I think this is the first book I’ve read by this author. I’ve been interested in trying out his writing, especially about travel, and apparently this is his newest book.

The idea of this book is his exploration of finding “paradise”, and exploring what that word has meant to people throughout history and across the world. It is a pretty ambitious theme, and maybe since I had few expectations I wasn’t really disappointed with the result. It was interesting to read about some of the places that we have been – Sri Lanka, Bali, India, and Japan. Some of the holy sites that he visited were completely new to me.

The writer’s writing style is pleasant to read and tends towards dramatic prose. He seemed to look beyond what he was seeing and add some kind of spiritual element to just about everything. In fact, most of the book seemed centered on spirituality, religion and the metaphysical. Writing about paradise I suppose will slant the book a certain way, but I prefer to read more reality-based writings (for example, Paul Theroux).

In contrast to other travel books there is less interaction with local people. There were hired guides in this book, but unfortunately few conversations with people who live in these places. That makes us depend exclusively on the writer’s view of these places.

One thing that comes up a lot is the author’s friendship with the Dalai Lama, and it seems like his name and his words are over-invoked to explain all sorts of things.

I wonder if his writing is similar in other books. For the time being I got my fill, but it wasn’t as interesting a book as I’d hoped for.

The next book I’m reading is As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.

I really enjoyed this book showing the hidden world of British spies, operating in London while digging up (and hiding) secrets.

While it started slow, part of that was me getting used to the decidedly British feel of the prose. After a while it was fun to learn the unfamiliar words – however some expressions left me baffled.

There are plenty of interesting characters here, all with a deep backstory. The writer was skilled at misdirection, too. There were plenty of surprises, but once I realized how many misdirections were happening I started to read more carefully to watch for the next one. It just seems to be his storytelling style.

There are quite a few other books, so I’m looking into continuing the series when I’m between other library books. Highly recommended!

Next I am reading The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer.

This was a beautifully written book on certain subcategory of Americans living off grid in southern Colorado, with the author sort of falling in love with the lifestyle and joining them.

I often enjoy books where people make a big change to their lives and start over in a new place. There was a lot of people making dramatic life changes in this book. For most of them, however, they are doing it because they have few other choices, or as a last desperate measure. One exception is the author, who continues to live in New York while dabbling in this lifestyle, with the option to leave any time he needed to.

The book moves at a pretty slow pace, covering the history of the area, meeting many of the inhabitants, and exploring why they (and countless other Americans) would live so far away from civilization. Thanks to his writing and the beautiful photos included the author shows why people would be attracted, but it is clear that life there isn’t for most people.

Since there are not really many police or any kind of governmental presence in the area people have more freedom to do what they like (legal or otherwise). Also there are wider cracks to fall through without a safety net.

While hearing about the hardships of living here I sometimes wondered what the mission of the author was in this book. Sometimes he follows stories or gives out information that while curious or interesting didn’t seem to lead his tale anywhere. At the end of the book I knew a lot more about the area but I’m not sure I felt like I got a deeper meaning out of the book.

I’m glad I read the book just for the writing – especially describing the natural beauty of the area and the people that live there. He made great efforts to depict the residents fairly and without prejudice, rather than focusing on the more scandalous parts of their lifestyle. There was a delicate balance of happy and sad stories, but the balance worked.

It is hard to say without ever having seen the area, but just from reading this book I don’t think off-grid living is for me. Maybe when I was younger, or maybe with a seriously powerful generator and a well-stocked wine cellar. But it was certainly interesting to read about.

Next I am reading Slow Horses by Mick Herron.

It has been a while since I read a cookbook. This one is focused on vegetables, and since that is mostly what we eat I borrowed it from the library.

This one isn’t a comprehensive reference but it is written by someone who knows how to grow, choose, and cook veggies in combination with meat or fish, so it closely matched up with how we eat at home. The food photography is really well done – someone should get an award just for the photos! I also liked how creative the author was in the kitchen. Sometimes it is hard to do something interesting with winter root vegetables besides roasting them up.

The author is based in the northern mid-west so most of the veggies are ones that grow there and therefore the book is pretty USA-centric. Some of the personal stories didn’t really click with me, but that is kind of par for my course.

Overall it was a good cookbook – I put it on my wishlist for when it goes on sale.

Next I am reading Cheap Land Colorado by Ted Conover.

While searching for new and interesting travel books this title sometimes comes up – Steinbeck and his dog travel America by camper in 1962, trying to get a feel for what “America” is.

I thought I should finally read it since I liked East of Eden so much. There was a lot to like in this book – beautiful descriptions of the United States, and excellent writing about people, places and even conversations with a dog. Sometimes the dated expression and old fashioned English idioms appear, and the modern reader is left clueless and searching the internet to figure out what these things mean. But for the most part it is a pleasurable read.

By the time he wrote this Steinbeck was a famous and successful author, and the same year this was published he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I imagine writing this work of non-fiction came with some pressure – even though he traveled anonymously around America his words were read widely and his opinions therefore seem slightly tempered here. There is a lot of responsibility in writing when you reach his level.

One of his goals was to go out and talk with regular American people and he had conversations with people that he met and their comments are related in the book. In the foreword of my edition it was mentioned that some of the people he met were in fact fictional, and that in order to tell a story of his journey he made up a few things to make it work. Because of this it is hard to compare it with other travel books. I certainly would have liked to have heard from more people – Steinbeck is comfortable with his own (and his dog’s) company. I thought the balance of the content was tilted more towards Steinbeck’s opinions and less toward what regular American people were thinking at the time.

I liked reading this book because the author had some real insight into the trends at the time and ultimately what might end up happening in the future (our present) if these trends continued. This was a unique chance to see Steinbeck’s America in the early 1960’s, but it should be read as his story – not America’s.

Next I am reading Ruffage by Abra Berens.

A book that contains two novellas that relate stories about young people dealing with loss and depression, Kitchen is a translated work by a Japanese author who is apparently quite famous in Japan.

I read about this book in the Japan Times, where they especially recommended the scenes including food. While there were some of these moments in the book, it wasn’t as detailed as a foodie like me would want. But the stories were a nice snapshot of Japanese life, and overall I think reading about how the characters dealt with depression (by semi-magical means or more practical ways) would be a benefit for young people growing up in a high context society like Japan.

Reading translated work is always a strange experience – you start to second guess the translator sometimes – and I felt occasionally felt like the translator had made some awkward choices. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to translate this kind of book where most of the events take place inside people’s heads.

Not sure I’d recommend this for everyone, but as a youth-oriented read (maybe for teens experiencing loss?) it might be worth reading.

Next I am reading Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.

My first time reading anything by this author, I was surprised how readable and funny this book was. For some reason I had some image of beat poetry and coffeehouse drug deals – but that wasn’t it at all.

The vibe running through this book is a guy who is avoiding hard work, and a constant search for immediate gratification rather than a hard grind to success. A lot of the things in here probably wouldn’t fly in contemporary books, but as a snapshot of the past it was a great read.

I especially like his sense of humor. It was funny to read about how he treated his “career”, and when things got to be a pain in the ass he had so little invested in it that he could just walk away. Maybe this was written as a fantasy response for those caught in the rat race at the time.

So this was a pretty short book but very entertaining. I’m looking forward to trying more prose from this author.

Next I am reading Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

This book caught me by surprise. I don’t remember where I got the recommendation and so I went into it completely blind, and I’m glad I did.

It is hard to describe the story, and I don’t want to give anything away in case somebody reading this ends up reading the book. Instead of talking about the story I’ll say that the author did a great job balancing all the characters and pieces of this story, and made sure that the reader doesn’t get lost in any potentially confusing situations.

Apparently this was a debut novel – so even more respect to someone with the determination to tell such a complex story in such a satisfying way. I highly recommend this book to readers with an open mind, attention to detail and enjoy a good mystery.

Next I am reading Post Office by Charles Bukowski.

This was a pretty good read for me. All about life in a train-based circus in the 1930’s, the writer skillfully tells a story that is well-balanced and full of funny situations.

Obviously there was a lot of research that went into this work, but the result is a very easy reading book, and although the story was a little predictable and the dialogue at times a bit unnatural, it was worth it to get to the end and see how things turn out.

Reading about circuses in the 1930’s never struck me as something I’d be interested in before, but this was clearly a rich vein of material to draw from. There was quite a bit of nostalgia/Americana included, but in this book it didn’t rub me the wrong way like it does in other books.

Apparently there is also a movie, so I’ll have to rent it and watch it sometime soon.

Next I am reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

This was a short, clever book that took all the things we have learned in the fantasy genre (elves, orcs, wizards and magic) and leveraged that background knowledge to tell a story that shows it is OK to be yourself and trust in your own instincts and friends you make along the way.

Another book that seems to fall into the “cozy” category, it is fun to read about a warrior who sets aside her broadsword and instead tries to open a coffee shop in a place where they have never heard are tasted the beverage.

The story is cute – lots of friendly characters (and a few unfriendly ones) but the stakes here are low and the whole things builds up to a satisfying conclusion. There is emotional support in here for shy/introverted people, cat lovers, minorities and people that experience prejudice, gay and lesbian people, and even reluctant lute performers.

I enjoyed this book – it was a quick read but satisfying and a sort of balance with the gritty and bloody world that is more often described in works of fantasy recently.

Next I am reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

This was a warm and fuzzy book about a secretary to the emperor of the entire world who takes a chance to break protocol and ends up shaking up just about everything.

This is a pretty long book – more than a thousand pages – and I was satisfied and felt the story was complete about halfway through the book. The main character is a kind, proactive civic employee doing his duty in a very subtle way. The book goes out of the way to show what a kind person he is, and indirectly shows that his (huge) family back home doesn’t really know what he does or how great of an effect he has had on the world.

The worldbuilding by the author here is phenomenal and deep. There is a lot of history for each of the areas of the kingdom and their people, and it is amazing to think how much time the writer has thought about this. One complaint I had was that given this huge world and the multitude of people within it we spend an inordinate amount of town with just the main character. We hear about other people only indirectly through him.

The root of this book seems to be the transitioning of a mere secretary to the emperor with some slight access to power to someone who wields power on their own. Even though our secretary rises through the ranks and becomes a powerful person he never seeks to use this for his own benefit, and the book spends a lot of time fawning over what a great person he is and how his family doesn’t really understand how hard he has been selflessly working.

As I said, at the halfway point I felt like we had reached a logical and satisfying ending, but unfortunately the author continues to go on and on praising our main character, giving comeuppance to people that look down on him or his people, and even creating entirely unbelievable and perfectly arranged situations for this guy to lead the triumph of humility of selfishness. 500 pages of this. Really! There must have been an editor involved with a book of this size but I felt like they really should have stepped in and chopped out a lot of this to make a more readable and enjoyable book.

Next I am reading Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree.

It is not often in my reading when I come across a completely new writing style. This book is written in a weird combination of Lee Child’s short staccato sentences combined with sudden changes in point of view characters – it can be hard to follow. This really odd style together with a spelling mistake in the first few pages almost had me give up on the book, but I decided to push through. I guess I am glad that I did.

The book is about a train ride and a heist but also it seems to be about America and its beauty and shortcomings. There are some really awkward interactions, a mystery villain, some believability problems, and a few red herrings.

By the end of the back I was satisfied with the resolution (that still seemed a little forced). I don’t think I’ll read any other books by this author, though. Not on my recommended list!

Next I am reading The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

This book was a surprise for me. At first I thought it was a typical sort of book with lots of characters who gradually come together in the end for either happiness or tragedy. As it turned out, the book was more than that, and I was pleasantly surprised.

It starts off pointing out some of the residents of a public housing project (nicknamed “The Rabbit Hutch”) and their private activities in their private spaces inside the large building. But from there, the story expands to include the area around it, and especially focuses on one very intelligent disadvantaged young woman. She is finding her way in the world, attending a private school and hoping for something better out of the world around her.

The way the book is written is very non-traditional, characters and situations are presented in odd (but effective) ways. One chapter is entirely of illustrations. I appreciated the extra creativity here and the bravery to break the mold.

The book has many opportunities to make social commentary on contemporary America, especially the areas that may be less affluent. The author has a genuine talent in writing – especially writing about emotions and heartbreak. It also contains a lot of support for young women growing up in a place that carries some real risks for their mental and emotional health.

With all this unusual writing there were some misses for me – I sometimes found it hard to follow the streams of some of the character’s thoughts, and sometimes it felt like one or two weird people were weird just for the sake of being weird. This was an ambitious novel and so I could forgive these points.

So finally I enjoyed this surprising book. Not a perfect book but well-written and one that takes chances.

Next I am reading This Train by James Grady. I’ll bring this book and some old favorites along with me on our winter trip to Malaysia and Vietnam. There should be some time to read while relaxing near a pool, hopefully!

This cookbook was recommended by NPR (I think) and so I thought I’d check in on my Cajun/Creole recipes and see if there was anything new to learn.

The book has a wide selection of recipes, and I found 3-4 that I want to try in the future. There is also some great photography in here, food and otherwise.

Part of this book is a plea to save the disappearing Louisiana Bayou areas that are rapidly disappearing thanks to river damming and climate change. Also the availability of cheaper overseas fish/seafood is highlighted as a reason for the area’s decline.

There was also a sort of strange streak of sexism here – the author felt that men representing her cuisine’s cultural heritage was inappropriate given that “women run the kitchens” where she comes from. She states that “women hold our cuisine, culture, and traditions together.” I’m not sure why it is important that a man or a woman is cooking this food – I don’t think that anyone is evaluating it based on the sex of the chef – but I felt this element distracted from the rest of the story.

I’ll give the recipes a try over the next few months – hopefully they are as tasty as they looked in this cookbook.

This book is sort of like a companion book for The Passenger, released at about the same time. While The Passenger was a full-blown novel, this is quite a bit shorter, and deals almost exclusively with one character from The Passenger.

The story takes place in the form of notes between an institutional psychologist and his patient. To me it felt like an excuse to peek into the author’s thoughts on mathematics, death and mental health. All of these were covered in the other book (some quite extensively) but apparently the author wanted to follow up with a bit more.

I enjoyed reading most of it, with the exception of a description of drowning that was quite disturbing. Having read the other book we are aware of some of the backstory, and in this knowledge we get the most out of Stella Maris.

As usual McCarthy’s books are pretty cerebral and mentally taxing (in a good way) and so the next few books will be a little lighter.

Now I’m reading Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa M. Martin.