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.

As part of a recent push to read some new and fresh science fiction, this book was recommended on a website listing good new sci-fi. It is a debut novel by the author, and it turned out to be a really well-written book that had me reading through it (almost) non-stop.

Told from the point of view of a spaceship AI (which turns out to be weird in a different way than you might expect) the book describes a very lively and interesting universe. The story manages to work on several different scales – the operations and politics of local occupying governments, the ships and troops handling annexations, and even the lonely mission of a single person.

There are several unique points about this book – some work well and others seemed a little too confusing for me to consider them effective. For one example, in the major society that is depicted here there is no overt gendering (with language or otherwise) so everyone is called a “she”, which is (intentionally) confusing at first. As other societies are introduced you kind of figure this out, but I’m still not sure what the point was other than to throw the reader off initially.

But another unique point that worked really well was the idea of the “ancillaries” in the title – the AI of the ships is not only limited to the ship itself but also is spread through once human entities that are implanted with technology allowing the ship’s AI to control their bodies and sense the world through them. This makes for a real challenge for the writer – to describe simultaneous events seen from many different perspectives of what is actually the same consciousness. If you can divide your consciousness, is it possible for them to be separated? What happens then? Can you disagree with other parts of yourself? This is introduced slowly at first and the reader gradually is able to get used to it – it really is a unique and interesting way to tell a story. Later the book explores this idea in much more detail, so the mild learning curve was much appreciated.

So I really liked this one, and there are two more in the series. After a while I’m definitely coming back to continue the story and see how it goes. This was a very impressive book for a first time author!

Next is Jubilee, by Toni Tipton-Martin.

When I saw the movie “Inception” I was especially drawn to a scene where the main character and his wife had created a world within their dreams. The world was represented as a huge empty city slowly disintegrating as the ocean pounded at the edges. They lived there for years while in a dream. Maybe some people saw loneliness in that huge empty city, but I liked the emptiness, and felt the call to explore.

This book by Susanna Clarke reminded me a lot of that part of the movie. The book starts off with a profound feeling of disorientation and confusion for the reader – and we have to trust the author to tell the story their way. In this case it is worth it to keep reading.

There are at first many questions, and then there is the character of Piranesi, who is wonderfully earnest and innocent and self-sufficient. We watch his life and his environment and gradually we learn more. The writing of the setting is beautiful, and the relatively short novel moves at a quicker pace. When a mystery develops I was completely absorbed, and in the end I didn’t want to leave the world that the writer had created.

There are countless ways to write a book and tell a story. How you may start, finish, create, destroy – there is no need to stick to a formula. The writer of this book clearly did something completely new and I was fascinated. There are no rules with books, and this particular book was a powerful reminder of that.

The next book to read is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.

I haven’t read Ken Liu’s books before reading this collection, so I was going in blind. There are some parallels with another author I have read: Ted Chiang.

Both writers are Asian American, both explore themes related to fantasy (although Liu’s book is more technology and race focused) using short stories as a medium.

The stories in this book were sort of hit or miss for me. I couldn’t help but feel like the writer started with an interesting idea, shoe-horned in some shallow characters to illustrate the idea, and then checked the idea off the list and went on to the next one. Some stories were really well-written, including “State Change” about a quiet woman living in a world where people’s souls are contained in ordinary objects, “The Paper Menagerie” about bridging the cultural differences between generations, “All the Flavors” telling the legend of the Chinese god of war through a telling of Chinese immigrants to the early American West, and “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” which tells a fable-like story of a clever man who pays a heavy price to preserve history.

Those were the good ones, but the rest of the stories felt too contrived to me. I’m sure the writer’s full length novels have the opportunity to flesh out the characters – writing short stories gives less chance to really develop things – so I may check out his novels in the future.

Next is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

I recently found a list of recommended science fiction and fantasy novels put together by writers and fans, and so this was the first book I read off the list.

It starts off with a mysterious situation, and little by little reveals information, in such a way that you end up turning the pages to get to the bottom of the mysteries that are presented. This book has foundations in biology and science fiction, but it also has influences from Jules Verne, and the chock-full-of-mysteries TV show Lost.

The developments of the plot are largely happening within one character’s head – both in real time and in their memories. I would have liked to have more of the interactions with the group that starts the book, and the organization that sent them, but the focus here tends to be on the main character, who describes herself as anti-social so at least that is consistent. There are plenty of scenes that are creepy, scary and full of tension, and I thought this story would make a pretty good video game.

The ending for me wasn’t quite as satisfactory as I had hoped, but I think the book is the first of a series of three. Maybe this book is a sort of prologue to the next one. I’ll wait a while and if I’m still thinking about the events of the first book maybe I’ll come back to this series.

My next read is The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. Reading short stories for a while might be a good change of pace!

Talk about a timely book – it seems like the world is full of misinformation recently and maybe that is why I was attracted to this title.

The author, an experimental social psychologist and professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, got into the field of bullshit analysis after being inspired by a short essay on the prevalence on bullshit in society and the damage it does. Here he has collected research and information on how to not only detect bullshit, but how to defend against it and even (if you have the courage) to call it out.

Beyond the review of the Scientific Method and the calls to trust in science you can find some great examples of all sorts of bullshit that you find in life today, and some great stories from the past to illustrate the danger of thinking without critical analysis. I especially enjoyed the modern examples, and the author can’t help but point out a few politicians (I’ll bet you can guess which ones) and celebrities as especially guilty of slinging bullshit.

The book is structured in a logical way, with plenty of footnotes and research to back up his arguments (as you would expect in a book on this topic). I read through it pretty quickly, and with the exception of the last section – a sort of call-to-arms to eradicate bullshit across the world (which sounded a little naive to me) – it was a decent book on thinking a little more about what you are hearing and how to best analyze it.

I think it will be difficult to keep his advice in mind over time, and that is directly related to his point that thinking critically is hard work, and one of the reasons that we see so much un-checked bullshit around. This will take some effort, but I’ll do my best to keep his points in mind in the future.

Next is Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.