July 2013 (a bit late)

July 2013:
Yoni Sacred Games by Vikram Choudry
I was amazed when I first read this exciting Indian detective novel. It presents a side of India which is rarely discussed and only now is being written about. This book was an opening to his work and since this novel I have read everything he has written and much modern Indian fiction besides. It is a longish novel, but can be read quite quickly. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did. If you enjoy this then it's fast forward to "a suitable boy" by Vikram Seth the longest novel written in English!

Noam: A walk in the woods Bill Bryson. this is of course, a result of our recent visit to the Smokies. In his usual style Bryson begins with the optimistic aim of walking the whole AT. He tells the story in a way which could be likened to listening to Ian and me chatting about something we did when we were younger, but done brilliantly by Bryson. I know you will love it.

June 2013

Noam:
Len Deighton, Bomber.

This is a rather straightforward story, told with outstanding skill of the everyday horror of fighting a war. The book details a single bomber mission over Germany and the crew who must risk their lives to complete it, This book struck me all the more as you and Yoni , in another age, would have been in this position. The sheer fear of the raid and the crews "who don't come back" every night. Even in what is still seen as a just war, on an individual basis, there is an internal struggle with fear as much as an external one with the enemy. Deighton is a master story teller you will really enjoy this. The companion volume, fighter is out of print I will bring you my copy in June.

Yonatan
FatherLand.

I read this about 15 years ago and found it really chilling. ON the face of it it is a simple detective story but the plot is set against a Germany that won World War 2, where Hitler is now an old man and America never entered the war (a bit like the isolationists and  Pat Buchanan wanted to happen). The story twists and turns as details emerge from history which have been suppressed by the totalitarian government. There are a number of novels which use this theme, but this is by far the best.

May 2013

Noam: the double helix (new annotated edition).

Noam, you asked for non-fiction history of science, and this is the mother of them. The real story of the discovery of DNA structure, by 2 young researchers, in Cambridge. This is how real science used to bE done before anyone really knew anything and there were huge gaps in our knowledge. I think there  is an essay by Aaron Klug in this edition, about the role of Rosalind Franklin.

Yoni: Master and Commander

Well, you knew we would get there eventually if you like this one the box set will have to wait for your birthday! These books kept me mesmerized for a whole year, I could not put them down. I will probably reread them all. They are without a doubt the best historically accurate  adventure fiction ever written. I am not the only one who thinks this either, half the most famous current authors think so as well.

"Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series of historical novels has been described as "a masterpiece" (David Mamet, New York Times), "addictively readable" (Patrick T. Reardon, Chicago Tribune), and "the best historical novels ever written" (Richard Snow, New York Times Book Review), which "should have been on those lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century" (George Will)."

April:
Noam- why e=mc2 and does anybody care
Brian Cox
This guy is great, he frequently does a BBC radio show and is hilarious, and he works at CERN. Which in itself is rather remarkable. This is a great book which I honk that you will really enjoy.

Yoni: the hare with amber eyes
I first heard this guy, who is a famous potter, as a podcast from Jewish book week. This is his family story, partly about the very rich Jews of Vienna, partly about the holocaust but it is really a great story.

March

Noam, Berlin Noir:

The Bernie Gunther Trilogy by Philip Kerr
It is 1936 and we are in Nazi era Berlin, the olympic games are about to start, the Jewish population is waking up to a new reality.  Detective fiction at its very best...
The trilogy spans the war years and gives a grimy and bleak picture of life in wartime Berlin for ordinary people.  These are wonderful books, it took the author, Philip Kerr, another 14 years before he wrote the next one in the series. I read them a few years ago, loved the dark picture as he paints the struggle of an otherwise decent detective.



Yoni
Going Postal:

No explanations needed: There is a new TV series on Amazon prime for 9.90, read the books first. Discworld is a wonderful place.

February 2013

Yonatan:
Dissolution: J. Sansom
This book spent a long time on my wish list, several years in fact. It was a real revelation when I got around to reading it. It is a book of a genre which I am sure has existed for years but which I have only recently discovered, historically accurate fiction. This is a detective story set in Tudor England. The protagonist is a hunchbacked lawyer and it involves a number of historical figures and incidents. Later in the series there is even a fleeting Jewish interest. When you finish the first you will ask for the rest.

Noam:
The mind body problem: Rebecca Goldstein

I know you enjoyed the Boltzmann book so I thought you might enjoy this which is a philosophy book wrapped in a novel. Indeed a Jewish philosophy book in a novel. The author is a Professor of philosophy and the daughter of a Rabbi. She has written a book about Spinoza which you might like to read later. The title is a clue that yopu are about to hear a discussion of Descarte's philosophy that there is a distinction between body and mind, something that materialists like me don't really accept.
I throughly enjoyed this and I am sure you will as well.

January 2013

I had originally discussed this concept with Yoni, who asked me to pick fiction over non-fiction. On his recent visit home, Noam expressed an interest in popular science reading..

Noam:
The mold on Dr. Florey's coat.
The history of the discovery of Penicillin and its later development has long been an interest of mine. It is a truly fascinating story because the well known version is clearly a fabrication and the real workers, for the most part, went unrewarded while Fleming the great showman, was lauded throughout the world.  Others, before Fleming had noticed the effects of certain molds on bacteria and Flemings original paper does describe this effect in some detail but clearly the chemistry was too much for him. There is no doubt he was a great microbiologist, he had after all discovered lysozyme earlier but the amount of adulation poured on hime was out of all proportion to his single paper with an observation which had already been made by Lister and others. /rant

This book describes the real work, isolating the strains which produced the most antibiotic, purification and scale-up to mass production told in an extremely entertaining way.


Yonatan:

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Gosh.
I told you that there would be a lot of historical fiction:-
It is the eve of the opium wars and a strange collection of people are washed ashore after their ship sinks. Not only are the characters well drawn but there is a wealth of information about the true heart of darkness of the Great British Empire.
I just happened upon this book on a display at the central library and loved it. There is a sequel which is every bit as good.


Enjoy...