Stranger than Fiction

My choice in the category Indigenous Cultures for the 2021 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE focuses on different cultures in prehistory. The title refers to the area covered in the book, from Central America to the Near East. “Black Land” is what the ancient Egyptians called their homeland, referring to the effect of the Nile on the surrounding land. “The World of the Fifth Sun” is the land of the Aztecs, referring to their creation myth. Interestingly, though, this is not the way the book is organized. Both chapters referring to these two areas are at the end of the book, instead of beginning with Black Land and ending with Fifth Sun. In fact, I couldn’t figure out why the chapters were organized as they were – they are not arranged by location, by time, or by topic. The subtitle is The Science of Sacred Sites , and this is what attracted me to this book. I have an amateur interest in Archeology and Anthropology, and I have often wondered how archeologists determine that a figurine f...

What to Eat , by Marion Nestle, 2006, is described on the back cover as “the one book that tells you everything you need to know about food, with clarity, insight, wit, and wisdom.” It is certainly comprehensive and very readable, but it would be more accurate to indicate that it has everything you need to know about food sold in supermarkets – not about which types of food to eat. Marion Nestle was a Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. She is well known as a public health advocate and an opponent of processed (junk) food and the major international food corporations that produce it and control most of the food sold in supermarkets throughout the world. Despite the title, Nestle doesn’t tell the reader what to eat, but gives enough information about the range of foods available in supermarkets to help us make up our own minds – or at least to better understand what we’re buying. When she mentions her own food or buying preferences, she exp...

Most of us know a bit about Richard III – the hunchbacked killer of his two nephews, the Princes in the Tower of London. In Shakespeare’s play he is evil, scheming, and a pretender to the throne. However, there is evidence that he was loyal to his brother, King Edward IV, a fair and just king during his own short reign, and not clearly connected to the disappearance of his nephews. What we do know for sure is that he was killed on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, losing to Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII. Legend had it that he was hastily buried in the Church of the Greyfriars without the pomp befitting a king who dies in battle. Fifty years after the battle, the church was destroyed at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries and Richard’s grave was never found. The Search for Richard III: The King's Grave , by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones, 2013, details the archeological search and discovery of Richard III’s skeleton in a car park on the site where...