What if just about everything you think you know about plants is wrong? This book looks into the idea that if we take a hard look at what we think it means to be a conscious being, research these days shows that plants may fit that definition. The book shows how they can (probably) smell, hear, taste, feel, communicate and see(!).

This book falls into an interesting category of both botany and philosophy, and the writer is a journalist rather than a scientist. This means that they can take chances that scientists cannot – and the book outlines what happened years ago when the idea of “plant intelligence” was first reported.

The book is filled with intriguing examples, from recent studies and knowledge that was obtained over the past 10-20 years. The writer does a good job of introducing the evidence (without getting bogged down in academic jargon) and simplifying things without ignoring balancing information from other places.

This felt like a passion project, and that helps greatly in introducing so much that might be buried in academic journals somewhere. That being said the writer definitely has an agenda, and so while I appreciate being informed of these new developments I can’t help but wonder how much further research might be needed before we can make conclusions.

It is a long read, but I thought it was worth it, if only to stretch out my brain a little. The book also served as a reminder that research is continuing all over the world – we need to take steps to keep up with what is new.

Next I am catching up with articles and shorter reads as we start our July vacation to Toronto, New York and Glen Ellen.

This book is a combination of an essay collection and memoirs, with the focus on how an obsession with video games guided the author’s life. Since the author became a professional comedian, the writing is hilarious. I was laughing out loud fairly often, and a lot of the stories hit close to home for me.

My video game memories started one or two generations earlier than the author’s. He got hooked on the NES, while I was obsessed with the Atari 2600. I also played games on the Apple ][ computer, and then the NES. Then there was a long gap before I got back into gaming. A lot of this book takes place in that gap.

Some of the author’s favorite memories paralleled some of mine – his recollections of his favorite arcade reminded me of a mystical experience I had in a Pismo Beach hidden and mostly empty arcade. Or visiting an arcade owned by a friend of Josh Simon, my neighbor, and how the owner gave us quarters painted red so he would know that they were his money and not the general public’s.

The author does a short stint at a game magazine, which reminded me of when I interviewed at PC Gamer for a writing job about 30 years ago.

So there were a lot of events that felt pretty real to me while reading them. The comedy was well-written too, but sometimes the self-deprecating style got a little stale. Some of the essays felt a little like filler to me – but one essay on a friend who died prematurely was especially good.

I really enjoyed the book! The next book I am reading is The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger.

I picked up this book from the library on a whim, mainly because I enjoy books on travel and journeys, and this seemed to be an epic one.

The book is about the journey through the Grand Canyon – not just down one side and up the other, but from end to end. This is a seriously difficult trip – requiring a lot of logistics, physical training, and support from other people. The author was mainly traveling with another person in order to write an article for National Geographic. However things quickly went off the rails and more help was needed. The journey lasted almost a year, with breaks in between as required by injury, family and weather.

On paper I don’t like it when a trip is interrupted and then restarted later. It breaks the immersion in the adventure, and seems a little bit like cheating. In reality I understand that it is a necessary thing sometimes, and it wouldn’t be good for the story to have the traveler hurt/burned out/arrested.

The writer is really good at setting the scenes of nature, and describes not just passing beauty but those memorable moments when everything comes together to feel transcendental. However the style of the beginning of the book is (I guess) going for humor and it just isn’t that funny. The two guys are starting the journey basically unprepared and so the writer describes all the stupid things they unknowingly do, while other hikers are perfectly prepared and uncommonly kind and patient. It was a little frustrating to read these parts.

I also got the sense that this book was really written for all the people who are closely associated with the Grand Canyon. That means all the tour guides, boaters, through-hikers, and park rangers and rescue crews. It felt that a lot of the content was for insiders to recognize and appreciate. Maybe if I had that background it would have been more interesting.

The journey is long and the writer backfills incidents on the way with the history of the Grand Canyon and the native people that lived in and around it through history. While the history was interesting and made for good reading, I didn’t like how these backstories put everything else on hold – I wanted to follow the journey more closely.

Because these guys are on an assignment for National Geographic, some people they meet want to get their story out into public view – including some Native Americans who are continuously fighting for their home and lands after they were taken from them (repeatedly). The way their stories are written felt a little inauthentic to me. They meet two separate female Native American women who want to share their stories, with both shedding tears as they tell it. Maybe I am overly cynical but it felt a little too staged to me.

Overall I enjoyed the journey even if it could have been edited down a little bit. It did have the effect of making me want to go back and take another look at the Grand Canyon – from a more peaceful location, perhaps.

Next I am reading Good Game, No Rematch by Mike Drucker.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author, and I liked it just as much as his other one. Something about his writing style just hits the right vibe for me. The writing is clever and full of humor, but it doesn’t shy away from sadness and poignant moments.

This book pokes fun at just about everything – sometimes so extensively that I was starting to feel like the joke was wearing thin. I imagine that for some readers it might be a little much. Especially there are some characters that are cursed with overthinking situations, and the way their inner monologues were spinning out of control or sliding down a slope sometimes went on and on.

The plot of the book jumps between different characters and timelines, and while there is a risk of doing this poorly I felt like it was executed well. The storytelling is excellent – we learn about these characters slowly and more deeply. I learned a great deal about Chicago in the 60s – a subject I had almost no knowledge about. This turning point event is contrasted with Occupy Wall Street which was happening around the time that this book was written. I’m curious about what the author might think about the current political climate in America.

It was a pleasure to read this book. While it was a little long, it was certainly worth the journey. And to think it is the author’s debut novel – wow!

Next I am reading A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko.

I didn’t know anything about the author of this memoir, but it seemed like I should have somehow. He arrived in Japan just a few years before I did, and he started a new life here, just like me. He has done a lot of walking all over Japan, and especially he enjoys the backwater places that are less populated and sort of run down.

I’m envious of the free time that he has to walk around, to perambulate on pilgrimages both known and improvised. This book covers his time walking around the Kumano Kaido – not too far away from where we live.

The story here describes his travels, and the way he is using it to work through some issues and come to terms with the death of a childhood friend. The book is written as a letter to this friend (oddly enough, named Bryan with a “y”).

I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it if some of the places that he visits were less familiar to me – I can see people used to the vision of an urban Japan might be surprised and attracted to the ghost towns in rural locations.

He spends time talking with the locals, which is interesting and fun to hear what they are dealing with and what they think about this Japanese-speaking foreigner walking around. Some of his translations seemed a bit unnatural to me – but I guess that every translation will be affected by the translator and how they envision what they are rendering into their own language.

I read a lot of travel books, and I always appreciate if the author outlines their goals and guidelines for their upcoming journey. It helps give a sense of the storytelling arc, and the reader can feel when the author is making progress (or being waylaid). As best as I could tell there were fewer guidelines here and the book is a composite of many journeys to the same area over several years. My personal preference is one continual journey – so I need to figure out a way to focus on those kinds of books in the future.

Overall it was a quick and fairly interesting read. The photography included was also enjoyable to look through. I’ll keep an eye out for the author in my own travels.

Next I am reading The Nix by Nathan Hill.

I tend to enjoy time travel books. I’ve read quite a few, some good, some ridiculous. This one falls somewhere in the middle of the that spectrum, with a great idea that seems to be executed fairly well.

The narrator of the book is a clever person, and the writer gives her plenty of great lines and a very British sense of humor and wit. The other characters are similarly likable and interesting, and the way the story is written allows the author to explore characters from vastly different time frames. Although these “expats” seems altogether too chill considering the circumstances they are in.

For the most part the story is fairly believable (until it wasn’t – maybe 2/3 of the way in it was harder and harder to suspend disbelief). The genre is not strictly sci-fi fantasy, there is also some historical fiction, romance, and thriller involved. Maybe it would have been more enjoyable to pick any two of these and run with it.

The twist at the end was the kind you can do with a book and not a movie, and there is a lot of telling rather than showing, but I suppose it was a bit of a juggling act to tie everything together.

Next I am reading Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod.

After two great books in a row I guess it is likely that there’ll be a downturn. This book starts with a nice idea for a story – but seems to be in a hurry. When I found that the story is related to the Bosnian/Serbian war I was interested, but in the end the little bit of knowledge I got from this book seemed hardly worth the time to read it.

I don’t know anything about the author, but this particular book played out like a thriller/action novel. The writer keeps the pace brisk but in doing that sacrifices a lot of subtlety and nuance. The bad guys are irretrievably bad, the good guys wear clean white hats. Because of this simplistic treatment there were almost no surprises and I found myself laying out the entire plot of the book within a few chapters.

This kind of writing might be fine for a quick read on an airplane going somewhere, but after the last two books I read focused on reflection and carefully thought out prose, this one landed awkwardly.

Next I am reading The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

This makes two brilliant books in a row. Like the last book I read, this writer takes the slow, gentle approach and relates events at a comfortable pace. One big difference is that this book is a novel, but in many other ways they felt similar.

This is my first time to read a book by this author, and clearly she has some skills. The story plays out in several different points of view to examine love in some of its different forms, and we find that we care very much about the people involved. In fact, it isn’t until the second half of the book that I found somebody I disliked – and that was played for a sort of comedic episode.

The book takes place in Ireland, and I was struck by how sensitive the characters were to how they were perceived by others, and despite the modern age how much influence the Catholic Church still has on the way of thinking, especially among people in small towns.

One character is slightly autistic, and thanks to this he speaks in a very direct, honest way. I found this refreshing – why can’t more people communicate like this? I spent a lot of time worried that someone would come along and stomp all over his vulnerability, but the author has other plans and it was enjoyable to see it play out.

After finishing the book I found that the author is quite popular these days, and so I guess I can expect to read more from her in the future, which is good news.

Next I am reading The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens.

Every so often I read a book that takes me completely by surprise, and this one was a treat. The book is a memoir of the author growing up in and around the movie business. The focus is on his parents, and how they each had various levels of success in finding their place in the world. They had different goals and different approaches, and all the while the author is growing up and preparing to take up this struggle himself.

First of all, the writing is great. He tells of unhurried moments, and interpreting and imagining intersections and junctures that had influence on their lives. With the ability to look back and forward the relating of these events is sometimes marked with sudden shocks: “we stood in the house that he just purchased that would burn down in two years”. He casually drops information about people’s futures and makes every sentence a possible clue.

There is also a lot of wisdom in what he writes, and introspection. I found myself highlighting many phrases that resonated, much more than most other books. The title of the book is The Golden Hour, but along with all the golden moments there is quite a bit of darkness, making the journey that much more interesting.

One thing (maybe the only thing) that I wasn’t really into was the frequent and detailed analysis of the deal making and business agreements that changed the structure and business of Hollywood. I’m sure for some people it is interesting, but to me it didn’t hold a lot of appeal. I was far more interested in the human moments and how the culture of movies was in flux.

One of my favorite books this year – a thoughtful exploration of the industry’s evolution, but more importantly a great tribute to the author’s parents.

Next I am reading Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.

Billed as a “cozy” murder mystery, this book is that but also just a bit different. The main character is self-centered and bossy and seems to be an unlikable person. Usually we have a white-as-snow main character who sets a contrast with possible suspects. But thanks to this changeup it creates some tension and embarrassing scenes that help pull in the reader.

I enjoyed the tone of the book – light-hearted and quite funny. Sometimes it went a little too heavy on the details of the Cotswolds, where it is mainly set. Of course there is a murder – even cozy murder mysteries need a body – but I did feel it was a little too easy to figure things out. Maybe that is part of a cozy murder mystery, too.

By the end of the book it becomes clear that the author is setting up a series, and later I found out that it is quite a long one. I’m not sure if this kind of book is my cup of tea, as it were, but for the short time I spent with this book I enjoyed the read.

Next I am reading The Golden Hour by Matthew Specktor.

Early in this book the author relates a story from her childhood – bitten by a shark, taken to the doctor and then ignored by her family when she continued to feel pain. She tries to tell everyone that there is something seriously wrong, but they brush off her concerns until it is almost too late.

This theme continues through most of the book, with the author identifying various concerns at Facebook and just about everyone around her ignoring or downplaying the issues – because they just can’t be bothered to care.

I enjoyed this book – an insider account of this critical period of Facebook’s evolution – and thanks to the author’s writing skills it stayed entertaining/shocking/weird throughout. The allegations that she makes are well-documented and believable. Of course we are only getting her side to every story, but we also know that the corporate response would (and will be) to deny everything.

This might be a new genre for me – I don’t remember reading a tell-all book before – but it was surprisingly interesting. I hope that the author will be able to succeed in whatever she does next – making an enemy of some of the very powerful people at Facebook/Meta might have far-reaching consequences.

Next I am reading The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton.

This book was an extremely well-written work that was entertaining, funny, clever, and occasionally nightmarish.

I really enjoyed the writing style of the author. He sometimes wrote in big walls of text but the contents of these were full of pithy sayings and memorable metaphors. The sense of humor of the main character was self-deprecating enough that it appealed to my own humor preferences.

I felt like the twists were easy to see coming most of the time – a little more surprise would have been nicer, but overall it was a pleasure to hear about the main character’s life in America.

However the whole book isn’t quite the same style. The last quarter of the book veered off in a different (and powerful) direction. This part was a bit “out there” for me – and I felt like it was a little over-ambitious. But I’m not the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Next I am reading Careless People by Sarah Wynn Williams.

The subtitle of this book is “How wealth hacks the world”, and it was because of this that I was attracted to this book. Having done some international travel to various places I was interested to find out how my experiences as a normal traveler might be different from the ultra-wealthy. However the topics covered in this book are a little different, and no less interesting.

The book’s author has a unique background. She tells us early on that she believes that people should be allowed to live wherever they would like – and not be limited to wherever they happen to be born. Her experiences in Geneva led her to this topic, and so we go on a (sort of) global jaunt to find out more about these in-between places. I learned a lot of things I was curious about, and thanks to the author’s excellent writing skills I was able to understand some of the sleight-of-hand tricks that companies employ to move and hide capital. Some of these tricks are by nature intended to be unclear, which speaks to the writer’s skill.

The highlight for me was the chapter of the flagging of ships in international commerce. The author uses the example of one of five ships built by a Russian shipyard in the 1970s, and follows it through the many lives that it had before being unceremoniously broken up on a beach in Pakistan 50 years later.

The writer provides a lot of information – this was a long book – and I sometimes felt like there was more than enough to make her point. A little more concise would make it easier to read through.

Next I am reading The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen.