Review – Sex: Lessons from History

Posted April 19, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Sex: Lessons from History, Fern Riddell

A comprehensive history of sex would be a tall order: sexual behaviour doesn’t fossilise, after all, and it’s so often been a taboo subject that even in written history, it can be hard to find evidence. Riddell doesn’t try too hard to find evidence far back in the past, but works with what records we have, reminding us all of the lies we keep telling ourselves about the Victorians being total prudes about sex, about the historical treatment of queer people, etc. She dips into court records and ad copy, so it’s not just contemporary accounts that specifically aimed to discuss sex and attitudes toward it, but also additional evidence.

Riddell’s prose is really readable and full of anecdotes and illustrations from the records, which means it’s not dry at all. It does focus on sex and people who have sex, but touches on gender identity as well, with caution about applying modern labels and concepts to people who never wrote about what they felt or intended; asexuality is referenced, but not really discussed.

There’s quite a range of topics here (homosexuality, masturbation, orgasms, contraception), so it doesn’t go into too much depth on any one thing; rather, it’s a bit of an overview.

Referencing is fairly clear, using footnotes rather than end-notes (so more specific than many popular non-fic books), and there’s an index. There are a few editing issues that I really think should’ve been caught — typos and such.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Fern Riddell, history, non-fiction

Review – Blurb Your Enthusiasm

Posted April 16, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Blurb Your Enthusiasm, Louise Willder

I didn’t find Blurb Your Enthusiasm hugely surprising or enlightening in the way it spoke about blurbs and the process of preparing books for publication. Back in high school, my favourite teacher told us to read everything and think about it in terms of the audience, the intent, what it was trying to do — and that’s always stuck with me. I don’t remember if he had us analysing blurbs, but we did look at various different kinds of copy, and as a result much of what Willder writes here sounds like common sense to me. It might be quite illuminating for others, but that’s hard to judge.

That said, I really enjoyed writing the book anyway. Writing something really short like a blurb requires crisp writing, with attention to sound and feel, and in the case of a blurb to very specific purposes as well; that practice has honed Willder’s own writing. She’s let herself get a little wordy here, but nonetheless, I could tell that she wrote attentively, choosing the right words.

The little mouse doodles are cute, too, and her writing is light and easy to read and sometimes funny — but mostly I was captured by the crisp feel of it, the way I wanted to hang on every word even when they weren’t at all surprising.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Louise Willder, non-fiction

Review – Lady Sapiens

Posted April 14, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Lady Sapiens, Thomas Cirotteau, Jennifer Kerner, Eric Pincas

There was less information that was new to me here than I’d hoped: in part, probably at least in part because this isn’t that recent, and I’ve read some more recently published books that touch on the same subjects. That said, if you’re not that familiar with what we know about prehistoric humans, then this is a good catch-up — whether you’re interested specifically in understanding prehistoric women or not.

In fact, a lot of this isn’t really that specific. While they look to the evidence where possible, trying to discern whether women ever hunted or could’ve hunted, or if women made flint tools or not, etc, often they can only say general things, or speculate. Often it’s like they want to be bold and say women could’ve played an active part in hunts, and then they dial it back and only say “women could’ve been involved at hunting camps”. There is some scant evidence (only men showed one-armed strength enhancements suggesting spear-throwing) but mostly it’s guesses.

It’s a readable summary, but not groundbreaking. Despite the ‘Venus’ figurine on the cover, and frequent references to them, it doesn’t actually dig very deeply into what they are, for lack of evidence.

It also lacks critical engagement: it briefly mentions that women may have made figurines that looked like bodies from their own perspective, looking down at their bodies. It then responds to that saying most in the field think that’s silly, because women would’ve known what women looked like by looking at other women. Well, so? Take another step: why should we always represent what other people look like? The fact that women have usually seen other women doesn’t actually mean they want to sculpt other people. Self-portraits are a thing.

This book doesn’t go so far, just saying “some people say this, some people say that’s silly” without digging into it. I know it’s a popular science book, but still. C’mon. You can dig in a bit deeper than that.

It also, of course, assumes that anyone who appears female based on their bones or burial circumstances had a female role in society, which we know isn’t always the best guide.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Eric Pincas, Jennifer Kerner, non-fiction, Thomas Cirotteau

Review – The Museum of the Wood Age

Posted April 12, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Museum of the Wood Age, Max Adams

The Museum of the Wood Age sounded like a fascinating concept: a thought experiment about how to gather together the proof of mankind’s use of wood, what kind of exhibits should there be? How would you make people understand the importance of wood throughout the ages? How can we preserve the ways of working with wood that have been passed down to us?

In practice… it was kind of slow. I don’t usually mind obscure details about things outside my usual field of interest, so it’s not that I wasn’t interested. In the end, perhaps it was just too detailed — or Adams’ writing just isn’t engaging enough.

Overall it was a bit of a slog, sadly, and things I was really interested in (like Seahenge!) were more touched upon than really discussed. If you’re fascinated by wood and the things you can make with it, the ubiquity of it in our society, I think there are definitely bits you’ll enjoy. It’s just all a bit long-winded.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, history, Max Adams, non-fiction

Review – Rattling Bone

Posted April 9, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

Rattling Bone, Jordan L. Hawk

I didn’t realise this was coming out, and leapt on it as soon as I did! It’s lovely to revisit Oscar and Nigel, and see them a little further into their relationship — in fact, with Oscar taking Nigel to meet his parents. It’s… predictably awkward, especially as soon as they discover Nigel’s job and what the two of them work on together. I like that the contention isn’t about Nigel being trans or about it being a queer relationship, and there’s no tension about the non-binary character either; instead this is pure family dynamics, secrets being kept, etc. I enjoyed that there were complexities there, that it wasn’t just both parents being a united front of anger for exactly the same reasons.

Of course, those secrets are relevant to the story, and Oscar finds himself having to use his newly acknowledged talents to help his family — whether they want him to or not.

I was a little worried that the jealousy/inferiority complex stuff so characteristic of Whyborne in the early Whyborne & Griffin books was going to come out here with the references to Oscar’s childhood friend, but luckily it didn’t really go that way too much. The ending is cute, too.

So much more I’d like to know about the background stuff and their sponsor…

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Jordan L. Hawk, queer fic, romance, SF/F

Review – The Chosen and the Beautiful

Posted April 7, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Chosen and the Beautiful, Nghi Vo

I’m really sad this one didn’t work for me, because I love Nghi Vo’s work usually. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m not a huge fan of The Great Gatsby, and only ever read it once, a long time ago. Perhaps it’s that I’m not familiar with the American culture surrounding The Great Gatsby — some readers from the US seem to have such strong feelings around it!

Vo’s writing is great as ever, really easy to read, but I just couldn’t quite make myself care about Gatsby or Daisy or what they were up to. Jordan Baker herself is more interesting, at least as portrayed by Vo, but so much revolves around Daisy and Gatsby. The magic and wonder is an interesting surrounding to the story, but I felt like I never got a close enough look at it.

All in all, just not one for me. Siren Queen was great, with a lot of similar worldbuilding going on, so I’m inclined to lay it at the feet of The Great Gatsby.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Nghi Vo, SF/F

Review – Models of the Mind

Posted April 5, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain, Grace Lindsay

I’m probably slightly misquoting, but there’s a bit in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Clouds of Witness where Peter’s sister is explaining things to him, and asks him if she isn’t making his head hurt. “Damnably, but I like it. Go on,” Peter says. I felt kind of that way, when reading this — I wasn’t always 100% understanding what was going on, for sure, but I was intrigued and I wanted to read more. Each chapter helped build my understanding up a little more, too: I found it was well-written in that way, even if math really isn’t my thing.

I doubt I’ve retained a great deal of the information, sadly, but it was nonetheless an enjoyable reading experience. The brain is so complex and so fascinating, and Lindsay tries to show how mathematics has been able to illuminate parts of how it works — where squishy biologists like myself might shrug and say it’s too complex. (Maybe that’s just me.)

Most likely math can’t answer all the questions on its own, but Lindsay makes it clear that it’s offered some useful insights and paths to go down.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Grace Lindsay, non-fiction, science

Review – A Taste for Poison

Posted April 2, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

A Taste for Poison, Neil Bradbury

This book didn’t start quite where I expected it to, with the most conventional poisons — arsenic or cyanide or even digitalis. It began with insulin, which was an interesting way to approach the topic, and that gave it a certain amount of freshness. Each poison is illustrated with two or three stories about how it’s been used by someone or other, historically, and how they were caught (of course, cases where no one was caught are harder to prove).

It talks a little about how each poison works — not in exhaustive detail, but enough to give you a pretty good layperson’s understanding of why it should prove a poison.

It’s interesting how often doctors and medical professionals are the culprits in these stories. It makes sense — access to the poisons, and trust from patients — but it’s a little disheartening to read, actually!

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, history, Neil Bradbury, non-fiction, science

Review – Green for Danger

Posted March 31, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Green for Danger, Christianna Brand

Green for Danger is one of those classic crime novels that definitely doesn’t feel cosy. That’s not just because it’s set during the Second World War — writers were perfectly capable of writing normality-restoring, comforting crime fiction then; in fact, it was a great time for it. The war setting doesn’t help, though, because the unease creeps around the story: consider the fact that all the doctors have morphine to take in case they should get buried alive during a bombing.

Mostly, though, it’s the mystery itself that’s unsettling. The potential culprits are all an inner circle, a limited group, and you watch their insecurities and their foibles playing out as you suspect each in turn. Could it be this one, or that one? Could it be because of a dark past, a horrible secret? Why is one’s voice recognised by various patients? Was there something suspicious about that previous event? And there’s the detective, putting pressure on them all to make them confess…

It all ends up being very uncomfortable, because it’s a group of friends, and nobody wants to believe anyone else has done it. There’s a web of jealousies and friendships between them that doesn’t stop them wanting the best for each other — but someone is a killer.

Brand’s a good writer, but it isn’t what I typically look for when I pick up a British Library Crime Classic.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, Christianna Brand, crime, mystery

Review – Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World

Posted March 28, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World, Bob Brier

I’ve been fascinated by ancient Egypt since I was a kid, like many people. One of the books that fed that interest when I was a teenager was Bob Brier’s The Murder of Tutankhamen, so I was intrigued to get this and read about his current take on the state of Tutankhamun studies. I also knew he said some things people found controversial and unnecessary about Howard Carter (highlighting what appeared to be thefts from the tomb), which… I was curious about, and not too surprised about.

Brier writes engagingly, and there’s a lot of fascinating stuff. I did find it not always entirely clear when a theory was considered solid or not — sometimes he’d report a recent theory and say that this and that were found on experimentation, and give all positive-sounding evidence about it… and then sort of step back and say well, we can’t trust that evidence. It’s probably easier to digest if you discuss both the positives and the negatives all in one go! (In particular I found this with the chapter aDNA testing on the mummies to establish familial relationships. Brier sounded like he was behind their conclusions, at least to me, and then in the next chapter mentioned how obviously it couldn’t be true.)

It’s definitely an interesting update both on the understanding of Tutankhamun and on Brier’s understanding of Tutankhamun, especially if you read his popular book, which suggested that Tutankhamun was murdered, when it was current. He’s completely disavowed all those theories now, but makes brief reference to them here.

It remains a popular book and biased, I think, to the author’s specific interests and view of the world. For example, he repeatedly conflates disability with frailty, which may or may not be true (someone with a club foot may still be fairly hale in other ways, for example). He’s very keen to portray Tutankhamun a certain way, and it’s important to remember that Brier is not neutral (no one is) in those interpretations. Some of this stuff we just don’t know, and is very difficult to know now thanks to the poor condition of Tutankhamun’s body.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Bob Brier, book reviews, books, history, non-fiction