An Edible History of Humanity
by Tom Standage
An Edible History of Humanity (3/22/2009)
The author puts forward his views that all large transformations in history were caused, enabled or influenced by food. The change as humans left hunter-gatherer societies and become agrarian societies allowed people to have the ability to stay in one place, to own personal items (because they did not have to carry them), to grow into various class distinctions, to eventually allow those in control to have others get food for them. The author argues that food (or the lack thereof) was the main reason for wars to occur.
A very interesting history. I was not expecting much but enjoyed the book. I don't think I will ever look at corn in the same way again.
Blacklight Blue: The Third Enzo Files
by Peter May
Blacklight Blue by Peter May (10/9/2008)
Enzo MacLeod, a Scot teaching on a faculty in southwest France, confidently bet that he could use his expertise to crack seven notorious murders described in a book on cold cases by Parisian journalist Roger Raffin. Enzo has in fact solved the first two crimes.
But the third is far from his mind right now: he has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and he has become the victim of someone who seems intent on destroying his credit and his relationships as well as getting him arrested for murder.
Having established a safe house to protect his loved ones he sets to work. Are his personal woes somehow connected to the digging he has done into the brutal murder of a boy in a Paris apartment sixteen years ago? Can he stay alive long enough to catch the long-hidden killer? This is the third installment in the series.
The plot line sounds great. The main character has worked well in other books. The author has written many novels. In my opinion this book simply falls flat.
There is a lot of violence in the book where one looks on dispassionately. The author fails to make the reader care enough about the victims to be as shocked as we should be. The best suspense in the book is in the personal lives of Enzo and his daughter not in the actual murder mystery.
I truly enjoyed the descriptions of Strasbourg and Paris, France. The author did a good job of bringing the city to life. The setting for the book is very well done.
Overall, I felt the writing did not flow well. A chapter is ended without pulling the reader to the next chapter. It was supposed to be a thriller but failed to thrill me. I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars.
