good reads at Christmas

Non-fiction -- my vote would go to 'Rubicon -- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic" by Tom Holland. Quite the best, most accessible and vivid account of the Republic I've ever read.

Cheers,

Tim
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Os nid Campagnolo yw hi, dyw hi ddim yn werth ei marcho...

I can confidently recommend Francis Wheen's 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World'. Simultaneously depressing and a total hoot, it elegantly proposes that the world's current bewildering daftness dates from 1979, with the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran and the election of Margaret Thatcher.

I expect Michael Moore wishes he could write like this.

throb

I can thoroughly recommend The Nanny State by Robert Huntingdon and Fooled By Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and the Markets by Nassim Taleb. The Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin is entertaining in parts, but ultimately rather too dry for my tastes.
JOhn

We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch. An account of the Rwandan genocide.

I would recommend the book to anybody. It is an important subject and leaves one with the certainty that international treatment of events is essentially racist.

Deane

For a bit of lightweight browsing, check this out.

Fascinating stuff, if you've ever wanted to know the origin of phrases like 'Carpet bagger' or 'Gobbledegook'.

John.

I'm about to start this.

-- Ian

Stasiland by Anna Funder
Hitlers' Englishmen by Adrian Wheale

Mike

After enjoying reading the excellent "Curious Dog Incident " by Marc Haddon some
months back, I was most pleased yesterday to recieve alongside my Elisabethan
gunpowder mustard (well loved by German Customs I might add) a copy of "The
Curious Indident of the WMD in Iraq" by Rohan Candappa (can be read in 45
minutes minutes apparently !) so will be a welcome light Christmas read, as well
as being rather well timed I thought, what with the latest Politico rumblings an
all, innit !

Fritz Von Cuttingthemustard

Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy" is an interesting read and gives an insight into the way that Bush and Rice are likely to be thinking.

"The Welfare State We're In" by James Bartholomew is thought provoking and a good read.

Steve M

Chaps

I have located and purchased a first edition of "Shooting facts and fancies" by Gough Thomas.

This is a brilliant book on how to shoot. I have been after that one for years. Got it on Ebay and in pristine condition.

Mrs Mick has also bought me the "Da Vinci code". This is the large collectors edition with pictures, so I should understand it more easily.

Regards

Mick

Mick

I fear you may be expecting rather a lot from The Da Vinci code if you think you will need a copy with pictures in order to understand it.

Fast-paced, "unputdownable" and best-selling it may be, but it's very much from the Geoffrey Archer school of, er, literature.

Forgive me for an off-topic anecdote here:

Back when I was an art student I visited Paris and my first trip to the Louvre was on the (then) free-entrance Sunday. Unsurprisingly there was a queue, and I was stuck behind two very stereotypical American tourists, about 45 stone of them. There was quite a wait and they were getting impatient. He looked at his guide book and said to his wife: "Gee, this is taking ages, why don't they put the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo (dee Myelow) together - it's all anyone comes to see anyway."
Nowadays, apparently, the staff of the Louvre have to put up with being asked "Which way to the room where the curator got killed?"

(I haven't given away anything about the plot)

Enjoy!

Rod

PS Everyone should read "Water Music" by T. Coraghesshan-Boyle (aka T C Boyle). Unbelievably good escape-reading.