A few years ago I read the first book of this trilogy, written about a group of memorable characters that come together in India to start a voyage on a ship to Mauritius. The book was well-written and full of words of Indian origin that I didn’t know, but I enjoyed the feeling of immersion in a culture I didn’t know well.

So when I recently had a break in my reading list I checked out the second book. This one was much longer, and to my surprise, focused on just one or two characters from the first book. This book has a focus on the impact of opium (produced in India by the British East India Company among other independent producers) on the kingdom of China, particularly in the port of Canton (called Guangzhou today).

I would have preferred to follow along with the characters from the first book – readers had invested a lot in their histories and stories. There were a lot of new characters, but it felt like starting over somewhat and so this felt less like a continuation of the story.

Obviously there was a lot of research of the history leading up to the opium wars and as a history lesson it made for good reading. The writing is still full of archaic terms and plenty of different languages, some of which are translated into English, others left to puzzle the readers. The pidgin spoken in the port of Canton was especially annoying to read and puzzle through.

This was an educational book for me, less an entertaining one, and so I did get a lot out of it. Not sure that I’d recommend it to others, though.

Next I’m reading The Judge’s List by John Grisham.

One of the problems with picking up older books that deal with social issues is that without any kind of historical context the story can suffer. This book tells the story of a man learning to stand on his own out in the world.

The primary issue in this book is race, and it was interesting to see things from the view of a young black man coming from the south and ending up in New York. There are episodes throughout the book that seem to be allegories for social problems on a bigger scale, and it was hard to read the brutal racism that was found in 1950’s America.

That being said, I don’t think I have enough knowledge about those times to really receive the writer’s message in detail, and so I felt like some of the power of the novel was lost on me.

I liked the idea of the book, and it was interesting to go back in time and see a different kind of America, but this book didn’t really click with me. By hearing the stories of this book it was a little encouraging to know that there has been progress in race relations, but there is still a long ways to go.

Next I’m reading River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh.

I haven’t read any other books (cookbooks?) by this author, but I certainly enjoy his acting and I love Italian food, so I was eager to read through this book, his memoirs over the course of his life through the lens of food.

This book shows a lot of reverence for the acts of cooking, eating, and discussing good food. Using a self-deprecating and clever style of humor, the author describes his experiences growing up, and gives details of his memorable eating and cooking experiences over the years. One theme that he mentions that I appreciated was the role of small businesses in providing good food and ingredients, rather than the big strip mall supermarket chains that apparently dominate the USA these days. He writes:

“But what are also disappearing are the wonderful, vital human connections we’re able to make when we buy something we love to eat from someone who loves to sell it, who bought it from someone who loves to grow, catch, or raise it.”

I thought this point struck a chord with me, and I am happy that now I live in a place where the small businesses are still around (although even here in Japan some big supermarkets are starting to dominate).

Although the author stresses the keeping of family food traditions and recipes, there are sometimes long descriptions of what we should absolutely not do, and when making this dish we should never do that, and that kind of thing turns me off. Sure, your family follows this tradition, but those rules are for you – not necessarily everyone.

There is quite a bit of name-dropping in these chapters, and although he makes a cute joke about him dropping names, I thought it didn’t really add much for me. I’d rather hear more about the experience of the foods that he cooked and ate, or the culture behind it. He introduced the disappearing culture of the Chinese Cuban community in New York – more of this, please!

So this was a nice read, although nothing here that changed my thinking on food or that had me rolling out pasta for next weekend.

Next I’m reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

This one is hard to explain. I really enjoyed this book, digging into the history of a book and its author. The unique feature of this novel is that the narrator is the book itself, and if that sounds confusing it all works out much more clearly when you read it.

This is fiction wrapped around non-fiction, with the pages rubbing so closely together that we’re not sure which is which sometimes. The characters introduced here are all viewed from the perspective of a book that one of them owns, and the author does a great job of limiting narrative to what the book sees (or has seen). This isn’t as limiting as it would seem – these pages have seen a lot over the years, and they know their human readers well.

This was a unique read, with themes of immigration, the meaning of love and getting along with others, and it comes together nicely at the end. It made me want to read some other books (I love it when a book has me adding new titles to my reading list), and there is a lot of reverence here for the written word.

An added benefit of reading this book is a new desire to go explore Berlin, and also it left me with this juicy tidbit from one of the characters who was talking about how they spend time at a country house that he had recently bought:

“My wife says we would have a rule – no phones, no devices, we would just walk and make meals and talk and be alive.”

The Pages was an excellent book and one that I’d recommend. Next I’m reading Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci.

This book tells a haunting story at a slow burn, and uses some narrative tricks to pull off what can probably not be done in a movie version of the story.

As I read the story I felt like something was under the surface, something dark and just out of focus. There is a sudden change in character’s perspectives, and a satisfying (albeit somewhat implausible) conclusion. All the makings for a good book.

This is the first book I’ve read by the author, and I liked the pacing and the descriptive style. It is a difficult trick to keep the reader guessing – what is actually happening here, right in front of us? But it is written well and was an entertaining book. There may be some parallels here with the COVID pandemic and perhaps a certain politician/cult leader, but they are mild enough not to interfere.

Next I’m reading The Pages by Hugo Hamilton.

Here is a polished, gritty and fun to read fantasy series based loosely on Vikings involved in a completely new mythology. This is the first of a series, and it caught me off guard by starting in a normal way and then gradually bleeding in the fantasy.

The world-building is excellent, the characters easy to like (although the bad guys are a little too easy to hate), and it spends a lot of time describing the nuts and bolts of armor, weapons, shield walls, and seaxes.

The writer does a great job of moving the plot forward with each chapter, with mini-cliffhangers in just the right place to prevent you from wanting to take a break.

While the world and folklore is quite complex some of the characters are on the simple side, but I have a feeling that once the groundwork of this book has been completed we’ll get more into the background (and motivations) of the characters.

This was so well planned and thought-out that I can easily imagine it be optioned into a mini-series in the future. I was glad to read it, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one once it shows up in the library.

Next I’m reading A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw.

I checked out this book from the travel section of the library hoping to enjoy some travel reading – but there was a lot in here that I didn’t expect.

The book reads like a bunch of blog pages put together, making me wonder why I don’t do something similar for a quick buck. There are certainly some travel stories here, but I think they’ll be most useful to the author and her family as memories, and maybe people who plan to visit some of the same national parks as they did.

I commend the writer for putting these events down on paper, and trying to stay active and fit. Unfortunately there is a lot of extraneous stuff here so that the book didn’t feel like a cohesive whole.

Certain parts really rubbed me the wrong way – mentioning the ethnicity of non-white people she runs into during her trip through Seattle, memories of clients she had during her stint as a counselor for the State of Hawaii, and her fond memories of riding the carousel on Pier 49 in San Francisco. Pier 49? Her husband describes Mt. Whitney at the tallest mountain in the United States. I was waiting for the correction but it never came. Just a little research here would have softened the edges a little.

I think fans of her fiction series will probably enjoy the backstory on this author, but I wouldn’t recommend the book to the casual reader.

This was a short book that was written in an unusual style. It is set in a science fiction world, but is a sort of comforting, philosophical exploration of what we want. Most of the story takes place in dialogue between a monk, and a wild-built robot.

The monk is named Dex, who says they prefer to be genderless. This makes the reading a little more difficult as the pronouns used for Dex are they/their. I often got confused about who was being referred to, and especially in reading science fiction you don’t know if the people on this planet have two heads, three genders, or whatever.

I thought the story was short, simple and mildly interesting, but I wasn’t sure that much was resolved by the end of it. Apparently there is another book or two in the series, but I don’t think this one caught my attention enough to keep on going.

Next I’m reading The Shadow of the Gods, by John Gwynne.

This book really caught me by surprise. I like books that build worlds that are full of color and life, and the author of this novel has done that and much more.

Something about the writing style was unusual and refreshing – full of vibrant descriptions of color, flavor, aroma, passion and poetry. I was at times reminded of our times in Istanbul, in southern Spain, and Greece. The descriptions here are of far-away cities and people, with special attention paid to the act of reading. Reading and storytelling are critical to this book, and a reminder of why we love to read in the first place.

The story moved from an isolated island to a the spectacular imagery of a grand city, then on to a mysterious island of towers and intrigue, and then next towards the north and the snow and deserts, where we concentrate more on a critical relationship of our protagonist.

This story is filled with stories, which in themselves contain other stories, and it was fun to peel through the layers and discover what lies within.

I’m looking forward to reading more from this author – you can tell she worked hard to bring this book to fruition, and it was worth the effort.

Next I’m reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

I’ve read a few of Ruth Reichl’s other non-fiction books, mainly about her life growing up and working for Gourmet magazine. This book is a collection of recipes that she wrote up in the year following the end of Gourmet magazine and the beginning of her search for her next steps.

Right away something about this book’s format rubbed me the wrong way. She introduces each section with (what I am guessing is) a tweet that she made at that time, and they’re sort of written like a little poem/haiku/emotion bomb. For example:

“Cool, rainy. Autumn’s on its way. Pasta, perhaps? Cauliflower, olives, anchovies. Rich red wine. Ripe pears. So fine.”

There are a lot of these throughout the book and so each chapter I had another chance to be annoyed. I guess I just didn’t really enjoy the attempt to over-romanticize the experience of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches:

“Hot. Hawks dance in the air. Grass prickles. Warm peanut butter and jam on thick white bread. Summertime picnic. Feel about five.”

p. 397

But enough about my grouchiness – the recipes were why I was reading, and they are a great selection of different kinds of foods, mainly fitting an American diet. I liked that the format was simply a description and not written analytically. It was like hearing how to make something from a friend in the kitchen.

So, I’d recommend the book for the variety of recipes. Reading about how a very successful lady survived a year off work while living between two of her houses and shopping for organically grown heirloom vegetables at the local farmer’s market every week – well, that wasn’t so compelling.

I’m not sure where I heard about this book, but I figured it would be an interesting read. It is about some people in Japan processing their grief after losing loved ones, from the tsunami of 2011 as well as people lost for other reasons.

The book hinges on the (true life) presence of a phone booth in a garden near the ocean in northeastern Japan, not connected to anything but used by people to speak to people they have lost.

The writer worked hard to include lots of Japanese culture into the lives of the Japanese characters, and for me it felt a little forced. But the stories of the people were quite compelling – and seeing how they deal with their loss is somewhat inspiring. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid having to go through this kind of grief and loss, but for readers that have or are going through it currently, I think this kind of story would be beneficial. It seems like the author was greatly moved by this phone booth and the benefits it gives – it shows in the writing.

Another point about the the writing was the inclusion of intermittent breaks detailing the realia of the characters. This was a unique way to make the story seem even more real and heartfelt

The book was OK, not really my style, but I think I’d recommend it for people going through tough times.

Next I’m reading Ruth Reichl’s My Kitchen Year. It has been a while since I’ve read a new cookbook.

This book is all about the deleterious effects of stress on the human body, and a fine example of when reading an ebook rather than a paper book pays off.

First, the book goes into great detail, down to the neuron level on how and why stress causes damage, and why the body tends to behave that way. It is dense with scientific explanations, but the author takes a friendly approach and guides the reader through the unfamiliar lingo until even the most casual reader feels comfortable reading words like “glucocortocoids“.

I was impressed with how each chapter deals with a different aspect of our health, both physical and psychological. The idea to end the book with advice and strategies for prolonging our life (or improving our happiness with what we get) was a good idea to balance with the bad news from most of the previous chapters.

Secondly, I read this book by checking it out as an ebook from my library. That meant that the most recent research could be included in this edition, and it seems like there were a lot of changes in the time between editions. It is a little startling to think how differently I might have taken the information from an older version – research in this area seems to have come a long way.

So despite its relative density, this was an interesting book to read and it was nice to get a little more detail into how my body is dealing with its upcoming disintegration (eventually).

Next I’m reading The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina.

I picked up this book because it was recommended as a good way to change the way people think about finances and investments. The book is written by someone who focused on investing strategies as a way to fund his retirement and lifestyle, without big inheritances or other sources of starting income.

As it turns out, the information in this book is pretty much the same as what I’ve already researched through other sources – a passive investment strategy revolving around index funds and balanced between stocks and bonds for stability.

The book explains (and justifies) this approach, but for me he was just preaching to the choir. There were some interesting parts about thinking about when to buy (not sell), and the balance between stocks and bonds, but for me most of the advice has already been followed.

I do think this is a good book for people starting out. The writer has a slightly quirky writing style, and he sometimes focuses a little too much on specific data and examples, but I suppose that people that are serious about maximizing their investments will want concrete, precise data.

Next I’m reading Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky.

This book was gifted to me by my dad, and the author is from the Sonoma area.

The book introduces us to a subculture of the USA: the railroad riding hobo. The story starts off quickly and mainly deals with two people who meet on the rails – the veteran “professional” called The Duke, and his new friend (and budding hobo) who goes by the name of Frisco.

I didn’t have much background info on the life of the hobo, and this book packages that information into a simple story that was fun to read. I thought the dialogue between characters was a little unnatural, and some of the plot points were far-fetched, but overall this was a decent book.

One thing that surprised me was how dangerous that lifestyle was. There are lots of wild situations described within these pages – so many that I wondered what the good points of the lifestyle happened to be. The characters didn’t seem to focus much on the enjoying their lives. One important theme in this book is the addictive nature of the hobo life, but most of the story focuses on the dangers and drawbacks.

The writer did a good job of introducing this world. I don’t think I’ll ever have the chance to hitch a ride on a freight train, so this book was a good way to see what I am missing out on.

The next book I am reading is Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam.

This is the first book I’ve read by Joshua Ferris, and right away you can tell he is a very skilled writer. His style is sharp with plenty of clever turns of phrases to amuse the reader.

What he has put together here seems on the surface to be a story about a father and a family – but as you read it you get the sense that there are different layers here that may or may not be fiction. The author uses shifting time, a narrator that has motivation to break the reader’s trust, and a unique structure that could have given away the game if I had been paying more attention early on.

I liked reading this book, despite the sometimes over-the-top characters and meta references sprinkled throughout. The way it is written makes you rethink your previous opinions.

It is always a pleasure to read books that clearly took a great deal of effort and planning to write. This felt like a labor of love that happened to be entertaining. I’d like to re-read the book in the future, and see how much more I get out of it.

Next I’m reading The Last Professional by Ed Davis.