Books read

John Le Carré, A Murder of Quality, 1962

Ailsa Brimley, the editor of the Christian News, receives a letter of her reader Stella Rode, in which she claims that her husband plots to murder her. Brimley contacts George Smiley. They learn that Stella was murdered recently. George Smiley travels to Carne, where he is venturing into the world of the old and prestigious college where Stella Rode’s husband was teaching. The victim turns out to have been a plotting devil behind a humble facade. Eventually Mr. Terence Fielding, senior housemaster of Carne, turns out to be the murderer. A gloomy picture of a typical English college and its internal tensions, enmities and class prejudices.

Wilbur Smith, Assegai

Leon Courtney is a subaltern in the army. He survives a ambush of the hostile Nandi tribe and saves his Masai tracker Manyoro, whereupon he is made a honorary son of Manyoro's mother, the witchdoctor Lusima. Back in Nairobi he is court-martialled and only closely escapes a severe sentence, as his story is not believed. He quits the army but is recruited by his uncle Penrod Ballantyne into the secret service. He joins Percy's hunting safaris, where he quickly becomes a good hunter and indespensable to the company. When Percy is killed tragically by a buffalo, Leon inherits the company and assets. Penrod makes him taking on German guests in order to learn from them secrets concerning the German warfare in East Africa. He is eventually set up to host Otto von Meerbach, a aircraft and car manufacturer. The quirky industrialist is accompanied by his girlfriend, young and pretty Eva von Weissenberg, an English spy, with whom Leon instantly falls in love. Otto von Meerbach teaches Leon to fly his aircraft. When von Meerbach is critically injured in a risky attempt to spear a lion, Leon absconds with Eva on a two months honeymoon. When Penrod finds out the whereabouts of Leon, the latter is marched back to Nairobi in handcuffs while Eva is pressed back into secret service duties. Von Meerbach plans to carry money and weapons to the Boere in South Africa in order to start an uprising and rides his airship across Africa. Via Eva Leon finds out about the scheme and intercepts the airship at Lonyoro Mountain, where he damages it beyond repair. Eva parachutes out and is saved by Leon, who also manages with Lusima's help to hide away the GBP 2M gold on board the airship. Leon and Eva get married. This is the first Wilbur Smith book that I did not thoroughly enjoy. The research was not properly done; many facts are outright wrong. First of all many of the places are invented; there is neither a Lonyoro mountain, nor is there a village of Weisenkirchen on Lake Constance (in English NOT Bodensee) and Friedrichshafen (where the Zeppelins were actually made) is Baden-Wuerttemberg and not Bavaria. It is impossible that in 1910 or 1912 there is a old and timeworn Bakkie around as in these days cars were still a novelty and there was not sufficient time since the advent of motorcars to provide cheap second hand bakkies. Vauxhall was in these days a manufacturer of famous sports cars (for instance the Prince Henry), not of simple bakkies. The only old Vauxhall that would be around this time was the Vauxhall 5hp, which was still a vis-a-vis. So it is pretty impossible that there was an old and timeworn Vauxhall bakkie around in 1912 or 1913. The airplane of Otto von Meerbach is supposed to have four engines and to be 60 feet long. Looking at old pictures of pre-WW1 planes one quickly grasps that airplanes were in these days mainly small byplanes with single engines. The airplane is supposed to take three to four passengers, but those airplanes took a pilot and maybe a passenger, but nothing more. They were very feeble instruments and it is unlikely that they were already capable of making landings in rugged territory on top of a mountain, all the less considering the lacking engine performance. The Zeppelin airship that von Meerbach steers across Africa is certainly taken from the journey of the L59 in November 1917, but if that flight is taken as a model, please don't make the airship a 1939 Zeppelin LZ129 with panoramic windows, but a WW1 airship with open gondolas. All in all, all the technical equipment seems to be from the 1930s, while the story takes place during WW1.

Palmer, William J., The Detective and Mr. Dickens

(Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins hunt a gentleman murderer in Victorian London) Charles Dickens meets Inspector Field of the newly formed Metropolitan Protectives and is commissioned as an informal assistant, whereby Wilkie Collins acts as his sidekick. When Irish Meg Sheehan reports a murder that she witnessed, they successfully find out the murderer, Mr. Paroissien of the Covent Garden Theatre. But the murderer gets killed before he can be apprehended. Mr. Dickens gets more and more obsessed with the girl actress Ellen Ternan, while Wilkie Collins is involving himself with Irish Meg. Inspector fields investigations point to Ellen Ternan as murderess of Paroissien, but she disappears. They get on her track at Lord Ashbee's house, where through a skylight, they watch her being auctioned to the highest bidder. They step in, free Ellen Ternan and Dickens convinces Field to drop all charges against her. Lord Ashbee manages to wriggle himself out of everything. Very well written and capturing victorian life quite convincingly, but there are a few very explicit pornographic scenes which seem not to match the rest.

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse, grows up in dismal circumstances under the cynical supervision of the beadle, Mr. Bumble, whose only objective is to save expenses on the poor. When he is to be apprenticed to an undertaker, his fellow apprentice teases him cruelly, until Oliver hits him and subsequently has to flee. He ends up in London, where he is putting up with a Jew, Mr. Fagin, who is the head of a gang of petty criminals. On his first errand for Fagin, he is caught by the police. Despite being acquitted, he collapses and is taken in by the friendly Mr. Brownlow, who has him nursed back to health. Upon delivering books for him, he is caught by his old gang and held captive in Fagin's lodgings, as Fagin is concerned about being found out. In a housebreaking, Oliver is shot and wounded. He is taken up by the occupants of the burgled house, the Maylies, and nursed back to health. In the meanwhile, in a nightly meeting, Nancy discloses a conversation of monks on the subject of Oliver to the Maylies. She is overheard by Noah Claypole, who had been sent by Fagin to tail Nancy. He reports it to Fagin, who informs Nancy's violent boyfriend Sikes. Sikes kills Nancy, flees and is hounded by an angry mob. In the course of his attempted escape, he dies. Fagin and the entire gang are uncovered and arrested. Monks, who sought to destroy Oliver, is captured by Mr. Brownlow and discloses all his secrets: Oliver is the illegitimate son of the same father, who was of course a nobleman, and Rose is Olivers aunt. Oliver thus inherits land, Rose and Harry Maylie marry. The crux of the book is the question, whether it is antisemitic or not. Being half-jewish myself, I take the liberty to say that there are many signs of antisemitism, but that there might be some explanations for them. For one, it is probably not antisemitic to say that Jews were engaged in crime since medieval times, as after the progroms these were the only societies where Jews still could exist. Hence the "Rotwelsch" language which is dotted with hebrew expressions. The assumption that Fagin is taken from real life, cannot be entirely negated. Then, despite using all the stereotypes on Jews in this story, Fagin is pictured fairly human. It is quite obvious to the reader, that he and many of his accomplices have not chosen this career. He is not pictured as a wealthy crime-lord, but as a miserable old man, who ekes out a living training boys to steal handkerchiefs and now and then a pocket-watch. And in his relation to Monks, Fagin is little more than an accessory. Last but not least, there was no concept of political correctness in the mid-19th century, when the book was written.

Dan Brown, The Symbol

Professor Richard Langdon is summoned by a mysterious call to the Capitol in Washington D.C. believing to meet here his old friend Peter Solomon. Instead, he finds Peter's severed hand, pointing to the cupola, adorned with strange tatoos. The CIA, in particular its director Inoue Sato is entering the scene. The mystery caller wants Peter to decipher a strange pyramid. They explore the basement of the capitol, where they find a mason's shrine with a tiny pyramid. The golden capstone is found in a sealed package Richard was asked to bring along. Richard is shuffled away by the Architect of the Capitol, also a high-ranking mason. At the library of congress, they meet Peter's sister Katherine, who just barely survived an assault in her laboratory. Hunted by the CIA, they move to Washington Cathedral, where they manage to decipher the inscriptions of the pyramnid. The kidnapper, who calls himself "Malakh", tricks Richard and Katherine to his flat, where he overpowers them and submerges Richard in a tank and lets Katherine slowly bleed to death. The CIA just in time finds the two, frees them and they move on to a Mason's temple where they witness how Malakh tries to force Peter to "sacrifice" him to the demons. It turns out that Malakh is the long-lost son of Peter, who completely lost his mind, thinking he was destined to become a demon. The story is quite gripping, but is estranged from reality. The plot is not very plausible, the personality of Malakh is never quite discovered and in the end there are a lot of open ties which never get resolved. I checked up some of the technical details and it turned out they were not real.

Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

The father of Nicholas Nickleby, a member of the minor gentry, is urged by his stupid wife to invest all his money on the stock market. He loses it and with it his smallholding. He subsequently dies (possibly by suicide) and leaves his family, Nicholas, his pretty sister Kate and the mother destitute. They look to their only relative, Nicholas’ uncle Ralph, which is an usurer in London, for support. Ralph is only interested in making money and loathes the destitute family. He sends Nicholas as an assistant teacher to a boarding school in Yorkshire, while Kate has to work at a fashion shop. The circumstances in Yorkshire are grim and Ralph soon finds out that the schoolmaster Squeers regards his pupils as little more than cheap labour, does not feed them enough and lets them shiver in the cold in winter. When Squeers is about to punish dim-witted Smike severely, Nicholas beats Squeers and absconds together with Smike. On his escape, he meets John Browdie, a stout Yorkshireman, who helps him. Nicholas and Smike walk back to London, where Nicholas gets help from his uncle’s good-hearted employee Newman Noggs. He continues to Brighton, where he and Smike join a theatre company. When Kate is set up by Ralph with some drunken gentlemen and assaulted by one, Nicholas returns to London to get things right. He finds employ with the pleasant Cheeryble Bros, where he meets beautiful Madeline and falls instantly in love with her. Meanwhile Arthur Gride and Ralph are plotting to marry young Madeline to Gride, as she is to receive a substantial estate which she is unaware of. Newman Noggs and Ralph rescue Madeline from this plot, whereas Ralph is now determined to destroy Nicholas. He sets Squeers upon Grides maid, who has stolen a chest of papers from Gride. The two get caught red-handed, though, and sentenced to transportation. Ralph hangs himself, Kate and Frank Cheeryble, the nephew of the Cheeryble Bros, as well as Nicholas and Madeline get married, the Yorkshire school closed down. A well-constructed plot, sharp characters and some first-hand 19th century life make this novel pleasant and interesting to read.

Ilja Trojanow, der Weltenbummler

Richard Burton is an English soldier in India, who learns the local languages easily and almost without an accent. He is thus able to adopt the role of a local Indian, which he uses to collect information about the rebels. As he is transferred to the Sindh (between Pakistan and Afghanistan) he converts to Islam, in order to play his role more convincingly. His military career is fouled, though. Years later he embarks on a Hadj to Mekkah and Medinah, which he completes without being detected, apart from compromising himself in a drinking spree with an Albanian. Again years later, he embarks with Speke on an expedition to discover the great lakes in Africa. They reach Lake Tanganyika, but he stays in Kazeh while Speke discovers Lake Victoria. Burton dies at a high age in Italy as a British envoy. Picturesque, sometimes elaborate language. Interesting how the story is related from the point of view of several of the people involved.

Charles Dickens, Hard Times

The story takes place in Coketown, a fictitious industrial town near Manchester. Thomas Gradgrind is an utilitarian, who bases his life and that of his children on "facts, facts, facts". His model school is joined by Sissy Jupe, daughter of a circus artist. When her father disappears, she may remain with Gradgrind. Josiah Bounderby is a industrialist, who is boastful of his humble upbringings. Nevertheless, he looks down on his "hands". He is assisted by Mrs. Sparsit, who has some distant relations in the nobility. Furthermore, there is Stephen Blackpool, a honest worker, whose wife is estranged and a alcoholic and whose girlfriend Rachael he cannot marry. Louisa, the daughter of Gradgrind agrees to marry Bounderby, 30 years her senior, in order to be able to cover up for her brother Tom's (the "whelp") gambling debts. When the bank is broken in, the blame falls on Blackpool. Sissy, Rachael and Louisa go on a quest to discover the real culprit, which turns out to be Tom. On his way back to Coketown, Blackpool falls into a disused mine shaft and dies. His name is cleared by Gradgrind himself, who nevertheless helps his son to escape to South America. Bounderby's mother turns up and lifts the veil on Bounderby's "humble upbringings". Louisa divorces Bounderby and Sissy takes care of the remaining Gradgrind children as Mrs. Gradgrind dies. This novel has often been criticized for its lack of social criticism. But in my opinion, the antagonists Blackpool and Bounderby have been pictured very lifelike, not the expected "socialist realism" picture of the charismatic labour leader and the diehard capitalist, but of a honest-to-himself labourer and an unsuccessfully love-and-attention-seeking industrialist.

Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Christo

Edmont Dantes is unjustly accused and thrown into a dungeon for 15 years. In prison he meets the Abbe Faria, who bequests an enormous hidden treasure to him. He escapes and collects the treasure. He first gratifies the people who helped him previously. He subsequently takes up living in Paris and with his enormous wealth subtly pulls threads until all his former enemies are ruined. A drawn-out, comprehensive epos.

Joseph Roth, Hiob

The teacher Mendel Singer has four children: Jonas, Schemarjah, Mirjam and the crippled Menuchim. He lives in the Schtetl. When the sons drafted to the army, the family spends all their savings to send Schemarjah to the USA, while Jonas gladly joins. Schemarjah becomes a successful businessman and has his parents and sister sent over, while Menuchim has to stay behind because of his ill-health. Schemarjah perishes in the WW1, Mirjam gets mad and Mendel falls into a deep depression, when Menuchim visits New York, a famous conductor in the meantime. Excellently written.

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

The cain and abel theme and the good and bad, predetermination in the story of the two brothers Charles and Adam Trask, Adam marrying a stranger girl, Cathy, and moving from the East Coast to the Salinas Valley in California. Cathy turns out thoroughly wicked. She shoots and leaves him to establish a whorehouse in Salinas. He is left alone with their twins and falls into an agony. Sam Hamilton, the author's grandfather, a poor, intellectual inventor, gets him out of this. Adam Trask moves to Salinas where his two boys, Cal and Aron, grow up. The family is held together by Lee, the learned Chinese servant. Eventually Cal finds out about his mother. When he tells Aron about it, Aron enlists with the army and gets killed. The father suffers a stroke and dies, not without absolving Aron.

Wilbur Smith, Hungry as the Sea

Nick Berg, former chairman of a large shipping company and now owner of a salvage firm, rescues the pretty Samantha when towing a passenger vessel in Antarctica. He uses part of the rescue money awarded to him to have his two tugs stay on alert when a large supertanker, which he deems unsafe, is passing through the Caribbean sea, carrying his son from his first marriage. He ends up rescuing son and ex-wife, while the tanker sinks and gets a huge award for the salvaged oil pods. Quick and passionate reading, as usual well researched.

Charles Dickens, The Battle of Life

An old daughter has two pretty daughters. Marion is waiting for Alfred, the doctors warden, to return from his studies abroad. On the day of his return she disappears. Alfred ends up marrying her sister. She returns to admit that she withdrew to be out of the way of her sisters happiness. Not one of the best of Dickens's stories.

O. Henry, 100 short stories

The author, who drank himself to death early in life, was exceptionally gifted. His characters are so vivid, one imagines living at the turn-of-the-century USA.

Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Audiobook)

Huckleberry Finn runs away from his alcoholic father and teams up with Jim, a runaway slave. They float down the Mississippi river on a raft. When they become separated, Huck gets right in the middle of the Grangerford vendetta. They meet up with two scams, the duke and the king. When the two sell Jim to Sally Phelps, Huck is mistaken by her as Tom Sawyer and he quickly slips into this role. When Tom really does arrive, he poses as his brother Syd. As Jim is held in a way that he could walk off anytime, the two devise an adventurous plan to rescue him in the most daring and complicated way. This succeeds, but as Aunt Polly arrives, she discovers the plot and they tell her everything.

Robert Cooper, Around the World with Mark Twain

The author has retraced the steps of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) around the world, describing what Clemens did, saw, how it looks now. The journey takes him across the USA, to Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and South Africa on the eve of the Boer War. Pleasant to read, most places mentioned I have visited too.

Herman Melville, Typee (Audiobook)

Tom and Toby skip ship on the Marquesa Islands. They end up exactly where they never wanted to, with the Typees, known to be cannibals. Toby soon disappears while Tom with a painful sore in his one leg cannot move much. He is a protege of the great chief Mahavi, but he is not allowed to leave the place. He starts to enjoy life with the Typees and explains it's particulars in detail. And he seems to become romantically involved with Fayaway, a beautiful maiden. When an English ship anchors in the bay, he asks for his departure, which Mahavi is willing to grant him, but the other chiefs not. He departs nevertheless. A gripping, credible story of the South Seas, Herman Melvilles masterpiece. For it's time surprisingly unbiased.

Scholem Aleichem, Jewish Children (Audiobook)

A series of short stories of Jewish childhood's in the Schtetl in the Ukraine, some of them mischievous, some of them like sequels (Busie and Shemak, who loves his sister Busie, actually his niece, madly). Most of them narrated in the I-form. Great Jewish literature.

Edgar Allan Poe, Black Cat (Audiobook)

A horror story about a man who kills his cat.

Rudyard Kipling, Children of the Zodiac (Audiobook)

A fable just like an Indian tale, equally not very gripping.

O. Henry, the duplicity of Hargraves (Audiobook)

An amusing and well-told story about an actor, who uses an old Major as a role model, becomes famous and eventually supports him financially.

George Macdonald, the Golden Key (Audiobook)

A fairy tale about a boy and a girl in fairyland.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Markheim (Audiobook)

A gripping story of a murder and the devil, who appears to the murderer.

Henry Tyler Bunner, The nice People (Audiobook)

An amusing story about a freshly married couple who tries to mimic a long-time married couple.

Alice Parker Butler, Pigs is Pigs (Audiobook)

A hilariously funny story about two guinea pigs who are not collected at the mail office and start multiplying.

Edgar Allan Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum (Audiobook)

A gruesome story about a frightening torture of the Spanish Inquisition. Mark Twain, taming the bycicle (Audiobook) A self-ironic story about learning to ride a bicycle.

Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart (Audiobook)

A story about a murderer, who buries his victim, but when the police interviews him, ends up admitting the murder, because he believes he hears the heart of his victim.

Jack London, White Fang (Audiobook)

White Fang, half wolf, half dog, becomes Great Beaver's sled dog. Great Beaver becomes an alcoholic and sells the dog to Beatty Smith, who uses him in dogfights. Scott takes him on when he is half dead, nurses him back and takes him to California, where White Fang kills a murderer who crept into Scott's father's house.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Audiobook)

Quite trivial truths about war, but just about everyone has copied from here! Listened to it during a full moon night without sleep.

Jack London, Call of the Wild (Audiobook)

A dog is sold to Dawson City and becomes a sled dog. He is sold several times. When his last master dies, he returns to the wolves.

Jules Verne, Gil Braltar (Audiobook)

Gibraltar is attacked by an army of monkeys, lead by Gil Braltar. The british General disguises himself as a monkey and leads the monkeys back to the monkey rock.

Jules Verne, Drama above the clouds (Audiobook)

A famous balloonist takes off in Frankfurt, when suddenly somebody jumps into the basket. It is a maniac who relates the history of ballooning, but wants to commit suicide by crashing the balloon. The history of ballooning mixed with a critical review of science.

Jules Verne, Meister Zacharius (Audiobook)

Master Zacharius is a famous clockmaker, living wiith his daughter Geronde and his servant Scholastica and his apprentice Aubert in Geneva. One day, all the clocks he has ever made, stall. He ends up buying all of them back except one in Andermatt castle. He travels there to buy the clock. The clock belongs to an evil little man who is also driven by a clockwork. Zacharius wants to marry him to his daughter, if he makes him live eternally. When Aubert calls for the help of an eremite, the clock breaks and Master Zacharius dies. A critical review of the relationship of science and religion, strongly influenced by catholicism.

Charles Dickens, A tale of two cities (Audiobook)

France 1790. Lucie Manette and Jarvis Lorry of Tellsons Bank travel to Paris to take her father, Dr. Manette, who was imprisoned for 18 years, to England. There she meets Charles Darnay, whom Sidney Carton gets off a trumpet-up charge of treason. She marries Darnay, who is in reality Count d'Evremont who has relinquished title and lands. When he gets a letter that in the course of the Revolution one of his former employees is imprisoned, he travels to Paris to have him released. He is thrown into prison himself. After more than a year, Dr. Manette gets him released, but the same day he is re-arrested. When Sidney Carton learns about it, he travels to Paris, exchanges places with the prisoner and is executed in his place. Like a thriller to read, a lifelike picture of the French Revolution.

Charles Dickens, Trial for murder (Audiobook)

The ghost of a murdered man appears during his trial, until the murderer is sentenced to the gallows.

Isabel Allende, Zorro (Audiobook)

Diego de la Vega, born in 1795 to Alejandro, a Spanish hidalgo, and the Mestiza Regina, daughter of a Spanish deserter and an Indian shaman, grows up in (still Mexican) California. He is sent, together with his milkbrother Bernardo, to Barcelona, Spain, to continue his studies. Diego develops a strong sense of justice and uses his talents to free some of his friends from prosecution, amongst them his teacher Manuel Escalante, who introduced him to the secret society La Justicia. Within the society, Diego becomes Zorro, the avenger of injustice. When his host family is prosecuted, he embarks on a journey across Spain and returns to California just in time to reclaim his family's estate. Fascinating reading. The story, though entirely fictional, is quite credible. Except, so noble and skilled a person could hardly have existed.

Charles Dickens, Bleak House

Esther Summerson grows up in a loveless environment, but nevertheless becomes a very caring person. She is taken into the household of John Jarndyce, her guardian, as a housekeeper. At the same time Ada and Richard, two cousins of Jarndyce join his household too. Ada, Richard and Jarndyce are involved in a never-ending chancery suit over an inheritance. Richard ends up ruining his life pursuing this lawsuit. Mr. Skimpole, an ever-broke acquaintance, ends up playing a rather nasty role and Mrs. Jelliby neglects her children over her zest for Borrioboola-Gha. Esther finds out that she is the illegitimate daughter of the haughty Lady Dedlock. When the lawyer Mr. Tulkinghorn blackmails Lady Dedlock, she commits suicide. Esther is set to marry her much older guardian, but in the end when he notices that Dr. Woodcourt would be a much more suitable husband, he gives her up for his sake. Passionate, ultra-realist reading.

Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus

Ted Wallace is an old cynical, sarcastic alcoholic, sacked from his job as a theatre critic, who is sent by his neglected godchild to spend a summer with his other godchild and spy on the wealthy family. He eventually gets the grasp why he is there and what is happening. David, his godchild is regarded by everyone as a miracle healer and they are very surprised when Ted finds out that this 'sexual healing' is without any effect. By far too much foul, putrid language, and too explicit descriptions of sodomy, but a quite workable plot. The author seems to enjoy shocking his readers. Some critics say this makes it genuine and funny. Well, a whole lot of open-mindedness is required to read this. If you get too disgusted and flush it down the toilet, no great loss, but I found it quite entertaining, nevertheless. Certainly no Charles Dickens, but it helps you appreciate other books' language all the more.

Saul Bellow, Herzog

Moses Elkanah Herzog is a professor of 47 years of age, in his midlife crisis. His second marriage to beautiful Madeleine just failed, when she absconded with his best friend Valentine Gerspach. Although he still has a relationship going with Ramona, he is disorientated, destroyed, cannot work anymore. He keeps writing (mostly imaginary) letters to the ghosts of his past. Very difficult to read, an in-depth psychology study.

Stephen Elliott (Ed.), Jason Roberts, Eric Martin, Andrew F. Altschul, Peter Rednour, Greg Larson, Jesse Nathan, Where to Invade Next

Description of the United States' archrivals Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Syria, Sudan and North Korea and how they could be neutralised. Full of prejudice. No other country would ever be so blunt in it's ambitions.

Wilbur Smith, River God

Taita is an Eunuch, slave and toyboy of the immensely wealthy Lord Intef in Pharaonic Egypt. He is also a genius doctor, architect and engineer. In his custody is Lady Lostris, the Vizier's beautiful daughter who is madly in love with the warrior Tanus, son of Intef's late enemy. When Tanus speaks out about the dismal situation of Egypt, he is banished to rid Egypt of the Shrikes, a tribe of robbers. With the help of Taita, he succeeds and finds out that Intef is their head. Intef manages to flee. In the meantime, Lostris was married to Pharaoh and has borne him a son, in reality fathered by Tanus. Intef returns with the Hyksos, intent to destroy Egypt. The Pharaoh gets killed, Lostris becomes Queen. The Egyptian army is technically inferior to the Hyksos. The Egyptians flee into Cush (Sudan), where they start breeding horses, developing carts and find some Sudanese tribes who willingly become their warriors. Taita is captured on a excursion into Ethiopia, manages to escape and returns with the Egyptian army, to destroy his capturer and free the beautiful Masara, whom the Crown Prince has laid his eyes on. Memnos and Masara marry, the entire Egyptian state moves back from Khartoum to Elephantine, which they capture without trouble. They then march onto Thebes, where Taita infects the horses of the Hyksos with the 'yellow strangler', so they die and the Egyptians manage to defeat the much stronger Hyksos army. Queen Lostris dies in sight of her beloved Thebes from cancer, Memnon is crowned the new Pharao. Well researched, passionate reading.

James Clavell, Noble House

Ian Dunross is Tai-Pan of the 'Noble House', Hong Kong's largest trading company. His liquidity is poor, he has large committments which he cannot fulfill. The raiders Linc Bartlett and Casey Tcholok arrive from the USA and plot to take dvantage of the situation. Gornt, his enemy, also plans to bring the Noble House down. At the same time Hong Kong is in the focus of Sevrin, a secret KGB network. And the son of the compradore, John Cheng, is kidnapped and killed. Gornt short-sells Struan's in order to destroy the company and spreads rumours of an impending crash of Ho-Pak Bank, both of which causes a bank run and a stock exchange crash. Casey organises new finance for Dunross, the Ho-Pak Bank is taken over by the Victoria and a new boom is impending. But a landslide destroys Gornt's high-rise and with it many of the protagonists. Gornt and Dunross survive, Bartlett gets killed. A must-read with much background information about Chinese thinking. With sharp political and economical analyses. Many of the prophecies in the book - written in the 1980s - have in the meantime come true.

The Bible

Genesis: Adam and Eva, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark, Abraham, circumcision, Jacob and Esau, Joseph in Egypt. Jacob renamed Israel.

Exodus: Moses becomes leader, Aaron his mouthpiece. Seven plagues of Egypt. Passover instructions. Moses leads the sons of Israel out of Egypt, the Pharao pursues, the Red Sea splits. Manna, Sabbath laws. ten Commandments, criminal law, three annual festivals. Covenant. Tabernacle, sanctification. Golden calf, Moses shatters stone tablets. Tablets remade, tabernacle built.

Leviticus: Instructions on offerings, sin/guilt/burnt/grain offerings, no eating of fat and blood, Aaron installed as priest, clean and unclean animals, dead bodies, leprosy, sexual discharges. Atonement day, sex and miscellaneous laws, eating holy things, Festival of Booths, 50th year jubilee, no idolatry, blessings for obedience, chastisements for disobedience, tenth parts.

Numbers: Tribes registered for the army, obligations of Levites, Gershonites. Test of faithful wife. Naziriteship. Commissioning of the altar. People want meat. Spies enter Canaan. Judgement of the 40 years. Earth swallows rebels. Fire and scourges. Contribution laws. Moses strikes rock for water. Snakes. Og killed. Balaam's prophecies. Inheritances allocated. Offering procedures. Midian, Balaam killed. Gad, Reuben, half of Manasseh settle. Levite cities, cities of refuge and laws of avengers of blood.

Deuteronomy: Recollection of exodus, Moses urges obedience, instructions to kill the inhabitants of the Promised Land. Preparing to cross over Jordan. Disobedience recalled. Wipe out false religion. The share of the Levites. Debt releases. Cities of refuge to man-slayers. Rules of war. Miscellaneous laws. No temple prostitutes. Criminal law, labour law. Results of obedience, disobedience. Covenant renewed. Joshua is to be new leader. Song of Moses. Moses dies.

Joshua: Rahab hides Israelite spies. Water stops when Israel crossing the Jordan. City walls of Jericho brought down. Ai destroyed. Agreement with Gibeonites. Sun stalls. Five kings killed. Conquest of Promised Land. Assignations of territories to tribes. Boundaries, cities set. Protest over Altar on Jordan river.

Judges: Conflicts with remaining inhabitants. Judges as leaders . Deborah. Sisera killed. Midianites rule. Gideon becomes a leader, refuses kingship. His son Abimelech kills his 70 brothers, rules Israel. Jephthah fights against Ammonites, vows daughter. Samson gets married to Philistine woman, angers with his riddle, burns down fields, kills them with a jawbone. Delilah has him shaved, he loses power, is captured, blinded. Pulls down house. Danites take Micah's priest and images. A Concubine is raped, killed. She is dismembered and sent all over Israel. Then the Benjaminites are almost wiped out, but saved as a tribe.

Ruth: Ruth, a Moabite widow, stays with her mother-in-law, supports her, marries wealthy Boas.

1 Samuel: Samuel is apprentice to Eli, the priest. Becomes a prophet. Philistines capture ark but are scourged by piles. Return ark. Israelites demand a king. Samuel warns, discourages. Saul anointed king. He fights the Ammonites, makes a sacrifice without Samuel, is reprimanded. Jonathan skirmishes with the Philistines. Saul spares Agag, King of Amalek, instead of killing him. He is now rejected by Samuel, who kills Agag himself and anoints David. David sings to Saul, strikes down Goliath. Jonathan, son of Saul is David's best friend. Saul is envious of David, seeks to kill him. David flees to Samuel, then further on. Saves town of Keilah. Spares Saul. Marries Abigail. Spares Saul again. Is given Ziklag. Joins the Philistine army, but sent back, finds Ziklag burned down but pursues the Amalekite marauders and gets women, children and wealth back.

Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White

Walter Hartright, a drawing-master, is given an assignment by the immensely wealthy Fairlies. He falls in love with Laura Fairlie, but is told to step back as she is engaged to Sir Percival Glyde. Laura marries Sir Glyde, but the marriage is a single catastrophe. Sir Glyde urgently needs her money to cover his various financial embarrassments. His friend, Count Fosco, shares the same financial problems. The two of them connive to get hold of a mysterious woman in white (actually Laura's half-sister, as it turns out later) who looks just like Laura, she dies while captive and they have it recorded as Laura Fairlie's death. Thereafter Sir Percival and Fosco both get enormous sums of money paid from the estate. Hartright, returning from self-imposed exile in Honduras, helps the real Laura to hide, and like a sleuth discovers all the mysteries of the two villains. He ends up marrying Laura and living with her and her sister Marian in London, until Frederick Fairlie unexpectedly dies and he can take possession of the family mansion Limmeridge. The book is excellently written, very unusual is the form of protocols of the various actors, like a court case, which makes it even more plausible.

Richard Branson, Losing my Virginity, Autobiography

A live business case study that shows: You can make a helluva lot of mistakes in life if you have one or two cash cows that make up for it. And some mistakes will turn out to be none at all! But you have to be in the right place at the right time, know the right people, have the right co-workers. And never panic, never lose hope, when times were tough. Richard Branson tells his story with amazing honesty. Well written, a must-read for every economist.

Leon Uris, Mitla Pass

It is 1956 and Gideon Zadok is possessed by the idea of writing a book about the war in Israel and takes part in a very dangerous operation in Mitla Pass. We learn about his family, his father Nathan, a no-goodnik Communist party organizer and his mother, Hannah Balaban, a bitter, promiscuous woman who neglects her son. He nevertheless becomes a famous writer, but cannot follow up his first novel which became a best-seller. With strong autobiographic contents, a thrilling book with lots of background information about the Shtetl life.

Bill Cullen, Its a Long Way from Penny Apples

An rags-to-riches autobiography. Liam Cullen (confusing: he is Bill) is born into a desperately poor family, where the father's income is just nominal, while the mother and the kids feed the family with their income as traders. He becomes one of the countrys leading businessman, owner of a chain of Renault dealerships. The book does not use sophisticated language and the grammar is really Irish, which makes it appear quite genuine.

Emile Zola, Le Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies Delight)

Written in 1883, it is an outstanding and excellently researched book about the setting up of the first department stores in Paris. Starting in 1867, Octave Mouret is the owner of the magnificent "Bonheur de Dames". Denise Baudu starts as a salesgirl, is mobbed, laid off but eventually re-employed. She becomes his confidante, but the two of them cannot communicate their love of each other. They just about make it to get engaged on the last page! Reading the book, I thought of Arthur Healey, probably Zolas literary heir...

Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

A hilarious and outstandingly well written story about Mr. Pickwick and his disciples Mr. Winkle, Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Tupman (and Mr. Pickwick's uneducated but clever manservant Sam Weller), how they manage to get themselves time and again into trouble. Mr. Pickwick always wanting the best and ending up in trouble, permanently being rescued by faithful Sam. A wonderful account on the 1830s, so lively as if it happened in reality. There are many subtle allegations with regard to lawyers, courts and religion, prudery and hypocrisy.

Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

An excellently written, bitterly ironical insight into the 18th Century (it was written around 1750), and the then prevailing huge differences between noble and common birth. Tom Jones is born a foundling, brought up in the house of country squire Allworthy, a wild but conscious child. His rival is the son of the squire's sister, Blifil, a scheming and nasty character. Jones is extremely good-looking and has consequently many affairs with women, impregnates one the servants' daughters' and confesses his love for the neighbour's daughter, Sophia, who is out of bounds for him as he is not of noble birth. Blifil plots against Jones and convinces Allworthy to turn Jones out of the house. Jones then goes on a journey which eventually takes him to London, where he becomes the Gigolo of a noble lady and eventually stabs a man in a duel. The man doesn't die, though, the charges are dropped and Allworthy discovers that Jones is in reality his sister's illegitimate child, so that he consents to his marrying Sophia.

Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell

The amazing life-story of David Copperfield, who loses both parents, is abused by his stepfather, flees to his aunt and makes his way up to become a proctor and a famous writer. His difficult passion for the frail Dora, who dies shortly after the wedding and his long restrained passion for the rational Agnes. Masterfully written, a joy to read.

Christopher Hurdon, Dith Pran (ed.), The Killing Fields

A collection of heartbraking stories of how Cambodians were put into labour camps, some from the age of five. They were starved, abused, mistreated and often killed.

Sarah Quigley, Shot

A poetic story about Lana Domanski, a stand-up comedian, who starts her career at the age of seven. When she gets hit by a stray bullet at the age of 28, she quits and starts as a photographer and writer in Alaska.

Peter Ustinov, The Old Man and Mr. Smith

A wicked story about God (the old man) and the Devil (Mr. Smith) visiting the world, travelling to USA, England, Russia, China, Japan and India. Referring to Gorbie, Clinton... but who is Matsuyama-San? Ustinov narrates with his usual twinkling of an eye, very funny, very satirical. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man

A story about Alex-Li Tandem, an autograph dealer who gets obsessed with a withdrawn American actress of the 1940s, Kitty Alexander. He visits her in NY and convinces her, that he should accompany her to London where he auctions four letters of hers off for GBP 150'000. The author expands on Alex's yuppie drug- and alcohol habits. I like her bringing Jewish customs into the story, though. Very uncommon are the typefaces, drawings and boxed texts in a novel. But the story is too long and drawn out, it gets boring with time.

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

A gripping story about a few noble families in Russia during the reign of Csar Alexander, fighting against Napoleon. A subtle testimony about the uselessness of heroism - the most brave characters are killed need- and senselessly. Thus probably also a subtle criticism of the Russian system, which obviously has been in existence much longer than the Soviet Union.

Leo Hamalian/Vera von Wiren-Garczynski (Editors), Seven Russian Short Stories

Nikolai Gogol (1835), The Story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich; Ivan Turgenev (1846), The Duelist; Feodor Dostoevsky (1866), The Gambler; Anton Chekhov (1892), Ward No 6; Leo Tolstoy (1898), Father Sergius; Leonid Andreyev (1902), The Dilemma; Boris Pasternak (1917), The Childhood of Zhenya Luvers Seven wonderful stories, one better than the other, a fine insight into Russian realism.

Cathy Reichs, Cross Bones

A gripping story (cashing in on the "Da Vinci Code") of the find of the bones of Jesus Christ, towards the end losing a bit.

Mikhail Sholokhov, Short Stories

The stories are a pleasure to read, but the author is too propagandistic of the Soviet Regime. Nevertheless, he gives us a excellent image of what was happening in the Russian Civil War in the 1920s.

Alexander Solzhenytsin, August 1914

A profoundly researched history of the needless destruction of General Samsonovs second Russian Army during its Prussian campaign in WW1.

Sam Wellman, Corrie ten Boom, heroine of Haarlem

Biography of a Dutch lady who saved many Jewish lives during Nazi occupation and was eventually imprisoned and sent to Vught Concentration Camp and to Ravensbrueck concentration camp. The story is interesting and genuine, but heavily doted with Christian rhetorics.

Jan Johnson, Madame Guyon

Biography of a French Catholic mystic. But: Not only is the story entirely contradictory - starting with two different birthdates (p. 14 and 134) and the constant talk of God's kindness while complaining that everyone went behind her back, the strange behaviour and the apparent mindlessness of the narrator and the poor language make this book a complete waste of time. Don't read it. The world would be better without it.

Don Delillo, White Noise

An intelligent analysis of the American way of life, with it's stereotypes, wastefulness and it's exposure to brand names and PR. Narrator is Jack Gladney, Head of the Department of Hitler Studies of the otherwise unimportant local college. His everyday family life stands in stark contrast to his public appearance. The plot is abstract in the sense of Ionesco, without the humour of Bulgakov, grim and exposing. The book goes from length to length and fails to captivate the reader. The detailed description of the American lifestyle contrasts to the shallow and fragmentary description of the protagonists and places.

Wilbur Smith, The Sound of Thunder

A historically correct fictional account of the Sean Courtney family in Boer war South Africa.

Mario de Carvalho, A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening

The author has in-depth knowledge of Roman times in Portugal, but the story lacks zest and it is dead boring.

William Shakespeare, Othello

I would love to translate this into German or Afrikaans! The defty language, the swearwords - I did not expect this.

Eric Prokosch, the technology of killing, A Military and Political History of Antipersonnel Weapons

A not-so-up-to-date history of antipersonnel weapons. I was hoping to find some information about the landmines used in Africa, but as the author only writes about American weapons and almost completely leaves out Russian weapons, it is of limited use to learn more about how to protect yourselves from antipersonnel devices in Africa. One probably just has to trod very, very carefully...

Victoria Hislop, the Island

A gripping story about a family being torn apart and having to live in a leper colony in Greece.

Raymond Khoury, Scriptum

A passionate novel, much in the style of the Da Vinci Code, but no depth and not quite so well researched as Dan Brown Novel.

Larry Adler, It ain't necessarily so

A grippingly honest account of the world's most famous mouth organist, his rise and his fall during the Mc Carthy era in the US and his subsequent exodus to the UK.

Christopher Hope, A separate development

Hope is an undiscovered gem of South African literature. With his book, he exposes the times of great Apartheid which I never witnessed myself, giving a good idea of how it was. Nightmarish the thought that in such a system, a white person suddenly darkens up and drops out of all systems, neither fitting into the black nor in the white world.

Michail Bulgakov, Master and Margarita

Bulgakov is a master of the absurd, his story is interesting from the first to the last page and he subtly exposes the Stalinist system. His humour is so dry, it could almost be English!

Qiu Xiaolong, A Loyal Character Dancer

A gripping story and an excellent insight into Chinese culture.

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

Passionate, historically well-researched and quite within the scope of possibilities. I just loved it.

Arthur Hailey, Moneychangers

Like all books by Arthur Hailey, excellently researched, giving a thorough insight into the world of banking and so modern, that you keep paging back to page 1 saying that it was written in the Seventies!

J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace

This book helps to understand why some white South Africans don't defend themselves when they get assaulted at their homes. It explores the feeling of underlying guilt.

Philip Caputo, Horn of Africa

An only too realistic story of three CIA mercenaries who get involved in the Eritrean war against the Ethiopian Derg government.