Just Finished Reading: Spynest – British and German Espionage From Neutral Holland 1914-1918 by Edwin Ruis (FP: 2012) [239pp] 

Spies are apparently the second oldest profession but the kind of espionage we easily associate with World War Two was very new during the Great War. Part of the problem was, it seemed, that “Gentlemen do not read each other's letters”. So, what is a covert organisation to do? Hire, use or otherwise acquire people who are most definitely NOT gentlemen to do the dirty work for you. In both the case of the Germans and the British, and indeed the Dutch who kept an eye on both parties as they operated in their country, they employed conmen, swindlers, thieves and, when required, prostitutes. Very few of these would be considered ‘professional’ spies in the modern sense. What we now regard as such is a surprisingly modern arrival. 

Needless to say, such people were anything but reliable – either they simply took the money on offer and ran or reported back with completely or partially fabricated ‘information’. They were, as a class, either practically useless or positively harmful. Such activities couldn’t really last and, after much trial and error, a more professional organisation – on all sides began to emerge using military and ex-police as operatives although a thief or professional burglar still had their uses. 

The Dutch position was an interesting one. Unlike in the Second World War Holland remained unoccupied and neutral. They knew that their neutrality was somewhat fragile and made great efforts to neither antagonise the Central Powers or the Triple Entante. They did, however, have their favourite. It was considered that Germany posed the greater threat to their sovereignty despite a sometimes-adversarial history with Great Britain. In both cases they made a simple deal – share your findings with us (the Dutch) and don’t use violence on our streets and you can do as you please (within reason). The British accepted the deal with pleasure, the Germans were much more reluctant and suffered for it. It was over the war period a difficult balancing act – especially as both the British and Germans used Dutch nationals in their endeavours to spy and counter-spy on each other but the alternative was far more dangerous. They had Belgium, their next-door neighbour, as an example of what might happen if their neutrality went up in flames. 

As I knew almost nothing about Great War espionage (or, to be honest, the role of Holland in the war) this was often a most interesting read. A few things surprised me including just how amateur espionage was in the early years of the war. The other thing that really struck me was the number of spies executed in England – by firing squad at the Tower of London no less!  - for often very minor spying activity. What was clear from the outset was that Germany wasn’t very good at the whole spying game and their efforts generally fell flat (as they did by and large in the re-match 20 years later). The Brits, eventually, go their act together although overall espionage didn’t (apparently) account for very much in the end. A fairly quick read and (often) quite the eye-opener. More on this subject – from those involved – to come. Recommended for those interested in early espionage and who like reading around the edges of the World Wars. 

Happy Birthday: Takeshi Kitano (born January 18, 1947), also known as Beat Takeshi in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host.

During his time as a student at Meiji University, he became a comedian at the strip theater France-za in Asakusa, Tokyo. In 1973, he formed a comedy duo called Two Beat with Kiyoshi Kaneko, who later became Beat Kiyoshi. Kitano adopted the stage name Beat Takeshi. Riding the wave of the comedy boom, he gained popularity with satirical and sharp-tongued black humor. In the 1980s, he appeared in TV shows such as Oretachi Hyōkin-zoku which recorded the highest viewership rating of 29.1%, and Takeshi's Castle which recorded 24.7%, becoming explosively popular on television. He gained recognition as an actor in director Nagisa Ōshima's film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). In 1989, he made his directorial debut with the film Violent Cop after Kinji Fukasaku stepped down. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film Hana-bi (1997), becoming the third Japanese director to receive this honor after Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda. He is also known internationally for hosting the game show Takeshi's Castle (1986–1990) and starring in the film Battle Royale (2000).

Takeshi co-starred in the live action adaptation of the manga Ghost in the Shell, marking his return to American cinema nearly twenty years after Johnny Mnemonic in 1995. Although he has expressed his dislike of anime and manga in the past, he accepted the role because "even though this stylish piece of entertainment is totally different from the films I've directed, I thought it was interesting that Aramaki, the role I play, is a character who gives off a peculiar vibe and, in various episodes, is set at the core of the characters' relationships. I'm looking forward to see how the movie turns out."

Just Finished Reading: How to Survive a Crisis – Lessons in Resilience and Avoiding Disaster by David Omand (FP: 2023/2024) [315pp] 

Crisis seems to be THE word of the 21st century, be it economic, environmental or political. Crisis is everywhere and those without direct experience of its effects are becoming quite the rarity. But if crisis is becoming more common, which seems to be the case, what can be done about it? This is the question raised, and largely addressed, in this interesting book. Somewhat disappointingly, however, it doesn’t look at things from the street level as I’d hoped. Instead, the author, who REALLY knows his stuff, looks at crisis survival from the level of governments and business leaders which is understandable given his expertise. 

Despite the disappointment I felt on putting the book down I did find many parts of it quite fascinating. Not only did the author range over a huge landscape of crisis after crisis – from nuclear accidents (and near misses), to various wars (Indo-China, Vietnam, the Falklands, Ukraine, Iraq/Afghanistan), Covid-19, Cyber-attacks, depressions and supply chain failures, Brexit, and much else besides – he was actually ‘in the room’ for some of it actually advising the UK government and other agencies about how they should cope with an emergency (to avoid it becoming a crisis), how to clean up afterwards or how to prepare for things ahead of a crisis.  

As you might imagine a lot of this was high-level and theoretical, calling on real-world events where applicable. The author worked through the ‘arc’ of a crisis pointing out break points, areas of opportunity when an emergency could be prevented from becoming a full-blown crisis and most definitely not a disaster! He looked at ways that organisations and states could increase their resilience to weather the initial shock so enabling them to respond to events in a co-ordinated planned manner. He looked at the difference between a slow-burn crisis and one that arrives completely out of the ‘blue’ and how to monitor the slower burning one so it doesn’t end up sneaking up on you. To drive the points home, at the end of each chapter are ‘takeaways’ to enable the building of plans and strategies to cope with, recover from and (hopefully) avoid any crisis coming our way. 

Although this was more interesting than useful this was still worth the effort of reading. The main themes of watching for the often overlooked slow-burn crisis and the building up of resilience (in practical terms as well as psychologically) are important ones that can be applied even down at ‘our’ level at the individual shallow end. If you’re a member of a larger organisation, and most especially if you’re involved in any kind of support role, there are many lessons that can be taken on board here and applied to your profession. One of the things I did find particularly interesting – with several crisis events ongoing – was regarding media use. Seeing/hearing various organisations using the playbook the author mentioned when using various types of media was instructive especially when hearing the same type of language used by very different organisations dealing with apparently very different circumstances. Recommended for a number of reasons.  

Happy World Logic Day............... Yeah, good luck with that... [lol]

I'm old enough to remember 'life' before remote control. It was the age of the smallest kid in the room being tasked to change channel at an order from the parent (or older sibling). Kids of today have NO idea what it was like back then.... THREE channels and if you missed the show or showed up late you missed it - FOR EVER...... 

Just Finished Reading: The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan (FP: 2021) [303pp] 

It was an invitation out of the blue. After two years, after the trauma, Felicity was back in touch and with her usual flamboyant style. She was celebrating her birthday and wanted to get the gang back together, her closest friends, the Wild Girls. But this wouldn’t be just any celebration, she was really pushing the boat out. This was going to be an all-expenses paid safari in Botswana! How could her friends possibly refuse – despite being a teacher, despite being a young mother, despite being desperate and broke... One by one each of her friends replied with a positive and then started talking to each other again. Maybe this was the start of them all getting their lives back on track, maybe each of them could now start putting the past behind them. Maybe... Although one of them had other ideas, one of them had decided to bury the past for good – along with her so-called friends. 

Over the last 5 years or more I’ve been picking up the odd modern/contemporary thriller/crime novel. What I haven’t been doing, generally, is actually reading them. With the New Year still in sight over my shoulder I thought it was a good time to start. Unfortunately, I started with this one... If I hadn’t already DNFd one book so far this year, this would’ve been my first. But, instead of throwing it across the room towards the nearest bin I gritted my teeth and finished it. Overall, it wasn’t THAT badly written despite a few ‘continuity errors’ I noticed sprinkled throughout the story. What I really didn’t like about the book (or should I say mostly disliked) was the characters – ALL of them. These where a group of four ‘friends’ who had apparently known each other since age 9. Yet, throughout the book they seemed to neither know very much about each other nor to actually LIKE each other all that much. Living inside each of their heads – the PoV was constantly changing as was the move from 1st to 3rd person – even for a short time was both painful and frustrating. One particular bugbear I have in stories is when a character has an important piece of information that can save lives and yet they don’t share it for stupid reasons. Here we had that in spades – repeatedly! Its lucky that my hair has strong roots (even at my age) or I’d be bald around now. 

The scenes in Botswana were particularly annoying as the ‘victims’ struggled to understand what was going on and the danger they were in and repeatedly failed to make even the most basic attempts to protect themselves or survive what was coming at them. If I had been with them at the resort I would’ve happily left them to their fates and left by the simple act of lifting a phone.... [screams in frustration]. Needless to say, I am NOT recommending this and will be dropping off my copy at the local charity shop along with any other books by this author that I might have also bought (I think I *might* have one, but I’m not 100% sure). Hopefully my future reading of contemporary ‘thrillers’ will be better, but we’re definitely not off to a good start!   

Reading Plans for 2025 and Beyond 

Following the Labels   

There’s still far too many label ‘buckets’ that aren’t getting the attention they deserve with more than a few languishing in single figures. I’ll see what I can do about that and might make a seriously targeted effort to increase their base numbers. That will also prompt me to get out of my UK/Europe/US country focus.  

The ‘Knowledge Streams’  

I’ll be continuing looking at what I’ve called ‘knowledge Streams’ - Britain Alone 1939-41, World War to Cold War and USA: WTF. Going forward I’ll be focusing on an issue I know many of us are scratching our heads about these days: WTF is going on with the (mostly western) world presently? This means I’ll be reading more post-1945 history and looking at works that prioritise analysis over simple narrative.       

Rolling the Dice 

To introduce some randomness into my sometimes too controlled/rigid reading I shall continue to roll a pair of dice after every finished book to see if I’ll be adding something ‘different’ to the mix by rolling a double. An even double will add a work of non-fiction whilst rolling an odd double will add a work of fiction.  

Finishing/Progressing Series 

There are still far too many series I’ve started that have stalled for some reason. I finished a few in 2024 and will be attempting to finish a few more this year. It will also give me an excuse, if I needed any, to read more science-fiction.   

Classics and Re-Reads 

I read a LOT of classics last year including 18 novels, 2 collections of short stories, 6 Sherlock Holmes books and a non-fiction! This year I’ll be easing back a bit and will be concentrating on reading my Imperial War Museum WW2 classics. I expect to manage at least 5-6 of them. There will be, naturally, other classics too but I doubt that the total will exceed 10-12 in 2025.    

Deep Dives 

I will, of course, still be deep diving this year. I have a few lined up already starting off with Bombs and Female Spies. There probably won’t be as many as last year as I have quicker more shallow dives lined up too.  

Ukraine – and More 

I’m sure that I’m not alone in hoping that the war in Ukraine would have been over by now. I’ve been accumulating books on the region and the conflict since it started and was hoping that I could look back after the war to discover exactly what it was all about. Hopefully it’ll all be over THIS year but even if it is (or isn’t) I’m going to schedule in at least a few books on the subject. If I’m feeling brave I’ll also read/review a few on Israel/Palestine I have waiting in a pile and if I’m feeling PARTICULARLY brave I might even read/review a book or two on Gender and Identity...!   

BIG Project 

I’ve been accumulating a number of books for a ‘Big’ project I’ve been thinking about for a few years now. It’s nothing really ‘amazing’ of anything and is much more just a bit of fun. I was hoping to start it early this year but that might have to be pushed back a bit. I expect that the ‘output’ should take about 5-6 weeks. 

Coupling 

As my TBR could be called, without too much hyperbole, IMMENSE I’m always looking for ideas of how to organise exactly what I’m going to be reading next. I find that too much random reading doesn’t satisfy something in my psyche so I need *some* organising principle to salve that need. So, I came up with the idea of ‘coupling’. This essentially means that I’m going to match two books together to be read sequentially. They may be two books on the same or similar topic. They may be simply two books with a similar (or sometimes the same!) title or plays on words. You’ve seen a few already with the last coupling being the two books on brains, music and mood altering “plants”. Definitely expect some more like that. Coming up will be 3 classics coupled with much more modern sequels or reinterpretations.  

BIG event 

Towards the end of the year the Blog reaches a significant milestone. I’m not exactly sure presently how I’m going to ‘celebrate’ that event, but one thing I am thinking of is instituting (from that point) a ‘Year of Reading Radically’. What that will *exactly* mean I’m still mulling on. Some thoughts are: more translated works, more reading about areas of the globe I know very little about and climbing out of any of my ruts into completely new areas. I expect to throw in some books that will surprise me as much as it should surprise me.  

I think that lot should keep me busy for another year!   

Happy Birthday: Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur.

Best known as a designer for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, he also developed the Ford GT40 with racing legend Ken Miles, the car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. As of 2024, it remains the only American-built car to win at Le Mans. His and Miles's efforts were dramatized in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Ford v Ferrari.

As a driver, he was a co-driver in winning the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans driving an Aston Martin DBR1 with Roy Salvadori. He also won the 1960 Sports Car Club of America United States Auto Club Road Racing Sports Car Championship in 1960 by winning the round 1 race at Riverside International Raceway driving a Maserati Tipo 61 "Birdcage", and winning round 2 at Continental Divide Raceways driving a Chevrolet Scarab Mark II.

As an entrepreneur he established Shelby American in 1962 to manufacture and market performance vehicles. His autobiography, The Carroll Shelby Story, was published in 1967.

This is ONE (of the many) things that confuses me about US Health insurance - why its tied to a job. Surely it'd be better, more efficient and more logical for it to be tied to the individual. After all they pay for it so where is the job involved? Can any of my American readers explain it to me?

Just Finished Reading: This is Your Mind on Plants – Opium – Caffeine – Mescaline by Michael Pollan (FP: 2021) [247pp] 

This was another of those books that turned out to be not what I expected. Much like my previous book, I was expecting a somewhat scientific discussion about what various drugs/substances did to the human brain and contrasting the effects of two heavily regulated/illegal substances with the all too common one (caffeine!). 

That wasn’t what I got, though I was far from disappointed with the result. Logically the book was split into three sections – one on each ‘drug’. The first was more than a little odd. Essentially it was an upgraded version of an article the author had produced some years previously for Harper's Magazine about the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ and how, as part of that ‘conflict’ the US Government was trying to quietly eliminate the Poppy from American gardens. Fuelled by a misinformation campaign – asserting that opium poppies could not be grown in the US (they can) or that ‘normal’ poppies don’t produce opium (they do in varying quantities) and even prosecuting people who grow colourful flowers in their gardens not realising that they ‘could’ be used for opium production. The author also contrasted this failing war (and all of the ridiculous side effects of controlling seed catalogue contents) with the opioid crisis in no small part caused by ‘legitimate’ drug companies feeding doctors and patients false information about their products. Interesting stuff. The last chapter was broadly similar where the author looked at the strange history of mescaline use in the US and the fight by Native Americans to have access to it for their religious ceremonies. Again, very interesting stuff especially when the author and his wife tried mescaline during such a ceremony. 

As I haven’t taken (nor plan on taking) either substance, the section on caffeine was the most relatable. Rather than taking in the substance, something most of us do on a daily basis, the author tried to wean himself off coffee or tea for a whole three months – something I certainly couldn’t contemplate. The results were VERY interesting to say the least and even more so when he got back on the wagon with some expresso...! His speculation on the effects of coffee (and later tea) on 17th century Western civilisation certainly need more investigation, so I’ll be following up on that. One thing that did make me laugh was about the physical health benefits of the growing popularity of coffee houses. As they necessarily had to boil water to produce the brew, it meant that any bugs contained therein were effectively killed. So, largely risk-free mental stimulation. A win-win I think.  

I enjoyed this quite a lot and am looking forward to reading more from the author. He has a very cozy style and you feel that you’re learning things with almost no effort (I approve!). A fun quick read that will probably make you look at your morning coffee, as well as poppies and cacti, in a slightly different way. Recommended for an off-the-wall read.

The thing I really liked about WfH was the ability to play my music all day............

Just Couldn’t Finished Reading: This is Your Brain on Music – Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin (FP: 2006) [267pp] 

This was quite the disappointment. I’m not 100% sure just how long this had been languishing in one of my book piles but I was looking forward to finally reading it. Things did not start well as the author spent multiple pages defining various musical terms – melody, tempo, pitch etc. - to the point where I was lost or unsure about what anything meant. I think it would have been much better to sprinkle the explanations throughout the text, even if he had to repeat himself from time to time. What was sprinkled through the first part of the book was some interesting observations and speculations but, I found, too few and too widely spaced. 

Once we moved out of musical definitions and explanations things did improve but then, I think, we hit another issue – the age of the book. At 18 years old, despite the advances made in the understanding of the human brain in the preceding years, it was really showing its age. Although the author didn’t say so specifically it did seem that the fMRI scanner used in some of the work cited was still fairly new technology. On top of that many of the ideas used were at least somewhat speculative. I couldn’t help but wonder what, in the following 18 years of investigation, had been proven to be correct – or wrong. 

Listening to music has always been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. First on the radio (and TV) and later on records, cassettes and ultimately CDs. One of the things that has long intrigued me is why I like certain music but not others. I’m sure part of that it just what I grew up hearing, which is understandable. I also imagine that at least some of the reason why I like certain types of music is an accident of how my brain is wired. The author certainly hints at this ‘answer’ to my question but what I would love to know is why my brain LOVED a piece of classical music the moment it heard it for the first time. What’s all THAT about? Is it the melody, the tempo, the pitch? It's a good question. Maybe a more modern book might be able to answer it? I did give it a good ‘go’ – 147pages if memory serves – but it just wasn’t for me.  

[Oh, and only my 2nd review of the year and already my 1st DNF. I do hope that’s not a sign for what’s coming this year....!]   

 

The Best Books of 2024. 

So, here we are at last in the very early days (or would that be daze) of 2025. Which means, naturally Janus-like we get to look both back and forward. This week I’ll be looking back to the best reads of 2024 and next Saturday I’ll look forward to my ‘plans’ for 2025. As usual the best of the best are in BOLD. I reviewed 103 books in ‘24 with a surprising 2 DNF’s. So... 

Fiction: 

1066 Turned Upside Down by Various Authors 

Surfeit of Suspects by George Bellairs 

Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton 

The Railway Detective by Edward Marston 

4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie 

Blood on the Tracks – Railway Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards 

The Humans by Matt Haig 

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon 

Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics 

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi 

The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn 

The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin 

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene 

The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa   

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien 

The Manningtree Witches by A K Blakemore 

Non-Fiction: 

The Book of Humans – A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War and the Evolution of Us by Adam Rutherford 

Nature’s Mutiny – How the Little Ice Age Transformed the West and Shaped the Present by Philipp Blom 

The Blood of Free Men – The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg 

Spying on Whales – The Past, Present and Future of the World’s Largest Animals by Nick Pyenson 

How to Speak Whale – A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication by Tom Mustill 

Divided – Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall 

Red Summer – The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America by Cameron McWhirter 

Persians – The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones 

The Undivided Past – History Beyond our Differences by David Cannadine 

Atoms and Ashes – From Bikini Atoll to Fukushima by Serhii Plokhy 

Fracture – Life and Culture in the West 1918-1938 by Philipp Blom 

How to Make the World Add Up – Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers by Tim Harford 

The Assassination of the Archduke – Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder That Changed the World by Greg King and Sue Woolmans 

The Trigger – The Hunt for Gavrilo Princip: The Assassin who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher 

July 1914 – Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin 

Islands of Abandonment – Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn 

Shadowlands – A Journey Through Lost Britain by Matthew Green 

Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern 

Echolands – A Journey in Search of Boudica by Duncan Mackay 

The Little Book of Hygge – The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking 

Pale Rider – The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney 

The Plague Year – America in the Time of Covid by Lawrence Wright 

Stopping the Next Pandemic – How Covid-19 Can Help Us Save Humanity by Debora MacKenzie 

The Unthinkable – Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why by Amanda Ripley 

I, Warbot – The Dawn of Artificially Intelligent Conflict by Kenneth Payne 

Am I Normal? - The 200-Year Search for Normal People (And Why They Don’t Exist) by Sarah Chaney 

Priests De La Resistance! - The Loose Cannons Who Fought Fascism in the 20th Century by Fergus Butler-Gallie 

WOW! Did I have a GOOD reading year in 2024....! I did read a LOT of classic novels so quite a few have showed up here. Every year I become more and more impressed by the Classics, although in 2025 I’ll be reading much less. I’m impressed by the spread of subject matter in my non-fiction and also impressed by the age spread throughout – 140 years, from 1883 to 2023. I expect that will continue next year (probably).

Happy Birthday: James Bond (January 4, 1900 – February 14, 1989) was an American ornithologist and expert on the birds of the Caribbean, having written the definitive book on the subject: Birds of the West Indies, first published in 1936. He served as a curator of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. His name was appropriated by writer Ian Fleming for his fictional British spy of the same name; the real Bond enjoyed knowing his name was being used this way, and references to him permeate the resulting media franchise.

Ian Fleming, who was a keen bird watcher living in Jamaica, was familiar with Bond's book, and chose the name of its author for the hero of Casino Royale in 1953, apparently because he wanted a name that sounded "as ordinary as possible". Fleming wrote to the real Bond's wife, "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born." He did not contact the real James Bond about using his name in the books, and Bond did not learn of Fleming's character until the early 1960s, when Fleming's James Bond books became popular in the U.S. In 1964 during Fleming's annual winter stay at Goldeneye in Jamaica, James Bond and his wife visited Fleming unexpectedly. In his novel Dr. No Fleming referenced Bond's work by basing a large ornithological sanctuary on Dr. No's island in the Bahamas. In 1964, Fleming gave Bond a first edition copy of You Only Live Twice signed, "To the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity". In December 2008 the book was put up for auction, eventually fetching $84,000 (£56,000).

Just Finished Reading: Outlawed by Anna North (FP: 2021) [261pp] 

North America, 1894. Ada Magnusson knew her duty more than most in her small town. Afterall, her mother was the town’s best midwife and had begun training her teenage daughter the challenges and dangers of childbirth. Due to be married herself Ada was looking forward to her role in repopulating a devastated America. The Great Flu had ravaged the country (and the world?) long before she was born killing 90% of those it infected. Now it was every woman's God given role to replenish humanity. But not everyone could. That was the fear of every woman and young girl – especially those on the cusp of marriage. What if....? What if they were barren? Her husband would have every right to send her back to her family and marry again. The woman might, like Ada, have useful skills that the community could profit from but there was always the stain, the taint of ungodliness. If they refused to serve God and man by failing to produce new life were they useless or dangerous? If they did not serve God, were they in league with His enemies? So, after a year of trying and still not pregnant Ada was back with her family and when measles took four young lives it wasn’t long before suspicion fell on Ada. Was she a witch? The sheriff didn’t want to see her, as a family friend, hanging from a rope so gave her a chance – leave or die. But where to go in such an unforgiving world and how to live? Ada was about to find out that her choices were few and none of them were good... 

This was quite the genre mash-up, a Feminist, Alternate-history, Post-apocalyptic Western! So, when I picked it up in my near-by Indie bookshop it was hard not to bring home. I’m glad I did. Despite being a little slow at times (which, to be honest, was the only slight problem I had with it) this was an interesting read. It was certainly a fun twist on the Western genre with cross-dressing women pretending to be cowboys being the least of some intriguing world building. Although no specific date was mentioned for the apocalyptic Flu epidemic in the book, I do “remember” a ‘throw-away’ line hinting at a time a century previously. This sounds like the mid-18th century series of epidemics and pandemics that killed well over a million people at the time. Ramping this up to 11 would give the author the event she needed and it would also chime with the lack of medical knowledge (and of any discussion of Evolutionary or more general biological answers to explain the problems with childbirth and childlessness plus the lack of a Germ Theory to explain things). 

Characterisation was good to very good throughout (Ada was a great character) and I was never in any danger at being thrown out of the narrative because of any kind of inconsistency with how people acted or reacted to their world especially as they had only limited knowledge of the time before the Great Flu (books were very few and far between, very expensive and, all too often, not worth the effort of reading). The overall narrative was well handled and made complete sense with reasonable motivations all round – again especially for Ada who was driven by her need to understand her own inability to have children. The few action scenes were handled well and were suitable dramatic. I particularly liked the fact that, apart from her natural medical abilities and logical thinking, Ada wasn’t all that good at what she was forced to adapt to being a particularly bad shot, only passable on horseback and far too trusting/open with others – in other words REAL.  

This was definitely a somewhat strange read, but a rewarding one. It’s a bit of a slow burn at times but it is a story that stays with you after you turn the last page. I’ll definitely be looking for the author’s other works next time I’m at my Indie bookshop (next planned trip in February). Recommended.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR....! Let's HOPE that its nowhere as bad as we think it MIGHT be!