I believe that was me, and yeah, I didn’t love the ending–not so much the “where are they now” part, though that’s not really my kind of thing, but that the narrative kind of dribbled off before we got to that point. Oh well. Agree that some of the (many) perspectives were more interesting than others. Ramsey was the wannabe writer, correct? He was certainly something of a drip, and “completely out of patience” works. But I think that was probably deliberate on Atkinson’s part. (We could argue about whether it was a good choice to feature him so much, but I do believe she intentionally made him difficult and not very likable.)
I marathoned the new Irons and Works book Heavy Hand by E.M. Lindsey. Complicated relationships, diferently abled people having lots of hot nookies and tattoos, yes please and can I have more?
I’m starting Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!. I thought her My Antonia wass the best book I read in 2020 or 2021, so I have high hopes for this one.
Finished A House With Good Bones. Not among T. Kingfisher’s best, which made it merely very good. Starting next on a book which was coincidentally mentioned in the afterword of AHWGB, Bryony and Roses, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Finished The Secret Network of Nature: The Delicate Balance of All Living Things, by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst, which was interesting.
Now I’m reading Spider-Man: Down These Mean Streets, by Keith R. A. DeCandido. This isn’t a graphic novel.
Finished Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from Our Ancestors, by Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani.
Gave up on A Dangerous Mourning, by Anne Perry – couldn’t get interested in the main character.
Started Callander Square, by Anne Perry, and 12 Seconds of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon, by Jamie Holmes.
Next up: Not sure yet.
I finished False Witness by Karin Slaughter. A reasonably good read about a defense attorney who is defending a certainly-guilty client accused of rape, and the client also knows a terrible secret about the attorney and her junkie younger sister. A decent plot, but very dark overall with some really graphic, violent scenes.
Next up: TBD
I’ve read probably 6-7 books by Atkinson and I tend to think endings are not her strong suit. I remember a lot about individual characters and general themes and conflicts from her books, but rarely much about how everything wrapped up.
Next up is Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.
A few days ago I finished my (I think) third re-read of Ken Grimwood’s classic sf novel Replay, and still enjoyed it, but not as much as the first two times. [Insert your own ironic title-related joke here]. Maybe I need to wait another decade before I go back to it.
Just started Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, a sf novel I know nothing about other than it’s by the author of Station Eleven, which I enjoyed. From a few early hints it’s shaping up, I think, as a time-travel novel - no spoilers, please! I like it so far.
Also reading Rob Sheffield’s total-fanboy pop history Dreaming the Beatles, which is too gushy at times but still pretty good.
I did a lot of browsing, but didn’t read cover to cover, Richard Norton Smith’s On His Own Terms. It’s a weighty bio of Nelson Rockefeller, the filthy-rich longtime Governor of New York, a progressive Republican who three times came up short in his quest for the Presidency and briefly served as Ford’s VP. Interesting man, interesting book; I learned a lot.
My sister loved and recommended it, but I gave up after 50 pages and haven’t since seen the Tom Hanks film adaptation. Just never hooked me.
Thank you, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one. Looks like it’s been generally well-received according to Goodreads ratings and reviews.
Just started The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Published in 2004, it’s a look at what might have happened in the USA had Charles Lindbergh ran against and defeated FDR in the 1940 presidential election.
Finished Spider-Man: Down These Mean Streets, by Keith R. A. DeCandido, which was okay.
Now I’m reading Clockwork Futures: The Science of Steampunk and the Reinvention of the Modern World, by Brandy Schillace.
Haven’t read it, but there was a pretty good HBO miniseries a few years ago.
I have heard good things about the HBO series, so I thought I’d read the book first. And I like the books by Roth that I’ve previously read.
I liked The Great American Novel quite a bit. That may be the only one of Roth’s I ever read. “Mundys Mercy-Killed”
I took a break from The Cider Hose Rules, which I continue to enjoy, and read Daniel Stone’s Sinkable, because it was due back at the library and someone else wanted it (the nerve). This is the story of efforts to locate and raise the Titanic, with attention paid to the science behind shipwrecks (and locating and raising shipwrecks), other famous shipwrecks not involving the Titanic, and the sometimes outsized personalities of the people who have devoted years of their lives in some cases to trying to resuscitate the ship. It hopped around kind of a lot, but it’s well researched and it’s an interesting topic. I learned a bunch of stuff, which is always nice.
I finished The Last of the Mohicans. It is, indeed, a thrilling tale. However I now have a new appreciation for Mark Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.” The man knew what he was talking about.
Twain and I are on the same page, I reeeeeeeeeeally tried to read “The Last of the Mohicans” but I couldn’t get more than twenty pages iirc, it was just too boring.
(In fairness, I’ve only finished one Twain book, because my attention wanders off SQUIRREL!)
I had to employ the Thomas Wolfe defense to get through it. I threw myself into the rip current of words and let it carry me along until something happened and I could swim to shore.
I just finished Sakamoto Days, vol 1 & 2Sakamoto Days, vol 1 & 2 for one of my book clubs. Now I’m starting on The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty for another book club.
I have a friend who attended high school in upstate NY, not far from where Last of the Mohicans takes place. The school had all students read the book for an English class. The students overwhelmingly disliked the assignment but the school did nothing. Until (my friend says) there was a student who after reading each page would tear it out of the book and throw it in the fireplace. According to my friend, that was that for the tradition of reading Mr. Fenimore Cooper’s works at that school.
Who knows whether it’s true. But it should be!