Tag Archives: week in review

This week at the library… Alison Weir’s Captive Queen, a novel of Henry II and Eleanor. Straining conventions, two young aristocrats marry for love — but the problems of empire, politics, and family life may prove too much for them. … Continue reading →

This week… Dynasty of Evil, Drew Karpyshyn concludes the Darth Bane trilogy on a short but fitting note, as both Bane and his apprentice prepare for a confrontation that will decide the future course of the Sith while the Dark … Continue reading →

Recent reading: A Walk Across America, Peter Jenkins. A disillusioned college student in the early 1970s decides to walk across North America to see if there’s anything in his home country worth staying for. The memoir covers the first leg … Continue reading →

I never intended to make this last week “Science Fiction Week”, but it emerged that way following a series of coincidences. I finished Carl Sagan’s Contact a few days later than anticipated: his book, which portrays humanity’s first contact with an … Continue reading →

From the past two weeks…. Memories of Old Cahaba dates to the start of the 20th century, and is the recollections of a woman who lived in Alabama’s first state capital (now a ghost town) as a teenager. I checked … Continue reading →

This week… I started off with Michael Jan Friedman’s Death in Winter, the origin of The Next Generation‘s “relaunch” in novelizations. With the Enterprise still being repaired following Nemesis, Picard is tasked with carrying out a secret mission in Romulan … Continue reading →

This week…. I started off with Revenge of the Sith, Matthew Stover’s excellent novelization of Star Wars’ Episode III. Stover improved upon the movie by expanding characterization and creating deeper tension between the lead characters that redeemed weaker parts of … Continue reading →

This week at the library…. I read North Korea: Another Country, a work which intended to show how North Korea’s history shaped its current path as a militant  and isolationist state. Cumings drew from Korean culture and the state’s early … Continue reading →

This week at the library…. Plato’s Podcasts is an informal and slightly humorous take on Greek philosophy, operating from the idea that the dozen or so philosophers summarized within addressed the same essential problems that face people today. I enjoyed … Continue reading →