CHASTENED: NO MORE SEX IN THE CITY by Hephzibah Anderson (Random House Struik, R215)
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: Claudia Pillay
Smart and thought-provoking, this memoir is something many women will relate to, especially those looking for love. Chastened is thirtysomething Hephzibah’s personal story about how she decides to seek love without sex. Like many modern women she’s disillusioned after too many instances of mistaking a casual hook-up for something more. So she decides to take sex off the table completely and sets off on a quest to be romanced.
She flirts, enjoys lingering looks and passionate embraces - all without sex. What the reader gets is a month-to-month account of how she fares in her newfound modesty. The writing is poetic and peppered with plenty of recognisable references to popular culture as well as some older, more obscure words of wisdom from philosophers. The story makes you think twice about your own attempts to find love. Plenty of food for thought here.
THE LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown (Bantam Press, R295)
Rating: 3/5
Reviewer: André J Brink
Fans have had a long wait for the follow-up to the mega-bestselling The Da Vinci Code. So has it been worth it? Well, yes and no. Yes, The Lost Symbol is another fast-paced thriller in which our hero, Dr Robert Langdon, has to solve riddle upon riddle. This time he’s in search of a Masonic treasure - the Lost Word, the key to the Ancient Mysteries which is apparently buried somewhere in Washington.
His adversary is a killer named Mal’akh - a heavily tattooed, hairless man who neutered himself. He sends Langdon an “invitation” to join him in his search in the form of the severed hand of his friend and mentor, Peter Solomon. On Langdon’s side is Peter’s brilliant scientist sister, Katherine.
As a thriller The Lost Symbol satisfies but it is no Da Vinci Code. And I doubt we will see the same hysteria that surrounded Brown’s radical vision of Jesus and Mary Magdalene repeated with Freemasonry.