Absolutely - unremarkable not because they weren't weird, but unremarkable because so many other weird sects (and treasure hunters, and magickers, and the like) were also active.
It's a fun, short, read about a lesser-known sect from that same milieu. Intersects with some well-known people from the era. The latter makes far more connections between the conditions of the Late Bronze Age Collapse and current conditions than one might like.
The White Ship by Charles Spencer (Princess Diana's brother) It's about the tragedy of the White Ship, which killed Henry I of England's heir William Adelin. It also focuses on the era before and after the shipwreck. Looks like a good read.
Adharandand Finn is a journalist who thought ultra running was stupid, unlike his beloved marathons, until his editor decided that ultra marathons should be his next area to do a deep dive. Within about 18 months he went from never running one to finishing the UTMB.
That was my opinion, too. I found Patty Smith's books considerably more interesting. YMMV, of course. Money: The True History of a Made-Up Thing, which I'm finding interesting and informative, and an interesting take on an important element of history that I haven't thought about much before by Jacob Goldstein, who is pretty good at keeping the narrative moving and talking more about people than about abstractions, which is helpful for someone like me.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Emily Bronte: Still Pretty Good in the 21st Century. Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays, a collection of (obviously) essays by an English novelist and one-time activism who has become skeptical of the ability of activism to save us, since most activism, in Paul Kingsnorth's plays into the hands of the forces that are accelerating the end of the carbon-based fuel era, if not the demise of carbon-based life.
I Will Die In A Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart. It's a novel about four people and their experiences in the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine. The book has won several awards. This tome is the first I've read from Two Dollar Radio, a small book publisher in Columbus, OH. Looks like an interesting read.
Far and away the worst book I've read this year. While there's a handful of interesting stats here and there, and maybe one or two decent stories, it's mostly just piss poor writing with utterly nonsensical tripe being passed off as truth. For example, Curtis Bunn (who somehow has a job with NBC) writes a chapter about the disparity in home ownership among the races and somehow mucks it up with an statements about Washington DC being "vanilla" because it's no longer more than 50% African American even though less than 38% of the population of the city identifies as white. It wasn't a shock to find out that the "novels" he lists among his plaudits as an author are romance novels. Bunn is an imbecile, and outright racist in several locations, and unfortunately this seems to have mostly been his project so he either authors or co-authors most chapters. Not surprisingly the two best chapters are on policing and incarceration of black people compared to everyone else in the US, along with with very interesting historical origins for each, and he's not part of either chapter. I would like to read more from Patrice Gaines and Keith Harriston, as they did an excellent job with those chapters.
It was about a 37 years married bar owner who came upon a girl he was in love with when he was in the Middle School. The book is more complex than what I understand! It is not just a love story.
Let us Watch Richard Wilbur: A Biographical Study, which is about a guy who is not among my top fifty favorite poets, but whose biography is interesting -- esp. the WWII part in the European theater. And the book does a good job showing how that wartime experience shaped his poetry (highly formal, everything rhyming in a particularly premodern way, and super ironic) for better or worse. Nice job by authors Robert Bagg and Mary Bagg, who unlike many biographers, did not grow weary of their subject. Or if they did, they didn't take it out on him in the book.
I like to buy books, and usually I read them, but not always. Over the years, I've collected a pretty big pile of books that didn't get read, so over my maternity leave, I've been trying to make a dent in that pile. So far I've read: The Galapagos Affair by J. E. Treherne - A true story with better characters than any piece of fiction I've ever read. Becoming Jane Austen, by Jon Spence - This book has made me appreciate the modern trend of giving your kids unique names. I can't imagine trying to keep all your relatives straight when they're all named Edward, Henry, Ann, and Philadelphia. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - Charming. Thought I'd look into more books in the series, but apparently there are 22. I'm not that dedicated.... Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - Got this one on clearance for $1.00. Fantastic value. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - An interesting idea, but I won't be seeking out future books in the series. I think his desire to work in the photographs ultimately limited what the story could become. Now I am reading The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and never has a book Romanticismed harder.
I have read two non-fiction books about cartels in recent months: Kilo by Toby Muse (2021) and El Narco by Ioan Grillo (2011) Muse's book is about the Colombian cartel. Grillo's is about the Mexican cartels. Both are easy to read, like a magazine report, with short chapters. They are a good introduction to the subject. And they approach the issue from different points of view (Colombia and Mexico). Can be seen as complementary The downside is that it has little depth or new information. Muse's book has a tiresome melodramatic style and does not address the relationship between cartels and the state (politicians, judges). Grillo's El Narco cites the relationship with Mexican politicians superficially and raises political flags that may annoy some. Anyway, two interesting books, not essential.
Finally caught up on the Millennium Trilogy that turned into the Millennium Series. My favorite of the 3 Lagercrantz entries into the series and a satisfying, yet brutal, conclusion to the main arc he developed for the characters. Not on par with Stieg Larsson's original trilogy, but still good stuff. Apparently they're now giving the pen to an author named Karin Smirnoff to do a third trilogy and that may end up being their little gimmick. As mentioned in the Random Thoughts thread there's something to be said for writing with command of plot and pacing along with somehow making the otherwise ridiculous seem believable. These books fill that niche with what seems to be a darker tone than something like a James Bond character, but they still clip along and you buy into it because the authors know how to make the characters and stories compelling. Formula exists because in capable hands it works. I am looking forward to the next set of book titles and hope they continue with the characters aging realistically so that we can eventually see something like, "The Girl Who Moved Into An Assisted Living Facility."
Reading a random fantasy novel to give my tired brain a rest, and there's a subplot about metallurgy, smelting, and the like. Book ends; an author's note follows. She (Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the great sci-fi/fantasy authors) cites a 16th century treatise in Latin about mining and metallurgy, then adds it was translated into English by President Herbert and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover. Wait, what!? He was an engineer by training and she was a Latin scholar, and they worked together on the book. And that's one of the greatest, randomest things I've bumped into in an author's note in a long time.
Small is STILL Beautiful a book length appreciation of the similarily titled book by E. F. Schumacher penned by the English writer Joseph Pearce.