On a recent tour
books read on recent tour of California, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong with Aubrey and his good friend:
Singapore: A Biography, by Mark Ravinder Frost and Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
The Trees in My Forest, by Bernd Heinrich
The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830, by Paul Johnson
And for music: La Divina - the Best of Maria Callas Compilation
Also, a great book about 200 years of peace and harmony in Japan, The Fantastic Edo Era, but a completely opposite take by Paul Johnson in The Birth of the Modern.
also one terrible book, Every Man a Speculator, by Steve Fraser. the author hates speculation in all forms and writes 800 pages of selected anecdotes with thousands of footnotes to support his biased and hateful review.
Gavan Tredoux comments:
Paul Johnson is not a careful writer, makes too many factual mistakes, often accepts received wisdom uncritically. He writes well, as a journalist would, but I wouldn't trust anything he produced.