castiron: cartoony sketch of owl (Default)
castiron ([personal profile] castiron) wrote2019-08-21 08:36 pm
Entry tags:

Wednesday took books back to the library

I've had a few weeks where I haven't done much reading (granted, because I chose to play Seeker's Notes in my free time rather than because I didn't have free time), so I took several unfinished books back to the library. All these are well-written books that either aren't quite my thing or that I wasn't in the mood for.

* Mary Norris, Greek to Me. A memoir of the author's experiences with Greece, its language (both ancient and modern), and culture.
* Charlotte Higgins, It's All Greek to Me. An intro to ancient Greek culture, literature, and mythology.
* Jordanna Max Brodsky, The Wolf in the Whale. The Viking visits to North America from an Inuit POV. I don't know how well the cultural aspects were handled; ditto the gender fluidity. What I read of the story was interesting, but it was heading for some dark places that I wasn't in the mood for. I'll probably try it again down the road.


* David John Doukas, Planning for Uncertainty: Living Wills and Other Advance Directives for You and Your Family. Seems to be a good summary of what to consider when making advance medical directives and such; I'm going to check this one out again. (US-focused, so while the discussions of one's values and wishes are universal, the specific legal options won't necessarily be of use to non-US readers.) This would probably make a good companion read with Atul Gawande's Being Mortal.
*
Adam Savage, Every Tool's a Hammer. Combination of memoir and Savage's making philosophy. Entertaining, but it feels a bit like an essay collection forced into a coherent book, and I wonder if it'd have worked better as a bunch of short essays. I may get this for Spouse for Christmas and finish reading it then.

What I did actually finish: more volumes of The Comfortable Courtesan. As soon as Amazon makes the print version of Two Weddings and Several Revelations orderable, it's on its way to me.


Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org