Mortaine’s Blog

This is an archive of my shorter book reviews and notes, which historically have been posted over at the 50 Book Challenge on LiveJournal, but which I’m starting to move over here. I’m posting them with altered date-stamps, but they might show up in my LiveJournal cross-post anyway. Bear with me, please.

Note: Many of these books also have full reviews available in the book review podcast (RSS).

#1:

Good “brain broccoli” about the 1918 influenza epidemic, history, and medicine/biology history as well.

#2:

Sequel to Wicked. To be honest, this was not as good as Wicked, and unlike Wicked, it left a very unsettled feeling– the protagonist wasn’t as appealing as Elphaba, and I don’t know– I was left wanting more answers than questions, and was disappointed.

#3:

This is an interesting introduction to various weeds and plants (not mushrooms) that you can forage for anywhere from common suburbia to the backcountry trails. I enjoyed it, and Wiltens’ illustrations are clear black-and-white field sketches. The book has no photographs, but in plant identification, photographs only tell part of the story and don’t let you highlight or emphasize a particular feature of a plant, like the “tiny hairs” that the observer must identify to know the difference between an edible tasty plant and hemlock.