Peter R. Neumann, The New World Disorder.

- I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's absolutely brilliant on every level, as well as being superbly written in crystal clear prose. It has been translated from the original German by journalist David Shaw, and it's rare that translations are this good. Neumann is currently Professor of Security Studies at King's College London and is an internationally sought-after expert on terrorism and geopolitics. 

- The triumph of the West had seemed unstoppable not that long ago...but now the West is under pressure, and it has only itself to blame. Over the last thirty years, through a mixture of naïveté and arrogance, it has lost its global advantage. Today's challenges are profound: the rise of China, climate change, and the polarisation of society. (back cover blurb)

- As a reader I'm an obsessive underliner. Sentences that encapsulate fundamental insights and meanings demand to be remembered. While reading this book I virtually underlined every paragraph. 

- Neumann's chapters on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are magnificent. He condemns the profound ignorance and naiveté of the US and its conservative commentators. The 9/11 attacks showed that the West was vulnerable; the wars in the Middle East exposed the limits of its military power, and the collapse of the financial markets revealed the contradictions inherent in its economic model. 

- He also obliterates Putin and puts his war on Ukraine into perspective. Putin's a posturing Eurasianist with the power fantasies of a populist imperialist.  

- He's also excellent on the creation of the EU and the disaster of Brexit. And quite pessimistic on the world's dismal failure to address the challenges of climate change. 

- In summary, this is a book that deserves to be widely read. I hope it becomes an international bestseller. 

Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect

- There's no doubt Benjamin Stevenson is a brilliant comic writer. His gift shines through on virtually every page. 

- Ernest Cunningham, the fictional author of the best-selling Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, is writing his follow-up Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect. Ernest continually breaks the fourth wall, telling us all what he's doing and why, which makes it so charming. 

- The train is the Ghan, running from Darwin to Adelaide, and the luxury carriage is hosting 'The Australian Mystery Writers' Festival' featuring six internationally successful authors. (Note to ed: there should be no comma after Writers). A couple of murders take place. 

- The book has a serious problem however. It's hard-going. The story is clotted, the narrator fussy, and he drowns the reader in so much detail the experience is like drowning in mud.  

- It gets really tedious and alienating towards the end, as the incestuous, mind-boggling connections between all the characters are revealed. Our omniscient, first-person narrator somehow knows everything, indulging in his own cleverness. 

- But he does satirise the mystery thriller genre exceptionally well, particularly the ‘butler-dunnit’ model. 

- And I must say he portrays the regular modus operandi of the publishing industry and its many players very accurately. The Oxford Comma also plays a part!

- But, all in all....meh!