Week Fifty Two: Mythos

Going out with a bang and crash, a peal of thunder and a bolt of lightning. Mythos is like hearing a very adult bedtime story straight from Stephen Fry's lips.

Make no mistake this is not light reading, but it says much about human nature and the breadth and history of misogyny that we created such rapey, violent and childish gods, for our own excuses.

Still a cracking good read, as quoted on the cover.

Maybe time for one quick book before New Years Day, and then the inevitable best of/worst of list.

Week Fifty One: Between The World and Me

A stunning and potent read about race and growth and humanity.

Starts off as a polemic but soon becomes so much more as the author tracks his own growth without disowning the underlying premise of an inherently racist/prejudiced system in America, and the world.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but of you want to understand racism and prejudice, privilege and power; there are not many better places to start.

Week Fifty: Mrs Sherlock Holmes

Much like the reality it's retelling, this was a little dissatisfying and odd that the protagonist never really finds her true potential and becomes a victim of a misogynist time in history, largely forgotten.

And now when she's remembered it's as an almost great, one who could have been amazing if not for the time and her own occasional obsessions (which lead to mistakes).

Gets way too bogged down in the detail to be a good narrative and to factual to be very exciting once the main case is 'solved'.

Week Forty Nine: Brief Answers to the Big Questions

Another winner, it's been maybe 25 years since I read A Brief History Of Time, and I can't say my understanding of Quantum Physics has improved nearly as much as Stephen Hawking's ability to communicate complex concepts, concisely, has.

In other words this is a surprisingly good read and fairly easy to follow, unlike the gruelling work I made of the first book of his I read.

Good answers, somewhat technical but with enough metaphor and illustration (via words) to make a number of succinct points.

Also he has a funny, incisive and occasionally bitchy sense of humour.

Spoiler Alert: There is no god.