BOTM: J. C. Scott, Against the Grain (2017)
S. Berry, Disappearing world (2023)
L. Booth (ed), Wisden Cricketers Almanack (2026)
K. Gattas, Black wave (2020)L. Mangan, Bookish (2025)
A. O'Neill, A history of heavy metal (2017)
I. Murdoch, The Green Knight (1993)
A. Roy, The ministry of utmost happiness (2017)
A. Roy, The ministry of utmost happiness (2017)
J. Walton, Tooth and Claw (2003)
I am sad to report that Jo Walton's retelling of A small house at Allington with dragons is enjoyable, but not amazing. I am glad I read it though. I am similarly glad I read Black Wave, which does the good work around noting the period around 1979 as a hinge year for a series of Islamic countries, not just Iran. However, it didn't do enough on the why. I almost gave BOTM to Roy's second novel which I thought was an excellent piece of work, which only slightly sagged int the model. It's clearly political, but not overtly, and I think held things together well. I know why people didn't like it as much as The God of small things and I think they are right, but the gap is smaller than you might imagine.
My favourite this month did not suffer from lack of a why; if anything it was too reductive. However, I thought James Scott's theory around the centrality of grain to the emergence of civilisation was excellent and thought provoking. I'm very far from a specialist in early states and this was bracing in addressing some of the cause and effect in those debates. I don't think it's all right, but I do think it does its thesis well, and taught me a lot.
