Victoria

Daniel Deronda is the eponymous character but he shares the main focus of the novel with Gwendolyn Harleth, a young woman who falls from egoistic selfishness into a rollercoaster of unfortunate events.Their lives entangle but their relationship is not what you might expect. The novel is filled with wisdom that George Eliot presumably found in her extensive reading but she must have lived as well. She must have experienced so much in order to understand humans in their various economic, religious and moral dilemmas. The performance rattles along terribly quickly which is sometimes a bit bumpy but mostly entirely great storytelling. I wanted it to keep going.

Flaubert is justifiably lauded for his magnificent work, Madame Bovary. She is a creature of her time and class and as such could not exist in today's world. But she is recognisably human and so beautifully written that we cannot help but gasp as the story plays out.

All the surrounding characters, particularly Charles, the unwitting husband, Rodolphe, the corrupting neighbour and Leon, the ardent lover, are depicted entirely believably. The surroundings are an enormous canvas painted in great detail.

Mr Pickup hits verbs head on in a sensuous read that caused shivers unexpected from such worthy classic edification. It's very enjoyable.

George Eliot's story of human frailties still captivates after well over a century. Juliet Stevenson brought Middlemarch to life consistently. Her crisp enunciation and brilliant characterisation made listening to this other world a wonderful experience.

Ulysses by James Joyce is universally acknowledged as a difficult read on paper. There's no doubt it's never going to be an easy book but when Jim Norton speaks, he brings such a wide range of characters to life it's like being in Dublin. You may not understand why they're saying what they're saying but at least you can hear the different speakers. Mr Norton has incredible diction, rhythm and control. He immerses the listener into the world of Joyce. I commend Mr Norton for a fantastic performance. He's given me an entree into a detailed impressionistic portrait of a particular time, a city and its citizens. I've listened to part one twice already and can only marvel that Jim Norton has been able to delineate the characters so clearly. Wait till you hear part two and thank goodness Jim's there for us as Joyce just keeps on piling it on!

Start small, succeed and grow. If you don't succeed, pivot.

Eric Ries, an entrepreneur, has studied businesses as they begin and those who encourage innovation within large companies. The core of the Lean Start Up comes from Toyota's beginnings but Ries has examined and expanded the theory in practice across many different types of businesses, from huge corporations to small not for profits.

He's come up with a 'scientific' way of posing a hypothesis, testing and then evaluating the data from the thesis. This is done before spending large amounts of money on building large amounts of widgets. You don't need a business plan any more. You need an idea to test. Then keep some of the idea, and pivot to the next idea and so on until you're a multi millionaire.

This is not a doctrine, it's adding flexibility to your risk management. It's working with feedback in today's connected world.

As a non-business person I found the theories based in common sense but a little repetitive. I imagine that in the corporate world Ries might come across as something completely different, but this is not my scene, so I really have no idea. I found his voice comforting and I would encourage anyone thinking of starting any kind of business to listen to him.

He may save you a lot of money.