Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations. Nicely written. Too short!
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I end up reading more nonfiction than fiction these days, but certainly enjoy a good fictional yarn from time to time.
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jd ๐'s books
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jd ๐ reviewed The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
First class history
5 stars
A sprawling history of the famous silk road and its offshoots, the civilizations they nurtured, the empires and power centres that rose and fell along them. An excellent history but also a primer for understanding the forces that continue to shape the region today.
jd ๐ finished reading The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
jd ๐ reviewed The Dry by Jane Harper
jd ๐ finished reading The Dry by Jane Harper

The Dry by Jane Harper
A small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper. After โฆ
jd ๐ reviewed An Immense World by Ed Yong
Animals experience different realities than we do
5 stars
We tend to think the way we experience the world is the way it is. But animals, using or emphasizing different and other senses than our five, may experience โrealityโ in entirely different ways. Young leads us on a deep dive into the sensory experiences of animals.
jd ๐ rated An Immense World: 5 stars

An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind โฆ
jd ๐ finished reading An Immense World by Ed Yong

An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind โฆ
jd ๐ reviewed Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
David Copperfield redux
4 stars
Inspired by Dickenโs David Copperfield, the novel, set in rural Kentucky circa 1980-2000, centres around Demon, a trailer park kid who got kicked around to various foster homes, briefly became a local high school football star until a knee injury put an end to that, and sent him crashing into a life of opioids and addiction. His one talent, drawing, helped with his ultimate redemption. A theme running through it, like that of the Dickenโs novel, is that of institutional poverty and its effects on the lives ordinary people. Though it held my interest, the book was ultimately too long.
jd ๐ finished reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
jd ๐ reviewed A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles
An aristocrat survives, no, thrives! In Soviet Russia
5 stars
An aristorcatโa countโis sentenced after the Russian revolution to house arrest at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow where he remains for the next 30 years. A thin premise for a book? Not on your life. The author unfolds a rich and nuanced story of this extraordinary manโs life, plots, and liaisons, with the tumultuous years of mid-20th century Russia as a backdrop. The pages are generously spiced with commentaries, asides, and diversions on culture, literature, art, music, science, philosophy, food, drink, and politics. And at the end, the reader is rewarded with a thrilling conclusion worthy of a great spy novel. Brilliantly written with charm, wit, humour, and insight.
jd ๐ rated A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel: 5 stars

A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles
When, in 1922, thirty-year-old Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, he is sentenced to โฆ
jd ๐ finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles
When, in 1922, thirty-year-old Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, he is sentenced to โฆ