Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten by Gary Gallagher

This book presents an even-handed and entertaining account of the way the Civil War appears in Hollywood movies and visual art. Focusing most specifically on the last twenty years, Gallagher identifies four responses to the Civil War (Lost Cause, Unionist, Emancipation, and Reconciliation) and tracks Hollywood's increasingly Emancipationist films in contrast to Lost Cause visual art. He concludes that the most remarkable aspect of the nation's memory of the Civil War is its disregard of the strong Unionist sentiments of the North. Altogether a very enjoyable read.

Thinks... by David Lodge

This book pits science against literature, along the lines of Nice Work--only this time, the stakes are raised as a novelist and a cognitive scientist fight about the nature of consciousness. There are a lot of serendipitous coincidences throughout the novel, and they pile on particularly high at the end, but overall, this is a fun read.

Vathek by William Beckford

This short novel tells the tale of Vathek's fall into blasphemy and his ultimate destruction. A critique of his insatiable desires--both for sensual satisfaction and for knowledge--the book disguises some of its harshest commentary with its exotic, Middle Eastern setting.

The Bishop's Tale by Margaret Frazer

This mystery again takes Dame Frevisse outside the convent, this time to the funeral of her uncle, Thomas Chaucer. The mystery and its solution build steadily but slowly (and indeed, its definitive proof is limited by the conditions of the time and the investigator)--but this series intrigues me less for its mysteries of death than for its continuing development of the character of Dame Frevisse and its work on elucidating the mystery of what such a life might have been like.

The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips

This book, which has the best megalomaniac since Charles Kinbote, fascinating Egyptian history, not one but two unreliable narrators, and a frantic treasure hunt, raises questions of history, creativity, and interpretation. I love that the story that I took from the novel at its end is not related clearly anywhere, but that I am able to infer it from the precise ways that each of the main narrators (Ralph Trilipush and Harold Ferrell) are unreliable. This story shows an intense desire to re-create and re-make in one's own image, a serious disregard for the truth, and a lot of humor (if gruesome humor) throughout. I look forward to re-reading this book. The setting (nearby Howard Carter's discovery of King Tutankhamen) is icing on the cake.

The Wyndham Case by Jill Paton Walsh

This mystery is quite enjoyable, in the style of Gaudy Night. In addition to a good mystery, there were a lot of academic politics boiling right below the surface, and I loved the romantic tension, and the sub-plot of the missing rare book (which I located as soon as I knew it was lost...). Well worth some attention.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I love this book. Goldman claims (unreliably) to have edited out politics, but not only does he tell a smashingly good adventure story, he uses his edits and redactions (of a supposedly longer and more political instant classic) to make fine points about the nature of narration and genre. This story is quite enjoyable and well worth returning to time and again.