Reviews and Comments

Essentially a collection of a hundred or so vignettes (I didn't bother to count), this book seems incredibly mis-titled because Arthur's death is only the last section. Even calling it The Life of King Arthur would've been incorrect, as his story really only bookends the collection. Not even bookending it, actually, as it starts with Merlin and finishes with both Guinevere and Lancelot. So if stories of Merlin, Guinevere, and Lancelot are the bread of this sandwich, Arthur's account is the butter--how he went from peasant boy to literature's most regal cuckold...and accumulated the service of 150 knights along the way. It is really their exploits that make up the bulk of the book.

And let me tell you how frustrating their exploits are. It is basically just story after story of non-graphic sex and violence, where supposedly honorable knights fight each other over insults or else follow some mysterious woman on an unknown adventure. The most important thing to these knights is their pride and their name. These are the most noble men in the land--except when they are not.

I imagine these stories were supposed to encourage people to act more chivalrously, but following the examples laid out here seems to be the cause of major blundering--even on down to today's politics. The narrative is extremely spare, probably owing to the cost of paper and copying, as well as the high illiteracy of the time (think reading The Bible). Each story is about a page or two long and probably worked better as a tale told by the fire than read collectively in an armchair.

At best, this is a one-star read. My only reason for giving it two stars is the insights it gives to the time period it was written and understanding how it impacts Western culture. It's somewhat interesting to see how far we have come--and, ironically, how far we actually haven't--but this is a book I can only recommend to completists of the Arthurian legend.

The focus of this book is primarily on Venice's empire. It does not concern itself much with the city proper or the life therein. Not really until the empire is well into decline does the city get much discussion--probably because there's less and less empire remaining to write about.

The book deals mostly with the 13th to 16th centuries. The story of Venice is quite fascinating, even if you disagree with the approach the city took regarding trade and their policy towards other countries. Much of the discussion is about Constantinople, Crete, Negroponte, the Black Sea, the spice trade, the Genoese, the Mongols, the Mamluks, and the Ottomans. The best part of the book for me was how the Venetians lost modern-day Euboea to the Ottomans at what has come to be known as the Siege of Negroponte. That lesson--coupled with the following defeat at the Battle of Zonchio--is worth the read alone.

The writing style is very approachable, and the information never gets bogged down. It's a relatively short book, so perhaps it could have been expanded a bit more, but that may have turned off more casual readers. However, because it deals so little with the actual city of Venice, it may not be the best place to start reading about the history of Venice (unless you know you're specifically interested in their overseas holdings). It would make a good second book to read about Venice, though.

The "official" story of how Han Solo got his start on the path to becoming the smuggler we all know and love in the Star Wars movies.

This is the novelization of the movie, so it can't veer far from the script. And it doesn't. It's also billed as the "Expanded Edition", which is somewhat misleading because it is (ever so slightly) expanded, but also contracted.

It's expanded in the sense that it offers a few extra scenes with a bit more information. Some of these work. For instance, Val's situation and a bit on Qi'ra's background add nicely to rounding out the story and give motivation to their actions. The best one is the added epilogue. The ones with L3-37 didn't work for me, but others may enjoy those. Unfortunately, it's not expanded where the movie needed it most, namely Han and Qi'ra's interactions and relationship.

The novelization is contracted in the sense that the author knew only people who had already seen the movie would be reading it, so there was no need to describe anything very clearly. Just watch the movie again if you want to know what a character, location, or item looked like. This is just sloppy, negligent writing on the writer's behalf, and almost sinful considering the excellent directing and cinematography in the movie. Also, the narrative style is very thin. It is Young Adult at best. Basically, just think of a screenplay with slightly expanded descriptions of things and action.

For those familiar with some of the Star Wars novels, this one is more Kevin J. Anderson than it is Timothy Zahn. There is no real need to read it. Just know that there is a good reason for Val's actions and go to a library to read the epilogue if you have absolutely nothing to do on the weekend.

Let's get this bread!

This is a very good book for beginners to moderately skilled bakers. It details the bread-making process nicely and makes it easy to understand. The concepts and recipes are well-described, and there seems to be something in here for everyone. There are different schedules for making bread so that you can incorporate one of them into your own schedule. Best of all, you are given all the information you need so that you can tailor any of the recipes to accommodate your schedule. And the recipes are super easy to scale up or down.

I focused my reading on the straight breads and the ones using a starter as those are the recipes I'm likely to try now. I just skimmed the levain (sourdough) recipes, focaccia, and pizza recipes. I'll give them a second reading later.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's quite likely the only bread book you'll need if you just want to make something delicious and healthy for your family and have a little fun doing it at the same time.

And, as an extra bonus, the author has put some videos on YouTube which show some of his techniques so that they're easier to understand:

https://www.youtube.com/user/KensArtisan

EDIT: The author has since written a separate book dedicated to pizza (The Elements of Pizza) which contradicts the method he used in this book. The method in this book isn't bad, but you may want to read the new book for what he describes as a better way to make the dough (and the tomato sauce, too, I believe).

I'm still relatively new to reading about the Middle Ages, but I have a few books under my belt now. This books is a very fascinating look at the defensive makeup and layout of castles during that time period. It starts with a bit on Roman fortifications and wooden grody, then moves on to what most of us consider to be castles, and then finishes off just as cannons are being introduced.

The main focus is on the specific defensive attributes and their variations across different parts of Europe, mostly. Aspects of siege warfare are discussed, but it's mostly about defense. There are numerous photographs of castles still in existence, and includes sketches showing the layout of those as well as others no longer extant. What is beyond the scope of this book, however, is anything regarding the daily management of a castle or interior design.

If I were to pick a complaint, it would be that the black-and-white photography is grainy and doesn't communicate the image clearly. I augmented my reading with internet searches, though, so that wasn't a huge problem. I also found the index and glossary at the back a bit lacking when I wanted to refresh my memory about certain things.

All in all, it is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it. It's not a scholarly work by any means, but it's a great place to start. I look forward to rereading this one for sure.