Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite writers, but I have to take his writing in small doses. Somehow his writing seems to distill human experience into sharp jolting slugs that tear into you and leave you either hurting or wanting more – sometimes both. I really liked The Road, loved Blood Meridian, and I also was taken by this book which starts so gently that I dreaded what might happen next.

I liked that the writing doesn’t worry too much about grammar and subject, and instead drops you into a boy’s life and forces you to figure it out. He starts out at night with a friend on horseback, leaving his Texas town for good and heading south to Mexico for adventure.

“…they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing.”

It is writing like this that really makes it an epic read. I especially liked the dialogue between the main character and his friend, effortlessly riffing off of each other. You can tell they know and trust each other so well. I love reading the dialogue in Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books, and I think they are in a similar style, which I don’t see often in other books.

A great story, fascinating characters (without being over-the-top), and brutality and beauty in equal measure. This was brilliant writing.

I need a little emotional break after reading this one – so I’m reading a different style of book now called A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris.

I met Nancy Dome through friends back when I lived in San Diego, before moving to Japan. In sort of a weird coincidence she lived in Sonoma and Glen Ellen for a while, and I think now she is living in Montana with her husband. I was pleased to be able to catch up with her via this new book that she has written.

The book’s cover says that we’re going to talk about race, and certainly that seems to be a timely topic in America. She introduces a model of communication, called Recognize-Interrupt-Repair, and then explains how it can work to approach tough conversations. Through examples from her own life and her consulting work she illustrates how the model can help talk about not only racial topics but other delicate topics as well.

This book seems like a positive step towards meaningful dialogue, and hopefully it will help people who read it, and also create a less combative atmosphere out there. There was a lot of terms that I don’t hear very often – “triggered”, “PC”, “people of color”, and “critical race theory”, and these are discussed almost without explanation, so I assume they are common expressions in the USA currently. Nancy’s personal history comes out (often) through the stories and examples, and she is clearly an intelligent and thoughtful person.

If I had any constructive criticism it would be that the organization of each chapter seemed a little scattered. The writing occasionally seemed to spend too much time on her personal experiences and not enough time on how her system could work for the reader. I was also a little thrown off by the conspicuous use of the trademark logo for a few terms that she has trademarked. It lent the book a corporate/profit-driven/business-oriented note that didn’t seem to match with the overall positive/friendly/understanding vibe of the book.

But overall this was a pleasant book to read and I hope that by using her method I will be able to stop and think a little more next time something comes up that bothers me.

Next I’m reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.

This book is a thorough history of the East India Company, and how they started from a small business trying to import spices and tea and then became the de facto ruler of an entire country, eventually handing over a defeated India to the British crown for another 150 years of rule.

Unlike some dry history books that I’ve read, this one is full of exciting battles, behind the scenes intrigue, and colonial domination. One significant point in this book’s favor is that it was written recently, and the author has conscripted various Indian historians and translators to review historical documents from India in those days. There are already plenty of documents in English from the archives of the East India Company, but contrasting these with the viewpoint of the Indian people (and rulers) of that time gives the book a balanced aspect that I suspect is missing in previous books through the years.

In the beginning of the book and near the end the author cautions us that the book is about the power of an unchecked corporation, and says this book should be taken as a cautionary tale. However between those two warnings is hundreds of pages of vivid descriptions of battles, artillery movements, cavalry charges, and plenty of foot soldiers dying for their commanders. Despite what the author says, this book read more like an adventure to me.

I really enjoyed this book because it really brought you to that era and you could judge the behavior of these people through modern values. It is hard to imagine today some company enslaving a nation and sucking all the wealth out using its own army and navy. In this book it apparently seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. All while sipping a gin and tonic from the comfort of your tent as you order your local staff to make your dinner.

One other point I really enjoyed was the occasional appearance of foreign individuals traveling in India, They gained employment here and there by offering their skills and experience, and seemed to be greatly prized by Indian rulers for their advice and wisdom. These people were unattached to any army, and were simply traveling to see the world. In this book they played some key roles in events, and they were referred to as “adventurers”. I liked the idea that you could strike out into the world and do what you felt like doing, all the while being considered as on an adventure. I don’t hear about many professional adventurers these days, but it seemed like quite a lifestyle back then.

This book was a long one, but it held my interest throughout and I hope that more books on history will be written in this style in the future.

Next I am reading Let’s Talk About Race by Nancy A. Dome, who is a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time.

The title of this book indicates the estimated time that a person would have to live their life – your lifespan (on average) can be expected to last only about four thousand weeks. So how do we finish everything we want to get done during this relatively short timeframe?

The author’s answer is that we don’t. It’s impossible. No matter how many life hacks and email tricks and todo lists you make, it ain’t gonna happen, so learn to let go of the stuff clogging up your daily productivity (which is probably bullshit anyway) and instead focus mindfully on the things that are important to you.

This is my own brief summary and the book goes into far more detail with plenty of information from various scholars and thinkers to explain the author’s ideas. There is a lot here about avoiding the distractions of media (both social and traditional), consumerism, and boredom.

I enjoy reading books that change the way your mental models are set up, and maybe make you rethink some things. This book is tailored towards people that are caught up in the rat race and are perhaps overwhelmed with things they are trying to finish off so that they can finally relax and achieve success. Maybe this book can help those people to rethink things and have a more peaceful and fulfilling life – it is a noble thing to write a book to help people do that.

Most of this book had information and ideas that I’ve already come across, but there were some interesting points on focus and attention, and where exactly they should be. I also was interested in what they had to say about the false productivity gains of multitasking. But the final message came across clearly and it is one I agree with – in the grand view of history few people will know or care about how you lived your life, so you have the right to live it the way that you want to live it. This book aims to give people the chance to do that.

Next I’m reading a history book called The Anarchy: The East India Tea Company, by William Dalrymple.

This was a powerful book, extremely well-written, that was depressing and pessimistic about human nature. It was such a contrast to the positivity and joy of life coming from the last book I read, Still Life. Maybe this book suffered a bit from the comparison, but still it was a great read.

The book tells the story of a white family – settlers in South Africa – that disintegrates over time. There are so many bad people in this book that you can’t help but feel a little sad for the human race. Not much redemption in here, and the narrator’s voice is biting, acidic and mocking. There are a few writing tricks that felt superfluous (character switches in mid-sentence for example), but overall the writing pulls you briskly along through this family’s dark history.

You could read this book on the micro level, and explore the characters and see what motivates them and root for their downfall, or you could read this on a macro level and see them as merely symbols and instruments of the tale of the history of race and apartheid in the country over the past 30 years. There is a lot to learn here, especially for people like me who have almost no knowledge of this history.

I liked this book, but found it a jarring experience. I wish I had read this and the previous book in reverse order, but in the end both books and their styles have a place.

After a long run of fiction I’m switching over the Four Thousand Weeks, and non-fiction book on time management by Oliver Burkeman.

What a pleasure to read this book. It must have been quite a project to write something with this much scope, beauty, art, wit, humor and most of all, love. Picking up this book based off a website recommendation last year I had no idea going in what I was getting into.

This is a sweeping story, involving a chosen family of people that gather in both England and Italy. The center stage is for the most part the city of Florence, and the timeframe starts in the early 1900’s and ends near the 1980’s. I particularly liked the writing style, full of beautiful scenes and special moments. One can hope for a few of these special moments in a lifetime – in this book they come along every few pages. The writer really packs in the emotion, and especially focuses on the appreciation of art and beauty, and the formation of love (in all its various ways).

There was something special about the way each character is so heartfelt – with a very few exceptions (Peg and Claude) I was totally invested in them, and ended up cheering for their triumphs. There are a lot of triumphs in this book – more than I think are realistic but eventually I learned to just go with it and enjoy the experience. Of course tragedy sometimes comes up, but this book is much more about the joy of life rather than dealing with the downsides.

So, a great book, and one of the best I’ve read in the last year or so. It scratched my travel itch a little bit – but usually that itch will come back even harder later on.

After a great book I always feel bad for the next one – but I’ve heard good things about Damon Galgut’s The Promise, which is next on my list.

I tend to like books that show the arc of someone’s lifetime, and see how connections that are made early on pan out and affect them later on in life. Recently I read (the quite long) Great Circle, which followed the life of a woman from her parents first meeting all the way to her death, in great detail.

However, the book Zorrie is similar in scope but a much shorter book. All the important stuff is in there – and you get the much the same effect with 500 pages less.

Zorrie is a hard working woman from an earlier generation. She is a strong, independent woman who does well on her own through hard work and attention to detail. She doesn’t see herself as oppressed or a victim, and isn’t portrayed like one in this book. For me there was something refreshing about this.

This book is not only about Zorrie but also a particular generation in American history. The characters in this book live in Indiana, and most of the book takes place there. They work the land hard, respect each other, suffer setbacks as well as earn some sort of success – even if it is only a full larder at the end of a tough growing season.

The character writing and story here is great – the way it is written pulls you along and before you know it another turning point in Zorrie’s life has passed. This was the first time reading this author, and I’ll keep an eye out for more from him in the future.

Next I’m reading Still Life by Sarah Winman.

I always like the fast-paced thrillers about Jack Reacher written by Lee Child. Apparently recently he is transitioning the character and stories to his son Andrew. I think I haven’t read any others involving Andrew Child, but for me this book seemed quite different and a bit tough to get through for me.

It starts with a plot gimmick that seemed a bit far-fetched, but starts to settle down a bit into a usual Jack Reacher storyline. The final third of the book seemed to just ratchet up the plot into preposterous levels – I remember actually saying the word “preposterous” out loud several times while reading.

The situation reminded me of the Marvel movies – you can only put the fate of the world (or galaxy) on the line so many times before you have dream up higher stakes. This book doesn’t really have the fate of the galaxy on the line but it can’t be too many books off at this rate.

The reason I like Reacher books is the small scale. The not-so-regular guy passing by who is caught up in something and then sees it through. Hopefully in the future the authors will get back to what makes the character interesting for me.

The next book I’m reading is Zorrie by Laird Hunt.

I’ve read a few books by this author, and I like his subtle storytelling style. This book is no different – showing us a world just like our own, with a few small exceptions.

One of those exceptions is Klara, an innocent and diligent AI robot. There are few things in this book that are explained directly – the author shows us episodes and we gradually start to understand. I think this is an unusual (and welcome) choice for fiction about the future. What we know about humans, about grief and about loss are all there to reflect our views of Klara – and I spent most of the book dreading what these superficial and selfish humans might do to her.

This was not a long book, but I enjoyed almost all of it. There was one scene that stood out as jarring, and without going into here I thought that it took place in the city outside a theater with many of the main characters and (purposely) left a lot of confusion for the reader. I got what the author was trying to do here (maybe) but I think it was a bit overlong.

Other than that I really liked the book and it did a good job of showing a future that was both chilling and warm.

The next book I am reading is Better Off Dead by Lee and Andrew Child.

Here we go – a book all about food and a man that picks up and moves his family (including his French-speaking wine expert wife) to Lyon, France to discover what exactly goes on in the city some call the gastronomic capital of France.

Having recently read about Anthony Doerr’s year in Rome and moving his family there, it was an interesting experience to contrast the writing styles. Buford is good at self-deprecation and humor, but he is also primarily focused on food and cooking it. Doerr was more about taking in the experiences and relating them to the reader.

I’m not a big fan of name dropping famous people, or descriptions of the macho bullshit and high stress freak outs that go on in gourmet kitchens, and unfortunately there is a lot of both of these in the book. Where this book shines is looking at how French people absorbed food into their culture, and how they make the enjoyment of food (both in the eating and the production) such a critical part of their national culture.

There is also a lot of history lessons here, that might be better appreciated by food history buffs. I enjoyed reading the history but he really digs into detail here – maybe it would have been better in a different book?

So good and bad points aside I enjoyed the book and the stories within. From this maybe I’ll be a little more careful about how I cook and choose ingredients – and maybe use a little more butter in my pan sauces.

Next I’m reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

This was a long book, telling an epic story of the life of one woman. Through many other characters we experience the struggles she has and the book ends in an exciting flight around the earth, flying over both the north and south poles.

In any epic novel you are going to spend a lot of time with the characters, and unfortunately early on I found that I didn’t like the main character, Marian. Many of her struggles and challenges seemed meant as a way to show the disadvantages for women in her era, and some situations and characters seemed forced. For me Marian (and her modern day version(?) Hadley) seemed mopey – listlessly moving towards her destiny as a pilot.

The backstory was deep here, and I enjoyed the sense of scale in the beginning and ending of the novel. The middle of the book was pretty slow for me, and I think the author could have written a tighter story. Oddly enough sex plays a major role with most of the characters, and sometimes it seems like it is brought up unnecessarily as a sort of brute motivation impulse. I thought a little deeper dive into why people are behaving and moving towards their goals might have been in order.

Having said that, I did enjoy the storytelling and loved the parts of the story involving the flying of planes. Contained in this book are some short descriptions of real female aviators from those days, and I think in the future I’ll pick up some biographies of them to learn more.

Overall this was a good book that could have been great with some judicious editing.

Next I’m reading Dirt by Bill Buford.

This is the third book I’ve read by the author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, and once again the characters of this book really bring the story to life.

In the beginning of the story the reader is led to make some expectations based on the epigraph, the big map of the United States on the first few pages, and the first few chapters. However soon things spin in an unexpected direction, and the adventure truly begins.

Amor Towles tells a great story – through his characters who themselves tell a great story. The skill of the writer here comes from the discovery of the common elements of these stories in unexpected ways. There are plenty of characters explaining through their various viewpoints what is happening so that you have the chance to make these discoveries at your own pace.

At first I wasn’t sure I was satisfied with the resolution of the book, but then the more I thought about it the more I saw that the writer was staying true to the guidelines set out by his characters, and there shouldn’t have been any expectation for a traditional ending. But what a great ending it was!

If all this is hard to follow, the book certainly isn’t, and the characters were extremely likable. Two of my favorite characters really carried the heart and soul of the book, and despite a somewhat dark stage near the end of the novel it was a pretty lighthearted read.

If there was something I would have wanted more of, it would have been a more tightly contained story. There were enough characters that some felt like extra baggage, and while interesting they didn’t add enough to be worthy of the investment in learning about them. However, I do sense a spin off in the future for some of these people.

So all in all a great book, and worth the slightly long read. It made me want to go back and give the older books of his another read.

Next I’m reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.

If I was awarded a fellowship to live and write (whatever I would like) in the city of Rome for one year, I think I’d look at the city in a somewhat positive light. Writing about the city would be a sort of thank you for the opportunity, and the resulting work might feel like a travel brochure sitting lonely in a rack in front of the tourist agency.

However, the author of this book certainly made a go of it and describes his and his family’s year in Rome with such care and attention to details that make you wonder if you live in the same world as he does. He has a unique writing style (which he is happy to describe in the pages of this book) that describes just the right details from a given moment enough to allow the reader to visualize and feel it, without going too far and making it clinical.

I enjoyed his writing style in Cloud Cuckoo Land, so I was happy to find that it is here in non-fictional writing as well. Having breezed through Rome myself during our honeymoon trip, it was nice to see the details that we missed. The author was uniquely situated to be there for the previous Pope’s death and the subsequent conclave of Cardinals and choice of a successor. He and his wife had a chance to explore the surrounding areas and see a little deeper.

Surprisingly the author and his wife had had twins just three months before arriving in Rome, and so there is plenty of nervous parenting going on in this book, but also the twins serve a way for us to see a very old city in a fresh way.

On top of all this, I always like books where people drop everything and start somewhere new, so this book really hit all the right notes for me.

I haven’t chosen the next book to read yet – I’ll probably pick something over this weekend. Lots of books on the list!

A while back I read another book by John Fowles, The Magus, and really enjoyed his writing style and the near-supernatural feeling of the situations. The dialogue of the characters was educated and captivating, and it made me want to read more of his work.

Apparently The Collector was released as his first book, and is seen as a prelude to the psychological thriller genre. Sort of like a 1960’s Silence of the Lambs.

There are two voices in this book, one of the collector and the other of the collected. We see things from two different perspectives, neither of which is clearly good or evil. Although the subject matter is chilling it is not grotesque, and there are themes of classism in Britain and the effect of money on people’s perceived place in society.

I liked the book, and although it wasn’t as mind-bending as The Magus I read through it quickly and was satisfied with how it ended. A good book, and worth a read if only for the intelligence of the writing and the humanizing of what are now often portrayed as prototype good/bad characters.

Next I’m reading Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr. Hopefully it will satisfy my travel cravings a little bit.