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Jodi Taylor – A Symphony of Echoes | Review

Title: A Symphony of Echoes

Author: Jodi Taylor

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 294

Rating: 4*/5

Jodi Taylor – A Symphony of Echoes

This book is the second book in the St. Mary’s series and I’d been looking forward to reading it for a while. There’s a little bit of a back story here. I was sent the first book in the series by the publishers (Accent Press) and I loved it. I gave it a five star review and then my uncle commented to ask why – because he’d read the first book and he didn’t like it. It turned out that he’d bought the first three books in the series, so he gave me the others and I’m cracking on.

I didn’t think this book was as good as the first, but I did like how Taylor took the time travelling historians of St. Mary’s and sent them along to a different version of their facility. For the main characters, it was similar but different, and it was interesting to watch them wrap their heads around the new environment that they found themselves in.

There was also a little more insight into Ronin, the primary antagonist from the series, which is a nice little bonus. But for me, the action I enjoyed most all happened at the start when the gang bumped into Jack the Ripper. Spoiler alert: Jack the Ripper might not be who you thought he was.

That’s the best part about this series. Taylor takes history and twists it to her advantage without destroying it, and it makes for a fun read. I’ll be moving on to book three within the next week or so because I can’t wait to get started. It’s up to you – care to join me?

Jodi Taylor

Click here to buy A Symphony of Echoes.

Don Lattin – The Harvard Psychedelic Club | Review

Title: The Harvard Psychedelic Club

Author: Don Lattin

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 256

Rating: 4*/5

Don Lattin – The Harvard Psychedelic Club

Don’t let this book’s appearance fool you. At first glance, it looks more like a textbook than the stunning piece of investigative non-fiction that it is, but it’s eminently readable and a lot of fun to boot.

This book tells the story of four influential people – Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil – and promises to show you how they “killed the fifties and ushered in a new age for America”. It delivers on that promise, and it’s interesting to see how the formation of the Harvard Psychedelic Club rocked the establishment.

Of the four of them, Leary is the most well-known for psychedelia. He’s one of the primary people that helped to popularise the use of LSD in the 1960s, but the others all had their roles to play too. It’s interesting to see how their lives converged and then separated again, and while the majority of the action takes place in the 50s and 60s, it still takes you pretty much right up to the present date.

Because of that, it takes you on a journey through time that allows you to see how the actions of these four fascinating men changed the world – not just for the sixties but for good. And there’s no pretension – Lattin covers it impartially but passionately, and that’s just fine by me. Overall then, it’s the perfect read for people with varied interests.