This Week at the Library (2/6)

This week....

I started off with Revenge of the Sith, Matthew Stover's excellent novelization of Star Wars' Episode III. Stover improved upon the movie by expanding characterization and creating deeper tension between the lead characters that redeemed weaker parts of the movie altogether.

Next I read Lemony's Snicket's The Unauthorized Autobiography,  a faux-collection of documents -- letters, memos, newspaper clippings, play scripts, photographs -- that relate to the Series of Unfortunate Events and tease readers by allowing them to piece together some of the series' mysteries.

I decided to finish Animorphs, a series from my youth, and jumped in past the halfway point with book 30, The Reunion, in which the Animorphs attempt to capitalize on the conflict between two Yeerk generals to remove both of them as threats.

My big read last week was John Reader's Africa, a comprehensive history of Africa that began with the cooling of the mantle and fades away after the first of Africa's independence movements. Reader's is a general history that attempts to dispel myths about Africa: I enjoyed my trek through it and emerged all the better for it.

Quotation of the Week: "The history books make arouse admiration for some strategic decision, or horror at some tactical blunder; the novels can conjure up a tingle of excitement, but it is the numbers that constitute the most telling and durable evocations of the [Great][W]ar. They are impossible to forget." - John Reader

Upcoming Reads:

• Death in Winter, Michael Jan Friedman. I'm trying to get back into Trek literature, and Friedman is without question my favorite author in that genre.
• Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne.
• Dinosaur Lives, John R. Horner
• Elizabeth the Queen, Alison Weir. My library didn't have it, but during a recent trip to the zoo I stopped by a local bookshop to spend a gift card.