I am very, very excited that Neal Stephenson's new novel, Anathem, is about to be published. For smart, sheer fun, you can't beat his books.* Not sure when it will be available in Australia, but Andrew and I may need to take a weekend off to read it. We read his mammoth Baroque Trilogy out loud - the perfect books for an historian and a scientist to share! [NB. Don't start with the Baroque Trilogy if you are new to Stephenson - a couple of hundred pages in and you are deep in Puritan angst and debates on the nature of matter, with thousands of pages to go. I suggest Cryptonomicon for starters!]
On the professional front, I am waiting for a parcel of tasty new books from OUP. I had the opportunity (long story) to choose a bunch of books off their list - I have stocked up on various new titles and classics dealing with the history of missions/gender/evangelicalism. Timely additions to my library, as I am gearing up write a funding application for a major project on the transmission of religious beliefs to the colonies... through evangelical women. My own book manuscript is due in about two weeks, after which I expect to have the time and mental energy to get started on this new project.
*You may want to note that, as Ian pointed out in the comments, Stephenson does tend to put a lot of sex in his books.
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2 comments:
Thanks for that tip!
Look forward to hearing more about your OUP books once you have devoured them. Your thoughts are worth a penny or two...
Well, yes, but… Neal Stephenson's books are also full of unnecessary sex, and he doesn't seem to know how to finish a story. (Which is not to say I don't enjoy reading the bits about technology and history.)
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