Books read, early May

[mrissa]

 

Lois McMaster Bujold, Dark Sight Dare. Kindle. This is a very nice novella. It is not twisty, it is not startling, it is a very kind story about people doing their best with difficult circumstances. I don't think it's the best place to begin the series, but it's a pleasant addition thereto.

William Dalrymple, Return of a King: the Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42. Kindle. It's a really useful and thoughtful book, but what it is not is uplifting. Great Game my arse. Anyway it's still worth knowing this stuff, it affects the modern world and remains interesting.

Sylviane A. Diouf, Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons. Oh this was so good. Oh my goodness, this was so good. Again not with the uplifting, except that in some ways it was, that people's determination to free themselves and their families was actually pretty wonderful, and hearing the details of how they did it--this should be taught in more schools all over North America, this was absolutely great. Some people fled completely naked! They just got out, and reading about their communities and lives was really neat.

Paul Farmer, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Kindle. I was on vacation! I'm so much fun to take on vacation! This is a book about the early AIDS epidemic in Haiti and featuring Haitians abroad, and it does actual math and science about how the Haitian people were far, far more sinned against than sinning here. Not fun times but useful to know--and Farmer wrote a new preface about dealing with new pandemics, alas that he should have to.

Margaret Frazer, Shakespeare's Mousetrap. Kindle. The supposed secret history of Titus Andronicus and its role in (fictional) actual murder; I think this is my least favorite of her shorts, and probably I should just stop reading them, completeness is not an unmixed virtue.

Sarah Gristwood, Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses. Kindle. Queens and princesses and what they did and where they went, not enough breadth in my opinion but still better than nothing.

Reece Jones, Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move. Kindle. This is a book from about ten years ago, and it's heartbreaking how real and deadly these problems already were then, and how much worse now.

W.F. Kirby, The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country. Kindle. You can probably tell from the way this is titled that it is a quite old book. It maddeningly is not the Kalevipoeg but rather a sort of summary of the Kalevipoeg. Kirby blithely informs us that he has omitted many irrelevant passages, some of which might have been of great interest to me, but this is very much a beggars/choosers situation. It exists, I could read this much at least, welp.

E.C.R. Lorac, Murder in Vienna. Kindle. Golden Age puzzle-type mystery. I did not bond with any of the characters, but it rattled along reasonably well and I will keep reading this author.

Casey McQuiston, The Pairing. Kindle. I continue to explore the boundaries of what romance I might like, and the answer here is: eh. It was briskly written, it was amusing, it was fine on a train...and I continued to want the character relationships with other people to matter.

Linda Proud, Pallas and the Centaur. Kindle. Second book in her "Botticelli trilogy," historical fiction set during the Italian Renaissance. This is mostly not fantasy (no centaurs were harmed in the making of this book) except for the bit where someone might be possessed by a deity from antiquity. I think it will work better if you've read the first one, so you know what she's doing with her fictional central characters in the middle of all the real historical figures.

Brett Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France. I didn't set out to have a slavery theme in the nonfiction reading in this fortnight, but I found this in the Museum of Archaeology and History in Montreal and knew I wouldn't find it again readily. It was really good at nuance and variation in ways that were extremely informative.

D.E. Stevenson, Miss Buncle Married. Kindle. The second in its very light series, and don't start with this one; you'll enjoy the central characters more if you have the perspective on where they started. Short. Fun.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Monday Starts on Saturday. Kindle. A reread technicality: this is a very different, and much better, translation than the one I read a few decades ago. I feel like this is particularly crucial for speculative satire. Luckily for me, this edition translates the title as "starts" whereas the other translates it as "begins," so it will be easy to keep track of which one I want. Surreal and funny.

Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys. Kindle. I read this because I trust Claire Tomalin as a biographer, not because I have a particularly keen interest in Pepys, and it did not disappoint. Her sense of context, her ability to be thoughtfully positive where possible without losing track of her subject's flaws--she's one of the best in the business, and this is an interesting book even if you're not completely fascinated with Pepys.

Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne. Kindle. The ending spelled itself out in such clear detail from the outset that I can't really say it's one of my favorite Trollopes, but it's not one of my least favorites either, as he wasn't notably bigoted in any particular direction--and in fact he seemed to be arguing for acceptance of "illegitimate" children as full members of society. It was a reasonable thing to read on a plane.

Vanessa Walters, The Lagos Wife. A thriller set in Nigeria among the foreign-born wives of wealthy Nigerians. While the twist ending wasn't my favorite, the multiplicity of cultural perspectives was exquisitely well-done and nuanced. I'll keep an eye out for anything else Walters chooses to do.

Comments

[davidgoldfarb]

I am here for as much writing about kind people being reasonable as Ms. Bujold (? — feels insolent to call her "Lois") cares to publish.

[larryhammer]

It maddeningly is not the Kalevipoeg but rather a sort of summary of the Kalevipoeg.

Feh. Also, feh.

Doctor Thorne is nowhere near one of Trollope's best novels, but it's in my second tier of favorites. It's an entirely amiable place to visit, sometimes.