by Alexander Starritt

Whenever I see a review of any novel about characters in STEM, I grab it. It’s so rare.

This is a story of two unlikely friends who know each other distantly at Oxford, then meet up at their first job working at McKinsey Management consultancy. First they’re working on allocating funding for education, but then the 2008 financial collapse happens, and they end up (as McKinsey employees) restructuring (other) firms and laying off people. This is how they come to be in Aberdeen, where they shift gears and start up a company that is going to make turbines that generate energy from the tides.

Backing up a bit, the reason these friends are unlikely is their personalities. Drayton is a classic “on the spectrum” personality – focused and driven and bad with people. Mackenzie is a hapless and happy-go-lucky “normie”. At first they aren’t friends at all. As the novel builds momentum around their increasingly successful and spectacular energy startup, it builds their friendship, in a wholly believable and non-caricatured way.

I personally liked the appearances by the likes of Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi dealing with the events of 2008. Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are also bit characters.

by Geraldine Brooks

This was a really dull book. Through all the different strands of plot, I kept wondering why I should care, who I should be rooting for, and what exactly was at stake. That was really the issue – nothing really seemed to be at stake.

by Julia Quinn

I watch this TV series for the dresses and the jewelry. This was my first time reading one of the novels. Jane Austen it’s not. My biggest complaint is the pages and pages devoted to conversations where the same point is kind of made over and over. E.g. “Penelope you are very clever!”… “Penelope/Colin how could you invade my privacy!” – pages and pages. Leaves less room for actual action. And the book is over 400 pages.