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That's two Hugos in a row |
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"The Obelisk Gate" is the follow-up to "The Fifth Season" and I believe the only
sequel I've written about on this blog.1
I read the previous book back in 2016 and consider it a great
example of effective world-building, so I'm a bit surprised that I forgot
about the series until this year.
A couple plot points from the first book are mentioned below.
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"In the beginner's mind there are are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few." |
I initially heard about "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" on a podcast I listened to a while back. The book sounded kind of interesting, but I promptly forgot about it until this year, when a book club I follow added it to their list. I'm glad I participated – it turns out that virtual book club discussions on Zen Buddhism attract really interesting people. But first, the book.
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"La Peste" en français |
Though it's been a couple months since I finished reading it, I still haven't
decided whether "The Plague" is a bit too on the nose – or the perfect book –
for this COVID-19 era. It tells a fictional tale of bubonic plague in a
coastal city, following the lives of various citizens as they look for meaning
amidst the suffering. Much of the human experience is on display: selfishness
and greed and denial, yes, but also empathy and care and even heroism found
pursuing a shared purpose. It's part philosophy, part psychology, and fully
profound.
A few of my favorite passages follow1.
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"God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time." |
"The Fire Next Time" had been recommended to me several times in the past, and 2020 is the year I finally read it. Baldwin's work is a powerful personal account of race and civil rights, told in two essays. First, a letter written to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of emancipation; second, Baldwin's observations about religion and race in America.
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Not his everyday view |
I'd categorize "A Gentleman in Moscow" as historical fiction with a humorous slant. The titular gentleman is Alexander Rostov, a Russian aristocrat who returns to the country after the Communist revolution of 1917. To his own surprise, rather than being put to death, he's sentenced to live under house arrest in the Hotel Metropol in the center of Moscow, never again to leave its premises.
A few first chapter details below.
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| Not the film adaptation cover, which ironically obscures the actual people! |
"Hidden Figures" is a historical account of the important and often unrecognized role African American women have played in U.S. aeronautical and space research. It focuses on the contributions of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson from the 1930s through the 1960s as computers (all that rocket science math used to be done by hand!), researchers, and engineers at NACA, and its successor organization NASA.
