So what have we got? It's a pretty good haul this month, centered around Europe mostly but with travel around the world as a bit of a motif...
Click the book covers to see a zoomed in image and links to Amazon if you like to buy your books there.
The ones that I particularly like the look of are:
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Hawkhurst: Murder, Money and Smuggling in Georgian England, by Joseph Dragovich - I have already read this one (review coming soon) and enjoyed the dramatic (and at times terrible) account of tea 18th Century English tea smugglers.
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The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment Over 2,000 Years, Ulbe Bosma - because I would like to put all those fantastically profitable and horrifically inhumane New World sugar plantations into context.
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The Wager, David Grann - this one seems like it has been around for ages already as I have seen positive reviews all over the place. A tale of a shipwreck and mutiny, beautifully recounted, so we are told.
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Around the World in 80 Pots: The Story of Humanity Told Through Beautiful Ceramics, Ashmolean Museum - pots in museums used to make me run for the nearest cafe but I have come to appreciate why they are such an amazing record even if they do look a bit dull. This coffee table style book is not a history of pots, but instead the story of a number of the more glamorous ones from the Ashmolean collection, which spans thousands of years and much of the world.
