2023 Books
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
A really beautiful book. The details are so rich here that the story feels more grounded in Goha's life in a way that the first three books never did. I love the conversation between Goha and Moss about women's magic. Le Guin wrote that she wanted this story to be about the people who inhabited the worlds of traditional fantasy, the ones who things happened to rather than those causing all the action. I think it succeeds and feels very unique as a result.
Tales of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The further I go in these books the more I appreciate them. These short stories are great because you get to see such a variety of characters and their lives, not beholden to any single overarching narrative. Or at least that narrative can only be glimpsed through a dozen broken mirrors. I particularly enjoy the love stories.
The Other Wind by Ursula K. Leguin
The last of the Earthsea books. There are more viewpoint characters. Like so many of her other books the internal journey dwarfs the external plot. The characters' internal thoughts, worries and attempts at understanding bring everything to life. I think the previous two are perhaps a bit better but it might just be that I'm sad to see the series end.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
I read this as an exercise to better understand the voice and diction of detective noir novels and found it wonderfully escapist and satisfying. The language and tone, filled with slang, excellent physical description, colorful metaphor were well worth the time spent. I hope to dip into the genre a bit more in the future.
5 Worlds Series by Mark Siegel & Alexis Siegel
We the first couple of books in school and I finished the series. Lovely artwork. It is a pastiche of many influences, certainly Star Wars, Amulet and others. As a childrens's book I think it works because it very much plays with timeless themes and many children will be interfacing with those ideas for the first time. It's not perfect. If it was a movie I would suggest some reshoots and a better editor. Also it does not reach the level of many of its influences. Do I wish children's science fantasy would include greater diversity of themes and just once mention coordination problems? Sure. However, the kitchen-sink setting is a feature for a teacher because it allows you to focus more deeply on any of the many ideas it introduces.
Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil
It took me a year to read this book and it is the most informative book I have ever read. Absolutely incredible for understanding the underpinnings of human history and of modern society. It is not difficult to read but to apprehend the breadth of information covered is to sip from a firehose, and at least for me it required many sidetrips to reference material. Depending on your level of curiosity and general knowledge of history and technology, this book might necessitate more or less excursive study. If knowledge is a network of hooks that pulls disparate trivia together then this is an entire thicket. The knock is that it's a bit dry but it's hard to imagine anyone who could read it and find nothing worthwhile. Recommended.
The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris
A very good history. Morris is confident enough to present his beliefs as narrative and also detailed enough to go through a good amount of evidence and provide reasons as to why. The book is written by someone with an academic understanding but very much for a lay audience, and it comes across as authoritative, fascinating and approachable. This was invaluable for imagining the minds and ideas of people from a very distant and turbulent period in English history. On to Dolmenwood.
Cities Without Number by Kevin Crawford
A Cyberpunk RPG system broadly compatible with the other, better-known Sine Nomine games (Stars & Worlds Without Number). Interesting bits: It is classless, breaking class advantages down into discrete options called edges. The equipment list is good, including tons of options for cyberware and also drones and vehicles. Everything can be modded. Hacking is also interesting. It uses a verb-object keyword system to define abilities and targets, similar in some ways similar to Ars Magica's techniques and forms. Hackable circuitry is well-explained with concrete examples, a serious failing of other games. A few things are fiddly (maintenance & trauma dice) but that's sort of what you are signing up for in cyberpunk games with mechanically robust support for genre conventions. Worth picking up the free version at least.
Britain After Rome: 400-1070 by Robin Fleming
This was an amazing read. It is more of a social history than The Anglo-Saxons, focusing on a wider swath of actors. Much of the evidence is drawn from archaeological evidence, and in that sense it provides a great counterpoint to the other book's focus on documentary evidence. I would read this one second, because getting an idea of the larger political actors helps to contextualize the people and events that Fleming talks about. The thing that it does really well is to provide rich theories about what life must have been like and to aid the reader to visualise the world for people at the time. It does a great job of connecting concrete historical evidence with an imagined past.
Lightbringer by Pierce Brown
A bit of a slow start but at this point I'm invested. Sometimes it feels like characters are struggling emotionally primarily to provide a dramatic arc. In other cases, characters who have great reason to kill each other do not because there isn't enough room left in the plot. Also, there are a few science fiction tropes that I don't particularly like from a tonal perspective. Nits aside, Brown is always incredibly engaging, with such evocative characters and thrill-ride plots. There were points I wanted to scream at the characters in the story and that kind of emotion is why I can't help but wait for the next novel.
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (abridged audiobook version)
I remember this book as something of a disappointment from my first reading and it was definitely quite a step down from the first novel. Herbert faces a narrative problem here: what can be done to dramatize the story of a hero who does not act? The story is far more palatable now than in high school but still there is plenty of mood and foreshadowing but little plot.
Book Review: The Educated Mind by Kieran Egan
Am I padding my numbers? Sure, but this book review is the thing I read this year that is most likely to change my life. It introduced me to the ideas of Kieran Egan and opened new avenues for me to grow as a teacher. The writer, Brandon Hendrickson, is a fantastic teacher and source of educational ideas in his own right. A winner of the Astral Codex Ten book review contest, this long review is worth a read for anyone interested.
A good entry point to Egan's ideas. It is short, descriptive, and provides enough detail and structure to put things into practice on your own. Full review forthcoming.
A Walking Curriculum: Evoking Wonder and Developing Sense of Place [K-12] by Gillian Judson
A good source of ideas for getting children outside and learning from their surroundings. Although brief, it provided me with foundations for a number of lessons and activities at school and at home. I hope to try some of these and report back.
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