A month I’d planned to be TBR and American Classics-heavy was instead dominated by the ongoing Space Camp series, though I still managed to squeeze in some technical progress.

Science Survey
The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World, Nichola Raihani
The Red Planet, Simon Morden.

We’re now at 7/12 categories filled, since anthropology has already been claimed.

Classics Club Strikes Back:
The First Men in the Moon, Jules Verne


We’re at 9/50. I don’t have any pre-planned August reads for the classics, so — anything goes. The Moon is Down will be first, since I’d intended to read it in July along with The First Men in the Moon. (…it has nothing to do with the moon, though. It’s set during the Baltic states during the opening salvos of WW2.)

Climbing Mount Doom
The First Conspiracy: The Plot to Kill George Washington, Brad Meltzer
The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, Edward Larson
The First Men in the Moon, Jules Verne

The Unreviewed:
The two science titles will be dealt with this week. The First Conpiracy details at 1776 plot to kill George Washington, and I was very much surprised by the title: this is an incident I’ve never heard of, though I knew some of the connected people through a previously read title on a counterfeiting circle that the Brits were using to weaken rebel currency. Most memorable from this book is the figure of Governor Tyron, the Loyalist governor of New York who at one point was chased out of town and parked himself in the harbor, plotting against Washington and the revolution from there like some 18th century supervillain. The book’s narrative style was too “TV Drama”-esque for me, however.

Purchases
Philosophy: Who Needs It?, Ayn Rand
Please Stop Helping Us, Jason Riley
Star Talk: Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond, Neil deGrasse Tyson
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield
Chemistry for Breakfast, Mai Thi Nyugen-Kim

Looking into August: I expect the opening month to be science-heavy, but I’m also starving for fiction, and have a particular appetite for historical fiction or military/technical thrillers.