Good morning, folks! I missed my STS post last week due to sporadic posting, which was mostly because my WordPress install (or rather, the security enabled by my host) occasionally decides to not allow me to insert images into my posts. But here I am again!
Also, I know I’m doing badly at returning comments and dropping by people’s blogs. I’m still adjusting to some schedule changes with work, and doing a bad job of keeping everything balanced. I haven’t forgotten you all!
Books received to review:
Books read in the last two weeks:
Reviews posted since the last roundup:
–How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill. Rather misleadingly titled: it’s more about how Irish monasteries copied Greek and Roman works so they weren’t lost. So a very specific definition of civilization. 2/5 stars
–Beauty, by Robin McKinley. A relatively simple retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but effective! 4/5 stars
–The Etruscans, by Lucy Shipley. Not a subject I knew much about, and this book makes a beautiful introduction to various Etruscan objects and what we understand about the people. 4/5 stars
–The Lost Girls, by Sarah Painter. I’m honestly still pondering the review and rating, even though it’s already posted. There’s definitely interesting stuff, but I found the ending kind of unsatisfying, and the romance particularly so. But then, that’s not really what the book was doing, in the end… 3/5 stars
–A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. This didn’t quite work for me, partially because it’s very like two series I really love and admire. 3/5 stars
–T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, by Walter Alvarez. Engaging and surprisingly riveting for me, given I knew the theory in quite a bit of detail. Alvarez is great at explaining the evidence. 4/5 stars
–The Golden Thread, by Kassia St Clair. A history of fabric, from Viking sails to modern high performance fabric. Pretty riveting, from my point of view! 4/5 stars
Other posts:
–WWW Wednesday. The update on what I’ve been reading this week.
Out and about:
–NEAT science: ‘The Red Queen.‘ Inspiration from classic children’s literature in the world of biology.
–NEAT science: ‘A cool customer.’ Another vertebrate without haemoglobin!
So that’s it; that’s the update. How’s everyone else doing? Busy week? Reading anything good?
I’m intrigued by The Etruscans and the T Rex book – it’s been a while since I read any non-fiction and these are two topics close to my heart. I’ve been travelling for work this week, so got to spend a couple of days in Copenhagen (which I didn’t really get to see, because work, but which I like on principle: lots of bikes, lots of water, interesting architecture, Danish sense of humour). This new job is quite overwhelming (not necessarily hard per se, but there’s a lot to process) so my reading has taken a knock, but finally read Children of Blood and Bone this week (which I didn’t love, although I appreciate what it’s doing) and I’m thinking about a Do Nothing But Read day tomorrow to try and cross at least one more Subjective Chaos nominee off my reading list. We’ll see 🙂 Doing nothing but reading tomorrow is pretty tempting though! Please don’t worry about return visits and comments – these things all even out in the long run (says me, knowing full well I’m dreadful at keeping on top of bloghopping 😉
imyril recently posted…Book tags: the last ten books tag
Walter Alvarez’s book is a total classic already — it’s all about the process of working out how the extinction happened and what exactly happened. It’s great; he writes really clearly.
I only found out about Walking to Aldabaran recently, and I am so intrigued! Tchaikovsky seems to be churning out the books lately too, I can barely keep up with what’s coming out.
Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…Book Review: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Yeah, same! Maybe I’ll pick it up properly this week during my time away. 🙂