Booknotes 4.20

Cymbeline, by William Shakespeare, published 1611, play. ’Twas okay but also kind of forgettable. (Which is why this review is so perilously short.)

Dogs of War, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, published 2017, science fiction. I get bored by the idea of animal stories. I didn’t expect to like this. I was wrong. Really enjoyed it — not just the story, but the subtext about autonomy and sentience and slavery — and very much look forward to reading the rest of the series. (I’m foolishly trying to catch up on reading Tchaikovsky’s work, by the way, which means I need to read them faster than he’s writing them, which means [checks notes] I need to read at least five or six per year. I generally space books from the same author out more than that, but that’s not going to work here.)

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by William Shakespeare, published 1600, play. I’ve seen this performed but don’t think I’ve read it (or at least it’s not on my reading log and I can’t remember if I read it as a wee bairn before I started keeping the log). It was good, as expected, with suspense and drama and lots of great lines like “But know, thou noble youth, / The serpent that did sting thy father’s life / Now wears his crown” and “The play’s the thing” and “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” (I’d heard the latter two quoted before by others, but in context in the original they have so much more meaning.)

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion, published 1968, nonfiction (essays). Didion’s writing was a good fit for me — very readable and fascinating, even when about things I have no interest in (hippies in San Francisco, for example). All sorts of different topics here. Looking forward to reading more of her work, and in general I’m finding I really like reading essays and want to read more collections of them. (Feel free to send me recommendations!)