I’ve been thinking and writing about Iain M. Banks recently, in the context of a learning journey I am on at Stanford. Reflecting on his work in an academic setting was a different experience and got me thinking — thinking about how we think about the future.
Read MoreHere is the best of what I read in 2021.
Read MoreHere's the best of what I read in 2020.
Read MoreHere's the best of what I read in 2019. Like all of us, I am struggling to make sense of the world, and all of these books helped me on that journey. Perhaps one theme is that each one provoked thoughtfulness even when I strongly disagreed with the author
Read MoreIain M. Banks died in 2013 and with that came an end to his series of Culture novels. Every few years, I end up destroying many days and weeks of sleep by re-reading a selection of these books (life is full, so any reading occurs after 9 pm).
Read MoreHere's the best of what I read in 2018. I set myself an arbitrary count of ten this year. This really forced me to think about which books had a meaningful impact on me, i.e. not just “great books I can unhesitatingly recommend”.
Read MoreI'd just graduated college when I read The Remains Of The Day. At the time I thought it was the best novel I'd ever read, and while that ranking may have changed, it's still in the top five.
Read MoreHere’s the best of what I read in 2016. All, to varying degrees, enlightening, entertaining and infuriating. It was tough to winnow down to a short list — this was a decent reading year.
Read MoreI read many of the new histories published during 2014, timed to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. These benefit from new research and greater distance from the conflict. But an older work still stands out: Paul Fussell’s critique of English writing about trench warfare, The Great War and Modern Memory.
Read MoreThe thread linking this post's reviews is that each book offers a view into 19th or 20th century Europe.
My reviews are those of an intellectual dilettante, and I make limited attempts to place works or their authors in a wider context. For example, a "professional" review of Joachim Fest's memoir would certainly allude to his role in the Historikerstreit, among other things. Book titles link to the Kindle store page.
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