What Are You Reading?

[JMcB]

Continuing Agamemnon’s thread from Anthrogenica.


Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins.

by Paul Pettitt



Who are we? How do scientists define Homo sapiens, and how does our species differ from the extinct hominins that came before us? In this accessible, lushly illustrated account palaeoarchaeologist Paul Pettitt shows how the latest scientific advances, especially in genetics, are revolutionizing our understanding of human evolution. Pettitt reveals the extraordinary story of how our ancestors adapted to unforgiving and relentlessly changing climates, leading to remarkable innovations in art, technology, and society that we are only now beginning to comprehend.

Drawing on twenty-five years of experience in the field, Pettitt takes readers from the caves and rock-shelters that provide evidence of our African origins to the far reaches of Eurasia, Australasia, and ultimately the Americas. Popular accounts of the evolution of Homo sapiens emphasize biomolecular research, notably genetics, but this volume also draws from the wealth of information from specific excavations and artifacts, including the author’s own investigations into the origins of art and how it evolved over its first 25,000 years.

Drawn from cutting edge research in this field, with a unique perspective from Pettitt’s own studies focusing on human behavior, this immersive and surprising book paints the clearest picture we have ever had of our own evolution.

80 color illustrations
by 
80 color illustrations

[JMcB]

Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World
By Alice Roberts






The extraordinary story of the species that became our allies.

For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors depended on wild plants and animals for survival. They were hunter-gatherers, consummate foraging experts, taking the world as they found it. Then a revolution occurred - our ancestors' interaction with other species changed. They began to tame them. The human population boomed; civilisation began.

In Tamed, Alice Roberts uncovers the deep history of 10 familiar species with incredible wild pasts: dogs, apples and wheat; cattle, potatoes and chickens; rice, maize and horses - and, finally, humans.

She reveals how becoming part of our world changed these animals and plants, and shows how they became our allies, essential to the survival and success of our own species.

Enlightening, wide-ranging and endlessly fascinating, Tamed encompasses thousands of years of history and archaeology alongside cutting-edge genetics and anthropology. Yet it is also a deeply personal journey that changes how we see ourselves and the species on which we have left our mark.

An Economist and Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 2017.

[Capsian20]

The Art of public speaking

[JonikW]

Rereading A View of Early Typography by Harry Carter. One of my main interests is incunabula and early printing in general, although I don't normally have cause to air it here. I happily admit that classifying things, whether Y subclades, Germanic brooches or early font types from rotunda and textura to lettre bâtarde appeals to my sensibility.

[JMcB]

Perryville Under Fire: The Aftermath of Kentucky's Largest Civil War Battle
by Stuart W.Sanders




The Battle of Perryville laid waste to more than just soldiers and their supplies. The commonwealth's largest combat engagement also took an immense toll on the community of Perryville, and citizens in surrounding towns. After Confederates achieved a tactical victory, they were nonetheless forced to leave the area. With more than 7,500 casualties, the remaining Union soldiers were unprepared for the enormous tasks of burying the dead, caring for the wounded, and rebuilding infrastructure. Instead, this arduous duty fell to the brave and battered locals. Former executive director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association Stuart Sanders presents the first in depth look into how the resilient residents dealt with the chaos of this bloody battle and how they rebuilt their town from the rubble leftover.

[rmstevens2]

I really don't want to sound like a self-righteous Pharisee, and God knows I'm a hopeless sinner, but I read a few chapters of the Bible each morning. Okay, big deal, you say. Well, what makes that at least a little unique is that I read The Orthodox Study Bible, and its Old Testament is an English translation of the Greek Septuagint Old Testament, which is the version of the Old Testament that was actually canonized by the early Church in the 4th century, the version of the Old Testament quoted by Jesus Christ and the writers of the New Testament whenever they quoted the Old Testament. 

The Septuagint includes those books known as the Deuterocanonical books, which are excluded from abridged versions of the Bible.

[JMcB]

I really don't want to sound like a self-righteous Pharisee, and God knows I'm a hopeless sinner, but I read a few chapters of the Bible each morning. Okay, big deal, you say. Well, what makes that at least a little unique is that I read The Orthodox Study Bible, and its Old Testament is an English translation of the Greek Septuagint Old Testament, which is the version of the Old Testament that was actually canonized by the early Church in the 4th century, the version of the Old Testament quoted by Jesus Christ and the writers of the New Testament whenever they quoted the Old Testament. 

The Septuagint includes those books known as the Deuterocanonical books, which are excluded from abridged versions of the Bible.

Coincidentally, even though I’m Catholic, I also have a copy of the Orthodox Study Bible. Along with a separate translation of the Septuagint called:

A New English Translation of the Septuagint 1st Edition
by Albert Pietersma (Editor), Benjamin G. Wright (Editor)




Although, I have to confess, I haven’t read either one of them lately. Mostly because the Breviary takes care of that need for me.

[rmstevens2]

I really don't want to sound like a self-righteous Pharisee, and God knows I'm a hopeless sinner, but I read a few chapters of the Bible each morning. Okay, big deal, you say. Well, what makes that at least a little unique is that I read The Orthodox Study Bible, and its Old Testament is an English translation of the Greek Septuagint Old Testament, which is the version of the Old Testament that was actually canonized by the early Church in the 4th century, the version of the Old Testament quoted by Jesus Christ and the writers of the New Testament whenever they quoted the Old Testament. 

The Septuagint includes those books known as the Deuterocanonical books, which are excluded from abridged versions of the Bible.

Coincidentally, even though I’m Catholic, I also have a copy of the Orthodox Study Bible. Along with a separate translation of the Septuagint called:

A New English Translation of the Septuagint 1st Edition
by Albert Pietersma (Editor), Benjamin G. Wright (Editor)




Although, I have to confess, I haven’t read either one of them lately. Most because the Breviary takes care of that for me.

Cool! We're not far apart, regardless of what some might say. We occasionally attend Mass (the closest Orthodox Church is over an hour's drive away), and we even attended Mass when we were on vacation in Ireland. That was awesome - Mass in a Catholic Church in Ireland.

[JonikW]

I really don't want to sound like a self-righteous Pharisee, and God knows I'm a hopeless sinner, but I read a few chapters of the Bible each morning. Okay, big deal, you say. Well, what makes that at least a little unique is that I read The Orthodox Study Bible, and its Old Testament is an English translation of the Greek Septuagint Old Testament, which is the version of the Old Testament that was actually canonized by the early Church in the 4th century, the version of the Old Testament quoted by Jesus Christ and the writers of the New Testament whenever they quoted the Old Testament. 

The Septuagint includes those books known as the Deuterocanonical books, which are excluded from abridged versions of the Bible.

Coincidentally, even though I’m Catholic, I also have a copy of the Orthodox Study Bible. Along with a separate translation of the Septuagint called:

A New English Translation of the Septuagint 1st Edition
by Albert Pietersma (Editor), Benjamin G. Wright (Editor)




Although, I have to confess, I haven’t read either one of them lately. Mostly because the Breviary takes care of that need for me.

I have a copy of the Orthodox study Bible too (I'm Catholic with an Orthodox wife and son; Catholic daughter). I also particularly love the beauty of the King James Authorised Version that if memory serves this Orthodox version was based on and that added so much to the treasury of the English language. I don't read as much as I should (another hopeless sinner) but my favourite book (apart from St John's gospel) is the Psalms. I have a Grail version of the Psalter at my bedside and start every day by opening it at random and reading from whatever my eye falls on. It brings me a lot of joy and inspiration as I'm sure do the sacred texts of anyone with a faith of whatever kind.

ADD: on the Deuterocanonical books, my favourite has always been Tobit. I chose and read some of that at my brother's wedding, many years ago now.

[rmstevens2]

Tobit is a great book. You might have trouble figuring out who the "seven spirits of God" are in the book of Revelation unless you've read Tobit and find out there are seven angels who stand in the presence of the Lord.

[JMcB]

Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle
Kenneth W.Noe




ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Winner of the Seaborg Award A History Book Club Selection

On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil. The climax of a campaign that began two months before in northern Mississippi, Perryville came to be recognized as the high water mark of the western Confederacy. Some said the hard-fought battle, forever remembered by participants for its sheer savagery and for their commanders' confusion, was the worst battle of the war, losing the last chance to bring the Commonwealth into the Confederacy and leaving Kentucky firmly under Federal control. Although Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederates won the day, Bragg soon retreated in the face of Gen. Don Carlos Buell's overwhelming numbers. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle is the definitive account of this important conflict.

While providing all the parry and thrust one might expect from an excellent battle narrative, the book also reflects the new trends in Civil War history in its concern for ordinary soldiers and civilians caught in the slaughterhouse. The last chapter, unique among Civil War battle narratives, even discusses the battle's veterans, their families, efforts to preserve the battlefield, and the many ways Americans have remembered and commemorated Perryville

[Piquerobi]

Re-reading parts of it: “The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain”, by Benzion Netanyahu.

https://www.amazon.com.br/Origins-Inquis...0940322390

[JMcB]

Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in seven burials.
by Alice Roberts





We often think of Britain springing from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors, anthropologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons, from burial sites and by using new technology to analyse ancient DNA.

Told through seven fascinating burial sites, this groundbreaking prehistory of Britain teaches us more about ourselves and our history: how people came and went and how we came to be on this island. It explores forgotten journeys and memories of migrations long ago, written into genes and preserved in the ground for thousands of years.

This is a book about belonging: about walking in ancient places, in the footsteps of the ancestors. It explores our interconnected global ancestry, and the human experience that binds us all together. It’s about reaching back in time, to find ourselves, and our place in the world.

[Cejo]

I just finished The God is Not Willing by Steven Erikson. It's the first in a planned trilogy that follows his Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which was also amazing.

It's pure fiction in a fantasy setting, but Erikson is a trained archaeologist and anthropologist, and he clearly leans on this background to bring incredible depth to his novels.

[Piquerobi]

"Those of the Street: the Catholic-Jews of Mallorca: a study in urban culture change", by Kenneth Moore

One of the most extraordinary characteristics of the Jews has been their ability to persist in strange and sometimes hostile countries. Surviving only as an ethnic group since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Jews and Judaism have remained primarily religiously based communities, playing specific social and economic roles. Threats of expulsion, assimilationist pressures and different expressions of hostility in the different places where they have lived, have constantly endangered their traditions within Christian and Muslim nations. In this book, an urban anthropologist analyzes a Jewish community that has shown a unique capacity for survival, since it is the only ethnic group of Jewish tradition that has lived in Spain continuously. The Chuetas of Mallorca are descendants of Jews who have inhabited the island since Moorish or perhaps Roman times. Although forced to convert to Christianity in 1435, the Jews of Mallorca continued to live for centuries as a crypto-Jewish community and as a Christian guild in an occupationally specialized neighborhood. After having suffered economic crises, religious persecutions, political pressures, slander and humiliation, the Chuetas of Mallorca have entered the 20th century organized into an endogamous community specialized in occupational matters, culturally Jewish in all aspects except for the fact that their members were practicing Catholics. This informative work is the product of more than two years of research and describes the long history of the Catholic Jews of Mallorca, reaching the conclusion that as a result of the impact of industrial tourism that produced so many changes in the city of Palma, the ethnic group traditionally Jewish could finally be assimilated into the mainstream of the Spanish nation after more than seven centuries of ethnic differentiation.

https://www.amazon.com/calle-estudio-sob...8432306029

The author writes well and elegantly weaves the story of Mallorca's 'Catholic-Jew' Xueta community into its historical context stretching back into Biblical times. At the same time there are also profound considerations of wider Spanish culture and history, leavened with enough personal reflections and detail to fend off any danger of dry scholarship and make the narrative very readable. Every question the reader might reasonably ask is covered and there are surprise revelations (to me anyway, for instance about the Spanish Inquisition's surprise simultaneous moderation and extreme effectiveness!) to keep the reader on their toes. It also has the advantage of being written before PC imposed its rigid orthodoxy and therefore gives every involved party a fair hearing. Which makes a refreshing (and almost shocking) change nowadays. In short, this book transcends its narrow anthropological specialisation to become of value to anyone interested in Spain and 'Spanishness'.

https://www.amazon.com/Those-Street-Cath...227&sr=1-1