Debunking History, by Ed Rayner & Ron Stapley

Starts off well, dissecting various episodes from history to assess their accuracy against what's considered today's facts, but by the end of book a lot of what's discussed seems a bit mean-spirited & a bit pointless. Yes the legend isn't totally based in historical fact but that's the point: the stories are often an allegory to act as a warning or to celebrate down the ages. The main areas covered are the American & French Revolutions, World War 1 & 2, in particular Hitler & the Nazis feature prominently. The most disappointing aspect was the inclusion of a few contemporary "historic", not "historical" items including a couple of items featuring Tony Blair’s decision to invade Iraq for example. This seems to have been shoe-horned in to give it some additional selling power when it was published in mid-2000s. Reading it now that Blair is long gone it seems particularly tedious & unwelcome (as were the last days of his premiership) and it felt more like current affairs than history. Quite a few of the items overlapped, particularly the many on Hitler & WW2. However for me there were enough items of interest, in periods that I hadn’t read much about before, to keep me going until the end of the book.
2/5.

The Rise & Fall of the British Empire, by Lawrence James

Absolutely brilliant page-turner that for this Brit read like one of the greatest stories ever told. Although 600+ pages in length the author’s erudite & concise writing whips you along so that it feels like the book is barely 200 pages in length. Indeed the story ends in 1995 just before Hong Kong was handed back & it cries out for an update. The story could have been a litany of battles on faraway shores & there is inevitably a great deal of this but what makes this book so good is how the author weaves British politics into the story, & it was the politics of the day that was ultimately responsible for the actions of its fighting men. It also details the wider aspects of the empire's impact on British society, how the empire was viewed throughout its history & how this has been reflected down the generations. It does not pay too much attention to those that were colonised; it's a story from the British perspective though there are some wonderful touches lent to it by quotations from contemporary sources & often from those that were colonised. The exhilaration from the sense of adventure during the empire's rise is followed by jingoism, bigotry & racism but throughout there was a keen sense of morality which was ultimately reflected in the mostly peaceful way that the empire was dismantled. The author then perfectly captures some of the feelings that occurred during the decline which particularly resonated with me. Once again I cannot praise this book highly enough for it's flowing & concise style, information packed & often moving story, one that should be taught in all the country's schools. I certainly wish I had been taught this sort of history at school!
5/5

Refactoring, by Martin Fowler

Seminal book, like a lot of Martin Fowler's books are, providing inspirational advice on writing better software from the software that's already been written. Key concepts are explained lucidly & often with humour, which is very difficult to do with a quite dry subject matter, but this is what makes Fowler's books invaluable for the time-pressed developer. There is much to be learned from this book even for a seasoned IT professional & as such it should appear on the reading list of everyone who is involved in the software profession.
5/5

:59 Seconds, by Prof Richard Wiseman

A quite exhilirating romp through the results of various scientific studies on human psychology. What makes us tick & how we react under certain circumstances is analysed in regard to the evidence, & most often this evidence runs contrary to widely accepted views on what we're supposed to do. Never mind any other pseudo-scientific self-help books, this one is based on hard facts & as such is a cut above.
5/5.

Innumeracy, by John Allen Paulos

Concise, witty & informative discussion on a lack of numeracy in most people. It explores the reasons why people may shy away from numbers & it details some of the principles that most people would find useful & should probably become more familiar with, & thereby shows that they are not all that difficult. I enjoyed the discussion on how maths should be taught in schools as well as the mental challenge posed by some of the (few & straightforward) proofs detailed. Another one that most people should have a quick read through on their path to enlightenment!
4/5.

After The Ice, by Steven Mithen

Weighty & detailed tome describing stone-age man's cultural transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer societies across several regions of the world. The individual treatment of the world's regions at times leads to a bit of repetition when certain cultural patterns were repeated across those regions. I felt this was especially noticeable when presenting some of the low-level archaeological evidence, although this was perhaps due to my lack of deep interest in archaeology than any failing of the book's. However I also didn't immediately warm to the author's device of inserting a modern-day traveller into the vignettes that were described in order to translate the archaeological evidence into what the contemporary society would have been like. Due to the scale of the subject matter (the development of human civilisations across the globe) I appreciate why it was done & eventually felt that I would have been lost without the perspective it afforded. The book also did a really good job of capturing the genuine intrigue over how humans populated & settled certain continents & it attempted to interpret these puzzles using the evidence found in the archaeological record. It also highlighted the immense scale over which the cultural transitions occurred, sometimes tens of thousands of years passed without any discernable 'progress'. There was also an important thread that ran through the book as to what progress is & why it wasn't inevitable that we ended up where we are now. Ultimately though, for me, the book could have narrowed its focus & described more richly the societies under consideration but although large the book did keep my interest until the end.
3/5.

Waiting for the Barbarians, by J. M. Coetzee

No less than a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature & I can see why because this is a wonderful, gripping & at times harrowing book about one man's struggle with himself & an anonymous central authority & the brutal but asinine bureaucrats that mete out its imperial justice. It also provides a historical perpsective on why empires inevitably fail as some citizens 'go native'. Not bad for a book of 176 pages!
5/5.