Black, white and read all over...

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Read a lot this year, as you do with so much extra time and without the criteria of ‘something escapist for the tube’. Think that this might be interesting for me only to look back on but do have, any case it is of interest to anyone short of something to read, a top five to recommend!


Top Five Reads: (in no order)


The Gate - Francois Bizot
Written twenty years after his personal experience as a tortured captive of Khmer Rouge and then last days of the French embassy in Phnom Penh, absolute gripping yarn that you have to keep reminding yourself that these things actually happened to this bloke and it is not a John Le Carre style thriller. As an overview of period of the Cambodian conflict and genocide, including its origins in colonialism and the impact of the neighbouring American/Vietnam War, it reads as a much more balanced (less Western biased) and considered account.

Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
Another fascinating tale that is hard to believe actually happened. Great for understanding the evolution of the white apartheid state and its policies - and as an almost organic ebb and flow of action and response; the rise, development and eventual success of the anti-apartheid, one man-one vote movement. Clearly a triumph too that it was written (in the main) while he was in prison. Overwhelmingly though has to be the revelations within his thoughts and explanations of his actions that show what a remarkable human being Mandela is - full of optimism, compassion, determination and courage.

Weather Makers - Tim Flannery
Straight forward yet amazingly colourful and compelling introduction and overview to climate change, from origins to its current and future impact around the world. Think I can recall on the front of the book there’s a review quote that says “Indiana Jones meets Darwin” - pretty spot on. If I usually buy you Christmas gifts, you can expect this for 2009, unless you get in there first!

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
Long but exciting based-on-some-truth fiction about an escaped armed robber from Australia who starts to rebuild his life in the slums of Mumbai (which is where the story begins). Lots of Hollywood style encounters with no-good-ers, including the law, as he rejoins the criminal world, India style. Kept less predictable with engaging characters from the slums, a roller coaster love interest and gripping paternal relationship with the mafia don. Felt, smelt and sounded real as read it in India (bit like watching Slum Dog Millionaire in Calcutta)

Nicolas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
Making sure I take the opportunity to read something I never have/normally would… you never know what you might miss out on, etc. Great yarn and much more entertaining than I expected Dicken’s deliberately used humour to make people aware and outraged at the terrible goings on at education facilities in Blighty at the time (boys beaten and dying) and that this book was hugely powerful in influencing opinion and therefore reforms. What I hadn’t expected was the broader picture of English society that had enlightening parallels with many places we visited e.g. everyday practices of sexual inequality, lack of welfare provision, use of servants/porters, etc.


Also:

The Ghost - Robert Harris
Down Under - Bill Bryson
Rabit Proof Fence - Doris Pilkington Garimara
Natural History of Crocodiles - ?
Buddah - Deepak Chopra
Thousand Splendid Suns - Khalid Housini
Edmund Hilary - View from the Summit
Russia House - John Le Carre
Richard Branson - Business Stripped Bare
Pool and it’s role in Asian Communism - Colin Totterall
Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet - Benjamin Hoff
Murder of Quality - John Le Carre
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
Ho Chi Minh, a Journey - Lady Burton
The Audacity of Hope - Barrack Obhama
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
A Passage to India - E. M. Forrester
The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein
A Most Wanted Man - John Le Carre
The Adventures of Shelock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters - Gordon Dahlquist
Coraline - Neil Gaman
The Light of Day - Graham Swift
Money - Martin Amis
Arctic Drift - Clive Cussler
The Rough Guide to Climate Change - Robert Henson
You Are Here - Bremner, Bird and Fortune
The Revenge of Gaia - James Lovelock
The Earth - Martin Redfern
Six Degrees - Mark Lynas
Under African Skies - Misc.
Wikinomics - Tapscott and Williams
Emma’s War - Deborah Scroggins

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