BOOKS

THE CANON

NATALIE ANGIER
OUT NOW, £17.99 (APPROX. €24)

Science, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Natalie Angier, is all too often relegated either to the realm of kids’ stuff or pointy-headed boffinry. As children, we are encouraged to take an interest in science with trips to interactive museum exhibits and accessible television programmes promoting the fun side of science. But by the time we’ve been through school, most people have been convinced that science is a subject that’s not for them – remote from their lives and full of secrets that they’ll never unlock. So while many adults happily immerse themselves in art galleries, operas, films by David Lynch and other challenging cultural experiences, the chances are that they’ll leave science well alone.

The Canon is an attempt to redress this balance, and n Angier approaches her task with wit, rigour and a genuine enthusiasm that succeeds in bringing her wide-ranging subjects to life. One of the problems with conventional teaching of science is that we’re often told the basic facts, but are expected to accept these various laws without genuinely understanding them. Angier combats this by deliberately aiming for depth rather than breadth, using her considerable skill to give a working understanding of, for example, what an atom looks like up close, and how that atom combines with others to create the world we live in. It is, of course, a basic understanding, but it feels intelligent and practical, and Angier takes the time to explain complex theories without patronising or becoming suddenly unintelligible.

Peppered with fascinating facts, The Canon keeps its reader engaged with juicy nuggets that illustrate its wider points. Did you know, for example, that the average human lives for three billion seconds? Or that, to paraphrase William Blake, if the world really was a grain of sand, the sun would be an orange-sized object about 20ft away?

The book depends on the reader having a basic curiosity for such information, and this reader found the section on chemistry, for example, slightly less engaging than those on physics, probability and evolution. Taken as a general introduction to The beautiful basics of science, however, Angier’s book is utterly enthralling and guaranteed to make any non-scientist see the world in a slightly different light.

BRANDEDMALE

MARK TUNGATE
OUT NOW, £18.99 (APPROX. €25)

“This book began with a shirt.” So says author, journalist, blogger and TV presenter Mark Tungate. Actually, it began with a shirt’s sleeves, which were too long for him, but which were sold as the motorcycle cut – a shirt designed for reaching forwards to ride a motorbike. Inspired by the attention to detail, style and machismo that had been bundled into one ill-fitting shirt, he not only bought it, but also set out to investigate the changing landscape of marketing to men.

The male of the species marries older, lives longer and has a lot more disposable income, creating a market for products and services that have never existed before. In 1990, only four per cent of men claimed to use a skincare product regularly, while current projections reckon that by 2015 half of all men will be happily using moisturisers, toners and other unguents.

Marketing and advertising are Tungate’s specialties and the chapters are packed with facts, figures and expert comment. But he is a branded male like the rest of us, and his ability to comment on the industry while recognising his place in it makes him all the more readable. Insightful, Branded Male offers an interesting theory of how the modern male has been formed.

UTOPIAN DREAMS

TOBIAS JONES
OUT NOW, £7.99 (APPROX. €11)

A piece of travel writing with a difference, Utopian Dreams is the second book by Tobias Jones, s author of The Dark Heart of Italy. In both books Jones specialises in taking the role of an involved outsider, immersing himself in a community and making an effort to see the world as they do while remaining aware of his essential difference from those around him. But where his first book focused on the finer points of modern Italian life, Utopian Dreams is a more spiritual journey with Jones s spending a year with “alternative communities”.

Whether he’s living in a Christian community or on a New Age commune, Jones brings his same measured consideration to the fore. It says something about the secularity of modern society that it’s strange to read such a balanced and intelligent critique of such divergent religious practices – there’s not a hint of sensationalism as Jones asks whether these ways of living aren’t actually better than our ‘normal’ culture. If there’s one criticism of his approach, however, it’s in his condemnation of mainstream culture. As he rails against consumerism, urban decay and a way of life in which “the joys are more intermittent, the sorrows always increasing”, he appears to be straining to set up a conceit that he can exploit for the rest of the book. Take his disgust with a pinch of salt, though, and he’s illuminating, a modern day adventurer exploring his way back to an older way of living.

CHINA

OUT NOW, £25 (APPROX. €33)

What does China mean to you? A booming economy? Ancient temples and pavilions? Vast expansive landscapes? As the world limbers up for this summer’s Olympics we’re all going to become more closely associated with China and the Chinese, but it will be quite an achievement if any other media manages to produce a vision of the country as comprehensive as China, the new book from DK.

Combining jaw-dropping photography, accessible timelines and sections dedicated to the country’s people, culture and architecture, it’s a beautifully packaged, thoroughly researched and lovingly assembled tome dedicated to arguably the most dynamic and rapidly changing country on the planet. It’s tempting to assume that life in this quickly industrialising country would be much the same as ours, but the book strikingly underlines just how different China is. And it’s not only foreigners who will be impressed by the strangeness on display; in her foreword, bestselling Chinese author Anchee Min writes that she thought she knew her home country, but was amazed by the perspective offered in the book.

Ranging from cities to the countryside, encompassing the historical and contemporary and including such diverse subjects as cricket fighting, traditional medicines and the crossover between east and west, China offers a picture of a the country that many will never have seen before.

MUSIC

KARIBU
LIONEL LOUEKE

OUT 31 MARCH, £12 (APPROX. €16)

With his strange, clicking mouth percussion, odd vocal style and punchy, syncopated guitar, Lionel Loueke’s first track on Karibu sounds like an artist u exploding onto the big time. His first album for Blue Note Records, Karibu features Loueke playing with u bassist Massimo Biolcati and Ferenc Nemeth as his regular trio, plus big-name musicians Herbie Hancock guesting on piano and Wayne Shorter on saxophone.

Producing a unique sound, Loueke appears to be making up the rules as he goes along, creating his own musical world for the listener to explore. It’s fitting, then, that the name Karibu means welcome u in Swahili, and that the album is surprisingly accessible, drawing the listener in with its engaging and interlinking sections. There’s an undeniably cerebral aspect to the album, but it never feels dry. “I’m not going for intellectual craziness,” says Loueke, “music is not about that. It’s about the emotion it has. That’s what we’re trying to play.”

ALL IS YES
THE BLESSING

OUT NOW, £12 (APPROX. €16)

The bass guitar that opens All Is Yes is a statement s of intent from Bristol-based four-piece The Blessing, the rock-based line kicking off before being overrun by raucous jazz. Formed by drummer Clive Deamer and bassist Jim Barr of Portishead, The Blessing has a clear rock and dance-based influence that helps to give the songs their distinctive structure, and which trumpeter Pete Judge and saxophonist Jake McMurchie build on before the band pulls the whole thing down into an experimental piece of improvisation. It sounds like a recipe for impenetrable improv, but the whole album comes together well, confounding expectations to produce an upbeat and very listenable album.

MOVIES

PLANET TERROR

OUT 10 MARCH, £17.99 (APPROX. €24)

Best watched at the end of a tough week with a drink in hand, Robert Rodriguez’s companion piece to Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof is a deeply f silly tribute to the so-called grindhouse cinemas that specialised in showing late-night B-movies populated by beautiful women, cartoon villains and waves of fake blood. Where Death Proof has been f widely criticised for its interminable dialogue and genre references that either lose their audiences or simply bore them, Rodriguez keeps Planet Terror just the right side of absurd to deliver an r entertaining action horror movie based around a mysterious illness that leaks out of a military base, infecting the neighbouring townsfolk and turning them into hideous flesh-hungry zombies.

THE WIRE SEASON FOUR

OUT 10 MARCH, £39.99 (APPROX. €54)

Like The Sopranos before it, The Wire has attracted e an evangelical following around the world. Where The Sopranos went mainstream and made a s household name of James Gandolfini, however, The Wire has kept a lower profile to become a sleeper e hit and is arguably one of the best TV series of the past 10 years. It’s essential to start with the first series rather than jumping straight into season four, but set the time aside and you’ll be rewarded with an exceptional piece of drama that is almost Shakespearean in its ambition and achievement.

ONLINE

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