Tuesday, 7th July
A Golden World by Lauren Working
A glittering new history of how the Americas transformed the Tudors and Stuarts that provides a fresh understanding the cultural exchange between the “Old” and “New” worlds.
From rumors of lost Amazonian cities of gold to the silver running through the mountains of Bolivia, hopes for dazzling wealth fueled the imperial fantasies of the Tudors and Stuarts. Stories of treasure ships and the feats of privateers from Francis Drake to Walter Raleigh have become entrenched in myth and legend—but what did Elizabethans actually know about Venezuela, or the Chesapeake? How did Indigenous people and ther knowledge enter the art, fashion, and literature of Shakespeare’s time—and at what cost?
From tobacco leaves strewn in playhouses on the Thames to a bejeweled ‘Indian hat’ carried on the back of a wandering peddler in the English countryside, A Golden World uses tangible history and artefacts to illuminate the unexpected ways that the Americas and its people became a visible and material presence in English culture in the first era of colonization.
Showcasing Indigenous perspectives through texts and materials created by Native writers, elders, and artists, and bringing Aztec jaguars, blue-green Colombian emeralds, and feathered garments knotted by Indigenous hands in conversation with love poetry, baroque portraits, and plays about shipwrecks, this award-winning historian presents an altogether new history of the ‘golden age’ of the Tudors and Stuarts, shedding light on the craft and labor of those in the Americas who contributed to the English Renaissance as we know it, and investigating what this means for heritage today.
While England’s fascination with eastern powers has been more readily acknowledged, A Golden World focuses on how Atlantic colonization provides a distinct and crucial part of this cultural history. From sight and sound to touch and taste in the ‘golden age’ of Shakespeare, Lauren Working gives new insight into the dynamics of power and desire for lands and resources in the Americas and how it changed the course of history.
One of the Family by Mark Edwards
A week in paradise—with the family from hell.
When Patrick is invited by his girlfriend to join her and her family on a luxury holiday in a remote and beautiful part of Scotland, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a nightmare of a family, sinister behavior…and a plot to murder the patriarch’s younger fiancée.
Arriving at the house, Patrick meets Holly’s dad, self-made-millionaire Charles, along with her brother Lewis and older sister Miranda. Also on the trip is the widowed Charles’ bride-to-be, Jasmine, who—in her thirties—is around the same age as the three siblings. Lewis and Miranda are horrified by their dad’s impending marriage to this younger woman. Surely, she is just after his money—and is going to steal their inheritance from them. To make things worse, Jasmine is an almost exact doppelganger of their mother before she got sick and died.
Patrick finds himself in the middle of this viper’s nest, trying to keep out of the family crosshairs. He starts to suspect that Lewis has dark plans for Jasmine—putting himself in peril as a potential witness who could mess up his scheme. Perhaps more than one person won’t escape this family of snakes…
Our Wicked Gifts by Kathryn Foxfield
How much would you sacrifice for love? What would you trade for power? How far would you go for family?
The Winter family are worth billions. But only they know their success is built upon a sinister deal with the devil – each Winter possesses a unique supernatural gift to ensure their power and influence, but in exchange for their souls…
Nineteen-year-old black sheep of the family Cicely’s gift is for uncovering secrets, which doesn’t make her very popular. But, when her family are threatened, and her uncle is found dead, they need her for the first time. When the clues point to Soren, a boy the family banished years ago, Cicely must choose between loyalty to her family and her growing feelings for the person who is trying to destroy them.
Riding the Line by Emma Lucy
Crossing off her bucket list was easy—until she fell for him.
Cherry Hensley is determined to make her last summer in Willow Ridge count. With a bucket list full of wild ideas Cherry is ready for anything…
Except Duke Bennett.
The town’s hottest bartender—and her brother’s best friend—is way too tempting to resist when he offers to be her partner-in-crime.
Enlisting Duke’s help was supposed to be harmless; she’s known him all her life. But every moment together makes Cherry feel more alive than anything on her bucket list.
Will they hold the line between lovers and friends?
The Lure of Wolves and Whispers by Amanda Connolly
On the mist-shrouded Isle of Eireann, buying magic comes with a price.
But when her beloved older sister is gravely injured, Maeve risks everything to buy the forbidden magic that might save her. In exchange, Maeve trades her life to a ruthless and dangerously alluring rebel leader. Bound to do his bidding, Maeve finds herself thrown into a deadly competition to become the next queen and stand beside a prince rumored to be more brutal than his tyrannical father.
With the isle on the brink of war, trust and survival come at a terrible cost—one that will tear Maeve’s world, and her heart, in two.
What would you sacrifice to survive?
Wednesday, 8th July
Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie
Alex Lyons always has his mind made up by the time the curtain comes down at a performance—the show either deserves a five-star rave or a one-star pan. Anything in between is meaningless. On the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he doesn’t deliberate over the rating for Hayley Sinclair’s show, nor does he hesitate when the opportunity presents itself to have a one-night stand with the struggling actress.
Unaware that she’s gone home with the theater critic who’s just written a career-ending review of her, Hayley wakes up at his apartment to see his scathing one-star critique in print on the kitchen table, and she’s not sure which humiliation offends her the most. So she revamps her show into a viral sensation critiquing Alex Lyons himself—entitled son of a famous actress, serial philanderer, and by all accounts a terrible man. Yet Alex remains unapologetic. As his reputation goes up in flames, he insists on telling his unvarnished version of events to his colleague, Sophie. Through her eyes, we see that the deeper she gets pulled into his downfall, the more conflicted she becomes. After all, there are always two sides to every story.
A brilliant Trojan horse of a book about art, power, misogyny, and female rage, Bring the House Down is a searing, insightful, and often hilarious debut that captures the blurred line between reality and performance.
Thursday, 9th July
Data Empire by Roopika Risam
Data shaped empires. Now it’s shaping our future.
This is the groundbreaking 11,000 year story of how data became the most powerful tool humans have ever created – and how we are sleepwalking into a future where the next global superpower is a tech company.
We live in an era when trading our information for access can feel harmless or inevitable – yet from targeted advertising to mass surveillance, data shapes the course of our lives. How did it gain the power it now holds over us?
Long before writing existed, at the dawn of civilisation in Mesopotamia, rulers pressed marks into clay to keep track of land, people and grain. To rule, they had to keep count. It is no accident, then, that the first written name in human history was neither a god nor a king, but an accountant. As ships and navigation expanded our horizons, a new age of European empires took control of more than 80 per cent of the world’s surface, using colonial censuses, maps and ledgers to decide who belonged, who owed, and who could be sacrificed. Today, a handful of private brokers increasingly define what we see and what is real.
Taking readers from ancient cave markings and knotted strings to the algorithmic state, Dartmouth professor Roopika Risam reveals how data has always been the seed of power: a technology of control that has shaped civilizations and upheld empires. Provocative, humane and sweeping in scope, Data Empire challenges us to decide whether we will allow a new set of data empires to hardwire inequality into the next century, or fight for systems that work for the benefit of all.
