maribou | Novice Eagle in War; The Espantoso Atheist We Breathe

The Novice, by Trudi Canavan
I don't know why, but this bogstandard fantasy series is somehow WAY BETTER than the other bogstandard fantasy series I've read. And I mean, I quite liked some of those. But this one is just so good! And I can't put my finger on what the difference is. It might be the pacing, but I think that is just me making stuff up because it weirds me out not to have an answer. Everything about it is just ... better. In some incredibly subtle way that I can't pinpoint.
(98/300)

In War Times, by Kathleen Ann Goonan
I enjoyed this alternate-history-of-WW2-to-the-present-day. It kept me engaged and curious throughout. I don't think it's quite as brilliant as her other works, but maybe that's just because it's less strange. It had resonances with KSR's global warming trilogy for me, for some reason, even though they really don't have all that much in common. Maybe just the using of physics and music and people trying to fix the world against nigh-insurmountable odds makes things feel KSR-y somehow.
(99/300)

The Eagle, by Jack Whyte
The 9th book in this series, a retelling of Arthur myth set in nigh-immediately-post-Roman Britain. Don't read it unless you've already read the other 8. For those who have read the rest, it was a satisfying conclusion to the epic and it had very shiny bits, but I must confess I am as much relieved that it's done as anything else. Don't think I'll be trying out his Templar stuff any time too soon.

The Atheist and the Holy City, by George Klein
There is very much to love in this collection of essays by an important oncologist who also has a lyrical and informed viewpoint on non-scientific matters, and only a few things to be bothered by (mostly, I think, the latter have to do with the book being more than 20 years old). Also, for the most part? Even though it was written in 1987, this book TOTALLY does not feel 20 years old - many of the important things in it have a timeless quality. Kalevala- and Rilke-quoting Hungarian-born Swedish cancer researchers for the win!
(101/300)

The Air We Breathe, by Andrea Barrett
It is a measure of Barrett's skill that she manages to make first-person-collective narration work. Fascinating novel with lots of interesting bits about TB, immigrants to the US during WW1, paleontology, and X-rays. And juicy quotes from an old edition of Mendeleev. She writes wonderful books, she does.
(102/300)

Alexander Y El Dia Terrible, Horrible, Espantoso, Horroso, by Judith Viorst
Still enjoying my project of reading my most-loved children's classics over again, but in Spanish. If I was being good, I would read this one over again with a dictionary in hand. But you know, I think figuring stuff out from context is more useful to my brain, even if it means I don't understand every last word as an individual entity ...
(103/300)