Read, watch, listen

[darkemeralds]

Ben Aaronovitch's latest, Broken Homes ended on a hell of an action scene with a twist that I didn't see coming--and I'll definitely opt in to the fifth volume when it comes out--but the story format is getting a little formulaic at this point. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration is, as usual, fantastic.



Switching back to non-fiction for a few days, I'm in the midst of Niall Ferguson's 2003 bestseller Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. I like this kind of history writing: lots of fascinating documentary detail woven into a very wide view, with bold conclusions drawn for people like me who can't do all the source reading themselves. His section on the American colonies and the war of independence was like, whoa, really? Is that how it happened? You mean the potted history I learned in grade school wasn't even slightly accurate? Fascinating.



I've finished seasons two and three of my Supernatural rewatch on Netflix. My interest/nostalgia is dwindling with Season 4. I remember it being fascinating when I originally watched it, but in hindsight, knowing what a crazy mess the whole Heaven and Hell story eventually becomes, it loses most of its shine. Not sure I'll stick with it.

I've been talked into giving NBC's 2009 short series Kings another try--it didn't take when I first saw the pilot. I may be looking for fic recommendations a bit later on.



And finally, tonight I went to the movies. Saw August: Osage County, which I had only the faintest concept of before the show started. Fine writing and virtuoso acting, including Benedict Cumberbatch being painfully awkward, could not redeem for me this stage-play adaptation about depressing, sick, dying, and angry members of a dysfunctional family (though one scene between Chris Cooper and Bendy came very close to repaying the price of admission). I guess I prefer my entertainment entertaining.

But riding bikes with my sis to the Hollywood Theater, and having popcorn, and riding home again in the cold and rain, was really nice.



Still on an Amnesia!Dean SPN fic bender, to go along with my rewatch. What a great fandom for fic.

And, a propos of very little:

My fellow Fanmericans - The State of Our Union is...#SuperSleepy is canon! May God ship you & may God ship the United States of Fanmerica

(@TheOrlandoJones tonight on Twitter)

Comments

[lamentables]

Erm, I would strongly recommend doing a little research on Niall Ferguson before crediting him with greater accuracy than other sources.

[darkemeralds]

I appreciate the warning, but even Niall Ferguson is probably more accurate than my only prior source on the subject of the American Revolution; to wit, the near-religious catechism in elementary school about The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and the Boston Tea Party. That was the beginning and end of my education in that part of US history.

(To be perfectly fair, Sleepy Hollow is probably more accurate than my elementary school education.)

I almost didn't get past Ferguson's bizarre introduction where the Empire was a fine, fine thing complete with zebra-skin souvenirs. But then he goes on to pile up facts that say, to any right-thinking person, that the British empire was abhorrent, so I kept listening, and sure enough, he seems to refute his core idea in every chapter. If he's assuming that the reader will arrive at the "Empire=Good/White Men=Best" conclusion that he thinks his facts point to, he's nuts, and very likely a horrible human being.

But I don't have any reason to think he's invented the facts themselves--the names, dates, places, numerical data, and written documents he cites--out of the whole cloth. (Based on your comment, I went looking for refutations of fact in this specific book and am not easily finding any--though they may be buried under more recent accusations of fact-manipulation in a Newsweek article about Obama in 2012.)

As a first exposure to things like various uprisings in India, the acreage granted by the crown to William Penn, enumeration of the African slave trade, the actual money figure of the tax on tea in the American colonies, etc., the book is pretty interesting.

If I'd been considering it as a purchase, I'd certainly have read reviews first and not bought it. But it was free from the public library, so I went ahead. Hopefully I'm not in too much danger of being deeply misinformed or swayed.

[darkemeralds]

Follow up: I did find one reviewer who was able to cite some specific factual fallacies in the Australia section of the book. They were fairly inconsequential, but they hint at a fact-checking problem.