6. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert - read in anticipation of the third Dune movie. Concerned about the ends rather than the means.1. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Good piece of sci-fi, I read in anticipation of the series. Found the first act set during the Cultural Revolution most interesting. The later characters felt flat. Maybe there was a problem with the censors and making a non-political novel, or difficulties with translation.
2. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper. An ecological sci-fi mystery. Succeeds in making something alien/other.
3. Not Thinking like a Liberal by Raymond Geuss. Biographical philosophy. They were taught by Hungarian priests who had fled to the USA after the uprising in 1956. I was expecting a Catholic apologia, anti-communist and anti-liberal, but it was a lot more.
4. Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson. Reread. Malazan Book of the Fallen series book 3. Epic fantasy, a comfort read, better second time round as I know more of what was going on. The plot is intricate.
5. Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals by Oliver Bullough. Great investigative journalism. Shows how Britain formed a second empire of finance after the Suez Crisis of 1956
7. The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley. Bleak, understated folk horror set in the north west of England. About faith and brotherly love. Recommend.
8. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut. Short fictional biographies about the new physics in the early 20th century or madness or indeterminacy. Staggering. One of the best books I've ever read.