The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris

This book retells the story of Ywain and Laudine with some additions and Morris's Seelie Court (of fairies and magic) involved. As usual, Morris makes the secondary characters (the ones of his own devising, or the ones peripheral to the traditional legends) far more interesting and sympathetic, perhaps in part because he has more leeway to do as he likes with them. I particularly liked seeing the development and maturation of Luneta.

The Tragedy of Arthur: A Novel by Arthur Phillips

This book is both dazzling and delightful. It purports to contain a newly-discovered play by Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Arthur, and a long introduction to that play by a version of the novelist Arthur Phillips. The reader quickly discovers she's in the midst of a tour de force, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Nabokov's Pale Fire. Arthur Phillips, the unreliable narrator of the novel, is convinced that his father, a skilled forger, forged the play, but Professor Verre, the scholarly voice that adds footnotes to Phillips's footnotes, is just as unreliable as he tries to justify his reading of the play that makes Shakespeare its author. The play itself is not a bad stab at an imitation of Shakespeare--it uses Holinshed just as Shakespeare did, and it borrows lines from some of Shakespeare's other plays. There are some really funny moments in the play too. Along the way, there's a dazzling variation on the Earl of Oxford thesis, interesting speculation on what could have caused this play to have been suppressed, lots of great family drama, and a lot of fun to be had at the narrator's expense. All in all, well worth enjoying.

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick

I really enjoyed this book, which really had a little bit of everything in it: between history, science, math, literature, cryptography, technology, and theory, it seems nothing is too far afield. I enjoyed the biographical bits about the people whose work made information both legible and useful for us today, and I  enjoyed the scientific bits that show, at least in part, how we came to and continue to manipulate information. I found the concept of redundancy in messages particularly enlightening. The chapter on the Library of Babel and Wikipedia was also quite good. While at the end, Gleick begins to deal with the question of information overload, I felt his heart wasn't in it, or at least, that the final pages were not as well researched or conceptualized as the rest of the book.

Converging Stories: Race, Ecology, and Environmental Justice in American Literature by Jeffrey Myers

This book contends that we ought to understand racial injustice and environmental degradation as coming out of similar Euroamerican attitudes toward the other. It marshals Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, Thoreau's nature writings, Chesnutt's The Conjure Woman, Zitkala-Ša's Old Indian Legends, and Eddy L. Harris's Mississippi Solo to show both how racist attitudes can reinforce an inability to live with or understand nature and how antiracism and ecology can work hand in hand to move toward a more egalitarian society. I found the book reasonably convincing in its arguments (the environmental claims get a bit radical for my tastes at some points) and altogether an enjoyable and quick read.

Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov

This book chronicles the development of psychohistory on Trantor despite the increasing decline of the empire and the enormous personal losses that face Hari Seldon. The book picks key moments to demonstrate, so the effect is staccato. We get to infer years of happiness for Seldon in the middle of his life, but we see him in moments of crisis. The mathematics behind psychohistory, too, are sketchy, but this lack of direction, I think, helps keep the book from feeling dated.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I might. It tells two intertwined stories: that of a young boy who runs away with the circus after his parents' death in a car accident, and that of an old man struggling to come to terms with the nursing home his children have chosen for him and his own aging body. Despite the fact that the young boy and the old man are the same character, and that you see a version of the climactic scene early in the book, the plot still contains many surprises. I particularly enjoyed the way the animals fit into the story.

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

This book chronicles the beginning of Hari Seldon's development of pyschohistory. When a young mathematician discovers that it's possible to predict the probability of a given future event, both Emperor Cleon I and his First Minister Eto Demerzel are interested in the possibilities. But Seldon is less convinced that it is practical to develop this possibility into a working science. Trying to stay one step ahead of imperial interest, Seldon traverses the surface of Trantor with Dors Venabili (a historian who becomes interested in his project) trying desperately to determine how to develop psychohistory before imperial forces catch up with him. This book is quite enjoyable.