A sort of dark follow up to microserfs, I got the impression that Coupland was trying a bit too hard with this one. Its just a bit too self-consciously futureshocked-cool for my taste. Funny moments and kitsch cultural analyses are mixed with art-school-experime …

A beautifully acerbic take on the compulsory positivity that has overtaken American and, indeed Global, society over the last decades. Ehrenreich investigates the history of the phenomenon and the Stalinist way in which we are expected to police our ne …

Oh man. I am clearly going to look like a Charlie Stross fanboy. It ain’t every day you see a new Laundry novel in Blackwells though is it? So, dear reader, I bought it. Loved it. The bastard spawn of HP Lovecraft, Douglas Adams and Ian Flemi …

I am a big fan of the Introducing series. If you want to get your head around some topic in a general way without too much detail they are perfect. The Fractals book is pretty much what yo …

Mark Thomas somehow manages to combine cheekiness with right on politics, and humour without ending up sounding preachy. This story of rambling round the entire Israeli is a mix of the tragic, horrendous and baffl …

Butler’s take on Guantanamo, Iraq and to an extent Abu Ghraib centres around the question of grievability. The question of what constitutes a recognizably human life is a powerful way to start thinking about State violence and war and what an effect …

A reasonable if occasionally overargued critique of the ascendent cyber-u …

I picked this up at the Unlike Us conference in Amsterdam. It is a solid critique of the political economy of capitalist tech of the wired type. His dismantling of the Free Culture movement is useful and perceptive.2012-03-17 by Charlie …

It isn’t exactly news that I am a big fan of Stephenson. Snow Crash is an older book, written very much in the cyberpunk style. Lots of virtual reality and futuristic dystopia. But done entertainingly and combining those themes with some intelligent …

I’m not a typography nerd. Got it? Well, OK, perhaps I am. A bit. Nerds and non-nerds alike will enjoy Lupton’s wonderful book. It manages to be entertaining and informative without feeling too didactic. The coverage of the history of …