I've met Matt Dinniman twice, own all his books, and “Operation Bounce House” is the first I've actually read. Now I feel ridiculous for waiting. Remote-controlled warfare as mass entertainment? Dark, sharp, and disturbingly plausible. I'm converted. Review up now. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Entertainment as Extermination in Matt Dinniman's "Operation Bounce House"

Matt Dinniman’s Operation Bounce House is a science-fiction novel that recognizes what many genre books miss: satire requires coherent systems.

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In “The Tudor Theatre 1576-1642,” Nicholas Fogg strips away the mythology: Shakespeare made money from shareholding, not writing. Plays risked treason charges. The Elizabethan stage was a volatile industry in which economic pressures shaped what we call literature. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Nicholas Fogg's Material History of the Elizabethan Stage

On December 28, 1598, about sixteen men assembled in Shoreditch with saws and axes.

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What if Easter Island's fall was genocide, not ecocide? Mike Pitts uses forgotten 1914 research to dismantle the self-destruction myth we've been told. Full review available now. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Debunking Easter Island's Fall in Mike Pitts's "Island at the Edge of the World"

A review of Mike Pitts's "Island at the Edge of the World"

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Goldsworthy's Augustus rejects the "two men" theory—ruthless warlord vs. benevolent statesman. Same person, different strategies. He didn't transform morally; moderation just became more effective once power was secure. My full review is available now on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

The Warlord and the Statesman: Adrian Goldsworthy's "Augustus"

I requested this advance copy under the mistaken impression that it was a new book.

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Norse gods meet Boston sports in The Impudent Edda—where Tom Brady is Balder, the RMV is hell, and every season ends in apocalypse. It's profane, funny, and fatalistic mythology. Full review is up now. www.instagram.com/p/DTSuGzAjsA...

Jonathan on Instagram: "From Norse Gods to Boston Sports: Rowdy Geirsson’s “The Impudent Edda” Swipe through for my full review In Rowdy Geirsson’s “The Impudent Edda,” Norse gods collide with Boston...

jdcnlv on January 8, 2026: "From Norse Gods to Boston Sports: Rowdy Geirsson’s “The Impudent Edda” Swipe through for my full review In Rowdy Geirsson’s “The Impudent Edda,” Norse gods collide with Bo...

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Alice Albinia says Britain's small islands, not the mainland, were the real centers of power for thousands of years. “The Britannias” turns traditional history on its head with careful research and bold ideas. My review is now available. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Alice Albinia's Britannias: History from the Margins

Alice Albinia’s The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale (The Britannias: An Island Quest in the UK) seeks to reorient British history by shifting focus from the mainland to the numerous smaller islands ...

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"Art remains," the filmmaker tells himself. Kehlmann's The Director follows G.W. Pabst from Weimar Berlin to the Nazi film industry. A novel about how talented people justify collaboration with evil. Full review available now on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Film, Fascism, and Moral Compromise in Daniel Kehlmann's "The Director"

Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) opens with an elderly man in a Viennese sanatorium, his memory flickering like damaged film stock.

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#histbookchat

Anna M. Thane@annamthane.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Look forward to January! Here is a list of new #non_fiction #books about the #18thcentury scheduled for next month: regency-explorer.net/new-releases/ #Regency #Napoleon #history #Waterloo #18thc

The Discovery of Britain's most uncomfortable claim: Britain's class system isn't broken—it's working as designed. Norman surnames still predict elite status 1,000 years later. The past isn't past; it's happening. Full review on my Substack. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

A Two-Wheeled Time Machine: Graham Robb's "The Discovery of Britain"

Graham Robb cycled backwards through two thousand years of British history—metaphorically traversing those millennia to read time inscribed in the landscape.

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You might have never heard of the 1986 LA Central Library fire—it happened the same day as Chernobyl. Susan Orlean uses that buried story to examine what libraries mean and why their loss matters. Full review linked below. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Ashes and Archives: Susan Orlean's "The Library Book"

The Library Book, by Susan Orlean, is an investigation into the 1986 fire that ravaged the Los Angeles Central Library, destroying or damaging more than a million volumes.

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Rome destroyed Carthage in 146 BCE, then spent centuries controlling its story. Eve MacDonald's new history uses archaeology to break that monopoly. I've reviewed the book—looking at what MacDonald sets out to do, how she does it, and whether she succeeds. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

History Before the Victory: Reframing Ancient Carthage

In Carthage: A New History (Carthage: A New History of an Ancient Empire in the UK), Eve MacDonald sets out to recover a civilization known primarily through the testimony of its executioners.

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Four centuries of royal profit. Four centuries of royal silence. One book that refuses to stay quiet. ”The Crown’s Silence,” by Brooke N. Newman In my review, I examine why this book matters now—and why some histories can't be unwritten. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Royal Silence, Archival Voice: A Review of Brooke N. Newman's "The Crown's Silence"

Brooke N.

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Simon Turney's “Agricola: Commander” is the third installment in his Agricola series, and it's the strongest yet. See my review here: open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

The Work, Not the Spectacle: Simon Turney's "Agricola: Commander"

Simon Turney’s Agricola: Commander arrives at a point of confidence, settling into productive tension—between the machinery of conquest and the cost of operating it, between what the sources tell us a...

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Revisiting Maggie O’Farrell’s “Hamnet” ahead of the film: a haunting portrait of plague, grief, and the cost of creation. What survives—love, or the art made from its absence? My spoiler-filled review is up. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

When Plague Comes Home: Maggie O'Farrell's "Hamnet"

This Review Contains Spoilers

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Jeffrey Rosen's “The Pursuit of Liberty traces” how the Hamilton-Jefferson rivalry has shaped every major American political fight from 1791 to today. We're still having the same argument—and that's by design. See my review here. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Tracing America's Political DNA: "The Pursuit of Liberty" by Jeffrey Rosen

In The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs.

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Four Irish siblings. One buried secret. Howarth makes you feel the cost of every unspoken word. “Heap Earth Upon It” is psychological suspense at its finest. Read my review on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Beneath the Surface: Chloe Michelle Howarth's "Heap Earth Upon It"

Four siblings arrive in a small Irish town in the 1960s, determined to appear ordinary.

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Mexican history lives in the gap between word and fact—what Spain claimed vs. what happened, revolutionary promises vs. boss rule, drug war rhetoric vs. civil war reality. Check out my review of Gillingham's ambitious revisionist history. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Between Word and Fact: Paul Gillingham's 'Mexico'

In 1511, a Spanish sailor named Gonzalo Guerrero washed ashore on the Yucatán coast.

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In this conversation with novelist and arts therapist Susanna Crossman, we explore “The Orange Notebooks”—a haunting meditation on grief, art, and time that asks: how do we live with our dead while still choosing life? open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Writing Against Silence: Susanna Crossman and the Radical Honesty of "The Orange Notebooks"

When Susanna Crossman speaks about her new novel The Orange Notebooks, she talks about process, practice, and experimentation—terms that suggest not a tidy narrative but a living, breathing act of cre...

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‘Gone is any semblance of due process, presumption of innocence or assistance of counsel. Instead, the self-styled “secretary of war” shares videos on social media of each “lethal kinetic strike”.’ A.S. Dillingham on US government attacks on small boats, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...

A.S. Dillingham | Murder at Sea

Since President Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971, US policies of mass incarceration at home and interdiction and...

lrb.co.uk

“King Sorrow” is Joe Hill's masterpiece and one of 2025's best horror novels. Six friends make a catastrophic choice that corrupts them for decades. Morally complex, structurally daring, genuinely unsettling. Full review here. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

The Dragon's Tale We Deserve: Joe Hill's "King Sorrow"

Joe Hill’s King Sorrow is an audacious and deeply layered exploration of guilt, myth, and the moral cost of violence—his most ambitious and accomplished novel to date.

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What endures when the body fails? In “The Hidden City,” Charles Finch delivers a mystery about resilience, recovery, and persistence. Full review up now. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

The Detective Persists: A Review of Charles Finch's "The Hidden City"

In The Hidden City, the fifteenth installment of the Charles Lenox Mysteries, Charles Finch delivers a work of precision and gravity—a study not only in detection but in endurance.

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Steven Kaplan’s”The Ethiopians” reexamines a civilization long shaped by myth and ideology—a study of how Ethiopia’s past was continually rewritten, and what those revisions reveal about power and identity. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Steven Kaplan Reframes Ethiopia's Ancient Past in "The Ethiopians"

Steven Kaplan’s The Ethiopians: Lost Civilizations offers a concise yet considered examination of one of Africa’s most enduring and complex civilizations.

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Few writers made the past feel as alive as David McCullough. History Matters—a posthumous collection of his speeches and essays—reminds us that history isn’t a record of what was, but a guide to who we are. New review out now. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

The Spacious Realm: David McCullough's "History Matters"

Few historians have captured the living spirit of the past as vividly as David McCullough.

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“Old Songs”—a collaboration between Amy Jeffs, Gwen Burns, and Natalie Bryce that brings traditional ballads back to life through prose, painting, and music. History you can see, hear, and feel. Review up now on my Substack. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Old Songs Through New Voices

Amy Jeffs and Gwen Burns' "Old Songs: Stories of Love and Death from Traditional Ballads"

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Hiron Ennes's “The Works of Vermin” is corporate horror spliced with biological fantasy—demanding, hallucinatory, and unlike anything else. It is, without hesitation, my top fantasy read of the year so far. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Corporate Horror Meets Biological Fantasy in "The Works of Vermin" by Hiron Ennes

Tiliard breathes with the moon.

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🚨 THIS WEEK🚨 🌟 Golden Ages? 🌑 Dark Ages? 🚫 They’re not history. They’re propaganda. Historian @adapalmer.bsky.social joins #HistoryRage to smash one of the biggest lies in how we tell the past. 🔥 Listen now: pod.fo/e/3401b1 #AdaPalmer #MythBusting #FakeHistory #HistoricalNarratives

The Far Edges of the Known World is now available in North America! If you like ancient history, global history, reading about different cultures, or just fancy an escape - give it a look.

The Far Edges of the Known World

A revisionist history of the ancient world that shifts our focus from Athens and Rome to the long-ignored societies on the borders., The Far Edges of the Known World, Life Beyond the Borders of Ancien...

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My book is in Waterstones' preorder sale for books released in 2026. Today is the last chance to get 25% off the paperback edition for when its released next February!

The Far Edges of the Known World by Dr Owen Rees | Waterstones

Buy The Far Edges of the Known World by Dr Owen Rees from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

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New review: "Bloody Crowns" by Michael Livingston. It began with a murder over fresh water in 1292. It ended with a treaty in 1492. Two hundred years of bloodshed that forged modern France. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Two Centuries of Bloodshed: Michael Livingston Expands the Frame of Medieval Warfare in "Bloody Crowns"

Michael Livingston’s Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War undertakes what might be called a re-mapping of one of Europe’s most examined conflicts.

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Shauna Lawless's “Daughter of the Otherworld” is historical fantasy at its finest: Descendants vs. Fomorians in medieval Ireland's brutal collapse. The otherworld mirrors reality here. Start with this one—no prior knowledge needed. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Shauna Lawless's "Daughter of the Otherworld": Fantasy Rooted in Medieval Ireland's Collapse

Shauna Lawless’s Daughter of the Otherworld opens the second era of her Gael Song series in medieval Ireland at its most fractured—roughly a century and a half after the Battle of Clontarf, amid the p...

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