recent reading
May. 25th, 2007 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabMurder Among Friends, an anthology of short story murder mysteries.
Passionate Minds by David Bodanis. The story of the love affair between Emilie du Chatelet and Voltaire, as much a biography of her as of him, and written in an engaging fashion so that it reads right along like a fiction romance. I enjoyed the parts where they work on translating Newton's books into French because Voltaire is so upset that France is behind England in scientific research; I did not know that about him. The book ends with an engaging "where are they now" section on what happens to all the bit players, and for that matter most of the buildings, that were somehow involved with Emilie and Voltaire.
The Perseids and Other Storied by Robert Charles Wilson. Short stories, somewhat related, in that they all take place in the same version of Toronto with some of the same characters wandering through, and the same used bookstore featured in several, although each story can be read without having any connection to the others as well. Pretty much all feature the theme of alienation and being alone in one's own head and an insignificant speck in the universe. Some interesting concepts in there.
Did I mention I read a book about turkeys? I forget the exact title, now, but it was about the turkey's place as a food animal through history, and in particular how the story of the turkey to some extent is the story of the development of the "new world" and the American colonies. Lots of historical recipes, from the 1500's on.
I also re-read Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang which I try to re-read once a decade or so, as it's one of those important books in science fiction, like The Dispossessed or A Canticle for Leibowitz, that sort of established a particular sub-genre. All of these get a little dated after a while but hold up surprisingly well on story/plot line, but I did notice that WLTSBS felt a little more dated now than it did last time I read it; last time was before Dolly the Cloned Sheep, and before global warming had the emphasis it does these last few years, and so Wilhelm's projection of the ease of cloning humans, and her imagining that some form of radiation would be the problem, are definitely outdated now. Still, the "how easy it could be for civilization to collapse with one new plague and one worldwide weather disaster" theme resonates.
Passionate Minds by David Bodanis. The story of the love affair between Emilie du Chatelet and Voltaire, as much a biography of her as of him, and written in an engaging fashion so that it reads right along like a fiction romance. I enjoyed the parts where they work on translating Newton's books into French because Voltaire is so upset that France is behind England in scientific research; I did not know that about him. The book ends with an engaging "where are they now" section on what happens to all the bit players, and for that matter most of the buildings, that were somehow involved with Emilie and Voltaire.
The Perseids and Other Storied by Robert Charles Wilson. Short stories, somewhat related, in that they all take place in the same version of Toronto with some of the same characters wandering through, and the same used bookstore featured in several, although each story can be read without having any connection to the others as well. Pretty much all feature the theme of alienation and being alone in one's own head and an insignificant speck in the universe. Some interesting concepts in there.
Did I mention I read a book about turkeys? I forget the exact title, now, but it was about the turkey's place as a food animal through history, and in particular how the story of the turkey to some extent is the story of the development of the "new world" and the American colonies. Lots of historical recipes, from the 1500's on.
I also re-read Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang which I try to re-read once a decade or so, as it's one of those important books in science fiction, like The Dispossessed or A Canticle for Leibowitz, that sort of established a particular sub-genre. All of these get a little dated after a while but hold up surprisingly well on story/plot line, but I did notice that WLTSBS felt a little more dated now than it did last time I read it; last time was before Dolly the Cloned Sheep, and before global warming had the emphasis it does these last few years, and so Wilhelm's projection of the ease of cloning humans, and her imagining that some form of radiation would be the problem, are definitely outdated now. Still, the "how easy it could be for civilization to collapse with one new plague and one worldwide weather disaster" theme resonates.
