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Category Archives: Books
Sapiens: a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
An interesting book – far more readable than the finger-wagging harangue that was A history of the world in seven cheap things. It covers a much broader sweep: Harari’s starting point is ca. 70,000 years ago with the Cognitive Revolution, when … Continue reading
The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (1965)
This is Muriel Spark at her most fascinating: clever, funny, oblique, thought-provoking. It’s set in Jerusalem at the time of the Eichmann trial – 1961 – when that city was divided between Israel and Jordan. The Mandelbaum Gate was the … Continue reading
A history of the world in seven cheap things by Raj Patel and Jason W Moore
A broadside at capitalism from Columbus onwards, blasting away at Western European thoughtless and brutal exploitation of nature, money, work, care, food, fuel and lives without ever considering the price paid. Everything has its exchange value, and nothing is valued … Continue reading
Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L Sayers
Now that rain is lashing against the window and I have started wearing socks in bed, I am revisiting those long summer evenings in the garden when I binged my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey books, a glass of … Continue reading
The Napoleonic wars
I will, I will, I WILL get to grips with the impact that Napoleon had on Europe. I’m reading a very short introduction on the wars by Mike Rapport, and my notes below make for an even shorter introduction. Reading … Continue reading
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani (1962)
I started reading this in spring when I visited Italy. It took me a long time to get into it and even longer to finish it. I’m not sure I actually liked it, but it was interesting. In brief, it’s a story of … Continue reading
Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers (1923)
I needed something to listen to as I combed redcurrants from their stalks last week, so I picked a Lord Peter Wimsey adaptation (with Ian Carmichael – perfect!) from Radio 4 Extra. I was hooked. So I read the first … Continue reading
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
All I “know” about the life of late imperial/early republican Austria comes from reading Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth. This novel is set in 1926, but Zweig didn’t finish it before his suicide in 1942 and it was published posthumously. … Continue reading
London belongs to me by Norman Collins (1945)
The problem with a Kindle is that all books appear wafer-thin. (I miss the physical aspect of real books: their weight, the way you can fan through paperbacks, make later-incomprehensible notes in the margins, remember which bookshop you bought it … Continue reading
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (1913)
I picked up this book again after watching Darling to look for parallels between Diana and Undine Spragg – Undine who starts in Apex City and intends to go higher. It is a fascinating book, particularly given that Undine is an … Continue reading
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