Mark Haddon: The curious incident of the dog in the nightime

Another book I started reading by accident and a very good one at that. This book is tricksy. For the first few chapters you think you are reading a light hearted whimsical view of the world from a the point of view of a teenager suffering from a form of autism. It is only when you are about half way in that it dawns on you that this is not a light hearted tale at all. It is deadly serious and very very good. Well recommended. Has lots of clever maths in it by the way as the narrator is a whizz at maths even though he is incapapble of empathy.

Garth Nix: The Fall

I must be regressing. I am reading yet another Young Adult fantasy. This book came free with a box of cereal as far as I recall, I read a few pages and hey ... it was pretty good. Lots of imagination in this first book of Nix's Seventh Tower Series. A young "Chosen" in a world that is veiled from light falls upon hard times when his father disappears with the families only proper sun stone. Without the stone our hero is likely to be booted out of the elite chosen ranks so he must set out on a desperate adventure to find one. Good stuff and with magical shadows it is somewhat in the vein of "His Dark Materials" but not nearly as dark.

George R.R. Martin: Deamsongs Volume II

The second volume in this retrospective from the creator of Ice and Fire. This is just as good a read as the first volume although for different reasons. In the first volume I found the retrospective bits more entertaining than the stories. In this volume, perhaps reflecting Martin's developing craft as an author the stories are much stronger and the retrospective bits are more forgettable. For fans of Ice and Fire who missed Robert Silverberg's Legends collection this volume gives a second chance to read the Ice and Fire prequel "The Hedge Knight".

Iain M. Banks: Matter

The latest Culture novel from the Scottish genius of modern literature. Sadly this one didn't do it for me. While Banks creativity and imagination are still there the plot just didn't take off until the closing chapter of the book by which time there was no space left to do anything more than a pretty shoddy wrapping up of loose ends. Dissapointing.

The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of The Wall Street Crash of 1929 by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts

Absolutely Brilliant. I bought this 29 year old book for 50c in a jumble sale thinking the account of the 1929 financial disaster might resonate with events of today but to be honest the parallels with today are irrelevant. This is a book about people: big people, little people, heroes and crooks all caught up the frenzies of greed, hope and despair that were Wallstreet in 1929. Thomas and Morgan-Witts meticulously researched book tells their stories and it is an absolutely compelling read. Highly reccommended.

The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier

This is probably the most optimistic book I have every read and maybe one of the most important. If you have ever despaired of any hope rescuing the citizens of the world poorest countries from the cycles of poverty, corruption and violence into which they seem forever condemned then you should read this book. Paul Collier, an academic at Oxford provides in this short readable text, an analysis of the reasons why some countries are trapped into poverty. More importantly he suggests solutions. Most importantly of all his analysis and his solutions are not based on emotion or political rhetoric they are based on solid academic research. Yes there are traces of academic snobbery and perhaps even hubris in Paul's book but the fact remains that it is a hugely important and authoritative work. Read it.

Newton's Wake by Ken MacLeod

Hit and Miss. This technological singularity novel does a great job of describing a somewhat chaotic, anarchic post singularity universe. The survivors who have not given themselves over to post human state (the "rapture") live in a world littered with the technological debris of repeated singularities some malevolent, some benign. A case in point is a vast wormhole network ("The Skein") which is controlled by a feudal Scottish Clan who are the main protagonists of the story. While the universe McLeod constructs is rich and intriguing the story itself is a let down. It is quite confusing at times and even after I had figured out what was going on I felt that the confusion arose from lack of clarity rather than any great depth of storyline. Ultimately it is quite unsatisfying. If McLeod writes another novel in this rich universe he has created I will be tempted to try it but he will will have to do a better job of storytelling to satisfy this reader.