Book report for November 2024

In two days, Dr and Mrs Essai embark for Chile, en route to Antarctica. A pair of this month’s books anticipated this photo expedition (I only finished one, which, I hope, portends nothing).

Completed

• The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry, Stacey D’Erasmo. D’Erasmo’s announced intent is to learn what keeps artists making art for many decades, into old age. She never delivers on that, but astutely and intelligently discusses several interesting artists, and that redeemed the book for me.

• Crossing Open Ground, Barry Lopez. There has never been a better essayist about nature and the human response to it. A superb collection that ranges from the Arctic to the American desert southwest.
• The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth, Elizabeth Rush. Read this anticipating my own upcoming Antarctica trip. By the end, it was disappointing. When Rush writes about her time on a research ship collecting core samples and data at the Thwaites Glacier, she does well. But she tried to braid a second narrative about her emotional turmoil over deciding to get pregnant. This obviously had great meaning for her, but those sections stalled the book, at least for me.
• Dichronauts, Greg Egan. Egan is an Australian programmer with considerable knowledge of physics. He does something here I’ve never seen any science fiction writer do: Changes a few variables in equations to invent a new physics, then drops a planet into it. Instead of three spatial dimensions plus time, Egan’s planet has two spatial and two temporal dimensions. He then imagines how a fairly conventional story in this universe would play out. I tried, but couldn’t grasp the physics and without that understanding the story veered toward tedium.

In progress

• The World of Odysseus, M.I. Finley
• The Language of the Night, Ursula K. Le Guin

Abandoned

• Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent, Gabrielle Walker. Dull prose unredeemed by any particular insight.

Purchased

• Orbital, Samantha Harvey
• Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith, John Szwed

Note to subscribers: As mentioned above, dear Jogglers, your faithful correspondent will be near the bottom of the planet for 10 days or so. This will probably impose a hiatus on this letter until the holidays. But know that wherever I am I shall be taking notes and tripping the shutter. Prepare yourselves for pictures of penguins. Lots of penguins.