Bringing Everything Up to Date

 Here are the books I've read recently but haven't yet posted about. Most of these are books I have just read for the first time but one is an old favourite that I've been  re-reading.

Non-Fiction

Fifth Sun. A new history of the Aztecs,   Camilla Townsend  Largely based on non-Spanish sources. I was interested to learn the extent to which the colonial regime tried to keep the Aztec aristocracy influential in the social hierarchy. 

A Secret History of Torture,  Ian Cobain. The shameful and unacknowledged practice of torture by British governments from the Second World War, through the dissolution of their empire, to their current position as spear-carriers to the Americans. 

Fiction

Not Dead Yet,  Peter James.  Another in the Roy Grace series.  

Island. Alistair Macleod. A wonderful collection of short stories including the most visceral story I've ever read,  "In The Fall" (I defy anybody to read it without crying).