Book Reviews

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Sat, 5 Jul 2008 07:42:00 GMT

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Book Review - by Khaled Hosseini - Step into the shoes of two Afghan women.

Home: Book Reviews : Literature and Fiction : A Thousand Splendid Suns Step into the shoes of two Afghan women. Like Hosseini?s first novel, The Kite Runner, his second, A Thousand Splendid Suns, follows the path of telling stories about Afghanistan
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 07:42:00 GMT

'Telex From Cuba'

In the early 1950s, a doll called Scribbles shook up the toy industry. Her face had no features of its own but could be sketched on with a special marker, washed clean and drawn on again. Creepy as this may sound, shes a handy metaphor for creating a
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 06:57:00 GMT

Book Review: The Post-American World

EVERY 20 YEARS OR SO, THE END of America is predicted. The received wisdom these days is that the much-hyped 'great power shift' toward Asia will do the trick and turn the United States into a has-been. Fareed Zakaria begs to differ. Yes, he p oints out,
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 03:54:00 GMT

Book Review: Journey to Nowhere: One Woman Looks for the Promised Land

Journey to Nowhere: One Woman Looks for the Promised Land Granta Books, 184pp, £14.99 Review by TOM ADAIR EVA FIGES IS ESSENTIALLY A NOVelist, one whose characteristic clarity makes her tales both engaging and piquant. Journey to Nowhere marks a
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 03:54:00 GMT

Book Review: Fire in the night: The Piper Alpha disaster

FIRE IN THE NIGHT: The Piper Alpha Disaster Macmillan, 288pp, £17.99 Review by GEORGE ROSIE FOR SCOTLAND AT LEAST, THE late 1980s were dominated by two truly awful events. One was the Lockerbie bombing of December 1989 which ended the lives of mo re
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 03:54:00 GMT

Book Review: House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James

House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family by Paul FisherLittle, Brown, 704pp, 16.99Review by LESLEY McDOWELL SO MANY QUESTIONS, SO FEW answers: the life of Henry James, a writer who specialised in ambiguity both personally and
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 03:54:00 GMT

Book Review: The seven lives of John Murray

THE SEVEN LIVES OF JOHN MURRAY John Murray, 384pp, £25 Review by ALLAN MASSIE THIS HISTORY OF ONE OF THE most remarkable of publishing houses, run by members of the same family for 134 years appears under its familiar imprint, but this is misleading.
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 03:53:00 GMT

Book Review: The forsaken-from the Great Depression to the Gulags: Hope and Betrayal in Stalin's Russia

American and Soviet workers at a baseball game in Gorky Park, 1934 â?? but early optimism soon evaporated under Stalin's Terror. THE FORSAKEN â?? FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION TO THE GULAGS: HOPE AND BETRAYAL IN STALIN'S RUSSIA Little, Brown,
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 03:53:00 GMT

Family bookclub: The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods

Page 1 of 2 In the magical world of Twig, the bark's worse than the fright, finds Christopher Middleton Family bookclub: reader notes It all began with a map: a strange, three-dimensional sort of chart that showed a gigantic promontory of land jutting
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Questioning a transexual friend

Diane Purkiss reviews Becoming Drusilla: One Life, Two Friends, Three Genders by Richard Beard How big is the change from man to woman? Becoming Drusilla is a brave and intelligent book, because it is not so much an attempt to answer that question, but
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Forgotten treasure from Brazil

Kasia Boddy reviews The Diary of 'Helena Morley' by Elizabeth Bishop In 1952 the American poet Elizabeth Bishop moved to Brazil to live with her lover, Lota de Macedo Soares. For nearly 20 years, she immersed herself in Brazilian culture and eventually
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Hot ticket: Ways with Words

Sam Leith looks forward to the Ways With Words Festival at Dartington Hall, Devon Imagine yourself in a deckchair on a sunny lawn in a beautiful courtyard - a cooling spritzer in one hand, a wonderful book (signed to you by its author) in another, and
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

[Book Review] 'On the Lower Frequencies'

Subtitled ',' this collection of material from the photocopied zines 'Scam' and 'Turd-Filled Donut' covers Erick Lyle's life as a grassroots musician and activist during the final years of the 20th and opening years of the 21st centuries. Lyle train hops
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:11:00 GMT

The Woes of A Child Soldier [book review]

HOW do you forgive terrible crimes committed against you, and by you? The blood diamond-fuelled war from 1991 to 2002 left Sierra Leone in pandemonium with about 50,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. A Long Way Gone is a gripping first-hand
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 07:42:00 GMT

'Beijing Coma'

Ma Jians new novel, Beijing Coma, reads like a curious amalgam of Jung Changs epic Wild Swans (about three generations of her Chinese family), Jean-Dominique Baubys memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (about the authors life before and after a
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:42:00 GMT

Book review: The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki

When he sat down to write The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki ? software company founder, venture capitalist, and former chief ?evangelist? (promoter) for Apple Computers ? made the assumption that anyone wanting to start a new enterprise does not
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:37:00 GMT

Book review: The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki

When he sat down to write The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki ? software company founder, venture capitalist, and former chief ?evangelist? (promoter) for Apple Computers ? made the assumption that anyone wanting to start a new enterprise does not
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:13:00 GMT

Book Review of Recent Research Developments in Heterocyclic Chemistry, 2007

If first impressions are important, this volume gets off to a bad start. For example, the first sentences of Chapter 1 (on chiral aziridines) are riddled with misspellings, e.g., azirididines, mitomicyn, mytomicin, and Tamyflu, errors in syntax, and
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 05:40:00 GMT

Book Review of Handbook of RAFT Polymerization

Reversible additionfragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization has only been developed over the past decade, but has quickly found wide application in polymer synthesis, spawning many new polymer compositions, architectures, and materials. The
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 05:40:00 GMT

Fancy Pants - by Cathy Marie Hake

by Cathy Marie Hake Woman poses as man to escape arranged marriage. Lady Sydney Hathwell travels to America to see if Hume is the man she wants to marry. But he wants her to marry him and let him keep a mistress. He only wants her for her title. Her
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 05:10:00 GMT

A Thousand Splendid Suns - by Khaled Hosseini

by Khaled Hosseini Step into the shoes of two Afghan women. Like Hosseini's first novel, The Kite Runner, his second, , follows the path of telling stories about Afghanistan through the eyes of native Afghans. However, this story follows the lives of
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 05:09:00 GMT

Paperbacks: The Lodger, by Charles Nicholl

Search Search Go Independent.co.uk Web Bookmark & Share In 1612, 'one Mr Shakespeare' gave some boring evidence in a small-claims case about an unpaid dowry in his former landlord's family. From this, the playwright's sole recorded speech as himself,
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:43:00 GMT

Paperbacks: And Now On Radio 4, by Simon Elmes

Search Search Go Independent.co.uk Web Bookmark & Share If Radio 4 defines the nation ? or a certain section of it ? what defines Radio 4? This neat little guide is as good an explanation as any, by an author who is steeped in the BBC. While the
Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:43:00 GMT

Funny bones

JOKES under communism were not just a welcome contrast to the dreariness of everyday life; they also helped undermine it. For example. How do you deal with mice in the Kremlin? Put up a sign saying collective farm. Then half the mice will starve and the
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 18:46:00 GMT

Mount Lebanons children

ELDERLY persons are a treasure we squander in cajoleries and blandishments, laments Amin Maalouf as he explores the history of his Lebanese family without the benefit of the memories of the old aunts and cousins he had never thought to interrogate until
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 18:46:00 GMT

Book Review: Marching Toward Hell

Marching Toward Hell ? America and Islam after Iraq. Michael Scheuer. Free Press (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2008. Michael Scheuer?s new work ?Marching Toward Hell? is very clear with its overall purpose of exposing where American interests
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 06:57:00 GMT

Video Field Production and Editing (7th Edition) - Book Review - by Ronald J. Compesi - Your answer to video field production and editing help.

Home: Book Reviews : Professional and Technical : Video Field Production and Editing (7th Edition) Buy the Book: Your answer to video field production and editing help. Anyone looking for video field production and editing tips and hints, look no
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 05:50:00 GMT

Lucky Monkey, Unlucky Monkey - Book Review - by James Kaczman - A comparison between two monkeys' day provides an interesting portrayal of life.

Home: Book Reviews : Childrens Books : Lucky Monkey, Unlucky Monkey Buy the Book: A comparison between two monkeys' day provides an interesting portrayal of life. Lucky Monkey, Unlucky Monkey, by James Kaczman, is a uniquely fun and entertaining book.
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 05:50:00 GMT

The Dangerous Alphabet - Book Review - by Neil Gaiman - Travel with two children through their adventure with the alphabet.

Home: Book Reviews : Childrens Books : The Dangerous Alphabet Buy the Book: Travel with two children through their adventure with the alphabet. Neil Gainman?s The Dangerous Alphabet is certainly a peculiar idea. First, the illustrations of the book are
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 05:50:00 GMT

Lickety-Split - Book Review - by Robert Heidbreder - A fun and phonic book to read.

Home: Book Reviews : Childrens Books : Lickety-Split Buy the Book: A fun and phonic book to read. Robert Heidbreder?s Lickety-Split is a fun, enjoyable book. The story is simple, yet still entertaining at the same time. The book?s colorful,
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 05:50:00 GMT