Two reader copies in the mail today. First up, Picador’s new tpb edition of Ian Morris’s Why the West Rules—For Now. This is a big, chunky book. Haven’t had a chance to dip into it yet, but it looks promising, and I recall it receiving positive reviews last year when it debuted in hardback. From the NYT—
Fortunately, Morris is a lucid thinker and a fine writer. He uses a minimum of academic jargon and is possessed of a welcome sense of humor that helps him guide us through this grand game of history as if he were an erudite sportscaster. He shows us how different empires were boosted by periods of “axial thought” to surge up the development ladder, only to crumble upon hitting a “hard ceiling,” usually inflicted by what he calls the Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse: climate change, migration, famine, epidemic and state failure.
The Chalice of Blood: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland continues Peter Tremayne’s medieval mystery series. Tremayne is the pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a historian who specializes in the ancient Celts. And while history informs his writing, Tremayne delivers the thrills and dark puzzles that mystery readers demand. Publisher’s description—
Ireland AD 670: When an eminent scholar is found murdered in his cell in the Abbey of Lios Mor, fear spreads among his brethren. His door was secured from the inside, with no other means of exit. How did the murderer escape? And what was the content of the manuscripts apparently stolen from the scholar’s room?Abbot Iarnla insists on sending for Sister Fidelma and her companion Brother Eadulf to investigate the killing. But even before they reach the abbey walls, there is an attempt on their lives. As the mystery deepens, Fidelma and Eadulf must also wrestle with problems of their own, problems which threaten to separate them forever…
Biblioklept 