Life in the City of Dirty Water, Clayton Thomas-Mueller.The book dives deep into historical materials from the 1670’s through the nineteenth century to consider how the meaning of that conflict was interpreted and transformed over time as a foundational narrative in establishing the myths that undergird our national sense of colonial America. Before Jill Lepore went on to write numerous books on US history, law and culture, she wrote this brilliant scholarly analysis of King Phillips’ War – the first all-out genocidal war in what would become the U.S. I’d argue that, at the heights from which he looks, Ghosh misses a vast network of culture workers at the fringe and the grassroots – where one should always look for artists’ response to the zeitgeist. While it may be the job of science to unearth the facts of global heating, it is the job of culture-makers to move us to action – and Ghosh finds the culture industry to be asleep at the switch. He turns his brilliant critical faculties to the failure of imagination and vision that is part and parcel of the ecological catastrophe. Ghosh’s look at our current set of global crises goes beyond the physical fact of climate chaos to the psychic dimension of our predicament. An easy, inspiring and transformative read. In this poetic memoir, she chooses 100 talismanic objects from her collection to tell the stories of her extraordinary journey. Margaret Randall is one of the boldest, bravest and most provocative writers – and humans – of our time. My Life in 100 Objects, Margaret Randall.The wonderful British writer walks the world’s oldest known footpaths, from Britain to Palestine to Nepal, and brings the landscape of histories to life. Why not? Please enjoy these reflections on 2022, my year in books. This year, as December rain comes down on my little house in the woods of southern New England, I’m going an extra step and giving a little blurb of a review for each title. A few years ago I began keeping a list of the books I’d read each year, and posting it on social media in the event that others would find it handy, as I find inspiration in the booklists of friends and colleagues.

Casting deep shade by cd wright