Reading matters

'Digging Up the Dead: Uncovering the Life and Times of an Extraordinary Surgeon' by Druin Burch

Non-fiction - paperback; Vintage; 276 pages; 2008. Review copy.

I have read some interesting and unusual books in my time, but Druin Burch's Digging Up the Dead must be the most interesting and unusual book I have ever read. Indeed, when I was offered it for review, I had initially been drawn to the dark, Gothic nature of the subject, but hadn't quite clocked the fact it was a non-fiction title. So when it popped through my door I was slightly taken aback to discover that it was actually a biography. But what a biography it turned out to be!

Digging Up the Dead looks at the life and times of arguably the world's first famous surgeon, Astley Cooper (1768-1841), whom Burch -- himself a medical doctor -- describes as vain, egotistical, nepotistic and "rather wonderful".

Astley was born into a highly educated family -- his father was an Oxford-educated vicar, his uncle was senior surgeon at Guy's Hospital in London -- but he showed little interest in books or study but specialised in pranks and adventures. When the family moved to Yarmouth he began training under a local apothecary, who also doubled as a surgeon, in the hope that he might learn enough to follow his older brothers into university and perhaps a physicianship, or his uncle to a hospital and career as a surgeon. He did well and moved on to become an apprentice to a surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

When he was fourteen-and-a-half he witnessed a problematic, but successful, operation to remove a stone from a man's bladder. This was to have a profound influence on him, because it was not long after that he decided to embark on surgical training in London, much to the delight of his family.

'Whitethorn Woods' by Maeve Binchy

Fiction - paperback; Orion Books; 450 pages; 2007.

Holed up in bed mid-week with a terrible head cold I didn't feel much like taxing my brain power, and so it was I came to read Maeve Binchy's latest paperback, Whitethorn Woods. I won't be the first to admit that Binchy's novels aren't exactly intellectually stimulating -- they're warm and fluffy and make you feel all gooey inside, perfect fodder for reading on the beach or curled up in bed when you're unwell. But this one, I'm sorry to say, was a disappointing read.

The thing that bugged me most was not the storytelling, which is typically enjoyable, heart-warming Binchy fare, but the complete failure of the publisher to specify anywhere on the cover or blurb that this is actually a collection of interconnected short stories and not a novel. I am not a fan of the short story for no other reason than they  generally leave me feeling dissatisfied, because I want to know more about the characters, their motivations and lives. On that basis I'm a novel-reading kind of gal, and that's probably how it will always be.

Whitethorn Woods comprises 13 short stories, each one divided into two parts so that the same story is told from two different points of view, an interesting "twist" which demonstrates Binchy's exemplary story-telling skills. The characters in each story are all from the same place -- a once sleepy Irish town called Rossmore, which is now booming but is choked by traffic. These stories are connected by three "bridging" chapters -- at the start, middle and end --  which explain how the town's woods and a well dedicated to St Ann are threatened by a new bypass. It's a nifty idea, but I couldn't help but wonder if Binchy had simply chucked together all those unpublished short stories she's written over the years, perhaps the ones languishing in the bottom drawer, and inserted a few common themes -- the woods, the spiritual well, the town's traffic problem -- in order to get the next book out and into the shops. That might sound harsh, but as a reader I have to admit feeling slightly cheated by this book.

Still, if you like short stories, this is a good little collection, provided you don't mind Binchy's rather simplistic, sometimes cloying, view of life in which hard work is always rewarded, love can be found in the most unexpected of places and good things happen to kind people. But personally, as much as I enjoyed reading about the quiet lives told within each story, I struggled to enjoy Whitethorn Woods as a whole.

If you've not read anything by Maeve Binchy before, I suggest this is not the place to start, because if you do it could well be the last Binchy you ever read -- and that would be a sad thing given her extraordinary back catalogue of feel-good fiction.

'Long Way Down' by Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman

Non-fiction - hardcover; Sphere; 352 pages; 2007.

Three years ago fellow actors and biking buddies Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set off on a voyage from London to New York the long way round. The resultant 10-part TV series following their 20,000 mile road trip across Europe and Asia proved a huge hit, as did the book that accompanied it. I came to the whole Long Way Round phenomenon quite late, having stumbled upon a repeat screening of the series on Sky TV about 18 months after it had been made. But I was immediately enraptured and thought it was one of the most entertaining travel documentaries I'd ever seen. I promptly went out and bought the DVD and the book.

Fast forward a year and the double-act were back on board their motorbikes, this time traversing the globe from top to bottom -- from John O'Groats at the northernmost tip of Scotland to Cape Agulhas on the southernmost tip of South Africa -- in a new 15,000-mile adventure being billed as the Long Way Down. The popularity of the first series had obviously paid off for them: this time the trip was being documented on a live website and the resultant TV series was being screened on BBC 2 during prime time Sunday night viewing.

'Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)' by Cathie Black

Non-fiction - hardcover; Crown Business; 304 pages; 2007. REVIEW COPY.

Books about management are not normally my cup of tea. But when this one by Cathie Black, president of New York-based Hearst Magazines, was offered to me for review I couldn't resist. In my day job I'm a magazine editor, so I thought it would be interesting to find out about the business from another perspective and to see whether I could learn anything from Black's rise to the top.

Billed as "a memoir masquerading as a guide to career and life", Basic Black isn't a chronological account of Cathie's career. Although she provides plenty of anecdotes about the various roles she's had in the past -- from ad sales on Holiday to president of a fledgling USA Today -- this book is more about dispelling words of wisdom on how to successfully live a "360 Life", one that that balances work and play, rather than an autobiography.

Packed with great practical advice and written in a friendly, accessible and chatty style, Basic Black is an entertaining, effortless read.  But I'm not sure it was pitched at someone of my age and experience, as I found most of the tips too obvious. Doesn't everyone know that being passionate about what you do, going the extra mile and being prepared for all outcomes will serve you well in your career?

That said, I'm sure this book would be perfect for that 20-something female just starting out in the workforce, maybe even an undergraduate preparing for their first job interview. It certainly would have been of interest when I was first starting out, even if it was simply to reinforce my own ideas about how to get ahead in business.

But even if you don't work in the media or couldn't care less about moving up the career ladder, there's plenty of enjoyable anecdotes within the pages of this well-laid out book to keep you reading on. I found a lot of Cathie's stories completely fascinating, but then I'm always interested in the things that people do and say in this game called magazine publishing that I love so much...

'The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary' by Ambrose Bierce

Humour - paperback; Penguin Classics; 336 pages; 2001. REVIEW COPY.

Remember my post about Blog a Penguin Classic? I was one of the lucky ones who registered with the site and a couple of weeks later received a free book on the condition I'd read and review it within six weeks.

With the six-week deadline fast approaching, I decided it was time I actually cracked open the book and took a proper look at it. The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, written by 19th century journalist Ambrose Bierce, is not something you would normally sit down and read cover to cover, unless, of course, you have a penchant for reading dictionaries in their entirety. As much as I love using dictionaries -- I couldn't do my day job or the majority of my blog posts without access to one -- I'm not so nerdy about words that I would take something like this to bed with me for a little light reading. That would feel too much like hard work, right?

However, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary is not your usual run-of-the-mill dictionary. It's a full-scale satire -- and despite being written more than 100 years ago it contains some very funny entries as Bierce makes light work of religion, marriage, politics and society. Here are some of my favourites:

'The Chemistry of Death' by Simon Beckett

Fiction - paperback; Bantam; 438 pages; 2007. REVIEW COPY.

It's been a long time since I've read a straightforward crime thriller that delivers the right ingredients to keep me turning the pages: strong characterisation, a sympathetic narrator, a claustrophobic setting, a smattering of gruesomeness and fear, lots of dark secrets, a good plot and plenty of twists, turns and red herrings to keep me guessing all the way to the end. Simon Beckett's Chemistry of Death certainly ticks all the right boxes.

Set in rural Norfolk, it tells the story of a young widowed GP, Dr David Hunter, who has a secret past: he was once a forensic anthropologist but gave it all away following the death of his wife and young daughter in a car accident. Now living a new life in a small village, Dr Hunter is dragged back to the past when two local children stumble upon the decomposing body of a woman in the woods. The police seek his help to determine the time of death and before he knows it, he is completely embroiled in their investigation. It looks like there is no way out when a second body -- and then a third -- is discovered a short time later...

'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' by John Boyne

Fiction - paperback; Definitions; 224  pages; 2007.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is one of those commercially successful cross-over books, originally written for children but now read by adults, that has been lauded by the critics and nominated for countless awards. It even has its own wikipedia entry.

I knew little about the book when I bought it, save that it was about the Holocaust and was written by an Irishman. The blurb on the back gave even less away:

The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence.

'Race to Dakar' by Charley Boorman

Non-fiction - hardcover; Little, Brown Book Group; 320 pages; 2006.

As I write, the 2007 Dakar Rally is in full swing. It is the world's most gruelling and challenging off-road endurance race for motorised vehicles. One motorcyclist, South African Elmer Symons, has already died in this year's race and last year's claimed the life of Australian Andy Caldecott.

So when actor Charley Boorman finished the 20,000 mile road trip from London to New York (the long way round via Russia) with his best mate Ewan McGregor in 2004, the Dakar Rally seemed like the next logical challenge. But, as Charley was soon to realise, there's a big difference between riding a route you've organised yourself to racing along one that has been designed to test your off-road navigational skills, your physical capabilities and your mental strength to their absolute limits. It has often been compared to climbing Everest or sailing around the world it is such a difficult feat to achieve.

'Christine Falls' by Benjamin Black

Fiction - hardcover; Picador; 384  pages; 2006.

It's no secret that the author of this book, Benjamin Black, is actually Booker prize-winning novelist John Banville in disguise. Which partly explains why I rushed out and bought this in hardcover. I'm a longtime Banville fan and was intrigued as to how he would handle the crime genre given he's largely made his name on the back of (high brow) literary fiction.

Christine Falls is certainly an intriguing and arresting read. I might have been holed up in my sick bed at the time, but I think my reaction would have been the same regardless: I just could not bear to put this book down and finished it in one sitting.

Essentially the story, which is set in 1950s Dublin, is about a pathologist, the love-worn Quirke, who discovers a colleague, Griffin, altering a file to cover up the cause of death of a young woman called Christine Falls. Seeking to discover the real cause of the woman's death, Quirke finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy, which involves not only Griffin but the upper echelons of Dublin society and the Catholic Church. Its tentacles stretch across the Atlantic to New England, and goes back several generations. The closer Quirke gets to unravelling this conspiracy, the more dangerous his investigation becomes and before long he's being warned off in no uncertain terms.

'A Wild Ride up the Cupboards' by Ann Bauer

Fiction - paperback; Scribner; 283  pages; 2006. REVIEW COPY.

This emotionally charged story is about a young mother’s struggle to keep her marriage alive and her family together when her eldest son, four-year-old Edward, withdraws from the world.

Heavily pregnant with her third child, Rachel, is deeply upset about Edward’s inexplicable illness, in which he loses the ability to speak, goes through periods of hyperactivity and suffers from severe insomnia.

Together with her husband, Jack, an itinerant worker whom she met in college, Rachel does everything in her power to find a cure for their young son, even resorting to the highly controversial practice of feeding him marijuana tea. Later they try an unusual physical therapy, which they believe reaps results.

Meanwhile, Rachel, delves into her family history, looking for any genetic clues that might help solve the riddle of Edward’s undiagnosed illness, thought to be a form of autism. But through the years, the stresses of Edward’s problems, has drastic repercussions on the rest of the family.

While Rachel buries herself in her freelance journalism work, Jack, now a policeman, loses himself in the bottom of a bottle. Breaking point is not far behind...