Time travel is one of the most familiar tropes in science fiction. Many scholars trace the idea to Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol (1843) and Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). (Others differ, finding antecedents as early as 1733 in...
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One of the most spectacular intellectual achievements of recent centuries was the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary began in 1857 as a project of Britain’s Philological Society. But it was only in 1884, under the direction of Scottish lexicographer James Murray, when...
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As a teenager, I devoured science fiction, and my addiction resumed for extended periods later in life. I was attracted above all by the sheer creativity the writers demonstrated in speculating about life and reality from new perspectives. And I must admit I was a bit of a nut about space...
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You probably haven’t heard of Colonel Percy Fawcett. But in his day a century ago he was a superstar. The media of his time ranked him with such celebrated explorers as Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, who searched for the source of the Nile; Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered...
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To say that Annalee Newitz’s interests are eclectic grossly understates the point. They—Newitz’s personal pronouns are they/their/theirs—are the author of two science fiction novels and two works of nonfiction that sprawl across a broad swath of issues and preoccupations. Newitz has...
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Will climate change rob our children and our children’s children of a livable future? Image: NASA Climate Change Some call it a hoax. For most of the rest of us, myself assuredly included, it’s the climate emergency or the climate crisis. And no matter what you “believe,” climate change is...
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What can history teach us? We know, of course, that history doesn’t repeat itself, at least never exactly. But some, perhaps nearly all, of the most successful leaders of the past were ardent students of history. Surely, they learned something from their predecessors, if only how to make...
Read MoreTotal 44 books Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic that Changed History by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta—America’s nightmarish response to COVID Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed—How...
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What is history, and how does it work? We know, of course, that history isn’t fixed and immutable. It’s subject to the revision and reinterpretation of successive waves of scholars. Sometimes the fresh approach is based on new information that comes to light. But more often what we...
Read MoreThings Fall Apart (Africa Trilogy #1) by Chinua Achebe—The classic African novel about colonization Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga—A compelling portrait of Indian society today The Traitor by V. S. Alexander—Dramatizing anti-Nazi resistance in Germany during World War II The Alteration by...
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Science Fiction Monday includes my latest SF book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.
Science Fiction Monday includes my latest SF book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.
