Only after finishing this book did I find out that it is the same author who wrote Empire of the Sun, and that novel is based on the author’s experiences as a POW in World War II. All of which makes the setting of The Drowned World seem amazingly prescient.

The books opens on a flooded Earth, caused by some solar flares knocking the atmosphere out of position and heating up the planet. Only the poles are habitable, but people are still mounting expeditions into the flooded hot areas to learn more about how the world is changing.

The setting is set up brilliantly without too much exposition, and right away we see the contrasts between the world we know now and what it has become. The author’s vocabulary (especially in the psychology-centered episodes) is pretty daunting – I had to look up quite a few words – but otherwise it is an approachable book. The characters (and how they behave) is decidedly British – still enjoying tea and cocktails after the end of the world.

The female character in the book (the only one) seemed awfully helpless and much attention was paid to her scantily clad appearance and breasts. The story does lean more towards pulpy fiction in the second half – which was probably more fun to read for me.

Overall I liked the book. Shades of Heart of Darkness, but a surprising example of foresight in building a world that isn’t too far from future reality.

Next I am reading Goodnight, Nebraska by Tom McNeal.

Sort of a poem in novella form, this book is probably the closest I’ll ever get to visiting outer space.

It takes a look into “a day in the life” of astronauts (and cosmonauts) on board the International Space Station. A day orbiting the Earth is quite different from a day down here on the surface, and it certainly was a unique setting.

There are a lot of descriptions of the views from the ISS as it circles the planet, calling out countries and areas as they pass. Sometimes I felt like these were going on longer than they needed to, to the point of wondering if the author is trying to call out every country on Earth. This is divided into several sections in the book – so I think the author knew that it might be overwhelming in one block.

It was not a long book, and I think I did myself a disservice by reading it in chunks. I’d recommend reading it in as few pieces as possible to get a feel for the structure.

Next I am reading The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard.

I recently saw this author recommending books on speaking in public, so I thought I ought to read the one that he wrote.

Very clearly this author is an expert on public speaking. While I think that there are plenty of books out there on how to be a good public speaker, I especially was interested in how to speak well in spontaneous situations – off the cuff, suddenly, and with little warning. Suddenly being called to “say a few words” – that is what I wanted to learn about. And what I learned about spontaneous speaking in this book was: be prepared.

It is counter-intuitive (and the author says as much) but by learning a few basic structures and outlines you’ll be ready when the time comes to apply them to whatever situation you find yourself in.

While I agree that it is a good idea (and certainly better than stuttering vaguely at a crowd of expectant onlookers) I felt like the “thinking fast” in the title is sort of overstated.

But the frameworks were helpful and worth reading the book for. I thought many of the situations (and expectations) were culturally American-centric. It’d have been nice to have some expressions that would work internationally. The second half of the book is full of practical situation recommendations and some of the “words” the author gave out felt a little cringey and corporate to me – but maybe that is what his corporate consulting gigs are looking for.

This book had some good and some bad. That is to be expected when you are dealing with cross-cultural situations, so I’ll be on the lookout for something even more useful in the future.

Next I am working through more of the James Bond book as we are into the Timothy Dalton version of Bond. Not far to go until Pierce and Daniel.

I really wanted to like this book, but the character writing and overly ambitious plot couldn’t really keep up with a beautifully thought out exercise in world building.

The author excelled at showing us a world at the edge of a galaxy, far from the center of things but filled with all different kinds of people. There are the nobles and the plebes, the church and the imperial empire factions, all interacting in a sort of quasi-Roman system. And then later they take us away from that planet and show us just how wide of a scope we are working with. I was impressed with the sense of scale that is given without too much exposition.

Especially how space travel works, and the travels frozen in their pods allow for some interesting jumps in time, and people from completely different eras having the possibility to meet. This opens up all kinds of interesting avenues – well done!

On the other hand, most of the first third of the movie feels (overly-)inspired from the Dune series by Frank Herbert, and the second third pulled from the movie Gladiator. The point of view of the character, a young noble who finds himself in peril is full of selfish moments that were not fun to read about.

Most of the villains are written in a very heavy-handed way, and so thanks to this it telegraphs the plot and certain developments are not surprising at all. There were problems with length and pacing as well.

All of which made this book a bit of a disappointment for me. This the first of a series, but I doubt that I’ll be coming back to it. The book is filled with references to future events in the series, but they didn’t do enough to entice me to stay with it. Too bad – I really liked the world that this character lived in.

Next I am reading Think Faster, Talk Smarter by Matt Abrahams.

More fun from Dungeon Crawler Carl and Donut. These are not exactly mindless, but they are fun to read without exerting too much brain power – I hope there aren’t people out there debating the actions of these characters. Sometimes you want to read through something and (hopefully) laugh along the way.

This book in particular seems to mark a darker turn for Carl, and we can kind of see where things might be leading. Some of these more serious events are preceded by some heavy-handed writing, but hopefully the author can keep the humor and fun while exploring the dark side.

Next I am reading Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio.

Short and sweet – this book was so good. I loved the story as it wasn’t playing for high stakes, but it gives us a month of a man’s life as he comes off some pretty bad experiences and finds happiness in his work and the people around him.

I often criticize books for telling rather than showing – this book does the opposite so well. Things are discovered organically and it feels like experiencing these moments rather than reading about them in a long slog of text.

This book also is the recollection of the main character long after this month in the country had passed – and as he recalls he gives hints of how these events have affected him over the years. Most of all this month is a treasure to him, and in sharing it with us it becomes something important for the reader, too.

I also liked that all the characters have a spark to them without being overly eccentric. Even the “villain” is firmly rooted in humanity and could have just as easily found himself the center of the story in a positive way.

With plenty of negativity in the world books like this are a sort of balm – apply as often as necessary.

Next I am headed back to the dungeon – I’m reading The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman.

Sure, I’ve heard of Amway – I was even asked to join a long time ago after being contacted by a high school friend – but I never knew how deeply seated multi-level marketing is in America. This book researches the origin and evolution of “The Plan” – how these schemes work not by selling things but by recruiting others.

All the details are in the book and while reading I really felt like I dodged a bullet by not getting involved way back when my friend gave me a call. The book documents (with references) how even now people at the top of the pyramid are enjoying returns on the backs of those struggling at the bottom. And even as most of those at the bottom struggle, wash out and quit without making enough money to survive they are written off as people who didn’t want to work hard enough to succeed.

The biggest eye-opener for me was how people who have gotten rich through MLM schemes are sitting at the top of the current administration, still earning profits from “direct sales” businesses that have been protected through their extensive lobbying and cronies in government positions.

Honestly, it was pretty disheartening to read.

But just because it is bad news doesn’t mean we should know about it, and this author fought the good fight and wrote a book that I think would be important for newcomers to MLM to read.

My only critique was that sometimes the author gets a little too deep in the trenches of some of the legal battles. I sometimes got confused with so many similar sounding companies and organizations – but I guess that is a feature for them rather than a bug. It would have been better for me to either move all the legal battles to their own section, or else go a little lighter with the descriptions.

Next I am waiting on some books on the library, so I’ll be focusing on catching up on some articles that I’ve saved over the past few months.

This was quite a story – full of dramatic episodes and a look into a culture that felt very foreign to me. Somehow the excellent story in this book seemed to be hard to coax out for me. Once read I enjoyed the book, but the author sure didn’t make it easy.

Just like in another book I read recently, the author seemed to enjoy building up to a big event and then fast forwarding and looking back at it afterwards. This always feels like a gimmick to me and doesn’t really feel like natural storytelling.

The book was divided into two main sections, the first half of which shows the main character as passively watching the world go by, and the second half has them taking a more active part. I enjoyed this second half much more – and wonder if the way this is set up is sort of a message in itself.

But the biggest challenge for me is reading about all these characters living in dysfunctional relationships and making bad decisions. Some are warranted, others less so, and anyway it reaches a point where it is very hard for me to identify with the motivations of these characters. This made the book hard to read.

But as I said, in the end it was a little easier to see what the idea was – maybe I just should have hard more confidence in the author when I started.

Next I am reading Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget Read.

I have seen Peter Straub’s books on the shelves but it has taken me a long time to actually read one. This was recommended online, and while it was a long book it was just what it promised on the cover – no more and no less.

The author’s writes this book in a very similar way to the folksy small town style often found in Stephen King stories. My personal opinion was that it wasn’t quite up to par, and sometimes I found myself wondering if it would be better to be reading a King book.

But it was definitely a scary book, and I really liked how the author handled the supernatural elements – splicing them into our normal everyday world seamlessly. The villain was especially well done, and it was interesting to read about the bad guy playing the long game.

There are a lot of characters, some of them a little cliche, but for the most part they are deep and complex, and there is quite a bit of psychological spookiness as well as the physical risks involved.

In the end I felt the storyline was kind of predictable – I could clearly see what was coming for the most part. I kept expecting a twist, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. It was quite a long book, and I felt like the author sometimes overwrote situations. This could have been edited down a bit.

Next I am reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

Recently I haven’t read many kids books but I had heard good things about this one. While reading it I was reminded of all the characteristics of a good book for kids: a likable group of heroes coming off of hard times, bad guys, older bullying children, and hopefully a memorable gross-out scene.

All these and more were contained in this story, and I think with a little judicious editing it might have been a better book for me. The adventure starts off in a clever way (literally), but the middle of the book went on just a bit too long for my taste. The wrap-up was satisfying and covered all the loose ends in a cute and heart-warming way.

I also liked all the wordplay and puzzles in the story – aimed at kids but hilariously I struggled with quite a few of them.

The book has a lot of messaging in it – wholesome stuff about supporting your friends no matter what, doing your best in the face of adversity, and the benefits of not spending life alone (or plugged into a TV/device). I think some kids might feel like these messages might be a little overstressed, but I’m a long way from being a kid in modern society so I guess I’ll defer to the author’s judgement on this one.

Next I am reading Ghost Story by Peter Straub.

I wanted wit and I got it… this book was a novel that was a mystery, but also a hard look at what it means to be a woman living in the United Kingdom in these modern times. As told through several perspectives – one of which is a male private detective.

The author has taken some of the standard elements of a detective story and turned them on their heads. It was refreshing to read a new take on things and made for an interesting contrast with my gold-standard detective books, the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker.

One thing that got on my nerves while reading was the author’s habit of jumping ahead of the timeline and then filling it in later, sometimes overlapping perspectives of the same event with other characters. Once or twice was clever, but the trick got old after a while.

But there was plenty of wit and humor in this book – and I felt like I was getting a lot of contemporary British culture along with the mystery, which was fun. Apparently this is the first book in a series, and I’m not sure how it is going to progress the story. Maybe I like the more traditional approach to detective novels…

Next I am reading The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

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.