This book had a lot of the elements that I enjoy while reading fiction. It is set in a weird, not quite real world that is sort of an alternate reality of our own. It is full of mysterious characters as seen through the eyes of a girl growing up out of her mother’s shadow. It also had elements of lost civilization, and things falling apart due to neglect.

But despite all of this somehow the book didn’t sit well with me. The story itself was fine, although the ending didn’t quite bring the resolution I was looking for. The book derives much of its plot from the poor communication between the mother and the daughter – if they were more open with their experiences much of the tension of drama would have been avoided, and perhaps they would have lived life a lot easier.

I did like the insights into the life of immigrants, which is tucked into the backgrounds of characters and comes out occasionally.

I guess with all this setup and fictional world that was created I was hoping for it to take a darker turn. There could have been some spooky twists and hidden underworlds and real danger – but most of this world is just falling apart with the people around doing nothing to stop it. Maybe some active evil would have brought the stakes higher?

Next I am reading Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad.

This non-fiction book covers some of the major episodes in the author’s life – his time as a mail pilot between France and the front lines of the African continent, his adventures exploring South America by plane, a flight from Paris to Saigon that ended with a crash and subsequent rescue, and his firsthand look at the Spanish Civil War.

The book is written with gusto – there is a lot of talk about what makes a life worth living, what makes a man a man, and some very romantic views of humanity and civilization. These are coupled with the stories of adventure, and his love affair with the Sahara desert.

I enjoyed reading about his adventures, especially the descriptions of the places in between roads – places accessible only by plane. You can tell that he was enjoying immensely the life he was leading. Sometimes the book got a little overly philosophical for me, and a little technical in describing his flights and the operation of the aircraft of that age.

Since it was written back in the 1920’s he doesn’t seem like someone who would be much of a feminist. There are also little bits of racism now and then, but you must expect to have to put up with these to get such a detailed glimpse into that adventurous age of exploration.

Next I am reading The Morningside by Tea Obreht.

This book was recommended by an online list of works that involve time travel. Since I’m always into books that deal with the flow of time, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately it really wasn’t my cup of tea.

The blurb and short descriptions I heard sounded promising, but as I started the story it read a little like an old pulp novel, with very bad bad guys and handsome and pure good guys. There is a ton of exposition – things are explained from character to character where it might have been more entertaining to show it rather than tell it.

But I knew I was in trouble when several chapters are dedicated to a kiss – should I kiss her? Should I have kissed him? When will I kiss her again? Is it proper to kiss at this point?

OK, so I guess I got sort of tricked into reading a bad romance novel. All the time travel stuff is simply a set up to this sappy story that gets many more pages.

The story goes on, the time travel background is illuminated a little more but now I see it as just a cool down before we can get back to:

“He caught her delicious bottom in his hands and brought her gasping against his thighs.”

I guess I need to be more careful when choosing books based on random internet recommendations.

Next I am reading Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

This collection of short stories deals with the theme of memory – what it is, how it lives and how it dies, and its role in our lives.

I’m already a big fan of the author – his writing style really brings out the emotions while illustrating beautiful moments in people’s lives. This theme of memory really works well here. Of the six stories in these pages, the first and last had the biggest effect on me. The first story is the title of the book as well, and despite being a bit like the movie Memento it really struck me how precious some memories could be.

In the last story the author takes some chances with a slightly supernatural element, but he pulls it off perfectly and I’ll be thinking about the story for a long time.

I tend to like stories that span lifetimes, and due to the nature of the theme we can peek back and forth through memories and see how people have lived – without all the dreary repetitiveness of regular life. The writer provides the highlights for us, like a chef giving us only the best portions of the dish.

Another good point was that the stories take place all over the world, and each location is described so well that you feel like you’re there. Compared with some other books I’ve read recently with clumsy culture references dropped in – this author does it the right way.

Next for me is The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway.

I was surprised how well-written and interesting this book turned out to be. I was also surprised that it turned out to be in the genre of magical realism, not just a story of medieval Europe and the plague.

First of all, this is a scary book. It reminded me a bit of The Witcher – but with a more religious theme. There is gore and violence and death and it sometimes seems like a horror movie. But you learn to like the characters and they develop and overcome obstacles in their quest to help a little girl do something that even she doesn’t quite understand.

The author really brought this to life – there is the filth of living in poverty in that age, seeing the rich and the powerful, and all being subjected to disease, demons, and temptation.

The story itself takes some dramatic turns (with allusions to some biblical stories) and I genuinely didn’t know what would be the outcome. Sacrifice? Salvation? The epilogue was also extremely well-written – and made the character development much more satisfying.

Despite the dialogue and tone sometimes being a little too modern/casual I thought this was one of the better books I have read, certainly in the top five of this year so far.

Next I am reading Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr.

This is one of the few books that I started but didn’t finish. I made the decision to stop after reading about 70% of the book, but finally my time became worth more than slogging through the rest of the of the story.

Certainly the writer has some great skills, especially with the descriptive style. The first chapter grabbed my interest with beautiful scenes of Hawaii, and the feeling of the beach and the nature there. Unfortunately the storytelling was predictable and the voices of the three children who provide most of the story are largely the same.

Families are different, but this book shows a family I wouldn’t want to be a part of. Each member is stunted with jealousy, poor communication skills, and streaks of aggression – making it hard for me to like any of them.

And oddly there is very little joy in this book. In a setting that some people call paradise, with a character that has the power to heal, there is surprisingly little to be happy about here.

One final criticism was that like other books written in English that contains a “foreign” culture, there are cultural references sprinkled throughout. Doing this naturally is difficult – for me it felt like they went through and evenly distributed these references to Hawaiian language, food and history. It felt forced, like an awkward way to get credibility.

OK, so I couldn’t finish this one but no regrets about it. Next I am reading Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman.

Evangelicals are in the news lately, as an important voting block in the upcoming presidential election in the USA. Since I don’t know much about them and was curious how young people perceive them, I thought I’d read this non-fiction book by a woman who raised evangelical and found herself questioning and leaving the religious group.

Clearly I am not the target audience of this book – a non-religious socially independent person who doesn’t even live in the same country. But this book is looking to support and rehabilitate people who are unsatisfied with the evangelical religion that shuts down and shuns people who ask questions or wonder why there are so many patriarchal-centered rules.

There are plenty of eye-opening conversations related in these pages, but I was sort of expecting that kind of stuff – these religious groups can feel pretty culty to me. There is also a clear warning in this book – the group will fight to protect itself and the money-making religious leaders at the top. It was interesting to read how the group lined up behind Trump in the 2016 election – despite him representing everything that they are against – as a bid to grant themselves more political power in the future.

This book is clearly written from a progressive viewpoint, and sometimes I felt a little like the writer might be hard to identify with for people looking for a more gentle step away from their hard-right roots.

But I’m glad that people are asking questions, and any resource that might help people to relax and enjoy life being themselves is OK by me.

Next I am reading Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn.

I really enjoyed the first third of this book – the author has a unique writing style. I often found that the writer approaches the subject indirectly, and spent a lot of time on details and fleshing out this huge world that we has dreamt up.

It starts in a dark and grim place, that is somehow a wholesome home to our hero, and abandoned orphan raised in the spooky Citadel to be one of the government torturers. Torturing is just another job here (the prisoners are called ‘clients’) but as it is the only world the character has known there is nothing especially strange about it.

The descriptions of the daily life of the torturers and the mysterious events happening among the other guilds of the Citadel had me caught up in the story. There are a lot of mysterious things going on – much more than what you’d find happening at Hogwarts – and I was looking forward to seeing it in more detail.

But after a certain event occurs, our hero is out on the road to a far away place – and he walks right into Monty Python-esque situation after situation. This sudden turn towards what I suppose is comedy caught me off-guard and it was hard to believe it was the same writer.

There are dreams and prophecies, and ridiculous setups with assassins and carriage races, and plenty of chances for our horny hero to goggle and grope the female characters, who seem to exist just as sexual objects.

I managed to get through the rest of the book, and finished it with a sense of accomplishment and disappointment. Too bad – it was a promising start.

Next I am reading The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon.

I really enjoyed this book, the first I’ve read from the author. A quick skim of the reviews of this book way back when it was released (a few years after 9/11) and you could tell that it was polarizing and the wounds were still raw from the terror attacks. I think this book benefits from the emotional (and temporal) distance when reading it now.

That’s not to say that it isn’t emotional – it is a heartbreaking book – heartbreaking across several generations that are represented. Previously I watched the movie, and I didn’t remember as much about people other than the boy and his parents. The book includes some other key characters.

The writer knows how to tell a story, and I enjoyed the sort of multimedia presentation of the book. There are photos and realia interspersed with the text, and gradually you see the import of these as the story reveals itself. I could see how some people could be turned off by this – some reviewers thought of it as a new-fangled gimmick – but I thought it effective.

Speaking of gimmicks, if there is one here it might be the inclusion of a character who cannot speak. The ailment is mysterious but key to develop some of the mysteries in this book. Other people have curiously stunted communication skills in key areas, and we have to work harder to suspend disbelief in these areas.

But it is a great story, and I enjoyed the experience of reading this very much.

Next I am reading Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe.

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.