The Dry: A Novel by Jane Harper (3.5 stars)

I waited too long to write this review and so I've forgotten everything about it, which usually means it was above 3 stars but not above 4 because either way it would be more memorable :) I only have a couple of notes, so usually that means it was pretty good. The highlights I have were about how well it described what's it's like to be in a small town in a drought.

Soon they’d discover that the veggies didn’t grow as willingly as they had in the city window box. That every single green shoot had to be coaxed and prized from the reluctant soil, and the neighbors were too busy doing the same on an industrial scale to muster much cheer in their greetings. There was no daily bumper-to-bumper commute, but there was also nowhere much to drive to.

Arrivals looked around at the barrenness and the scale and the sheer bloody hardness of the land, and before long their faces all said exactly the same thing. I didn’t know it was like this. He turned away, remembering how the rawness of local life had seeped into the kids’ paintings at the school. Sad faces and brown landscapes. 

3.5 stars

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen (4 stars)

Just a really astonishing journey, mostly because some people actually lived long enough to return and tell us about it. Magellan sets off to circumnavigate the globe in a handful of small ships with hardly any food, quite a bit of wine, and no idea of how to prevent scurvy.

Of the food that Magellan took on at Seville, nearly four-fifths consisted of just two items, wine and hardtack.

Wine was considered the most important; it was tax free, and an official was required to come aboard and make certain it had not soured or become contaminated.

And this journey was crazy super dangerous. Basically everyone was expected to die. Reading this account you just have to respect the courage it took to take off on such an adventure.

Going to sea was the most adventurous thing one could do, the Renaissance equivalent of becoming an astronaut

Magellan does some amazing stuff, not the least of which is surviving some spectacular mutiny attempts. But just the sailing and navigation feats through unknown waters with primitive instruments is impressive in its own right.

Magellan’s skill in negotiating the entire length of the strait is acknowledged as the single greatest feat in the history of maritime exploration.

But at some point his decision making goes haywire and he starts picking unnecessary fights with native peoples of various islands which gets him killed. Then the remainder of his crew basically turn into pirates, pillaging villages and any ships they come into contact with.

Just when it seemed that a measure of order had returned to the fleet, they attacked a large proa to obtain information about the whereabouts of the Moluccas. In a bitter struggle, they slaughtered seven of the eighteen men on board the little craft. Pigafetta mentioned the matter only in passing, without remorse. In the past, the needless deaths of the Chamorros and the Patagonian giants had caused sorrow and guilt, but by now he had become desensitized to the business of killing, which he reported with less emotion than he would a passing storm.

The thing that bothered me the most about this book was the uncritical descriptions of sex the Europeans had with the native peoples, which are largely presented as consensual orgies. I suspect the reality was much less consensual and extremely brutal for the women involved. Later in the journey when the crew kidnaps a woman "whose chief role was to serve in a harem" on the ship I found that description disgustingly uncritical for a modern author who should be capable of calling a rape a rape.

Despite those shortcomings and it being occasionally pretty slow, which may be unavoidable due to the tedium of this type of ocean travel, it's truly an astonishing story.

4 stars.