I squeezed in one more book before the end of the year: Finished reading A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Emma Southon, a fun and chatty look at Roman law and society through the lens of homicide. Southon uses a good chunk of her page count pointing out how little we know about the lives of Romans other than the richest men, and showing us a bit we can infer about the rest.
Finished reading How to Be an Antiracist. It feels like more of a primer than a deep dive, but it’s carefully structured and methodical, and I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it a lot. I hope I put some of what I read into action.
Finished reading The Orphan Tsunami of 1700, finally. I’d put it down for a while, but the subject and presentation are like catnip to me: a popular explanation of the 1700 tsunami with the meticulousness and rigor of an academic paper. (It’s available as a PDF for free if you’d like.)
Another thing that strikes me about Moonbound is its fundamental kindness and generosity.
Finished reading Moonbound by Robin Sloan. The book started with a banger of a prologue, eased off a fair bit, and brought it back up for the finale. Even though I didn’t quite fall in love with the book, I enjoyed it thoroughly, perhaps because it consistently surprised me.