Between periodic news reports of fatal eruptions and an array of films in which lava, landslides, and ash are used to provide dramatic effect, volcanoes, as Andrews points out, have a dreadful reputation. However, these enigmatic phenomena are also fundamental to the very structure of our planet, not to mention others beyond.
In this book, Andrews provides a lively and informative defence of volcanoes and illustrates some of the most intriguing stories and enduring mysteries surrounding these natural wonders.
More than just exuding the author’s palpable enthusiasm for his subject—an interest I quickly found myself sharing—the book additionally challenged many of my preconceptions about how volcanoes work and broadened my horizons as to their sheer diversity.
Volcanoes are capable of acts of pyrotechnical prowess verging on magic: they spout black magma more fluid than water, create shimmering cities of glass at the bottom of the ocean and frozen lakes of lava on the moon and can even tip entire planets over. Despite their reputation for destruction, volcanoes are inseparable from the creation of our planet.
Super Volcanoes revels in the incomparable power of volcanic eruptions past and present, Earth-bound and otherwise, it explores how these eruptions reveal secrets about the worlds to which they belong. Science journalist and volcanologist Robin George Andrews describes the stunning ways…
For millennia, people have been obsessed with borders, drawing them, reinforcing them, fighting over them, and moving them. In this timely essayistic account, Crawford explores borders’ important role in moulding our planet and their continued significance for people and wildlife worldwide.
Many associate borders with exclusion and unwelcome, and Crawford does not shy away from censuring some of the world’s most flagrant examples. However, the main reason I enjoyed The Edge of the Plain is the nuance it provides with respect to how a border is experienced and what is even considered a border. As some of his interviewees explain, a border can be imposed on people to obstruct them, but it can also be created by marginalised communities to defend themselves from existential threats such as climate change.
Since the earliest known marker denoting the edge of one land and the beginning of the next-a stone column inscribed with Sumerian cuneiform-borders have been imagined, mapped, moved, and fought over. In The Edge of the Plain, James Crawford skillfully blends history, travel writing, and reportage to trace these borderlines throughout history and across the globe.
What happens on the ground when we impose lines on a map that contradict how humans have always lived-and moved? Crawford confronts that question from bloody territorial disputes in Mesopotamia, to the Sapmi lands of Scandinavia, the shifting boundaries of the Israel-Palestine conflict, efforts…
Centring on a prestigious translation institute in Victorian Britain, Kuang’s ambitious and eclectic novel—it combines dark academia, fantasy, and linguistics—brings to light the power of language as a tool of imperialism.
Arresting and incisive, academically informed yet appropriately fluent, Babel managed to make me want to both return to university and run far away.
As much as I enjoyed learning about the fascinating relationships between words in distant language families, I particularly loved how this book compelled me to question how my own decisions on the cusp of revolution might be affected by my identity and privilege. I found it one of the most original and thought-provoking fictional works I have ever read.
Our planet is made up of countless invisible lines that fundamentally shape our engagement with the world. Perhaps we feel "out of place" when we cross from one part of a city to another—if we choose to cross at all. Maybe we differentiate between "West" and "East" or speak of a Bible Belt or an Outback, even though no formal boundary exists.
As the easiest shape to draw or imagine, lines help us simplify and mould our complex planet to our needs and desires, but they can also have profound, unexpected consequences. Through its carefully selected case studies, this book draws readers’ attention to the world’s unseen boundaries and invites them to see, experience, and think about their surroundings in a new, deeper way.
