Saturday Book Notes 12/12/20

 A week later, several books are still being read, while another that wasn't even on the list has been started and finished. So it goes. 

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

Listened to the audiobook this week. This is a prequel to the justly-famous The Pillars of the Earth, a novel that was good enough that my grad school musicology professor offered extra credit to anyone who read it. Just a side note, but extra credit is a bullshit idea that should die a quick death, especially when it involves something unrelated to the course content. Even when it is related, why is the teacher giving "extra credit" and what does that really mean? And by extra credit here, I do not mean the opportunity to revise or to retest. That's fine. That's part of the learning process, because it's more important that a student masters the material than whether he or she learned it quickly. 

Ken Follett's historical novels are really enjoyable, even if they do have something very formulaic about them. You're going to have clear good guys vs. bad guys, the good guys are going to go through absolute hell at the hands of their enemies, but goodness and justice will more or less win out in the end, even if that victory is costly and difficult to achieve. The plot will involve twists and turns of clever political machinations on both sides, and it all occurs against a richly researched backdrop that brings that historic era to life. They're not great literature, but they're pretty great reads. 

Also read

Finished up A Court of Thorns and Roses, which was about what I said it was last week. It was fine. Making progress on The Baron of Magister Valley, quite enjoying it. No progress on The Bonehunters.

Up Next

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff on audiobook

How about you? What's on your reading list right now?