SPARKS

[Alex Robertson]

It’s exactly the same when people are asked their favourite sparks track…can’t just choose one, asked for three they’ll give five and asked for five they’ll say, “All of them…!”😜

[J. Prufrock]

When the Earth was Green (Riley Black, 2025) is nonfiction, a discussion of the evolution of plants and animals and how they've influenced each other over time, but Black starts each chapter with a vignette set in a particular place and era. These make me think the book could easily be turned into a documentary miniseries, like Walking with Dinosaurs but with a much broader time/space/species scope.

[J. Prufrock]

Dystopia, now available in a pink-and-white color scheme. Yours for the Taking isn't only the title of Gabrielle Korn's 2023 novel, it's also part of the in-story title of a self-help book written by the director of 'Inside,' one of several refuges built to keep some humans alive on an increasingly inhospitable Earth. One of the protagonists is hired by the director as her personal assistant, initially on Earth and later following her onto an orbiting space shuttle while others - one admitted Inside as a refugee, another hired by the director as Inside's head doctor, others born Inside to the first generation of refugees - slowly figure out the director's agenda for Inside and the rest of Earth, the lengths she's going to in pursuit of that goal, and how to reclaim control of their lives. Not all of Earth's problems are resolved in the course of the story, but it does end on a hopeful note. (Occasional chapters in the form of the personal assistant's 2085 memoir also make it clear from the start that 'Inside' will fail but that much of humanity survives.)

[J. Prufrock]

Reading something quite old for a change - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself (and dated Apr. 28, 1845 at the end.) Mr. Douglass apparently wrote later revisions covering more of his life, but this original version focuses on his early experiences including enslavement and his escape from it - with some specific details deliberately omitted to prevent criminal charges being brought against individuals who helped him. Some of what he writes about seems still relevant in our nation today, but not for lack of his speaking and writing; a pity none of my U.S. History teachers were able to fit this 159-page book into the school curriculum.

[Alex Robertson]

Again, I’ve been reading books by authors I’ve already mentioned just by way of catching up on their works…and although I’ve read other books by Edward Marston, I’ve started one ( 1st in the series) about murder investigations set in the aftermath of The Great Fire Of London called The King’s Evil so far it’s shaping up well!