Tag Archives: book review

Apr 23rd 2022Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.Your browser does not support the <audio> element.Listen to this storySave time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskOKWhy We Fight. By Christopher Blattman. Viking; 400 pages; $32 and £18.99AS WHAT COULD end up as Europe’s bloodiest war since 1945 grinds on, this is an apposite time for a book explaining why and when human beings fight and, at least as importantly, why they do so rarely. A...

The best history of AprilChris Schluep | April 4, 2022The books in the best history of April are all of a theme. Usually, the monthly list includes a few titles that could be considered less historical, more esoteric. For instance, a book about the history of the mosquito comes to mind (it’s an important, if not immediately obvious, history by the way). But this month the books are all very historical. Is that what happens when you feel like you are watching history play out in real time on...

Nothing could be more relevant today than war and peace. Why We Fight (Viking, £18.99) by Christopher Blattman of the University of Chicago is an outstanding and original book on this topic. Blattman turns what most of us think about violence on its head. It is not frequent; it is rare. There are thousands of potential conflicts. But mostly they do not become violent, because fighting is costly and the outcome is unpredictable. It is far better to rub along together in mutual loathing...

Critic Bethanne Patrick recommends 10 promising titles, fiction and nonfiction, to consider for your April list.April is the kindest month, the season when novels spring forth from the richest literary soil. Beloved novelists return to push their particular talents in bold new directions (and one, Ocean Vuong, returns to poetry). These recommendations include amazing books on some dark and difficult subjects, but there is always joy in great writing.FICTION Sea of TranquilityBy Emily St. John...

Book Review, Mr Keynes’ Revolution: A Novel, E. J. Barnes, 2020, Greyfire publishing. In Mr Keynes’ Revolution, Emma Barnes makes Keynes the subject of a novel, and does so brilliantly. I cannot recommend the book highly enough to anyone interested in Keynes and wanting to get a sense of what he – and his economics – is about. I am no literary critic, but found the story-telling dramatic, highly engaging and touching. Above all (for me) Barnes has a powerful and sophisticated sense of the...

Book Review, Mr Keynes’ Revolution: A Novel, E. J. Barnes, 2020, Greyfire publishing.In Mr Keynes’ Revolution, Emma Barnes makes Keynes the subject of a novel, and does so brilliantly. I cannot recommend the book highly enough to anyone interested in Keynes and wanting to get a sense of what he – and his economics – is about.I am no literary critic, but found the story-telling dramatic, highly engaging and touching. Above all (for me) Barnes has a powerful and sophisticated sense of the...

Book Review, Mr Keynes’ Revolution: A Novel, E. J. Barnes, 2020, Greyfire publishing.In Mr Keynes’ Revolution, Emma Barnes makes Keynes the subject of a novel, and does so brilliantly. I cannot recommend the book highly enough to anyone interested in Keynes and wanting to get a sense of what he – and his economics – is about.I am no literary critic, but found the story-telling dramatic, highly engaging and touching. Above all (for me) Barnes has a powerful and sophisticated sense of the...

Bill Gates: How to avoid a climate disaster : Review for the Times Literary Supplement, published on 12 March, 2021.When I first began to use computers in the 1980s, my Techie pals in the opensource community were dismissive of Microsoft’s ‘clunky’ and vulnerable software and advised me against using its products. But I disagreed. In the eyes of geeks, the software may have been badly coded but it was accessible for me, a non-geeky beginner. For each glitch I just hit ‘update’ and Microsoft...

Bill Gates: How to avoid a climate disaster : Review for the Times Literary Supplement, published on 12 March, 2021. When I first began to use computers in the 1980s, my Techie pals in the opensource community were dismissive of Microsoft’s ‘clunky’ and vulnerable software and advised me against using its products. But I disagreed. In the eyes of geeks, the software may have been badly coded but it was accessible for me, a non-geeky beginner. For each glitch I just hit ‘update’ and...

Bill Gates: How to avoid a climate disaster : Review for the Times Literary Supplement, published on 12 March, 2021.When I first began to use computers in the 1980s, my Techie pals in the opensource community were dismissive of Microsoft’s ‘clunky’ and vulnerable software and advised me against using its products. But I disagreed. In the eyes of geeks, the software may have been badly coded but it was accessible for me, a non-geeky beginner. For each glitch I just hit ‘update’ and Microsoft...