Read in 2019
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Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons
Amazon
Took a while to get going, and the main protagonist wasn't that likeable, but came together entertainingly.
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Time Warped
Claudia Hammond
Amazon
Great fun and food for thought - huge list of references
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Epitaph for a Spy
Eric Ambler
Amazon
Nicely put together spy work, which met the need for me to read some fiction. Something solid, with a plot. Job done.
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The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance
Henry Petroski
Amazon
Abandoned
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Naked Statistics
Charles Wheelan
Amazon
Abandoned
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The Secret Barrister
The Secret Barrister
Amazon
Revealing, thought provoking and despite the outrage, entertaining.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: And Six Other Stories (Penguin Modern Classics)
F Scott Fitzgerald
Amazon
Some smart writing and wry stories
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Good Omens
Neil Gaiman
Amazon
Really enjoyable fun. Witty, funny and warm - especially liked the interweaving of things
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The Dispossessed
Ursula Le Guin
Amazon
As usual, Le Guin lets things unfold in a languid way, and I found it good that it made me take the time. I did sometimes feel that the ideas expressed were a bit beyond me, but then it came together more towards the end. Enjoyable - and perhaps a good book to discuss.
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Literary Life
Posy Simmonds
Amazon
Really liked this - witty, but also loved the deceptive simplicity of her drawings. Full of character, and so economically done.
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Homo Deus
Yuval Noah Harari
Amazon
Fascinating and interesting perspective of philosophical thought, related through a technological prism and all the better for it. Felt it ran out of steam towards the end as things got a little more speculative.
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Ghost World
Daniel Clowes
Amazon
Really lovely artwork throughout. The story - or the interactions - since there wasn't really much in the way of a plot, was more of a mood piece I guess. It was witty and interesting, but I found it a bit unsatisfying in the meandering around. Maybe that bored, tentative hiatus before adulthood was the point.
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The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths
Mariana Mazzucato
Amazon
I rather whizzed through this, but I think I got the general gist - that the state needs to get a lot more credit for providing funding and strcutures for innovation that the private sector relies on. It's a good reposte to the idea that the private sector is always this dynamic powerful force and that the state is just a drag.
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