[seankenny]

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Six interlocking stories spanning from the 19th century to somewhere in the distant future, and a range of styles from hard boiled detective to Amis-esque comedy to dystopian SF to a Ridley Walker-style post-apocalypse. Cracking read, really enjoyed this.

Palo Alto, by James Franco. Alienated Californian teens drink, smoke weed and have sex in a series of short stories narrated in a Raymond Carver style. I found my copy on a garden wall in my neighbourhood. If you similarly find it for free, or if you're an alienated teen, then I would recommend it.

[tommytwotone]

I loved Cloud Atlas - read it when I went to Australia on business, the second half through a haze of jet lag over a weekend!

[Carliios]

I just finished Killers of the Flower Moon. Would definitely recommend. An account by an investigative journalist into the famous Osage oil murders during the 20's oil boom in Osage County.

[SA Chris]

I loved Cloud Atlas too, Julia Donaldson did it better with Charlie Cook's Favourite Book though

I've never watched the film for fear that it it won't live up to the book, might need to sometime though, it's on prime.

[Carliios]

I loved Cloud Atlas too, Julia Donaldson did it better with Charlie Cook's Favourite Book though

I've never watched the film for fear that it it won't live up to the book, might need to sometime though, it's on prime.

I thought the film was great but i've not read Cloud Atlas!

[webbo]

Recently read The Eight Mountains by Paul Cogneti apparently an Italian best seller. I found the descriptions of various Italian mountains quite inspiring. Not the sort of book I usually read ( I’m more into history non fiction and historical detective stuff) but I found it in our village book exchange.

[dunnyg]

Didn't rate cloud atlas. Could t tell you why because it was ages ago, but found it irritating.
Read Hamnet by Maggie O Farrell recently, rated that, very readable if not very cheery.
Currently on Pachinko which is equally as good so far, about a Korean family who migrate to Japan from the 20s ish to the 60s (I think, haven't got there yet!). Very readable.

[seankenny]

Didn't rate cloud atlas. Could t tell you why because it was ages ago, but found it irritating.

Smart arse meta fiction is not to everyone’s taste, I guess?

[spidermonkey09]

Didn't rate cloud atlas. Could t tell you why because it was ages ago, but found it irritating.
Read Hamnet by Maggie O Farrell recently, rated that, very readable if not very cheery.
Currently on Pachinko which is equally as good so far, about a Korean family who migrate to Japan from the 20s ish to the 60s (I think, haven't got there yet!). Very readable.

Hamnet is really good.

[Wellsy]

The Vanquished is about all the countries who lost WWI and what happened to them in the interwar period. Brilliant book about a period that is often overlooked (spoiler; lot of war)

[tommytwotone]

I've just re-read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mantel - it's a book about a global flu pandemic, the aftermath and what happens to society. Through the stories of an actor and a travelling symphony.

It blew me away the first time I read it, probably 7 years ago, but given the COVID stuff it's got a completely different resonance.

There's a TV adaption of it I gather (a review of which prompted me to re-read it), but it's on one of the paid Amazon sub-channels.

[slab_happy]

For the sf/f crowd: anyone mentioned Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir yet? The promo line was "Lesbian necromancers in space!" and it lives up to it; original, fun, twisty, fast-moving, gleefully macabre, and IN SPAAAAAAACE.

First of what's turned out to be a quartet; IMHO the second book (Harrow the Ninth) is even better. Deeply weird, very enjoyable.

[Fiend]

I'm pretty sure I'm the s/f crowd but I'm embarrassingly out of touch with the flourishing lesbian necromancers in space sub-genre.... Incidentally I was wondering "Where's jab_happy gone these days?? Maybe taking a break now the jab / covid situation seems to be settling....".

On the s/f tip I've recently read Adam Roberts' "Real Town Murders" and "By The Pricking Of Her Thumb", two of the more recent of many Adam Roberts' books I've read throughout the years, and I can report that he STILL hasn't progressed out of writing irritating, juvenile, inconsistent, illogical and tedious characters that reached such a low point with his Twenty Trillion Leagues that I very nearly boycotted him forever. HOWEVER just like many of his previous books, he still hasn't given up on writing interesting, clever, and intriguing situations, settings and backgrounds that make his books just about worth sticking with, and these two aren't an exception to that. The latter almost had me giving up with some teeth-grinding character-tures but redeemed itself with some surprising emotional depth and resolutions later on.

Anyway, now onto something else that had me on the very of giving up in 5 pages and hooked by 15 pages, fingers crossed it's a good un....

[jwi]

For the sf/f crowd: anyone mentioned Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir yet? The promo line was "Lesbian necromancers in space!" and it lives up to it; original, fun, twisty, fast-moving, gleefully macabre, and IN SPAAAAAAACE.

I started reading it because I got it for free.

I did not like it enough to finish it. YMMV.

[slab_happy]

I'm pretty sure I'm the s/f crowd but I'm embarrassingly out of touch with the flourishing lesbian necromancers in space sub-genre....

You laugh, but there's an entire (very entertaining) podcast called "Wizards Versus Lesbians" on what they refer to as the "micro-genre" of sf/f that includes Gideon the Ninth.

Though I think Muir's got a lock on the space necromancy action.

Incidentally I was wondering "Where's jab_happy gone these days?? Maybe taking a break now the jab / covid situation seems to be settling....".

Nah, just having a cruddy depressive patch (lifelong, medicated and managed as best it can be, no-one needs to worry). Some times I lie lower than others.

[Johnny Brown]

Having been struggling with reading recently, mainly due to trying to read fiction (I gave up on Light on page 19...), I've fully got my mojo back by plunging into some non-fiction rabbitholes.

Sea People, Christina Thompson. A history of Polynesia. Really enjoyed this, perfectly paced, draws on many sources and very even handed on the colonial aspects. The settling of Oceania - a scattering of tiny islands in a vast ocean, against the prevailing winds and currents by a people with only stone age tools - was one of the great conundrums of anthropology and the story is brilliantly told, from the likes of Cpt Cook meets Tupaia, to Nainoa Thompson 'closing the triangle' by sailing a Hawaiian canoe to Rapa Nui using only traditional navigation. Highly recommended if you've any interest in the region, sailing or just great non-fiction.

We, the Navigators, David Lewis. One of the key source texts for the above. By the second half of the twentieth century traditional navigation was an almost completely lost art. An experienced yachtsman, Lewis first experimented with star navigation before getting funding to tour the Pacific, seeking out and learning from the remaining handful of traditional navigators left. It isn't really written to be readable - more like an extended thesis - but highly absorbing if you're into it. While the component parts are at times surprisingly simple, it does nothing to diminish the overall synthesis which is anything but and rather awe inspiring.

Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, Clive Ruggles. After Prof Thom's '67 and '71 conceptual bombshells (mentioned in my previous post) split the archaeological establishment in two, Ruggles was the most prominent worker to undertake extensive field work to try to move the discussion forward. Published in '99, this a magisterial overview after 25 years at the forefront of what became the 'interdisciplinary boundary dispute' of spherical trigonometry vs the muddy trowel (Ruggles himself started out in astrophysics). Although enthusiasm for the subject among UK professionals remains muted, Ruggles' subsequent work on sites in Peru and Hawaii is less equivocal and ties in with the previous books in this post.

[Fiend]

Okay this is a nice one:

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/piranesi

Susanna Clarke - Piranesi

Well summed up on the synopsis above, a sort of mellow Banksian "unreal fiction" tale of a substrata universe. 5 pages in the writing Style and excessive Capitalisation was getting my tits so much I didn't want to continue, 5 pages from the end I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want it to be over (it's quite short, in a sort of "doesn't want to outstay it's welcome" way). Charming and intriguing, but I did find the evolution from the earlier bewilderment into a more gentle and normal ending slightly disappointing.

[duncan]

Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, Clive Ruggles. After Prof Thom's '67 and '71 conceptual bombshells (mentioned in my previous post) split the archaeological establishment in two, Ruggles was the most prominent worker to undertake extensive field work to try to move the discussion forward. Published in '99, this a magisterial overview after 25 years at the forefront of what became the 'interdisciplinary boundary dispute' of spherical trigonometry vs the muddy trowel (Ruggles himself started out in astrophysics). Although enthusiasm for the subject among UK professionals remains muted, Ruggles' subsequent work on sites in Peru and Hawaii is less equivocal and ties in with the previous books in this post.

Thanks. Sandy Thom was a friend of my gran, they went sailing together on the Firth of Clyde so I've always been curious about his work. How credible is it now?

Ruggles' update (?) unfortunately seems to be rare and sought-after with prices to match.

[Johnny Brown]

Wow, that's amazing, would love to have met him. It sailing the west coast that started it all off - in particular ghosting into Loch Roag one evening and seeing Callanish silhouetted against the rising moon.

I think it remains absolutely seminal in many ways - both the breadth and depth of the work are pretty remarkable, as is the originality, the number of ideas and sheer technical expertise which for me have all the hallmarks of genius. Ruggles suggests the books themselves are now only of historical interest rather than serious reference, despite basing his own career on them. The first book, although slim, introduced geometry and metrology (the fabled megalithic yard) as well as astronomy to stone circles, all as 'statistical certainties' and any one of which would have been a bombshell on its own, so I don't think his contribution can be overstated. And while it is easy to raise questions it's almost impossible to find any that weren't already mentioned by Thom and suggested for further work.

The principal issue Ruggles spent his life addressing was not the validity of the ideas but their perhaps over-enthusiastic universal application. It did also suffer heavily from being published into the heart of the hippy area and being seized on by all sorts of charlatans. That said, some of the responses remain embarrassing in hindsight (we didn't ask those questions so the answers are of no interest etc), but I think the main issue to bear in mind is that the evidence will only ever be circumstantial (plus Thom didn't always show all his working), whereas traditional archaeology is rooted in the absolutism of 'the find'. For many it is that mystery that makes it interesting, but for the professional in that era such speculation was clearly not a good look. Nowadays interdisciplinary and phenomenological approaches are acceptable,  but it is telling that for many sites Thom's interpretation, whether accepted or not, remains the only serious one offered.

For books like these you can set up Abebooks to email you when copies come up for sale, or I'd be happy to lend mine (or don't you have access to a Uni library?). I think Thom's books are worth reading first and they're not expensive. Definitely an absorbing rabbithole, there are a couple of biographies I'd like to read too.

[Duma]

Sea People, Christina Thompson. A history of Polynesia. Really enjoyed this, perfectly paced, draws on many sources and very even handed on the colonial aspects. The settling of Oceania - a scattering of tiny islands in a vast ocean, against the prevailing winds and currents by a people with only stone age tools - was one of the great conundrums of anthropology and the story is brilliantly told, from the likes of Cpt Cook meets Tupaia, to Nainoa Thompson 'closing the triangle' by sailing a Hawaiian canoe to Rapa Nui using only traditional navigation. Highly recommended if you've any interest in the region, sailing or just great non-fiction.

Just got this based on your recommendation JB, sounds great (I grew up sailing, loved A Pattern Of Islands and The Last Navigator, and did my final year project at uni on proas, so I am probably the perfect audience...)

[Johnny Brown]

Nice one, The Last Navigator looks very similar to We, The Navigators, I'll check it out. Mau also features in We, and Sea People. Remarkable man.

[duncan]

Wow, that's amazing, would love to have met him. It sailing the west coast that started it all off - in particular ghosting into Loch Roag one evening and seeing Callanish silhouetted against the rising moon.
...

For books like these you can set up Abebooks to email you when copies come up for sale, or I'd be happy to lend mine (or don't you have access to a Uni library?). I think Thom's books are worth reading first and they're not expensive. Definitely an absorbing rabbithole, there are a couple of biographies I'd like to read too.

My Mum has been opening up about this kind of thing a lot more recently, my Scottish half is turning out to be more interesting than I had previously thought!

Thanks very much for the offer. I've cut all ties with University but Sandy Thom's books seem the place to start and are widely available as you say.

[duncan]

Darwin by Adrian Desmond and James Moore. A Great Man biography but one that puts his life and thought very firmly in the socio-political background of his times. A liberal dissenting upbringing in Shropshire, near the heartland of the Industrial revolution, and close connections with the Wedgwood family gave him an intellectual freedom and network of other independent thinkers allowing the germination and evolution of his radical ideas. As importantly, it gave him the time and money to pursue these ideas: the voyage of the Beagle was an extended gap-year financed by his family. The big speculation is how much the 15 year delay in publication of the theory of evolution was due to the turbulent politics of the time. The book's thesis is Darwin knew the revolutionary impact his ideas would have and was being cautious about stirring things further. Or was he just being a good scientist and collecting more data and polishing his arguments before going public? 

I studied this era at school but got no sense of how the people, thought, culture, and commerce of the time were so interconnected. Any suggestions on further reading?


The algorithms recently pointed me at AN Wilson's entertaining documentary on Josiah Wedgwood, very much part of the Darwin circle, which does a similar job of placing the man in his time. Spot the ukb contributor!

[Falling Down]

A. N. Wilson hanging on to every word there 

[andy popp]

Darwin by Adrian Desmond and James Moore. A Great Man biography but one that puts his life and thought very firmly in the socio-political background of his times. A liberal dissenting upbringing in Shropshire, near the heartland of the Industrial revolution, and close connections with the Wedgwood family gave him an intellectual freedom and network of other independent thinkers allowing the germination and evolution of his radical ideas. As importantly, it gave him the time and money to pursue these ideas: the voyage of the Beagle was an extended gap-year financed by his family. The big speculation is how much the 15 year delay in publication of the theory of evolution was due to the turbulent politics of the time. The book's thesis is Darwin knew the revolutionary impact his ideas would have and was being cautious about stirring things further. Or was he just being a good scientist and collecting more data and polishing his arguments before going public? 

I studied this era at school but got no sense of how the people, thought, culture, and commerce of the time were so interconnected. Any suggestions on further reading?


The algorithms recently pointed me at AN Wilson's entertaining documentary on Josiah Wedgwood, very much part of the Darwin circle, which does a similar job of placing the man in his time. Spot the ukb contributor!

Hahaha. Wedgwood is a hero of mine, for a lot of different reasons. Not only was he part of the Darwin circle, he was Darwin's grandfather, via his daughter Suki.

Probably a good next read would be Jenny Uglow's "The Lunar Men," about The Lunar Society, a key part of the so-called Midlands Enlightenment and involving scientists such as Erasmus Darwin, Charles' other grandfather, Joseph Priestley, artist  Joseph Wright of Derby, engineer James Watt and industrialists such as Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton.

As to family money etc. Josiah Wedgwood's son Tom was an amateur scientist, and a pioneer in photography. He was able to make images but was unable to fix them. He also corresponded with key figures in the enlightenment and bankrolled Coleridge using family money (Tom, though recording some successes in life, was also a bit of wastrel and didn't enter the family firm).

Whatever you do, don't read A.N. Wilson's novel based on Wedgwood's life - it's a travesty (which is weird, because his father was managing director of Wedgwood at some point). Tristram Hunt, fomer Stoke MP and now director of the V&A, has just publsihed a new biography of Wedgwood, but I haven't read it. What I've read about it put me off a bit, but I was reading with a fairly critical eye. Hunt had a successful academic career as a historian before he entered politics so it should be a pretty solid piece of work.

Filming that scene was funny. Wilson is unbelievably posh. It was 10am on a Monday. The pub was open and full of exactly the characters you'd expect to find in a pub in Liverpool city centre at 10am on a Monday morning. They kept trying to join, singing, walking behind us, mugging at the camera etc. Wilson was a pretty good sport.

Anyway, read Uglow.