Fantasy. Set in Cairo in 1912. A bit steampunk, a bit noir mystery, and lots of magic drawn from folk traditions of Egyptian and other Islamic cultures. The premise is that in the late 19th century, djinn and other magical beings returned openly to the world in a way that was centred on Cairo. This …
An intellectual biography of radical English writer and art critic John Berger. Examines his key work from the end of the Second World War to his death in 2017, in the context of at least the major features of his life, if not really the nitty-gritty details, and of the broader political and intellectual culture. …
A collection of short pieces written (or in some cases co-written) by Mariame Kaba, an abolitionist organizer in the US. Over her many years of involvement, she has done an incredible amount of work that exemplifies that quintessential abolitionist synthesis of the radical and the practical. She has thought deeply about what she does (and …
Science fiction. Near future. A company develops technology that, when implanted in the brain, allows human beings to have much greater ability to focus on multiple things at once and to for-real multitask. This makes those with the implants considerably more productive and therefore more valued in the capitalist economy and its associated institutions (e.g. …
Historical scholarship. A sweeping history of the long sixteenth century, from the first voyage of Columbus in 1492 to the establishment of the first permanent English-speaking settlement in North America in 1607. Though it was really in the seventeenth century that it became clear that all of these interlinked phenomena would become the defining features …
Historical fiction. About slavery and Scotland. Built around the actual historical case that led in 1777 to the establishment of the principle that Scots law did not uphold slavery, at least domestically. Joseph Knight is the enslaved man at the centre of this case, originally kidnapped from west Africa and brought to Jamaica, and then …
Perhaps the most famous essay by one of the twentieth century’s great essayists. About racism and the US of A, but also Baldwin’s early life and faith and pain and rage and change and freedom. Raw and lyrical. A classic for a reason. And a compelling mix of of-its-time – it was written in the …
Nonfiction. Aimed at a general audience. An engagement with the ways we see the world around us. In each chapter, the author goes on a walk with someone different. Most of these someones are experts who, because of their expertise, perceive the places through which they are walking differently than most of us would, and …
YA contemporary. Traces the experiences of two young women (and their respective best friends) at a massive music festival, and their trajectory from strangers to much more. Sweet and funny, and it certainly provides the kind of emotional journey that one reads this sort of book to have, so I’m sure it will have many …
I have a somewhat complicated relationship with John Green’s work. I discovered him not through his writing but through the YouTube channel he and his brother run, and I have read only the most recent of his novels, which I liked but which has not inspired me to go back and read the rest. What …