book list, February 2018
Mar. 1st, 2018 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingIt's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in Febuary 2018. Click on the cuts for summaries and reactions. I reserve the right to spoil all hell out of any book if spoilery bits are what I feel like talking about.
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The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet, by Henry Fountain
-----This book does three interrelated things, all centered around Alaska's 1964 Good Friday earthquake. The first is a life-and-work history of George Plafker, a geologist specializing in Alaska. The second is a description of two Alaskan communities -- the village of Chenega and the small city of Valdez -- and their experiences before, during, and after the quake. The third is a history of the theory of plate tectonics and how the earthquake provided one of the key pieces of supporting evidence for that theory.
It's well-written and reads smoothly and easily, despite the interweaving of narrative threads. I am not entirely convinced by the thesis that the quake was so terribly important as proof of plate tectonics -- the book itself describes various other proofs gathering in the 1960s -- but that thesis is probably as much a product of marketing as anything else, so eh. In any case, this is a cool look at the development of a surprisingly recent scientific theory, a good portrait of field science in action, and a glimpse at parts of Alaska's culture and history that are little known in the rest of the United States.
The Trail of the Hare: Environment and Stress in a Sub-Arctic Community, by Joel S. Savishinsky (2nd ed.)
-----AKA the book I read for my ethnographic reading assignment. *wry* I mean, I'd had it on hand for approaching fifteen years, since I first acquired it (secondhand) as semi-applicable background research for one of my original worlds/stories, but life kept getting in the way of clearing out my to-read shelves, so I'm glad I finally had a reason to overcome inertia and actually finish this.
It is, so far as I can tell, a pretty standard ethnological study. If you like that kind of thing, you'll probably like it; if not, you will find it hideously boring. The ethnological "present" Savishinsky uses is circa 1970 (which he is very up-front about), and while he kept that aspect in the second edition, he did add some brief discussion of events in Canada's Northwest Territories between 1970 and 1993, which was the date he submitted the revised manuscript.
Also, it totally did end up being useful background research -- if not directly for Ekanu Thousandbirds and her people, the Domaris, then for the more settled people to their immediate south in Mohrad. :)
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And now I am off to my church Stewardship Committee meeting for pizza and planning. Mmm, pizza... :)
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The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet, by Henry Fountain
-----This book does three interrelated things, all centered around Alaska's 1964 Good Friday earthquake. The first is a life-and-work history of George Plafker, a geologist specializing in Alaska. The second is a description of two Alaskan communities -- the village of Chenega and the small city of Valdez -- and their experiences before, during, and after the quake. The third is a history of the theory of plate tectonics and how the earthquake provided one of the key pieces of supporting evidence for that theory.
It's well-written and reads smoothly and easily, despite the interweaving of narrative threads. I am not entirely convinced by the thesis that the quake was so terribly important as proof of plate tectonics -- the book itself describes various other proofs gathering in the 1960s -- but that thesis is probably as much a product of marketing as anything else, so eh. In any case, this is a cool look at the development of a surprisingly recent scientific theory, a good portrait of field science in action, and a glimpse at parts of Alaska's culture and history that are little known in the rest of the United States.
The Trail of the Hare: Environment and Stress in a Sub-Arctic Community, by Joel S. Savishinsky (2nd ed.)
-----AKA the book I read for my ethnographic reading assignment. *wry* I mean, I'd had it on hand for approaching fifteen years, since I first acquired it (secondhand) as semi-applicable background research for one of my original worlds/stories, but life kept getting in the way of clearing out my to-read shelves, so I'm glad I finally had a reason to overcome inertia and actually finish this.
It is, so far as I can tell, a pretty standard ethnological study. If you like that kind of thing, you'll probably like it; if not, you will find it hideously boring. The ethnological "present" Savishinsky uses is circa 1970 (which he is very up-front about), and while he kept that aspect in the second edition, he did add some brief discussion of events in Canada's Northwest Territories between 1970 and 1993, which was the date he submitted the revised manuscript.
Also, it totally did end up being useful background research -- if not directly for Ekanu Thousandbirds and her people, the Domaris, then for the more settled people to their immediate south in Mohrad. :)
-----
And now I am off to my church Stewardship Committee meeting for pizza and planning. Mmm, pizza... :)
