40% off UC Press books, Reddit Ask Me Anything, and the end of the book tour
Hi folks and welcome, new readers!
This week’s issue:
HUMANS in the world: videos, podcasts, reviews
A new thing I published
An event: Ask Me Anything! Reddit, May 28th (online; text-based; asynchronous)
HUMANS purchase updates: 40% off spring sale; audiobook now available
The end of the book tour
HUMANS in the world: videos, podcasts, reviews
Videos
I had such a ball on the Peculiar Book Club YouTube show! The recording is at this link.
The guest host was zoologist Bill Schutt. The show’s creator, historian of medicine Brandy Schillace, starred in a comedy interlude; and co-host Davey Berris devised a hilarious quiz. Cocktail maven Kat Richards created a cocktail/mocktail inspired by the book - a lime delivery system.
Podcasts
My interview on Shakespeare Unlimited, the podcast of the Folger Shakespeare Library, is at this link. Having been a fellow at the Folger a couple of times, it was especially delightful to talk with the wonderful host, Barbara Bogaev, about monsters in age of Shakespeare: in the early decades of European oceanic exploration and colonialism. And I talk about Caliban, my favourite among Shakespeare’s monsters.
Reviews
HUMANS was reviewed by historian of religion Jan Machielsen in the Times Literary Supplement. Jan called the book “an enchanting journey” - I love it!
If you or your institution subscribe to the TLS, you can access the review here. You can download a PDF by clicking here.
HUMANS was also reviewed by Paul Weimer on the sci-fi and fantasy blog Nerds of a Feather. If you’re looking for “sound arguments, excellent and entertaining writing, and a fascinating dive into history, myth, and literature and art“ HUMANS is apparently the book to inhale. :-)
Something I wrote
In a fun piece of symmetry, my review of Natalie Lawrence’s ENCHANTED CREATURES: OUR MONSTERS AND THEIR MEANINGS (a book about animals as monsters) came out in the Times Literary Supplement in the issue in which HUMANS was reviewed - on the lower half of the same page, in fact! Read it here, or download the PDF here (the same file as the one with the HUMANS review above).
An event: Ask Me Anything on Reddit
On May 28 I’ll be doing a live Ask Me Anything event on Reddit, on the r/AskHistorians subreddit (scroll down through that page for upcoming events). From 9-11am and 12-2pm Eastern Time, I’ll be answering questions live about all things monstery!
I’ll post the starting thread a few hours beforehand; you can start asking questions there immediately. During the “live” hours I’ll post answers; afterwards, I’ll continue to answer regularly for about a day, and check back intermittently for a while after that.
To ask questions, you’ll need to create a Reddit account. This takes minimal effort: you choose a (preferably not your real name) username and a password; and if you provide your email address you’ll be able to recover your account if you forget your password.
HUMANS purchase updates
The audiobook comes out on May 13th! If you’ve got road trips coming up or like listening to things while wandering around or exercising, you might like to pre-order this now. The award-winning narrator, Christina Delaine, sounds fabulous in the preview clip. I can’t wait to hear the whole thing!
The book’s available on Audible (affiliate link) and on audiobooks.com.
If you’d prefer the text version, the University of California Press is having its Spring Sale! For all of May, almost all books are 40% off if ordered directly from the press and shipped to the US or Canada. Use the code MAY40 at the checkout when ordering from UC Press. Select “UC Press” when you get to the buying menu for a book.
If you’ve already read HUMANS, I’d be thrilled if you were to rate and review it on Amazon, Goodreads, Storygraph, or some such. Reviews are informal and can be anonymous: just a word or two, or a paragraph or more if you wish - whatever’s easiest. Reviews make books visible to potential readers. And if you’ve already reviewed the book, thank you!!!
The end of the tour
The spring book tour is done! I survived seven weeks in the US, a week back in my apartment recording three late-night things, and four days in London. At the HistFest book festival I had a hilarious conversation with historian, journalist, and podcaster Kate Lister. My book event at King’s College, London was followed by a conversation with the science writer and former Nature editor Dr. Philip Ball (who also kindly blurbed the book!).
I’m deeply grateful to Kate and Phil for their thoughtful, generative, and inspiring questions, and to Rebecca Rideal (the mastermind behind HistFest) and Hannah Murphy (my host at King’s) for bringing these events into being.
Also, I signed books! At the festival, and at Waterstones on Gower Street, where you can pick up a copy while stocks last.
There’s more to say and to process: strange, wondrous, and monstery things in museums; the state of the world (so many article pitches I should write).
I’m also dog-tired (I just typed god-tired and, frankly, where’s the lie?!?! I feel as though I’ve done enough work to bring a world into being.). Once I’ve dug myself out from under the post-trip paperwork, I’ll take some time off. But the pressure to also pitch OpEds and essays - stuff that didn’t happen because of the tour - is strong. Yet time is finite and nothing works if you’re too tired to think sensibly. I’m writing that down in order to fix it more strongly in my brain.
To be continued!
You can also find me on www.surekhadavies.org,
BlueSky (@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social),
and Instagram/Threads (@surekhadavies).