book list, May 2019
Jun. 1st, 2019 11:59 am![[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 May 2019. 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.
The Broken Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Book 2 of the Inheritance Trilogy, which mostly takes place ten years after the end of the previous volume. This one follows Oree Shoth and her troublesome houseguest through the dangerous undercurrents of life in the city of Shadow, aka the remnants of Sky as rearranged around the roots of the World Tree. This deepens the worldbuilding from the first book, and smudges everything further toward shades of gray instead of clear-cut good and evil.
The Kingdom of Gods, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Book 3 of the Inheritance Trilogy, which takes place... oh, let's say two or three generations after the first volume. (Timing inexact because our POV character, Sieh, doesn't care.) Once again, the worldbuilding deepens and everything gets grayer, but we end on a... conditional high note, might be the best way to phrase it? That is, it's not a perfect ending, but a perfect ending is by definition impossible so we get the next best thing. This novel wraps up a number of loose threads from the previous two books, and while I wish Jemisin had spent about fifty more pages developing the interpersonal relationships between Sieh, Shahar, and Dekarta, I think by and large the series ends on an intensely satisfying note.
Shades in Shadow, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Three short stories in the Inheritance Trilogy universe. The first is about how Nahadoth moves from purposeless despair to a desire for revenge in the early decades of his imprisonment, courtesy of a very angry and broken part-blood Arameri man. The second is about Hado/Ahad trying to find purpose for his life from the end of The Broken Kingdoms through The Kingdom of Gods. The third is about Glee Shoth searching for her father and her purpose in life.
The Awakened Kingdom, by N. K. Jemisin
-----A novella set another several generations after The Kingdom of Gods, following the young godling Shill as she journeys to the mortal world in an attempt to figure out her place in the universe. Shill's narrative voice is amazing, and I really liked seeing some of the repercussions of the Big Dramatic Events of the trilogy play themselves out over the decades.
The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America, by Steven Johnson
-----I enjoyed The Ghost Map enough that I decided to sample some of Johnson's other work. This was my first choice, because A) I am a Unitarian Universalist, and B) I am the child of a historian of science and technology. Obviously a book about Joseph Priestly is exactly up my alley! However, while the subject matter of this book is fascinating, I don't feel it lives up to The Ghost Map. This is a little bit because the section on Priestly's life after moving to America feels a bit like a tacked-on afterthought, and a little because I wanted a more in-depth examination of his politics and theology, as well as more details about his experiments.
Tangentially, I was a bit surprised to learn that apparently Priestly's biggest claim to fame as a scientist is the discovery (with an asterisk) of oxygen, because the science story that I have always associated with him is the plant in an airtight jar not dying, and then even keeping a mouse alive for several minutes when mice died in seconds when put in airtight jars without an accompanying plant. Which is about biospheres and photosynthesis and gas exchange and stuff, rather than oxygen per se. The thing is, I genuinely have no idea where I first heard that story. It could have been at school; that's precisely the kind of thing my 5th-grade science teacher would have used as an example of DIY environmental research. It could have been in Sunday school, because as previously mentioned I'm a UU and we both claim Priestly at high volume and would find that experiment a perfect Sunday school lesson about "the interconnected web of all being" or whatever phrasing is in use these days. And it could have been at home, because as also previously mentioned my dad is a historian of science and technology and is additionally the kind of person who enjoys explaining math and science concepts at the dinner table (and I was the kind of kid who made him work the math out on napkins so I could see what he was doing).
But anyway, I enjoyed this book despite wanting it to be a slightly different book than it actually is. *wry*
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And now I shall return to sending NYSEG request-for-service emails on behalf of incoming tenants, because somebody has to do it. *sigh*
The Broken Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Book 2 of the Inheritance Trilogy, which mostly takes place ten years after the end of the previous volume. This one follows Oree Shoth and her troublesome houseguest through the dangerous undercurrents of life in the city of Shadow, aka the remnants of Sky as rearranged around the roots of the World Tree. This deepens the worldbuilding from the first book, and smudges everything further toward shades of gray instead of clear-cut good and evil.
The Kingdom of Gods, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Book 3 of the Inheritance Trilogy, which takes place... oh, let's say two or three generations after the first volume. (Timing inexact because our POV character, Sieh, doesn't care.) Once again, the worldbuilding deepens and everything gets grayer, but we end on a... conditional high note, might be the best way to phrase it? That is, it's not a perfect ending, but a perfect ending is by definition impossible so we get the next best thing. This novel wraps up a number of loose threads from the previous two books, and while I wish Jemisin had spent about fifty more pages developing the interpersonal relationships between Sieh, Shahar, and Dekarta, I think by and large the series ends on an intensely satisfying note.
Shades in Shadow, by N. K. Jemisin
-----Three short stories in the Inheritance Trilogy universe. The first is about how Nahadoth moves from purposeless despair to a desire for revenge in the early decades of his imprisonment, courtesy of a very angry and broken part-blood Arameri man. The second is about Hado/Ahad trying to find purpose for his life from the end of The Broken Kingdoms through The Kingdom of Gods. The third is about Glee Shoth searching for her father and her purpose in life.
The Awakened Kingdom, by N. K. Jemisin
-----A novella set another several generations after The Kingdom of Gods, following the young godling Shill as she journeys to the mortal world in an attempt to figure out her place in the universe. Shill's narrative voice is amazing, and I really liked seeing some of the repercussions of the Big Dramatic Events of the trilogy play themselves out over the decades.
The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America, by Steven Johnson
-----I enjoyed The Ghost Map enough that I decided to sample some of Johnson's other work. This was my first choice, because A) I am a Unitarian Universalist, and B) I am the child of a historian of science and technology. Obviously a book about Joseph Priestly is exactly up my alley! However, while the subject matter of this book is fascinating, I don't feel it lives up to The Ghost Map. This is a little bit because the section on Priestly's life after moving to America feels a bit like a tacked-on afterthought, and a little because I wanted a more in-depth examination of his politics and theology, as well as more details about his experiments.
Tangentially, I was a bit surprised to learn that apparently Priestly's biggest claim to fame as a scientist is the discovery (with an asterisk) of oxygen, because the science story that I have always associated with him is the plant in an airtight jar not dying, and then even keeping a mouse alive for several minutes when mice died in seconds when put in airtight jars without an accompanying plant. Which is about biospheres and photosynthesis and gas exchange and stuff, rather than oxygen per se. The thing is, I genuinely have no idea where I first heard that story. It could have been at school; that's precisely the kind of thing my 5th-grade science teacher would have used as an example of DIY environmental research. It could have been in Sunday school, because as previously mentioned I'm a UU and we both claim Priestly at high volume and would find that experiment a perfect Sunday school lesson about "the interconnected web of all being" or whatever phrasing is in use these days. And it could have been at home, because as also previously mentioned my dad is a historian of science and technology and is additionally the kind of person who enjoys explaining math and science concepts at the dinner table (and I was the kind of kid who made him work the math out on napkins so I could see what he was doing).
But anyway, I enjoyed this book despite wanting it to be a slightly different book than it actually is. *wry*
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And now I shall return to sending NYSEG request-for-service emails on behalf of incoming tenants, because somebody has to do it. *sigh*
