Blurt! — Sben

Blurt! — Sben
pile.org

Finished rereading The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O’Brian, book 11 of the Aubrey–Maturin series. We’re in the back half of the series now, and O’Brian clearly wants to introduce new plots and situations, as there’s only so much that can be done with the Royal Navy. Here we have more treachery, a court case, and a thief-taker, leading to a miscarriage of justice and a satisfying climax.

Also

Finished reading The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This was a slow, dense, enjoyable read; the authors attempt to reinterpret prehistoric and historic societies, and (even with a few rhetorical sleights-of-hand) succeeded. I’ll probably look back on this book as perspective-changing.

— 3/2/2022 11:00pm ∞
Finished reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. I loved this, even though the story mostly ended up being “what did Duchess do this time, and how are the rest of them going to clean up after him?” (Wait, he did what?? But — !)

— 2/9/2022 5:50pm ∞
Finished rereading The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian. A lot happens here, but still he leaves large gaps that earlier books would have filled in, and the ending is one of his most abrupt yet (though it wouldn’t have told us anything we couldn’t figure out on our own).

— 2/5/2022 8:38pm ∞
(It took me a few days to finish Matrix, not just 24 hours — it took me a while to figure out what I thought of The Mask of Mirrors.)

— 1/31/2022 11:10pm ∞
Finished reading Matrix by Lauren Groff. This was lovely: An imagining of the life of Marie of Shaftesbury, creating a feminist haven out of a failing abbey in 12th-century England. I got very strong vibes of both Nicola Griffith’s Hild and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lavinia (though this doesn’t quite rise to Le Guin’s level — which is no failing — and Groff wasn’t trying to write either of those books).

— 1/31/2022 11:06pm ∞