This book is all about what ownership really means, and how it is defined/claimed. After a brief introduction, the authors then point out some of the loopholes and gray areas of ownership, and then explore these in depth.

The thing I liked about this book is that it made you think in a different way, and presented things from multiple points of view. These viewpoints really clarified their point, that ownership really depends on the case made for it, and rarely things are in black and white.

Often these competing claims of ownership end up before a judge, and this book really made clear how difficult a judge’s job would be.

My only minor complaint about this book is that it is focused on the United States and the legal system there, with only a few comparisons to other countries and their laws of ownership. Certainly including international laws would make this a completely different book, but it was sometimes hard to care about laws that no longer affect me since I live somewhere else.

Still, it was a good book – anything that changes the way I think is a pleasure to read. Next I’m reading two books simultaneously: Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, and I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig.

I really enjoyed this epic science fiction story, filled with plenty of science and bravely imaginative ideas.

This was an epic, ambitious novel – and the reason it worked so well for me was that I really liked how the author used time in a completely different way. Because the scale of time is stretched out we can watch evolution happen fairly regularly, and thanks to cryogenic sleep for the human race, they can be defrosted at certain times to pop back into the story. The clutch of humans alone in deep space really evoked a sense of loneliness – I liked the isolation vibe.

The story tells of two civilizations struggling to survive, separately but in a strange sort of parallel. Usually in science fiction I am pulling for the humans, but in this case I was never so happy to root for another species.

Excellent book – one of my favorite sci-fi books ever! There is a sequel, too, so down the road I’ll have to revisit the story and see if it continues as well as it started.

The next book I am reading is Mine! by Michael Heller and James Salzman.

This is my first time reading anything by Neil Gaiman, and it was quite different from my expectations.

Most of this book describes the memories of a man when he was seven years old – and the somewhat surreal and dreamlike experience he has involving some very unusual neighbors. The book is set in rural England and invokes a strong sense of nostalgia. His writing style is a dreamlike as well, and it reminded me of a gentler Stephen King in the same way that he brings back memories both good and bad. In this book the author focuses equally on both.

I was particularly impressed how the writer created the sense of safety and comfort of the farmhouse that the main character visits throughout the book – the descriptions of the food, the safety, and the cozy hideaway really called out to me.

But on the other hand he had me shuddering when describing a few scenes involving worms, kittens and hanging rags that I won’t be able to forget for a while. Great writing!

For me this was the right balance of reality and fantasy, and I’m not sure if all his books get this balance right – but I’ll look into reading more to see for myself.

The next book that I’m reading is Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I read that this was a good book in another book, and luckily the library had a copy. I can report that yes, it is a good book. To me it felt like a whodunnit for younger people – with some people to root for and identify with.

The story is complex and well laid out. Going into a mystery I am always looking for clues – which are the red herrings? Which ones count? The author gives out so many clues that I was always rethinking my theories, and in the end I was completely off the mark.

But once you reach the end of the book and understand what happens, then you can go back and see how cleverly the author hid their tracks (I can’t say more here without giving anything away). The characters in this story live is an apartment building with walls of one-way glass, but there are still plenty of things that are obscured.

In terms of what I didn’t care much for, some of the characters were a little over-eccentric for me, and some of the humor a little too juvenile for my taste (and my taste is pretty juvenile) but this was a relatively quick read and good mental exercise for me.

Next is Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Another quick, fun read of science fiction with plenty of snark, meta-references, and intelligent humor to keep the story going.

I liked the first book as it was kind of an origin story to the world (universe?) that the author built, and this second book continues the trilogy into a wider area. The story is a bit on the brief side, with a surprising amount of the scheming and sneaking of those who want power.

Scalzi does a great job with the characters that he has dreamed up – they are pleasantly kind, clever, villainous, brave, and each works towards their comeuppance or their payoff moment. The stories build towards those moments, and when they come they are very satisfying. If I have any complaint here is that it is hard to get a sense of the scale of this universe – we spend time only with the main players and we don’t know about all the things elsewhere in the world. What is it like to be a regular person living in these places? In this series we see only the elite.

I like reading this series – one of these days when the library has it available I’ll check out the last one.

Next I’m reading The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin.

Here was a book that rubbed me the wrong way. It has been a while since I was disappointed in a sci-fi/fantasy book. The ideas behind the story were great, but I just found myself poking holes in what has happening through my whole read.

I guess it started with the protagonist, who I think was supposed to seem street-smart, clever and resourceful. To me she came off as childish, petulant and self-centered and more like an early teenager than a mature adult. Once you decide you don’t like the main character, it becomes harder to accept other propositions by the author.

It seemed to me that the overarching idea of being able to access the multiverse, and visit many different planets, was reduced to a something like a paper delivery person. Most trips to other multiverses are not even described in the book. There is a lot of potential missed here – hundreds of alternate realties – but in the end the story focuses on just two or three, and the same two towns, over and over.

While the story was complex and full of surprises, it seemed like the writer deliberately held back information to make a bigger impact later, and after a few times it felt like a parlor trick. The writing style was not very descriptive – focusing on the feelings of the characters and telling rather than showing.

So this was a disappointment for me. By the luck of the library draw I am back to reading the second book in the Collapsing Empire series – The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi.

This book is all about changing the way we think in a world that has more and more information available that is constantly updating and changing.

The key point I took away from this book is that to manage all this information we need to treat our views as hypotheses, and that there are plenty of risks with holding an opinion too strongly. In some societies holding a firm conviction is an almost necessary trait in a leader, but this book shows the value in a good rethink based on new information.

There are plenty of good examples in this book, and it was written last year so it includes information about the pandemic and recent elections. The book is organized into several main sections: individual rethinking, interpersonal rethinking, and collective rethinking. Moving from inwards to outwards, there are a lot of ideas for improving how your mind works, and tools for dealing with a dynamic environment of information, tribalism and division.

I recognized a lot of the advice as things that most Japanese people already do in the collectivist society that they live in, and to a certain extent some of those habits have already been absorbed into my interpersonal relationships. The key for me will be to stick to these when dealing with other people and new situations.

The writer has an easy-to-read style and I hope that style will help it to be read more widely. The world could use more people thinking (and rethinking) flexibly.

Next I am going to read The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.

If I had to choose a favorite writer I guess I would probably end up picking Paul Theroux. I like his cerebral style of travel and envy his apparent wealth of free time to undertake ambitious projects in search of the unknown (and perhaps his next book).

I’ve read most of his travel books, and this one has a different kind of story in it – not about a journey but a sort of tangled exploration of a single (wide) region. Rather than traveling from point A to B he instead visits places, comes back later, and asks a lot of questions to get an idea of what life is about there.

This book takes a hard look at the Deep South of the United States, and it comes with plenty of discussion with locals regarding a slew of topics, both serious and light-hearted. Theroux asks questions to get an idea of what people who live there are up against, how they came to be that way, and where they hope to go from there. Like he says in the book, he is there to listen.

We get a good glimpse at racism, poverty, hospitality and plenty of the pleasures of driving without a schedule on the open road. These parts of the book were the most inspiring to me. America is built for cars, and it remains the best way to get to those out-of-the-way places that are so interesting to this author. Theroux really hits some obscure places – either led there by memory or by what he hears on the road. The South’s long and sometimes dark history has left many sites of both racial strife and inspiration.

As always I enjoyed his writing style and in this book he makes a lot of friends and doesn’t get into too much trouble. That area of the United States is completely unknown to me so it read like any other of his travel books.

I guess I prefer to read books where he has a destination in mind – the journey and how he goes from place to place is always the attractive point for me in his writings. This (and his next book, On The Plain Of Snakes) gets away from his usual style, which I did miss. Another thing I was hoping for was more of Theroux’s own thoughts on what he was hearing from so many people that he interviewed. It was interesting to hear their stories but I wanted more of the author’s sharp analysis.

Still, I really enjoyed the book. After reading it, I felt the desire to go see it for myself. At least when traveling there I don’t have to worry about passport stamps.

Next is Think Again by Adam Grant.

I’ve always liked books by John Scalzi, mainly because of the likability of the characters, and the strange alien worlds that he brings you to.

While this book had plenty of great characters to like, there was quite a bit less world building and detail than I had hoped for.

The story is excellent, and while some twists are predictable overall it has a good pace that makes the book a quick read. I would have liked to hear more about the worlds that he focuses on here. The Emperor of the Empire would be more of an imposing (and interesting) figure if we had a better sense of the scale of the empire, and this book doesn’t really give you much of that.

But I did like the characters, and the stand out character here is Kiva, who is kind of like a foul-mouthed sexed-up female Han Solo. Sometimes Scalzi’s characters are a little too clever, but Kiva falls just on the right side of the borderline, and was fun to read.

The story continues in another book, so I think I’ll read it later on when it becomes available at the library.

Next I’m reading Paul Theroux’s Deep South.

We had a great time on Bali, eating mainly from the resort where we stayed. The food was good, a little overpriced, but still full of spices and satisfying. I don’t remember many of the meals at the resort, but I do remember how delicious the food was when we left the tourist areas. We did manage to get a car to drive us around and we had some great food, at about 10% of the price we were paying back at the resort.

We cook Indonesian food now and then, but because it is so rice heavy and there are not a lot of vegetables, it isn’t always at the top of our cooking list. I thought I’d use this book to get a little more information about the foods we tried and foods we didn’t know about during our visit.

This cookbook is pretty barebones. There is a little background information in the beginning about the food culture of Indonesia, and the recipes are a sampling of the different kinds of foods you might find on various islands from different parts of the country.

I was hoping for a little more detail, but I think this book is part of some kind of culinary survey series and there isn’t much other than the recipes and concise and sometimes abbreviated directions.

Still, it was enough to make me hungry, and I guess that is what all cookbooks should strive to do. This weekend or next I’ll try out some of their recipes and see how it goes. We’ve still got some ingredients left over from cooking Malaysian food, and there are some similarities.

Overall I thought this book is worth picking up as an introduction to the cuisine, but I’m guessing there are better options out there.

Next I’m going back to Sci-Fi with John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire.

I’ve read plenty of books featuring elves, goblins, magic and intrigue, heroic battles and courage in the face of danger. While this book contains all of the above, it is unique in focusing on the deep rooted kindness of the main character and how that kindness is rewarded.

I thought at first that this would be the usual style, but quickly the story showed its individuality by spending more time on the feelings of the people involved, the etiquette of each situation, and even the fashion, jewelry and proper behavior of the emperor. Other books show heroism with dripping blades and mouthfuls of dirt from muddy battlefields – this shows instead the power of kindness and thinking of others.

I would call this a feel-good story, and even though it is a longer book I really enjoyed spending time with Maia, the main character who suddenly finds himself the leader of the kingdom, underprepared and in the crosshairs of his enemies.

The characters here are deep and full of mysteries themselves. The story moved along quickly and I was impressed that it was written in a non-male-centric way. I’m not saying it was a feminine point of view, rather that it was illustrating what treating people (of all genders, races and income levels) equally should look like. In many books I have read the kindness shown by characters is often treated as a fatal flaw until the end, but this book shows the main character’s thoughtfulness as a virtue, which helps to build his new relationships – from what he calls “bulwarks” at the beginning to “friends” at the end.

I did have some trouble following the intricate genealogy of the characters and members of the royal court, as there was so much mixing of families, former emperors with multiple wives, and names that sounded similar. Sometimes I got lost and had to turn back to recheck things, and although this made for a more immersive world, I don’t think it made it any easier to read. I do have a lot of respect for the author to dream up this very complex and fleshed out world, however.

I liked the refreshing approach of this book. I wonder that maybe I read too many “mean” books – or maybe mean books sell better. Hopefully this book will change that.

Next I’m reading through a cookbook, Food of Indonesia by Lother Arsana and Heinz Von Holzen.

I picked up this book after seeing it referenced on somebody’s “must read” list, and then again seeing it used as a teaching aid for a negotiation course that I am teaching. I read the fifth edition, but I do hope it will be updated in the future.

In short, this book explains why so many people use certain techniques to get you to comply with their requests. Cialdini calls these people “compliance professionals” and leaves it up to you whether to consider it a duragatory label or not. This book shows clear evidence and background for the assertions within (the author is a professor of psychology with a focus on social psychology) and he outlines many interesting studies that reinforce his points.

He explains why humans behave the way they do when responding to requests for compliance, and gives thorough descriptions of the main “weapons” of social influence (and also defenses that we can employ).

Throughout this book I found myself remembering instances in my own life when I faced these situations, and it was surprising how commonly these “weapons” are used. I guess that was what struck me the most: I had expected the science of influence to be a bit more sophisticated than it is.

Granted, the world has changed, and I think an updated version exploring the age of misinformation, cult leadership, and social media influence (and influencers) would be informative. As the author writes in his book, the world is filling up with more information at an accelerating rate, and we need the right skills to process the input we’re getting (or even to decide whether to process it in the first place).

This was an educational book for me. Thoughtfully included were some summaries at the end of each chapter which will be helpful later on to quickly refresh what I picked up.

On a side note, living in Japan I have noticed that several of these “weapons” of influence are much rarer than in the United States. It is interesting that different cultures have different susceptibilities when it comes to how they are influenced.

Next I’m headed back into the fantasy realm, with The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

This book was a clever retelling of one of the minor Greek gods, filled with all the drama and angst and celestial infighting but this time told from the point of view of a woman.

The shift in the point of view makes for a great story, and it is written in a modern style with makes it feel fresh. The storytelling is great, and the unexplainable motivations of the gods and their own despicable behavior is all here with a first person account from Circe herself. I really enjoyed this tale, and even knowing how things would turn out (the fate of Odysseus and Medea for example) you are really pulled into the events.

I like this idea of telling familiar stories in a completely different way. The author did a great job here in helping to understand the motivations behind each character, be they god or mortal (or a little of both). It must have taken quite a bit of research to write this book, but I’m hoping that she’ll write more in this style in the future!

The next book I’m reading is Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini.

When we visited Granada, Spain we spent some time walking through the beautiful Alhambra fortress and the Old Town nearby. Because of this familiarity with the location I selected this book, set (at first) in the same fortress and telling the tale of a palace concubine of the last sultan, on the run from the very creepy Spanish inquisition.

The book has plenty of exotic locales, and with magic weaved into the story there are certainly some surprises and interesting situations. The writing style for me was a bit too flowery but the descriptions of the countryside and ocean were really well done. Especially interesting characters were the various jinn who live somewhere between the real world and hell – and their unique way of speaking and understanding their nature while others are oblivious.

Despite these good points, overall I didn’t really enjoy the book as much as I had expected to. A couple of reasons: characters I couldn’t relate to, a somewhat derivative plot, and unclear motivations of the main characters.

The two main characters of this book, Fatima and Hassan, were fully grown adults that behaved like children. The way they acted selfishly and complained like little kids about just every inconvenience made me want to fast forward through their dialogs. They have lived a pampered lifestyle inside the sultan’s palace, but they didn’t show any personality traits that I could identify with. We’re stuck with these characters through the whole book, and I couldn’t help wishing that they would grow up a little faster.

The storyline reminded me a lot of the Lord of the Rings – and maybe a little of Narnia. With the exception of the unusual destination at the end of the book I felt like we spent a lot of time on the journey with only a few close calls evading pursuit to make things interesting.

Maybe part of this long journey was the message of the book, but I didn’t really get any clear idea about what the point was – and after reading through a pretty long story you’ve got to hope for some kind of satisfactory conclusion. It just didn’t quite work for me.

Next I’m reading Circe, by Madeline Miller.

Getting away from science fiction for a bit, this is a cookbook containing recipes from African American cooks spanning the last two centuries. The author has put together a good mix of dishes that go beyond what people typically consider as “soul food”.

I’ll start off by saying that after reading this book from the library I then went onto Amazon and bought a copy to keep for myself. The recipes in this book are ones that I often want to try to make here in Japan – you rarely see any of these dishes at restaurants here and if you do they are completely changed to fit the tastes of Japanese customers.

Having said that, the book is more than just a list of recipes. The writer has done a lot of research to find recipes through history that were cooked by black people, whether they were enslaved, free, or from other countries. There is a lot of talk about “reclaiming” a recipe and plenty of information about people and the history around their interpretation of a dish. For me, I’m just looking for delicious food – so I don’t really worry about what color the cook was, what race can say the are the originators of a dish, what label should be applied to what variety of dish, etc. etc. So this was extraneous information for me and I just focused on the recipes.

I’ve noticed that I tend to prefer reading books on food that focus on the food (the ingredients) itself. For some reason the culture and the individual people who cook the food have little interest for me – so in this book most of that information wasn’t important. Dropping names and celebrating people’s accomplishments are better suited for the biography section – just give me that delicious food!

Luckily this book delivers on that and I’m looking forward to trying out some of the recipes soon!

Next is The Bird King, by G. Willow Wilson.