Welcome to the first installment of a semi-annual roundup of short thoughts on books I’ve read, but either haven’t had time to or couldn’t be arsed to write something longer.

✦   The Fall of Babel - Josiah Bancroft   ✦

The fourth and final installment of The Books of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft, and the first series I’ve finished in at least 25 years. Love these books! Josiah Bancroft is definitely one of my favorite authors these days. Wasn’t a huge fan of the ending - felt it went a bit off-the-rails - but it was largely a satisfying conclusion to a relatively hefty investment of pages.

✦   Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green   ✦

Fantastic book that depicts the sad, infuriating state of medical funding, particularly to African countries. Short, but punchy, and quick to evoke the humanity of tuberculosis patients, particularly through Henry, a young patient and the book’s main focus. Made me wonder where all the billionaires are, who could easily donate enough money to fix this sort of thing. Then I remembered: we have sucky billionaires who hate poor folks…

✦   A Tangle of Time - Josiah Bancroft   ✦

I fell in love with The Hexologists and absolutely had to read this book even though I had just read The Fall of Babel. I don’t think it’s quite as affecting as its predecessor, but part of what I loved so much about the first one was the novelty of the characters and the refined prose. Because this is a sequel, I can’t reasonably expect the same kind of novelty. This book does, however, maintain the deft prose and well-drawn characters, and further explores the world with another engaging mystery. I’ll keep reading these as long as he keeps writing them.

✦   Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission - Hampton Sides   ✦

There are so many crazy aspects to this story: strong characters, outsized acts of valor, horrifying atrocities. It’s moving, with moments ranging from joy to grief to outrage. Maybe I live in a bubble, but on more than one occasion I found myself thinking, “Holy crap, they did WHAT to another human being???” and now I have a newfound appreciation for the fact that I’m way too old to be drafted. I hadn’t read anything from Hampton Sides before, but his work comes highly-recommended online. Erik Larson and David Grann write books only so quickly, so I’m always on the lookout for immersive popular history authors to latch onto. Just an overall wonderful book.

✦   Eversion - Alastair Reynolds   ✦

Fun! The mystery unfolds subtly as you figure out how to read the book. It sinks in after the first couple chapters and then you’re on the ride. And it’s not a ride like the teacups at Disney World. At the end you’ll be like, “Oh, that was fun and definitely not unpleasant.” I should check out other things this guy’s written.

✦   The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America - David Baron   ✦

I’d been looking forward to reading this and it fulfilled my expectations. I loves me some offbeat 19th century science! People are just as ridiculous and loosey-goosey now about what constitutes a fact as they were back then and I don’t feel great about that.

✦   Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond   ✦

Really interesting, but dense. Way denser than your average popular history book. For maybe 15% of the book my eyes were glazed over, but the rest of it was super compelling in the way it tracked the expansion of civilization and compared the circumstances of the people who followed each branch. Gotta be in the mood for this one, but it’s worth it.

✦   I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom - Jason Pargin   ✦

Enjoyable and funny, but with more than a few moments of preachiness and childish sensibility. It’s a solid choice for a light summer read if you don’t mind being a little irritated every few chapters.

✦   Dinner With King Tut - Sam Kean   ✦

Good, but not one of his best. Not a fan of the short fiction throughout - exceedingly “meh” and not illustrative enough for it to be worthwhile, but the non-fiction was the kind of interesting subject matter and engaging prose typical of Sam Kean.

✦   The Secret History - Donna Tartt   ✦

I didn’t expect to enjoy this at all. It always seemed like the kind of book that would be stereotypically “Dark Academia,” which doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, but people with trustworthy taste in literature recommended it, so I took a chance and I’m glad I did. All the main characters are so insufferably weird and elitist and irresponsible with money (not to mention murdery), I am totally at a loss for why anyone outside of their clique would associate with any of them. Yet I never got bored and never wanted to throw the book across the room, which doesn’t sound like an endorsement, but it definitely is.