There’s plenty of Australian history that’s more reader-friendly than The Fatal Shore.
A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia would be my recommendation for a good overview.
I’m enjoying S.D. Perry’s Avatar: Book One, a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel focusing on Col. Kira’s command of the station after Sisko’s disappearance. I also just started Ron Chernow’s big new bio, Washington, and Susanna Clarke’s short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu. All are pretty good so far.
And finally finished it. It was good. Not quite as good at A Game of Thrones, but that bar was set pretty darn high. I just started the 3rd book, A Storm of Swords.
I’m reading Clash of Kings now and getting even more excited watching the HBO previews because I can identify who they are :). I keep waiting for more from this Jaime (hey, that’s my name…really) that I hear is not so much evil but seems that he never has a chapter?!?
The good stuff with Jaime begins in Storm of Swords.
I’m reading My Brain Is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdős. I’d never heard of him until I read the xkcd cartoon. The book is not a biography but rather an exploration of some of the most fascinating mathematical concepts (explained for those with no more than high school algebra) and stories about the great mathematicians of the 20th century, with whom Erdős mingled. So I imagine a mathematician would be bored with this, but so far I like it.
The xkcd cartoon is a joke about “Erdős numbers”. (It’s pronounced air-dish.) Erdős wrote and collaborated on hundreds of papers. Like the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, a mathematician’s Erdős number describes his “collaborative distance” from Erdős. Erdős himself has a number of 0; those who collaborated on a paper with him have an Erdős number of 1; those who collaborated with one of *them *have an Erdős number of 2, etc.
You’re gonna catch up to me at the pace I’m going of late. I’m just past page 800 of SoS.
I’m still hammering away at *George Washington: A Life *by Chernow. Its a really good read. I also started a bestseller called Contagious by Scott Sigler. No comment on that one yet as I’m only a couple pages in.
*Turn Left At The Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero’s American Odyssey * by Brad Herzog. I’m about 100 pages in and it’s…alright. I’m waiting for a point or plot to surface and it just seems to be straining hard to make connections between things.
Hey, I just started that! (See post 122). So far, so good. “George” isn’t part of the title, though.
I just started How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, by Mike Brown - who grew up in Huntsville, AL (where I live) during the Apollo program. His discovery of a “tenth planet” bigger than Pluto is the one that got poor old Pluto demoted.
I also gave in and started the second Song of Ice and Fire book,* A Clash of Kings*. I might as well go ahead and re-read all of them in anticipation of the new book this summer. Maybe I’m a sucker, but Martin says the release date is real.
I’m skimming At Home, by Bill Bryson. Again. It’s a very interesting book, but I think this is the third time I’ve checked it out from the library and not gotten around to it before it’s due to go back.
I’m re-reading A Game of Thrones. It’s just as good the second time. I’d forgotten so much! Haven’t decided whether to read the others or not. Wiki has pretty decent plot summaries.
Next up is the new Kate Atkinson (forgot the title). Amazon invited me to join their Vine program so it was free!
Just finished A Storm of Swords this morning. *A Feast For Crows *arrives from Amazon sometime today. We shall see what we shall see!