Other Echoes

Well, I guess the gubmint is turned back on. Anyway, I read some things over the last seven days.

What I Finished Reading This Week

The U.S.-Indonesia Security Relationship – John Haseman & Eduardo Lachica
I knocked this out over the course of a day as part of an effort to read and release more perennial shelf-sitters this year. The U.S.-Indonesia Security Relationship was published in 2009 and is generally informative, although padded and sloppily edited in places, particularly toward the end ("The Indonesia until it recovers its purchasing power" reads a one such example sentence. No, it doesn't make more sense in context.) In general, it's pretty interesting to see which of the authors' predictions, recommendations, and concerns have come to pass 17 years lateromghowisitpossiblethatthisbookandtheworldandIareall17yearsolder😭😭😭😭

The Bone Chests - Cat Jarman
The Bone Chests reuses the structure Jarman employed to great effect in River Gods: she uses a historical artifact(s)—in this case, 10 wooden chests filled with human bones in Winchester Cathedral—as a jumping-off point to examine the history of a pre-modern ethnic group in England (the Anglo-Saxons in this case). I enjoyed River Kings very much, but enjoyed The Bone Chests well enough. Part of this is to do with the fact that, unlike the previous volume, scientific work on The Bone Chests's framing artifacts hadn't finished at the time of publication; the subtitle promises to "unlock the secrets of the Anglo-Saxons" but the book's conclusion is essentially an unsatisfying "watch this space". Part of it is because The Bone Chests focuses primarily on a small number of elites: a bunch of kings, some clergymen, and a scant few queens, where River Gods dealt more heavily with the everyday people whose lives I find more interesting. And as plenty has already been written on Anglo-Saxon kings and clergy, there's not as much that's new in The Bone Chests, or that distinguishes it from those other volumes. The end result is that the parts of this volume I found most interesting were the ones discussing the Scandinavians and Normans and how their societies influenced Anglo-Saxon dynastic politics, not the Anglo-Saxons themselves. I fully acknowledge that these things are, if not Me Problems, certainly Me Preferences. But Jarman's writing is as effortless and engaging as in her previous volume, and people who are interested in the book's actual focus will find much to enjoy here.

The Scottish Cookbook – Coinneach MacLeod
What can I say? If you like all the elements of the first three cookbooks (gorgeous photographs of gorgeous food and gorgeous landscapes, artfully composed to suggest that electricity, plastics, and phones and computers don't exist in this universe; interstitial "highland life" chapters that mix humorous anecdotes with summaries of folklore from Carmina Gadelica and The Silver Bough; a mix of ridiculously sugary confections and (often ridiculously dairy-heavy) savory dishes) you will like this book too. I also get the feeling MacLeod has made an effort (for better or worse) to include more recipes that aren't as heavily reliant on main ingredients that are difficult to source outside of the UK. At any rate, we've already made several dishes out of this volume, they've been very rich and very good, and yeah. It's certainly more of the same, but the same is good stuff.

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol. 1 – Xue Shan Fei Hu
This book was so much fun; exactly what I needed to be reading this week. Our premise is that the narrator awakes to find himself a drab-colored carp about to be turned into soup for the mute oldest son of the emperor by his primary wife—the eponymous tyrant of the title, only before internecine court politics have turned him from a prince into a bloodthirsty fiend. Of course there's a system, and of course it immediately starts spamming out prompts that have our piscine main character trying to endear himself to said proto-tyrant and attempting to save secondary characters from canon doom. It is the utter opposite of Kafkaesque and I love it for that: the main character is mildly bemused to find himself a fish but takes to it with aplomb; he's a bit intimidated by the prince but takes to him immediately too; and the prince is instantly calmed and fascinated with his new pet fish. It's so nice. And the recurring plot element? In which ( cut for spoilers. ) I am delighted by this first volume and will absolutely continue on to the next one.


What I Am Currently Reading

The Dog Stars – Peter Heller
Basically, I am hate reading at this point.

The Stations of the Sun - Ronald Hutton
I read the chapter on Candlemas.

Lake of Souls - Ann Leckie
I am not a big short story reader, but Leckie is an excellent author in any format and I am plowing through these.


What I’m Reading Next

I acquired Roberty Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables (Seamus Heaney, trans.) this week.


これで以上です。