I’d heard great things about this book and the series that it starts, but maybe because of these high expectations I ended up disappointed.

It could be because it starts in an unusual way, introducing a bunch of characters that we don’t meet again (at least in this book) and then starts us off on a hero’s journey. The book is filled with strange visions – things that you take as real are not – and it sort of backs into the information you need to build the world in your mind.

Maybe this vision thing was a product of when this book was written – the 1970’s. Our hero spends most of the book moping about and wishing he could go home to do pig farming. We get it – you’ve been caught up by destiny – let’s move on. There are twists in the story but without the understanding or background that everyone else seems to have they made little impact on me.

Despite the great reviews I think I’ll pass on the rest of the series.

Next I am reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

This non-fiction book tells the story of three young men growing up poor in the slums of Philadelphia. The author documents the major events in their lives – with background on their family and how they got to where the story begins.

Reading about people that are stuck in the poverty cycle, surrounded by drugs and gang warfare – it forces you to appreciate what you have that might have been taken for granted.

The writing in this book is non-judgmental, and so we follow the lives of these kids who become adults very early, hearing about their experiences both legal and otherwise.

While this book doesn’t judge the kids and their families caught in this situation, it certainly has an agenda, focusing on the way schools in the area sometimes funnel their worst students into special juvenile programs and eventually into prison. The book examines closely the failure of the schools to serve their students – and instead follow a repressive school policy that quickly excludes kids that don’t follow rules just so.

The book cites a couple of programs that are doing things the right way, and shows how they help troubled youth by being more flexible and understanding. There is a lot of data presented to back up this approach, and it sounds like an effective solution. My only qualm here is that since they are so clearly sold on this solution the data they provide is likely cherry-picked. Could they provide some other ideas or considerations to help us decide for ourselves?

Thanks to the great writing this book really puts you out there. Sometimes I felt like the writer was going too deep – some people who showed up in the book didn’t need a full deep dive background description.

Overall it was a good book – I’m glad I read it. Next I am reading The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip.

I really liked this book. Billed as a murder mystery in a fantasy setting, it has a unique blend of several genres. This is a rare book that does just about everything right.

For starters there is some really deep world-building, and unique settings that I’ve never encountered in fantasy books before. The characters are likable, interesting (without being annoying) and most of all believable.

There is a pair of main characters, one analogous to Sherlock Holmes, and the other providing the narration and point of view of Watson. But there are plenty of suspects, and friends who could be enemies (and vice versa). The strange and unfamiliar rules in this world really makes it tough to anticipate the conclusions – but it presents the mystery in a fair way.

I saw that the other has two other series already written in addition to the (forthcoming) sequels to this book. I’m greatly looking forward to digging into these in the future.

Next I am reading Live to See the Day by Nikhil Goyal.

This short book was a mostly well-written look at a few things: the germination of art in an amateur artist, the kindness of people, and the effect of poverty in the rust belt of America.

While I enjoyed the setting – it was interesting to see how people lived and felt about their situation – I thought some of the story was pretty unbelievable, especially the behavior of certain characters. I realize that people read fiction for new and unusual experiences, but I couldn’t suspend disbelief and buy in to some of these events.

This is a fair amount of contemporary American culture war fodder here, and I found myself questioning if it was necessary in developing the story or not.

Finally the ending was satisfying in content but the writing felt awkward to me. The style was different from the rest of the book and felt like it was written at a completely different time from the rest of the book.

Despite my criticisms, I did enjoy the story overall.

Next I am reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.

It has been a long, long time since I had read this last. After seeing both of the recent movies I thought it might be good to revisit the novel and see how it lined up.

The first thing I thought when re-reading was that it has aged really well. It was hard to believe that this was written in the 1960s! There was a lot more action and intrigue than I remembered, too.

I liked reading about the characters that didn’t really make the cut of the movies. However I did feel like the pace of the writing was a little uneven, with some surprising fast-forward moments that caught me off guard.

In the book there is a lot more time spent inside Paul’s head, and although it gives more insight into his struggles it does seem a little ponderous at times. He doesn’t come off as a likable character to me – he shows little wonder or excitement with the dramatic changes surrounding him, and seems to care very little about the death of his son – not exactly father of the year material.

After a while I may get into the next book and see how it goes – I don’t remember how many of the books in the series I have read, but I’m willing to dig in a little deeper to see how it goes.

But in the meantime I’m reading Take What You Need by Idra Novey.

A darker, modern take on a fairy tale, this book was a short refreshing story that bodes well for the future. It turns out it is the start of a series – and it sets up the scene quite well.

I liked the tone of the story, there is a lot of ambiguity and allusions to things we don’t know (yet), and some very logical rules that should never be broken.

Some motivations were unclear, some characters felt only like window dressing, but I hope that future stories can spend more time and dive a little deeper into this mysterious place.

Next I am re-reading Dune by Frank Herbert.

There are very few travel books by Paul Theroux that remain unread for me, and for a while I considered holding some back to look forward to reading. Sort of a delayed gratification thing. But now and then these books pop up and I just can’t resist.

Unlike the exotic destinations in many of his travel books, a trip around the coasts of the United Kingdom is pretty tame. In the beginning of the book he comes up with his image of the journey, and the criteria and restrictions for the trip. This book was different because for the most part language wasn’t a barrier, and he was walking through mostly safe places (with the exception of parts of Northern Ireland in the 1980s).

Because of this, in my opinion the book was a little less compelling than his others. The good news here is that he is traveling while in his early 40s, so there is still plenty of salty comments and criticisms of the people he encounters. I really enjoy his reading of people and situations. He does in this book have a tendency to imagine names for people that he passes, and later this makes things confusing – did he really interview these people or not?

And he does have a lot of negative comments. Maybe that was the state of the world at the time, but he isn’t holding out much hope for the people and places he encounters.

One genuine surprise was that he passes the hometown of Mr. Duffill – someone who he traveled with back in his most famous book. In that book he had even made Duffill into a verb after the poor gentleman was left behind while buying snacks on the platform – the train rolled away without him. Theroux passed Duffill’s bags to the conductor, and in this book he finds out more about the man and his history.

This book most likely exists as sort of an obituary for many small branch lines in the UK that were in danger of closing down in the 1980s. I doubt they survive today, so the author’s musings and observations of these train trips may add to their memories.

Overall it wasn’t my favorite travel book by Theroux – if it was the first book of his that I read I likely wouldn’t read more – but I enjoyed the journey all the same.

Next I am reading The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed.

Wow – this one hits hard. The story of someone growing up, from a student to an old man. There is a big fast forward in there, and from the older perspective he discovers some things that cause him to re-evaluate his past.

At the end of this book you realize that this is really two stories – one is happening in the background that you don’t find out about until later.

There is some really good writing here to pull something like this off. Along the way there is some deep thinking on some heavy topics – age, memory, suicide, living life and getting old. Getting old comes with some real penalties, but in this book we can discover some benefits as well.

I liked how the story moved so quickly from youth to old age – I think it is rare situation to find in books. So often the drama is in the change of character over time, but here the older man is almost a new character.

One criticism I have for the book is that in the second part one particular character has a strange way to interact – avoiding any explanation (why?) and being awfully mysterious for purposes that were unclear to me. While it develops the mystery and the suspense I couldn’t find any other possible reason – and I don’t think it was suggested in the text. Maybe I missed it but it felt unnatural and strange.

Next I am reading The Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux.

I have many childhood memories of walking around Monterey, California. It was a favorite destination of my parents and over the years it became a familiar place to me. While I didn’t feel the same magic that my parents do, my memories make it easier to envision the setting of Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.

I’ve only read a few of Steinbeck’s books, and this one seemed to have a different tone than the others. It was sort of a playful side, some clever humor, and moments of nostalgia (for me and possibly for him).

I was mostly impressed with how his writing really evoked a place – really brought it to life. Many novels feature more introspection but this focuses on setting a scene for the reader and seeing how it plays out.

While it seems like a light read, there are sudden striking moments – especially one that takes place in a tide pool in La Jolla. The ending of the book was sort of odd to me – much of the content is quoting ancient poetry. While the poetry is beautiful it dominates the ending and would rather have heard more from some of the key characters in the story.

Next I am reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

This is a short book, almost a novella about what might happen if mammoths were brought back from extinction, and in an extra-weird science fiction twist, the consciousness of a human is uploaded into the matriarch mammoth in charge of the group.

This book had some interesting ideas – it reminded me a little bit of Michael Crichton. The science of the endeavor is pretty oversimplified here unfortunately – I think Crichton does a much better job of selling the future before exploring it deeper.

There were plenty of opinions on hunting, human’s need to dominate animals, and the ramifications of this seemingly insatiable desire. There was plenty of room to dig deeper here, give more details both scientific and emotional, and to have some fun with the ideas. Unfortunately this one wrapped up a bit too early for my taste.

Next I am reading Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.

This book takes a hard look at the recent drug crackdown in the Philippines, instigated mainly by the duly elected president at that time, Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte was elected as a popular candidate – and he made promises to not only kill the drug lords but the drug sellers all the way down to the users on the street. This declaration resulted in a massive amount of extra-judiciary killings by both vigilante groups and police. The writer of this book lived through it as a newspaper reporter, and describes her experiences as well as how this affected normal people on the street.

First of all, this book was scary as fuck. I can’t imagine living in a country where you cannot trust the police, and make your living scraping by with the chance that everything could be taken away in an instant. Add to that the possibility that a member of your family accused (sometimes falsely accused) of using drugs could be assassinated – their head wrapped in packing tape with a sign around their neck saying “Drug Lord”.

Even police caught red handed lying and planting evidence are backed up by their commanders all the way to the top, including the president. The story was fascinating to read, yes, but it also shows you what you may be taking for granted.

Naturally as a magazine writer the author has a distinctive style – sort of a reporter/teacher, and she takes an unflinching look at the intended and unintended results of this policy. She reflects on her people and her country and examines why someone like Duterte could be elected, and remain extremely popular. This also sheds light on some of the reason that Trump remains popular in the USA.

This is an important book and I’m glad I read it. It documents so much tragedy that at times it starts to blur a bit, but towards the end there are some signs of hope. It also felt a little like a warning to me – especially for this election year.

Next I am reading The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler.

I think I got this book recommendation from NPR, describing it as a bottle centered around the power of food to bind a family together – something like that. Perhaps I misremembered the description because this book wasn’t very much like that.

Instead this book is full of people trying to look like they know what they are doing – one of the book’s strong points is the snappy dialogue that feels natural. But in actuality they are just flailing through life. There is an inordinate amount of sex in this book – more than I think is necessary to get across the point. One of the characters is fighting through grief by having sex with as many people as possible. But the oversexed vibe extends to many of the other characters as well.

I didn’t like any of the main characters – their motivations unclear and sort of existing in between sexual encounters. I did like that this novel had plenty of Asian influence – you can tell the writer is an admirer of Japan and Korea.

But in the end the story wasn’t compelling enough to make me recommend the book. The food references seem shoehorned in and are only offered as a break from the story rather than being part of the story (as I had expected).

Next I am reading Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista.

By chance I this book came after the previous book I read, and they really contrast with each other. While both books had narrators that you feel you can’t trust, in The Turn of the Key we gradually see why we felt that way, and then the narrator’s back story is revealed a little more and it makes sense. Both books have a twist, but the one in this book just resonates more – and does a tidy job of wrapping up loose ends.

The writer did a phenomenal job with building up the creepy suspense – it was scary reading sometimes – and I don’t think I’ve read a book (including most of Stephen King’s work) that had me scared more. This wasn’t horror – just a spooky sense of anticipation that something bad was going to happen.

It could almost be a perfect book, except for some awkward uses of technology that didn’t quite work smoothly into the plot. Sometimes the actions of some of the characters strained believability for me – they were just a little too perfectly set up. At first I thought that might have been part of the creepiness factor, but in the end it was setting up something else and was simply a device. I thought it could have been handled a little more elegantly.

Still, these are minor points and the overall experience of reading the book made up for them easily. This mystery is strongly recommended.

Next I am reading Family Meal by Bryan Washington.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but I have seen “Gone Girl” which was made from a subsequent book by this writer. The movie and this book lead me to believe that the author has a gritty style – a little more off the beaten path with her characters.

The main character in this book was constantly making bad decisions, and as the story progressed we learned just how damaged she was. I wanted to root for her but she just made bad call after bad call and in the end I was less invested in her ultimate fate.

The story itself was compelling – big city girl comes back to her small town and reports on a string of murders happening there. I enjoyed the interactions between her and the locals, and divining all the interior motives. The writer has a great sense of pacing and there weren’t any unnecessary breaks or pauses in the story, so it had me turning the pages.

I felt the ending was a little contrived, with a hurried twist that didn’t seem natural, and a boss that went way beyond the call of duty in taking care of his junior staff.

So this was a fairly entertaining book, but the character turned me off. I wonder if other books by this author have the same kind of unlikable narrators…

Next I am reading The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware.

I haven’t read the book, haven’t seen the movie starring Harrison Ford, haven’t seen the new Apple TV series starring Theroux nephew – I had nothing particular in mind when I opened this book.

It was my first time to read Paul Theroux’s fiction, and I could quickly recognize his writing style even in this new genre. It was easy to read, the plot pulls you along on this journey from admiration to insanity.

Before reading this I would say that the events described within are fairly improbable. Maybe back when it was written in the late 1970’s it seemed that way too. But the way the book is written and the slow progress that is made gradually shows a man losing touch with reality, and a family finding their way back.

I saw a lot of Donald Trump in the character of “Father” – perfectly willing to ignore reality or alter it to serve his own purposes. Father in this book is a master of quieting doubt by showing strength and (unwarranted) confidence – and when people around him start to finally see through it some bad things happen.

Often the character of Father is grating – how can he say stuff like this, and why does his wife and family stick around without snapping him back to the real world? The character of Mother is quite weak in this book (something the author acknowledges in the afterword written much later) – it is hard to imagine someone letting this happen to their own family.

I’m not sure I’ll go out and see the movie or the miniseries, but I really enjoyed this book.

Next I am reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.