I tried out a new detective series for me – a classic series from P.D. James. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be to my liking.

One of the benefits of reading a book that you don’t really like is that it emphasizes to yourself what things you do like. This book had a female protagonist who is new at her job, very clever, intelligent, and not afraid of mortal danger. She also is packing an illegal unregistered firearm.

So far, so good – but something I would have liked more of was humor. Or at least wit – clever wit is just what I needed. The writer instead focuses on the logic of the case, and there are only glimpses of wit or happiness in other characters.

The story itself was quite well done – starting off with a dead body but in a quite different way that traditional murder mysteries begin.

I suppose that the biggest reason for not continuing the series is that I just couldn’t relate to the detective – and why should I have to when there are so many other choices out there?

Along that line of thought, my next book is Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.

The second time reading this was just as good as the first. I remembered reading this before I got in the habit of highlighting passages that I felt strongly about – this time I was highlighting every few pages.

The author’s writing style combined with the theme of starting to live somewhere new makes this a can’t miss book for me. Similar to the first half of Julia Child’s memoir, it has an adventuresome spirit. I think especially new parents will get a lot out of this, but I came for the history and the writing, and was left wanting even more.

Excellent book – I could read this every year.

Next I am reading An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James.

The effects of nature on the human mind (and soul) are explained in detail here by a young researcher who has made some phenomenal progress in a new field.

The book is full of dramatic results – absolutely elements of nature benefit our mental health. The data presented here is clear and decisive, and even if it wasn’t, what are the downsides of spending more time outside immersed in natural surroundings?

Most interesting to me was the description of effects of just a little nature added to people’s life. Total immersion isn’t necessary to get benefits, even fake plants, VR (and video games?) can confer some benefits. The writer provides the right level of detail on the studies that he and other researchers have conducted, with footnotes to go research more if you want more details.

The writer also dutifully explains the ideas of cause/effect and what we should and should not read out of these results and potential effects. I sometimes disliked the way he presented these ideas by using his own personal story to frame things – does this mean that he is completely impartial when setting up these studies? Maybe he is just staying away from dry scientific rigor to make a more effective point. I felt like the tone sometimes approached evangelistic.

But overall a very informative book that I enjoyed reading – and now I have to try to get more nature into my lifestyle!

Next I am re-reading Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr.

Closer to a short story than a novella – this was a moving story that really lets you figure out the background on your own. The shorter the story the more you would think you need to explain to set up the situations, but this was elegantly written and told us so much indirectly.

It is nice to read about some genuinely good people – maybe I’ve had too many villains in my books lately. The “fostering” people here have clearly been through hard times but are so fundamentally kind and understanding. We see their behavior through a child’s young eyes and only because we have a deeper understanding can we get the bigger picture. I like this indirect way of storytelling – I seem to complain about overly-direct writing quite a bit in these journal notes.

This kind of writing is the level that I enjoy most – thought out and subtly delivered. Where can I find more of this?

Next I am reading Nature and the Mind by Marc Berman.

This book started out really well, but then sort of went on and on, taking much too long to develop the plot. It begins and ends in a creepy underwater dive, and these scenes are really well-written. Unfortunately this book only has a couple of scenes underwater – and so it really didn’t play to its strengths.

There are some spooky things happening on land, and a sort of amateur detective plot, and the mostly-creepy residents of the island are written well. They have strange customs and undercurrents of cultish behavior, but most of the time I was just hoping to go back out into the water.

The main character is a professional diver, and the author has made her flawed – these flaws are emphasized over and over, which kind of tested my patience. It felt like a therapy exercise more than anything.

Next I am reading Foster by Claire Keegan.

This was a surprisingly honest, heartwarming story about a young woman from California that ends up running a sheep farm for a year in the countryside of Norway. How she finds herself in that position, how it turns out, and how the people around her were drawn to her and what she was trying to accomplish, all make for a great storytelling arc.

The book has romance, adventure, and exploration. There is life, death, and eating of sheep’s heads. Most of all there is a lot of honesty – telling the good and the bad and owning all of it.

All of this happened in 1972 when the author was twenty years old. Writing this now (in 2024) means that she is recalling events from a long, long time ago. Luckily she had written many letters and I’m sure that correspondence helped to pin down events. Still, I wonder how much was lost (or filled in).

I enjoy books where someone is living or traveling in isolation – this book hit the mark perfectly.

Next I am reading The Salvage by Anbara Salam.

I sat down to think about what to write in this review and immediately I came up with five things I didn’t like about this book. But I’m glad I had a chance to read it. Everything builds up to a some big moments that felt like something out of a heist movie.

And I love heist movies.

This is the second book I have read by this author and it also contained a lot of contemporary buzzwords having to do with the culture wars of America these days. I wonder how they’ll age and how readers of the future will deal with it. Sometimes these appear so often that I was wishing for a little more subtlety.

To get to the big ending it takes a lot of build up. As I read through all of this I was really hoping that the payoff would be worth it – there were entire sections of just downloading background information. These parts were slow moving and I felt like there could have been a way to handle this.

I liked the main characters – flawed but admirable – and I disliked the bad guys (again – subtlety please!). The last thing that annoyed me was the use of time hops that occurred here and there. It wasn’t immediately clear where you were in the timeline, and sometimes that felt like a cheap trick to keep up on our toes.

Despite all those complaints it was worth it – great ending and worth the read.

Next I am reading Accidental Shepherd by Liese Greensfelder.

I really like books that involve a journey. Travel books are some of the best because they are memoirs of real experiences, and you can even try them out yourself if you have the time and resources. In every good book about a journey the goals are defined, the rules explained, and then we watch the travelers as they attempt the journey.

This book clearly sets these out at the beginning, and the book chronicles more than a year of their life as they take this challenge. These are people who are struggling against medical and financial problems, but yet they still keep trying and get some self-discovery along the way.

I really liked that the people get closer to nature, and discover that life in the town or city is not for them. They seem to find resolution for their issues and the book ends on a triumphant note.

Most fascinating was the idea that even without (much) money or a home people could go out there and enjoy some adventure, even at an older age. The setting of the book was interesting too – I had read a similar journey by Paul Theroux but he stayed more to the rail lines and wasn’t wild camping. The nature along the coastline of the path that they followed sounded beautiful and dramatic.

Later I read elsewhere that some of the circumstances that led the author on this journey were sort of misrepresented, allegations of theft and hidden resources, and medical conditions not being as clearly diagnosed. While these issues are in dispute for me the journey itself was what attracted me to the book and these issues didn’t really change the events in this book. But I can understand if some readers might lose trust.

It was a good book – and it made me want to read more travel. For now I am switching gears and reading a thriller – The Doorman by Chris Pavone.

Somebody online likened this book series to what it would be like to read a video game. Yes and no – at least in the video game you can control outcomes. But this third book in the series is less entertaining than the last two books. The author seems hellbent on making sure every “rule” and trick is properly explained. Sometimes this gets in the way of the fun.

This particular dungeon level starts off interesting – a vast network of train tracks and spooky stations – but requires an author note to urge us not to sweat all the details. It is good advice – I don’t read a book called “Dungeon Crawler Carl” for analysis and logic. I’m just here for the witty comments and cool boss fights.

There are some great plot twists here, and hints about the bigger picture, but there is a lot of grinding in between. If you can get through that I think you’ll enjoy the book.

Next I am reading The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.

Although I hadn’t heard of Sally Mann or seen any of her famous photographs, I picked up this book based on a recommendation for her writing skills. This book seems targeted towards artists who are just coming to terms with how to be creative and maybe use those skills to pay the bills. And also, it seems like she expects readers to have at least passing knowledge of her body of work.

I got a lot out of this book – it was interesting to see the practical side of creativity and how things go when that side of a person meets the rough practical side of just getting through life. The recommendation that I got was bang-on, and her writing was really enjoyable. I felt like I was reading the thoughts of someone much younger than in their 70s, full of energy and insight and a self-deprecating sense of humor. This was someone I’m sure that I would like to meet in person.

I’m not planning to get into art for work, but I was curious to see the practical side of things and this book delivered. It would be interesting to contrast the opinions here with other artists, and see where they converge and diverge.

Next I am waiting on some books from the library so I’ll do a little more reading on James Bond after our recent viewing of Moonraker.

I wanted to like this one, set in a grungy and messy Paris under King Louis, but in the end it was a little over-written with everything ending just about perfectly. All mysteries are explained – every little detail – and so I think the book was lacking a sense of wonder. It needed something special and felt like a lost opportunity.

The setting had great potential – I really liked that through most of the book we were wondering if this was a realistic world or a magical one. The villains of the story were pretty one dimensional, the women are put in tough positions but rise up and show their tormentors that they have more power and ability than expected.

The secret to the central mystery was telegraphed early when one of the main characters dies “off screen” – always a red flag for any readers of mystery. I wish that the resolution could have been handled differently.

Next I am reading Art Work: On the Creative Life by Sally Mann.

Ooh, spooky book. But who are the spooky ones and which ones are getting haunted. Things are not so clear in this tale that centers on the daily life of a young girl in a small town.

I like reading books with mystery as well as intelligence – this had a great balance of both. A lot of things are unclear, and despite having a villain appear things were not what they seemed.

There is an overarching message here, maybe about small town life and our responsibilities towards each other, and the way the tale unfolds it gradually becomes more apparent.

Next I am reading The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola.

Some deep thinking this time, with a look at how Socrates approached critical thinking. The book is not really written as a practical guidebook but more as a high level survey of some of Socrates’ “conversations” and what they might mean to us now.

What I really liked about this book was the multiple thought experiments where the author guides you through a mental experiment to illustrate her points in more detail. I also liked how the author didn’t linger too much on historical backgrounds and instead got right down to the deep thoughts.

However I soon realized that this book is delving farther into debates of thought than I had expected, and despite being aimed at the layman I often felt like I was reading an academic work. Which is fine – but books for an academic setting and for a layman’s consumption have different goals and approaches. While this one started easy enough, I found myself less interested in the second half of the book.

Still, there was some great stuff in here. It was fascinating to hear the musings of someone who is paid to think professionally.

Next I am reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

I realized that I hadn’t read this one when talking with my mother about Project Hail Mary. I really liked that one and The Martian, so I thought I should go back and check out Artemis.

And it was so-so.

Like the other books we get lots of science and physics, but this is wrapped up in a sort of mystery/heist caper that provided the characters with lots of chances to make witty comments. Unlike the other books it was written from a female main characters point of view, but otherwise pretty much the same.

I guess my problem was that I wasn’t too invested in the fate of the characters. The story was a bit simple (outside of the technical descriptions) and sometimes I wondered if it was written as a young adult book. But then rewashable condoms came up and I guessed not.

Maybe this was created as an airport read that you can get through quickly – and for that I think it accomplished the goal.

The more I think about it, the other two books have strong themes of isolation, while this had much less of that. Maybe that was why I didn’t vibe with this book as much as the others.

Next I am reading Open Socrates by Agnes Callard.

This is the first book for adults by the author of Holes, one of my favorites. I enjoyed both these books as adults – there isn’t really anything too “adult” about this new book except for some themes that might be a little dark. This book captures the whimsical spirit of his other books, and I guess that is what I was looking for.

The author has created a great title character and sort of built the story around him. From an outside view you wouldn’t notice quite how important the magician is in the events that come about. This magician is also unlike others – short, hairless, and prone to smelling bad. He’s got a sharp sense of humor and knows exactly how close he is to falling out of favor.

While I enjoyed this as a quick read, I felt like I wanted a little more depth to it. Sort of like a fairytale everything magically comes together, but I thought it could have been drawn out a bit more so when the twists hit they have a little more impact. But that’s just my opinion, man.

I think there is room for more from this character, although the way it is written I do not expect that more will appear in the future. Still, I hope that the author writes more like this as his storytelling skills are really top-notch.

Next I am reading Artemis by Andy Weir.