Book 31: Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

Note: I know the author socially. 

Everything that made the prior book in this series hard makes this book absolutely delicious for me. Laurence and Temeraire accepting the punishment for their absolutely morally righteous decision and then suffering even more because Temeraire thinks Laurence is dead and loses his fucking mind is incredible. The reunion!!! The emotions!! The continued consequences and depression that is only alleviated by the fact that they have each other, the triumph at the end at a moment when all looks lost, just an absolute delight from start to finish. Among my favorites of the whole series. 

Grade: A

Book 30: Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

Note: I know the author socially

I am fairly certain that I read about half of this book when it first came out, put it aside with the intention of returning to it, and then never did. And honestly, I understand why; it deals with a lot of very heavy stuff! Primarily but not entirely connected to the kidnapping and enslavement of West African people by European and colonial powers, with a whole bunch of dragon plague and death to boot. There's a seriousness and a reality to the narrative, and I both admire it and clearly didn't want to deal with it however many years ago I first tried it. 

It's an important book within the larger story of the series, though, and without it I think the series would have been taking the easy way out. The ending also demonstrates the great moral fortitude of both Temeraire and Laurence, especially the way that Laurence allows himself to be guided by his dragon, even when it goes against everything his own society has instilled in him. Very good but on the whole probably the book from this series I'm the least likely to reread outside of a full series reread. 

Grade: B  

Book 29: The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

I read this after watching all of the show, and while I was very happy I did purely from a desire to see how books are adapted into television shows or movies, boy does the book suffer in comparison. I don't really think it's the book's fault, though, and I also don't know how the show would have hit me if I had seen it in the 2010's rather than watching it post-Covid, and I don't know how much the book's clear commentary on how 9/11 and the subsequent wars would have hit me differently in a time when I didn't know what was coming in later years. So many elements that probably played out as extreme satire or allegory just read as fact to me, and that's a weird place to be in! It did make me want to read other books by this author, though, who has a view into Gen X suburbia that I think is very interesting. 

Grade: B