One of the best books I‘ve ever read.

I‘m just a bit at a loss for words to be honest. There‘s no way I could fully discuss this novel without writing a true essay-length-verging-on-dissertation exploration on this story‘s depth and richness, but… I‘m gobsmacked at the rawness and reality of this novel written in 1870s.

Just breathtaking.

Yesterday I saw an English first edition of Auto-Emancipation! I read this pamphlet back in undergrad for my E.E. Jewish history class and was always struck with how utopian it was. Kind of jaw-dropping how history turns out sometimes!

This little sequel to Garrett Ryan‘s first collection of fun answered-questions was just as welcome the second time around.

I watch his YouTube channel so I recognized a lot of the same bits repurposed, but I don‘t watch every video so there were some surprises.

The book does suffer in the middle with relation to Ryan‘s ceaseless ponderings of the more boring aspects of Roman commerce, government, and the army, but still worth the quick read!

I read this for my aunt‘s book club because I love her deeply, but holy shit, this was truly terrible. This novel is somehow a Hallmark movie in print masquerading as a deep exploration of trauma. Gag. Horrible dialogue, unrealistic plot movement, one-dimensional characters… Some jaw-dropping moments when these three strikes come together.

First edition fun-fact: That beautiful frontispiece when you Google this book? Not in here! Doesn‘t show up until the fourth edition. And this one is only a quarto! Super cute accessory for your well-dressed-but-still-depressed 17th-century stroll 🤩🤩

Oedipus at Colonus is a weird tragedy in that the climax of the play is not really tragic. I even hesitate to call this play a tragedy: yes, some machinations of fate are at play, and yes, Polynices' obstinacy to go to his death are sad, but the story here is of Oedipus and his fate to die in glory with the gods.

Oedipus is practically assumed as Christians would later call it—it‘s such a supernatural ending to such an earthy tradition, no?

Company of Liars is a cozy, entertaining, and immersive novel set during the English run of the Black Death. It has a great many twists that keep you hungering for more—

Unfortunately, I thought it was a straight historical fiction novel. It instead gets pretty fantastical and borderline paranormal towards the end in a way that totally took me out of the world I was coming to inhabit.

#historicalfiction #medieval #historicalfantasy #blackdeath