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[books 2012] The mother of all catch-ups
Sep. 9th, 2012 01:43 pm47. Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent by EJ Dionne Jr.
The backlog has been caused mainly by my waiting till I have the head space to do this book justice, but that is clearly never going to happen, and I can barely remember it now.
I bought this because the author was pimping it on The Daily Show and it sounded really interesting.
It's about how American political thought, right from the founding, has been trying to find a balance between communitarianism and individualism, but the current Republican part is trashing that balance. The only comparable period in US history is The Gilded Age of the late 19th century (otherwise known as the age of the Robber Barons).
He shows that the origins of the US republic were in reaction against the incipient capitalism of the British empire.
Although Dionne is a self-professed liberal, he has a lot of time for considered conservative thought and debate between the two sides, something he sees as completely absent from the current political scene.
I can't recommend this book highly enough for showing how things got to be the way they are, and why it's neither inevitable nor right.
48. Embassytown by China Mieville
Set in a human colony on the edge of the known universe, this is Mieville's work on the nature of language. It's fascinating, and uses tons of terminology I haven't seen since I was studying the development of language. The plot I'm less sure about, but it's still well worth reading.
49. The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross
The fourth Laundry novel, where HP Lovecraft meets Len Deighton. Still ridiculously sharply written, with a very interesting development at the end.
50. A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain by Owen Hatherley
I thought this was going to be about the social consequences of the way Britain has been developing its cities, but it's more about the architecture itself, about which I am largely unable to care, or in many cases agree with the author. (He thinks all Victorian homes are uninhabitable. Bite me.) I almost gave up after the first chapter on Southampton, because every. single. word. was being negative. But he was actually quite entertaining on Milton Keynes so I kept going - it turns out he just really hates Southampton. Really hard going as it was lots of architectural terminology, but I persisted because there's chapters on cities I know well and/or find very interesting. There were some interesting bits of information in there, but in the end probably not worth the effort. Going straight to the charity shop.
51. Broken Harbour by Tana French
Brand new, this is her fourth crime novel set in contemporary Ireland. This one's set on one of the country's infamous ghost estates.
Like all of her books, this was a "leave me alone, I'm reading" from page 1. Very highly recommended.
The backlog has been caused mainly by my waiting till I have the head space to do this book justice, but that is clearly never going to happen, and I can barely remember it now.
I bought this because the author was pimping it on The Daily Show and it sounded really interesting.
It's about how American political thought, right from the founding, has been trying to find a balance between communitarianism and individualism, but the current Republican part is trashing that balance. The only comparable period in US history is The Gilded Age of the late 19th century (otherwise known as the age of the Robber Barons).
He shows that the origins of the US republic were in reaction against the incipient capitalism of the British empire.
Although Dionne is a self-professed liberal, he has a lot of time for considered conservative thought and debate between the two sides, something he sees as completely absent from the current political scene.
I can't recommend this book highly enough for showing how things got to be the way they are, and why it's neither inevitable nor right.
48. Embassytown by China Mieville
Set in a human colony on the edge of the known universe, this is Mieville's work on the nature of language. It's fascinating, and uses tons of terminology I haven't seen since I was studying the development of language. The plot I'm less sure about, but it's still well worth reading.
49. The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross
The fourth Laundry novel, where HP Lovecraft meets Len Deighton. Still ridiculously sharply written, with a very interesting development at the end.
50. A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain by Owen Hatherley
I thought this was going to be about the social consequences of the way Britain has been developing its cities, but it's more about the architecture itself, about which I am largely unable to care, or in many cases agree with the author. (He thinks all Victorian homes are uninhabitable. Bite me.) I almost gave up after the first chapter on Southampton, because every. single. word. was being negative. But he was actually quite entertaining on Milton Keynes so I kept going - it turns out he just really hates Southampton. Really hard going as it was lots of architectural terminology, but I persisted because there's chapters on cities I know well and/or find very interesting. There were some interesting bits of information in there, but in the end probably not worth the effort. Going straight to the charity shop.
51. Broken Harbour by Tana French
Brand new, this is her fourth crime novel set in contemporary Ireland. This one's set on one of the country's infamous ghost estates.
Like all of her books, this was a "leave me alone, I'm reading" from page 1. Very highly recommended.
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