The flaws with Sun Tzu are its stating the bleeding obviousness and tautology. Apparently you should avoid attacking well fortified positions for instance. Then again, the WWI generals seemed to miss that bit. They cleary never read Tzu's views on facile ground.

Tautologically, you should never fight a battle unless you're sure you're going to win it before you start. Well, who can be sure even with good advice. I bet Napoleon thought he'd win Waterloo.

Best of all though, next time I'm on a business course and the tutor starts quoting Sun Tzu, I'll have a good idea whether the tutor is bluffing or not.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=12

Sun Shuyun provides the perfect introduction to modern Communist China by investigating it's founding myth - The Long March. A descent into the wilderness of China by a beaten Red Army, which makes Moses flight from Egypt look tame by comparison. However long the distances, harsh the weather, the terrain, the enemy attacks, the Communist purges that you can imagine, this book reveals them to be more so.

Not that this is haigography. Sun's great skill is in presenting the story of the Long March as she knew it from school and the Chinese media and weaving in both her personal journey along the route and the reminiscences of all classes of those who participated in the March. We learn the myth, the reality and how arduous the journey still is today. We loose count of the times Sun mentions in passing journeys of 10 hours or more, which would be enough for most people.

Even Moscow's role is revealed. A most destructive one at that. You can see how their policies didn't fit with Chinese realities, their military advisors all but annihilated the Red Army and they backed the wrong people such as Chiang. You can see where the Sino-Soviet antipathy came from.

My only criticism is that the book isn't longer. It seems to end abruptly and I'm hoping this leaves room for a sequel.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=11

You can't help thinking there is something naieve about providing your enemies with a book outlining your methods and thinking they won't outwit you. There is also the possibility that someone was using Che, someone less scrupulous perhaps.

The manual is also let down by contradicting itself, such as allowing relationships and later not. Also by its sexism, Che tries not be sexist but still thinks women make better cooks as that is part of 'their traditional role'.

The emphasis on revolutionary indoctrination is also terribly dated. Hopefully people don't still believe that you have to take on a convoluted, contradictory pseudo-Marxist-Leninist rationale for what may be a perfectly straightforward insurrection against the corrupt. Ideology all too often just gets in the way of simpler explanations and twists original good intentions into more sinister things.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=10

This is a true story of a young midwife working in London’s East End in the 1950s. Back then, midwifery was still a relatively new discipline and of course, it was still unusual for women to work, even though the second world war had helped the cause a lot.

The book is an account of her experience, interlacing general observations about the living conditions in the East End with details of specific families and births. Jennifer Worth is very good at giving a sense of the times, mixing up descriptions with dialogue, narration with action.

However, she goes all religious on the last few pages, implying that the midwives only did such great work because of their religious fervour, as if unreligious people have no ethics and sense of working for the community. While I can't obviously blame her for expressing her opinion on the matter, there is an inherent bigotry in the last few pages which wasn't apparent in the rest of the book and which undermines the whole historical stance of the book.

But with this in mind, this is still a good book and if like me, you're fed up with religious people denying the fact you can be both atheist and a good person, I suggest you read it but skip the last few pages.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=8

The story is about falling in love with others, in love with oneself, and in and out of love with the world. It explores the place of lesbianism in New York in the 1950s, a tale of both hope and tragedy. It’s about self discovery, the fight between the inner and the outer world.

With elements of suspense, this is a cross between a pulp romance and a literary novel about the human existence. Kind of like Paul Auster meeting Ann Bannon. While the style of the writing is quite typical of the pulp fiction movement, the content offers food for thought.

The melange might seem obnoxious but it isn’t - it works, it grips you, you have to know what happens to Carol.

There is also a lot of humour, albeit somewhat dark, and Therese, the narrator, offers a candid view of New York.

This is a classic. Absolutely recommended.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=9

I normally enjoy literary fiction with flourishes and an extensive vocabulary, such as Paul Auster, but I feel that Jonathan Lethem's style is closer to a kid showing off the new words he's learnt at school.

But he redeems himself with a powerful tale of awkward teenagers, racial tensions, inner-city violence, gentrification and creative outcasts in Brooklyn.

While the story touches on many taboo subjects, such as male homosexuality within the black community, racism against white people, violence against your owns and absent mothers, it simple brings another side to the table without judging. The narrative style - the story is narrated in the 1990s but most of it takes place in the 1970s - provides an historical emotional attachment and you almost forget that this is fiction, so poignant and believable the stories are.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=7

Seeing the sex, sleaze and gossip of Old Hollywood from this fresh angle is delightful. Cheetah is the Candide of Hollywood, a favourite moment being when he finds the doorhandle more interesting than the lesbian encounter he's stumbled in on. Well, which would be more unusual to a chimp?

So sad that his career was over at 14, that former Olympic medalist Wiesmuller died of cancer, swindled of his earnings and that the whole book might be a hoax and that this may not be Cheeta after all.

Still very worthwhile though for the points made about the use of animals in the entertainment industry and the wider society - ironically presented by a chimp disagreeing with them. I expect that an appeal for more humane treatment of animals was the author's motivation for writing.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=4

His eye for detail turns this novel into a film and this is very exciting. Not only is he good with physical descriptions, but also with inner thoughts.

I recommend this book to those readers who enjoy getting into the head of mature characters, and/or who have a fascination with New York City like I have.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=6

While the constant change of POVs in the same scene is a bit frustrating as it makes it difficult to really empaphise with a given character, the story and the characters are all three dimensional and reveal themselves in unexpected ways.

Graham Greene mixes religion with gang violence and it is particularly interesting that the most religious gangster is the most violent. This is a stern reminder that being religious doesn't mean being ethical and fair.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=5

The prose is lightweight and the content sparse, which can't all be put down to it being a translation (possibly one which loses a verve present in the original). Much of the book is taken up with Salazar himself and comparisons which only mean something to a French readership. Indeed, it maybe should have been called "Paralell Lives".

Also, there is the question of why is there a need for this book? Apparently he has been honoured around the world and books have been written about him. If this were the 60s or even as late as the 80s, in his native Portugal, there would be a reason for a campaigning treatise. This seems a bit late in the day, lacking focus and the Ladybird version. None of which detracts from De Sousa Mendes deserving to be spoken of in company of Oscar Schindler.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=3

Fans of Paul Auster's writing will be delighted for this glimpse into his earlier writing. The themes of the plays are very similar to those of his New York Trilogy stories and display his love for the absurd.

The detective novel is written in the first person and throws you into the story. Being him, of course, don't expect a straightforward “whodunnit” story. His style is a bit less flourished than in his later published work but you can already recognise it as Paul Auster, even though the genre requires him to stick to certain conventions (action over thought in most scenes, even though the latter scenes rely on thought over action).

This is highly recommended, for both Paul Auster's die hard fans and those mildly curious as to how a writer can financially survive in New York City.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=2

The book includes interviews with those who played a role in Chris' life, be it his parents or people he met on the road while hitchiking. Almost more important than the interviews is the central chapter during which Jon relates his own experience when he climbed a new route up the Devils Thumb, Alaska. Even though this chapter is about Jon, it feels very much about Chris.

Whether you admire or criticise Chris for what he has done (I'm personally on the fence), this book will help you understand what goes on in the mind of those giving themselves extreme physical challenges, something the film based on the book failed to do.

Link to this post: http://www.cogitas.net/bookworm/search.php?p=1