60 Weeks 60 Books

This book was inspiring enough to make me try my hand at my first YouTube book review. And rereading it made me angrier than ever about the way our world is going: the materialism, the populism, the trivialisation and banality, the excessive worship of money and hectoring charlatans. I could go on, but I urge you instead to read Ordine's book which is an impassioned plea to preserve what is best and wisest about us puny humans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The penultimate book of this series dates from 2018, but I am still urging it on friends and students for the bridge it provides to timeless ideas. Edith Hall is an eminent academic specialising primarily in Greek theatre, but here explored her devotion to Aristotle despite his less than complimentary approach to women. His ideas about self-knowledge, values and virtues, and of course, about the theatre still resonate, and Edith Hall is a helpful and lucid guide to his thinking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, a big fat book full of wonderful stories, dragons, magical birds and super-strong heroes with equally powerful horses. One of the books that makes me think that in school, we really ought to be teaching myth and legend from across the world - there would be enough to keep us busy for all 15 years of formal school. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this week, I almost chose another book, but then I could not - Solnit's exploration of ice, of Arctic Dreams, the subject of one my own earlier podcasts, of Frankenstein and her account of her stay in the Library of Water on an Icelandic peninsula are so compelling, that I found myself reading and rereading. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Bishop's artistic reputation and legacy seem, rightly, to grow and grow. She won a Pulitzer Prize in the early 1950s, and was a challenging teacher of writing and literature at Harvard and MIT. She died of a brain aneurysm at 68 in 1979, no doubt a product of the booze and fags she packed away during the course of her life. She was also intrepid, insatiably curious about the world around her, and one of the most perceptive observers of all that it is to be a human. The more I read about her and by her, the more I want to read, but there is a limited palette - a relatively slim collected poetry, a thicker, richer collected prose, all driven by an eye at once objective and tender in its delineation of who and what we humans are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Somehow, although the play is called Othello, it often ends up being all about Iago, arguably the most malevolent of all Shakespeare's villains. For a look at the best filmed versions of this terrific play head to ThatReadingWritingThing, where there are links galore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, a book that is 99 years old and grows in stature and authority with every passing year, as its satirical depiction of the super-rich and their destructive impulses gathers authority. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conrad's 1898 novella, based on his own experiences as a riverboat captain on his only voyage to the Congo, is today a contested book. Two particular attacks, by Chinua Achebe and Edward Said, level accusations of racism and imperialism at Conrad himself, invoking his regular use of the N-word and his depiction of the Africans that Marlow encounters throughout. Regarding the n-word, that is purely contextual. Conrad was writing at a time when it was common parlance, and it is important for us to understand that there was such a time, whatever our modern sensibilities suggest. Again, with the way that Africans are depicted throughout the novella, it reflects Conrad's own experiences, and the deliberate use he makes of stereotypes throughout the story. The fundamental is that Conrad sees through the hypocrisy and cant of European imperialism and colonialism, and skewers the brutish, undeserved superiority of the white men ripping resources from the country they believed should be their plaything. Hosted on…

This week marks a year since I began this podcast with one of the most troubling books I have read, a book and documentary that revealed at the end of 2016 just how deep racism runs in the United States. Eight years later, I am even more troubled as we see the rise of divisive, discriminatory populism not just with the resurgence of Trump in the US but in sectarian clashes in India, and the low level persistent vicious attitudes displayed by British politicians towards refugees and asylum seekers. But there is hope. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, as I raced to finish Adam Nicolson's book about his deep love of Homer, discovered 20 years ago on a sea voyage, I kept dipping into a recent translation of The Iliad and getting sidetracked. Homer's impact is strong, and here I take a look at how I started loving the Odyssey, but thanks in part to Nicolson, have ended up still more in love with the Iliad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Passion makes fools of us all, and nowhere does Shakespeare better display this than in Antony & Cleopatra. What I love about this play is the clash between the public and the personal, the political and the private. It's a sharp, bitter, witty play, full of gossip and black humour. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Azar Nafisi is an impressive woman, and it is interesting to note that the relatively few dismissive critics of this wonderful book were from a masculine perspective. Women reading, thinking and generating their own ideas and perspectives have always been a threat to the established order. Nafisi's critical memoir explores the how and the why during the 18 years she spent trying to raise a family, maintain a teaching career and keep her veil covering her hair. Just how dangerous it is to challenge the Hijab and Chastity laws enacted in recent months is becoming increasingly clear. But the signs were there from the earliest days of the Iranian revolution and the overthrow of the Shah. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rory Stewart is nine years younger than me, and about ninety-nine times more adventurous. In this week's episode, I am amazed by his courage, foolhardiness, stamina, determination and also fall in love with his dog Babur. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Set on a Dutch trading post built on an artificial island off the coast by Nagasaki, David Mitchell's novel explores what brings us together and what separates us in our cultures, morals and choices. On the surface a straightforward chronological narrative of the first years spent in the East by a young Dutch clerk, Mitchell explores darker stories of corruption, exploitation and cruelty embedded in both Japanese and European men and women. A gripping thriller, a poignant love story and an exploration of friendship and enmity, this is a beautifully written book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hamlet or The Winter's Tale. I suppose it depends on mood and emotion. Hamlet has a brilliantly high body count and some of the best repartee ever, it has Horatio and flights of angels, ghosts and of course, the prince of charisma, Hamlet himself. But The Winter's Tale is different. It too deals with insanity, gardens, dreams and illusions, but where there is nothing but death and the special providence of the fall of the sparrow, Winter's Tale has that big old bear, and the most extraordinary of second chances. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This book as been deeply influential and deserves its place as it seeks to encourage us to rethink the nature of economic and social development, putting humans and humanity at the heart of what it means to be a thriving, healthy society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cannibalism, castration, crime, confusion, what could I have left out of this summary of James Meek's terrific novel? Oh, yes, communism. It truly has it all and is well worth reading. Find out why in this week's pod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amy Bloom's second novel is set in 1920s America. The protagonist, Lillian Leyb, sets off from New York, ending up in Alaska, battling her own past as well as a variety of predators. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Of Sarah Waters's six novels, this is my favourite. An elegant and witty pastiche of Victorian melodrama and mystery, it is full of sinister twists and savage irony. A great read. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This book was amazing on first read, and it seems even better on this subsequent re-read. Just as in 2005, I was inspired all over again to visit Patagonia - the difference being that now I live in Brazil, this seems a much more plausible possibility. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mapp & Lucia brings together two of EF Benson's most tricky customers, Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Mrs Emmeline 'Lucia' Lucas in a series of skirmishes and battles to decide who will control the upper circles of Tilling. First published in 1931, it remains in print - whether in spite of the trivial underpinnings of the feuds or because these may be slight, but they carry their own significance. They are still magnificent as ever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for another comedy by Shakespeare - we go into the woods with Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena and explore just how it was possible to reclaim A Midsummer Night's Dream from the curse of being a set text. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lionel Shriver's pathway to becoming a public controversialist began with this book - and it still resonates today, in a world where school shootings in the US continue and the gun lobby's agenda dominates public discourse. This podcast also features an original song by Sebby Clarke, Susan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jennifer Crusie is one of the finest romance writers of all. Welcome to Temptation consistently delivers on the Crusieverse key ingredients: snarky heroine, wary hero, cute kid, slightly odd but affectionate hound, small-town antics and surreal friends and neighbours. The recipe varies, but Crusie consistently delivers wit, weirdness and wonderful pay-off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A look at Marmite academic Steven Pinker's 2002 book, The Blank Slate, challenging our long held beliefs about human nature with an exploration of how biology just might be more influential than anything else in determining how and we humans behave in the ways we do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the podcast takes a more optimistic turn, following in the footsteps of Simon Schama who delivers rich historical explorations on a grand scale. He is a magnetic writer, idiosyncratic and enjoyable as he displays his formidable breadth of knowledge and powers of synthesis in what remains an outstanding book, The Embarrassment of Riches. Even if you have not the slightest interest in 16th Dutch doings, this book is lively, engaging and full of ideas that resonate far beyond the narrow compass that it purports to examine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Tzvetan Todorov's book about the concentration camps helped me come to terms with the full implications of our capacity for evil and find a way forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Goldhagen's controversial thesis about ordinary Germans and the Holocaust came out 27 years ago. Today, I invited my husband Peter for our look back at the impact of this landmark history book when we first read the book in 1996. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Northern Lights is a book that I return to regularly. It is an extraordinary adventure in its own right as well as a wondrous portal to worlds that are at once similar and very different to our own. Its heroes and villains are compelling, recognizable and dangerous, it is full of surprises and in amidst the action are deeper questions about what it is to be human and to be humane. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It seems unfair that A Gathering Light, a winner of the Carnegie Award in 2003, is so little known. It is a terrific book, with a great heroine, plausible and considerable conflicts, murder, love and friendships. It captures totally the harshness of life in the early 20th century for farming families in the northeastern US, and also the impact of the modern world on places that might otherwise have remained backwaters. It is a gripping and satisfying read that I cannot recommend highly enough. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Stoppard's plays do leave some people cold; he has been accused of too much intellect and not enough emotion. But Arcadia is a dazzling play that has a heart, balancing a sense of loss with optimism and a strong sense of possibility about the future. Rereading it, listening to the radio version, it still feels delightful and poignant in equal measure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anthony Trollope's narrative voice is particularly wry, sly and amused in this exploration of marriage, legitimacy and money. A cracking tale with a couple of very plausible and unpleasant villains, it stands up to multiple rereads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before Dawkins was a combative and cranky commentator, he was a gifted researcher and academic. The Blind Watchmaker was for me, a game-changing book, and one that is worth re-reading. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are those who say that it is one of the most magnificent achievements in the English language, whilst others just feel it is seeing through a glass darkly, but the King James Version of the Bible is still worth revisiting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dorothy Dunnett was a magnificent writer - and definitely bears re-reading. In this episode, I explore just why the fifth book in the Lymond Chronicles is my favourite. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Wimsey first appeared in the early 20s, and by the time Strong Poison appeared in 1930, he was a definite success. Although the mystery is fairly straightforward, the roles given in particular to Miss Murchison and Miss Climpson, two middle-aged spinsters who are instrumental in resolving the crime, are original and interesting - Sayers broke new ground by depicting women as calm, capable and shrewd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As global temperatures climb on land and in the sea, as wildfires rage and both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting, I remember an early warning voice, sadly disregarded despite achieving best-seller status in the mid 1980s. Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams is at once a meditation and a call to action which is more relevant than ever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Initially an academic, Jonathan Raban led a fairly unsettled life until his 50s when he moved to Seattle and became father to his only child. He died earlier this year, but his books live on. I am sure that I am not the only reader inspired by his example to look at the world with a clearer, cooler eye. His final book, Father and Son, will be published in September. But this episode focuses on Old Glory, published 42 years ago and already carrying a foretaste of what was to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Exploring the books that have shaped and changed me over the past 60 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Exploring some of the aspects of George Eliot's rich life and why she absolutely outclasses Dickens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How old should Hamlet be? Why does it matter that he was a student at Wittenberg? And why is he more than a standard revenge hero from a standard revenge tragedy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dickens definitely changed my life. First I loathed him, then I loved him, and if it hadn't been for Bleak House, I don't think I would have studied English at university. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Georgette Heyer rightly has many fans and continues to sell well. Here I explore why Frederica is my particular favorite, with its world-weary hero and bustling, managing heroine. Heyer began the tradition of the regency romance, and arguably, her books remain the best of the genre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the tropes of the mass market bestsellers of the 1970s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although not her most popular novel, Thunder on the Right was the first book of Mary Stewart's that I read. I have a feeling I acquired the tatty paperback in one of the dodgy second hand bookshops in Brighton's North Laines. Somewhere in a box, it still lurks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An exploration of how Holden Caulfield provided solace and hope to a cynical 13 year old. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edith Piaf's signature song is probably Non, je ne regrette rien, namechecked in the Simpsons, the Penthouse and Specsavers ads. Here, I take a look at her life and how the biography I originally trusted turned out to be highly unreliable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why Mills & Boon were and are a possible answer to the angst of the adolescent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At once a terrible and a great book, Margaret Mitchell's bestseller is at once a propulsive, immersive read, and an awkward apologia for the well-deserved death of a toxic society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jean Plaidy was one of the most popular and prolific of the 20th century's historical novelists. She still delivers a cracking good read! For me, she was a transition writer between children's historical fiction and the bodice rippers that dominated romance writing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.