TBL List Review: The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being, written and read by Alice Roberts

Format: 392 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2014 by Heron Books
ISBN: 9781848664791 (ISBN10: 1848664796)
Language: English

Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It’s a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes – including why as embroyos we have what look like gills – to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.

My Review

The book takes the foetal development from before ovum and sperm meet to birth, and going from head to toe, to discuss both foetal development and evolution. The author is uniquely place to write this sort of book, having spent years as both a scientist and a science communicator. I enjoyed Alice Roberts’ documentaries that I’ve seen, and this book from ten years ago holds up well, although the science continues to move on.

I found this book really interesting. I have some background in biology, but not a huge amount, I only did a year of university chemistry, mostly biochemistry and molecular biology. I suspect if you didn’t manage to pass GCSE biology and don’t watch documentaries, you might struggle with this book, but for the reasonably educated, it’s a good book. It’s a foundation at least, for university study. It’s not a textbook however, it is written with a general audience on mind. If you enjoy Dr Roberts’ documentary series’ you’ll be fine with this book.

I giggled at the occasional digs at creationists, because they deserve it for their wilful ignorance. If you’re sensitive about that, you probably need a slightly less advanced book before you get to this one. And you need to escape whatever cult you’re in that’s stopping you from getting an education…

I’m listening to Ancestors, by Alice Roberts next.

TBR Pile Review: Empire of Normality – Neurodiversity and Capitalism, by Robert Chapman

Format: 224 pages, Paperback
Published: November 30, 2023 by Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745348667 (ISBN10: 0745348661)
Language: English

Blurb

Neurodiversity is on the rise. Awareness and diagnoses have exploded in recent years, but we are still missing a wider understanding of how we got here and why. Beyond simplistic narratives of normativity and difference, this groundbreaking book exposes the very myth of the ‘normal’ brain as a product of intensified capitalism.

Exploring the rich histories of the neurodiversity and disability movements, Robert Chapman shows how the rise of capitalism created an ‘empire of normality’ that transformed our understanding of the body into that of a productivity machine. Neurodivergent liberation is possible – but only by challenging the deepest logics of capitalism.  Empire of Normality  is an essential guide to understanding the systems that shape our bodies, minds and deepest selves – and how we can undo them.

Robert Chapman  is a neurodivergent philosopher who has taught at King’s College London and Bristol University. They are currently Assistant Professor in Critical Neurodiversity Studies at Durham University. They blog at  Psychology Today  and at  Critical Neurodiversity . 

My Review

Robert Chapman works with a couple of neurodivergent academics (Hi Louise and Anna 1 )I know, so I heard about this book months before it was published and pre-ordered it as soon as I could. There was a problem with the publisher’s computer system and my pre-order was lost so I had to re-order it. I did end up getting a discount because of that though, so I’m not complaining. I also ordered a few other books from Pluto Press, which I will get around to reading and reviewing. Eventually.

This book was an absolute joy to read. Chapman explores the history of neurodivergent people and the disability and neurodiversity rights movements. They explicate and critique anti-psychiatry, Freudianism and other areas of psychiatry, and confirming what I’ve said for years, capitalism is to blame for everything!

No, seriously, think about it.

Why do we have to be machines that happily work set shifts every day doing repetitive uncreative tasks? Capitalism.

Why do we have to fight for any form of social support? Capitalism.

Why are so many more people struggling with their mental health? Capitalism.

We live in a society where everything has a price and if you can’t produce you are a drain on society. The Tories have placed the blame and burden of austerity firmly on disabled people. Neolibralism, that monster set loose by Thatcher on our social and educational systems, pushes things further than ever before, and now we have fascism rearing its ugly head again. This is not hyperbole and if you think it is, you haven’t been listening to disability rights and neurodivergent rights activists, anyone who gives a damn about civil society or social equity.

I tried to say similar things to Chapman in my booklet about neurodivergent history, and couldn’t quite express myself the way I wanted to or get the message I wanted across. Part of that was lack of theoretical background (I am not a philosopher) and part was the funding source. Can’t write a socialist history or a manifesto for neurodivergent equality when you’re getting government funding and working for a non-partisan charity.

Yes, I liked this book because it agrees with my personal politics2, but that’s not the only reason. Chapman writes clearly, fluently, and makes convincing arguments for their position. They explain and explore history, making connections between different areas that might not be clear, although their examples show that other people have made those same connections in the past. By putting the neurodivergent experience in the context of capitalism, viewing the changing place of neurodivergent people through a Marxist lens, we can see the connections between the way capitalism has narrowed our lives and shaped the paradigm through which we are viewed by society, the medical and political system, and how they choose to treat us.

I have already recommended this book to several people and will be asking for a copy for our Little Neurodivergent Library at work.

  1. Insert mad waving here. They’re all a part of the Medical Humanities Department at the University of Durham, my alma mater, not that Durham would admit that I ever went there. ↩︎
  2. Burn it down, pull it out by the roots, start all over again with an equitable society from the beginning. ↩︎

LBT 2023 Wrap-Up Post

My favourite LBT read?

The Hytharo Redux, by Jonathan Weiss

Best LBT Cover of the Year

The Hytharo Redux, by Jonathan Weiss

New To Me in 2023

Jonathan Weiss

What do you love most about being an LBT host?

The variety of books from indie authors.

Why should readers join LBT as a host?

You’ll always get a variety of books to review.

TBR Pile Review: Mammoths at the Gates, by Nghi Vo

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover
Published: September 12, 2023 by Tordotcom
ISBN: 781250851437 (ISBN10: 1250851432)

Description

The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest.

Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass – and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honouring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve.

But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . .

The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entrypoint.

Continue reading “TBR Pile Review: Mammoths at the Gates, by Nghi Vo”

TBR Pile Review: System Collapse, by Martha Wells

Format: 245 pages, Hardcover
Published: November 14, 2023 by Tor Publishing Group/Tordotcom
ISBN:9781250826978 (ISBN10: 1250826977)

Description

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.

Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.

Continue reading “TBR Pile Review: System Collapse, by Martha Wells”

My Favourite Sci Fi and Fantasy of 2023

YA and Adults – Blog Tours

Children and teenagers – Blog Tours

Non-Fiction – Blog Tours

  • 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams, Edited by Kevin Jon Davies

TBR Pile Books

Audiobooks

  • Monstrous Regiment: Discworld, Book 31 By: Terry Pratchett
    • Narrated by: Katherine Parkinson, Bill Nighy, Peter Serafinowicz
    • Series: Discworld , Book 31 , Discworld: Industrial Revolution , Book 3
  • The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents: (Discworld Novel 28) By: Terry Pratchett
    • Narrated by: Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy, Rob Wilkins, Ariyon Bakare
    • Series: Discworld , Book 28 , Discworld: For Kids , Book 1
  • The Truth: Discworld, Book 2 By: Terry Pratchett
    • Narrated by: Mathew Baynton, Bill Nighy, Peter Serafinowicz
    • Series: Discworld: Industrial Revolution, Book 2, Discworld, Book 25
  • The Susan/Death Discworld books
    • Narrated by Sian Clifford, Bill Nighy, Peter Serafinowicz

Review: Yule Island, by Johana Gustawsson

PUBLICATION DATE: 1 DECEMBER 2023
HARDBACK | £16.99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Blurb

Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the
antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s
wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman
was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding
her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to
hide? As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery
yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover
the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters
surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and
memories of his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could
this young woman’s tragic death somehow hold the key?
Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a
chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past
– Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia’s deepest, darkest
winter…

Continue reading “Review: Yule Island, by Johana Gustawsson”

TBR Pile Review: Til Death Do Us Bard, by Rose Black

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover
Published: November 21, 2023 by Hodderscape
ISBN: 9781399724685 (ISBN10: 1399724681)
Language: English

Blurb

Marriage isn’t always sunshine and unicorns… sometimes it’s monsters and necromancy.

In a world of magic and adventure, Logan “the Bear” Theaker had hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into the world he thought he left behind.

The kingdom is in turmoil, and Logan must come out of retirement to save it. But first, he must save his beloved husband from whatever danger he’s in. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army.

The fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Logan and his team set out to stop the brewing war and put an end to the king’s ban on magic. But in doing so, Logan must confront his own hero complex and come face to face with the one man who’s ever made him feel worthy of love.

Legends & Lattes meets Kings of the Wyld in this thrilling, queer, light fantasy. Follow Logan and Pie’s journey as they fight to save their love and the kingdom they call home.

My Review

I got myself a signed copy of this book from Goldsboro Books a couple of weeks ago and started reading it when it arrived two days ago. I’ve been busy with work and blog tours so I only got three chapters in, until this evening. Four and a half hours later I’ve finished reading the book.

We meet Pie and Logan at a village festival, a few months after they marry and settle down from their lives on the road as a bard and a hero. But things quickly go wrong when Pie disappears on a trip to the nearest city and Logan has to search for him. He calls on a necromancer he once arrested and that sets off a chain of events that eventually include grave robbing, nearly drowning, killing a king and unicorns, lots of unicorns.

This romp of a story is a D&D campaign! Seriously, it has the sorts of characters and structures you get in a really good game, with a really good DM. There’s an inciting event, a quest, a collection of characters who appear and join the expedition, monsters to defeat, an even bigger challenge to over come when it looks like you’ve got to the end, and a final big boss to destroy. It was a lot of fun to read.

It was also heart-breaking at times! Pie and Logan are absolutely wretchedly in love and their arguments are caused by love and their insecurities as they face their pasts and their feelings. I cried, a few times. I

I’m soppy, I know.

They’re so lovely though, and they develop over the course of the novel as they confront their fears and insecurities about being left behind, and express how overwhelming their love for each other is.

I found the countess hilariously funny, relentlessly positive and of all the secondary characters she’s my favourite. She has a sad history, uses her magic for seemingly trivial things like getting the gardening done, and is feared because she’s a necromancer. Yet, she comes through in the end, even though she sort of betrayed Logan before the story started. And she has a CHARTER!

I loved the descriptions of places and people in the book, they were very evocative and quite, quite amusing at times. The contrast between the ‘real’ world, the ‘pocket’ world of the unicorns, and death’s realm were very clear and stark. I loved the descriptions of the library in the capital. Also, totally agree with Logan on the suspended walkways. They are a baaaaaad idea.

Highly entertaining light fantasy. Recommended.