Book Log 2022 #54: The Gilded Page by Mary Wellesley

This book examines the history of medieval manuscripts, from the people that created them, the subjects they covered, and the various ways they've survived into the present day. Wellesley goes into detail on specific manuscripts, detailing their history and what's unique about their subject matter and construction, while also taking a broader look at the contexts within which manuscripts were created.

It's there that I think the book lags a bit, as Wellesley spends a fair amount of time examining things through a feminist lens, not always with success. Part of me thinks this may have been better served with a separate book about the role of women in the production and ownership of manuscripts, but I also see where covering the topic in a more general work has merit.

Either way, if this is a subject that interests you it's probably worth checking this out. 

 Book Log 2022 #53: Slow Horses by Mick Herron

I first became aware of this series through the acclaimed series on Apple TV. I wanted to watch it, but didn't want to start until I'd started the books.

Set in the world of British intelligence, the term "slow horses" is given to those MI5 agents assigned to Slough House after committing some sort of grave offense in the line of duty. In the case of River Cartwright, it was training exercise that went very wrong in public. For others it's their personal habits, or just being up against the wrong person at the wrong time. Regardless of the reason, they're shunted off and given busywork in the hopes that the ongoing tedium will lead them to quit.

This tedium is interrupted when, in the course of investigating a fringe right-wing journalist, the agents get drawn into the kidnapping of a Pakistani student by a white nationalist group. As they get more involved, we learn more about why the agents have been sent to Slough House, and how there may be more to the kidnapping than first thought.

There's a fair bit of lore to go along with the main case, from River's relationship with his grandfather (himself a retired intelligence agent), the political machinations of MI5's leaders, and the mysterious death of a senior intelligence agent with connections to at least two of the slow horses. 

I really enjoyed the book, which uses liberal doses of humor to balance the more violent aspects of intelligence work. Looking forward to both the other books and the TV series.

 Book Log 2022 #52: Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Lea Ypi grew up in Albania in the 1990s, during the period after the death of communist dictator Enver Hoxha and the country's transition into an unstable multiparty democracy. In this memoir, she recounts the time from a personal perspective, documenting the social changes while highlighting how it impacted her schooling, friendships, and relations with her family.

It's the interactions with her family that are the most striking. Ypi learns that a former politician she'd been taught to hate in school was actually her great-grandfather, who was prime minister for a time during the country's monarchy. She also learns that her family was (or is?) Muslim. As the political climate changes in Albania, Ypi sees her parents become leading figures in the opposition, which brings its own set of challenges.

While there is plenty of reflection on the broader picture of Albania's transition to a liberal democracy (which dovetails nicely with Ypi's career as a professor of political theory and philosophy), it's the personal recollections that really make this book stand out.

 Book Log 2022 #51: The September Society by Charles Finch

Gentleman detective Charles Lenox is back on the case, this time looking into the disappearance of an Oxford student. An alumnus of Oxford himself, Lenox is happy to revisit his old stomping grounds, but less happy when the case evolves from missing persons to murder.

His investigation leads to the secret society of the title, which appears to have ties to soldiers who've served in India. While he works to uncover what role the society may have had in the student's death, Lenox looks to keep moving out of the friend zone with neighbor Lady Jane Grey. He also takes on an apprentice, another gentleman with an interest in detection, though one of of more profligate habits.

While I wouldn't call this a cozy mystery, the setting among England's Victorian elite does take the edge off a bit. It's hard to feel like Lenox or his colleagues are going to come to harm. But it's still an engaging mystery, and a successful follow-up to the debut novel of the series.

Book Log 2022 #50: Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach

I'm a little surprised that this is the first Mary Roach book I've read. Roach has written a number of highly accessible books about the intersection of science and human civilization, typically focused on a specific aspect (such as Bonk, about human sexuality, and Stiff, about the disposition of human bodies after death). These should all appeal to me, and on the face of it I do find all of them interesting.

I expect our family vacation, where we drove across much of the country visiting national parks, drew me to this book about the ways humans and animals interact. This includes examinations into animal behavior, people who manage interactions between people and specific animals (such as elephants), and how the encroachment into animal habitats by the built environment makes these interactions more frequent (and more dangerous).

For the most part I enjoyed this very much, but got a little bored with it by the end. Not sure if I'd hit my limit of stories about man versus animal or if the later parts of the book were just less interesting. I did find it entertaining enough that I'll read another of her books. Eventually.

 Book Log 2022 #49: A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva

The past crashes into the present in this installment of the Gabriel Allon series, when Gabriel is sent to Vienna to investigate the bombing of a Holocaust research office. A local Holocaust survivor tells Gabriel to look into a person, and is killed soon afterwards. The person he mentioned to Gabriel appears to be a former Nazi who was deeply involved in a project to erase evidence of the Holocaust. 

While Gabriel travels the world to confirm that this man is indeed the Nazi fugitive, he also has to keep dodging an assassin hired to kill him. He also has to determine how his mother may have known the fugitive, as someone who looks very much like him appears in a painting she did of the Death Marches, forced evacuations where Holocaust victims had to walk to other camps to avoid the oncoming Allies.

It's another solid outing the series, strengthened by getting a deeper look into Allon's family and their past.