The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Our hero, Marcus Didio Falco, is sent to Germany by the Emperor on a special mission, but not before the Emperor’s son exhibits signs of having designs on Falco’s noble girlfriend. She disappears prior to his departure adding a level of concern to Falco’s travels into an unfriendly land that still harbours those who would like to rebel against the power of Rome and recover their freedom.

Such is the setting for this edition in the ongoing adventures of Falco and the characters that surround him. Over the course of the novel, Falco manages to succeed in his mission – more or less – and address his own continuing personal issues, all while staying alive in hostile territory and confronting some of the dark history of Rome’s military past.

Davis continues to impress me as an author in the phalanx of historical mysteries. She has a firm grasp of the historical reality in which her novels are set, which is matched with a wonderful narrative style that draws the reader in and holds their attention from beginning to end. Though I am a latecomer to this series, I am very much a convert and fan.

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On Fairness by Sally McManus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book you would expect from the current Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It is against neo-liberalism, and for fairness for workers and community; it is against the privatisation of state-owned assets, and in favour of increased public-sector means of guaranteeing employment; it is against the current Liberal-National Party government, and for, well, anything else.

I have some sympathy for the basic thrust of McManus’s argument – that neo-liberal, ‘free market’, ‘trickle down’ economics are fundamentally flowed – but also have to confess that I am no great fan of the current iteration of unions. There is certainly a place for the ability of workers to engage in collective bargaining, and I would go so far as to argue along with McManus that such a thing is a fundamental human right, but unions as they currently exist in the Australian landscape are not always in keeping with their original intention and need to be renewed.

I would, however, agree that the concept of the ‘fair go’ is rapidly disappearing from the Australian landscape in favour of a polarisation that is unhelpful and ultimately destruction of Australian society. The concept of a level playing field for all Australians is at risk of being lost at the behest of the ideologues who wish to embrace the kind of economic theory that has been exposed as falsely based and intrinsically flawed.

This book was an easy read – I read it in one sitting while eating an unexpected Sunday morning solo brunch – and engages the reader regardless of your primary political orientation. As a means of stimulating public discourse, this is a helpful contribution though I suspect that certain elements of contemporary Australian society would view it otherwise.

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A Liturgical Companion to the Documents of the Second Vatican Council by Various
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There can be little doubt that the documents of the Second Vatican Council represent a very significant contribution to the ongoing theological life of the Catholic Church. To look at them from a particularly liturgical lens, as this book does, provides a completely different approach to these documents which have been so much a part of the last fifty years of Catholic thought.

Each of the authors provides a contribution and understanding of each of the documents promulgated by the Council, encouraging readers to see these documents with new eyes and as part of a corpus of work that is woven together with common themes.

For any student of the Second Vatican Council, this book is a highly recommended read. For anyone interested in the liturgy of the Church, this book is an absolute necessity.

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