This book hooked me with the premise but soon careened off into a new direction and ended with something out of an old James Bond movie. I was prepared to accept the story in the beginning, but soon the plot became more and more ridiculous. The story is full of technology and tech bros, and a scary future that supposedly will happen if we continue down the road that we are on. It would have been nice to see this rather than it being told to us – the conversations about these issues were superficial and told in passing rather than being thoughtful about it.

The characters start off reasonably but they soon jump off the rails, too. The more I write here about the book the less I feel like it was worth the time to read. Hopefully my next book can get me back on track.

Next is The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre.

This book was a pleasure to read. Starting out from a summer camp crisis, it spirals into a big web of connections over several generations of people. The focus of the book is on the differences between the people who have money and the townies that are there to earn it.

Part of the fun for me was discovering the connections between characters, and guessing at who, where and when. The book jumps frequently between several time frames, the most recent of which is 1975. Sometimes the jumps seemed to be happening too quickly and it was hard to follow a specific character’s track, but the author included a small indicator at the start of each chapter to show where you were in the timeline, and I thought it was an elegant solution.

Speaking of 1975, the book made sure to point out some of the ways that women had it worse back then. I couldn’t help but remember the Phillip morris magnets on my parent’s refrigerator when I was growing up: You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby! The book is largely female-centric, and it is the female characters that largely drive the story and overcome obstacles. I’m fine with girl power type books, but occasionally it does feel a little out of balance.

But the author did a great job of laying out a complex story across several timelines and brought it all to a very satisfying resolution. It was a very entertaining reading experience.

Next I am reading Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby.

It was a total coincidence that I read this book so close to the book on Shackleton exploring Antarctica in the early 1900’s. These two events are separated by 130 years, and it was fun to see what the differences were between the two.

This book describes the third (and final) expedition of James Cook during an age of exploration – the world was yet to be mapped and there were still big blank areas out there. It is hard to imagine what life might have been like when you didn’t know what was across the sea. Cook’s voyage made first contact with several native peoples, and he carried out the goofy imperialistic ceremonies to claim these people and their land as property of the British Crown.

The examination of imperialism and native issues is nicely handled, and the author seemed to have done his research to get a native perspective where possible. He even pokes fun at the British crew of long ago – how they reported (again and again) the sexual prowess of the native women of Tahiti and Hawaii – by noting that there was no evidence of similar comments regarding the British sailors’ prowess passed down through history.

While telling the story I sometimes got the feeling that the author wasn’t entirely neutral in this, so I think it is important (as with any history book) to read this with a grain or two of salt. The book was quite long and described the journey in detail – some might think it was overlong but I liked this aspect.

Two extra things I got from this book – learning about an American on board who was impressed into the British marines. John Ledyard spent three years on this voyage, and once it was over:

“…he embarked on a trek of more than six thousand miles, mostly on foot, across Europe and Russia in an attempt to reach Alaska, but he was arrested in Siberia under orders from Catherine the Great. Ledyard died in Cairo in 1788, aged thirty-seven, while preparing an expedition to search for the source of the Niger River.”

It seemed like there was a lot of exploration going on at the time and that some people just lived on a grander scale.

The second extra thing I enjoyed was the artwork that was included – sketches and paintings by members of the voyage that showed these far off destinations to readers back in England. The style and detail were especially captivating for me.

Probably the best thing about this book was that I read it in ignorance of the result of the expedition. Either I didn’t know or forgot what happened during this historical voyage, and thanks to my cluelessness the book was that much better.

Next I am reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.

I am not a big fan of tennis, but I heard that this biography was worth reading even for people like me who know little about the game. I do remember (vaguely) the presence of Agassi in the media when I was growing up, and some of these stories rang bells for me.

This book was extremely well-written, and does a great job of describing Agassi’s tennis career, and how he got started, kept it going, and left it. It is mixed with episodes and anecdotes from his life at the time, and it was interesting to read what things he felt were important to relate.

It is easy to get caught up in the story of his tennis career, but I think that hardcore tennis fans might have actually seen the matches that he describes which would be way more interesting for them. Sometimes matches are described in great detail, others just a quick sentence or two, but it seems like he felt nearly every one should be included, which occasionally felt repetitive to me.

There is enough writing about what happened between the big tennis matches to keep the reader interested. It is also an interesting snapshot of the pre-internet world of celebrity tennis.

It was a long book but I got enough out of it to be glad that I read it. Next I am reading The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides.

This was a semi-surreal story in an empty setting which is hard to categorize. That is a good thing as far as I am concerned – and I enjoyed this book because it was so different from conventional format books that I often read.

At first the story seems small and simple, and even though you don’t have answers, at least you can feel the tension of the situation and you trust the author to guide you. Slowly you realize that this setting is not actually the world that you know – the tether is there but it is frayed and could break at any time.

And I liked that the author made it clear up front that there are no answers to some of the big questions that come up. I think that kind of honesty is necessary to do what the writer is trying to do. But as soon as we know that answers are not forthcoming, and things are not going according to the rules we consciously and unconsciously know – it feels like anything can happen. Including a great deal of introspection.

There are a lot of haunting scenes – places devoid of people and vast empty spaces. I also go for this kind of stuff in books so I was extremely satisfied to find so much of that here. Where can I find more of this?

My only criticisms are that I felt the sections of the story are oddly divided. As we open up to this new reality there are phases that are described, but the time spent in each one felt out of balance to me.

I really enjoyed this odd duck of a book – it nicely broke up the style of reading I’ve been doing lately.

Next I am reading Open by Andre Agassi.

This is a small town murder mystery with an interesting twist – we can follow both the detective and the suspect, knowing more than each one does while trying to connect the dots ourselves.

But it seems like the main goal of this book is to introduce a place, and the people that live there. Characters and locations are introduced, there is a lot about gardening, books, and a local library. I felt like the writer was trying to make a cozy environment, and it seems like there are six other books after this one set in the the same place, so I guess it worked.

I’m not sure I liked the main character – the detective – in this book. He has some stereotypical cop qualities (divorced, can’t make a relationship work, burned out from life in the big city) and he seems quick to anger in a very relaxed and cozy little town.

The writing is quite good, though, and it often describes scents and nature – with a special emphasis on gardening and plants.

The murder mystery itself wasn’t a big surprise – more an exercise in seeing these people in their natural environment and getting to know them.

In the end I think I enjoyed this book somewhat – I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series or not but if the next book comes up at the library and I’m between books, I guess I’d pick it up.

Next I am reading I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.

Despite enjoying books on travel I haven’t read much on the age of exploration, partly because I’m not sure I trust historical accounts that may gloss over inconvenient information. But this book has maybe shifted my opinion a bit and I’ll keep my eyes open for more on this age.

The book chronicles the unsuccessful attempt of Ernest Shackleton to cross the Antarctic continent, but ends up following a much more dangerous journey to survive. The author uses the diaries and notes of the expedition members to recreate the events, and it feels extremely real, with a slightly dated feeling (the book is about 70 years old).

I really enjoyed reading about the logistics of an expedition of this scale, and what they needed to bring and what they ultimately used. Occasionally the author got caught up in detailing the minute by minute drudgery of what the members suffered through – the idea is to give the reader a sense of their struggle, but I thought towards the end that it felt like a little too much information – at a certain point the details could be dialed down a little to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

The biggest enemy of the expedition was the cold – and this book is filled with descriptions of what it is like to suffer – from cold wind, cold water, cold (and wet) sleeping bags, and cold dinner.

The writer seems to make efforts to portray members mostly in a good light. Even one guy who might be seen as a burden on the team is treated with kid gloves. Maybe this is how writers have to deal with subjects that are still alive back in the 50’s. I liked the idea that there were people whose only occupation in life was scrimping and scraping up the money to go out and explore – what a lifestyle! The whole book was a satisfying time travel experience, and I enjoyed it overall.

Next I am reading The Suspect by L.R. Wright.

Nice to read something by one of the masters! In my mind I tend to think that books by Agatha Christie are going to be really old and hard to relate to, but despite some of the cultural points most of the book felt modern and interesting even today.

It is hard to express just how clever this book is. It uses our assumptions (that sometimes I didn’t realize I was making) against us, and hides the murderer from us in a fair way. The way the story is written is such that events move quickly, but not so quickly that we are overwhelmed.

If I had to critique something, I would say that because of the situation, there is (necessarily) a lot of smoke to try to see through. Distinguishing the smoke from the fire is the trick here, and in the end I was surprised just how much was camouflage.

This was a great one! Next I am reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing.

I recently read the first book in this series, and enjoyed it enough to want to try the next one. The first book left you on a cliffhanger, so I was eager to see how it resolved. Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this book, and for the first time in a long time I gave up on a book and didn’t finish.

I hate to write about something that I didn’t finish – it doesn’t seem fair to critique it not having experienced it in its entirety – but I think I should write about why I didn’t like it here for my future self, just in case I forget why I gave up on the book.

The short version of why I gave up – there is a lot of content in the beginning about the side characters dealing with the loss of another character from the first book. Dealing with the loss and also their own social issues takes up so much of the story that I felt like this was more of a self-help book rather than a science fiction story. The group of people from multiple races each have their own issues with identity (race/gender/sexual/etc), confidence, finance, parents, and so on. They consume huge amounts of social media and deal with fame and when are we going to get to the good stuff?

I guess what I missed was the joy – the joy of unwinding the mystery, and the sense of discovery when they unveil some clue. I wasn’t getting that from this book after dedicating a couple hours of reading – so I decided to move on to something else.]

That something else is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

This book was a long read on where some key international cities stand on the issue of public transportation. The author travels the world looking firsthand at different approaches to transport, and as a travel writing fan I enjoyed this aspect of the book the most.

The idea in the beginning is to contrast cities that have handled public transport well with those that depend on cars and freeways. But it goes deep into the reasons behind each city’s design, the history that dictated that design, and how it may work out for the future.

The author clearly states at the beginning that they prefer living without a car, and so that point of view certainly carries through the entire journey. While he had his mind made up, I felt like the choir that he was preaching to – one of the nicest things about living where I am now is that I don’t really need a car. Walking to the supermarket or reading books on my train commute are some of the best parts of my day.

Because the author clearly has a lot of passion on the topic the history and detail offered on the history of each city can sometimes go long, and it took me quite a while to finish this book. But I did learn a lot, especially why American cities are mostly car-dependent, and how far they have to go before that changes.

My only real criticism of the book is certainly not the author’s fault – this experience was done about 10 years ago, and I am sure that many things have changed since then. I do hope that someday in the future he’ll go out there and see what happened since his first visit to these destinations.

Next I am reading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green.

This was a fun, sort of cozy fairy tale that was written in a very efficient style. Thanks to the tight storytelling we get right into the heart of the story, and the cast of characters takes off on their quest.

The book was an easy read, there are some interesting characters and quandaries, and I was satisfied with the resolution. Surprisingly it doesn’t lead into a sequel like so many other books from this genre seem to.

If I had any complaint, it would be that at some points it was just a little too cute, and I felt like there was a very specific target audience that the author had in mind when writing this. I don’t think I was in the target audience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I read this while continuing to read Straphanger by Taras Grescoe. That book is full of statistics and history so it is going a little bit longer than I expected!

I really enjoyed this book and the idea behind it, despite the sometimes dark subject matter. It has been a long time since I read Huck Finn, and it took a while to get back into the character and the situation. The main character of this book, James, has an entirely new (previously hidden) personality and seeing how this works in the alternate reality that the author created was enjoyable.

There are plenty of books looking at the horrors of slavery in the United States, but where this book is different is that it may have a greater effect on a new generation that is even farther separated from this period of history. Having characters speaking in clean and educated English where they so often speak in a different way in older books or movies – it may be a little easier for younger people to empathize with them and see them as humans rather than characters.

The book really packed in a lot of situations, and sometimes I thought that it suffered from being restricted to the timeline of Huckleberry Finn as written by Mark Twain. There was time to explore what was happening to Jim while Huck was having his adventures, but sometimes it felt artificial. But again, it has been a long time since I’ve read the original work and so I’d have to go back and re-read it. And I’m not sure that I’ll see any of the characters in the same way – which I suppose is one of the author’s goals.

Next I am reading Straphanger by Taras Grescoe.

One of my students recommended this book to me – he enjoyed reading it as a way to study English, so I thought I’d check it out.

The theme of this book is survival and independence, sort of like a Jack London book of trying to get along with nature, although the main character of this story is a young teenager (named Brian).

For the reasons above I enjoyed the book, although it was clearly written with an agenda – don’t take the food, conveniences and simple luxuries all around you for granted- with a dash of “if you got up off your ass and went out into nature for a while you might learn something”.

The writing is simple and it seems like it was written with younger people in mind. We are constantly peeking into the main character’s head and telling us about his ideas – how about more showing instead? Also there is a weird backstory about a secret that he knows about his mother, who is in the process of getting a divorce from his father. Not sure why this was important other than adding to the pressure on this kid.

The ending comes abruptly, and at first I thought it came too quickly, but the more I thought about it the more I liked how it wrapped up.

Next I am reading James by Percival Everett.

So many books with this unoriginal title structure, but I didn’t hold that against the author as I read this book. Overall I liked the concept of the book – it is full of things that I’ve liked in other books – but the execution of the story wasn’t to my taste.

So we’ve got secret societies, doors to other worlds, books, loyal dogs and (possibly) vampires – lots of good stuff. But the main character’s voice was a little aggravating to me, and the book had an overall theme of breaking out from the white male dominating society and overcoming their systemic advantages. I like the idea of exploring this in a book but it seemed spoon-fed and overly-simplified.

Some characters were flat, villains unsurprising and doing monologues to explain their motivations, predictable turns in the story and just the feeling like you know what the character should do but you have to wait several chapters before they do it.

Finally, they have a book being read within this book, and the way it is levered into the main narrative felt awfully contrived. Couldn’t we get this information in a more organic way?

So it sounds like I didn’t really like the book, and before writing all this down I felt like I had enjoyed it overall – but now that I look at it maybe not.

Next I am reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

A long time ago a friend of mine set up a celebration with his then-girlfriend (now wife) for their one year dating anniversary. He got a room at the Ritz Carlton, set up a big 12-course dinner, and really spent big. They had a great time, but after something like that how do you follow it up? What do you do for the first wedding anniversary?

I was thinking about this when I was reading the end of this book, as the 33-year old author finished his seven year adventure walking around the world. It is great to do something like this at such a young age, but I worry about what he can do to keep that sense of adventure in the future.

The end of the book has him considering this, and I think that once the experience of writing and promoting this book wraps up, it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up.

I love stories like this – just like Paul Theroux books where the “rules” of the journey are laid out in advance, we follow the travels and imagine what it’d be like if we were doing the same thing.

The author writes a great deal about his growth during the walk, which is natural especially at the age that he started. I found myself more interested in the logistics – how did he get from A to B and why did he choose that way? Why this country and not that country? There is a lot of fast forwarding and events skipped over – which is understandable because seven years is a long time. Still, I felt that there was more that could be told, and I hope that someday he writes a book with more details on the nitty gritty.

Things I really liked – the sheer freedom of walking and stopping when you want to. Sometimes he decides to stay for a week in a particular place that calls out to him, and I envy the ability to do that. In the seven year walk there are some interludes that have him hanging out in a place because he is waiting for something – a visa, COVID restrictions to lift, a border to open. Then he settles into a sort of almost-regular lifestyle, but without needing to work. Spending days learning languages or reading books at cafes sounded like heaven to me.

As I said, the author talks a lot about his growth during the journey. He attributes a lot of his growth to the meditation of walking and walking with nobody but his dog Savannah to talk to. Sometimes I felt like his thoughts on meditation felt sort of shoe-horned into the story, not naturally coming out. Maybe this is because it this is his first time writing a book – but to me it felt a little artificial.

Finally the story often came back to Savannah, his adopted dog and almost the main character of this book. It felt sometimes like the author was struggling to put himself back at the center, but my attention (and I think most people’s) was drawn back to how Savannah was growing up in such a unique situation. It must have been difficult to write this book balancing both stories in a satisfying way.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that there is something else coming from this author down the road – another adventure or a deeper dive into this one.

Next I am reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.