Mitch Albom - A Rare Talent

Read with confidence any book by Mitch Albom. I read “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” and was captivated. I read “Tuesdays With Morrie” and was quietly moved.

Now “For One More Day” has reached my lap. I was engaged from the first words of first person narrative. You know the phrase “page turner”; this is the kind of book whose pages turn themselves. I can’t wait for the end but know that, when it comes, I shall have to read something lesser.

The Last Theorem - Finished But Not Solved

Why did Clarke and Pohl write this book? Because they could? I have not read any Pohl before and have, of course, read much Clarke and I doubt that this slightly faltering story is truly in either of their established styles. Before I go too far I should say I did, on balance, enjoy the book but, on critical examination, one wonders what holds it all together. It is apparently a vehicle for Pohl to display his inevitable mathematical knowledge and for Clarke to expound some ideas already documented elsewhere (Skyhook/Space Elevator; solar racing (with the same outcome)).

However, even as it reaches its rather open ending - it is not a conclusion - it remains a tale of hope for the human race, one in which we don't do everything badly. It is a bit much however, to imagine that we might ever develop suffciently to take over from the Grand Galactics.

Parallel

This post is not about a specific book but about where I am at the moment. I rarely have as much time as I would like to read unless I am on holiday.

I frequently read more than one book at a time. At this time, I am reading Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais but finding the main protagonist a rather muted shadow of his former self. I could not wait to start to the excellent The Last Theorem and am waiting for the Grand Galactics (or more accurately the One Point Fives) to arrive to destroy us.

My mandatory non-fiction of the moment is Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Well written but substantial, it's completion is logical before I move on to The Court of the Red Tsar, already on my shelf.