Tags:
Journalism of Courage
THE GUNPOWDER GARDENS
By Jason Goodwin
Penguin
Price: pound;7.99
It doesn8217;t really matter if you don8217;t have tea or like it very much. Jason Goodwin8217;s The Gunpowder Gardens 8212; a travelogue where he traces the history of tea and the various tea drinking practises prevalent all over the world 8212; is a book any good reader will enjoy. Goodwin has a way of telling tales. He holds your attention and sits you down until you have read his book cover to cover. What makes it more interesting are the anecdotes Goodwin intersperses in his little notes about the drink itself.
Goodwin writes about the origins of tea, tracing it right from the Canton factories to those in London. He also weaves in details on history as it happened in these places and tucks in his own observations.
DERAILED
By James Siegel
Time Warner Books
Price: pound;9.99
James Siegel8217;s Derailed is a perfect Friday evening read. The 339-page thriller begins with the protagonist Charles Schein boarding the New York metro 8212; to have his life turned upside down. Scandal, sex, violence, embezzlement and intrigue, the author weaves all the elements and cliffhangers into the narrative.
Siegel has tried innovations in his narrative style using a dual author mode which eventually collapses into a single author. And although the attempts seem quite unnecessary to the plot and may even confuse the reader, like most Hollywood movies, the triumph of good over evil does eventually take place8230; just when you start thinking the novel may have a different ending after all.
