Finished The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science, by Seb Falk, which was interesting.
Now I’m reading two books, both very short: Lobster is the Best Medicine: A Collection of Comics about Friendship, by Liz Climo, and The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary, by Ken Liu, which is a science fiction novel.
Oh, man. This is IMO Le Carre’s best and most rereadable (of the half-dozen or so that I’ve read). So so good!
I’ve read four books this month so far:
Just finished: 1633, by David Weber and Eric Flint (reread)
Now reading: 1634: The Baltic War, by Eric Flint and David Weber (reread)
Next up: The Grantville Gazette II, edited by Eric Flint (reread)
Don’t know if this will raise or lower your interest in the book, but it’s not at all smutty. The author is way more interested in her character’s psyches than their bodies.
That’s good to know, and makes the book more appealing.
Finished Lobster is the Best Medicine: A Collection of Comics about Friendship , by Liz Climo, and The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary , by Ken Liu.
The former is a collection of sweet cartoons, which I enjoyed.
The latter is an outstanding SF novella focused on time travel to a time and place that I, at least, had never read about before, but definitely researched afterword. It’s brilliant. Note that it concerns Japanese war crimes, and is very intense.
Now I’m reading A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine.
Just finished: Grantville Gazette II , edited by Eric Flint (reread)
Now reading: Ring of Fire , edited by Eric Flint
Next up: Grantville Gazette , edited by Eric Flint
I enjoyed the series to a point, but of course the anthologies are very uneven. Too often everything, every technology and every plot seems to work perfectly. Each character understands what is going on.
I am happy to report I am reading an historical novel. I probably only read three or four novels a year. I am enjoying An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (I like a few of his other works) it is about the Dreyfus affair. I am learning a lot, and rather painlessly.
Finished Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre, by Max “World War Z” Brooks last night.
Meh.
The basic idea–Mount Rainier blows up, an isolated community is attacked by sasquatches–is solid. But there are too many flat characters, too many places where the plot doesn’t make sense, too many characters acting as authorial mouthpieces for social criticism, for it to work well for me.
The action is good, and I’ll never think about Bigfoot the same way again. But overall I was disappointed.
I recently finished You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe, a snarky, semi-feminist, sometimes funny bio of George Washington. I learned some new stuff from it, but it’s nowhere near to being in the same league as Ron Chernow’s masterpiece on the subject (at which she takes a few shots).
Having really enjoyed the recent Netflix miniseries based on it, I’m now reading Walter Tevis’s novel The Queen’s Gambit, about a troubled Kentucky orphan girl and chess prodigy who rises to become an international sensation in the Sixties. Good stuff.
Finished A Memory Called Empire , by Arkady Martine, which was brilliant. I hope the author writes more in this setting.
Now I’m reading Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton.
he has! 
Personally I gave up 50 or so pages into “A memory…” but I’ll probably try again some time.
Finished Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years , by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton, which I enjoyed.
Started Nova, by Samuel R. Delany.
Tiny nitpick (just cuz I looked it up to be sure): she. Thanks for letting me know about her new work–gonna reserve it now!
I just finished the audiobook of News of the World by Paulette Jiles. I wanted to “read” it before watching the film adaptation. Being a Texan, I enjoyed the story, especially when she describes their journey through many of the places in North Texas that I’m familiar with. But it felt like the climax of the story occurred early in the plot and the last third or so felt rushed and left me flat.
Next up: either God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright or The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton or Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry
(My goal for 2021 is to read more Texas Literature.)
Good to know, I assumed Arkady was a man’s name and didn’t check.
I just finished The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, which is best described as a YA science fiction thriller. I don’t read a lot of YA but I saw the preview for a Chaos Walking movie starring Tom Holland and felt I needed to read the book first.
It was a solid read. It’s about a boy who lives in a settlement on New Earth with 150 other men who all have this disease that opens their thoughts to everyone else, just this constant overwhelming cacophony of thoughts they call The Noise, and all the women in the settlement were killed by the same disease. So this boy has never met a female. Until one day, he does.
It’s a nice coming of age story with a strong voice.
And it was a lot of fun to read, but the darned thing ended on a cliffhanger! I knew it was the first book in a series but I thought it would work as a standalone. Now I’ve gotta read the other two books.
That was a good series. I liked the first book best, but it was a good ride overall. I can’t figure out how they’ll ever make a movie of it though.
Finished The Woman in the Mirror. It turned out to be part ghost story, part Harlequin romance novel, but I did enjoy it. I had to knock off some points for a weak and extremely unlikely ending.
Next up, The Auctioneer, a horror novel from the seventies by Joan Samson, with a foreword by the great Grady Hendrix. This has a nice Harvest Home/Needful Things flavor.
Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Chris Wallace and Mitch Weiss
A straightforward history of the final months leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing an end to World War 2. Although the focus shifts about between bomb scientists, pilots, and top U.S. leaders; the emphasis seems to be on Truman’s decision to use the weapon. (There is also a bit from a Japanese survivor, but it seems almost an afterthought. There is very little about the Japanese leadership.)
Not a bad book, but nothing really memorable here, either in terms of history or writing.