Currently Reading...

This is what I have been reading recently...

African Queen: The Real Life of the Hottentot Venus by Rachel Holmes - this book promised much but delivered relatively little - a slim volume documenting the life of Saartjie Baartman, a member of the South African of Hottentots who was basically brought to England and then to France to go on display as a living exhibit as a curiosity...her story was a sad one, but the book fails to deliver in terms of her early life and is lightweight with regard to her feelings on the whole episode - she died young in France sadly never returning to her homeland whilst alive and her bones were not repatriated to South Africa until 2002 when she received a number of posthumous honours which were arguably politically motivated.   All her life, she was used and abused, and in death she was also a symbol which could be used.  Interesting and worth reading, but bear in mind, it feels like this piece of work is missing vital parts.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory - historical fiction account of the life of Catherine of Aragon, wife of the tyrannical Henry VIII - as always with Gregory's work, this is a wonderful piece of work which evokes the times, the smell and the feel of the era, puts the reader into the life of this abused princess and queen, and gives a different perspective to the life of one of Henry VIII's queens, all of whom seem to have eclipsed one another - a great read and highly recommended; a lot less flowery than the cover suggests!

1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI- The Untold Story by Peter Lance - a fascinating account of the apparent errors which have been made by the security services in detecting and preventing the current terrorist threats - the book deals with the American authors' perspective and deals with the first bombing of the Twin Towers in New York and the missed opportunities in detecting the greater threat that this presented and how that went on to manifest itself - its a bit long-winded but interesting - though, I guess we'd all have to say 'hindsight is a wonderful thing' and my perspective is that even the FBI is probably human....

Adept by Robert Finn - this book really interested me from the synopsis description on the cover - Described as "An impressively ambitious debut that marries the crime novel with the occult thriller...It's a British variant on The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four..." - well, I don't know what that reviewer read, but I found my credulity being stretched until it snapped - I stayed with it until I finished the book, but at the end wished I really hadn't bothered....I believe that this is one of a series, this being the first and I am afraid I won't be paying out good money to snap anything else, including my patience...