I think I got this book recommendation from NPR, describing it as a bottle centered around the power of food to bind a family together – something like that. Perhaps I misremembered the description because this book wasn’t very much like that.

Instead this book is full of people trying to look like they know what they are doing – one of the book’s strong points is the snappy dialogue that feels natural. But in actuality they are just flailing through life. There is an inordinate amount of sex in this book – more than I think is necessary to get across the point. One of the characters is fighting through grief by having sex with as many people as possible. But the oversexed vibe extends to many of the other characters as well.

I didn’t like any of the main characters – their motivations unclear and sort of existing in between sexual encounters. I did like that this novel had plenty of Asian influence – you can tell the writer is an admirer of Japan and Korea.

But in the end the story wasn’t compelling enough to make me recommend the book. The food references seem shoehorned in and are only offered as a break from the story rather than being part of the story (as I had expected).

Next I am reading Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista.

By chance I this book came after the previous book I read, and they really contrast with each other. While both books had narrators that you feel you can’t trust, in The Turn of the Key we gradually see why we felt that way, and then the narrator’s back story is revealed a little more and it makes sense. Both books have a twist, but the one in this book just resonates more – and does a tidy job of wrapping up loose ends.

The writer did a phenomenal job with building up the creepy suspense – it was scary reading sometimes – and I don’t think I’ve read a book (including most of Stephen King’s work) that had me scared more. This wasn’t horror – just a spooky sense of anticipation that something bad was going to happen.

It could almost be a perfect book, except for some awkward uses of technology that didn’t quite work smoothly into the plot. Sometimes the actions of some of the characters strained believability for me – they were just a little too perfectly set up. At first I thought that might have been part of the creepiness factor, but in the end it was setting up something else and was simply a device. I thought it could have been handled a little more elegantly.

Still, these are minor points and the overall experience of reading the book made up for them easily. This mystery is strongly recommended.

Next I am reading Family Meal by Bryan Washington.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but I have seen “Gone Girl” which was made from a subsequent book by this writer. The movie and this book lead me to believe that the author has a gritty style – a little more off the beaten path with her characters.

The main character in this book was constantly making bad decisions, and as the story progressed we learned just how damaged she was. I wanted to root for her but she just made bad call after bad call and in the end I was less invested in her ultimate fate.

The story itself was compelling – big city girl comes back to her small town and reports on a string of murders happening there. I enjoyed the interactions between her and the locals, and divining all the interior motives. The writer has a great sense of pacing and there weren’t any unnecessary breaks or pauses in the story, so it had me turning the pages.

I felt the ending was a little contrived, with a hurried twist that didn’t seem natural, and a boss that went way beyond the call of duty in taking care of his junior staff.

So this was a fairly entertaining book, but the character turned me off. I wonder if other books by this author have the same kind of unlikable narrators…

Next I am reading The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware.

I haven’t read the book, haven’t seen the movie starring Harrison Ford, haven’t seen the new Apple TV series starring Theroux nephew – I had nothing particular in mind when I opened this book.

It was my first time to read Paul Theroux’s fiction, and I could quickly recognize his writing style even in this new genre. It was easy to read, the plot pulls you along on this journey from admiration to insanity.

Before reading this I would say that the events described within are fairly improbable. Maybe back when it was written in the late 1970’s it seemed that way too. But the way the book is written and the slow progress that is made gradually shows a man losing touch with reality, and a family finding their way back.

I saw a lot of Donald Trump in the character of “Father” – perfectly willing to ignore reality or alter it to serve his own purposes. Father in this book is a master of quieting doubt by showing strength and (unwarranted) confidence – and when people around him start to finally see through it some bad things happen.

Often the character of Father is grating – how can he say stuff like this, and why does his wife and family stick around without snapping him back to the real world? The character of Mother is quite weak in this book (something the author acknowledges in the afterword written much later) – it is hard to imagine someone letting this happen to their own family.

I’m not sure I’ll go out and see the movie or the miniseries, but I really enjoyed this book.

Next I am reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

It would be great to live in a place where Mexican cheese, peppers, marinated meats, tomatillos, and handmade tortillas were easily accessible. This cookbook takes us to Los Angeles, where asada can be an adjective or noun. The book shows us how holding an “asada” (a grill party) could be done in places other than Oaxaca. I fear that it would be tough in Japan.

Still, I have been doing OK for myself here, and the recipes in this book were inspiring me to push the envelope a little and do new things. Make my own flour tortillas? OK, I’ll give it a try this weekend.

I thought this was a pretty good cookbook, a little on the simple side, but overall OK. The photos of the food were really nice, but it seemed like everything was taken at one photoshoot in someone’s back yard and a little more variation would have been nice. But it is a minor point.

Until a Mexican market open up near me I’ll just have to keep improvising here – but it is fun to make the effort.

Next I am reading The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux.

This book was written by the owner of Reader’s Books, back in my hometown of Sonoma. My mom got me a signed copy for Christmas, and it turned out to be an enjoyable read.

Writing private detective mysteries these days must be tough. There has been so much ground covered over the years that it is hard to be unique. In this book the PI is a crotchety old man taking care of his sick wife, retired from investigating, but pulled back out of retirement to help solve a case.

The mystery takes place in Los Angeles, and since I haven’t spent much time there a lot of the local spots that made cameos didn’t have much effect on me. There is also a lot of Jewish language and culture in this one, as it plays a key part in the mystery. Again, my lack of knowledge about Judaism (especially the kind practiced in America) works against me here.

But the main character is a likable guy and he tries to do right by people, he has a cop friend (which is almost essential in detective stories) and a tough guy friend (ditto – see above) so that we can have some punches and bullets involved. As an old guy he can get away with stuff a younger PI can’t, so I enjoyed that unique twist on the formula.

I thought that although the story and the mystery were well-written, the dialogue sometimes was a little clunky. Compare it with the minimal and seamless dialogue of Spenser and you’ll see what I mean. Also the main character is a pretty old guy, and to get that across we have him talking and thinking in this sort of old guy lingo, which got, well… old after a while.

So it was a pretty good book (especially for a debut novel!) but I’m not sure I can handle that old guy schtick for a whole series of books.

Next I am reading Asada, a cookbook by Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral.

I really enjoyed this book – it was a new take on the “chosen one” hero’s journey – with some great writing and an interesting main character.

While it wasn’t perfect, for the most part I was turning pages to see what was going to happen next. The book is not what I would categorize as “young adult” fiction, but I think the group that would really enjoy this story the most would be younger women looking to break out of whatever limitations have been imposed on them.

My biggest criticism with this story is that the uniqueness of the setting and locations are sort of taken for granted and rushed through. I think slowly lifting the curtain on these strange and secretive societies would build up the tension and suspense. Instead things are introduced in a rudimentary and dismissive way. “Oh, and this group can talk to the dead. Let’s go have lunch!”

But for the most part this stuff is forgivable and there is a pretty good mystery at the heart of the story that doesn’t get overwhelmed by all the magic and ghosts.

I also liked the gritty writing – it feels more real and dangerous (some of the violence done to the main character was a little over the top, however) and not innocent or saccharine.

Next I am reading An Old Man’s Game by Andy Weinberger.

This book was translated from French, so I’m not sure how much of the weird vibe I got was from the translation and how much was from the descriptions of a person losing their mind.

The book starts off normally enough, but slowly becomes confusing. Is this the narrator losing touch with reality? A conspiracy happening behind the scenes? Are even the narrator’s elderly parents in on it?

Written well this could be a very nice setup and lead satisfyingly to a twist or resolution. This to me had neither, yet I was still turning the pages eagerly waiting to see what was next.

One added bonus was the delicious-sounding foods that are described within the pages – the French are pretty serious about their cuisine.

Even after finishing the book I’m still not entirely certain what really happened. I believe that vengeance was had but I’m not really clear by whom. Who could I really believe?

Next I am reading Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.

I enjoy this author’s writing on Chinese food – she has really managed to work her way into the culinary world of China, and her books on her background and experiences there are full of great stories and delicious food.

This book was a bit different than her others that I’ve read. Here she explores some fundamental questions – what is Chinese food, what are the different varieties and subgroups, and how has it evolved over history. All of this is from the “western perspective”, so she guides us through the introduction with a story about her first experience with British Chinese food.

The book is deep and wide, and the subject is much larger than most people would expect. The whole point of the book is to introduce a culinary world that was most likely previously unknown. She spends time in various parts of this culinary world – sometimes I was a little confused with the order of how she presents things – but in every chapter I found myself getting hungry.

For Americans like me China is fairly inaccessible. Even though it is right outside my doorstep (plenty of direct flights there every day!) the political and visa situation preclude any sort of impromptu visit. But this book takes you throughout China, on sort of a VIP tour of culinary hotspots and the chance to see what is being eaten now (and through history).

If I had any complaint I’d say that this book felt almost more like a reference book than one you’d read for entertainment. There is a lot of history and Chinese language, even poetry. This is natural and helps to understand the backdrop to each culinary tradition – but sometimes it was a bit dry to get through.

Thanks to this book I’ll start searching out restaurants around my area that may serve up some of these dishes for ethnic Chinese people living in Japan. The hunt is on now!

Next I am reading Vengeance is Mine by Marie NDiaye.

This is my first five star book of the year. Over a year of reading I usually come across 5-6 books that really make an impression on me, and it is always those moments after completion when you stare off into space and go “wow!” I almost didn’t read this book – because I ran out of time on my library check-out and I had to return it. But luckily my Kindle was still set to airplane mode and so the book was still there as long as I didn’t reconnect to the internet. I’m so glad I didn’t push it to the back of the line.

This was another long book, and my first time reading this author. The writing is not rushed – and the story moves ever forward but taking the time to flesh things out. I can imagine some readers might get frustrated with this, but I found that once you relaxed and didn’t worry about how much time you had, you could revel in the details and enjoy the payoffs when those details come back to matter later on.

This book takes place in several timelines, and one of them is right along the same timeline as my own, so the pop culture and the way people talk and think about the world lines up with my own experience. Maybe it was because of this that I vibed so well with the book.

Since this is my first time with this author I am not sure if it is his standard style but there is a ton of research, all of it in the extensive bibliography, and this really blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction.

I’m looking forward to reading the other book by this author (called The Nix) but I’ll wait a while – maybe towards the end of the year as a sort of bookend.

Next I am reading An Invitation to a Banquet by Fuchsia Dunlop.

The true story of how a female slave in the south escaped captivity with her slave husband by dressing up and passing as a young white man, with her husband playing the part of his slave.

Because this is a true story, there is a lot of documentation out there and even a book written by the people themselves. The author of this book tells their story in a dramatic way and for the most part it is well written.

I was hooked into reading this book based on the premise of the escape, and like a good heist movie I was looking forward to reliving it – all the tension, the preparation, and the timing of it.

However most of this is covered in the first third or half of the book. The author spends a lot of time diving deep into the other people around the escaping couple – their owners, the people their owners knew, the city government in power at the time, the history of the innkeeper who they visited during one leg of the journey. These historical tangents (they felt like that to me) took away the tensions of the escape, and were often pretty dry.

The last half of the book is all about the effects of the escape, and for me this was the least interesting part of the book. Once the couple has made it safely out, there is very little tension to the story and it felt more like reading raw facts from a history book.

So overall I thought the book was worth the read for the first half or so, but I could have done with some judicious editing in the second half.

Next I am reading Wellness by Nathan Hill.

This book was a really interesting read about a family (and community) in the countryside of Ireland, near Dublin. One by one we get inside the head of each family member, developing opinions about the others (without yet knowing their background and motivations). Gradually the reason for their behaviors come to light, and also shed light on events from their past.

The format of the book brings to mind movies like Wonder and American Beauty. Especially the climax of this book feels like it is lifted straight out of American Beauty, with one big difference.

I really enjoyed the storytelling of this book, and felt like I really knew these characters. It is a pretty long book, and as we get to know these people so well it comes as a bit of shock at the end when you have to say goodbye to them. I’d have preferred more resolution to the story but I can understand why it ended the way it did.

I am usually either hit or miss with historical fiction, but this book landed in the rare area between.

This book looks at the life of a successful writer (although almost unheard of these days) through the eyes of his female cousin, who lived with his family after her husband ran away with her child and then died of scarlet fever. There is not a lot of information out there apparently for these people, which makes it ripe for a historical fiction treatment.

It is a unique book as the point of view allows the author to write about several authors of that time, including Charles Dickens, and make commentary on this man’s world from a woman’s point of view. A very clever woman, at that. There is a lot of wisdom in these pages, from nearly every quarter.

One thing I really liked about reading this long book was that the chapters are presented as bite size pieces – short episodes that are nearly self-contained and help to bring out the points that the writer wishes to make without the risk of having them pass unnoticed in the background of a broader story.

The story proceeds back in forth from different points in time, and I was sometimes confused at first with what was happening and when, but after a while you get a feeling for the framework and it makes sense.

There is an element of the story that comes through related to the sex lives of several of the characters. It wasn’t something I had expected from a novel like this but it certainly is germane to the content. Even so, to me it felt like it was also serving as a connection to the more sexually liberal modern times that we live in. It felt at first like a cheaply employed device to titillate, but the more I thought about it the more I was OK with it. It is hard to say more without giving anything away.

So, a good but not great book for me. Next I am reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

I really loved the first book in what I guess is a series now, and this second book delivers in much the same way. We get the same great socially challenged main character, lots more backstory of her childhood and about her grandmother, and even a pretty good whodunnit on top of that.

This is what I would call a cozy book – despite the murder there are plenty of moments that stick the landing, both touching and humorous. We trust in the goodness of our main character and the people she trusts.

Compared to the first book there are fewer people here who try to take advantage of our heroine, and I thought that was a positive turn. There were fewer dark moments than the first book had, which I was kind of disappointed about.

I don’t know if the series will continue but I hope I’ll be able to read more about Molly the maid in the future. There were a few hints in this book that maybe things might shift a little – and I don’t think there is much backstory left to reveal. It may be a challenge but I’m interested to see where the author takes this in the future.

Next I am reading The Fraud by Zadie Smith.

Here’s a long Stephen King book that I hadn’t read before. On the surface the premise is enticing. What happens when a mysterious indestructible dome isolates a small town from the rest of the world? How will the townspeople adapt to this new reality?

Before reading I imagined that some bad people will become worse, and some good people will have a chance to step up. There is a lot of backstory for the characters of the book and the author spends a lot of time and pages into bringing everyone to life.

I liked some of the messages that are hidden in here, and it was hard to believe that it was written before the Trump presidency.

For some authors, the dome could service as a sort of prop – a way to examine how people change under pressure, etc. But near the end of the book the author does us the favor of explaining why it appeared, and where it came from. I appreciated this, and although I wasn’t exactly sold on it, it was nice to at least address it.

This was a long read and I’m a little tired after finishing it, so I’m reading a shorter book next time – The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose.