More Murderbot – I just love this series of short novellas.

This one has the main character heading back to save an old employer, and orchestrating a jailbreak from a huge space station.

Bringing back some of the characters from the first book was refreshing (although it has been a long time since I read that one). The plot here was a little less suspenseful and more focused on action, but it delivered plenty of that signature A.I. commentary coupled with sarcasm, antisocialism, and a growing sense of self-awareness.

There are just two books left in the series, and I suppose I’ll get to finishing them off by the end of the year. Looking forward to it!

Next I’m reading A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders.

I found this book listed as one of the best thrillers of last year, and it turned out to be a pretty good book.

This might be the first thriller I’ve read where the main character is black. I’m sure I’ve read other books where the main character was black but it didn’t really register as pertinent. In this book the character’s color is an important part of his identity, and maybe because of the area of the USA where he lives the author makes sure to point out the colors of the characters in this story.

The action in this book was fast-paced and the writer often invoked what you expect from cliche scenes of action movies as a device to upend the reader’s expectations. I liked the main character, he is a guy who is trying to do the right thing by his family but also somehow get ahead of his financial obligations.

The bad guys in this book are suitably evil and interesting, and the story often hints at behavior that happens beyond the reader’s view – we just kind of infer and that makes the story more interesting.

I felt like there was an overuse of similes throughout the book – so much that it was distracting. Maybe some people like to save these up and use them at their next party but it felt a little forced to me. Maybe just a writer’s quirk.

Overall I liked this book – a step up in intensity for me, but still entertaining and a good read.

Next I’m reading Exit Strategy by Martha Wells.

This was an odd book that felt like it was two different stories grafted together. During the first half of the book I was thinking it was going one way, but then it oddly shifted in the middle and turned out to be completely different.

So focusing on the first half, there is some great writing about food in Mumbai, and growing up in a big (rich) Indian family that runs a restaurant. The writer has done a lot of research and put in a ton of details to make things come to life.

After a brief time spent in London the family moves to a small village in France. Magically the perfect house appears, magically language troubles don’t come up, magically a perfect foil is available to provide a counterpoint to the Indian restaurant that the newly arrived family opens up. All of that I can forgive because I am reading this for entertainment and it is a small price to pay for the fantasy.

Life in the French countryside sounds great, and surprisingly there are few culture shock moments for the Indian family. There is a point when the talented son in the family (the main character in this book) discovers that he has a gift for cooking, and soon thereafter decides to sort of pitch his culture’s cooking in favor of learning to cook French classical cuisine. I couldn’t buy his motivation for changing his focus – supposedly while this Muslim teenager was watching a group of French people slaughter a pig the old fashioned way he was inspired to learn French cooking. Hmm…

Then oddly the book takes a sharp turn and we follow the budding French cook to Paris and we fast forward through 20 years, as he gains Michelin stars and deals with the challenges of running a restaurant in Paris. Most of the characters from the first half of the book (who we’ve come to know and love) are just dropped and are forgotten (until the last page) and instead the writer spends a lot of time grinding an axe about modern French cuisine, chef’s inspiration, and how the government is making things hard on French restaurants. All of these are interesting topics but they don’t fit well into this story.

I guess overall I felt like the story was deformed to fit into a particular ending, in a way that felt unnatural. It was a pity because the writing of the first half was really well done.

Now I’m waiting for the next book to become available at the library, so I am not sure what I’ll be reading next.

This was a sensual book written in a sensual style, focused on how someone harnesses the sense of smell of others for their own ends. It is about an evil man without any moral compass, using their gifts to find their place in the world. Such a strong power and ability eventually turns into a curse, and we follow along this journey.

I liked the writing style here – describing scents and their effects is not easy, and although there was a sort of “translated” feel to the words sometimes (this was translated from French, I believe), the story kept me interested even though you could kind of predict what was going to happen.

There are scenes of brutality in the face of beauty, and some of them were a little hard to stomach. There is a great deal of sexuality without very much sex, with one large exception near the end of the book.

It is hard for me to describe the message that I got from this book – it was an examination of evil and what morals and character bring to humanity, but also it lampoons various religions, the rich, the poor, and science (as it was in the 1700’s).

I enjoyed this book – and I heard there is a movie so it would be interesting to see how they film something that relies so much on a power that is invisible.

Next I am reading The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais.

This is the second book by this author that I have read, and unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as the first. Perhaps because of the content – I think most people would prefer reading about sex than ghosts. Outside this comparison I think books on ghosts would normally be interesting, especially a scientific approach to understanding the concept.

In this book the author spends a lot of time digging through old stories to see how people’s belief in ghosts evolved (or failed to evolve) over time. My problem with this book was that it seemed to be spending too much time looking back, and not much in the here and now. Certainly I can understand where things could be misunderstood in the dark ages of science, and even though there is plenty of humor to mine from the vein I was interested more in what modern science had to say about things.

Still, there is a lot of good sarcastic humor in this book, and the author does a good job balancing the self-deprecation with teasing others. I like that she is not afraid to speak right to the topic without worrying about being too gross or too frank. I expected more laughs at the expense of religion but it was interesting that she avoided that (possibly risky) area for the most part.

After reading two of her books fairly close together I was getting a little tired of her style, so maybe I should take a longer break before picking up another one. So my four word review of this one: Entertaining, to a point.

Next I am going to read Perfume by Patrick Suskind.

After the last few books it was a pleasure to find this one – a more cerebral look at someone at a turning point in their lives, observing and trying to understand the situations they find themselves in.

We don’t know much about the main character, but she is getting settled into The Hague, working for the UN Court for High Crimes as an interpreter. There are a lot of cultures represented in this very international city, and the insights into language and culture are insightful.

The writing style is sort of dreamlike, and dialogue flows into description in a way that carries the story forward from the first person view. Compared to other books written in the first person, this main character spends a lot of time in her head speculating on others and wondering, imagining, and considering. The book is relatively short and the events take place over a month or two, but I enjoyed the author’s attention to detail and the pacing of the book.

Our short visit to The Hague a few years ago made the story more interesting, but I think people who haven’t been there would still feel a strange blend of lonely/Europe/clean/undercurrent that makes for a great setting.

Next I’m reading Spook by Mary Roach.

This was the first time reading this author, and something about the story caught my interest so I decided to check it out. The book is written from the viewpoint of two main characters, and we flash forward and backward in time to develop the story and reach the ultimate (satisfying) conclusion.

I thought a look into people running cons, both short and long, would be an interesting view into a world that you don’t normally see. The cons at first seem to be selfish and wrong, and later we are slowly let in on the secret that there is a reason for them. The two female main characters seem to be squaring off for battle, but as the story develops we find that there is more going on here than a game of chess between two adversaries.

There was a lot of potential here, but for me the bad points outweighed the good. The characters were pretty one-dimensional (you’d think someone running a con would have at least two, right?), and there was a big focus here on women taking power back from men that did bad things to them in the past. In fact, there aren’t really any good men in this whole book – with the exception of a gay male friend who is quickly discarded.

To me, I have no problem reading about strong female characters, overcoming sexism and/or triumphing over misogyny. But the way this is written is so simple you almost expect the men to be twirling their mustaches as they commit their dastardly deeds. A little nuance would have made the story feel more real. It seemed like the author expected the comeuppance for these men was enough to justify the story, but it just felt like a very long episode of justice fantasy.

For me it wasn’t a bad book – but not a good one either. Still, it was a quick read and a little entertaining (talk about faint praise!).

Next I am reading Intimacies by Katie Kitamura.

This is the third book in the series of six, once again a short, fast-moving and well written science fiction story.

I’m guessing that this series is popular because of the main character’s sarcastic, antisocial behavior while still being a good (A.I.) person. I like the series because it often gets into how the main character splits their mental processing into several different parts, all working simultaneously. This kind of writing is something you don’t see when you read about normal vanilla humans in books. Come to think of it, another book series has this too – the Ancillary series by Anne Leckie that I read last year.

I’m totally into the long term story of this series, so I’m looking forward to seeing where it leads. I’ll just have to be patient for the remaining books to be available at the library.

In the meantime I am reading The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark.

Going into this book I had a sort of vague idea of what existentialism was (which turned out to be misinformed) and I was curious to read more about philosophy in general. This book took a refreshing approach – it was accessible, didn’t get hung up on the technical/academic terms, and outright told you when things are hard to understand.

Sometimes when reading I get confused and think – should I have known that? Is this something I ignored in a university class years ago? The writer of this book lets us off the hook by pointing out when things are getting “out there”. Thank you very much!

This is a long, wide ranging book and I don’t think I could do it justice by summarizing it here. Rather, I’ll say that it does a great job of filling in the backstory of existentialism, with history, social background, and the egos behind some of the big voices in that area of philosophy.

There were plenty of interesting parts – I really felt like I was pulled back into that era and the author’s style makes it interesting without the reader having to wade through these huge dense tomes of learning (some volumes were over 2000 (!) pages long.)

What I got out of this book was another way to look at how to live your life, what it means to make decisions and be responsible for them, and just how difficult it can be for free thinkers pushing the boundaries of new ideas. Throw in a couple of world wars, the rise and fall of Communism, and it all makes for a great story and an educational read.

While reading I highlighted many passages that seemed memorable to me, and I’m sure I’ll come back to them in the future. One particular one was a quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, who together with Simone de Beauvoir was giving his thoughts on atheist philosophy near the end of his life.

“He said that, on the whole, the two of them had lived without paying much attention to God. She agreed. Then he said, ‘And yet we’ve lived; we feel that we’ve taken an interest in our world and that we’ve tried to see and understand it.’ To do this freshly and (mostly) intelligently for seven decades is an achievement more than worthy of celebration.”

I thought that was a solid (if not modest) interpretation of their impact on the world and the way they lived in it. Goals like these seem modest enough for regular people, I’d say.

Next I am reading Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells.

Calling them “genius” recipes might be overselling the book a little bit, but I enjoyed reading through this short cookbook and stimulating my appetite.

A couple of great points – the book is organized by category, and it has both a “meaty mains” and “meatless mains” category, which makes it easier to find dishes I’m looking for without meat. The photographs in this book were great, too – especially the ones showing the process of cutting something in an unusual way.

Most of the dishes are aimed squarely at the American cook, so there isn’t much in the way of East/Southeast Asian, middle Eastern, Indian, or South American dishes. I’d have liked to see more world variety, but for popular foods/ingredients in the USA, this is a good resource.

I’ve bookmarked a few recipes and maybe I’ll try them out sometime in the future. I think this book was best as a library check-out – I don’t think I need to buy it.

Next I’m reading At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell.

This was a rare miss for me in the science fiction category. It started out with a very interesting character – a young woman raised in a religious order devoted to bringing about succor for soldiers in war. The form of that service ranged from spiritual to carnal, and the women of that order are completely mute.

To read a book with a main character that is mute is a rare experience, and for the most part I liked how the story is told from her view. Also, the idea of two societies at war – one with technology and the other with religion as their basis – was a great foundation to an interesting world.

Unfortunately the world is only fleshed out enough to move the story along, and in the end it felt too simple. There are plenty of deep issues here – blindly following religion, love and trust, family ties, slavery and racism. But all of these are dumbed down and treated superficially. I couldn’t buy the changes in the characters as they dealt with these issues, and most of these characters were so one-dimensional that I felt like the author was taking shortcuts.

One character in the book is introduced almost entirely through memories of other characters and also through a strange device – a recording made in the past and replayed in the present. The way it was handled in the book was odd and felt unnatural – and so in the end it seemed like it was crowbarred in an effort to hold together the story.

OK, I’ll stop here – I could go on, but I think you get the point. Apparently there are two more books in this trilogy, but I don’t think I’ll be continuing the series.

Next I’m reading a cookbook – Food52 Genius Recipes by Kristen Miglore.

This was my second attempt to check out a mystery sub-genre: the locked room mystery. The previous book I had (tried to) read didn’t work out for me, but this one did. I’m glad I gave this one a shot.

This book is set in 1936 London, and it starts right away with some small mysteries, leading up to a murder in a locked room. As expected in these kinds of books, the murder seems impossible. Then, to add some more layers of complexity there is a painting stolen which also seems to be impossible, and then finally one more impossible murder. Of course, all of these events are connected, and it is up to an old magician and his Scotland Yard detective friend to figure it all out.

The writing here is well done. The characters are interesting and everyone seems like they are hiding something. The reader treats each new person as a possible suspect, and the locations and time period seem genuine and realistic. Compared with the previous book I read, there is a high degree of skill and storytelling that pulls the reader in.

There is a point at which (as is tradition in these kinds of books, apparently) the author announces that you now have all the information necessary to solve the mystery yourself, and once you are ready you can continue reading for the big reveal. Personally, I had no idea whodunnit, so I was completely surprised by the reveal. I can see why some people really enjoy these stories – they can puzzle things out and see if they were right. The author has to come up with a result that is both surprising and believable, which I imagine is a very tough balance to manage.

I felt that the reveal here was a little far-fetched for my taste, but I suppose not many people read these kinds of books for a realistic ending.

So after this little experiment I think I’d probably be happy to read more of these kinds of books, but I think I’ll read more from some of the classic authors first.

Next I am going back to science fiction, by reading The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis.

It is rare to get a book that I couldn’t finish, but unfortunately I couldn’t get through this one.

I recently thought I’d try to read some “locked room” mysteries, as I had read that it was its own developed subcategory of mystery novels. I picked two that seemed interesting, and this one was available at my library.

The book appears to be written targeting teenage audiences, and the writing seems awkward and unnatural. There is a lot of information dumping here – instead of showing there is just page upon page of telling. In this main character’s world everyone else is simply a side character, and she treats them that way.

Obviously the writer enjoys the genre and spends a lot of time focusing on nods to enthusiasts that eat this stuff up (think Star Trek fans but about magicians) and the settings of the book are going for a cozy vibe – but it seemed like too much setup and not much development.

I got through about half the book, and I ended up doing some mental algebra and it seemed like there wasn’t going to be any payoff worth what I’d have to put in to finish.

However, I’m not giving up on the genre – just as I threw in the towel on this one, the other title on my list to try became available at the library, so I’ll give it another chance. Hopefully the writing quality will be better.

The next book is called Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead. Let’s hope it is worth finishing!

I’ve enjoyed the author’s short satirical headlines online for a long time, so I thought I should check out this book outlining some of the examples of the deterioration of intelligence in politicians over the last 50 years.

I got what I expected – lots of clever riffs on the blunders by various politicians over the years. The book is well-researched and although there are no sources listed for the quotes, I’m guessing that they are all authentic. Some were taken out of context to make the author’s joke work, which I understand – this book is filed in the comedy section.

On the downside the format of the humor – quick one-liners after a short setup, and callbacks to previous jokes – this pattern got old for me after a while. I’d have liked to see more variety in the types of humor, but I guess that this is sort of his comedy style and he’s sticking with it. It works well in brief doses, but less so in a full-length book.

I had the vague sense that these blunders were cherry-picked to fit the theme of the book – it wasn’t an accident that so many Republicans were mocked. It felt a bit unfair to lampoon just one side of the aisle, but the author addresses why this is so and I think he is justified. To me some of the criticisms felt a bit unfair, and I’m sure somebody could write a book exactly like it just focusing on Democratic gaffes and blunders.

Besides the jokes a theme that runs through this book is how did we get to the point where ignorance in politicians is not only tolerated but embraced, and the author posits a few ideas. This part was much more interesting but in the end it takes a backseat to the jokes. Identifying the right balance here must have been tough for the writer, and I wished I could read more about what happened and what we can do to escape it. A little deeper dive is what I was hoping for. Maybe that is too much to ask for a comedy book.

Particularly the book ended on a poignant note – and I don’t want to give it away here. Maybe because things had been so lighthearted throughout I was very impressed with how the writer finished.

The next book I am reading is Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian.

A long time ago I saw the movie version of this book, and I remember that Christian Bale turned in a great performance, and there were a few shocking moments to exemplify the psychotic behavior of the main character. I had no idea the book was exponentially more shocking.

The writing in this book was really well done – the author guides us from the seemingly normal “yuppie” behavior of the main character and his “friends”, but also lifts the curtain on the (truly) psycho behavior and doesn’t hold anything back. Taken as a whole you could cut out the violence and read this as a snapshot of the excesses of the 80s. I was especially impressed with the amount of detail that went into describing the fashion – way beyond a GQ level and deep into haberdashery.

But this is a book letting us into the mind of a madman. There are flashes in and out, non-sequential events and blurry comprehension that throw the reader off. When psychotic episodes show up I was just as shocked as the victims. The violence and sex (sometimes separate, sometimes combined) seems meant to contrast with the “normality” of those times. For me it was hard to get through these scenes. If the writer was aiming for disgust he hit the mark and kept on shooting.

I don’t think I could recommend this book to anyone, but I can’t complain about the what I read – it is right there in the title. There were various messages in this book, and I felt like I got what the author was trying to illustrate, but it didn’t need to be delivered in such a grotesque way.

Next I am reading Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz.