Where Nero Takes a Turn for the Worse

Britannicus: The Complete Plays of Jean Racine - Volume V by Jean Racine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The 5 is for the edition--the introductory discussion, the translation, and the extensive notes in the back. The printing, too, come to that, is very nice. This is a beautiful book, one that is ideal for an English speaker wanting to read and understand this text. We get 60+ pages of discussion up front to assist the reader; 75 pages of the actual play, rendered in rhyming iambic pentameter couplets (which I don't prefer, but is as similar as possible to the original French version); and another 70 pages of notes and appendices, which I found very useful.

My take on the play itself? I'm interested in it for historic and literary reasons and am glad to plow through it and get a pretty good idea of the whole thing, but it's not terribly fun to read. Rewarding? Maybe so. Probably more so on repeated readings, which I may never do. But I have never understood the attraction of tragedy or the people who like it. Seeing people praise tragedy is like watching people run barefoot on sharp gravel, smiling.

No exaggeration--I literally (with the literal use of literally) do not understand how people enjoy tragic stories like this. Sure, the set might be cool, and the costumes, etc., and there can be some interesting and arresting language, but for me the story is horrible. That's absolutely not to criticize those who like tragedy (or who enjoy anything else I don't happen to like), but the difference in how our brains work continues to baffle me. I see people enjoying beer, and it looks so pleasant and refreshing that I want to join in, but I hate it.

Don't get me started on Othello. :)

Anyway, all that aside, I'm still interested because I'm curious about what people were watching and hearing at different times and in different places in history, enough to make it worth my while to read a story I don't have an affinity for. Obviously, the author is highly informed and a capable writer, and he makes some assumptions about his audience. I feel like those who watched a performance of Britannicus back in the time Racine was writing would have needed to arrive, and would have been expected to arrive, with a pretty solid understanding of who Britannicus was, who Agrippina and Nero and Junia and Claudius and the others were, as well as what became of them all, if they were to enjoy the play at anything more than a very surface level. Racine trusts that his audience will be familiar with the major figures and the context we find them in.

That's why I think the notes are so helpful. Most of us weren't raised with a strong background in Roman history. Beyond a passing acquaintance with Nero (mostly formed from reading Quo Vadis?), the story was new ground for me, and it would probably be the same for most readers outside of classical studies.

Nero and Agrippina are the main characters. She wants access to Nero so that she can continue to exert control over him. His advisors don't want that, so she is prevented. Nero wants to marry Junia--requiring her cooperation, though she loves Britannicus, and Nero's divorce from a wife we never see. Britannicus is feared as a rival for power and for Junia. Narcissus schemes with Nero while pretending to be friendly with Agrippina and Britannicus. Everybody lies to throw off his enemies, though it also throws of certain readers at times (ahem). Lots of intrigue--but very little action of consequence. So, not terribly exciting, but still good.

How much fun is it to read now, on one's own, for no particular reason? I'd give it maybe a 3 for that. Not super fun. It's a tragedy--people die. No happily ever after. No warm glow at the end. But I found things to like as I read it. If you have some reason to read it, I recommend this edition.

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Where Kit and Lauren Rescue Each Other

A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my second title by this author, and I really liked the book--again--even though this is not my genre or surely didn't used to be. (I've always liked Jane Austen, and more recently have enjoyed Georgette Heyer, so maybe I've been sneaking up on these books over time.)

The first one I read on a sort of whim. It's not condescending to remark that I was very surprised to like it--the criticism is for the reader, not the book. But I did like it, quite a bit, and decided to try others by the same author. I'm glad I did.

I don't know enough about romance in general or Regency romance in particular to say whether or not this is a remarkable writer or book, but I thought it was really good. It was touching, thoughtful (in a "hey, that's kinda wise" way), sexy, and literally laugh out loud funny in places, with a compelling, emotionally satisfying, and appropriately complex plot.

The setup of the story is sort of a stock arrangement, familiar in movies anyway, where the FMC and the MMC agree to pose as an engaged couple for a period of time for reasons that make sense for both of them. This is perhaps the weakest part of the story, a little cliched, but it has sufficient character and plot justifications to make it acceptable. Once past that, the story is fresh and entertaining, with sufficient stakes and secondary plots to make it fun to pick up each time.

Kit is a familiar sort of rake, a complex man with difficulties in his history and his psyche that he disguises underneath behavior bordering on the scandalous. That he is deeper and more consequential than he appears is a given, though his revelations through the course of the story are expertly handled and very believable. Lauren, the FMC, is even more of a surprise and more engaging (for me)--a prim, almost prudish woman in a prudish era who has personal biographical reasons to be that way, though she is hiding even from herself the person she might truly be in a different world. Again, I don't know enough yet to say whether it is the genre in general or Mary Balogh in particular who is behind it, but both books I've read by her are very concerned with characters becoming authentically themselves, and the way they discover what that means is, for me, at least as engrossing as the romantic relationship (which is entirely enjoyable). Trauma and disappointment and fear and hurt stand in the way of many of the characters, and it is the genius of Lauren and Kit both that they are able to untangle many old problems plaguing their families--all in a way that feels genuine and organic.

Happy ending, of course. Also a given. But it arrives in a satisfying way that makes perfect sense. Well done all around. 5 stars.

With recent (2026) Booktok discourse regarding "anti-intellectualism" and the worth of genre fiction being very much on my mind, I have to note that I am not now nor am I ever passing judgment on the value or cultural relevance or intrinsic worth (whatever that means) of any work of art. Not only is that sort of critique beyond me, it's beyond everyone else, too, and I will gladly argue the point with anyone at any time. When I review a book, all I can do is give some indication of how much I enjoyed it, how I subjectively reacted to it. I read for enjoyment, and this was enjoyable, so... mission accomplished.

My recommendation (or prediction, really) is that if you are an Austen reader or a romance reader, you will probably like this book. If you read Heyer or other Regency-type novels, you will almost certainly like it. Everyone else--who knows? Maybe you would, too. Anyway, if I'm wrong I'm wrong, but my opinion is free. : )

I'll soon know if this author can go 3 for 3. Fingers crossed.

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Where the Author Wowed Me

Lord Vanity by Samuel Shellabarger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this on kind of a fluke, and then I loved it. Start to finish. 5 stars.

Published in 1953, it falls in a dead spot historically for me. This isn't a book I would ever have read 40 years ago, or even looked at twice. As a child of the 60s, and becoming a reader in the 70s, I would choose new kids' books (like Charlie and the Chocolate factory) or new science fiction or fantasy (when I found out about those), and sometimes the odd book from another genre, like The Outsiders or something. Except for novels in school, I very rarely read books older than the early 60s. They didn't appeal. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are exceptions, and I can't think of any others from childhood that broke through. And though I read in school, with *some* interest, Hemingway and Steinbeck and some other early 20th century stuff, I didn't like them enough to read for fun. (Still don't, actually.) And I honestly had no idea there would be any books from 1900-1950 that I would like. They were, to my mind, the ratty old books of another generation sitting on the shelves, all dusty and dry, meant to be passed over.

I wasn't surprised when I found I liked 19th century stuff, like Scott and Dumas and Austen, because I had no prejudice against those books. But I didn't think I'd ever want to read stuff from my parents' or older relatives' era. It's only lately that I've developed an interest in books from that time, an interest in hunting for things that I would like that I have never learned about before, or books I simply tuned out because they weren't for me.

All that is to say that I had no idea that this author existed, and I wouldn't care except that this was a really good book in a genre I really enjoy, an author that I should have been reading all my life. Many of the other titles sound great, and I don't want to count my chickens, but I suspect I'm gonna like a least a few of them.

Some spoilers: The story starts in Venice in the 1700s, with a talented young man trying to make his way in the world with just his wits and his talent. He is a musician and a writer and an actor, but he is also nobody special. His talents bring him to the attention of people who do matter, and he is sent off on a chaotic career. He falls in love with a dancer, a young unaffected woman that the reader is pretty much guaranteed to also fall in love with. He has setbacks--a time on the galleys as a convict, sent there on trumped-up charges--but he is redeemed and travels to England where he is recognized by his noble father, but his hopes for a future with the beautiful young dancer are destroyed by his father's wishes and his fear of falling once more into oblivion. He is a dandy; he is a soldier in Canada; he is a spy. He is an actor, and plays all his parts well.

And all of this is written about with tremendous skill. The love story is touching. The social life in Bath and then Paris, the dances and salons and card sharps and merciless lords and scheming ladies, is compelling. The battle scenes, telling the story of England's defeat of France at Quebec, is amazing, riveting. And the intrigue of Richard spying for England in Paris is very well done, almost too clever for me to follow. I loved the pacing and the layers and on-again-off-again love story. Terrific prose. Very satisfying ending.

It was such a great surprise to learn about this book, this author, this prejudice I had without even realizing it. A lot of new reading is possible that I didn't know about.

Highly recommended. I see other of his books have higher scores than this, and I have great hopes.

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Where Neil Schools Us on Some Stuff

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This has been my before-sleep short read for a few weeks. With forty-two short essays, many of them just 6 or 7 pages long, it's ideal for the sleepy brain. I liked it quite a bit. 4 stars.

These meditations on the big bang, on black holes, on the spaces between stars, and many other physics and astronomy questions are conversational little tidbits that don't break a lot of new ground (especially as I'm reading it 20 years after it was published), but I still found something in literally every essay that was new to me or made me think about something a new way. A scientifically literate reader will already know most of this, and I think I'm pretty well along on that scale, but there are still things he brings into each of his essays that inform me and amuse me and make the reading meaningful. The best fun in non-fiction like this is learning new things.

His voice comes through perfectly clear in the whole thing (which is a plus or minus, depending on the reader's take) and his tone is almost always light, joshing, and, IMO, pleasant. That's the right approach for this kind of popular science. It's not the deadly earnest, erudite tone of Richard Dawkins (who writes great books but is hardly tolerable in person--and has made himself disagreeable the same way JKR has). Nor is it the wide-ranging, surprising, and wandering musings of Stephen Jay Gould (who is greatly missed). Neil deGrasse Tyson is a very smart man in his own right, but he takes a different tack in media, including this book, and I think it's very successful. He wants to explain things to a broad audience in a way that entertains while it educates. He keeps the learning curve very gentle here, the cognitive demand relatively low, but that was his intention, and the way he makes it work may be his genius. In another's hands, this could be a much tougher and much less engaging read.

The only place the author gets a little sharp--deservedly so--and a little less charitable is when he's protecting science from fuzzy religious thought, like creation versus the big bang and similar topics. I think he's earned the right to be just as firm on the topic as he wants. And I don't think it detracts from his amiable, laughs-at-his-own-jokes tone that he gives us though almost every page.

If this fails to dazzle, it nevertheless amuses, and it's full of good science information. I learned a lot more than I would have guessed in these essays on familiar topics. Easy 4 star rating. If you're in the mood for non-fiction but want just bits here and there, just a chunk per day, this is a good choice to put on your bedstand. And if you're lucky like me, you'll find it at a little bookstore for a couple dollars. A steal.

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Where Joliffe Goads the Bad Guy

A Play of Knaves by Margaret Frazer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been enjoying this series and the related Frevisse series. This is the 5th I've read, and they've been consistently (to me) right around 4 stars, maybe 4.5. I liked this one even more, and don't feel like I'm being charitable to say it's a 5 star read.

In this historical mystery set in the 1400s, we find Joliffe and the other players being sent to visit a village that has secrets or some difficult undercurrent troubling the people. Their patron has some interest in the matter, so they go away from their normal route to perform in the area and snoop out what's going on. Turns out, there's a lot, and it's all tangled in family histories.

What I like is that Joliffe is getting more and more unapologetically direct in investigating leads and working out secrets to solve the mysteries that they wander into. He's not a detective, but he's intelligent, inventive, bold, and a bit defiant on the inside. He doesn't do it all alone, and the story is about the whole troupe as well as the villagers, but Joliffe's development and activity is the most interesting part of the story.

There are some pretty evil bad guys here, and it's good to see the mystery solved and their evil plots stamped out. That's always fun. And our hero gets to be the crucial factor in that solution, which for me is absolutely necessary in mysteries like this. I lost a little focus and spaced some of the details, like the corners on the overlapping love triangles, but the author gives us a a satisfying conclusion that solves everything satisfactorily, both emotionally and plot-wise. (It might be nice to see the actors get thanked by some folks they've helped, but I can let that go.)

A good series--getting better as we go. Recommended.

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Where Lyndaraxa is Very Bad

Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada by John Dryden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[This is a review of the second play, The Conquest of Granada, Part II. I already rated and reviewed the first part. Goodreads lumps both parts together, unfortunately.]

I'm enjoying Dryden more than I expected, and I liked this play more than the first. More closure, more drama that I care about, more movement. Like so many old plays, I feel like I'd do better to study the background and try it again, but life is short, and there are a lot of things still to read for the first time...

I'm not generally a fan of rhyme in poetry, let alone drama, and Dryden's plays are made up entirely of rhyming couplets, or heroic couplets. I didn't expect to be okay with that choice, though I think it works. He's more recent than Shakespeare of Marlowe or some others who moved away from rhyme, which makes these plays feel older than they are, but perhaps the reason it feels appropriate is that the setting for this pair of plays is 15th century Spain, over 500 before present and about 180 years before they were written (~1670). They should seem old, then, and old-fashioned.

The first play is mostly about the civil war between two Granada families or clans, all of them Muslim Moors. The second continues that to some degree, but under threat from Ferdinand and Isabella trying to oust the last remaining Moorish rulers from the peninsula. In Dryden's version, the civic disunity, personal ambitions of certain individuals, and straight-up treason of one character lead to the downfall of the small state.

The real villain of the story is beautiful Lyndaraxa, the sister of the leader of the Zegry family, who entices one man after another to try for the throne with the promise of marriage, a promise that she withdraws when their plans fall short. She wants to be queen, and will ally herself with whoever can bring it about, regardless of the crimes they need to commit to achieve it. Her lies and tricks are as shocking and effective as Iago's lies in Othello. In the end--spoiler--she joins with the invading Spaniards, opening the way to Granada with the promise of being queen. Further spoiler--she gets her way for about 5 seconds. Her death, after so many lies and tricks leading straight to war and the deaths of many, is one of the most satisfying in drama.

Another entertaining revelation comes right at the end, when we discover that the hero Almanzor is the long-lost son of a Spanish duke who he once did a service for (in part I). Additionally, the beautiful but principled Almahide is widowed when her jealous husband the king dies. She was loyal to him, but really loved Almanzor, and will marry him after her grieving is through. These take some of the sting out of the tragedy.

I thought it was pretty fun. I'm curious how it would sound on the stage, if it would sound natural or sing-songy with so much rhyme. For reading, though, I found meter worked quite well--much to my surprise.

Recommended for curious readers--though it might be nice to do the reading with more resources than I took advantage of. Maybe team-read. Or--just jump on in. See what you think.

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Where Maddock Follows Clues in the American Southwest

Cibola by David Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pretty good. Not my favorite, but I'll read another by this author.

This is a pulp fiction adventure, like a modern-day Doc Savage or something, and it works pretty well. I've liked two previous books by this author. Somehow, this book didn't work as well for me, and I read it sporadically. Too much stopping and starting makes it hard to love a book, and this is probably more entertaining if read straight through, but it didn't hold my interest that well.

It's a good setup for a story--a genuine lead on Cíbola and the seven cities of gold--taking the story to the American southwest and a quest for lost artifacts, both aboveground and below. To a large extent, it works, but I don't really like sequential stories like this, where they find one thing which leads to another and another, like a shopping list. The last third is pretty fun again, as is so often the case, and I bet if I'd read it in bigger chunks closer together I'd have liked it more.

I often like digging up 1920s or 1930s pulp fiction, and that's pretty fun, and this is probably better than that in just about every way, so it's still recommended if you have a taste for such stories. Many readers gave it a 5, so I might be the wrong guy for this particular title.

Anyway, a 3 is still a recommendation--if cautious. Take a look for yourself.

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