Frankenstein

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had problem with rating this book.
On one hand - reading was terribly tiresome, almost painful.
On the other hand - full respect to the author for attacking a very serious and more and more current problem.
Why was reading so painful - my guess is that 80% of the text is completely irrelevant to the story. I simply was not able to concentrate for such long time and few times realised that I missed some significant element.
Another point is that the author leaves a lot of blank spots -
Example - process of creating the creature is barely mentioned and takes less than 1 page. The creator abhors his creature and falls in state of unconsciousness. His friend takes care of him but nobody is interested what he left in his working room/laboratory.
As the result I read it again, this time more carefully and making note of each sentence which moved the story forward.
There were less than 50 pages worth reading, but they were worth to be read few times.
How could you dare to create a living creature not caring about its wellbeing and happiness?

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The Omega Factor

The Omega Factor by Steve Berry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found this book so tiresome that decided that the effort of reading is not worthy of reading the full story.
On one hand I feel respect to the author for digging into all these details and I envy him visiting such exciting places with the knowledge of their historical background, on the other hand - it did not compensate effort of reading quite messy and artificial story :(

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Life in 3G

My friend from the church declared that his current priorities are - 3G - God, Girls and Golf.
My contact with golf is none, girls... from the distance.
Grumbling and Grave look much closer, still today I realised that we have a beautiful golf course in the park 1 kilometre from the house.

We've had beautiful, sunny days lately. A few times a week, while driving to a nearby market in the morning, I pass this field and admire the beautiful grass, wonderfully rolling hills, all behind a light curtain of fog illuminated by the rising sun.

Unfortunately, I cannot document it with photos because there is no place to park a car.
I tried in the afternoon from the other side.
I drove car to the nearby park and noticed that somebody was watching me...

I thought that these nice creatures will also monitor my car and in good spirit walked towards the golf course. Unfortunately the park is on the hill, the golf course goes down so it was difficult to take a good photo, so we have what we have...

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Walking track is rather short, access to the golf course is limited so I moved back to the park, under the trees.

Bang! 
Something hit me strongly in the shoulder.
Alarm!!! They are playing golf outside the course!
I looked down for a golf ball.... I found this....

The pine of the tree under which I walked...

I felt good emotions,
The NATURE gave me a friendly nudge - I am here, near you - enjoy.

Love etc.

Love, etc. by Julian Barnes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Long time ago I read Talking It Over which we is a prequel to this book.
I do not remember much from this book other than a specific format - instead of plot run by a narrator it was a sort of confession where all characters were reporting their actions, thoughts and reflections to some third party.
I found it interesting.... correction - I found it interesting and entertaining because of Oliver.
I wonder what prompted Julian Barnes to write a sequel, sometimes I think that he would like to be in position of Oliver - simply - J.B. is extremely knowledgable and eloquent - maybe he is longing for a silent and attentive listener/reader.
Returning to the book - unfortunately, this time I found Oliver's phantasies flat and dull. Beside it, his actions or rather lack of those is pathetic.
Other characters - first of all - too many of them. I do not remember how many characters were monitored in Talking It Over, but here -definitely I was confused by them.
Secondly - the plot - to be honest I lost interest in main characters and stopped to worry about them.

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Mozart beyond the glass

 We are regular goers to Mostly Mozart series in Melbourne Recital Centre.
As the name indicates there is W.A.Mozart music in the program plus someone else.

This time the title was surprising - Glass Harmonica.
Glass Harmonica?
I do not think I ever heard such an instrument, I dimly recollect that it produces music similar to xylophone, it sounds in some cloudy, watery way - definitely not Mozart style.

Day before the concert I decided to widen my knowledge of the subject and practically it took me the whole day and I am still not satisfied.

Firstly I learned that glass harmonica is a most dangerous musical instrument in history of music - people exposed to it experienced - attacks of panic, epilepsy, women - miscarriages - consequently it was forbidden to play it in public places - more HERE.

Secondly - glass harmonica was invented in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin, I knew this name as an inventor of lightning rod. After reading an entry in Wikipedia I got to conclusion that he was a most capable brain ever - just check -- CLICK.

So what Mozart could get out of glass harmonica?
The answer is HERE.
No surprises - not much Mozart brilliance here.

The important question was - who will support Mozart this time?
It was Hungarian composer Gyorgi Ligeti, I heard before few pieces of his music and thought that it may suit glass harmonica.

The last question was - do we have a glass harmonica in Australia?
If so, where it was hidden? Why it was never publicly played?

The answer was simple - Glass Harmonica will not be there!
It was replaced by various combinations of xylophones, vibraphones, marimbas and...

... yes, glasses and glass bowls half filled with water. All operated by 4 people...

And it produced amazing sound.

And here is a piece by G. Ligeti, here played by a "proper" orchestra, but combination of various percussion instruments and glass gave similar effect - CLICK.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First point probably nullifies my whole review - I did not read it, I watched the movie.
Here is my story...
Seeing many enthusiastic reviews of the book I was very keen to borrow it from the library but the queue was very long. Then I noticed the movie on the library shelf so I borrowed it.
I do not regret.
First point - I was very touched by the story, I would rate the movie at 4+.
Second point - few times I found the story absolutely naive or improbable but the vision works differently than the logic - I followed the action putting reservations aside.
They came together after finished watching the movie and had some time for reflection.
(view spoiler)[
First doubt - mother and sibling abandoning their little daughter/sister without smallest hesitation, regret, single word.
Second doubt - nobody around takes any practical interest in young girl living alone.
Third - Kay is taught first few letters of alphabet and from it she emerges as highly qualified scientist and artist.
Fourth - the court case against her is raised without any proofs. Actually, in the movie the case stays unexplained.
(hide spoiler)]
I read few reviews of the book and I fully sympathise with readers who abandoned the book after 50 pages.

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The Warsaw Protocol

The Warsaw Protocol by Steve Berry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

First book I read written by this author and I think the last.
Mostly I should blame myself, simply I am not interested with stories where in every second chapter someone is killed.
Other fault on my side is that I have difficulty to concentrate on very complicated and messy plot, specifically when the plot doesn't make much sense to me.
The only reason I gave it 2 stars were details about Polish history. I was amazed how many of them are included in the book and wonder how interesting they were for non-Polish readers - I am Polish.

Another point...

The plot of the book does not make any sense to me.

The idea is that presidential election in Poland is coming and president learns that a file of discrediting him information is to be sold for the highest bidder.

There is not a word of clarification of actual political situation in Poland - who is a possible contender in the election, what are main political parties, which of them is supporting the president.

There is an elaborate description of evolution of political situation in Poland after the Second World War and it looks that result in NIL. All power is in hands of a single person, so even worse than in the communist system.

Some logic.  

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