Here’s a book that I liked a lot – at the end I was sort of surprised how much I enjoyed it. Because books about lesbian space necromancers seems to be a pretty narrow niche.

I like books with deep worldbuilding, and the author handles this admirably. Things aren’t over-explained. Take the basic idea of a necromancer – raise the dead, magic, whatever – you’ve got enough to follow the story. And then the writer gives you more information as you need it.

The plot itself is filled with stuff that I enjoy – a group of people totally isolated, a competition, hidden doors and missing keys and tests and betrayals. There is lots of backstory that we get in fragments (again, as needed) and this never feels like an information dump.

The writing of the characters is for the most part well done. The main character of this book, Gideon, talks like a smart-ass teenager in contemporary, decidedly not like a member of this world the author has introduced. Because of this she gets some great lines and funny scenes but it does break the suspension of disbelief quite often. If you can get past this, the book is well worth the read.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. For my next book I am reading System Collapse by Martha Wells.

This is my first book by this author, and it was good to head back to Boston to meet a new private investigator. Since I like the Spenser books so much, it was inevitable that I’d be comparing with Robert B. Parker’s mystery books in that series.

While Spenser (basically) works alone, this book introduced the private eye pair of Kenzie and Gennaro. The point of view is from Kenzie, and he shares the same smart-ass and occasionally self-deprecating humor with Spenser. The level of humor is a little more simple here – sometimes it felt a bit like dad jokes.

This book contains a lot of racial issues that are boiling in Boston at the time, and rather than joke about it from the side they take it head on, which is kind of refreshing but also a little oversimplified to fit into the genre.

Unlike Spenser, Kenzie is a fallible guy who has a hard time getting the drop on his pursuers and can’t shoot very well. He has friends to bail him out but there is only so much they can do.

All in all it was an entertaining read, but it felt a little too ham-fisted sometimes – certainly not up to the task of analyzing race relations. But I understand there are more books in the series, so I may try some more and see if they have aged better.

Next I am reading Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

Every once in a while I run across a pretty weird book. That isn’t necessarily good or bad – I like variation in my reading – and this book had some good weird and some bad weird.

It is certainly an ambitious work. It tells several stories in layers, written in a mocking academic style, and it is a pretty big reading project to get through it. A lot of the content is meant as an effect to show some of the characters’ mental health state at the time, so it isn’t necessary (or advisable) to follow every footnote and reference (some of which are fake – again to show characters’ mental health state at the time).

For me the more interesting part of the book was the story within the story – the exploration of a spooky house full of empty spaces in the dark that change and expand and have the effect of driving people mad. There is allusion to the labyrinth and Minotaur, and large sections are dedicated to considering what this might mean.

In the end after about 20 hours of reading time I got through the book – I liked the creativity of the novel, and the spookiness of the house made it worth the read. But it can be a tough one to get through and it falls pretty far off the mainstream.

Next I am reading A Drink Before the War by Dennis LeHane.

To me this is the ultimate locked room mystery – ten people isolated on an island, all of them murdered – who did it? How did they pull it off? Agatha Christie apparently wrote this book as a challenge to herself.

As a reader you know that you are being fooled somehow, but how to identify when it happens? And is it the trick fair? In this book I was pleased that the result seemed fair to me. Without giving away the story I was only a little unsatisfied with the fate of the murderer,and wondered if the explanation would truly be so simple to bring about.

The book contains an epilogue that explains how everything worked, similar to the end of a Scooby-Do episode. Without this I never would have figured it out – all my theories proved incorrect.

The book was sometimes hard to follow – there are ten people and ten backstories and we peek into each person’s head now and then in seemingly random order, so I was sometimes re-reading to figure out who was thinking what. Luckily as they are murdered things get easier to keep track of.

Next I am reading House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

This cookbook is centered around Caribbean cuisine, specifically the West Indies. This is an area I haven’t really had much experience with, and so I wanted to get an idea of what to expect in their local foods.

As usual I ran across a lot of recipes that sounded good, so over the next month or so I’ll try to cook a few and see how they go. The use of coconut, turmeric and ginger is in line with our usual weekday meals, so it should be a good fit for us. Also these are all vegetarian recipes – another good fit.

Besides the recipes there is a lot of historical background on the role of women and the slave trade in the development of some of these dishes and ingredients. While somewhat interesting I felt like I wanted to read more about the food than the history, and it was easy enough to skip ahead.

In addition, some of the recipes were a little more modern, incorporating flavors and ingredients from the author’s vacations to other parts of the world. While I am sure they are delicious I was aiming for dishes reflecting the cuisine of the area. These sort of hybrid dishes weren’t so helpful.

I’m looking forward to cooking some Caribbean dishes soon! Next I am reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

This was a well-written account of one young woman’s battle with leukemia, how she got through it, and also a very detailed log of what effects it had on her and her loved ones. In an unusual twist, it also contained a brutally honest look at what she could have done better with her friends and relationships.

In the first part of the book she explains her disease, and all the steps from the beginning to what will hopefully be the end. There is a detailed description of each medical procedure, the decisions to be made along the way, and how these decisions played out later on.

I imagine this kind of detail would be especially useful for people going through a similar ordeal. For people that are not, I thought it was sometimes almost too much. It was admirable to be honest about some of the regrettable things she said or did – even if it put her in a poor light.

But the best writing and storytelling comes in the second part, where she describes her path back to “normality”, and what she had to do to get herself back. Most of this part involves a 100 day trip driving around the United States, seeing new things, meeting people that supported here during her cancer fight, and getting used to some solitude.

This book was ambitious and I am sure was cathartic. I know that the contents will be helpful for other people and that alone makes it a significant piece of work.

Next I am reading Provisions by Michelle Rousseau and Suzanne Rousseau.

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.