I can certainly understand the idea of moving on past a tragedy, and it seems like part of the world is making motions towards normality after COVID-19, but it is not too soon to take a hard look at what things went wrong in response to the pandemic. Some books look at political missteps – this book looks at how some people took advantage of public money and a streamlined government response in order to enrich themselves.

The writer is a journalist with ProPublica, and his and his colleagues’ actions show the important role that journalism still plays. Parts of the book were fascinating in just learning about how journalists approach such a huge and fast-moving topic. The writer uses humor and an accessible writing style to really bring home the details of these scams and what went wrong.

There is plenty of blame to go around, and reading this is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes disgusting, and very rarely, hopeful. Thankfully the author uses humor throughout, which helps to sweeten the bitter topic.

I wonder if political dialogue in the future will be up to the task of analyzing these serious faults – or are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes in the future?

Next I’m reading Altai by Wu Ming.

This book was recommended by my mom, and I was immediately interested in the story of Edward Dickens, and a fictional guess at what his life might have been like after emigrating to Australia just before his famous father, Charles Dickens, passed away.

This book tells its story in front of a deep background of all of Charles Dickens’ works, but while it may help to have read his novels it isn’t essential to digest what goes on here. Edward Dickens (nicknamed Plorn) is a young man of seventeen when we meet him, and we watch his approach to manhood and finding himself a place outside the colossal shadow of his father.

There were a lot of bad situations that he could have found himself in, but the book is written in a sort of wholesome, positive way that made it a pleasure to read. Sinking into the history and scenery of colonial Australia in the early 1900’s was captivating, and I especially appreciated the story of someone moving overseas to find themself – “the place that concentrated the forces of his soul.”

I enjoyed the attention to detail and the thorough research in this book. Recently I read The Spanish Daughter, which took place on a cacao plantation, and I lamented the lack of detail in the processes there. This book goes into great detail of the sheep and wool industry, and the tremendous scale and skill needed to supply England with the fabric it demanded for their suits and fashion of the day.

I’ve read Great Expectations long ago and certainly didn’t appreciate its literary qualities at the time, but people that have read most of Dickens’ works will surely be satisfied with this tale.

I’ll miss reading about Edward Dickens – a quick check of his Wikipedia page after completing this book showed a short and relatively uneventful life. I’m glad the author decided to breathe something new into Plorn’s story.

This book was my kind of read – a crisp, fast-moving story with a deep world in the background and just the right amount of wit and grit to keep me turning the pages. Written completely in the first person and following the adventures of just one character, this was a pleasure to read.

I hadn’t read any of the author’s other books but it seems like this book was a very polished work. Every detail had meaning, the attention to details that served the main character throughout the story, and a feeling that I couldn’t help compare to the Game of Thrones series of books. It wasn’t quite as deep as those books are, but the realism of the characters and their flaws was there, along with a healthy dose of mystery.

Apparently the second book in the series is coming in a month or two, so I’ll definitely pick it up when it comes out – I don’t think I can wait for the library to get it.

A tale of colonial Korea from the early 1900’s to after World War II, it shows the complex birth of an independent nation through the eyes of some of the people who live there.

It starts in a unique way – telling a story of a hunter and a tiger, and the events in this prologue echo through the entire book. I was pleased that the events I predicted to happen didn’t go exactly as I expected, and that the story was not always happy but ultimately satisfying to me.

The writing style stood out to me – sometimes it felt like an awkward translation, and in this awkward feeling was a more direct description of beauty that would be hard to tell otherwise. This is a saga that spans more than 50 years, so the book has to fast forward now and then, and sometimes that felt jolting. Huge events in people’s lives are glossed over in a few sentences, in order to keep our focus on the feelings of the main characters as they react to the progress of the nation.

One thing that caught my attention was how women were treated in those days – wives were for raising kids, courtesans and whores were there for other (more carnal) pursuits. Just about very man in this book was cheating on their wife, to the point where it seemed like it was part of the culture in those days. Whether it was or not is unclear, but it was a little jarring to read.

Next I am reading The Pariah by Anthony Ryan.

I’m always interested in books that focus on changing the way you think. For one, it gives you more tools to approach problems, and for another it gives more dimensions to your daily reflections.

This book is from the perspective of someone who has an academic background of cognitive psychology, and a professional background of playing poker for high stakes. It certainly is an unusual background, but this book focuses squarely on the thinking side of things.

There were some pretty useful points in here. Some examples that stuck with me: distinguishing between the decisions you make and the outcome of those decisions, not dealing in absolutes (“I’m 60% sure of X”), working within diverse groups to avoid personal biases, and firmly understanding the differences between what you can influence, and what is merely luck (good or bad).

The writing style of this book was a little heavy handed, and often dwelt too much on the real-world examples given. I’d have preferred to get the idea and move on, but there is some repetition here.

Still, not a bad book to refresh the old brain software. I might read more from this author in the future.

Next I’m reading Beasts of a Little Land by Juheah Kim.

I like the oddball style of the author – she engages the reader both inside and outside the pages – and so I was drawn to read this short book of memoirs. She wrote another book of stories/memoirs and also quite a few children’s books.

I’m guessing that most readers who know the background story behind this book (the author died shortly after publishing this book from ovarian cancer) get a sort of sad, melancholy feeling from it like I did. Without that information, there is a lot of joy found here and touching, playful moments where the author focuses on things that most people don’t think about or notice.

There was also an interactive component to this, which I sort of skipped over as I’m not sure it still works or if I can access it outside the USA. For a bit of a read off the beaten path, this was refreshing. Still, it was profoundly sad to see how much life and happiness was packed in here so soon before it would be snuffed out.

Next I’m reading Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke.

This book was hard to classify for me – historical fiction, murder mystery, with a bit of bodice-ripping romance thrown in for good measure. I came for the historical fiction part, but for me it was underrepresented.

Set in 1920’s Ecuador on a cacao plantation, there are a lot of interesting things to learn about. How the beans are harvested and processed, how the plantation was integrated into the growing town, and the parts it played in the economy and the lives of the producers – all of this is covered in a few short paragraphs.

The mystery side of the book is a little heavy-handed but entertaining enough. Some of the plot was a little too far-fetched for me, but if you don’t mind sitting back and watching the story play out without overthinking it then it sort of works.

The romance and women vs. men issues are a big part of this book, and it was the least interesting for me. If the balance of this book was a little different, I think I would have enjoyed it a great deal more.

Next I’m reading Textbook Amy Krause Rosenthal, by Amy Krause Rosenthal.

After my previous book was unexpectedly bad, I was happy to have a well-written book come up next. True Grit is a western tale told from the point of view of a girl who is exceptionally bright and determined, and unlike most female characters in westerns.

Having seen the movie adaptation first (the most recent adaptation, not the John Wayne one) I can’t help but picture the characters from that movie as I read the characters in the book. I was struck by how closely the movie had followed the events of the book, with just a couple of extra scenes thrown in.

The characters are introduced and unlike the previous book that I read (The Cartographers) we are given short episodes to see their personality in action – their personality is not explained directly but it is discovered by the reader, which is an altogether more pleasant process.

The book is rather short but paints a complex picture of each character – how they are motivated and what they believe in. You can’t help but root for young girl as she takes charge of her own life instead of leaving it to others to decide.

I blazed right through this book – it was a pleasure to read.

Next I’m reading The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes.

This book marked the first dud I’ve read in quite a while. I had heard good things about it, but unfortunately I found a lot to dislike.

I’d like to write some of the good points to start, as a way to balance all the bad ones, but there’s really nothing to highlight for me. In the beginning my hopes and the anticipation of a mystery were enough to get me through the first few chapters, but from there my frustration and disappointment just started to build.

The book kind of reminded me of the DaVinci Code – the prose was stilted and seemed to be more about telling you things rather than showing them. I thought there should have been more elegant ways to introduce back story – but the author couldn’t be bothered to search for them. The plot moves forward and the characters are one dimensional and the surprises are telegraphed from the beginning and I could go on and on.

The best part of reading this book is that it showed me examples of writers shouldn’t do, and it made me notice what other writers do well: create dialogue and pacing that carry the reader along without them necessarily noticing.

So I’ll put down the hammer and walk away from this book – I’m sure whatever I read next will be better.

I haven’t chosen my next book, but I am reading The Wok by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt in the background while waiting for the next big book to drop in my lap.

This is the first book that I’ve read that addresses the COVID pandemic directly. In fact, it does a nice job of using a story to sort of document the early and middle stages of the pandemic in New York City. To me it almost felt too early to go back and look at it, but then again it also felt like so long ago.

I was attracted to this book because it is also about travel, and tells about a trip to the Galápagos Islands. There is also some romance in here, some family drama, LGBT issues, and a hard look at the what we may have previously taken for granted. In short there is a lot going on here, but the author pulls it off well.

Without giving anything away, there is a dramatic shift midway through the book that caught me by surprise, and thanks to this the book became a lot more interesting to me.

I think the best part of the book is the way it documented the pandemic, and showed it from various points of view. There are also some subtle barbs from the writer about the leadership of the country at the time, which was a nice touch. The very end of the epilogue was a little cheesy for me – but I could forgive – the story is really just a vehicle to tell a bigger story about the effects of the pandemic.

With a million Americans dead from COVID (by far the most of any country) there will be more time in the future to look at what happened and consider all the pain and recovery necessary to move on – this is an early attempt at looking at things and I think a successful one at that.

Next I’m reading The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.

Recently Kuniko and I watched The Man in the Iron Mask one evening, and afterwards I thought that if I had a chance I should go back and read this book – the start of the series of books about the three musketeers. The book details the origin of the main character d’Artagnan, and how he met Porthos, Aramis and Athos.

Apparently this story was written in serialized form originally, so each chapter is often close to self-contained, and so the book (which is quite long) reads quickly. I found the most interesting point was that the author had a great sense of pacing – the boring stuff lasts just a few lines, and the exciting moments tend to go on for pages at a time.

I did feel that the story, maybe because it is a classic, did seem predictable. Because there are three musketeers, events tend to happen in threes, and we see how each handles their challenges (or opponents). The book serves as an interesting snapshot of the times.

I found myself laughing out loud at some of the jokes, while others were clearly so far out of context that I couldn’t understand them. While the intrigues here were timeless and fun to follow, they sometimes felt a little transparent.

I’m not sure if I’ll continue to the next book in the series – maybe it is good to take a break from the story a bit – but I’m glad I read the first book at least.

Next I’m reading Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult.

A mystery book written in a unique style to fit into modern times and technologies – this was a refreshing read.

I like reading mysteries, and they traditionally start with a dead body, and then a detective tries to figure out whodunnit. Without giving anything away, this book changes the formula in an intriguing way, making the book hard to put down.

It is written as a collection of correspondence – emails, messages, messenger apps, brochures and press clippings, and reading these give you a sort of voyeuristic thrill. It could have been cheesy but the way it is done brings a feeling of realism. I’ve seen other writers try something like this occasionally, but not write a whole book like that. While the tech is pretty up to date for 2022, I wonder what it will be like to read this in 10 years – I fear that it will seem dated and quaint.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and at first it is a little confusing. The whole story is tied together through the correspondence of one particular character, Issy, that was incredibly well-written. I feared that things would devolve on the page with Issy and it was like waiting for a train wreck to happen. Top-notch writing.

While I really enjoyed the book, the format which worked through most of it is abandoned towards the end, and I thought it suffered a little because of it. Still, without the change of format I’m not sure the author could wrap up the story in a satisfactory way.

Next I’m reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

I got really deep into sci-fi with these two novels. After reading the first one I found the next one in the series available at the library so I just went ahead and read through it too.

There are a lot of good points about these books: an interesting sci-fi galaxy, with some engaging characters and space battles that felt visceral and exciting. The scope is huge, but it keeps the focus on two main characters which helps keep things moving. I liked all these good points enough to read the second book.

But during my reading I often came up on things that bothered me a little: the overly snarky dialogue between main characters, the overly detailed description of the science and physics (reminding me of the goofy science solutions they’d come up with in Star Trek), and an overall sort of juvenile feeling about the story. The author is sometimes constrained by keeping to just two main characters, resorting to dream sequences or straight info dumps to tell the backstory.

The good points apparently outnumbered the bad, but I’m not sure I’d recommend the series unless it was to a younger reader. I doubt that I’ll read the next book in the series when it comes out.

Next I’m reading The Appeal by Janice Hallett.

An area that I haven’t thought about much recently is university education – and this book examines the education received by students of the elite universities in the United States, and how this education has changed over time.

The author looks at where we are now, what the original purpose of a college education was, how that purpose has morphed over time, and gives some advice for students who might not want to accept the system as it is now.

I especially enjoyed reading about what the author considers is the point of a higher level education (especially one in the liberal arts). There are a lot of quotes I highlighted while reading, and that is always a sign of a book that rang true to me.

He writes that what makes someone interesting is not a laundry list of accomplishments, but rather “reading, thinking, slowing down, having long conversations, and creating a rich inner life for yourself.” Another quote I liked was, “life is finally a long process of learning how you ought to have lived in the first place. Or it is if you do it right.”

Lots of food for thought in this book, and I think I’ll enjoy reflecting on the contents for a long time. Hopefully this book is on the list of reading for students just entering the higher education system (and maybe even better to read as parents thinking about their child’s education).

What it boiled down to for me was that we need to develop the ability to reflect on things and consider problems and systems from multiple viewpoints. We must ask questions about why we are doing things a certain way, and be able to consider other ways that we might do it – or if we really need to be doing these things in the first place.

Living in Japan it is rare to meet people who question why things are set up the way they are. The educational system here prizes rote memorization and the submission to authority, so it is natural that the people educated like that bring those same values to their careers and ways of thinking. But I don’t think those are the best skills to bring to a rapidly changing and evolving world.

Next I’m going back to fiction with The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes.

I read this years and years ago and remembered enjoying it, so I thought I’d give it a quick re-read and see if I still liked it. Turns out, it was a cleverly written book and I really enjoyed reading it again.

The author states in this book that he has always had an interest in verisimilitude, and this becomes part of his signature style later on with his other books. This book turns out to be sort of a birthplace of that style, and later on he polishes this style to write Timeline and Jurassic Park, among others.

The story here is rather short, spends a surprising amount of time commenting on sexual issues, but filled with adventure that doesn’t have many breaks or slow points.

Now I’m reading Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz.