Reading Wrap-Up: March 2022
Apr. 4th, 2022 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
justanorthernlightPrisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About The World by Tim Marshall - Nonfiction. As the title suggests, this book explores how geography shapes geopolitics and international relations. Geography, in this case, encompasses everything from mountains, rivers, and coasts to natural resources like oil to soil quality for farming.
It was an interesting read and the writing isn't too technical, but its a subject I don't know much about so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Also some of the later chapters felt less in depth than the earlier ones, but that might have been because the main concepts had already been explained and were just being applied to new locations.
Star Wars: Age Of Rebellion: Heroes & Star Wars: Age of Rebellion: Villains written (mostly) by Greg Pak, with several different artists - A series of one-shot comic issues centered on different characters, in this case Leia, Han, Lando, Luke, Tarkin, Boba Fett, Jabba, and Vader, with a special split up into three even shorter adventures with Yoda, IG-88, and Biggs & Porkins.
Overall I liked it, especially Luke and Jabba's issues (Luke's is set between ESB and ROTJ, a period I've always found under explored, and Jabba's is him cleverly dealing with a threat to his power on Tatooine). There's also some nice Lando content, he has his own issue and a supporting role in Leia's issue. The special was pretty meh but it did give me a piece of Star Wars trivia I didn't know before, which is that the actor who played Porkins was once questioned by the FBI regarding the assassination of JFK.
I read both Age of Republic and Age of Resistance a couple of years ago, Age of Resistance was my favorite but all three are pretty decent.
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (His Dark Material #1) - Reread. A classic children's steampunk-y fantasy adventure with animal companions, talking bears, and a corrupt church doing experiments on children. I'm rereading because I never got around to finishing the final book in the trilogy, and by this point I've forgotten too many of the plot details to appreciate it.
As I've mentioned before, this is one of those iconic fantasy books I was banned from reading as a child, which is a bummer because it's pretty great. The first time I read it a lot of my attention was on my own reaction to it, which tends to happen when I'm trying to recapture other peoples' childhood nostalgia, this time through I was able to get absorbed in the narrative a lot easier.
I loved Iorek & Lee Scoresby, and Lyra was a different type of protagonist than I'm used to in such settings. (I'm about halfway through my reread of The Subtle Knife, and Lyra's competence has been competence nerfed, which is making it a lot less compelling).
2022 reading goal progress: Total books: 8 of 50; nonfiction: 2 of 7.
I'm doing a lot of reading for school (piecemeal PDFs, articles, and websites), and it's been leaving me almost too tired to read before bed. I also want to finish the 2015 Star Wars comic run, but volume 11 has been out of stock in physical for at least the past 6 months.
It was an interesting read and the writing isn't too technical, but its a subject I don't know much about so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Also some of the later chapters felt less in depth than the earlier ones, but that might have been because the main concepts had already been explained and were just being applied to new locations.
Star Wars: Age Of Rebellion: Heroes & Star Wars: Age of Rebellion: Villains written (mostly) by Greg Pak, with several different artists - A series of one-shot comic issues centered on different characters, in this case Leia, Han, Lando, Luke, Tarkin, Boba Fett, Jabba, and Vader, with a special split up into three even shorter adventures with Yoda, IG-88, and Biggs & Porkins.
Overall I liked it, especially Luke and Jabba's issues (Luke's is set between ESB and ROTJ, a period I've always found under explored, and Jabba's is him cleverly dealing with a threat to his power on Tatooine). There's also some nice Lando content, he has his own issue and a supporting role in Leia's issue. The special was pretty meh but it did give me a piece of Star Wars trivia I didn't know before, which is that the actor who played Porkins was once questioned by the FBI regarding the assassination of JFK.
I read both Age of Republic and Age of Resistance a couple of years ago, Age of Resistance was my favorite but all three are pretty decent.
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (His Dark Material #1) - Reread. A classic children's steampunk-y fantasy adventure with animal companions, talking bears, and a corrupt church doing experiments on children. I'm rereading because I never got around to finishing the final book in the trilogy, and by this point I've forgotten too many of the plot details to appreciate it.
As I've mentioned before, this is one of those iconic fantasy books I was banned from reading as a child, which is a bummer because it's pretty great. The first time I read it a lot of my attention was on my own reaction to it, which tends to happen when I'm trying to recapture other peoples' childhood nostalgia, this time through I was able to get absorbed in the narrative a lot easier.
I loved Iorek & Lee Scoresby, and Lyra was a different type of protagonist than I'm used to in such settings. (I'm about halfway through my reread of The Subtle Knife, and Lyra's competence has been competence nerfed, which is making it a lot less compelling).
2022 reading goal progress: Total books: 8 of 50; nonfiction: 2 of 7.
I'm doing a lot of reading for school (piecemeal PDFs, articles, and websites), and it's been leaving me almost too tired to read before bed. I also want to finish the 2015 Star Wars comic run, but volume 11 has been out of stock in physical for at least the past 6 months.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-06 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-06 06:51 am (UTC)Like, comparing her handling of Bolvanger or Iofur's court in TGC (or even her escape from Mrs. Coulter early on) to her interactions with Sir Charles or the police in Will's world is just night and day.
Grr.