What I'm Reading
I just wrapped up Bourbon Empire by Reid Mitenbuler (because I love history, bourbon, and books and this checked all those boxes). It was good, not overly technical, possessed a good dose of humor, and it did a decent job of “shooting some sacred cows."
Now that’s finished (and a few packages have had time to arrive) I’ve got currently the following three on deck:
The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski
I’m a sucker for Sapkowski, dear reader. I love the Witcher series and maintain that The Last Wish is a piece of literature everyone should read at least once in their lives. Imagine my glee, then, when I discovered the man had a new series (or, at least, new to the US). It’s likely a testament to Sapkowski’s writing being (to put it lightly) aggressively Polish that it took me a full three chapters to realize it was historical fiction instead of the sword and board fantasy I was expecting. It’s also probably a testament to my being (to put it lightly) aggressively American that I cannot take the name Kunz Aulock seriously. About a third of the way through this one. Liking it so far
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
This book was actually recommended to me by a couple of you! (thank you, by the way) After I gushed on Uprooted I couldn’t very well resist now, could I? Given how infuriatingly smug coy you were about whether or not this is a sequel or a stand alone novel I purposely haven’t read the back of the book and have actively resisted so much as googling the book cover to avoid spoilers. Will it be good? Is it related to Uprooted? The game is afoot.
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Why read this now? Because I’m a huge nerd that’s why. That, and it’s becoming depressingly relevant again. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and did we learn anything from the 2008 crisis, dear reader? After just reading an article that had the sheer fucking hubris to claim that the housing market could only ever go up (and has never ever ever declined) I’m not entirely sure. So, on the off chance I’m going to be forced to live through this shit again I plan on at least being nominally informed on the root causes. Nothing like a little bit of light reading about mortgage backed securities before bed, am I right?