My Book Reviews

In this post, I would like to review three related books Out of Wonder: The Evolving Story of the Universe by Nellie McLaughlan (Veritas, Dublin, 2016), Cosmos: The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation by Carl Sagan (Abacus, 2009, originally MacDonald, 1981) and Calculating the Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils the Universe, Ian Steward , Profile Books, 2016. These three books ascend in difficulty like three steps on a ladder; the first written from a spiritual/philosophical/wonderment/mystical view of the universe; the second, by far the oldest of the three works tells the fascinating story of cosmic evolution from the point of view of a professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences; while the last is by a mathematician of international renown. The Mind-blowing Magnitude of Space The French philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) averred famously in his book Pensées (published posthumously in 1670) that contemplating humanity's place in the universe, dwarfed as...

Our great national poet and Nobel Laureate in Literature , W.B. Yeats (1865 -- 1939) wrote the following prophetic lines: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst   Are full of passionate intensity. These are extraordinary words indeed.  Prophetic, prescient and powerful, they describe our sad, apathetic and anarchic world.  Poets see into the heart of things, penetrate the veil of pretence, the trappings of power, the masks of megalomania, egomania, solipsism, narcissism and all “-isms” that seek to reduce human beings to pawns that can be discarded as collateral damage to evil purposes clothed in palatable terms and felicitous phrases.  I try to avoid politics in this blog because it is ever so divisive.  The preceding is a trivial fact, but I have been re-rea...

Professor Anthony Clare I have always had a particularly deep interest in psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry, mainly inspired by my having been diagnosed with clinical depression of the unipolar variety exactly 27 years ago this month.  That diagnosis coincided with my having to recuperate in a psychiatric hospital for seven weeks.  Thankfully, in the interim, I have never had to reacquaint myself with the interior of any such institution, as my experience of the psychiatric service was thankfully a good one.  Needless to say, such is not the experience of many sufferers of mental illness.  I have read many books over the years in the areas enumerated above, but one amazing Irish psychiatrist, scholar, humanitarian and brilliant communicator and populariser of his profession stands out for me, and that is Anthony Ward Clare. Professor Anthony Clare (1942 – 2007) was an Irish psychiatrist and a presenter of radio and television programmes. He presented the g...

I n today’s review, I wish to discuss a novel and an autobiography, Distance (Penguin, London, 1998), a novel by Colin Thubron and Breaking the Heart Open: The Shaping of a Psychologist (Gill Books, Dublin, 2023) by Dr Tony Bates.   At first glance, it would seem that neither of these books has much in common with the other, but there the casual peruser of my bookshelves would be greatly mistaken.   Essentially, they are both works of literature that strive to answer the ancient and primordial question of personal identity, colloquially and succinctly put: Who am I?   They are both books in search of the elusive self, and attempt to put some shape on the story of that often-fraught search.   The story of the novel revolves around a young astronomer, Edward Sanders, who has lost the last two years of his memory and now must begin to piece together his past. Significantly, his post-graduate study is in the area of black holes , and his interview with the doctor at...