Finished rereading The Surgeon’s Mate by Patrick O’Brian, book seven of the Aubrey/Maturin series. As usual, the book is split between sea and land, and on land, as with the previous book, Maturin’s spycraft is more foregrounded than had been typical of the series.
Finished reading The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker, the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni. I wasn’t sure it actually needed a sequel, and on the one hand, sure, it stood perfectly on its own, but on the other, it was great to spend a little more time with these characters, even if they made some bad choices. I think the rough edges of the first story were filed off, and the stakes were even more personal this time.
Finished reading Perhaps the Stars by Ada Palmer, the fourth and final book in the series.
A fitting end, perhaps a little more neatly tied off than I’d like, but perhaps that’s appropriate for a story of this length and intensity. I do sincerely appreciate that it barely hints at an answer to one of my big questions I’ve had since the first book — I don’t think an answer would have improved the books one bit.
The series is a little too weird for me to recommend whole-heartedly to just anybody, but I loved it, and will probably reread it one of these days.
Finished reading Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme by Arika Okrent. Full of charming, bite-sized little pieces about why English is the way it is. I already knew much of it, but there was plenty I didn’t know, and a couple times it ventured deeper into linguistics than my dilettante self could quite follow. You know whether or not you would enjoy the book from the title.
Finished reading Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, a delightful story (or, really, three stories) of crime and family, set in late ’50s and early ’60s Harlem. Highly recommended.