Also, I finally got back from my library the audiobook of Ian Kershaw’s The End, about the last year of Nazi Germany. Kershaw draws some interesting contrasts between the German defeats in WWI and in WWII. There weren’t the kinds of crippling social unrest and mutinies the second time around, he suggests, because of the lingering personality cult around Hitler, the extreme repression of the state up to the very end, and widespread fears (mostly and tragically prescient) of the consequences of a Soviet victory in the east.
I wound up really liking Ragtime (again). The way Doctorow weaves all those storylines and characters together is quite remarkable.
The Bernie Rhodenbarr book (The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown) was okay. The Big Denouement didn’t happen, though, and I was sorry not to have one as they are typically the best parts. Instead, the reveal was given later on in snippets of conversation here and there. Oh well, Lawrence Block is one of the greats and I enjoyed reading the book, even if the end was a bit disappointing.
Now reading Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in the My Family Has Killed Someone, which may have been mentioned here by somebody–I know I got the recommendation online, and the title is memorable, so when I saw it in the library I snapped it up. Sort of a sendup of a locked room mystery with a narrator who claims to be perfectly reliable and keeps metaphorically winking at the reader. I’m about a third of the way into the book but am having trouble getting into the storyline. May just be me, but the gimmick with the breaking the fourth wall seems, well, gimmicky, and I’m having trouble caring about the characters. We’ll see.
Finished A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall, a biography of her husband, which was okay.
Now I’m reading The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
Finished Wil Haygood’s Showdown, a bio of Thurgood Marshall focusing on his SCOTUS confirmation hearings. An interesting subject but a repetitive and sometimes clunky account. I caught at least three factual errors, which makes me wonder how many more there were.
Finished The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, which was okay.
Now I’m reading The Role of the Scroll: An Illustrated Introduction to Scrolls in the Middle Ages, by Thomas Forrest Kelly.
Finished Winds of Wrath, the last book in the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. Now I have to wait for the third Artillerymen book to come out… (In addition to waiting for Michael Z Williamson’s next time-travel book and the two books S M Stirling is writing.)
Speaking of time travel, I’ve started The Janus File, by David Weber and Jacob Holo. It’s the sequel to The Gordian Protocol and The Valkyrie Protocol, both of which were excellent. (Now if Weber would stop screwing around with other projects and finish the third Hell’s Gate book. And speaking of third books, Dean Koontz needs to get hot on the next Christopher Snow novel. What is it with all these non-cooperative authors?)
Paging George R.R. Martin….
Finished The Role of the Scroll: An Illustrated Introduction to Scrolls in the Middle Ages by Thomas Forrest Kelly, which I enjoyed.
Now I’m reading Yellowthread Street by William Marshall.
The Eighth Detective Alex Pavesi
An ambitious publisher visits a reclusive author with a goal of reprinting a series of short mystery stories the author had written many years prior. The publisher notices certain inconsistencies in the stories that may be more than simple mistakes. (The stories are interwoven in the text and it’s fun to try and find the errors.)
Enjoyable read
I’m on page 268 of this 386-page book, and have decided not to go on. It isn’t terrible, but I never think about it when I’m not reading it and it’s become a dutiful slog at this point. Mount TBR calls!
I’m also now reading The Suicide Exhibition, by Justin Richards, the front cover of which caught my eye at the library. It says “The Never War: Book One” - I hope the library has the sequel(s)!
Finished Yellowthread Street by William Marshall, which I enjoyed.
Now I’m reading Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal, by Sarah Maslin Nir.
I finished The Man in the High Castle and I’m not sure what I think of it yet. It’s the first Phillip K. Dick book I’ve read and I’m not sure how fast I’ll be seeking out the rest of his works. Actually, I am sure: not very.
Breaking History by Jared Kushner.
Havent gotten far, but so far, I’ve learned that
Jared is very smart.
He brought peace to a lot of places.
Chris Christie is an asshole
He and Ivanka like nascar and eating at New Jersey diners!
He’s not easy to read.
Started today on The Ghost Tracks by Celso Hurtado, a novel about a teenage boy who starts a supernatural detective agency. It’s pretty interesting so far, although it’s the author’s first book and I think his inexperience shows. If I were going to give him one piece of advice, I would ask him to not use a certain trick as frequently. It’s the thing where an object or incident is very meaningful, but it’s referred to obliquely and the reader isn’t told what it is…yet. I’m on page 63 and that’s happened three times already. Aside from that, I think the story has potential.
My kid read the Wide Sargasso Sea for a class in college and enjoyed it, so I’d like to read it as well. It’s written from the perspective of Mr. Rochester’s first wife from Jane Eyre, so I’ve started listening to Jane Eyre to remind myself of the story. It’s been probably 30 years since I’ve read it, so I don’t remember any of the details. I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far. Probably my dog is, too, because I’m willing to take much longer walks while I have something good to listen to! Wide Sargasso Sea is sitting on Mt TBR waiting for me.
He might be easier if I read his books stoned. Unfortunately I’m one of those people who gets paranoid when I partake of the Devil’s Lettuce so I’ll never find out.
Some of his books are easier to read than others. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Blade Runner) is relatively straightforward. The Man in the High Castle is kind of in the middle (although it goes full wacky at the end). Good luck trying to follow The World Jones Made.
I just finished reading “Ducks,” the graphic novel by Kate Beaton. It’s excellent.