What we read last month

Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age, Ada Palmer. I learned a lot about the Renaissance in Italy, and also a little bit about Vikings in Greenland. I thought she went a little too far in writing in a conversational style, a normal style would have been easier to read.

Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories, Frederik Pohl. A good collection of science fiction stories. 

Xen: The Zen of the Other, by "Ezra Buckley," e.g. Joseph Matheny. I liked it, see my comments here. 

Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties, Lucy Moore. I have long been fascinated by the 1920s, and this was vivid and interesting. 

Sell More Books! Book Marketing and Publishing for Low Profile and Debut Authors: Rethinking Book Publicity after the Digital Revolutions, J. Steve Miller. A lot of good ideas. 

As is his custom, Mark Brown posted  on Facebook what he read in July: 

When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger  7/1  

Tides of Light by Gregory Benford  7/14   

Quantum Psychology By Robert Anton Wilson  7/15   

Dawn by Octavia Butler  7/23  

The Book of Forbidden Words by Robert Anton Wilson  7/24  

Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach  7/26

Not a chronicle of last month, but Rob Pugh has published his midyear reading report.