2019, book 13: Gladiatoren: volksvermaak in het Colosseum, Fik Meijer

Just OK. A little disappointing.

An early mention of supposed evidence that watching violent depictions leads to increased violence (no reference, of course) makes me take everything else in this book for what it is: an attempt at pop history.

2019, book 12: Ik ben naar Wladiwostok, Jan de Zanger

I read this in junior high, after my teacher recommended it. Oddly, I could not find either of the two scenes I remembered from the book!

It was surprisingly difficult to find the book. It turns out it has been republished as Ik hou het voor gezien. I'm somewhat curious to find a copy of one of the newer editions, to see whether the scenes I remembered are present. (My paperback is from 1983.)

2019, book 11: Een leven met jazz, Michiel de Ruyter & Frank van Dixhoorn

Oral history of the Dutch jazz scene. It's OK, but not brilliant.

2019, book 10: A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's obsessive quest for the perfect piano, Katie Hafner

Gould was fucking insane and people apparently drop concert grands left and right. What a crazy world. Engrossing, easy read.

2019, book 9: Red Horizons: Chronicles of a communist spy thief, Ion Mihai Pacepa

Strangely, I had never read this.

Pacepa is clearly trying to make himself look a little better and everyone else a little worse. Two things were really surprising:

1. His claims of Nicolae Ceaușescu's supposed genius.
2. His intense character murder of Elena Ceaușescu, a woman whose idiotic and cruel whims he served for decades.