So many books with this unoriginal title structure, but I didn’t hold that against the author as I read this book. Overall I liked the concept of the book – it is full of things that I’ve liked in other books – but the execution of the story wasn’t to my taste.

So we’ve got secret societies, doors to other worlds, books, loyal dogs and (possibly) vampires – lots of good stuff. But the main character’s voice was a little aggravating to me, and the book had an overall theme of breaking out from the white male dominating society and overcoming their systemic advantages. I like the idea of exploring this in a book but it seemed spoon-fed and overly-simplified.

Some characters were flat, villains unsurprising and doing monologues to explain their motivations, predictable turns in the story and just the feeling like you know what the character should do but you have to wait several chapters before they do it.

Finally, they have a book being read within this book, and the way it is levered into the main narrative felt awfully contrived. Couldn’t we get this information in a more organic way?

So it sounds like I didn’t really like the book, and before writing all this down I felt like I had enjoyed it overall – but now that I look at it maybe not.

Next I am reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

A long time ago a friend of mine set up a celebration with his then-girlfriend (now wife) for their one year dating anniversary. He got a room at the Ritz Carlton, set up a big 12-course dinner, and really spent big. They had a great time, but after something like that how do you follow it up? What do you do for the first wedding anniversary?

I was thinking about this when I was reading the end of this book, as the 33-year old author finished his seven year adventure walking around the world. It is great to do something like this at such a young age, but I worry about what he can do to keep that sense of adventure in the future.

The end of the book has him considering this, and I think that once the experience of writing and promoting this book wraps up, it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up.

I love stories like this – just like Paul Theroux books where the “rules” of the journey are laid out in advance, we follow the travels and imagine what it’d be like if we were doing the same thing.

The author writes a great deal about his growth during the walk, which is natural especially at the age that he started. I found myself more interested in the logistics – how did he get from A to B and why did he choose that way? Why this country and not that country? There is a lot of fast forwarding and events skipped over – which is understandable because seven years is a long time. Still, I felt that there was more that could be told, and I hope that someday he writes a book with more details on the nitty gritty.

Things I really liked – the sheer freedom of walking and stopping when you want to. Sometimes he decides to stay for a week in a particular place that calls out to him, and I envy the ability to do that. In the seven year walk there are some interludes that have him hanging out in a place because he is waiting for something – a visa, COVID restrictions to lift, a border to open. Then he settles into a sort of almost-regular lifestyle, but without needing to work. Spending days learning languages or reading books at cafes sounded like heaven to me.

As I said, the author talks a lot about his growth during the journey. He attributes a lot of his growth to the meditation of walking and walking with nobody but his dog Savannah to talk to. Sometimes I felt like his thoughts on meditation felt sort of shoe-horned into the story, not naturally coming out. Maybe this is because it this is his first time writing a book – but to me it felt a little artificial.

Finally the story often came back to Savannah, his adopted dog and almost the main character of this book. It felt sometimes like the author was struggling to put himself back at the center, but my attention (and I think most people’s) was drawn back to how Savannah was growing up in such a unique situation. It must have been difficult to write this book balancing both stories in a satisfying way.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that there is something else coming from this author down the road – another adventure or a deeper dive into this one.

Next I am reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.

This book was another one I went in blind on, and this time it turned out to be a good thing. Now I know the theme of the book (at least on the surface) but it was fun to discover that on my own. And that made it easier to delve a little deeper and discover some other themes.

The book follows the narrator who is a (overly) snarky design student that turns their life over to social media in an attempt to capitalize on their brush with a very, very rare event. There is a lot of social media featured in this book, and since I am a person that is not a big fan of the media as a whole, sometimes it was a little tedious to get through all the critical considerations that influencers go through when posting.

But the themes underneath the story is where I found more interest. There are thoughts on fame, cultism and power in here, and I think these nicely fit in with society today – social and political issues being at the forefront in some countries.

I also got the same sort of vibes I got when I read Ready Player One. That book (and perhaps this one) was pretty divisive for various reasons but both books feature puzzles, a hunt for clues, and a worldwide competition to find the needle in the haystack. I think maybe I detected a callback to Ready Player One in this book – a dream sequence in an arcade that had a quarter on the machine.

So while I wasn’t a big fan of the main character I enjoyed the book, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel.

But next I am reading The World Walk by Tom Turcich.

The Slow Horses series of books is always a good read, written in a style that is by now familiar. There is tension and excitement as events speed up, but the author is also not afraid of setting up some pieces in the background so you can watch them come into play much later (sometimes in subsequent books).

While I enjoyed this book as much as the others, you could feel that the author was trying hard to ramp up the clever lines (mainly from Jackson Lamb) to the point where it got a bit much. Almost as if were a dry humor competition.

A lot of the events from this book are taken from real headlines (around 2017) so there may be a risk of dating itself out of comprehension many years hence. But certainly that won’t be anything I’ll be worried about at the time.

I know this is fiction, but even with the realistic characters and events some stuff was a little far-fetched. Hopefully in the next books the author will take it down a notch and take a more measured (subtle?) approach.

Still, not a bad book in the series. Next I am reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

I had heard somewhere that this was one of the books that makes you re-evaluate how you think about something – in this book’s case the topic is death.

It was available at the library so without much thinking I checked it out. Quickly I realized that it seemed to be written for young adults, and the writing of the teen dialogue and the vocabulary they were using was pretty cringeworthy. “Yo, that was mad dope” etc.

But I pushed through that and although it was distracting throughout the book I was looking for the deeper message here. Unfortunately the message was pretty simple – seize the day because life could end before you know it. Maybe this message resonates more with younger people who believe they’ll live forever, but it didn’t have much effect on me. Maybe because I am closer to death than the average teenager?

But one good point was that the book didn’t hesitate to look death square in the eye, since it was the main topic of the book it could hardly be taboo. Since the characters knew they were going to die soon they could also speak plainly about it when I think probably most people don’t have opportunities to discuss this stuff with their friends or family. So at least here it was getting the thought process going and maybe it will lead to some positive outcomes for some people who would have rather set the topic aside for “later”.

Next I am reading London Rules by Mick Herron.

Here’s an interesting idea for a book. The writer picks some substances that are banned in various places around the world, and then visits each place to try to learn more about why they are banned. The twist here is that he isn’t just talking about them, in (almost) each place he tries out the banned substances to see what the fuss is all about.

This makes for some occasional childish situations – chewing gum on the train in Singapore, for example – but is far more interesting when he tries coca leaves in Bolivia or absinthe in Switzerland.

One drawback about reading this book is that since it was written about 20 years ago a lot of the situations and bans may have changed. One example – he describes the area around Oslo central station as strewn with junkies and broken syringes, trash and police and hopelessness. But we were there a month ago and it was the complete opposite, a peaceful clean area that was not unlike any other train station in Europe or even Japan. Apparently a lot has happened in 20 years, so the info I was getting from the book needed to be taken with that in mind.

The book theme shifts slightly towards the end as the writer spends a lot of time (and pages) cogitating about the philosophy of banning substances and what situations warrant it, the war on drugs, and the goals of a nanny state.

I thought the author had a very reasonable viewpoint – that as long as a person is making a rational choice and that choice is not causing any harm to others then it is the responsibility of society to let them do it. There are some exceptions to this, and the author lays out the argument in detail. I liked his philosophy, and his admission that it is probably difficult to pull off in the real world.

The book ended differently than I had expected when I started the book, but I like the more intellectual shift that it made and this content more than any of the other stories will make the book worth reading even after another 20 years or more.

Next I am reading They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

This book is really sort of an extended short story, but it really packs in plenty of details, undercurrents and history. The stakes of the story appear at a leisurely pace, and I enjoyed waiting for them.

I suppose that this could have been drawn out, with some extra scenes stuck in there with fireworks between conflicting characters or dramatic revelations and tearful declarations – but the author dialed this down to the perfect amount.

The message of this story was received without it being overly preachy and I appreciated the calm, quiet approach here.

This was the second book that I’ve read by the author, and I enjoyed both of them very much. I’ll be on the lookout for more.

Next I am reading The Devil’s Picnic by Taras Grescoe.

One of the better non-fiction books I’ve read so far this year. The book is written in an unusual style, and even though it is translated from German to English, the writing is natural and clever.

Starting with the author’s childhood growing up in Yugoslavia and escaping the country as it exploded into civil war, the story follows him and his family as they try to get by as refugees in Germany, and then as their family is divided to different parts of the world.

The story shows the challenge for refugees forced to fit into wherever will take them, and how those challenges brought out the best in some and the worst in others.

I liked the unusual format – not a linear story but not a wacky time jump thing that is hard to follow, either.

The author has done some fiction so if I can find a translated version I am eager to read that and see what it is like.

Next I am reading Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.

This is the first work of fiction that I’ve read by the author – I had enjoyed a non-fiction book a while back, and thought since I liked the movie Big Fish I should check out the book.

The film is a bit different from the book, but I thought that having seen the movie it actually improved my feeling of the book. Although they were different they weren’t mutually exclusive.

The story in the book was a little more intimate and I enjoyed how it was written. The structure of the book is unconventional – and in this case I thought it worked out quite well given the storybook nature of the main character.

More details into the stories that are told here would have been welcome. After a long story about how the main character met and married his wife she sort of faded away in the rest of the book.

And although the ending was really good (as was the movie’s ending), I thought that the strings of the story weren’t tied off quite as much as I’d have liked.

But I did get to read a ton of jokes, both good and bad.

Next I am reading Where You Come From by Sasa Stanisic.

This book was a struggle to get through. I’ve found that I don’t like books that use absurdity or outrageous characters/behavior to hold your attention – and unfortunately there was a lot of that in this book.

I liked the idea of it at first, kind of a whodunnit in the forests of Poland with a group of translators struggling to figure things out. But it gets weird quickly, and it is full of people doing silly things which I guess was an effort to entertain the reader.

This was a long book, and towards the middle of it I started questioning if it was worth going on.

After finishing the book I can say now that it wasn’t.

Live and learn, I guess. Next I am reading Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.

An enjoyable take on the legend of Achilles, and what went on (possibly) behind the scenes. More than a historical retelling, it is closer to a love story, and it manages to add to the legends of Achilles without dumbing it down.

The writing of the author is just as good as I remember, and it moves the story forward without getting in the way. The focus is on the telling of the story, and we see it from a different point of view this time.

Since the story is so well-known there aren’t too many twists, but for someone coming to it for the first time this would be a rollicking ride. Through most of the book I was trying to figure out they would get through the ending, but the compromise that was made didn’t feel like cheating.

One complaint I have was that there was so much going on unseen in the world of the gods, and the way it was related back to us felt clunky and unnatural. I would have liked to have seen them in action more, but the author chose to focus on a few mortal characters rather than on the gods on Mount Olympus.

It is a rather short novel, so it was hard to stop turning the pages knowing it wouldn’t take long to get through. Excellent book!

Next I am reading The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft.

Partly a mystical fairy tale, partly a travelogue of the world’s (mostly) unknown secrets, this book should have been right up my alley. Not only is it largely concerned with travel, but it contains a secret mysterious library with secret doors that connect across the globe. I’m not sure why I didn’t like the book more.

It certainly isn’t a bad book – the writer has an engaging style and the prose is easy to read and has a lighthearted approach to descriptions. The natural world and the animals that live within it are especially well done.

But what I found myself concerned with was the point of this journey that we are on. The main character embarks on it with very little introspection, and considering the time they have on the road alone, you’d think they’d have more thoughts and theories on it than they do. We usually hear about her joy and adventures not firsthand but in her memories, which makes us wonder if she is really out there living or just plodding on to stay alive. Most of the interesting introspection is left for the end of the book.

We are asked to believe in some magic, and once we accept that proposition it makes the “real-life” magical moments that the main character discovers less, well, magical. She talks of amazing things that she has witnessed in her travels but they are less amazing when coming from someone with a mysterious magical curse.

Still, the concept of the interconnected library, the thoughts on travel and what it means, and the metaphors throughout are interesting enough for me to enjoy the book. Not sure if I can recommend it for everyone, though.

Next I am reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I really liked her book Circe, so I’m hoping this turns out even half as good.

I was starting to get into this book, set in a unique time and place for fantasy books – the era of the Spanish Inquisition – but as the main character started to “awaken” to a sexy dude with eternal life I realized that I had read something like this before. Oh yeah, this is the same author that wrote Ninth Wing, a groaner that I had somehow finished last year or so.

How did this book get into my backlog? I guess I have to be more careful. But it made me think a little about what I liked about this book. The writer has a great skill with writing prose and pushing the story forward at the right pace. There are few slow points and we get right to the next big event. I was also happy that this isn’t the first in a series, which is so common in fantasy books.

But the magic system was pretty unclear, and I couldn’t help thinking why our hero needed to be afraid when she had so much power at her fingertips. The romance angle was predictable and didn’t seem necessary, and unfortunately many of the characters were pretty shallow and one-dimensional.

But I finished the book, hooray me. Next I am reading A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke.

In the end I really enjoyed this book, but the sort of campy/folksy start had me wondering if I really wanted to continue this book or not. The early stages of the book set the time frame in history, and tries to show the irreverent and odd characters that make up the population of the Greek island.

But once we get through this, the story takes its time and tells a story from many points of view. The writing felt lyrical and focused on the beauty of life on the island, and unfortunately later it is contrasted with the lifestyle of the residents during war time.

The story arc of Madras, the young fisherman, and how he turned out after the war was especially heartbreaking, but this book is filled with heartbreaking moments. Scenes from the Second World War related by various characters are absolutely brutal. The character of the goatherder was used for laughs now and then, but reading about his lifestyle had me reconsidering mine.

I like stories like this that span lifetimes, and we see how small things connect to others later in life, and how decisions turn out for better or worse.

Personally I thought the ending of this one, and what eventually happened between Corelli and Pelagia felt sort of unnecessary or tacked on, but I can see how some might feel it was a necessary full circle.

Although the book was a little preachy at times I enjoyed reading it, and was surprised to find that it was written so recently. I’m not sure I want to read it again in the future – so much heartbreak is hard to take.

Next I am reading The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo.

I usually really like this author so I was bummed out with how this book turned out. There is a lot of promise – a story from the perspective of a bio-engineered war dog – but I didn’t think it came off very well.

Having one of the main points of view being from an intelligent dog is fine, but the voice of that dog seemed pretty cliche. Things like, “I am a good dog” and “The Master is angry” just felt awkward to read. I understand what the author was trying to evoke (I mean, I think I do) but it seemed amateurish and clunky.

The main arc of the story seemed to have run its course, and then the book went on for quite a bit longer – in an attempt to fit a few more issues into the story.

I’m not sure I can recommend this one – there are so many better books by this author.

Next I am reading Corelli’s Mandolin by Lous De Bernieres.