#1538

I inadvertently read Seveneves back to back with the Forge of God. Put me in a weird headspace for a while.

#1539

Having a really rough time finishing up fall at the moment. Halfway through and I don’t know if I have it in me.

#1540

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Just finished Killing Commendatore today…
Agency next.

3 Likes
#1541

Read in the past few months…

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner Such an endearing look into the complexity, brilliance, and psychosis that can be found in small town America.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang I especially liked “the lifecycle of software objects” and the fairly simple idea that growing personable AI requires time, attention, unique experiences, and lots of sensory inputs.

Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown Not sure why I kept reading all the way through. Felt like a dime store novel most of the time. Had that churning suspense and character devo that keeps you watching TV shows you don’t think highly of.

The End is Always Near by Dan Carlin Much less engaging than his podcasts and only the length of about two episodes! I didn’t really understand the point of the book as he had already covered most of stuff in his earlier work.

How Asia Works by Joe Studwell I definitely learned a few things about successful and unsuccessful land reform and the importance of “export discipline”

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin Someone told me this one was “fantasy for people who don’t like fantasy.” I still didn’t like it. Humorless. Not going to continue with the series.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson I’m totally in love with this tour of the future solar system and the never ending quest to finding meaning in it all

1 Like
#1542

Have you looked at the Barry Cunliffe books? If so, what did you think of them?

#1543

I’m tempted to read it again, not even a year since I did.

1 Like
#1544

No, I have not. At the moment I’m focused on 600-1100 CE. As far as archaeologists I’ve been reading John Blair, Dawn Hadley, and Neil Price. For general histories aside from the above book and Routledge The Viking World - working through Chris Wickham, David Bates, Marios Costambeys, Jean Dunbabin, Cambridge Social History of England.

#1545

Cool. I have a project fusing game design, archeology, virtual education, etc. centred around Herstmonceaux at the moment, but we more or less start in 1066 and go from there :slight_smile: A lot of it is retrospective climate analysis to do with how people lived on the land…

2 Likes
#1546

Finishing Brian Aldiss’s Hothouse at the moment and will be starting Vandermeer’s Dead Astronauts afterwards.

#1547

Did you check out Robert Bartlett’s England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings?
And this book and preceding 900-1200 have sections on land use, economy, towns, etc.

#1548

What did you like most or find most interesting about this one?

#1549

All of the Discworld books are my favorite.

Anything with Sam Vines is great. Monstrous Regiment and Jingo were among my faves (as was Postal as I love Moist’s character probably the most of all the Discworld people). You really won’t go wrong with anything Pratchett if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read so far. Probably the best/only satirist of the last 25 years.

1 Like
#1550

I’ll take a look for it, thanks!

My next tangent was going to be Braudel’s Mediterranean but it is very much a tangent and this looks more relevant.

#1551

Oh, cool.

These books have critiques of Braudel. The first book is a landmark work. The second is written for a wider audience by an expert on the Mediterranean, one of the editors of The New Cambridge Medieval History. He also wrote a follow up called The Boundless Sea.

2 Likes
#1552

I knew about The Great Sea. I read Cunliffe’s ‘On the Ocean’ and then thought about ordering The Great Sea but never got to it.

I’m interested in Braudel not because of currency (it is rather old) but because it has some physical geography and geology in the first part that I wanted to see in terms of how it was framed (it would be rather out of date technically because geology changed dramatically in the 1960s and early 1970s).

Thx for the memory jog about The Great Sea. I’ve ordered it from our local independent shop just now (hope they can find a copy).

1 Like
#1553

i’ve really had a desire lately to re read the forge or god and anvil of stars…

1 Like
#1554

all of them, and some twice.

(edit, sorry):

tehanu (I actually think this could stand alone, out of order)

always coming home (this sometimes feels like reading an encyclopedia, but her world vision is an absolute gift)

6 Likes
#1555

I believe you! But if you had to pick between 1 and 3, what would you select?

edit: All good. Thanks for the recommendations.

#1556

The dispossessed …

1 Like
#1557

dispossessed or left hand for a first one. always coming home is incredible but probably best read once one has some more straight-forward le guin narrative under their belt

2 Likes