Anyone else NOT surprised in the least......?

RIP Sir Patrick Stewart (13 July 1940 – 28 October 2026).

Jeeeze.... Is there a Star Trek Curse we don't know about! He was quite a change of starship captain but he definitely grew on me. FINE acting... "Tell Starfleet we have ENGAGED the Borg" still sends a shiver through me..........   

Just Finished Reading: The Great Wave – The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider by Michiko Kakutani (FP: 2024) [197pp] 

One of the things that has long fascinated me is periods of transition, those eras when it seems that everything changed. Of course, things are changing constantly (at least in modern times), and some change is only perceived in hindsight but there are times like the Renaissance or Industrial Revolution when time itself seems to speed up. I have held the idea that the present era is just one such time. Frankly I don't know how such a thought could be argued with. It's not just social media and 24-hour news accelerating our perception of events it's the events themselves. 

So, when I saw this book in my Indie bookshop a few months ago, I snapped it up and looked forward to some interesting insights and analysis. I was, however, more than a little disappointed. What the author did – mostly except for a strange and rather boring side quest into her area of expertise in modern Lit Crit – was to catalogue some of the broad changes sweeping the world presumably for those amongst us who haven't been paying attention. She outlines the feeling that most of us have (no doubt) that things are changing and that they are not returning to 'normal' any time soon. The old systems of the post-1945 world have progressively been undermined by outsiders and the consequences of this have magnified and cascaded across political and economic areas. Grassroots activism (aided by breakthroughs in communications technology) and disruptive forces (ditto) have increasingly made the slow moving and slow adapting support structures creak audibly to anyone who is listening. Attempts to cope with these factors increases their effects causing further disruptive change. All of this gives fast thinking outsiders from across the spectrum the opportunity to use the right fulcrum in the right place at the right time to significantly change things. 

Of course, most of this should be obvious to those watching any decent new channel. Things are indeed changing and people are taking advantage of the opportunities presented by that change. But if you want to understand exactly WHY that change is happening and why it's happening the way it is... then you might want to read something else. Whilst the author does do a creditable job of cataloguing the changes – mostly in the USA to be honest – she doesn't move much beyond that - apart from a few interesting brief flashbacks to broadly similar disruptive historic eras - which is what I was looking for. Not a total waste of my time but overall rather disappointing. 

As I all too often say.... Giant rocks falling from the sky made us what we are today.... 

Hail to the Chief (2) 

As this is my first update for FIVE years (!) I think you can honestly say that my 'Reading the Presidents' is not going well... But, saying that, I am being slowly inspired (or should I say shamed?) by Stephen over at Reading Freely who has taken Presidential reading to his heart – BIG STYLE! So... I have made a few additions and have a few more in the pipeline. I'm expected to get to ONE this year and a few more next. Promises, promises... 

General 

The Myth of the Strong Leader – Political Leadership in the Modern Age by Archie Brown 

The American Presidency – A Very Short Introduction by Charles O Jones 

The Forever War – America's Unending Conflict With Itself by Nick Bryant 

Ronald Reagan (40) 20th January 1981 – 20th January 1989 

1983 – The World at the Brink by Taylor Downing 

Richard M Nixon (37) 20th January 1969 – 9th August 1974 

All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward 

John F Kennedy (35) 20th January 1961 – 22nd November 1963 

One Minute to Midnight – Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs 

Franklin D Roosevelt (32) 4th March 1933 – 12th April 1945 

Franklin and Winston – An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham 

Whilst still FAR from anything to write home about this is a (slightly) better place that last time. What I need is more focus and more actual biographies rather than books which simply included Presidential history. We'll see where we are in 12 months and go from there... The only way is UP. 

RIP: Walter Marvin Koenig (September 14, 1936 – October 25, 2026).

Just Finished Reading: The Attack by Yasmina Khadra (FP: 2005) [257pp] 

Tel Aviv, Israel. They heard the explosion from the hospital so had already started preparing for the casualties before they arrived. Dr Amin Jaafie saved lives that day but lost some too. The bomb had done its work well. The restaurant had been destroyed and 11 people including children lay dead. Exhausted by the time he returned home he barely had time to register that his wife had not yet returned from visiting her mother before he fell into a deep dreamless sleep. Only hours later the phone rang asking, ordering, him back to the hospital in the early hours of the morning. His wife had been found dead at the bombsite. Before he could even process the news, he was told that her wounds were consistent with those of a suicide bomber. His wife of 15 years was responsible for the attack. With that one call Dr Jaafie's world began to fall apart. How could she do this? How could she have become radicalised without him knowing or realising? Who had changed her and how could she leave him in such a way? Despite the warnings from the authorities, he was going to find the answers to these questions no matter the cost. But Dr Jaafie is unprepared for the answers he will find. His secular lifestyle and insulation from the realities of the region and its history of conflict are about to be called into question like never before. 

As usual I picked this up around 20 years ago because it 'looked different' and then, again as usual, it sat in a pile of books untouched until recently. I had a fair idea what to expect from the blurb but honestly didn't expect how intense it turned out to be. Dr Jaafie is a great character. His world falls apart organically after the initial shock so it's not hard to feel every emotion he goes through from confused denial to grief to anger to self-destructive rage. It is not a pleasant journey for him or for the reader! Being initially isolated from the conflict he comes to it as the reader does – partially informed (or misinformed) - and slowly uncovers the reality of life for Arabs under occupation. The well drawn characters he meets along the way – from extended family members to hardened terrorists are all nuanced with realistic backstories and motivations. Not once did I roll my eyes or find myself ejected from the narrative. These people were real. Likewise, the situation 'on the ground' and the environment Dr Jaafie moved through felt like watching an in-depth documentary or well researched docudrama. 

As you might imagine from this brief overview (and especially with the ongoing genocide in Gaza) this is not a read for the faint of heart. Apart from the rollercoaster of emotions the doctor goes through as he investigates his wife's death this is very much about the costs and consequences of terrorism in all of its bloody reality. It is, however, a far, far cry from a sensationalist thriller. It hits HARD but is worth the emotional capital you'll need to turn the pages. I can't say that I 'enjoyed' the experience but I'm definitely glad that I finally picked this up to read. More to come from this author – that's a given. 

Translated from the French by John Cullen.    

Happy Birthday: Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723) was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch art, science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. Van Leeuwenhoek is best known for his pioneering work in microscopy and for his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline.

Raised in Delft, Dutch Republic, Van Leeuwenhoek worked as a draper in his youth and founded his own shop in 1654. He became well-recognized in municipal politics and developed an interest in lensmaking. In the 1670s, he started to explore microbial life with his microscope.

Using single-lensed microscopes of his own design and make, Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and to experiment with microbes, which he originally referred to as dierkens, diertgens or diertjes. He was the first to relatively determine their size. Most of the "animalcules" are now referred to as unicellular organisms, although he observed multicellular organisms in pond water. He was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, red blood cells, and crystals in gouty tophi, and was among the first to see blood flow in capillaries. Although Van Leeuwenhoek did not write any books, he described his discoveries in chaotic letters to the Royal Society, which published many of his letters in their Philosophical Transactions.