Book Log 2016 #47: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The adoptive children of a figure simply called Father return to the house they grew up in, as Father (who may be God, or a god) has gone missing, and his library - from which the children learned specific disciplines and appear to hold the secrets of Creation - is unguarded. Ripe pickings for someone who would like to replace Father, either to wield untold power or keep others from doing so, like Carolyn.

The book follows her as she makes plans to enter the library and best her siblings, all while trying to balance that growing power with the fact that she is still human (which becomes less obvious the more she learns).

I liked the book, even though it's a little more in the fantasy realm than I normally go.

Book Log 2016 #46: A Friend of Mr. Lincoln by Stephen Harrigan

This historical novel follows Abraham Lincoln during his years in Springfield, Illinois, where as a lawyer and state legislator he honed his political instincts and rhetorical skills in the hopes of matching his ambition. The narrator is a poet (fictional) who is part of Lincoln's circle in Springfield, and we see Lincoln in all phases, from his political and courtroom successes to his bouts of depression to his dicey love life (which includes a shared mistress with the narrator and the unorthodox courtship of Mary Todd).

I really enjoyed this book, mostly because as someone who doesn't really have a good grasp on Lincoln pre-Presidency it filled a lot of gaps as to how Lincoln got to be the man who saved the Union (I know it's fiction, but the story isn't completely made from whole cloth, and Harrigan's writing gives things a sense of fact). This probably comes from Harrigan's multiple historical novels, none of which I've managed to read (though I'm surprised I never picked up The Gates of the Alamo, something I should probably remedy).

Book Log 2016 #45: Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson

It's not hard to be intrigued by Marcus Samuelsson, the Ethiopian turned Swede who at 24 became internationally renowned as the executive chef at Aquavit restaurant in New York City. This autobiography recounts how Samuelsson perservered over losing his mother in a tuberculosis epidemic, being separated from his father (who was still in their home village), and moving to Sweden (which is pretty much the exact opposite of Ethiopia), where he regularly cooked with is adoptive grandmother, setting him on the course to fame.

I have to admit I expected more struggle once Samuelsson got to Sweden, just from a racial perspective, but it seems like where the struggle really started was when he started in cooking, where he felt he needed to be the best to get the sort of notice that European chefs would get without perfection.

I do feel like the book hit its stride at the end, when Samuelsson opens Red Rooster in Harlem and reconnects with his father (and 18 step-siblings!) in Ethiopia. This really closed the circle for me, both for how obviously excited Samuelsson was to further explore his African roots and for realizing how uniquely lucky he was in being able to see family again.

Book Log 2016 #44: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

I don't read a lot of biography or personal essays (no good reason, just tend not to crack the lineup), but had been meaning to read this for a while, and I'm glad that I finally did. Though, oddly, I've not read any of his other collections since reading this one. That might be more about me than anything else.

(Also, the blurbs about this book say the title is inspired by Sedaris's attempts to learn French, but I thought it was more in reference to the story about his speech therapy while growing up in North Carolina, though I suppose the grammar of the title sounds more like someone who is learning a language. God knows I probably said things that translated to that when I took French in junior high.)

Book Log 2016 #43: End of Watch by Stephen King

The end of the "Mercedes Killer" trilogy, in which the killer has developed the mental powers seen in the last book to get his enemies to kill themselves. It's up to Bill Hodges and his detective agency colleagues to figure out a way to stop him (while Hodges himself faces his own, potentially deadly, personal problems).

I don't read a lot of King as I still tend to think of him as a straight horror author, but between this trilogy and 11/22/63 I should probably go back and see what else I'm missing (other than The Stand, which I've been meaning to read for years).

Book Log 2016 #42: Absolute Friends by John Le Carre

So this is not the book I was thinking of (A Legacy of Spies, which came out a year or so later and I really remember enjoying), but I do vaguely recall this as a story of two men, friends in their student days in Berlin, reconnecting in the current day to engage in one more mission, though with less clarity and/or sense of purpose as in their radical days.

I did read a couple of reviews of the book, both of which noted that the main character - a British tour guide in Berlin - was rootless and kind of undefined. I hadn't really thought about that when I read the book, as it seems to me that many of LeCarre's protagonists (especially in his post-Cold War books) would fit that description. Part of me also wonders if the character's girlfriend and her son are supposed to act as a kind of anchor, though I'm far enough removed from reading this to make an argument.

In any case, I seem to have liked it (four stars on Goodreads), but I tend to like everything from Le Carre.

Book Log 2016 #41: Avenue of Spies by Alex Kershaw

I really don't remember much about this book - the story of an American doctor in France who joins the Resistance during World War 2 - I gave it three stars on Goodreads, which suggests it wasn't terrible (the average ranking is 3.94, so clearly there are a number of people who liked it more than I did). So I won't try to theorize as to why I gave it that rating, but if nothing else it's probably a good non-fiction change of pace from all of the Alan Furst books.

Book Log 2016 #40: Going Clear by Lawrence Wright

This is the book on which the HBO documentary of the same name is based. It gives a history of Scientology and some of its leading figures - including founder L. Ron Hubbard - and looks at how the group developed, grew, and hold on to its members (including allegations of harsh punishment for members who step out of line). It spends a fair amount of time looking at some celebrity Scientologists, and discussing how the organization uses celebrity to boost itself, and how the celebrities influence its very operations.

Scientology pushed back against this book pretty heavily, not surprising given the group's history of litigation (there's also at least one exhaustive web critique of the book that's still online). But failing anything more transparent coming through official channels, this is likely the best look inside that we have, and is very much worth reading.

Book Log 2016 #39: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer

Mali doesn't get a much attention in the US with regards to the war on terror, but in the early part of the 2010s the country was more or less taken over by al-Qaeda, who co-opted a rebellion by the Touareg people to take control over most of the country.

One of the things this put in jeopardy is the country's large collection of historic manuscripts (both Islamic and secular), which had been collected over decades and stored in the city of Timbuktu. Fearing their destruction, a librarian (who was involved in collecting the manuscripts in the first place) arranged a smuggling operation aimed at getting the collection - numbering some 350,000 volumes - to relative safety in the southern part of the country, which was not under al-Qaeda control.

It's a gripping story, both for the actual movement of the collection and the recounting of life under a repressive theocratic insurgency. It's very much worth a read, both to learn about a part of the world that gets very little coverage (especially in the US) and to get even more confirmation that librarians are not to be trifled with.

Book Log 2016 #38: Eating for Ireland by Tom Doorley

I suppose I'd call this book a "food memoir," as it looks at specific foods and food-related topics from the author's experience growing up and living in Ireland.  I think the main issue for me is that I'm not Irish, so I don't have the references or experiences that would have allowed me to enjoy the book as deeply as someone who is Irish. That being said, I did like the writing style and stuck with it, and did find that I was able to use what experience I have with Ireland (and with being married into a British family, as there's a fair amount of similarity in food) to get a fair amount of enjoyment out of the book.

The structure - one chapter per item - does allow for easy browsing, which is helpful if you're not familiar with things like rissoles, drisheen, or schpring schprong (which I am not; just typing these I have no idea what they are, and I'm pretty sure I read about them!).

Book Log 2016 #37: The Only Rule is it Has to Work by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

While sabremetrics and other analytics continue to find a place in baseball, this book takes the quantitative approach to its logical conclusion, as the two authors are given free reign to use data to run the Sonoma Stompers, an independent professional baseball team. We see the pair evaluate talent (including some clearly non-quantitative shenanigans at a tryout aimed at landing a slugger that most teams seem to be overlooking), make day to day decisions, and deal with some unexpected drama (one of their players became the first American professional baseball player to come out as gay while still active).

For all of the numbers talk, the book is pretty much a year in the life of the team, and you easily get caught up in the regular drama as well as the conflicts that happen due to the specific way the team is being run. The book won't settle the argument for either side, but it is an enjoyable look at a low-stakes application of stats in baseball.

Book Log 2016 #36: The 14th Colony by Steve Berry

Looking at the description this would seem to check all the boxes for a Cotton Malone thriller, but I was somewhat disappointed in this book relative to the series. Not sure if it was the way the Order of the Cincinnati was used or just not a fan of the ending, I have vague memories of misgivings surrounding both. I do kind of wish Malone would go back to Europe and shoot up some more UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Book Log 2016 #35: Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst

I don't remember much about this book, and the author and publisher pages for the book both give the same, brief, mostly content-free description (guy tries to stop Nazis in Eastern Europe). But I seem to have liked it (four stars on Goodreads), and from the various reviews I've read it seems like it was generally well liked. I'm guessing if you like Furst's other novels you'll like this one.

Book Log 2016 #34: House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure

Set in the late 19th century, the son of a prosperous architect gets mixed up with the wrong crowd, and to save him the architect uses his knowledge of architecture (and the mansions he'd designed) to help the gang commit robberies.

I couldn't quite get into this book the same way I did for Belfoure's debut novel, The Paris Architect, not sure if I didn't quite buy the premise or if the writing wasn't as good as that first book.  Still, it's a nice change of pace to have a mystery/thriller using architects rather than the usual assortment of cops and government agents.

Book Log 2016 #33: The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino

Paris seems more than most cities to be defined by its neighborhoods, and this book does an excellent job of showing how that works and the ways in which Parisians work and struggle to keep their neighborhoods alive and vibrant. Scioloino is a former New York Times bureau chief for Paris, and the book does an excellent job showing her love (and understanding) of this corner of the city

(NOTE: a couple years after reading this I actually visited Paris, and managed not to visit this street even though our hotel was literally two streets over. I am an idiot).

Book Log 2016 #32: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I don't know how I never read this to now, but I apparently waited too long. I was nowhere nearly as amused by the book as friends of mine who read it in their younger years, and found the ending really abrupt. My teen self may have gotten this more than my current self; he certainly would have been more likely to read on in the series, something I'm going to skip.

Book Log 2016 #31: Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

OK, so after feeling like the previous book in the series really started to put things together for me, I can remember almost nothing about this book. The synopsis mentions how the murder in this book is linked to sectarian groups, organized crime, and a potential terrorist act, but I have a hard time remembering specifics. Still, I'm guessing if you liked the previous books you'll like this one too. It would also help if I didn't wait so long between reading a book and writing about it.

Book Log 2016 #30: The Black Book by Ian Rankin

A hotel fire five years in the past, the beating of one of John Rebus' colleagues, and a mysterious black notebook are all central to solving a recent murder. I felt like the series started to come together with this book, though it could be that I was familiar enough with the series at this point that I could start to connect the longer story arcs while still enjoying the book-specific plot. Anyway, beginning to really like the series.

Book Log 2016 #29: Deep South by Paul Theroux

Theroux turns his wanderlust inwards, trading international train travel for long drives into Dixie, where he turns his usual inquisitiveness on his fellow Americans. Theroux displays his usual ability to connect with locals and pull their stories out of them, helping to give definition to living in the modern US south. The decision to revisit locations and people during the four seasons of the book provided added depth as well.

On the down side, I did find the book lapsing too close to stereotype at times, and the variety of asides only served to slow down a narrative that was already taking its time. Still, I would much rather have new travel writing from Paul Theroux than none at all.

Book Log 2016 #28: Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

I don't recall a great deal about this book, but I do remember liking it. It's a bit like Cloud Atlas in its examination of the interconnectedness of humanity, but told in more of a linear style (not completely linear, but moreso than Cloud Atlas). Definitely worth a read. 

Book Log 2016 #27: The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen

A police officer's suicide goads Carl Morck and Department Q to take on a cold case involving a teenage girl found hanging in a tree, a location initially ascribed to being hit by a truck. The dead officer left behind a mountain of information accumulated during his own investigation, creating its own obstacle for Morck and company. As they get deeper into the case, it appears that an alternative religious community (or more accurately, its charismatic leader) may be to blame.
  
I still don't think this series has gotten back to the quality of its early books, but I do think this is better than, say, The Marco Effect.  What I don't know is if this is an issue with the translation, a lack of new ideas for cases, or difficulties in trying to balance the cases with the other subplots (Assad's mysterious past, Rose's mental health, and the building site ambush that left Carl's colleague turned housemate paralyzed). Still worth working through, I think, but it may be time to either wrap up some of these stories or take a book or two to make them the main story so there's some progress.

Book Log 2016 #26: In the Beginning... Was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson

This article/blogpost/short book about looks at computer operating systems, comparing proprietary software (like Windows) to free software (like UNIX and its progeny) and positing that the for-pay systems would eventually fall by the wayside.

That didn't happen, and in some ways reality unfolded in an almost exact opposite way, with Windows continuing to be ubiquitous and Mac OS X combining GUI with a UNIX-based backing (Stephenson himself became an OS X user, and admits that most of this article is now obsolete).

All of that being said, it's an interesting piece of writing and worth reading to get a taste of computing at the time.

Book Log 2016 #25: Unlocked by John Scalzi

 In his novel Lock In (which I've read but apparently forgot to log; it's really good, go read it), we're introduced to a world which has become accustomed to the effects of Haden's Syndrome, a virally-created condition where people become entrapped in their bodies, cognitively unimpaired but stuck in a body that no longer moves. Technology has bridged the gap, allowing those afflicted to be part of the world again through a robot-like device popularly called a threep.  It's an interesting book about what makes us human, and what it means to be part of society and personal communities.

Unlocked is an oral history of Haden's, providing several first-person accounts as to how the disease started, progressed, and was discovered to leave its victims mentally whole but unable to let anyone know it. It's a brisk read - novella length and well-written to tell the story of the disease and the people touched by it - and an excellent companion piece to the novel.

Book Log 2016 #24: Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling

I've been reading Stirling's Emberverse series for some time now (I'm also apparently a couple of books behind), but hadn't started its precursor series, where the same event that changed the laws of physics here caused Nantucket to be sent back in time to the Bronze Age. This is the first book in that series, where the hearty New Englanders, aided by the crew of a Coast Guard ship that was close enough to the island to get sent back as well, do their best to maintain the American way of life a good 3000 years before America even existed.

I generally liked the book, but did have two issues with it:

1. I didn't find the plot line where a group of idealistic believers in "noble savages" takes off to live like the natives to be all that believable. That the group had a healthy contingent of people who saw this as a shortcut to becoming a king was more believable. What finally happens to this group is very believable.

2. The book was too damn long, a complaint I've had with several of the Emberverse novels. This has actually kept me from moving on to the second book. I assume I will at some point.

Book Log 2016 #23: Pacific by Simon Winchester

 I liked this book more than I did Atlantic, probably because I had less of an issue with how he organized the book (and I was likely nitpickier about Atlantic as I live on the Atlantic coast). I do recall having some doubt about his discussion over China, but not what I had issues with, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Book Log 2016 #22: The Polish Officer by Alan Furst

Honestly, I don't remember reading this. The synopsis sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't come up with any details. It's been a while since I've read it, but I can at least usually remember some random bits and have a general sense of how much I liked the book. For this one, though, nothing. It was probably fine, or at least not bad enough that I remember.

Book Log 2016 #21: Strip Jack by Ian Rankin

A popular local politician is picked up in a raid on a brothel that goes awry. Soon after that, the politician's wife disappears. John Rebus senses a set-up, and when bodies start to appear and more questions are raised, the question becomes who wants to hand the politician out to dry, and why are they going to these sorts of lengths to do so?

This is the fourth book in the series, and you can start to feel the groove it's beginning to fit into (in a good way).

Book Log 2016 #20: Up, Up and Away by Jonah Keri

So we went to Montreal for a few days this past summer, and I spent some time trying to decide on what regionally-appropriate literature to pair with the trip. I was all set to pick up some Mordecai Richler, and then the hold I put out on this book came up. Goodbye Barney's Version, hello Montreal Expos!

This history of this star-crossed and doomed franchise is told in great and entertaining detail, as befits a book written by a fan. Keri's personal investment with the team is clear, as the story of the team is interspersed throughout with personal memories and observations, which adds depth and texture to an already engrossing narrative. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that after reading this, I actually felt slightly sympathetic for Jeffrey Loria, the owner who sold the team to Major League Baseball and more or less sealed its relocation fate (note: only slightly sympathetic, I still think on the whole baseball would have been better off if Loria never became an owner).

An excellent book for baseball fans, especially those who remember the Expos as a going concern.

Book Log 2016 #19: The Memory Key by Conor Fitzgerald

A professor whose memory tricks may hold the link between a cold case involving a fascist terrorist and the recent death of a university student - if only Italian police commissario Alec Blume was assigned to the case. Instead, he has to shadow the investigations while also trying to hold together his relationship with a fellow officer, which has gone south since they moved in together.

I still like this series, but I do feel like the more recent entries haven't been as interesting as the first two. Don't know if it's the cases or if the romantic interest part of it has moved too quickly for my taste. Still good, though.

Book Log 2016 #18: Mission to Paris by Alan Furst

An American actor arrives in Paris to make a movie, and the Nazis, seeing a potential propaganda coup, pressure him to give favorable impressions about the regime to the local media. As that pressure becomes more palpabale, the actor (who is no fan of the Nazis) is drafted into an amateur spy role for the US. Throw in the required attractive woman and you have another well-crafted thriller.

It's interesting to compare Furst's novels with the Turtledove books I've been down on. There is a definite pattern to Furst's novels - an amateur pressed into spy work to fight the Nazis, trying to delay the inevitable and save the girl against the backdrop of Europe on the brink of war - but unlike Turtledove there's enough variety in setting and story to make the pattern more of a framework and less of a device to add pages. It does help that Furst's series isn't tied to a particular set of characters, allowing him to explore different aspects of prewar Europe rather than try to find new ways to make old characters interesting.

In any case, if you like the other novels in the series, you'll like this one too.

Book Log 2016 #17: Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin

It's been long enough since I've read this to not remember any particular feelings about this entry in the John Rebus series, which sees Rebus sent to London to help the locals solve a serial killing where the murderer likes to bite his victims. I'm sure it was fine.

Book Log 2016 #16: Bombs Away by Harry Turtledove

American forces in Korea find themselves increasingly trapped, as Chinese soldiers pour into the country to support their fraternal communist Korean allies. President Truman, looking for ways to turn the tide, takes Douglas MacArthur's advice and drops a nuclear bomb on China. The Russians don't take kindly to nuking a fraternal Communist (for now) ally, and drop their own nuclear bomb in Europe.

And so starts Turtledove's latest war alternative history, turning a relatively localized affair into a potential World War III with mushroom clouds. It's pretty much along the lines of his previous war books, and while I liked it OK I'm concerned that future books in the series will follow the game plan in previous series, wrapping actual plot around repetitive pages about the banalities of war. I'll eventually give in and read the second book.

Book Log 2016 #15: The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Harry Hole is a detective on the Oslo crime squad, but we first meet him in Australia, where he's been sent to observe during a murder investigation where the victim is Norwegian. Of course, he can't stay out of the case, and quickly develops relationships that allow him to be part of the action, which (inevitably) points to a serial murderer.

I'd wanted to start this series for a while, both on reputation and on enjoying other Scandinavian crime series. But I just couldn't get into the book, and found that the things that were supposed to make me root for Harry as an anti-hero didn't do anything for me. I also found the book's treatment of Aboriginals a little patronizing.

Even so, I may pick this up again to see if the series improves, but I'm in no rush to do so.

Book Log 2016 #14: Last Orders by Harry Turtledove

The war that came early finally ends, with similar results to the actual World War II. Other than it being the end of the series, the book is still pretty similar to the preceding five installments, though with perhaps a little less repetition and page-filling as story lines get tied up.

I've really begun to sour on these longer series, too many books with too many characters who aren't doing enough interesting things to justify the page counts. And yet, as you'll see in a couple of entries, I still come back to them. So I should really complain the most about myself.

Book Log 2016 #13: The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski

A book about the history of the book and the various methods for storing books? Right up my alley, and when coupled with Petroski's ability to explain design and technology in lay terms, I expected this to be really interesting and enjoyable.

Expectations subverted. This turned out to be a slog, with interesting bits hidden among copious (and too often tedious) detail. I think this would have been better if it weren't so linear in tracing the development of books, shelves, carrels, windows, etc.  I'd also have liked more emphasis on the personal, as the book seemed to do best when Petroski talks about his home library or the libraries frequented while a student or during his academic career.

Book Log 2016 #12: The Catcher Was a Spy by Nicholas Dawidoff

Even without the spying, Moe Berg would have been one of the more peculiar men to play major league baseball. He was an Ivy League-educated lawyer, had an interest in languages, and was an inveterate reader. That he managed 17 seasons is equally surprising, given his weak bat and lack of playing time (he only played in more than 100 games once). It seems like he was kept around as much for his rapport with pitchers and clubhouse presence than anything he did on the field.


In many ways that sums up Berg's life. He seems like the sort of guy who just showed up, and you didn't mind him hanging around.

As for the spying, the book suggests that his contributions in that area were as thin as those he made with his bat. It's as likely that Berg embellished his missions (such as photographing the Tokyo skyline while on an all-star tour and attending a physics lecture in Switzerland to potentially assassinate Werner Heisenberg) than they were actual assignments. The knack for embellishment crops up elsewhere in his life, as Berg's gift for langauge, while real, was not the fluency in a dozen tongues that it was made out to be, and his attempts to learn physics before going to Switzerland were a mixed bag at best.

All of this leads to the saddest part of the book, the chronicle of Berg's appearances after his retirement from baseball. These were typically unexpected (both in the coming and going), with several people noting that Berg would seem to recognize them, but then either ignore them or give a signal to not show recognition, almost as if he was on a spy mission. To me this reads as someone who is mentally ill and drifting to survive. It also makes me wonder if baseball was the one thing that kept Berg at least somewhat in reality (the author tries his hand at armchair psychology as well, focusing on Berg's relationship with his father, and he's probably closer to the mark than I am).

I'd wanted to read this for a while, and was a little disappointed in it, primarily in the post-baseball chronology of Berg sightings. I felt like it dragged a bit, though I can understand the desire to give as much information about Berg's life at a time when it was hard to pin him down. Maybe I'll like the film adaptation starring Paul Rudd better.

Book Log 2016 #11: Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin

So as you might have noticed, I've been pretty quiet until recently with regards to the Book Log. For this I blame Goodreads, which has allowed me to keep track of what I've read on my phone (where, coincidentally, I've been doing most of my reading) and even give a quick rating. This reduced the need to hurry out to the blog to put in a placeholder entry before I forgot what I'd read, and so here we are with me trying to recap 30-some odd books in December.

And as you can imagine, the time between reading and writing makes it difficult at best to come up with anything meaningful. I vaguely remember liking this, the second book in the Rebus series, but couldn't tell you much more than the blurb I've linked to above (and couldn't have even told you that much before Googling the title and Ian Rankin).

That being said, I remember liking the book, but I only gave it three stars on Goodreads, so there must have been something holding me back from going higher. Feel free to read this and tell me what it was.

Book Log 2016 #10: Slade House by David Mitchell

This prequel to The Bone Clocks provides some background to the events of that novel, and provides a kind of origin story for the Anchorites, the cult that seeks immortality through the ingestion of souls. The history of the house and its inhabitants is told through a series of what are more like interconnected short stories rather than chapters, culminating in a clash with the Horologists that puts the very existence of Slade House in jeopardy.

I didn't like this as much as The Bone Clocks, though I did find it helpful in putting that book into better context within Mitchell's universe (it also provided some plot points that helped make connections with Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet). Worth reading if you're already into Mitchell's works and want to get the full measure of their shared environment.

Book Log 2016 #9: The Big Short by Michael Lewis

Good news: this is probably the best general explanation of what caused the worldwide financial meltdown about a decade ago. Bad news: it's still not particularly easy to understand.

OK, that may be an overstatement. On one level, it's perfectly easy to understand: financial institutions made ridiculous bets on certain classes of mortgage-based financial instruments, and the rating agencies that should have alerted the public that these instruments were basically failures waiting to happen did not do so. But on the next level, where Lewis explains just how these instruments were created and traded, was hard for me to understand. To be fair, I have zero background in finance, but it was frustrating that I couldn't pick up all the details.

That being said, the easier points to see regarding the failures of the financial industry to properly understand the potential catastrophe are important to keep in mind now that we appear to be heading back to a financial climate where this sort of thing could happen again.

Book Log 2016 #8: The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl

In the 19th century, when copyright law was lax and manuscripts still had to be sent out in hard copy, there was a thriving trade in stolen works, where bookaneers (a kind of literary pirate) would try to steal books so their employers could publish them before the official copies hit the street. As laws became tighter the practice faded away.

This novel follows one of the great bookaneers as he attempts one last, great score, traveling halfway across the world to steal what looks like the final work of Robert Louis Stevenson. Along the way he has to fight of his remaining rivals and deal with the political situation on Samoa (as local differences are stoked by Britain and Germany's rivalry) in the hopes of getting his hands on the book.

I didn't like this novel as much as Pearl's previous ones, for reasons I can't quite quantify (having read the book about eight months ago). Which isn't to say it's a bad book - I didn't know much about bookaneering before reading it, for example - but maybe not as much to my taste as the earlier novels. Still very much worth reading, though.