Welcome to this week's WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam from Taking On A World of Words.
What did you recently finish reading?
I've just finished Antimatter by Frank Close. I started this book a few years ago and took a break, reading something a little lighter in the interim. It's actually only 148 pages long (excluding the appendix) and is accessible, probably one of the more 'easier' books out there about physics and the 'little' matter about antimatter. Antimatter is the stuff of science fiction but it does exist - at least it did during the Big Bang (apparently producing matter and antimatter in equal amounts) and scientists have been able to create miniscule amounts - but there's very little in our part of the universe these days. Essentially everything is made up of atoms, which are then broken down into electrons, protons and neutrons - and all of these can have an counterpart. But if they meet they will destroy each other. Part of the book is fascinating, and other areas require concentration. I'm still not 100% certain what the difference is between a quark and a muon so may need to go back and reread some parts. The good news is that we are a long, long way off from creating an antimatter bomb!
A much easier read was The Midnight Hour by Ellie Griffiths. This detective story set in the 1960s forms part of her Brighton Mysteries books. The main characters were likeable and it was interesting to see what it might have been like to have been a female detective or a female police officer in the 1960s. It was never an addictive read as some crime stories can be for me (I was able to put it back down after a read) but I would always enjoy the time spent reading it.
What are you currently reading?
The Valley of Horses by Jean M Auel is the second in a series called Earth's Children and tells the tale of Ayla who lives in Neolithic times, during the ice age. Her early life is recounted in The Clan of the Cave Bear, although a Cro-Magnon, as an orphaned five-year-old child, she is taken in by a Neanderthal tribe. In The Valley of Horses, her story continues. Following tragedy, she is now on her own and is wandering central Europe, aiming to survive and find members of her own kind. Her chapters alternate with ones detailing the Journey of two young brothers and their encounters with various tribes along the way. The descriptive writing is well done so the reader can imagine what it might have been like living in that long-ago era.
What do you think you'll read next?
I have a couple of other Elly Griffiths' novels - The Postscript Murders and The Chalk Pit which I'm looking forward to reading. On my TBR pile is Kahil Gibran's The Prophet. I admit I only bought this (£2.50 from a charity shop) because it is deemed a classic but I actually don't know much about it. It's always seemed an intriguing book.
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