Bernard Black Male, 30. Vienna, Austria

Although partly enjoyable this book never managed to really draw me in. It's not bad per se, but a less presumptuous introduction by the author wouldn't have hurt. To quote from my edition: "[Oranges] offers a complicated narrative structure disguised as a simple one, it employs a very large vocabulary and a beguilingly straight-forward syntax". Luckily "Oranges" is not the only book either...

Over the course of 360 pages Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin tackle lots of different topics of interest to developers. The book is structured in 3 main parts:

*) Ruby techniques: Gives a general introduction to Rubys strength (which sometimes reads as a bit of a sales pitch), BDD and TDD, as well as scripting with Ruby (including OLE and OSA).

*) Integration and communication: This part covers Rails, web services in general (HTTP, REST, SOAP), automating communication with email and IM, asynchronous messaging and deployment options.

*) Data and document techniques: This part talks about databases, structured text, authentication, searching, indexing and document processing.

Chapters usually present the reader with a problem, then show an example solution which usually makes good use of existing libraries and then finish with further discussion on the topic (alternative ways to implement it, pitfalls in using the shown solution in real life scenarios etc.). For people with previous knowledge of Ruby this book is a good read, which shows how the dynamic nature of the language combined with the quite big amount of readily available libraries enable developers to quickly and efficiently find solutions to common problems. I sometimes do have minor quirks with some of the code, but thats just personal preferences and being nitpicky. All in all its a very solid book which I enjoyed quite a lot.

Usually I'm a bit weary of books which create as big a hype as "Everything Is Illuminated" did, but to my surprise I found that in this case it was well deserved. Jonathan Safran Foer proves himself to be a skilled craftsman of language, which he uses compellingly to light-heartedly but intelligently write about topics as big as love and the holocaust. This book is beautiful, humorous, relevant and even if you don't enjoy the actual story, you may like it for the inventiveness of the story-telling.

"The Lover" has been my strangest reading experience in a while: if I picked it up, I did find it hard to put down. The only problem was, I didn't feel like picking it up most of the time. I guess I just had a problem with the characters, because although they are consistent in their behavior throughout the story, there's something lacking and artificial about them that stopped me from getting as drawn in as I usually do. This book did have a lot of potential, but unfortunately didn't live up to it in my opinion.

"The Eight Day" is not what I usually read, but I still very mich enjoyed it. This book is the literary equivalent of a Hollywood thriller: fast paced, action packed, a little over the top and violent. I'd tell you to get some popcorn with it, but it's a real pageturner so you'll need your hands free.

Miriam Tlali was the first black woman to publish a novel in South Africa and also one of the first writers who directed their attention to Soweto (the South Western Townships of Johannesburg).

The ten short stories which comprise the volume "Soweto Stories" are unadorned accounts of the lives of average black people and the hardships they have to endure as direct or indirect consequences of the apartheid regime.

For anybody interested in South Africa during the apartheid - or any other form of oppressive government for that matter - this book is a must read.

A wonderful book: well written, engrossing and entertaining. It does a wonderful job in describing a migrant community (in this case Bangladeshis in London), their longing for home and identity and the changes in their personalities induced by the host country. Through the letters of Nazneen's sister Hasina we also get an account of the hardships of life in Bangladesh, which is a nice way to contrast the overly positive views expressed by Chanu.

If you liked "Brick Lane" you would probably also enjoy "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith.

When Ian Banks' first book got released in 1984, it sparked a huge controversy for its violent nature (which is mostly directed against animals). And while it still is quite a violent book a quarter of a decade later, you can't help but wonder what reactions this book would trigger today. Would there still be such a huge outcry, or are we too used to violence by now.

Anyway, the gruesome and matter-of-fact depictions of violence aside, "The Wasp Factory" is a funny book. It's definitely not everybody's humor, but if you have a predilection for the dark and macabre you might enjoy this a lot. I did.

Saul Bellow got awarded a Nobel Prize "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work". And while I do agree that he is quite good at that, I just don't find the people he describes in this book all that interesting. Maybe it works for you though...