The Fallen Woman
Fiona McIntosh
Penguin, $34.99

Fiona McIntosh, the prolific bestselling author from South Australia, has more than 40 titles to her name, many of them historical romances. The Fallen Woman is as solidly constructed as any, and it combines with brio and assurance the kind of vivid historical world-building and the talent for romantic melodrama that make her so popular. Following botanical artist Jane Savile, it shifts from Jane as an outcast, leading an isolated and poor life under the spires of Salisbury Cathedral to salvage the family honour, into a romance with Guy Attwood. He’s a friend to the soon-to-be-crowned King George V, as well as an heir to a fortune. As their relationship blooms through a quest to discover a critically endangered species of tree, Jane must fight against her social ostracism, and the jealousies and intrigues that follow in its wake, to reclaim her reputation and self-respect. McIntosh takes in everything from lavish period detail to obscure trivia about the history of the apple in this one, and her many fans should enjoy devouring it.

NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
Stoic in Love
Annie Lawson
Murdoch Books, $24.99

The Stoics have been much in vogue lately, and perhaps part of the reason is the common sense that informs their philosophy. Lawson’s application of Stoicism to the complexities of dating, live-in relationships, PDA, love-bombing and break-ups, is a case in point. In a light, often ironic Bridget Jones manner, she draws on her own experiences and those of her friends when discussing, for example, app-dating, the importance of due diligence, patience, recognising red flags, keeping a relationship afloat or knowing when it’s sunk – while, at the same time emphasising the virtues of singledom. The key theme running through all of this is the Stoic belief that there’s no point dwelling on things we can’t control. Likewise, recognising the importance of the “moment”, rather than dwelling the imperfect past or the perfect future. Quirky, informed.

Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari
Fern Press, $39.99

In a way, this study of information networks from the Stone Age to the present day revisits and updates Western theory from Marx to writers like Edward Said. Harari takes time to establish just what “information” may be; is it an attempt to represent “reality” as in what he calls the “naïve” view of information, or something that has always been weaponised depending on the network issuing that information, be it the Catholic Church, Stalinism or populists like Trump? Woven into this is “misinformation” and the threat of AI, a key metaphor informing Nexus being Goethe’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, in which an apprentice unleashes a force it cannot control. To create better, more “balanced” networks, he says, “we must abandon both the naïve and populist views of information”. Cautionary, but hopeful, popular theory.

There and Back: Diaries 1999-2009
Michael Palin
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $36.99

Most diaries are only worth reading in patches, and, as much as I admire Michael Palin’s impressive oeuvre in film and print, this is no exception. Volume four covers a tumultuous decade and, in this sense, it also functions as a personal record of the times. Take, for example, his experience of 9/11. He was filming in the remote “heart” of the Sahara for much of September with only shortwave radio contact. “When we returned,” he writes, “the world had changed utterly.” Among all the travel (hence the title), there’s a plethora of events, lunches and dinners, and conversations with family and famous people like friend George Harrison, whose death is upliftingly poignant and exhausting in terms of media demands on Palin. Among other things, what emerges is the sheer range of Palin’s interests, from Monty Python to Hemingway.

AI Snake Oil
Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor
Princeton, 34.99

Narayanan and Kapoor, both AI specialists at Princeton, contend that there is a lot of hype at the moment about AI – both its benefits and perils – much of it being uninformed or just plain snake oil. In a sort of Ted Talk style, they distinguish between generative AI, which gives us images, stories in the style of the King James Bible, or college essays. But, they state, AI in this sense is no more a threat to education than the introduction of the calculator. It’s with predictive AI that the snake oil comes into it, especially anything to do with predicting history or human behaviour. This kind of AI, they say, doesn’t work and can never work. They also deal with everyday AI such as auto-pilot, as well as such double-edge issues as facial recognition and fears of conscious AI getting out of control, which, they argue, “rest on a series of flawed premises.”

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.