Book 27: The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck

I initially read the titular short story last spring because I wanted to have read it before seeing the movie based on it, and I enjoyed it quite a bit but it lacked something of the knockout punch for me. This fall, after seeing the movie, I reread the short story and then the full collection of twelve stories, and they absolutely floored me. They are all in their own way the most beautifully New England stories, whether they're set in the 21st century or hundreds of years earlier, and the structure of the book and the way pairs of the stories are linked across time, either in terms of location or thematically or because of artifacts that exist in multiple times, deepens the impact of each individual story. The specificity of the worlds and the people within them will stay with me for a long, long time. 

Grade: A 

Reread: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

Note: I know the author socially.

This is when the series turns into a proper travel adventure! The second book in the Temeraire series is when things become more complicated in lots of different ways, and also when it becomes clear that this isn't an alternate history series that's just going to brush past the way that colonialism and chattel slavery shaped the economics and political structures of the world. That makes it less simple fun than the first book, but the expansion of the world and the introduction of the Chinese court in particular is so incredibly compelling. Also, Temeraire makes a lot of good points!

Grade: A

Book 26: On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves

I heard Rick Steves speak about this book on a podcast, and I thought it sounded fascinating - rather than being a memoir of someone looking back on a backpacking trip they took as a twentysomething, it's a slightly revised version of his contemporaneous travel journal, along with all of the film photos he could take along the way.

As someone who has never wanted to take an overland trek from Turkey to India, for a variety of reasons, it was really interesting to read about someone's experience doing that at a time when it was both more possible (Iran was still open to Americans) and less (Eastern Europe was so much less navigable for anyone Western). It made me think a lot about what I hope to get from traveling as a 45 year old white woman, which is quite the accomplishment for a book written by someone who is like the best version of a young white Boomer man. A lovely read and peek into the past. 

Grade: A 

Reread: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Note: I know the author socially. 

This book is just a fucking banger start to finish. It's an incredible concept--what if Napoleonic naval warfare but the ships are giant dragons--executed flawlessly, with a central duo of Laurence and Temeraire that is as good as any book relationship ever written. Their bond is immediate and so incredibly important, and Laurence is such a good man and so exactly of his world, which just expands beyond him at such a rapid rate you would understand how someone might handle it much less well than he does. Which isn't to say he's without flaws; his mistakes are often devastating, but they are never unearned or unexplored, and the conflict within this first novel of the series is exceptional. I decided I wanted to finally read this entire series this fall, and while I could have skipped this one since it's the one of these series I've read many times, I didn't want to deprive myself of the pleasure of reading it once more. 

Grade: A

Book 25: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

Sometimes I can't tell if a book doesn't totally work for me or if I've just read it badly. I really liked the world of The Folk of the Air series, even if that trilogy didn't quite land the way I wanted it to, so I was hoping that this would recapture my favorite aspects of that series. And while there are things I enjoyed it, I think it was just a bit more YA-focused than I was hoping for? The central character's main conflict never quite hit for me, and I spent most of my read basically waiting for the story to get to the big reveal at the end of it. I'm hoping that the sequel will build from that and end up creating a more satisfying story as a whole for me.

Grade: C

Book 24: Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy

A story in a genre that already feels like a classic, even though it's really only been a thing for about twenty years at this point. We have two more or less enemies at a magical university, who end up thrown together via an illegal bond, and then they have to go on an adventure together to solve this problem and learn some important things about each other and correct misconceptions!! Is there attraction? You bet? Is there the most obvious set up of conflict and misunderstanding to lead into the sequel? Oh yes! Am I mad about any of this? Absolutely not. I personally like a bit more sexual tension and payoff in stories like this, but the fantasy worldbuilding is solid enough that the balance didn't make me mad, and I liked both of the leads quite a bit. Looking forward to the next one!

Grade: B

Book 23: The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

What a great book! This is a pop history book detailing how a KGB spy was flipped to be a double agent for the British during the Cold War from the 1960s-1980s, and how he was eventually sniffed out by the Soviets and yet still managed to make it out of Russia in the most over the top, unbelievable spy shit way imaginable. Oleg Gordievsky's work as a spy almost went terribly so many times, and yet he also managed to pass along information to the British (and, through intelligence sharing, the Americans) that was quite important. It's a real reminder that everything that happens in world history etc. depends so much on luck and on random circumstance, for better and for worse, always. A great time and I now have like ten other books by this author on my tbr list.

Grade: A