From the to-be-mentioned pile
Oct. 13th, 2024 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petrea_mitchellI've had a stack of books growing for a while that I wanted to at least mention here before I put them away or donate them. Some of which include:
The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley: A collection of mysteries spanning the history of the western Roman Empire. The choice to put them in chronological order by setting is a good one for keeping the historical context straight, but unfortunately it means the best of the bunch comes first. That's "Never Forget" by Tom Holt, where he deploys a particularly excellent example of a literary trope I can't name because it would be a huge spoiler.
I picked this up at Chicon 8, at an unusual dealer table. It wasn't for an ongoing business, but someone local who was trying to downsize their enormous collection of books.
Wine & War by Don & Petie Kladstrup: An account of French vintners during World War II. Partly about their family members who served in the armed forces or resistance, partly a story of what happens when the occupation rolls into town and takes a particular interest in your industry. This was a find at the Enfilade! bring-and-buy last year.
The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow: About the members of the Lunar Society, an 18th-century association that included Erasmus Darwin, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, and other scientific luminaries of the time. Interesting, particularly about the ends of their careers and some of their colleagues and rivals as Europe slipped into a more anti-intellectual age (I didn't know that Joseph Priestley spent his last years in the US, or that Antoine Lavoisier was guillotined for his work as a tax collector), but not a keeper.
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson: The story of the investigation into the Broad Street cholera outbreak that marked a step forward for epidemiology (eventually, after a lot of post-outbreak wrangling between scientific theories). The title refers to John Snow's famous map of deaths around the Broad Street pump. The book says that Snow came up with an improved map later, and then doesn't include it. Argh.
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford: A great read about the prominent women of the Mongol Empire, particularly Genghis Khan's daughters who were originally supposed to be co-rulers with his sons. Also a good look at the structure of the empire and why it was doomed to fall apart almost immediately. Almost everyone in the book comes to a bad end but there are some fun stories along the way.
The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley: A collection of mysteries spanning the history of the western Roman Empire. The choice to put them in chronological order by setting is a good one for keeping the historical context straight, but unfortunately it means the best of the bunch comes first. That's "Never Forget" by Tom Holt, where he deploys a particularly excellent example of a literary trope I can't name because it would be a huge spoiler.
I picked this up at Chicon 8, at an unusual dealer table. It wasn't for an ongoing business, but someone local who was trying to downsize their enormous collection of books.
Wine & War by Don & Petie Kladstrup: An account of French vintners during World War II. Partly about their family members who served in the armed forces or resistance, partly a story of what happens when the occupation rolls into town and takes a particular interest in your industry. This was a find at the Enfilade! bring-and-buy last year.
The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow: About the members of the Lunar Society, an 18th-century association that included Erasmus Darwin, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, and other scientific luminaries of the time. Interesting, particularly about the ends of their careers and some of their colleagues and rivals as Europe slipped into a more anti-intellectual age (I didn't know that Joseph Priestley spent his last years in the US, or that Antoine Lavoisier was guillotined for his work as a tax collector), but not a keeper.
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson: The story of the investigation into the Broad Street cholera outbreak that marked a step forward for epidemiology (eventually, after a lot of post-outbreak wrangling between scientific theories). The title refers to John Snow's famous map of deaths around the Broad Street pump. The book says that Snow came up with an improved map later, and then doesn't include it. Argh.
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford: A great read about the prominent women of the Mongol Empire, particularly Genghis Khan's daughters who were originally supposed to be co-rulers with his sons. Also a good look at the structure of the empire and why it was doomed to fall apart almost immediately. Almost everyone in the book comes to a bad end but there are some fun stories along the way.
