SChant's NF reads for 2018

History, culture: The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu - a lightly-told tale which includes the history of European attempts to reach the "fabled" city, and modern-day ingenuity and heroics in the face of gun-wielding jihadists.

History: Viking Britain by Thomas Williams

Feminism: Bitch Doctrine by Laurie Penny

History, mythology: Myths of the Pagan North: the Gods of the Norsemen by Christopher Abram. A study of how Norse mythology grew and developed.

Feminism, childrens: Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo. Mini biographies of various women. It's an American book so a few too many US examples but overall a good spread. The illustrations are generally a bit cartoony, though there are some exceptions, especially the excellent one of Astrid Lindgren. I was especially disappointed that the section on Artemisia Gentilesci didn't use her brilliant "Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting" as a basis.

All in all quite entertaining for kids.

Politics, society: The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla. Essays by BAME people living in Britain today.

Science, biology: Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith. An investigation into how consciousness works in cephalopods and how it might then work in humans.

Biography: Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes. A bit too detailed for the casual reader like myself, but I now realise how tirelessly she worked for socialism, feminism and the working class. A great woman.

Childrens, Women in science: Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

Biography, technology: Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance.

Physics: Ripples in Spacetime by Govert Schilling. I'm only a few pages in and already it's got the clearest explanation of space-time and gravity I've ever read. Think I'm going to enjoy this one.

Zoology: Spirals in Time by Helen Scales. The biology and evolution of seashells, and also how humans have used shells throughout the ages.

History: The King in the North by Max Adams. A history of 7th century Northumbria.

Art, History: Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith by Mary Beard. I hoped it would be an expansion of the TV programme but so far seems exactly the same.

>15 vwinsloe: I think you should have added this to the generic thread - this is my specific list, and while I don't mind comments I'd rather not have other people's reads on it. Cheers ;)

>16 SChant:. I thought I did. Apologies!

>17 vwinsloe: NP. Thx

History, science, women in science: A Galaxy of her Own by Libby Jackson

Fantasy, media: The Definitive Illustrated Guide to Fantasy - highly entertaining overview of fantasy media in the 20th century.

History, women in science: A lab of one's own : science and suffrage in the First World War by Patricia Fara.

History, feminism, childrens: Rebel Voices: the rise of votes for women. Superficial, even for kids.

Politics, feminism: Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard - an exploration of ways in which women's voices have been and are still being silenced in the public arena.

Politics, journalism, feminism: Testament of a Generation: the journalism of Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby.

Geology: Northumberland Coast Rocks! - a delightful guide through the geology of Northumberland from Holy Island to Alnmouth. Clear, concise, and very helpful to the enthusiastic amateur.

Science, physics: The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli.
Science, environmentalism: The God Species by Mark Lynas

Science, space flight: Chasing New Horizons by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon, about the first spaceflight to Pluto. Very good.

Politics, feminism: Women, race and Class by Angela Davis. I know I read it when it first came out (the eighties?) but can't remember a thing about it - hence the re-read.

Science, forensic anthropology: All That Remains: a life in death by Sue Black. Some of the details are gruesome but so far she's very interesting and thoughtful. An absolutely stunning book - highly recommended.

Art, feminism: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello. Worth the price for the illustrations alone.

Science, genetics: Who we are and how we got here by David Reich. Ancient DNA and human population flows.

Science, robotics, AI: Max Tegmark Life 3.0

History, feminism: Rise Up Women! by Diana Atkinson - a vast and detailed tome about the lives and work of the Suffragettes.
Physics: Black Hole Blues by Janna Levin - a rather confusingly written work more about the people than the science.

Science, environment: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. An easy to read discussion of past and current extinction events.

Science: The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman.

Science, genetics: the Book of Humans by Adam Rutherford.

History, archaeology: Pagan Britain - a look at what religious and magical practices can be understood from remains found in pre-christian Britain.

History, women in science: The Rise of the Rocket Girls - the enlightening and uplifting story of the female computers and engineers of JPL who did so much for space exploration. Loved it!
Art, feminism: Art and Feminism edited by Helena Reckitt. Couldn't quite get on with this book. The introduction was too "art historian" for my level of knowledge and many of the works were performance pieces represented by still photos with descriptions which made them sound juvenile and pretentious. Images of some of the static pieces and more obviously political work did resonate with me, but again the descriptions often seemed to refer to a closed-in art world aesthetic.
History,women: Women in the Viking Age by Judith Jesch. An attempt to piece together the position of women in the Viking Age using archaeology, meagre contemporary sources, and the later Sagas.

Paleontology, dinosaurs: Steve Brusatte The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs - enthusiastic, wide-ranging, very informative.

2018 reading stats
Total NF read: 37
Total fiction: 52
Total DNF: 17

NF categories most read:
Science: 15
History: 8
Feminism: 8