This Week at the Library: 11 Aug - 18 Aug

This week:

• Heroes of History by Will Durant is a brief summary of western history, though one introduced with chapters on India, China, and Egypt. Durant's heroes are philosophers, theologians, poets, and an occasional political figure. 
• West and East is second in Harry Turtledove's The War that Came Early series, a planned six-part set that has World War 2 begin in 1938 at the Munich conference. Although the characters are interesting so far, the war remains unremarkable.
• Don't Know Much About Geography is a book of geographical trivia written for casual readers. Though enjoyable to read, it is more scattered than focused.

Pick of the Week: Heroes of History, Will Durant. I will be investigating his Story of Civilization series.

Quotation of the Week:
Durant's ending paragraphs for Heroes of History  resonated most with me, but I found the below passage amusing the first time I read it.

Siberian mosquitoes were numerous, savage, and large. A Japanese joke said one of them had landed at an airstrip, and groundcrew men pumped a hundred liters of gasoline into it before they realized what it was. Fujita thought it was a joke.

p. 98, West and East.

Potentials for Next Week:

• Finishing Working IX to V, which is all manner of casual, but fun so far.
• Gods of Night by David Mack, the first book in the long-anticipated Destiny trilogy, finally arrived in the mail. 
• Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, a collection of short stories. I'll miss ol' Horny. 
• Alexandria, Lindsey Davis. 
• Sharpe's Eagle, Bernard Cornwell. First in a series of books about a rifleman in England's army during the Napoleonic wars. I'm thinking about trying the series because I'm about to finish the Hornblower books and yet don't want to be finished with them. This is...somewhat similar. Of course, there are always the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien...
• The Lost World, Michael Crichton. When I arrived at the library to pick up West and East, this was also waiting on me. Turns out when I reported the library's copy lost, they ordered another copy and reserved it for me. 

And yet, in spite of the list above me, there's this little voice in my head telling me to start Will Durant's series of books. I don't think it appreciates the fiction binge.