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I loved this book.

Mr. Dalrymples's fantastic ‘From The Holy Mountain', written the year before I was born, captivatingly details the lives of Eastern Christians in Anatolia, Western Mesopotamia, Canaan and Egypt.

It was fate that I picked it off my dad's dusty shelf. As a latecomer to @EmpirePodUK, they had just started Series 2 on the Ottomans, and after enjoying his excellent and erudite book, ‘The Anarchy,' I was drawn to it because it was set in a part of the world deeply shaped by Ottoman rule.

Many individuals he meets, themselves inheritors of ancient Christian traditions, are in the latter stages of life. While reading, one can't help but lament the likelihood that most of them are no longer with us and that the millennia-old, unique faith communities they represented now cease to exist.

It is witty and profoundly moving; I often laughed at Will's humorous anecdotes and observations. I also wept reading about the crying children attacked by Gema'a in the Church of St. Michael and the Virgin.

The terrible stories he retells of genocides in Turkey, wars in Lebanon, displacements in Palestine and terrorism in Egypt helped me to understand the deep pain and suffering the Palestinians are experiencing right now. It's one thing to lament the possibility that many of the older people he met thirty years ago have passed due to old age; it's another to see the slaughter of these people unfold in real-time.

I don't want to spoil the book's contents, so if you are interested in Christian history or Middle Eastern history presented in an incredibly readable way, pick it up and get going!

Kyrie eléison.

Sometimes, when you encounter a piece of scholarship so complex, well researched and challenging, it is hard to explain how you felt about it, let alone what it was about.

This book is multifaceted. Not only does it detail the lives of our ancestors, but it also critiques the enlightenment analysis that has been anachronistically imposed on them—an analysis that is so deeply ingrained in Western society.

One of the most rewarding things about this book is that it requires you to change how you see the world. In fact, from the very first chapter onward I kept finding myself debating with friends about its content. In doing so, as the authors allude to, it became apparent how the Hobbesian and Rousseauian ideas of the past are the default mindset of all those who think about it, and in my circle, there was no exception. Everyone, it seems, believes that our ancestors were either violent chimp-like savages or naïve and peaceful bonobo-like ignoramuses with no in-between.

The issue, particularly with the Hobbesian analysis, is that if you believe your ancient ancestors (or the Indigenous people met by European colonialists) were, in fact, violent savages, no different to sub-human chimps, then you can then justify against them all manners of evil. One thing I thought this book did exceptionally well was to introduce an Indigenous critique of these worldviews. Moreover, it details how the Western enlightenment did not originate here in Europe but in the Americas by Amerindians.

It is very difficult to read into and learn about the peoples of the past, especially those without written histories. However, I feel the analysis presented in this book is consistent, logical, and thorough, and the case presented is more accurate than many others I have read. I feel this book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in history, at least so one can be aware of the critiques against much of Western scholarship on the topic.

I only gave this book 4 out of 5 because it is a hard read. It is so dense with scholarship that I found it slow to digest. As such, I had to put it down regularly to think about what was being presented and to cross-reference with other scholarship on the matter. In doing so it took me a month to finish. However, I wonder if a piece of scholarship as radical as this could be put in any other way?

I really loved this book. I must confess, I listened to it on Audible, which I initially thought was a mistake: the first few chapters are slow as they detail the crew and their lives in Britain. However, once they set sail, I was gripped and finished it in a couple of days. Huge props must be given to the reader Dion Graham, who does an excellent job of bringing the book to life.

This is a tale of human survival in the most harrowing of circumstances. It is a truly fascinating story, and unlike many stories of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, this one is all the better because it is real. Mr. Grann spent many years collating the different sources, looking in archives, and even visiting Wager Island. He does a fantastic job of giving a broad account that covers all the characters and is fair in his writing.

Unlike many other books, there isn't a lot of allegory, not a lot to read into; it is just good history and plot. As such, I won't spoil it. Instead, I encourage you to pick it up and go for it.

This is genuinely the most extraordinary true story I have ever read. I don't have a long review to give, so go out and read it.

Edit: I returned to improve this because I thought it deserved more than a single-line review.

After a few days, I'm still reflecting on the absurdity of this story; so many remarkable things happen in this saga; each could be a story on its own. One thing I particularly like about this book is how it blends story and narrative with history and information. Not only are you being told about the many actions of these men and women, but you're also learning about 18th-century naval life, the British Empire, the indigenous peoples of Polynesia, and more. Moreover, it's told in a very readable and approachable way.

I thought this book was underwhelming. Nonetheless, a fine read.

In the prior month, I finished David Grann's other book, The Wager, Alfred Lansing's Endurance and Peter Fitzsimons' Mutiny on the Bounty. All were epic tales, expertly written and enjoyed. This was not that.

This book falls somewhat flat, partly because it doesn't have a satisfying ending and partly because the narrative arc is loose. We never find Fawcett's trail; we only get the author travelling into the jungle briefly to talk to some Indigenous folks. It's true that sometimes there isn't a satisfying ending, which is fine, but I feel the author sets the book up to uncover something and does no such thing. I think there is an argument to say this ought to have just been a book about the life of Fawcett, not a history-cum-travel-book that tries to tie two loose threads together.

For all its flaws, the book is still readable, interesting enough and short. I never knew about Fawcett's life before I began, and I enjoyed it in that regard. Moreover, it made me realise I have no appetite for travelling deep into the jungle. I will give it to Fawcett, exploration in the Amazon is hard. It is brutal. I have no envy for their lives like I did with those travelling to Tahiti in Fitzsimons' Bounty.

One thing I did enjoy is the author's attempt to help the reader understand the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon. He gives us a good, albeit brief, explanation of these people and their ancient and impressive lives before the Colombian Exchange, after which millions died due to Old World diseases.

I would still recommend this book to those who want to learn more about Amazon exploration, as it is a quick read. Any longer, and I would have felt the cost-benefit might lend itself to an alternate read.

What to say about Wolf Hall?

I enjoyed the book. Ms Mantel is a talented writer who has achieved something quite fantastic by weiving together history and fiction to give us quite a handsome portrait of Cromwell, albeit apparently untrue.

It is a challenging read. The style of prose is quite difficult and can be somewhat confusing; however, once you realise that whenever the author uses “he”, it almost always refers to Cromwell, you start to settle in. I think I would have given it five stars had it been a bit easier to read. But then again, I am a simple man.

I must confess I was not entirely aware of the intricacies of Henry VIII's court. I did not fully understand how his marriages and subsequent annulments played out. However, this adaptation is a great entry point into understanding the whole affair. While I know this is not a historical biography, the author's meticulous attention to detail should be praised.

Most of Cromwell's biographers paint him as a callous, cruel, and calculating man, far from Wolf Hall's portrait. This might be true, but nonetheless, it is exciting, and once you get into it, you can't put it down.

I listened to and read this book. I must also praise Simon Slater's reading on Audible. It is fantastic, and his use of accents to differentiate the characters made it all the more enjoyable.

I will read the sequels and then pick up a history of the Tudors to piece it all together.

I really liked Demon Copperhead, it is a challenging but rewarding read. Having never read Dickens' David Copperfield, I didn't know what to expect. But I was pleasantly surprised by this coming-of-age tale, which shows the genuine struggle of growing up with poverty, addiction, and violence in Appalachian America.

Broadly speaking, I don't like art that details addiction. Not because it isn't important (it is), but rather because many attempts are derivative and cliché. Demon Copperhead is not that. It incorporates and describes it but doesn't make it the be-all-and-end-all theme. Instead, this story shows us love and loss, pain and joy, addiction and sobriety, all intricately woven together to create an endearing story of a young boy who is lost in the troubling adult world around him.

The characters are all real; that is to say, you feel you can know them and that they act like ordinary folk would, not like perfect Hollywood heroes do. The characters are well crafted (a testament to Ms. Kingsolvers literary ability) and don't fall easily into well-established tropes. They are authentic, have real personalities that evolve, and act consistently with them. In that sense, the book is a triumph.

As an Englishman, foreign to the culture and history of the Appalachians, I think Ms. Kingsolver does these people justice. She uses the protagonist (and other characters) to detail the struggle of their lives without mockery and bigotry. Moreover, she incorporates their struggles as a theme within the book. Characters talk about it and, in fact, challenge the prejudices that are put against them. In a world where many individuals find themselves as a discriminated against minority, the Appalachian people don't have many pieces of art that are positive to their plight, and in this sense, she has done them justice, which I greatly admire.

While the book is written in an easy-to-digest way that requires little reading comprehension, it does require emotional comprehension, so to speak. As such, it did take me two weeks to finish because sometimes the story was so challenging and bleak that I didn't want to pick it up again. However, it must be said that the exact opposite was also true; in some moments, I couldn't put it down.

I would definitely recommend this book to all who seek an enlightening, endearing, but nevertheless challenging and rewarding read.

Again, it is not bad, but not great. There is a lot of complex lore and not enough lovable characters, but I feel I should finish the series.

Honestly, it was a slow start, and the magic is a bit hit-and-miss, but I stuck with it and enjoyed it by the end.

Project Hail Mary is an enjoyable story. It is readable and fun, requiring little reading comprehension; most readers could finish this book within a week or less.

The science is fine, albeit sometimes a little bit far-fetched. With Sci-Fi, it's often hard to get the balance right. I feel that you either create broad concepts, e.g., FTL travel, wormholes, etc. and don't explain them in detail or you try to make them hyper-realistic and explainable. The author attempts to do both but doesn't get it exactly right. Nevertheless, attention to detail regarding some of the key concepts, e.g. relativity, gravity, etc., is appreciated.

The major criticism I have, that is to say, why I wouldn't give it four or five stars, is that the characters aren't particularly complex and, therefore, not real, in a human way. The protagonist falls into the classic Hollywood hero trope. His only flaw is that he gets a bit cranky and stupid when tired or drugged (who doesn't?) and is somewhat of a coward. Other than that, he is almost perfect. Moreover, in many ways, he is a copy-and-paste of his other protagonist, Mark Watney, from his previous book, the Martian. Frankly, I think he's a bit of a loser, and not in a fun or endearing way — I would not like to have a drink with him.

Overall, I would recommend this book as something to read on a long weekend or as something light between more challenging reads.

This is a fun book. It's entertaining, interesting, and not too long. I was quite gripped by the narrative and found the protagonist likeable, albeit a little too perfect. Nevertheless, it is very readable/listenable as it has an interesting premise and exciting plot. If it were longer, I probably would have rated it lower as I felt it lacked a kind of depth that I would normally expect with a good novel; however, its interesting premise carried it.

I like this book, but the “magic” has become somewhat inconsistent. I prepared for this by reading Misborn Era Two, Warbreaker and The Sunlit Man. It's not as good as Way of Kings or Words of Radiance, but 5* because it ties hundreds of hours of reading—over many books—together.