- Why Nations Fail, James Robinson & Daron Acemoglu
This book! Well, I have a lot of feelings about this book.
( They are a bit long tho let me put them behind this cut. )- The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
I figured it would be something light between one heavy book and another heavy book (not sure what I want to start just yet). It was definitely light. I feel like if I knew it was serial-numbers-filed-off The Terror readerfic going in, I would not have picked it up. The writer is skilled, at least, there are some interesting similes and metaphors here so there was at least that. But I just don't care enough about The Terror and the main character seemed a bit too boring for me. Sorry if that MC is you, Kaliane. When I looked up more reviews about it someone else also mentioned the tonal whiplash between light-hearted romance vs fun time travel mystery with spies vs social commentary on 2nd generation immigrants and refugees and diaspora and racism and - yeah, that was pretty bizarre! Sometimes it felt so weirdly inserted I wondered if it was there to give the book more depth or to have it be Saying Something, that and the main character's sister who was an author which felt kind of ... lampshadey? mocking? about it all? Idk. I only really cared about Margaret, who was best girl and was the only reason to read this book. Anyway, this is one more book that closes the gap of shame.