Below the jump, I mention the books that I received recently. They are gifts, review copies that arrived in the mail, or books that I purchased. These are the books that I may review in more depth later, either here or in print somewhere in the world.
When I get new books, I like to share them with people. Unfortunately, you are all so far away, so I cannot host a book party in my crib where you can look them over, so I'll do the next best thing. I'll host a book party on my blog each Friday of the week when I either purchase books or when they arrive in the mail. In this New Book Party, I will try to be your eyes by presenting my quick "first impression" -- almost as if we are browsing the shelves in a bookstore -- and I'll also provide relevant videos about the book and links so you can get a copy of your own.
Books that arrived recently:
Philosophy Bites Back by David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton [Oxford University Press, 2014; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
Publisher's synopsis Philosophy Bites Back is the second book to come out of the hugely successful podcast Philosophy Bites. It presents a selection of lively interviews with leading philosophers of our time, who discuss the ideas and works of some of the most important thinkers in history. From the ancient classics of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, to the groundbreaking modern thought of Wittgenstein, Rawls, and Derrida, this volume spans over two and a half millennia of western philosophy and illuminates its most fascinating ideas.
My first impression: I am not generally attracted to books that are transcripts of interviews, but the interviewees are so articulate and the conversations are so interesting that I am enjoying this book. For example, the discussion with John Dunn about John Locke's ideas about toleration provides so much insight into how ideas about toleration have changed over the centuries (Locke viewed toleration only in the context of religious belief), and why religious people feel so threatened by atheists. In another chapter, Mary Warnock discusses Jean-Paul Sartre's ideas about bad faith -- making me realise that, according to Sartre, nearly every person alive today could be accused of bad faith. Ironically, Warnock says Sartre's later book, the incomprehensible Critique of Dialectical Reason, was in bad faith. Although the chapters move from the earliest to the most recent philosophers in chronological order, it's not necessary to read them in order.
Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World by Gillen D'Arcy Wood [Princeton University Press, 2014; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/audio download UK; Amazon US/kindle US/Audible US]
Publisher's synopsis When Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, it unleashed the most destructive wave of extreme weather the world has witnessed in thousands of years. The volcano's massive sulfate dust cloud enveloped the Earth, cooling temperatures and disrupting major weather systems for more than three years. Amid devastating storms, drought, and floods, communities worldwide endured famine, disease, and civil unrest on a catastrophic scale. On the eve of the bicentenary of the great eruption, Tambora tells the extraordinary story of the weather chaos it wrought, weaving the latest climate science with the social history of this frightening period to offer a cautionary tale about the potential tragic impacts of drastic climate change in our own century.
The year following Tambora's eruption became known as the "Year without a Summer," when weather anomalies in Europe and New England ruined crops, displaced millions, and spawned chaos and disease. Here, for the first time, Gillen D'Arcy Wood traces Tambora's full global and historical reach: how the volcano's three-year climate change regime initiated the first worldwide cholera pandemic, expanded opium markets in China, set the stage for Ireland's Great Famine, and plunged the United States into its first economic depression. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's monster, inspired by Tambora's terrifying storms, embodied the fears and misery of global humanity during this transformative period, the most recent sustained climate crisis the world has faced.
Bringing the history of this planetary emergency grippingly to life, Tambora sheds light on the fragile interdependence of climate and human societies, and the threat a new era of extreme global weather poses to us all.
My first impression: Growing up in the Pacific "ring of fire" made it easy for me to be fascinated by volcanoes. The jar of grey flour-like volcanic ash that I collected a couple days after Mt Saint Helens exploded almost in my backyard is the only object that I have carried with me throughout my entire life as I've relocated to a number of countries. So of course, I'm always interested to read yet another book about a volcano. This book traces the history of the massive Tambora eruption and its aftermath but the author goes one step further: he explores the climactic patterns caused by Tambora's eruption and compares them to the effects of modern day global warming. The book is beautifully illustrated with black-and-white maps, paintings, drawings, photographs and diagrams that help the author develop his ideas, although at least one of those figures would be clearer if it was in colour -- I am specifically referring to figure 0.1. Oh, and speaking of diagrams, I was blown away by figure 9.1 (p. 202), which shows the summer storm of 6 June 1816 that enveloped most of New England.
What book(s) are you reading? How far are you along in the book? What do you think of it so far? Do you think your book is worth recommending to others?
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When she's not reading a book, GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She's very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
