books
Mycenaean Linear B / Pylos Collection
Excited that my collection of books about Mycenaean Linear B and Pylos is now complete. Linear B was the late Bronze Age (c1300–1170 BCE) writing system used by Mycenaean Greek palace kingdoms to record people, obligations and transactions within those kingdoms. It is the earliest form of European writing, subsequently lost after the late Bronze Age collapse (c1177BC).
Linear B was famously deciphered by Michael Ventris, a British Architect, in 1956. This opened up a whole new window on the late Bronze Age world. Amazingly new insights and discoveries continue to be made 70 years later.
The collection now includes:
- Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Ventris & Chadwick, 1956) - the original publication which shared the decipherment with the world. I’m delighted to have an first edition of this.
- Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd Edition) (Ventris & Chadwick, 1973) - expanded version published by John Chadwick after Ventris’s untimely death in 1956.
- The New Documents in Mycenaean Greek - Volume 1 and 2 (John Killen (editor) 2024) - includes updated scholarship on Linear B over period from 1973 to today.
- The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia: Volume IV - the Inscribed Documents - Parts 1 and 2 (Bennett, Melena, Nakassis et al 2025) - A full reproduction and transcription of all of the Linear B tablets found at Pylos. The first time these have all been published.
- The Kingdom of Pylos - Warrior Princes of Mycenaean Greece (Stocker, Lyons, Davis & Militsi-Kechagia 2025) - overview of early and middle Bronze archeology of the Kingdom of Pylos. Accompanied an exhibition at the Getty and Hellenic National Museum 2026.
- Individuals and Society in Mycenaean Pylos (Nakassis 2013) - Innovative prosographic analysis of the names found on the tables of Pylos, identifying which relate to the same individuals.
- A Companion to Linear B - Mycenaean Texts and their World (Duhoux & Davies, 2008 - 2014) - 3 Volumes. A series of academic essays on analysis of the Linear B texts found at Pylos, Knossos and other sites.
- The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (Cynthia Shelmerdine (editor) 2008) - provides context for the Linear B texts and late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece.
- The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Eric Cline (editor) 2010) - complimentary overview of Aegean Bronze Age.
- The Man Who Deciphered Linear B - the story of Michael Ventris (Andrew Robinson 2002) - story of the decipherment, strongly focused on Michael Ventris.
- The Riddle of the Labyrinth (Margalit Fox 2014) - provides a broader analysis of solving the riddle of Linear B, including the key contribution of Alice Kober, who sadly died in 1950 before full decipherment was achieved.
For more information, see my Library catalog for “Mycenaean”.
Finished reading: Queer Georgians by Anthony Delaney 📚
A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers and Homemakers
A truly eye-opening history of gender and sexual non-conformity in the long 17th century. As stated in the last lines of the book:
“Together, these histories remind us that even when the odds are stacked against us we survive - and that given our tenacity - we may thrive yet. Each one of us, shoulder to shoulder with the other; nobody left behind.”
Finished reading: After the Siren by Darcy Green 📚
I absolutely loved and devoured this book. It made me laugh, and several times, made me cry with joy. Oh and good lord the sex is hot.
20 years of LibraryThing
A very Happy 20th Birthday to LibraryThing and congratulations to everyone who has made this happen - Tim, the team, and all of the readers and users who have been part of the community for the last 20 years.
I joined LibraryThing in April 2006, and in my first month I added 423 books (mostly history books). I’ve now catalogued 2681 books (1259 of which are tagged ‘history’), so my tastes have broadened!
You can access my personal Library here: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/jeremybakernz
Thank you LibraryThing, for everything. You are a key tool in enabling my obsession!
Finished reading: Deep House by Jeremy Atherton Lin 📚
Sexy and intellectually challenging. What a love story!
Finished reading: Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance by Bronwen Everill 📚
Good overview of the misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions that have blighted Western economic interventions in Africa.
Finished reading: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong 📚
Heartbreaking yet strangely comforting. Connection and community across age, gender, race and surrounded by addiction and poverty.
Finished reading: Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire 📚
A fun but thought provoking romp with an assortment of odd folk, wizards, fungus goblins, talking donkeys and basil plants, and plenty of murder. And all kinds of transitions.
Finished reading: The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra 📚
A challenging but ultimately somewhat nihilistic take on the atrocity of Gaza. Some important points but fails to see a way forward.
Finished reading: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart 📚
An inspiring and surprisingly hopefully assessment of what it is to be Jewish in the aftermath of Gaza (and indeed decades of the denial of Palestinian rights). Suggests that there is still - that there is always - opportunity for collective liberation of both Israelis and Palestinians. That, in fact, this is the only future where liberty is possible.
Finished reading: Change by Édouard Louis 📚
Extraordinary. A brutally honest memoir of the desperate need to change to escape, to be renewed. Hit me like a sledgehammer.
Finished reading: A Radical Act of Free Magic by H. G. Parry 📚
Excellent conclusion to the duology; loved the intertwining of historical events and fantasy elements.
Finished reading: The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis 📚
Harrowing story of Édouard Louis’ childhood in dank, grey and poor northern France.
Finished reading: Native Nations by Kathleen DuVal 📚
Brilliant new history of native North America that reveals the resilience, vibrancy, and ongoing self-determination of indigenous North Americans in the face of colonialism.
Finished reading: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry 📚
Excellent alternative fantasy history of the French and Haitian Revolutions. Magic, vampires, slavery, liberty and radicalism make for a tense and dark story, that moves along at a cracking pace. Read it in a couple of days.
Edmund White
Vale Edmund White (1940-2025), prolific, highly talented and sex-positive gay author. His “A Boy’s Own Story” was seminal for many of us in the 1980s. His most recent memoir “The Loves of My Life”, published only this year, is a perfect capstone for a man who loved men, and wrote about them so well.
