Nonfiction: I just finished The Identity Trap (Yascha Mounk) and Doppelganger (Naomi Klein) and found them immensely worthwhile. Older: Fantasyland (Kurt Andersen, 2017) rang true (and scathing).
Climate/design nonfiction: I found Flourish (Sarah Ichioka, Michael Pawlyn) to be compelling (in part because I have a big crush on Doughnut Economics, which figures in here, as well as an unbridled optimism about potential of remapping things toward regeneration).
Fiction: on the climate fiction front, The Deluge (Stephen Markley) was quite an engaging long romp, if you have the stomach for it, and I enjoyed The Ministry for the Future (Kim Stanley Robinson).
Hi, Kira! Nice to see you here. Have you read Charlotte McConaghy's "Migrations"? It's a wonderful clifi thriller. Also, fellow crusher of Doughnut Econ here.
Hello, and thanks. I recall hearing about McConaghy's book and have now put it on my library list ... I appreciate the rec. (Kate Raworth's appearance on the Flourish podcast was excellent. I'm interested in the Doughnut Econ Action Lab ... good stuff.)
This is great, Lloyd - thank you. I have long been an admirer of Taras Grescoe's writing, so adding that one to my list. I missed the Calder book, somehow, but it sounds like a must-read. I'm a big advocate of building reuse and understanding embodied and upfront carbon. We (Architects) still have much to learn about that. Trying to craft some cont'g ed programs on that topic right now for our AIA COTE. Have you seen Corey Squire's book? AIA COTE national committee just started the BookTalks series of author interviews and this was the first one:
Highly recommend Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. A story of human adaptation to climate change. Science fiction well grounded in science and economics.
Counter opinion: I did slog through MFTF, hoping it was all that was promised. As a novel, it's a mess. More like an extended (very extended) editorial. Novels are supposed to ask questions, not answer them. This one is full of answers and the characters are props only to deliver them. With the exception of the brilliant, harrowing first chapter (the heat wave in India), there was zero emotional engagement with the characters. Sure, tons of fascinating ideas, as a whole bunch of ideas about the future. After reading it, though, it all feels too daunting and more like a confirmation that humanity won't get our act together after all.
I have mixed feelings about MFTF, I do still recommend it to people as I think there's enough that's worthwhile in it, but it's such a mixed grab bag of ideas, some of which really are clunkers. I'm certainly not convinced about the economic aspects of it, got the feeling he was a bit too seduced by crypto currencies at the time. I read it compulsively first time round, but when I tried to re-read it I didn't get beyond the first chapter, I think largely because of the lack of real engagement with the characters.
The book of his I did enjoy though, was Shaman, about the people in ice age Europe who painted the Chauvet cave. Now I really want to go there!
I'll look it up, thanks! I really like the man, having seen a couple of interviews and heard him on some podcasts, including one ('Planet A') where he was trying to persuade Dan Jorgensen to get the Danish government to try to do the draining the glaciers thing on the Greenland ice sheet! Don't know how that's going...
I like him, too. Saw him at a local literary event and he was lovely. It did seem like he'd done a ton of research into all the alternatives and felt obliged to cram them all into one book. Like a novel version of "Drawdown."
Thanks for the article! I've read Taras Grescoe's Bottom Feeder and The Devil's Picnic but have been doomscrolling too much too crack open a book. Maybe my Family Day resolution (Ont) will be to change this and find The Lost Supper. If I'm successful then look into Blood in the Machine as I think we need more of the 'right' automation. (I know, its the wrong people who will decide the 'right' automation)
I'm now stuck on the term 'criticism' and why you think you're not good at it. Its a pet peeve of mine when people say they aren't good at something and I don't know where that came from in this instance but I thought this well written. Did this turn out to be more of a 'review' than a 'critique'?
I'm overthinking this. Thanks again!
Go TMU! (Proud TMU student's dad and soon to be an avid reader again)
For much of the past year I couldn't read and had to make do with audiobooks. There were only two that held my interest from beginning to end.
The Poisonwood Bible was fascinating on so many levels. I learned a lot of cultural differences, US meddling in Congo at the height of the Cold War, family politics. Of all the novels I read this is in my top-ten list.
Ed Yong's An Immense World is mind-blowing. I was only slightly aware of how different many animals' sensory perceptions are. It's also astonishing how much specialized research has been done to understand the sensory and information-processing capabilities of animals from nematodes to elephants, octopuses to bumblebees. The world is far more immense than any of us individual species can ever fully experience.
Non-fiction: Black Tudors by Miranda Kauffman, How to Live, a life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell, On Savage Shores by Charlotte Dodds Pennock.
Fiction: The Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser (note: fabulous, but the polar opposite of woke), The City and the City by China Mieville, Lost Horizon by James Hilton.
I've been thinking of reading the Sarah Bakewell book on Montaigne again, read it maybe ten years ago and really liked it, so it was one I hung on to when we downsized drastically. Thanks for the nudge!
I can see I have a very varying taste in books than most here. Because I read a lot of sites during the day nowadays and writing (like Lloyd, go research and then write), I don't allocate a lot of time for books. However, I was a voracious reader back in the day:
Historical: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shogun
Science fiction: Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
And then as an engineer, discovered computer & biz magazines.
Completely opposite than almost everyone else here but that seems to be my niche here - a completely different point of view on things.
A paragraph where Grescoe interviews a producer of olive oil.
I asked Rodio a question. Did he ever, I wondered, eat butter? “Mai!” he’d replied, without hesitation. “Never!” I’d suspected as much. By now, the health-conferring benefits of the Mediterranean diet will be familiar to most people. The diet features large amounts of fruits, vegetables, unrefined cereals, lentils and beans, dairy in the form of cheese and yogurt, generous splashes of flavonoid-rich red wine, and more seafood than meat. Most of all, though, it calls for oceans of olive oil.
There it is again, the delight at finding another Patrick O'Brian fan! The world seems to be divided into 'never-heard-of-him' and read-all-twenty-twice-and-cried-when-Barrett-Bonden-died
I'd never heard of Taras Grescoe, but now I'll be looking the books up, I always enjoy story-of-food writing like that.
One of the non-fiction books I've really enjoyed and found very affirming and motivating was, it must be said, a Treehugger recommendation from a few years back 'The Art of Frugal Hedonism' by annie Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb, not exactly deep or serious but really smart and spot-on.
Recently launched into Simenon's Maigret novels, such a vivid, clever treat to read.
you will love Taras. The art of frugal hedonism book was reviewed by Katherine Martinko who was laid off the same day as I was, and has her own book and substack that is worth following https://katherinemartinko.substack.com
I'm delighted to have come across your Substack. I have a lot of catching up to do! Thanks for these - I've already gone searching for the one by Calder. Your assignment on upfront carbon is brilliant! Have you read John C. Ryan's book from the late '90s, "Stuff: the Secret Lives of Everyday Things"? I'm also thinking of the 99% Invisible episode #361 on concrete and the sand wars. I must've listened to that 4 or 5 years ago and it's still with me. (This stunner: the world building an average of 13,000 new buildings every day through 2050.) 😱 And don't get me started on the Cult of Mass Timber. . . . Like the Indulgences of the Middle Ages.
Nonfiction: I just finished The Identity Trap (Yascha Mounk) and Doppelganger (Naomi Klein) and found them immensely worthwhile. Older: Fantasyland (Kurt Andersen, 2017) rang true (and scathing).
Climate/design nonfiction: I found Flourish (Sarah Ichioka, Michael Pawlyn) to be compelling (in part because I have a big crush on Doughnut Economics, which figures in here, as well as an unbridled optimism about potential of remapping things toward regeneration).
Fiction: on the climate fiction front, The Deluge (Stephen Markley) was quite an engaging long romp, if you have the stomach for it, and I enjoyed The Ministry for the Future (Kim Stanley Robinson).
Hi, Kira! Nice to see you here. Have you read Charlotte McConaghy's "Migrations"? It's a wonderful clifi thriller. Also, fellow crusher of Doughnut Econ here.
Hello, and thanks. I recall hearing about McConaghy's book and have now put it on my library list ... I appreciate the rec. (Kate Raworth's appearance on the Flourish podcast was excellent. I'm interested in the Doughnut Econ Action Lab ... good stuff.)
I’d also recommend The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. Similar to Calder in that it reformulates human history.
Third. It rewired my brain.
I second that recommendation, great book for thinking about.
This is great, Lloyd - thank you. I have long been an admirer of Taras Grescoe's writing, so adding that one to my list. I missed the Calder book, somehow, but it sounds like a must-read. I'm a big advocate of building reuse and understanding embodied and upfront carbon. We (Architects) still have much to learn about that. Trying to craft some cont'g ed programs on that topic right now for our AIA COTE. Have you seen Corey Squire's book? AIA COTE national committee just started the BookTalks series of author interviews and this was the first one:
https://islandpress.org/books/people-planet-design#desc
I will look at that, thank you.
Highly recommend Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. A story of human adaptation to climate change. Science fiction well grounded in science and economics.
I have it, now I have to read it.
Counter opinion: I did slog through MFTF, hoping it was all that was promised. As a novel, it's a mess. More like an extended (very extended) editorial. Novels are supposed to ask questions, not answer them. This one is full of answers and the characters are props only to deliver them. With the exception of the brilliant, harrowing first chapter (the heat wave in India), there was zero emotional engagement with the characters. Sure, tons of fascinating ideas, as a whole bunch of ideas about the future. After reading it, though, it all feels too daunting and more like a confirmation that humanity won't get our act together after all.
I have mixed feelings about MFTF, I do still recommend it to people as I think there's enough that's worthwhile in it, but it's such a mixed grab bag of ideas, some of which really are clunkers. I'm certainly not convinced about the economic aspects of it, got the feeling he was a bit too seduced by crypto currencies at the time. I read it compulsively first time round, but when I tried to re-read it I didn't get beyond the first chapter, I think largely because of the lack of real engagement with the characters.
The book of his I did enjoy though, was Shaman, about the people in ice age Europe who painted the Chauvet cave. Now I really want to go there!
Oooo! Sounds cool. I liked one of his earlier books - Pacific Edge. That one also suffers a bit as a novel but the premise is very good.
I'll look it up, thanks! I really like the man, having seen a couple of interviews and heard him on some podcasts, including one ('Planet A') where he was trying to persuade Dan Jorgensen to get the Danish government to try to do the draining the glaciers thing on the Greenland ice sheet! Don't know how that's going...
I like him, too. Saw him at a local literary event and he was lovely. It did seem like he'd done a ton of research into all the alternatives and felt obliged to cram them all into one book. Like a novel version of "Drawdown."
Thanks for the article! I've read Taras Grescoe's Bottom Feeder and The Devil's Picnic but have been doomscrolling too much too crack open a book. Maybe my Family Day resolution (Ont) will be to change this and find The Lost Supper. If I'm successful then look into Blood in the Machine as I think we need more of the 'right' automation. (I know, its the wrong people who will decide the 'right' automation)
I'm now stuck on the term 'criticism' and why you think you're not good at it. Its a pet peeve of mine when people say they aren't good at something and I don't know where that came from in this instance but I thought this well written. Did this turn out to be more of a 'review' than a 'critique'?
I'm overthinking this. Thanks again!
Go TMU! (Proud TMU student's dad and soon to be an avid reader again)
For much of the past year I couldn't read and had to make do with audiobooks. There were only two that held my interest from beginning to end.
The Poisonwood Bible was fascinating on so many levels. I learned a lot of cultural differences, US meddling in Congo at the height of the Cold War, family politics. Of all the novels I read this is in my top-ten list.
Ed Yong's An Immense World is mind-blowing. I was only slightly aware of how different many animals' sensory perceptions are. It's also astonishing how much specialized research has been done to understand the sensory and information-processing capabilities of animals from nematodes to elephants, octopuses to bumblebees. The world is far more immense than any of us individual species can ever fully experience.
I am sorry to hear that you couldn't read! I hope things are better.
Non-fiction: Black Tudors by Miranda Kauffman, How to Live, a life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell, On Savage Shores by Charlotte Dodds Pennock.
Fiction: The Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser (note: fabulous, but the polar opposite of woke), The City and the City by China Mieville, Lost Horizon by James Hilton.
Thank you, that looks like a great list, which is what one would expect from the author of a book of book lists https://shop.bl.uk/products/a-book-of-book-lists-a-bibliophile-s-compendium
Ha, ha! It's a bit random, but there's lots there!
I've been thinking of reading the Sarah Bakewell book on Montaigne again, read it maybe ten years ago and really liked it, so it was one I hung on to when we downsized drastically. Thanks for the nudge!
I can see I have a very varying taste in books than most here. Because I read a lot of sites during the day nowadays and writing (like Lloyd, go research and then write), I don't allocate a lot of time for books. However, I was a voracious reader back in the day:
Historical: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shogun
Science fiction: Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
And then as an engineer, discovered computer & biz magazines.
Completely opposite than almost everyone else here but that seems to be my niche here - a completely different point of view on things.
What’s the deal with butter?
A paragraph where Grescoe interviews a producer of olive oil.
I asked Rodio a question. Did he ever, I wondered, eat butter? “Mai!” he’d replied, without hesitation. “Never!” I’d suspected as much. By now, the health-conferring benefits of the Mediterranean diet will be familiar to most people. The diet features large amounts of fruits, vegetables, unrefined cereals, lentils and beans, dairy in the form of cheese and yogurt, generous splashes of flavonoid-rich red wine, and more seafood than meat. Most of all, though, it calls for oceans of olive oil.
I can get on board with “oceans of olive oil.” This, plus your earlier post about stairs, seems like a formula for a healthy, long life.
There it is again, the delight at finding another Patrick O'Brian fan! The world seems to be divided into 'never-heard-of-him' and read-all-twenty-twice-and-cried-when-Barrett-Bonden-died
I'd never heard of Taras Grescoe, but now I'll be looking the books up, I always enjoy story-of-food writing like that.
One of the non-fiction books I've really enjoyed and found very affirming and motivating was, it must be said, a Treehugger recommendation from a few years back 'The Art of Frugal Hedonism' by annie Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb, not exactly deep or serious but really smart and spot-on.
Recently launched into Simenon's Maigret novels, such a vivid, clever treat to read.
you will love Taras. The art of frugal hedonism book was reviewed by Katherine Martinko who was laid off the same day as I was, and has her own book and substack that is worth following https://katherinemartinko.substack.com
I'm delighted to have come across your Substack. I have a lot of catching up to do! Thanks for these - I've already gone searching for the one by Calder. Your assignment on upfront carbon is brilliant! Have you read John C. Ryan's book from the late '90s, "Stuff: the Secret Lives of Everyday Things"? I'm also thinking of the 99% Invisible episode #361 on concrete and the sand wars. I must've listened to that 4 or 5 years ago and it's still with me. (This stunner: the world building an average of 13,000 new buildings every day through 2050.) 😱 And don't get me started on the Cult of Mass Timber. . . . Like the Indulgences of the Middle Ages.
And I am enjoying yours....
Maybe a collab in our future? After this semester is over.. . . .
Not to get too stalky, but just saw your bio at the uni and will email you. We have a lot of overlapping interests.
Nice suggesties to read. Here are mine...
http://www.ronaldrovers.com/which-books-to-read-and-which-to-avoid-non-fiction/
Interesting list, and even more interesting don't read list, though I obviously disagree with you about Calder. Thank you!
Really enjoyed Calder. It was a refreshing and much needed perspective on the built world.