Humane Physics: No Student Was Harmed in Writing This Book by Francis Mont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found ‘Humane Physics’ to be a fascinating approach to the presentation, for the layperson, of a whole history of scientific discoveries, and the significant figures involved. However, it does tend to concentrate on physics as the author’s particular specialism. I enjoyed reading Mont’s comments and opinions about my own science heroes, from such as Galileo to Feynman. There was no doubt in my mind that this was his attempt to justify the validity of the fundamental principles behind scientific methodology (as developed eventually into more recent times) as a way of thinking in order to solve (some of?) the problems facing the world of today: climate change; loss of biodiversity and habitat; oceanic pollution; pandemics etc. For me that is an admirable aim and all strength to his arm!
The author often uses humour and logic in a way that encourages the layman or woman to read on, often dealing with the philosophy of more ancient thinkers, such as the Greeks, as well as giants like Einstein, Planck and Hawking. He does allow for readers who are less inclined to be mathematically able, or even, fascinated by the in-depth stuff to come nearer the end of his book; and suitable warnings are issued in the first few pages. As a retired science teacher I found this book to have my respect and approval for both the way that the author tackles his main objective, and the obvious sincerity behind it. It is a great guide for everyone to the tenets controlling the universe, and also as a part of a menu that includes plenty of foods for thought. To partly requote the blurb: it gives the reader a rounded picture of science in an integrated and comprehensive way.


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Survival of the Fairest by Cathleen Townsend
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I had reached chapters 4 and 5 it became obvious that this story was an allegorical telling of the Snow White fairy tale. The wicked step-mother and her magical mirrors have made an entry, and it’s not long before the woodcutter’s alter ego and the seven dwarves also arrive on the scene. With Gwen, as Snow White, escaping from her harsh, over-bearing father and his cruel new wife, we already had a very intriguing and captivating plot. So, I was not sure whether the “spoiler” title of the book was really necessary. For me the essence of the book was an underlying disapproval of slavery and the downtrodden position of females in the society and class-ridden communities of the times. It is set during the California Gold Rush and the start of the American Civil War.
Gwen, aka Janet, is a brave and kind young woman who deserves our respect and admiration throughout the book. She had me rooting for her right up to the unsatisfactory ending. I suppose there was a clue in the title including the words ‘Part 1’ but it did not lessen the disappointment in its abruptness. I always feel let down and cheated when such an obvious ‘hook’ to read the next book is included on the last page. Her romantic encounters as a naïve girl of sixteen are touchingly written; as are the individual personalities of each of the dwarves, their devotion to Gwen being so sweet and honest one could only wish for ‘uncles’ like hers. Cathleen Townsend is an excellent writer whose narrative and dialogue feels real and suitably pacey, although, as a keen DIYer, I had my doubts at times about the speed with which they were all able to complete various tasks (woodcraft or cookery!) when the setting was out in the wild countryside of grizzlies and deer. The plot was so well-founded and authentic I’m still not sure if the story needed those fantasy elements of witches and magic.


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Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very intriguing but long tale of loss and corruption.

I enjoyed the book from beginning to end but the content in between was so full of enormous amounts of detail that I found it very hard going at times. Some of the descriptions that Dickens launched into were so longwinded and wordy that you forget what he is trying to say. It could have been cut by at least a third and still be enjoyed as much if not more!

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Love Is Dead[ly] by Gene Kendall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I usually look forward to reading crime or detective stories but unfortunately this book had a paranormal take on it, a genre I usually resist. The main character, Bradley, is an investigator who is attempting to relieve grieving parents of several thousand dollars by calming their deceased daughter’s restless spirit. While some readers may be intrigued enough to read on, by such a plot, it did not appeal to me. Even the ‘fact’ of Bradley being a medium who is able to contact ghosts and phantoms failed to interest me. Back in the distant past I was a fan of the novels of Dennis Wheatley and then some of Stephen King. I think I must have grown out of liking ghost stories a long time ago and I found this novel, admittedly amongst many others like it, rather tedious to complete. It was well written and his partner in the business being his ex-wife, Sandra, added an extra twist to the tale. The constant changing of the POV for each chapter was annoying. It is something that I always find irritating in any novel, particularly when using the first person as narrator.
Bradley was a shallow character who I found difficult to like, although Sandra was much more pleasant. There was some humour to lighten things up occasionally and plenty of action to add pace. However, it was just not my kind of book any more so it was a relief to make it to the last page!


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Everywhen by Ed Morawski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To begin with this sci-fi book had a lot going for it for this particular reader. As a retired teacher of science and technology, I was curious to see how the two main protagonists, the Documenter and Aardarsh Chadha, were going to set about building and utilising their Everywhen machine. It would involve the various concepts of parallel universes, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity – not a simple feat for anyone, even the ‘smartest man in the world’ as Aardarsh is claimed to be by the author. A lot of the detailed science is naturally left out but the principles discussed were so intriguing that I wished to read on.
But then, after about three chapters, the whole tale descended into a tasteless and lurid description of sexual activity between the so-called Documenter and Angie, a girl he had just met. It was not something that I had settled down to read; it was pornographic; it was erotica and not a genre I would ever choose to read! No doubt the author felt it was necessary to include such descriptions to hook the reader to turn the following pages. However, it was a definite turn-off for this reader!
It meant that I rapidly read the rest of the story without taking in too much of the plot as I went, feeling somewhat cheated and insulted. I was hoping of course to skip past any more erotica that jumped out of the tale, and to my mind, very much out of context to the main narrative. Maybe some of the teenage boys I have taught would find it titillating?
The technological and financial obstacles the pair meet along the way are dealt with in a competent fashion and the characters and dialogue show skilful writing talent. We are moving to and fro in time, with real people like Marilyn Monroe, John F Kennedy and Princess Diana to add a bit of contemporary historical spice to the story.
There was a definite need for some proof-reading and editing, so that plus the tasteless erotica reduced my rating to 3 stars only. I cannot say I enjoyed the book in the end.


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Girls in Their Married Bliss by Edna O'Brien
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The third book in the trilogy was not written in a style that I felt comfortable with. It hopped from third person to first, using Baba’s point-of-view and, although it was quite amusing in parts, I found it irritating and confusing. Kate’s marriage to Eugene is essentially over and Baba is now the wife of a builder who lacks the smooth, but overbearing, control of Kate’s ex-spouse. It was difficult not to feel both sorry and annoyed with Kate when she seems to lack the spirit to fight back, having found herself alone and without her child when Eugene manipulates her life from a distance. But Baba comes through, surprisingly, when her friend is allowed to live with her and Frank. What I suspected from the first two novels, about the pair of best friends, has eventually come about when sensitive Kate needs Baba, and not the reverse. Baba always seemed unnecessarily cruel and unfair to her friend throughout the first two books but here she is understanding, even kind, through her down-to-earth and pragmatic attitude to life. This novel has an epilogue that I found uncomfortable and somewhat distressing to read. However, later consideration made me realise the inevitability of the events it touches upon had to be faced.



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Imagine Violet Blooming by Mary E. Hughes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the third book of this delightful series, Violet is now settled as a mother and enthusiastic wife, supporting her husband’s career as the musical conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Frank is also much in demand as a tutor of music and the family is very much a part of the aspiring middle class of the city. Through the same medium of Violet’s letters, to her family and friends, we learn a tremendous amount of information of the comings and goings that occur in their society, as well as much about the world of classical music there. Her family continues to grow, with five children adding to the burden of becoming the wife to a prominent member of the community.

Mary Hughes’ narrative is as skilful as ever when she writes about the typical lives led by the family in those late 19th early 20th century times. The medical matters, family vacations, servant problems, and the entertaining of significant society ladies are all written about so very naturally in the context of Violet’s letters. It gave me a mirror that reflected the charming and cultured life of a pleasant and happy family. It was not without its trials and setbacks, however, and sickness and bereavement were dealt with in a typically sympathetic manner. Violet constantly rises to meet the various challenges in the calm and understanding fashion that we have come to expect from such a competent woman as Violet Welseman.

The ending was quite unexpected and left me feeling sad, and that I would quite miss Violet in the future, since this is to be the last book in the series about the imagined life of the author’s grandmother. I found ‘Imagine Violet Blooming’ a very enjoyable, entertaining and informative book, as well as a most satisfying read: Highly recommended.

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The Lonely Girl by Edna O'Brien
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second book in the series has the teenage girls now living in Dublin. Surprisingly, Baba is a student and Kate has a job in a small grocery shop. They are enjoying their new freedom away from their childhood homes. Typically Baba is befriending older but rich men. Much of the story is amusing with an undercurrent of sadness, through the relationships the girls make. Despite the various trials and mistakes that Kate and Baba are involved with I found I was rooting for them to the end. Kate still has her romantic fantasies, while Baba’s pragmatic attitude to life often shields both their lives from the cruel realities of life. I found that I anticipated pain and heartache for Kate throughout the story, worrying about her vulnerability. But she still battles on and has to be admired for her courage even so. There are times when the reader’s patience with the pair may run out because they both seem to be heading for a fall, even though they are living, unhappily, in separate lives with men. The ending to this novel felt abrupt and confusing to me so I was not in a hurry to read the third book in the series. But curiosity about what happened next will no doubt mean I will read it!

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The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first book in the trilogy by Edna O’Brien tells the tale of two girls, Kate and Baba, setting out from the rural world of Ireland in the fifties and sixties. The cleverer and more sensitive of the two, Kate, wants to find romance, while Baba is much more down to earth and determined to squeeze everything she can out of the world, starting with the city of Dublin. The whole story is narrated from Kate’s point of view, in the first person, and is often disturbing as she naively moves from one relationship to another. Often she has wildly unsuitable crushes on older men, and finds it difficult to consider men nearer her own age either mature or romantic enough for her bookish ‘ideals.’ Baba is very often cruel and insincere with her men and typically with Kate. Despite this the two girls seem to rely upon each other at different times, even when Kate reveals her pain to the reader, and you realise that it is still the pair of girls against the world.
The inadequacy of many men in those communities and times, as well as in terms of relationships with the women in their lives becomes so apparent. On the one hand they need to escape from the smothering by their mothers, while they are obsessed with dominating any other women, including sisters, girlfriends and wives, on the other hand. The conversations are realistic, sometimes amusing around Baba, but more usually tragic when Kate is involved and she is revealing her own heart through her thoughts. This novel is completely engaging and revealing; highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a poignant family tale.


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Goddess of Grass by Ed Morawski
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Unfortunately, this book is described as a historical novel when, for me, it did not come across as a novel at all, and of any genre. The narrative reads mainly as a factual book with plenty of descriptions informing the reader of many fascinating facts about Cortes and the conquering of the Aztecs, but not in the context of a story with characters that exchange conversations, which pull the plot along in an engaging and intriguing fashion. There are admittedly a few pieces of imagined dialogue but in between them the large amount of information is presented like a list of facts and figures, such as may be found in a more academic history book. While there are occasional descriptions of the characters, like Cortes, Montezuma and Malinalli, the Goddess of Grass, I found they were not written in the context of a fascinating tale of adventure, plot and betrayal as I had expected to find. As I have said previously, it was too cold and dryly academic, and constantly felt theoretical.
After the final chapter of the ‘story’ a lot of time was spent on explanations of the origins of the Goddess’s name, and more detail about the Aztecs, together with a time line; all illustrating, even further, just how much the author may have spent on research. But whether it was necessary to include as much information within the body of the ‘novel’ was questionable.


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