November, 2023 Readings: “In November you begin to know how long the winter will be.” (Martha Gellhorn)
CharlasLiterary Snobs
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1CliffBurns
Got an assortment of non-fic on the TBR pile, including a huge, in-depth history of the Thirty Years War.
What is everyone else reading this month?
What is everyone else reading this month?
2mejix
Finished:
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Rushdie. Has some good moments but mostly reads like a tacky 80's fantasy movie.
Happening by Annie Ernaux. Best book I've read this year by far. Unsentimental, straightforward testimony. Very personal. Full of small details that detonate with implications, not so much about moral issues but about gender relations and class. Definitely looking forward to reading more Ernaux.
Currently reading:
Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel. Very well researched. Not insightful but it tells its story well. It is intended for the general public so it's a bit romantic about art. So far very engaging.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Rushdie. Has some good moments but mostly reads like a tacky 80's fantasy movie.
Happening by Annie Ernaux. Best book I've read this year by far. Unsentimental, straightforward testimony. Very personal. Full of small details that detonate with implications, not so much about moral issues but about gender relations and class. Definitely looking forward to reading more Ernaux.
Currently reading:
Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel. Very well researched. Not insightful but it tells its story well. It is intended for the general public so it's a bit romantic about art. So far very engaging.
3CliffBurns
KAFKA'S LAST TRIAL: The Case of a Literary Legacy by Benjamin Balint.
A fascinating look at the tangled history of the Kafka archive. Max Brod smuggled it out of Czechoslovakia just before the Nazis sealed the border and eventually he and the papers ended up in Palestine. Brod bequeathed the archive to his secretary (possibly their relationship was more intimate than that, though Balint discreetly leaves that avenue unexplored).
But when said close associate expired, the state of Israel stepped in and asserted its right to house the Kafka archive.
Balint is reluctant to take sides, even though I think it's clear the Marbach Institute in Germany is the best, most appropriate repository for K's literary remains.
A touch of authorial timidity, methinks.
A fascinating look at the tangled history of the Kafka archive. Max Brod smuggled it out of Czechoslovakia just before the Nazis sealed the border and eventually he and the papers ended up in Palestine. Brod bequeathed the archive to his secretary (possibly their relationship was more intimate than that, though Balint discreetly leaves that avenue unexplored).
But when said close associate expired, the state of Israel stepped in and asserted its right to house the Kafka archive.
Balint is reluctant to take sides, even though I think it's clear the Marbach Institute in Germany is the best, most appropriate repository for K's literary remains.
A touch of authorial timidity, methinks.
4CliffBurns
OUR SOULS AT NIGHT by Kent Haruf.
I've loved his other books but this Haruf novel missed its mark, not as fully realized as his other work.
I liked the central concept--two lonely seniors finding each other--but there were elements that just didn't work.
His last book before he died so perhaps he can be excused for not being at the top of his game.
I've loved his other books but this Haruf novel missed its mark, not as fully realized as his other work.
I liked the central concept--two lonely seniors finding each other--but there were elements that just didn't work.
His last book before he died so perhaps he can be excused for not being at the top of his game.
5iansales
Readings of late.
Act of Oblivion, Robert Harris: the title refers to an act of parliament which pardoned everyone involved in the English Civil War and Commonwealth (with the exception of murder (without a licence granted by King or Parliament), piracy, buggery, rape and witchcraft - so much so typical) and the named exceptions of those involved in the execution of King Charles I. Two of the men who signed the king's death warrant fled to the US, which subsequently led to one of the longest man hunts in British history. Fascinating stuff, especially of life in the American colonies in the late 17th century. But it also shows that the English parliament and aristocracy have always been corrupt, that today's Tory government is not only *not* unusual but actually a return to business as usual. Also, Charles I was a tyrant, who dissolved parliament illegally and then taxed the shit out of everyone to fund his life-style. His son, invited to take the throne after Cromwell's death, was a womaniser and playboy, who later dissolved parliament illegally... I can't help wondering why King Charles III would want to be associated with them, given royals can choose their regnal name. Good book, three bad kings.
The Runes have been Cast, Robert Irwin: Lancelyn is an undergraduate at Oxford in 1960, mentored by the mysterious Edward Raven. His best friend is Bernard, also tutored by Raven, and quite brilliant although not an Etonian like Lancelyn and many others at Oxford. Raven persuades Lancelyn to accept a position at St Andrews after he graduates. Meanwhile, Molly has moved in with Bernard and is trying to inspire him to greatness, which results in a book about MR James, which Lancelyn anonymously (and hilariously) savages in the TLS - "The ring, which by its nature must be constructed around a hole, which is to say an absence, could be seen as an unmistakeable metaphor for imperialism and its ill-gotten riches, which was the telling absence in this story and others." The plot, such as it is, is sort of based on the fiction of MR James, particularly the story 'Casting the Runes', although Irwin throws in a whole raft of other references. Lancelyn is also somewhat obsessed by the Dewey Decimal System - and I had not known how flawed the system is, how much it encodes Dewey's racism, misogyny and homophobia. Excellent novel, very funny, recommended.
Inverted World, Christopher Priest: I read this many years ago but retained only the fact it was set on Earth and it was the perceptions of the characters that had changed. And that sort of didn't spoil this reread and yet also made it less interesting than it could have been. If anything, the explanation proved less plausible than I remembered it. I'd also forgotten how dry Priest's prose was, and while that may seem appropriate to some of his works, it felt especially dry here. A good book, and a good candidate for a SF Masterwork - because it's based on an original idea and rigorous in its treatment of that idea.
Mirror Image, Michael G Coney: this was Coney's debut novel, which I had not known as I'd chosen to read it because of its link to Brontomek!, and it certainly shares links to that later work. The Heatherington Organisation sets up a colony on Marilyn, with the eventual aim of mining a ferrous oxide desert. The colonists discover a native lifeform, the amorphs, who can mimic humans, and do it so well the colonists waste no time in pretty much enslaving them. Then Heatherington himself turns up, and experiments on the amorphs by creating one that is a complete sociopath - they derive their personalities from those they imprint on - and who subsequently goes to war against the colonists. It's all very early 1970s in its sensibilities, and especially sexist, not in the least bit plausible, and all the characters are just a little bit too horrible to be sympathetic... but Coney's prose is good. But, alas, not quite good enough to save this novel. Having said that, it was a debut, and he did go on to write better books.
In Ascension, Martin MacInnes: many friends and acquaintances who opinions I respect have praised this novel, and I suspect it will appear on several awards shortlists next year, the Clarke perhaps. And it is indeed good. But. Leigh is a marine biologist who specialises in algae. She joins an expedition to explore a new vent that has been discovered in the south Atlantic. But the novel describes the vent as some eighteen kilometres in diameter, and vents - AKA black, or white, smokers - are typically only metres across. The vent's depth is also confusing - variously described as 13 km, 33 km, and even 20,000 km. Challenger Deep, the deepest known part in any ocean, is 11 km deep. Leigh goes on to work for a secretive US research organisation on an algae which can be used to feed crews on long-duration space flights. And ends up on the crew of such a flight, after an alien object is discovered in the Asteroid Belt, and then tracked to the Oort Cloud, and the alpha and beta crews are both taken out by eco-terrorists. She travels out to the heliopause in a ship powered by an alien space drive whose workings were dreamt by numerous physicists, and it's possible this is all a form of first contact by some alien race, but if so why is the universe seemingly empty except for humanity? But something happens to the spacecraft Leigh is aboard and... Well, I won't spoil it, but the idea it's based on is not dissimilar to several other works, including a popular sf TV series reboot. I thought In Ascension very good, a definite cut above what is typical for the genre, but in some areas, like the vent, it failed to convince me, and I thought it too inexact in places for me to champion it as much as others. Still very much worth reading, however.
Act of Oblivion, Robert Harris: the title refers to an act of parliament which pardoned everyone involved in the English Civil War and Commonwealth (with the exception of murder (without a licence granted by King or Parliament), piracy, buggery, rape and witchcraft - so much so typical) and the named exceptions of those involved in the execution of King Charles I. Two of the men who signed the king's death warrant fled to the US, which subsequently led to one of the longest man hunts in British history. Fascinating stuff, especially of life in the American colonies in the late 17th century. But it also shows that the English parliament and aristocracy have always been corrupt, that today's Tory government is not only *not* unusual but actually a return to business as usual. Also, Charles I was a tyrant, who dissolved parliament illegally and then taxed the shit out of everyone to fund his life-style. His son, invited to take the throne after Cromwell's death, was a womaniser and playboy, who later dissolved parliament illegally... I can't help wondering why King Charles III would want to be associated with them, given royals can choose their regnal name. Good book, three bad kings.
The Runes have been Cast, Robert Irwin: Lancelyn is an undergraduate at Oxford in 1960, mentored by the mysterious Edward Raven. His best friend is Bernard, also tutored by Raven, and quite brilliant although not an Etonian like Lancelyn and many others at Oxford. Raven persuades Lancelyn to accept a position at St Andrews after he graduates. Meanwhile, Molly has moved in with Bernard and is trying to inspire him to greatness, which results in a book about MR James, which Lancelyn anonymously (and hilariously) savages in the TLS - "The ring, which by its nature must be constructed around a hole, which is to say an absence, could be seen as an unmistakeable metaphor for imperialism and its ill-gotten riches, which was the telling absence in this story and others." The plot, such as it is, is sort of based on the fiction of MR James, particularly the story 'Casting the Runes', although Irwin throws in a whole raft of other references. Lancelyn is also somewhat obsessed by the Dewey Decimal System - and I had not known how flawed the system is, how much it encodes Dewey's racism, misogyny and homophobia. Excellent novel, very funny, recommended.
Inverted World, Christopher Priest: I read this many years ago but retained only the fact it was set on Earth and it was the perceptions of the characters that had changed. And that sort of didn't spoil this reread and yet also made it less interesting than it could have been. If anything, the explanation proved less plausible than I remembered it. I'd also forgotten how dry Priest's prose was, and while that may seem appropriate to some of his works, it felt especially dry here. A good book, and a good candidate for a SF Masterwork - because it's based on an original idea and rigorous in its treatment of that idea.
Mirror Image, Michael G Coney: this was Coney's debut novel, which I had not known as I'd chosen to read it because of its link to Brontomek!, and it certainly shares links to that later work. The Heatherington Organisation sets up a colony on Marilyn, with the eventual aim of mining a ferrous oxide desert. The colonists discover a native lifeform, the amorphs, who can mimic humans, and do it so well the colonists waste no time in pretty much enslaving them. Then Heatherington himself turns up, and experiments on the amorphs by creating one that is a complete sociopath - they derive their personalities from those they imprint on - and who subsequently goes to war against the colonists. It's all very early 1970s in its sensibilities, and especially sexist, not in the least bit plausible, and all the characters are just a little bit too horrible to be sympathetic... but Coney's prose is good. But, alas, not quite good enough to save this novel. Having said that, it was a debut, and he did go on to write better books.
In Ascension, Martin MacInnes: many friends and acquaintances who opinions I respect have praised this novel, and I suspect it will appear on several awards shortlists next year, the Clarke perhaps. And it is indeed good. But. Leigh is a marine biologist who specialises in algae. She joins an expedition to explore a new vent that has been discovered in the south Atlantic. But the novel describes the vent as some eighteen kilometres in diameter, and vents - AKA black, or white, smokers - are typically only metres across. The vent's depth is also confusing - variously described as 13 km, 33 km, and even 20,000 km. Challenger Deep, the deepest known part in any ocean, is 11 km deep. Leigh goes on to work for a secretive US research organisation on an algae which can be used to feed crews on long-duration space flights. And ends up on the crew of such a flight, after an alien object is discovered in the Asteroid Belt, and then tracked to the Oort Cloud, and the alpha and beta crews are both taken out by eco-terrorists. She travels out to the heliopause in a ship powered by an alien space drive whose workings were dreamt by numerous physicists, and it's possible this is all a form of first contact by some alien race, but if so why is the universe seemingly empty except for humanity? But something happens to the spacecraft Leigh is aboard and... Well, I won't spoil it, but the idea it's based on is not dissimilar to several other works, including a popular sf TV series reboot. I thought In Ascension very good, a definite cut above what is typical for the genre, but in some areas, like the vent, it failed to convince me, and I thought it too inexact in places for me to champion it as much as others. Still very much worth reading, however.
6CliffBurns
TRAVELS IN SIBERIA by Ian Frazier.
At some point in his life, Frazier became a devoted Russophile, spending a decade traveling through the vast expanse of Siberia. Sometimes these journeys would take WEEKS and Frazier would develop churlishness and animosity toward his travel companions (and they him), which leads to some humorous moments.
Impressive and entertaining.
Highly recommended.
At some point in his life, Frazier became a devoted Russophile, spending a decade traveling through the vast expanse of Siberia. Sometimes these journeys would take WEEKS and Frazier would develop churlishness and animosity toward his travel companions (and they him), which leads to some humorous moments.
Impressive and entertaining.
Highly recommended.
7CliffBurns
CITY OF NETS: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s by Otto Friedrich.
Blending history, cinema, the cultural and political zeitgeist of the time, the author gives us a comprehensive and credible view of a critical juncture in America's development. There were rapid changes to society after the Second World War and Hollywood reflected those radical shifts. The lighting and stories got darker and film noir was born.
Stars rose and fell...and by the late 40s the great moguls who once ruled by divine right of kings were aging, vulnerable, the corporate wolves moving in for the kill.
One of my favorite non-fic books of the year thus far.
Blending history, cinema, the cultural and political zeitgeist of the time, the author gives us a comprehensive and credible view of a critical juncture in America's development. There were rapid changes to society after the Second World War and Hollywood reflected those radical shifts. The lighting and stories got darker and film noir was born.
Stars rose and fell...and by the late 40s the great moguls who once ruled by divine right of kings were aging, vulnerable, the corporate wolves moving in for the kill.
One of my favorite non-fic books of the year thus far.
8CliffBurns
Wrapped up Derek Jacobi's memoir AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT.
Jacobi admits he's led a charmed life, never struggling for work, always in the right place at the right time, which makes for a somewhat dull autobiography. Enjoyed reading about his experiences with Olivier and other giants of that theatrical generation but, on the whole, found the book lacked fire and bitchiness.
For fans only.
Jacobi admits he's led a charmed life, never struggling for work, always in the right place at the right time, which makes for a somewhat dull autobiography. Enjoyed reading about his experiences with Olivier and other giants of that theatrical generation but, on the whole, found the book lacked fire and bitchiness.
For fans only.
9KatrinkaV
Yesterday and today, blew through Transit and Kudos, the last two in Rachel Cusk's Outline trilogy. Both were just as great as Outline.
10iansales
Another round-up:
Sands of Dune, Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson - I regularly post a photo of the books I'm reading on Facebook, and there were a lot of comments when I posted a picture of this book, mostly: why? A good question. Herbert Jr and Anderson have been milking the Dune cash cow since the 1990s, and their books have typically been bad. I used to collect Dune-related books and games--I even have a copy of the 1978 Dune calendar--so of course I tried reading the Herbert & Anderson prequels and sequels. But they churned out so many, it proved difficult to keep up. And then with the Villeneuve movie making the IP hugely profitable once again, it's now impossible to keep up with all the new Dune-related games and books. The four stories in Sands of Dune are all set around the time of the original novel, and I guess I bought and read this book to see how robust Frank Herbert's worldbuilding really was. While the two have written other books set during the time of the original trilogy, I've not read them, only their prequels and the two sequels to Chapterhouse: Dune. And the answer is... yes, despite Herbert & Anderson anodyne prose and simplistic storytelling, Frank Herbert's creation still shines through. The four stories are rubbish--the early life of Shadout Mapes as a Fedaykin death commando, a Sardaukar reflects on his past as the son of a house destroyed by the Atriedes, Gurney Halleck's years as a smuggler before being reunited with Paul Atreides, and a post-Butlerian Jihad story set at the Imperial Court. The writing is uniformly bad, with Dan Brown levels of descriptive prose and ham-fisted plotting. Avoidable, even for fans of Dune.
Turnabout, Thorne Smith - an early gender-swap story, from 1931, in which a man and wife exchange bodies one night thanks to a statue of an Ancient Egyptian god called Mr Ram. Neither really make much of an effort to play their new roles, and it's the frequent slips which drives a lot of the humour. The couple also drink a lot and probably spend most of the novel inebriated to some degree. The social commentary is low--this one is played for laughs. Smith goes off on extended comic set-pieces, often belaboured, and while comparisons to Wodehouse are inevitable, this novel doesn't have his lightness of touch or wit. Fun, but forgettable.
Beauvallet, Georgette Heyer - Heyer is claimed to have invented the Regency romance genre, but she also wrote crime novels, and novels set in other historical periods. Such as Beauvallet, which is set during the reign of Elizabeth I. The title character, a second son of a rich baron who has been adventuring as a privateer, is actually a descendant of the lead character of another novel set earlier, Simon the Coldheart. While freebooting in the Carribean, Beauvallet takes a Spanish galleon, which is returning Don de Rada y Silva and his nubile daughter to Spain. Beauvallet promises to complete the journey for them, falls in love with the daughter en route, and drops them off in Spain with a promise to return in a year to take the daughter as his wife--and this despite the English and Spanish being near at war. It's all very swashbuckling, and although it predates Golden Age Hollywood you can just see Errol Flynn in the title role. The whole thing is written in cod Shakespearean English, which gets annoying very quickly. Stick to Heyer's Regency novels, they're better reads.
Amber and Glass, CJ Cherryh - special collection published by NESFA to celebrate Cherryh as guest of honour at Boskone in 1987. Cherryh, I think, writes much better novels than short fiction, and only one in this collection is really worth reading, 'Pots', which originally appeared in the 1985 anthology, Afterwar. Between each story are essays, some of which were speeches, about writing and science fiction and Cherryh's previoud career as a teacher. They're mostly interesting but a little too prescriptive for present-day sensibilities. A mixed-bag. I think the contents are all in The Collected Short Fiction of C.J .J Cherryh, and you'd be better off tracking down a copy of that.
Ithaca, Claire North - there seems to be something of a fad at the moment of women writing novels about female characters from Ancient Greek myths. To be fair, the myths don't exactly treat them well. Ithaca is set in the titular island kingdom, and describes Penelope trying to hold the kingdom together while Odysseus is away, presumed dead. A group of suitors are freeloading off Penelope, hoping to win her hand and so get access to the fabled Ithacan riches. Except there are no riches--Odysseus spent it all on campaigning against Troy. And then Queen Clytemnestra appears on the island, having murdered her husband, and her daughter, Elektra, and son, Orestes, are in hot pursuit. But Penelope doesn't want to give up Clytemnestra, even though she doesn't like her, and so hides her. The story is told from the viewpoint of Hera, who is observing affairs, and occasionally interfering. It's all very earthy and North brings the period alive. There's a sequel, House of Odysseus, which is no my wish list. Recommended.
Star Songs of an Old Primate, James Tiptree Jr: Tiptree's third collection, and it includes a couple of her more famous works, 'Her smoke Rose Up Forever' and 'Houston, Houston, Do you Read?'. This is good stuff--the prose style less chatty then her earlier stories, and more, well, scientifically-minded. 'Your Haploid Heart' is a first-contact story, which posits an interesting humanoid race with a bizarre reproductive cycle. 'A Momentary Taste of Being' is also a first contact story, although the contact happens off-stage--the action is set aboard a slower-than-light mission two years from Alpha Centauri and a habitable planet orbiting that sun. It's perhaps over-long but it's based around a clever idea. You can never read too much Tiptree.
Sands of Dune, Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson - I regularly post a photo of the books I'm reading on Facebook, and there were a lot of comments when I posted a picture of this book, mostly: why? A good question. Herbert Jr and Anderson have been milking the Dune cash cow since the 1990s, and their books have typically been bad. I used to collect Dune-related books and games--I even have a copy of the 1978 Dune calendar--so of course I tried reading the Herbert & Anderson prequels and sequels. But they churned out so many, it proved difficult to keep up. And then with the Villeneuve movie making the IP hugely profitable once again, it's now impossible to keep up with all the new Dune-related games and books. The four stories in Sands of Dune are all set around the time of the original novel, and I guess I bought and read this book to see how robust Frank Herbert's worldbuilding really was. While the two have written other books set during the time of the original trilogy, I've not read them, only their prequels and the two sequels to Chapterhouse: Dune. And the answer is... yes, despite Herbert & Anderson anodyne prose and simplistic storytelling, Frank Herbert's creation still shines through. The four stories are rubbish--the early life of Shadout Mapes as a Fedaykin death commando, a Sardaukar reflects on his past as the son of a house destroyed by the Atriedes, Gurney Halleck's years as a smuggler before being reunited with Paul Atreides, and a post-Butlerian Jihad story set at the Imperial Court. The writing is uniformly bad, with Dan Brown levels of descriptive prose and ham-fisted plotting. Avoidable, even for fans of Dune.
Turnabout, Thorne Smith - an early gender-swap story, from 1931, in which a man and wife exchange bodies one night thanks to a statue of an Ancient Egyptian god called Mr Ram. Neither really make much of an effort to play their new roles, and it's the frequent slips which drives a lot of the humour. The couple also drink a lot and probably spend most of the novel inebriated to some degree. The social commentary is low--this one is played for laughs. Smith goes off on extended comic set-pieces, often belaboured, and while comparisons to Wodehouse are inevitable, this novel doesn't have his lightness of touch or wit. Fun, but forgettable.
Beauvallet, Georgette Heyer - Heyer is claimed to have invented the Regency romance genre, but she also wrote crime novels, and novels set in other historical periods. Such as Beauvallet, which is set during the reign of Elizabeth I. The title character, a second son of a rich baron who has been adventuring as a privateer, is actually a descendant of the lead character of another novel set earlier, Simon the Coldheart. While freebooting in the Carribean, Beauvallet takes a Spanish galleon, which is returning Don de Rada y Silva and his nubile daughter to Spain. Beauvallet promises to complete the journey for them, falls in love with the daughter en route, and drops them off in Spain with a promise to return in a year to take the daughter as his wife--and this despite the English and Spanish being near at war. It's all very swashbuckling, and although it predates Golden Age Hollywood you can just see Errol Flynn in the title role. The whole thing is written in cod Shakespearean English, which gets annoying very quickly. Stick to Heyer's Regency novels, they're better reads.
Amber and Glass, CJ Cherryh - special collection published by NESFA to celebrate Cherryh as guest of honour at Boskone in 1987. Cherryh, I think, writes much better novels than short fiction, and only one in this collection is really worth reading, 'Pots', which originally appeared in the 1985 anthology, Afterwar. Between each story are essays, some of which were speeches, about writing and science fiction and Cherryh's previoud career as a teacher. They're mostly interesting but a little too prescriptive for present-day sensibilities. A mixed-bag. I think the contents are all in The Collected Short Fiction of C.J .J Cherryh, and you'd be better off tracking down a copy of that.
Ithaca, Claire North - there seems to be something of a fad at the moment of women writing novels about female characters from Ancient Greek myths. To be fair, the myths don't exactly treat them well. Ithaca is set in the titular island kingdom, and describes Penelope trying to hold the kingdom together while Odysseus is away, presumed dead. A group of suitors are freeloading off Penelope, hoping to win her hand and so get access to the fabled Ithacan riches. Except there are no riches--Odysseus spent it all on campaigning against Troy. And then Queen Clytemnestra appears on the island, having murdered her husband, and her daughter, Elektra, and son, Orestes, are in hot pursuit. But Penelope doesn't want to give up Clytemnestra, even though she doesn't like her, and so hides her. The story is told from the viewpoint of Hera, who is observing affairs, and occasionally interfering. It's all very earthy and North brings the period alive. There's a sequel, House of Odysseus, which is no my wish list. Recommended.
Star Songs of an Old Primate, James Tiptree Jr: Tiptree's third collection, and it includes a couple of her more famous works, 'Her smoke Rose Up Forever' and 'Houston, Houston, Do you Read?'. This is good stuff--the prose style less chatty then her earlier stories, and more, well, scientifically-minded. 'Your Haploid Heart' is a first-contact story, which posits an interesting humanoid race with a bizarre reproductive cycle. 'A Momentary Taste of Being' is also a first contact story, although the contact happens off-stage--the action is set aboard a slower-than-light mission two years from Alpha Centauri and a habitable planet orbiting that sun. It's perhaps over-long but it's based around a clever idea. You can never read too much Tiptree.
11ReneSchmidt
Exploring historical narratives adds depth to my reading journey. I'm curious to know what everyone else is delving into this month—books that captivate, educate, or simply offer an escape.
12RobertDay
I'm currently in the midst of Behind the Enigma, the authorised history of the UK's communications intelligence agency GCHQ. It's rather dense and the author makes few concessions, but the depth and breadth of the study is masterful. As well as looking at the internal politics of the UK's intelligence community, the author also reflects on the UK's history through the 20th century, viewed in the light of the intelligence community's perspective. It isn't kind.
13CliffBurns
AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: The Great War, A Violent Peace and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild.
Hochschild has become one of my favorite non-fiction writers--from KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST right up to his latest release he has set the standard for writing on historical matters with courage, integrity and candor.
AMERICAN MIDNIGHT describes how America descended into intolerance and authoritarianism during the First World War, personal freedoms violated, the Constitution disregarded. The war revealed America's ugly underbelly: racism, xenophobia, etc.
Essential reading for anyone interested in 20th century history.
Hochschild has become one of my favorite non-fiction writers--from KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST right up to his latest release he has set the standard for writing on historical matters with courage, integrity and candor.
AMERICAN MIDNIGHT describes how America descended into intolerance and authoritarianism during the First World War, personal freedoms violated, the Constitution disregarded. The war revealed America's ugly underbelly: racism, xenophobia, etc.
Essential reading for anyone interested in 20th century history.
14Cecrow
Finished up Life, A User's Manual. Never read the manual, right? But it's a fun puzzle, lots of intricate bits.
