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hawkwing_lbBefore I get started with the talking-about-books, I want to mention something. From now on, I'll be providing links to The Book Depository for the books I mention here.
Confessional disclaimer: I've joined their affiliate program. All far as I can tell, they aren't particularly evil, and I've been very happy with their customer service on my own orders with them so far.
Right! On to the -
Books 2011: 86-92
86. Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Blessing.
The third and final volume in Carey's most recent Terre d'Ange trilogy, Naamah's Blessing follows Moirin, our half d'Angeline half-Maghuin Donn narrator, in her return to Terre d'Ange with her husband Bao, and the trials that confront her there. The royal family is broken: the king is grieving the death of his second wife, Prince Thierry has disappeared in a trade expedition across the sea, and the young princess - daughter of Moirin's former patron, the late queen Jehanne - is precocious but neglected. When Moirin accepts a charge from the king to serve as the princess's protector, she is drawn into d'Angeline politics -
- Just in time to be forced away across the ocean in search of Prince Thierry, a journey which brings her, Bao and their companions through the new and strange lands to the west, finally to confront unfinished business with Raphael de Mereliot.
There's a lot to like here. While Blessing suffers very slightly from the diffusion of focus in terms of unifying theme which the trilogy's preceeding volumes also possessed (or perhaps I simply find Moirin's voice less compelling than Phedre's or Imriel's), the characters are well-rounded and often brilliantly drawn. Carey draws on indigenous South American culture in her depiction of the New World, and walks a fine, delicate line in juxtaposing the beautiful and the brutal to make human sacrifice seem understandable - at the novel's climax, even sympathic.
The climax comes a little far from the novel's end, however. While the wrapping-up of threads is elegantly done, it does drag a little towards the finish.
Enjoyable book, and a solid addition to the series.
87. Gail Carriger, Heartless.
Fourth Alexia Tarabotti novel. The pace in this is uneven compared to its predecessors, and the humour less full-bodied. However, vampire assassination attempts, werewolf liaisons, and rampaging mechanical contrivances in the streets of Queen Victoria's London make for an entertaining combination.
Fun.
88. Erin Hoffman, Sword of Fire and Sea.
An entertaining fantasy debut, containing an overabundance of cool shit, and possibly an underabundance of connective tissue. I enjoyed it, and I hope to have more to say about it later.
nonfiction
89. James Kelly, The Liberty and the Ormond Boys: Factional riot in eighteenth-century Dublin. Maynooth Studies in Local History, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2005.
A very short - ~60 pages - book discussing the phenomenon of faction-fighting in Dublin city in the 1700s. The primary factions comprised the Liberty boys - the weavers of Thomas St. and the Coombe - and the butchers of Ormond quay and the Smithfield market. For all its brevity, it's an interesting and illuminating work considering the causes and manifestations of factionalism, and the trends that led to its demise.
90. Plato, Meno and Other Dialogues. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Translated with an introduction and notes by Robin Waterfield.
This volume comprises the four dialogues Charmides, Laches, Lysis, and Meno. The first three concern themselves with self-control, courage and friendship, while Meno is concerned with the nature of excellence, and whether excellence is an attribute that can be taught. This particular dialogue concludes with the self-professed bafflement of both Socrates and his interlocutor, Meno.
They make for interesting reading, and are very slightly useful to my thesis.
91. Stephen O'Shea, Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World. Walker Publishing Company Inc., New York, 2006.
This is a very accessible survey of the encounter between the Islamic and Christian worlds in the Mediterranean. O'Shea casts an admirably wide net, beginning in the lifetime of the Prophet and concluding with the siege of Malta, touching on everything from Medina to Morocco, Byzantium to Sicily, Templars to Ismailis, Saladin to El Cid.
It's a brilliant book, immensely knowledgeable and immensely readable. I have the impression that O'Shea is privileging accessibility over pettifogging detail, and I really don't mind, because I vastly enjoyed reading this.
92. Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness. Routledge Classics, Routledge, Oxford and New York, 2004.
This book should be required reading. For everyone.
Bertrand Russell was, of course, a prominent intellectual and philosopher in the first half of the 20th century. In Praise of Idleness collects some fifteen of his essays, which the copyright page of my copy informs me were first collected and published in 1935. They have aged surprisingly well, all things considered: Russell is a very accessible prose stylist, and while occasionally his cultural assumptions have me saying hell, no, much of what he writes is extremely thought-provoking. A lot of the time I found myself saying hell yes.
Of the essays collected here, the first two, "In Praise of Idleness" and "'Useless' Knowledge" are substantial, and remain radical and thought-provoking the better part of a century after their first appearance. "The Case for Socialism" is also a thoughtful defence of a political philosophy that remains derided. "The Ancestry of Fascism" is a lengthy piece which is very much of its time, a trait which it shares with "Scylla and Charibdis, or Communism and Fascism," but both these essays are interesting for the insight into the world of the nineteen twenties and thirties. "Western Civilisation" partakes much of sardonicism, and one or two of the shorter essays - "Men vs. Insects," for example - may be a little lightweight.
Nonetheless, the essays are a fascinating and provoking discussion of themes which remain relevent even today.
We shall pass over without mention the bits-of-books I have read for thesis work. Blergh, I say. Blergh.
Although I think I'm almost getting to the point where I can make a decent beginning on actually writing the bloody thing.
Yesterday's minor freakout was followed by productive emailing. And today, much exercise. Cycling 10K in 38:45, followed by running. 1 miles in 11:02, 2 miles in 24:30.
Oh, insanity. I wish you were more... amenable to regulation.
Confessional disclaimer: I've joined their affiliate program. All far as I can tell, they aren't particularly evil, and I've been very happy with their customer service on my own orders with them so far.
Right! On to the -
Books 2011: 86-92
86. Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Blessing.
The third and final volume in Carey's most recent Terre d'Ange trilogy, Naamah's Blessing follows Moirin, our half d'Angeline half-Maghuin Donn narrator, in her return to Terre d'Ange with her husband Bao, and the trials that confront her there. The royal family is broken: the king is grieving the death of his second wife, Prince Thierry has disappeared in a trade expedition across the sea, and the young princess - daughter of Moirin's former patron, the late queen Jehanne - is precocious but neglected. When Moirin accepts a charge from the king to serve as the princess's protector, she is drawn into d'Angeline politics -
- Just in time to be forced away across the ocean in search of Prince Thierry, a journey which brings her, Bao and their companions through the new and strange lands to the west, finally to confront unfinished business with Raphael de Mereliot.
There's a lot to like here. While Blessing suffers very slightly from the diffusion of focus in terms of unifying theme which the trilogy's preceeding volumes also possessed (or perhaps I simply find Moirin's voice less compelling than Phedre's or Imriel's), the characters are well-rounded and often brilliantly drawn. Carey draws on indigenous South American culture in her depiction of the New World, and walks a fine, delicate line in juxtaposing the beautiful and the brutal to make human sacrifice seem understandable - at the novel's climax, even sympathic.
The climax comes a little far from the novel's end, however. While the wrapping-up of threads is elegantly done, it does drag a little towards the finish.
Enjoyable book, and a solid addition to the series.
87. Gail Carriger, Heartless.
Fourth Alexia Tarabotti novel. The pace in this is uneven compared to its predecessors, and the humour less full-bodied. However, vampire assassination attempts, werewolf liaisons, and rampaging mechanical contrivances in the streets of Queen Victoria's London make for an entertaining combination.
Fun.
88. Erin Hoffman, Sword of Fire and Sea.
An entertaining fantasy debut, containing an overabundance of cool shit, and possibly an underabundance of connective tissue. I enjoyed it, and I hope to have more to say about it later.
nonfiction
89. James Kelly, The Liberty and the Ormond Boys: Factional riot in eighteenth-century Dublin. Maynooth Studies in Local History, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2005.
A very short - ~60 pages - book discussing the phenomenon of faction-fighting in Dublin city in the 1700s. The primary factions comprised the Liberty boys - the weavers of Thomas St. and the Coombe - and the butchers of Ormond quay and the Smithfield market. For all its brevity, it's an interesting and illuminating work considering the causes and manifestations of factionalism, and the trends that led to its demise.
90. Plato, Meno and Other Dialogues. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Translated with an introduction and notes by Robin Waterfield.
This volume comprises the four dialogues Charmides, Laches, Lysis, and Meno. The first three concern themselves with self-control, courage and friendship, while Meno is concerned with the nature of excellence, and whether excellence is an attribute that can be taught. This particular dialogue concludes with the self-professed bafflement of both Socrates and his interlocutor, Meno.
They make for interesting reading, and are very slightly useful to my thesis.
91. Stephen O'Shea, Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World. Walker Publishing Company Inc., New York, 2006.
This is a very accessible survey of the encounter between the Islamic and Christian worlds in the Mediterranean. O'Shea casts an admirably wide net, beginning in the lifetime of the Prophet and concluding with the siege of Malta, touching on everything from Medina to Morocco, Byzantium to Sicily, Templars to Ismailis, Saladin to El Cid.
It's a brilliant book, immensely knowledgeable and immensely readable. I have the impression that O'Shea is privileging accessibility over pettifogging detail, and I really don't mind, because I vastly enjoyed reading this.
92. Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness. Routledge Classics, Routledge, Oxford and New York, 2004.
This book should be required reading. For everyone.
Bertrand Russell was, of course, a prominent intellectual and philosopher in the first half of the 20th century. In Praise of Idleness collects some fifteen of his essays, which the copyright page of my copy informs me were first collected and published in 1935. They have aged surprisingly well, all things considered: Russell is a very accessible prose stylist, and while occasionally his cultural assumptions have me saying hell, no, much of what he writes is extremely thought-provoking. A lot of the time I found myself saying hell yes.
Of the essays collected here, the first two, "In Praise of Idleness" and "'Useless' Knowledge" are substantial, and remain radical and thought-provoking the better part of a century after their first appearance. "The Case for Socialism" is also a thoughtful defence of a political philosophy that remains derided. "The Ancestry of Fascism" is a lengthy piece which is very much of its time, a trait which it shares with "Scylla and Charibdis, or Communism and Fascism," but both these essays are interesting for the insight into the world of the nineteen twenties and thirties. "Western Civilisation" partakes much of sardonicism, and one or two of the shorter essays - "Men vs. Insects," for example - may be a little lightweight.
Nonetheless, the essays are a fascinating and provoking discussion of themes which remain relevent even today.
We shall pass over without mention the bits-of-books I have read for thesis work. Blergh, I say. Blergh.
Although I think I'm almost getting to the point where I can make a decent beginning on actually writing the bloody thing.
Yesterday's minor freakout was followed by productive emailing. And today, much exercise. Cycling 10K in 38:45, followed by running. 1 miles in 11:02, 2 miles in 24:30.
Oh, insanity. I wish you were more... amenable to regulation.
