This one caught me by surprise. The mystery in this book is relayed by an unsuspecting maid, who we learn is much more complex than she appears on the outside.

Besides learning about her own mysterious backstory, we also learn about the hotel where she works, the people she works with and how they (really) feel about her. There is a pretty decent whodunnit, too.

I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of Molly the Maid – her innocence and the influence of her grandmother and how she raised a bright, intelligent and challenged woman. The inner monologue is full of clever turns and great ways to think about other people.

And the book as a whole is clever – clever as hell. I’m already looking forward to reading more from this author – the newest book is on my waiting list at the library.

Next I am reading Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne.

This is the kind of topic I like to read about – how the human brain can trip over itself and unknowingly lead its owner into trouble. This book has plenty of ways that it could happen, points out some of the ways to avoid this unfortunate situation, and calls out some social issues that are exacerbating this problem.

In addition this serves as a guidebook for people who have loved ones that have been caught up in misbelief, from JFK assassinations to flat earth believers. The author was caught in the crosshairs of COVID misbelievers for the past three years, and rather than be bitter about it he became curious, and this book is the result.

There is a lot of material about COVID deniers and misbelief related to the pandemic, which is certainly both relevant and timely, but I wonder how many people are ready to deal with this. A certain population may not be ready to process this in such a close-up fashion.

Of course the people who need this information the most will not accept what they find here – which is the very message of the book. But hopefully this way of battling misbelief through intelligence, kindness and understanding will help others who could use the support in reeling in their loved ones from the brink.

Next I am reading The Maid by Nita Prose.

This was a fairy tale story that begins sort of like Harry Potter inverse. A girl grows up surrounded by magic and longs to see the rest of the world. What she finds there sets up a confrontation with the people around her as she struggles to get a foothold in adulthood.

I enjoyed the story – it was told a little slowly for my taste, but it had plenty of interesting locations and characters. At first they feel a little too cozy and warm, but slowly as the main character’s world expands we see more and more.

The structure of this book necessitates a great deal of back-filling of information (and plot?) and the stakes of the story arrive late. I thought it felt a little disjointed overall, but the way it was written was easy enough to enjoy.

I did have a problem with the ending – it sort of went on and on and didn’t finish as neatly or satisfyingly as I had hoped.

Next I am reading Misbelief by Dan Ariely.

I like reading about time travel, but this one turned out to be a poorly written book that was British in a bad way.

There are some pretty interesting things in this book, however. Written in 2011, they portray Britain in 2050, and it is well used to dealing with pandemics. They describe a global pandemic that happened in their past, and how 30 million Americans died because they weren’t willing to give up their civil liberties… it was remarkably prophetic.

It was a little strange to hear how in this futuristic world dealing with a pandemic was no big deal – only mildly inconvenient. But the British characters in this book spend most of their time dealing with the most mundane tasks: doing historical research, communicating with their staff about visitors, making tea, and taking messages and returning phone calls.

It was hard to believe that nobody carried a smartphone anymore – and no joke, it felt like 30-40% of the book was people calling back other people and getting messages delivered by their staff while they were away.

There is a good story here, but the author takes their time to get to it, and putters about with minutiae that do nothing to contribute. I thought it was a great example of editor malpractice.

Take a similar idea in Michael Crichton’s Timeline – it was almost the same story but stripped down to the basics and moving fast. Crichton’s book was like riding in a race car, while this book was like hearing about a car race from your great grandmother second hand.

This is a big book, and I found myself skimming the text after the halfway point, and I twice considered giving up on it. It seems like there is a whole series of books now – but I don’t think I could bear to subject myself to more.

Next I am reading The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry.

Near the end of this book there is a quote describing Japanese people as a whole:

“…the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble eyelids, the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat noses, the sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the puny physique, the shaky walk of the men, the restricted totter of the women, and the general impression of degeneracy conveyed by the appearance of the Japanese…”

Written almost 150 years ago, it is hard to imagine these words used to describe human beings today. It is exceptionally educational to read these words from a person who is a self-described “civilized” person talking about the Japanese people, most of whom are referred to as “savages”. I was surprised to find the author so judgmental of the people and culture she comes across during her four months traveling Japan.

At this time there were few foreigners who had seen Japan, and so the writing style is one of meeting an uncontacted tribe. Especially the Ainu are treated like a lost race rapidly going extinct (which was true then as now), but the writing about people tends towards documentary and scientific(?) information gathering.

But what saves this book for me is the beautiful descriptions of nature, the writer’s thorough documentation of each day of travel and episodes that she encounters. This is more like the type of travel writing that I enjoy.

Especially the descriptions of Hokkaido’s open spaces (and how much more open they must have been at that time), lonely outposts, and haunting ocean waves made an impact on me.

It is truly amazing that a solitary woman had the courage and fortitude to travel in this very rough style back when she did. This journey is only one of many she made around the world, and we are lucky to have the written evidence of her adventures.

This book is old enough to be out of copyright – making it a free book for anyone. Thanks to a very readable writing style it is the closest thing you can get to experiencing time travel into the past.

It is rather long thanks to her comprehensive journal of events, and if you can handle the old fashioned way of describing native people, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in travel writing.

Next I am reading Domesday Book by Connie Willis.

This book was a dud. It is a book written in the category of “thriller” but it felt amateurish. The writing style is ponderous and awkward, and there way too many instances of telling us about someone rather than showing us.

The men in the book are all bad. The women tend to be good, but naive. The women in this story pull together to become more powerful and to overcome the bad guys.

There is an entire section of the book where a person is called “it” rather than “he” or “she” simply to avoid giving away the gender of the bad guy. With a little more effort this could have been handled more elegantly.

All of the story takes place during the pandemic, and for some reason all the masks and social distance rules are brought up again and again, for no apparent reason other than to point out that it was taking place during the pandemic.

But I did finish the book, so there must have been something worth reading in there.

Next I am reading Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird.

A short book of musings on what the author went through growing up, with parallels made to plants and animals in nature.

I enjoyed this book as it showed a childhood different from most, and it took an artistic view on just about everything. Coming of age is never an easy path, but the way the author thought about it in comparison with other creatures was creative.

There are a lot of great memories in here, and I was glad to read that her mother was still alive to read these and see things from her child’s point of view. Obviously she did a great job raising her kids, although it must have been exhausting.

This book was nice walk off the pathway of books I have read recently, and although I’m not really into poetry the prose here strikes a happy medium. Well written.

Next I am reading The Darkness of Others by Cate Holahan.

This short thriller drops you right into the middle of the action, with both you and the main characters unaware of just about everything around them except for what is seen. It is a tricky way to start a story, and provides a lot of mystery.

There are a lot of memorable scenes in the story – and I felt like they were written with the screen in mind. Is this book hoping to be a movie? A mini-series?

As a book, it was a little too unbelievable for my tastes. Like an attempt at the evolution of zombie stories, but I guess I was hoping for more. Especially at the beginning when it could have been anywhere – once they said the word “London” I felt a big drop in my interest in the book.

Next I am reading World of Wonder by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

Fresh from reading a traditional private eye mystery from Robert Crais, this book was the same genre but a completely different style. It moved in a slow, deliberate way that sort of mimicked the setting – the Irish countryside far from the big city of Dublin.

Because of the unique setting and storytelling style, I had no real expectations and without knowing anything about the plot beforehand I was totally unaware of how things might unfold. I’m glad I approached the novel that way – it made it more fun to read.

The story was a little predictable, especially the twists, and the main character was supposed to be a retired American cop living in Ireland but for me I didn’t buy it. He seemed a little too Irish and blended in a little too easily. This isn’t a book about moving to a new country and starting over, but the author could have added a little more to the culture shock side of things to make it more realistic.

So, I enjoyed the book for the novelty of the format, and learned a few Irish English words. Not a bad mystery but not a great one.

Next I am reading Red River Seven by A,J. Ryan.

I started reading the Elvis Cole books because I missed Spenser, and while Elvis still doesn’t quite measure up, he has always been able to scratch the same itch.

What makes these books entertaining for me are the side characters, especially Joe Pike. I would have liked more Joe in this one, but I’ll take what I can get here.

The story was just OK, the jokes fell a little flat this time, the ending felt a little unsteady and weird, and something about the book as a whole felt like a middling effort.

It was worth reading, but I’m looking forward to the next Joe Pike book down the line.

Next I am reading The Searcher by Tana French.

What makes a dish a “national dish”? What is your country’s national dish? Can there be more than one? Can countries share a national dish?

After a pretty long book I’m not sure I’m any closer to knowing the answer to any of these questions. I read about a lot of foods, but I also got a great big helping of sociology, history, and politics. Of course the foods we eat are enjoyed in the shadow of these big issues – but shouldn’t eating be a non-political act? I don’t think that people should be adamant about where the dish comes from or what ingredients are required – if it is delicious and we share it together then it is mission accomplished.

Maybe I am naive but it felt like the author went looking for controversy here, and spent a lot of time, money and effort to visit various countries on what seems like a fool’s errand. Was she hoping to get everyone to agree on something? You can walk around a big city and find people to agree or disagree with whatever facts you’d care to throw out there.

I just would prefer to hear the history of a dish and learn how it came to be, in all its variations and regional differences. I know that some countries have invested political capital in the idea that a dish is unique to that country, but maybe the author would have benefitted from starting from a point before that political statement was made.

I enjoyed the book overall, but some of these points kept coming back to me and it was a little frustrating after a while. However the extremely well-written epilogue on borsch and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia was some of the best writing of the whole book. More like that, please!

Next I am reading Racing the Light by Robert Crais.

The second book in the Dark Tower series was written 13 years after the first book, and you can really feel the style change. I guess that a lot had happened to the author during that time, and he had a lot of hit novels that matured and defined his style. I preferred the loneliness of the first book, and the more meditative mood – this one adds some sidekicks and their own backstories.

There’s plenty of action thanks to this change, however, and it makes for an entertaining reading experience. Not as deep as before, but it really keeps you turning the pages.

One thing I disliked was one of the characters, a young black woman, is a schizophrenic and her alternate personality speaks in a pretty flagrant black dialect. The portions of the book written in that voice take a while to get through, and I’m not sure that the effort is worth it. I don’t have any particular qualms against it racially, but purely as its ponderosity (is that a word?) makes for a tiring time for this reader.

When I get another blank in my reading schedule I’ll continue the series. For now, the next book I am reading is National Dish by Anya Von Bremzen.

All about Jim Jones and the people who followed him, this book goes into a lot of detail about just about everyone and everything that led up to the group suicide in Guyana back in the late 1970s.

I didn’t know much about the group or Jim Jones before I read the book. Growing up in the Bay Area in the 1970’s it seemed like I was closer than I knew to the activities of the Peoples Temple, and it was intriguing to read about their move to Ukiah and what they were doing there.

The book is extremely well-researched, and if anything it goes into almost too much detail. I sometimes lost track of who was who with so many members coming and going. The book took a deeper look at what motivated the group, and the long history of religion for Jim Jones pointed at a start that was very different from how it ended.

I thought that the book did a good job avoiding titillation and instead showed just how a huge group of people could end up following a strong personality like Jones. In an effort to simplify the narrative it seems like many things that were fairly important got lost or deliberately excluded.

The book doesn’t do a lot of judging, but rather points out a wide range of things that may have led to the tragedy. For example, some members stayed part of the group because they strongly believed in the socialism that the group practiced. The group (and Jim Jones) seemed to think that if they showed themselves living peacefully and equitably in a socialist model that it might lead to a greater change worldwide.

But things slowly go off the rails, and it was interesting to read just how it happened.

The writing style of this book is a little old fashioned (I read the word “chums” for the first time in a long time), and I felt like it could have been written a bit more smoothly to keep the reader’s interest as the accounting and politics often went pretty deep. Overall, though, it was a pretty good book and I’m glad I read it.

Next I am reading The Drawing of Three by Stephen King.

I haven’t read this book in a long time, so I thought I’d re-read it and see if I still enjoyed it as much as I remembered. And I did!

Since I read this book the first time I have read other westerns – Virgil Cole from Robert B. Parker (who seems a lot like Call from Lonesome Dove) and the poetic and sometimes shocking west written by Cormac McCarthy. This book still holds its own, with classic storytelling that features long character arcs, and great dialogue, especially between Gus and Call.

I had forgotten what happened with just about every character, so I could feel the shock and tragedy again with some surprise. I’m looking forward to an older age when every book I re-read will seem new to me!

I’m not sure I’ll read the other books in the series – it seems like a beautifully written and self-contained story that ended to my satisfaction. But maybe down the road I’ll give them a try.

Next I am reading The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn.

I had heard good things about this book but I ended up disappointed with it. I almost gave up near the middle of the book, but there were just enough threads worth following that I managed to finish it.

The idea of the world and how each person had the ability to control a “fury” (a sort of elemental spirit) – that was interesting. They didn’t really delve into this relationship between the humans and their furies – how does it work? What are the limitations?

Instead of explaining the rules and relationship, we have people using their furies on each other like a Pokémon battle. The writing doesn’t really draw us into the world – things happening seem like the solutions to a developing plot rather than a product of one.

The story was predictable – and even without reading the next five books in the series I can guess where it is going.

This series might be better for a teen audience except for the occasional scenes of cannibalism and rape. Some of the goofy lines felt like they came right out of Scooby Doo – yikes!

Next I am reading Lonesome Dove (again) by Larry McMurtry.