I picked up this book because the writer also wrote the Murderbot Diaries, a great series of short novellas that were extremely enjoyable to read.

Unfortunately this one landed in a weird way for me – and I think there are a variety of reasons why I couldn’t really enjoy the book.

There is rich world building here – lots of history of different races, and hundreds of years pass while these races interact, evolve, and go to war. This is usually a good thing for me, but the way these are introduced makes it seem like you should already know everything about them. The characters have a shared history that they allude to throughout the book but only towards the end do we get to find out about the details.

Because of all the details here there are large chunks of the book that are simply exposition – explaining this and that and it just grew tiresome. “Show, don’t tell” would serve the author better here.

There are a lot of likable characters, and some unique ideas about magic, demons, witches, etc. The way these ideas are presented made me feel like I had missed a book in the series – but this book is apparently the first.

Despite a great start (waking up locked in a prison with no memory how they got there) the ending fell oddly flat. There was no big moment of payoff or resolution. I’m sure there’ll be more books in the series, and this one is focused on putting pieces in place for greater things, but if I don’t care about the story now I won’t be reading later books.

So a bit disappointed with this one – despite the writer’s talent I think I’d categorize this one as a misfire.

Next I am reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron.

Sometimes it seems like a difficult task to make history interesting, especially to people living hundreds of years later who have access to (almost) all the knowledge available to mankind.

In this case, the history of the HMS Wager, a ship that foundered and wrecked off the coast of South America in the mid-1700s, is completely fascinating on its own. Thanks to a great deal of research, the writer really brings this old tale to life and it does well when seen from a modern viewpoint.

The story has it all – shipwrecks, battles at sea, war, mutiny, cannibalism, treasure and desperate reaches for life. Written in a brisk, modern style it is really interesting to see what life was like for a sailor back then, and how it compares to the modern day.

Because of preserved logs and first-hand writing about the incident, the story is as clear a look as we’ll get at what really happened, and the author assures us that he is relating events without embellishments or bias. We have to trust the writer on this, but there is an extensive list of sources and explanations for the material laid out in this book.

I had no real criticism of this book – it was for me interesting from start to finish. The only minor point I found disturbing was that the passage of time in the pages seemed so short relative to what these people actually went through. When some castaways are caught by the Spanish there is only a sentence saying “after two and a half years of imprisonment they could go home”. You are left wondering what kinds of experiences and lifestyle they must have had during these and other times that are sort of fast-forwarded for this book.

But I think the author made the right choices to keep this book to a reasonable length and it leaves some things to the reader’s imagination.

Next I am taking a trip to the USA, not sure when I’m going to be reading again. I have a few books on my list though – maybe I’ll get back to reading those in a couple of weeks.

I don’t often read thrillers, but I had heard this was a page-turner and it was available at the library so I decided to check it out.

It sort of reminded me of the TV show Lost – mystery upon mystery, with characters always being added with unknown backstories. As their backstories fill in it informs us of the big picture, and the making of those connections provides the little hit of endorphin to your brain.

At least that’s my theory.

This book was written in a way that the author seems to going for a WTF moment at the end of every chapter. I like WTF moments, but when there are this many you start to anticipate and they become less powerful. I think the writer may have overdone it here.

The structure of the story was fairly clever, and the pacing was good, but I’m not sure I was a big fan of the final product. Maybe I am just getting old and hoping for a little intellectual stimulation with my thrillers.

Next I am reading The Wager by David Grann.

This science fiction book was a long read – and the first thing I thought when I started was that I wasn’t used to reading this genre written at such a scale.

It deals with the rise and fall of civilizations across the universe, a universe in which humans are only a minor player. It was interesting to read about how some civilizations transcend and move beyond the rest of the universe, while others fizzle out by destroying themselves with war or poisoning their planets.

This book uses this huge stage to tell a story both broad and narrow – you enjoy it on whatever level you prefer. The writer does a great job introducing the aliens (alien to the reader) and their unique cultures and forms of communication.

There is a lot of adventure and Game of Thrones style treachery and power jockeying so the pages go by quickly. I thought it was a great mix of story and science fiction thought experiment.

That said, it is a little over-technical at times. The story sometimes takes a back seat while the author over-explains some bit of technology that he dreamed up. Also there are long portions that I thought could have been edited out for more brevity – especially a long section where the main characters are essentially reading the internet and getting mad at the bullshit they find out there. We get it – we’re living it already!

So I thought it was a fun book but not light reading – I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to continue the series. We’ll see down the road if I keep thinking about it or not.

Next I am reading a thriller called The Drift by CJ Tudor.

I really enjoyed this novel about first contact between two species, that happens right here on Earth. Similar in tone to the movie The Arrival, it struck the perfect balance between cerebral and action for me.

I’m out familiar with this author, but he writes about exotic locations very well. The future that he has envisioned here is pretty scary and although there is a lot of techno lingo at first, things calm down and we get pulled into the story.

I thought that the story started off quite slowly, hit a good stride for most of the novel, and then very abruptly wrapped up.

Although the plot was pretty interesting, and all angles come together at the end, it felt a little too predictable, and the way the author set up the ending it felt like an easy set up for a future sequel.

I guess I was hoping for a little more of the inter-species communication – there wasn’t enough of that for me in this book.

Next I am reading A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

I recently re-watched the movie Big Fish, and since I enjoyed the quirky and somewhat melancholy vibe of the movie, I thought I’d read the book that it was based on. That book was not available via the library but this one was, a non-fiction book on the author’s admiration of his brother-in-law, and how he reacted to said brother-in-law’s suicide.

Suddenly dark, I know.

But reading the book you can easily pick up on the same quirky vibe and emotion-centric writing style that I sort of sensed in the movie. There is some great story-telling, which really brings back to life William Nealy, the husband of the author’s sister.

He led a fascinating life (actually everyone in this book did) and only later did the author discover that things weren’t quite as wonderful as they seemed behind the scenes. We never know what is really going on inside someone’s head, and it can be especially surprising what someone that has been idealized might actually be dealing with.

This book has both light and dark, the good news in the beginning and the bad news at the end. So while I really enjoyed the happiness and soul searching at the beginning it was tough going to get through the end of the book. Sometimes I felt that the issues that the writer was bringing up were better dealt with in private – but in the end most of the people they involve were already dead. Maybe their issues could help other people – and I think that is why the book exists in the first place.

So I’m glad I read the book, and it has given me a chance to reflect on my own past and when I used to journal (right here on this site!) nearly every day after coming to Japan. I took some time to go back through old posts and get reacquainted with that version of me – I like him a lot! He is funny, flexible and full of curiosity. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through old journals and hate what you see.

I still think I’ll keep an eye out for Big Fish, but this was a pretty intense read. Next I am reading The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler.

This book was a weird mixture of fiction and non-fiction related to the theme of travel. The author is quite famous in Poland apparently, and this collection is the first of her work that I’ve read.

Starting the book without knowing the format allowed me a sense of wonder while reading. Which of these stories are true? Are these memories of the author or simply short stories that she wrote during her travels? Eventually the reader can sense the rhythm of it – but it takes a while and is a unique reading experience.

The author seems to be fascinated with the preservation of organs and body parts separated from their owners – and I learned a lot more about plastination that I ever really wanted to know. This focus on organs floating in preservative is a dark theme throughout the book. So if you’re into that then this is the book for you!

The writing is shot through with an intangible element of cold war gray – a sort of darker view of things and there is little to no joy to be found in these stories. There is a sense of the author putting together a plate for the reader, and whether they enjoy that plate or not is on them rather than the author.

As a fellow traveler there was a lot I recognized – especially the descriptions of the airports and flying through the darkness over some unknown country below. I enjoyed the writing here when it focused on something I am more familiar with.

This apparently is a translation from the original Polish, and if that is true then it is either a phenomenal translation or a horrible one. The English is beautiful and extremely well thought out. Rarely do I read a translation that feels so natural – so I wonder if it is really what the author intended or not. Either way it was wonderful to read.

Finally there was a great passage written about an old professor, dying from a stroke and massive damage to his brain, and the description of the blood flooding his brain and drowning his memories one by one was something that I’ll never forget:

But the crimson inner ocean of the professor’s head rose from the swells of blood-bearing rivers and gradually flooded realm after realm- first the plains of Europe, where he had been born and raised. Cities disappeared underwater, and the bridges and dams built so methodically by generations of his ancestors. The ocean reached the threshold of their reed-roofed home and boldly stepped inside. It unfurled a red carpet over those stone floors, the floorboards of the kitchen, scrubbed each Saturday, finally putting out the fire in the fireplace, attaining the cupboards and tables. Then in poured into the railway stations and the airports that had sent the professor off into the world. The towns he’d traveled to drowned in it, and in them the streets where he had stayed awhile in rented rooms, the cheap hotels he’d lived in, the restaurants where he’d dined. The shimmering red surface of the water now reached the lowest shelves of his favorite libraries, the books’ pages bulging, including those in which his name was on the title page. It’s red tongue licked the letters, and the black print melted clean away. The floors were soaked in red, the stairs he’d walked up and down to collect his children’s school certificates, the walkway he’d gone down during the ceremony to receive his professorship. Red stains were already collecting on the sheets where he and Karen had first fallen and undone the drawstrings of their older, clumsy bodies. The viscous liquid permanently glued together the compartments of his wallet where he kept his credit cards and plane tickets and the photos of his grandkids. The stream flooded train stations, tracks, airports, and runways – never would another airplane take off from them, never would another train depart for any destination.

This book was an odd read, a different tone from what I’m accustomed to, but overall I thought it was not a bad book.

Next I am reading This Isn’t Going To End Well by Daniel Wallace.

Sort of a space opera and sort of a teen angst novel – this one is hard to describe.

At first I really enjoyed the main character of this book – her rebellious nature and determination to do what she wanted to do rather than what others directed. Unfortunately the evolution of the character from angry young person to messiah made me start to dislike her tone of supremacy and fate,

Once I lose interest in the main character it is hard for a book to recover for me.

There is a strong “Young Adult” vibe throughout the book despite the sex and swearing – breaking up into teams and discovering new powers and doing what we want despite what society (in this case, the old veterans and stuffy rich people) want.

There is some good writing here, but the characters are all a little transparent, simplistic points of view, and there is an odd preoccupation with the use of pronouns (can’t they have evolved a more elegant solution than preferred pronouns on a name tag over thousands of years?).

So I don’t think I’ll be continuing with the series – but it was worth a try. Next I am reading Flights by Olga Tokarczuk.

Learning a bit more about Korean culture – from an angle that I haven’t seen before. When we visit Korea we are often passing beauty shops, people wearing post-surgical braces and bandages, and have seen the unrelenting focus on appearance in the media surrounding K-pop idols and music stars.

Thanks to a unique blend of circumstances this book was able to be written and the writer could confront this issue head-on. There is a lot to unpack here, and plenty of cultural landmines to avoid. Somehow it all worked out well for us, the readers, and we could really get a good look at what kinds of things are at work behind this huge beauty industry.

The scale is wider than just Korea, however, and I liked how the author frequently brought things back to America or other countries. It was extremely well-researched, with footnotes and sources, and thanks to this it is all easier to believe. Because really, the intense focus on one’s outer appearance seems unbelievable. The effects that your appearance has on your family, career, and everyday life are significant and pretty much unavoidable in Korean society.

With social media comes an even wider audience to view your outside to make judgements on your inside. The writer takes a social media-focused lifestyle as a given here, and so people that aren’t so addicted to posting online will probably have less interest in what it all means personally.

The book is written for any kind of reader but I really felt like the writer was speaking to a female audience more often than not, and so for me I had less at stake than a woman reading this might. Sometimes I felt the writing tending to extrapolate what is happening in Korea a little too far and wide in an effort to create a sense of urgency or relevancy, but maybe that comes from writing as an NPR correspondent. A little less hyperbolic tone might have been better for a book rather than an article. But I’m glad they took the time to address the issue and all the ramifications here.

Excellent book – and I’ll be keeping my eyes open next time we’re visiting Korea! The next book I am reading is The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang.

I was through the first third of this book when I heard that the author had passed away at 89 years old. I’m sort of late to the party when it comes to McCarthy’s writing, and I think I’ll probably end up reading his books in almost the reverse order of their release. I was sorry to hear that one of my favorite authors was gone.

Just like his other books that I have read, this one is full of beautiful prose and really well-written (and often funny) dialog between characters. The two brothers in this story have a great relationship and the way they speak reflects that. In addition the descriptions of nature in the quiet moments of travel are outstanding. Small details remind me of when I did more hiking out on my own – the rustles of wind through reeds near the river described here sent chills down my spine.

This book is also pretty dark and takes a good unflinching look at the dark sides of men. The brutality isn’t quite as much as other books of his that I’ve read, but it certainly isn’t light reading by any account. But there are some light moments and signs of goodness here, although they are few.

It is always emotionally draining to read these books, but worth it for the beauty and deeper thoughts on humanity. Once again I’ll wait a while before I read some more of his work.

Next I am reading Flawless by Elise Hu.

Giving my impressions on a book is a little more difficult when I’m reading a translated version. Some of it comes from culture differences, or perhaps from the different expectations from readers.

This book felt like you were peeking inside the mind of a Japanese worker. The main character of this novel wants a job that is as easy as possible, and the story doesn’t get much deeper than that.

Why are they working? What is their goal here? To have an easy life? Why not quit outright and have a really easy life? What’s the point of it all?

This book addresses none of the issues above, and instead spends an inordinate amount of time with idle thoughts about lots of extraneous information and detail that don’t really contribute to any sort of tension or resolution. It was hard for me to understand if this is representative of a culture or instead just a vapid person.

This was translated into English by a Brit, so I could pick up some new British English words (stockists, bedsit, etc.) so I got a little benefit out of the book. But for me it just wasn’t consequential enough of a story to recommend it to anyone.

Next I am reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.

We really enjoyed the meals we ate during our short visit to Sri Lanka just before the pandemic broke out. Besides the iconic Ministry of Crab we also went to some places that focused on traditional foods, and I got this cookbook as a way to explore some of the spice blends and see the patterns of ingredients for Sri Lankan dishes.

The book is written by a restaurant owner in Australia with a Sri Lankan background, and they are clear on what they consider “traditional” and what things are their own sort of spin on a dish.

A couple of small gripes – the ingredients are given in grams/ounces, so it makes it a little hard to go shop for 165 g of white onion. How much does a white onion weigh? Or the say to roll some dough into a size that is about half of a rock melon. Now I have to go research rock melons and their average sizes.

There are also quite a few special ingredients (“just go to your local Sri Lankan market”) and some special tools you need (especially for the hoppers). While these steps might be practical in Australia it is different here in Japan. Stuff like this just adds extra work to make the recipes.

But there are a lot of delicious looking recipes here and I’m looking forward to making some of the curries, the kottu roti, and maybe if I can figure out a way to do the egg hoppers I’ll try them out too.

Let the coconut milk flow!

An eye-opening look at what happens when a white sociologist goes “undercover” by medically tinting his skin darker, undergoing UV tanning treatments, and then traveling around the Deep South of the USA in the mid 1950’s.

First of all, he gets the medal for bravery – there is racism everywhere. Naked, clear and aggressive – it is hard to imagine that this was what black people had to put up with in those days. Unfortunately it feels sometimes like even now the USA hasn’t come very far since then.

A lot of the events that happen in this book were hard to believe (in a good way). The sudden hatred and degrading comments out of nowhere, the dangers of walking alone through a white neighborhood, and not being allowed to use facilities because of the color of his skin. Luckily the author doesn’t get aggressive back, and calmly logs all of these things to report later.

But one criticism I had was that a lot of the events that happen in this book were hard to believe (in a bad way). The timing of things was always perfect – one right after another. The racists described show up at just the right time in his story, and do their evil deeds right when he needs to illustrate his points. I know these bad things happened – but it is hard to believe that they all happen in neat and orderly way that happens to fit nicely into his narrative. In the same way, the black people in this book are uniformly kind and seem to be 100% good people – full of kinship and good values. Things in this book just felt a little too black and white, if you’ll forgive the expression.

Regardless it was an interesting book to read, especially the afterwords and seeing the fallout from the publishing of the book. I wasn’t quite sure about the author’s methods, but he certainly was fighting the good fight here.

Next I am reading two books at the same time, Lanka Food by O Tama Carey, and There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura.

This is the second book in the Slow Horses series, and while not quite as interesting as the first book it was still quite enjoyable.

There is still a brisk pace, with witty comments. It is written in the same unique style, shifting characters within the same chapter and trying to intentionally mislead you with various mini-cliffhangers.

Also again we have the cutthroat interagency rivalry and most of the same characters that were introduced in the first book.

But some things are different – there are some actors outside of British government at work here, there is a surprising death, and a few references to the current political climate.

Sometimes the dialogue comes off a bit clunky, and the story strays occasionally too far into the realm of unbelievability, but it was fun to read. These are great books for a long airplane ride and I look forward to making my way through the series.

The next book I am reading is Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.

This was one of the best I’ve read so far this year. Earlier I had asked some AI Chat bots what books I should read based on A Gentleman in Moscow, and finally one of them recommended this book, which managed to do many of the same things well.

The book is centered around an older character that is getting used to life on his own after his wife’s death, and the story is sort of a love story but also about remaining flexible, polite, and positive. There is a bright beam of kindness throughout this book, even in the face of racism, classism, and violence. The small town setting in rural England was similar to other books I’ve read recently, but everything here felt more real and quite a bit more entertaining.

Getting into this character’s head provides us with his very gentlemanly point of view, but also shows us the merits and limitations of his lifestyle and the code he lives by. He has thoughts and opinions on just about everything around him, but seeing where he decides to voice those thoughts and where he decides that something is just not for him without commenting was interesting to read. There is a lot here that shows how to live in a more welcoming and positive way, without being preachy.

And these comments and thoughts are surprisingly deep and full of wisdom. I’d enjoy reading this one again just to reflect on what the Major thinks about this and that. The author really found a voice here and it was a pleasure to read.

If I had to criticize anything, I’d say the ending felt a bit more dramatic than it really needed to be, with some turns that I was not expecting. But really I enjoyed almost everything about this book and hope to find more characters like this one out there.

Next I am reading Dead Lions by Mick Herron.