the Northern accent, is one of Pratchett’s better recent creations and was totally believable.

Of course, this isn’t just a novel about steam and the men who tinker with it. This is also a novel about discrimination, extremism and politics. Extreme members of the Dwarfish community have been knocking down the Clacks and are now attacking the train. While the low king is away, they take over and try to place their leader on the Stone of Scone. Pratchett is at his best when he writes of such subjects. There is a strong moral at the heart of this novel but it is never preachy. At the very heart of it is a message of tolerance which is impossible to argue with.

It is less successful, I think, when dealing with the gender issues in the Dwarfish community. Dwarfs do not reveal their sex normally but many were starting to break with the tradition and near the end of the novel, the Low King reveals she is in fact a queen and not only that but about to become a mother. I’m not sure what it is about this that rankled but I just didn’t find it convincing.

As for Moist Von Lipwig, he still remains one of my least favourite Pratchett characters but there was so much other stuff going on that he didn’t annoy me as much as he has done before. The pace is fast with exciting train rides, battles and action aplenty. I could have happily continued reading.

Books Read in 2015. 1. The Trinity Six – Charles Cumming

On 09/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Genre: Spy Thriller

Narrative Style: Third Person, Largely chronological

Rating: 3/5

Published: 2011

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: Sam Gaddis is an academic desperately in need of some cash. When his old friend, Charlotte says she may be about to break a story on the sixth Cambridge spy, he is immediately interested. It could be the scoop of both their careers and bring in some much needed money. When Charlotte dies of a heart attack, it is left to Sam to continue the investigation that she has begun.

This was a new genre for me. Apart from James Bond, I’ve not even seen many spy films. So I was unsure what to expect. I thought it would be an interesting subject and a thrilling one. If such a sixth member was suddenly revealed to the public, the scandal would be huge as would the rewards of any journalist brave enough to do it.

It certainly hits the ground running. Cumming drops the reader into the middle of Charlotte’s story as Gaddis is told the story of a 76 year old, Edward Crane, whose death was faked in 1992 – all members of the hospital team were paid off by MI6. Crane it transpires is the sixth member that the government so want to keep quiet. Gaddis immediately starts to do some research unaware that by merely entering the name into a search engine he is alerting the Government to what he is doing.

It isn’t long before Gaddis is in over his head. Although he isn’t the sort of man to let that stop him. His curiosity and need for money drive him on even when the bodies start to pile up. Gaddis swings from painful naivety to incredible intelligence and back again in a way that wasn’t always successful. Above all, his arrogance and his determination to break the story at all costs alienated me from him. He was a hard man to empathise with.

I’m not an expert on the Cambridge spies but the facts given seemed right and the history and conspiracies certainly were plausible. Cumming slid between fact and fiction very easily and I never doubted the likelihood of events. It is certainly true that some governments will go to great lengths to keep the secrets of the past just that.

Finally, I enjoyed the thriller elements the most but found a lot of the characters, particularly the men, difficult to relate to. This may be a feature of the genre – if men weren’t arrogant and greedy, stories like this wouldn’t get very far – but it was a little alienating. That said, I would certainly not rule out reading more of this genre in the future. A spy story is always intriguing because it plays to our suspicion that we aren’t being told the whole story and perhaps we’d all quite like to be the person to blow it all apart.

Another new year

On 08/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

Well, it has taken a while to get round to writing my first blog this year. In fact, the end of last year was so hectic, I never got round to writing an end of year blog which I fully intended. This will have to act as both.

I was pleased with the amount that I read last year and with the fact that I completed the two reading challenges I signed up for. Both of which – eclectic reader challenge and TBR challenge – I have signed up for again. I read some excellent books – The Slap and Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas spring straight to mind, as do The Absolutist by John Boyne and Complicity by Iain Banks and of course, Maddaddam by the amazing Margaret Atwood. I also read some authors that have been on my list for a while – Dorothy L. Sayers, Daphne Du Maurier and John Updike – not all of which were enjoyed but it felt good to have read them at last.

This year I’m aiming to read more classics so half of the books I have picked for the eclectic reader challenge are pre 1950. Half of those are pre 1900. The first book I finished this year was a spy thriller which was a new genre and hopefully the eclectic reader challenge will continue to encourage me to read new genres.

I wasn’t sure that I was going to keep writing a blog post for each book I read but looking back over last year’s posts, I realised that it was making me think more deeply about what I was reading.

As for writing, while I still aim to write every day, it doesn’t always work. Time is the one commodity I lack at the moment. I’m still in the process of editing / re-writing Choose Yr Future. It seems like an never-ending task at the moment. However, I’m sure I will recognise the point when I am happy with the storyline and structure and then I will be ready to let beta readers have a look at it. At the minute, I know it is not ready to be seen by other eyes. If I’m not happy with it, I wouldn’t expect others to be.

I’m not feeling downhearted though. I’m still trying to enter as many competitions as I can and while I haven’t won any yet, I’m not going to give up. If you don’t enter, you really don’t have a hope of winning. I enjoy the process of writing/re-writing even though sometimes I feel a bit like Sisyphus pushing the words into place only to realise later that they still don’t fit.

2014 in review

On 04/01/201504/01/2015 By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 27 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Books Read in 2014 – 65. Maddaddam – Margaret Atwood

On 29/12/2014 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Genre: Dystopia

Narrative style: Third Person

Rating 5/5

Published: 2013

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: This picks up the story at the end of both Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood with the earth decimated by a man-made plague. Toby and Ren have found Amanda, currently being held by two Painballers and are contemplating their next move when Jimmy appears. The action continues from this point.

My expectations were high for this book. I had enjoyed the first two and really, I meant to read this one much earlier. I was half expecting to be disappointed. Could it possibly live up to my hopes?

Of course, this is Atwood we’re talking about. If anything this was better than The Year of the Flood. This was largely due to the Crakers being back on centre stage and Jimmy also. Although Jimmy wasn’t always an active participant, his character was inseparable from the mythology that he gives to the Crakers who treat his hat and watch as sacred objects. There is a lot of humour and also a lot of affection in Atwood’s creation of a religion for the Crakers. I particularly liked the way that they mistook the curse ‘Oh fuck’ for a cry to a deity who would come to help.

Zeb’s backstory added colour to the story of Crake and helped to explain events of the other two novels. It was enjoyable watching him switch identities and jobs, always managing to just get out of trouble. The love story between Toby and Zeb was also enjoyable. There was a refreshing lack of sentiment in their relationship. Toby was easy to identify with as she learned to put her insecurities to one side as the future of their group was much more important than any personal issues she may have.

I was a little troubled about the alliance between the humans and the pigoons at first. I wasn’t convinced that it wouldn’t just seem ridiculous but Atwood even managed to pull that off and they became more human than pig in the end.

The idea of teaching the Crakers to write and so be able to pass on their creation story to other generations was inspired. Atwood gives them childlike voices but never belittles them and their lack of guile. Perhaps this is what we would have to be like in order to actually save the current world.

The end of the novel is both sad and full of hope. There are deaths and battles but also births – babies that are half human and half Craker. The hope lies in the Crakers, their new mythology and the potential of the new species. It seems that the future is at least a little rosy.

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