Only TWO months til Halloween! I can already hear my animated skeletons calling from their box in the basement… my life, the set up to a cheesy horror film. Seriously though, I’m ready for it to not be 70F/21C at 6 am when I’m starting work.
Anyway: Whatcha all readin?
Kindle: Dead in the Garden by Dahlia Donovan, it’s a cozy m/m murder mystery and I’m eating it up like ice cream
Audio: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, so far it’s okay, I’m not really feeling an attachment to any of the characters and there are sooooooooo many elephants in the room.
Print: Still working on The Witches of Wenshar by Barbara Hambly. My hands really don’t like big books anymore so my progress is slow.
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, who started these threads 'way back in the Stone Age of 2005. Consequently, when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in January 2013, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive.
I read Kevin Kwan’s novel Crazy Rich Asians, which could’ve been subtitled Lifestyles of the Rich and Richer in Singapore and Environs, but wasn’t. Some truly awful people who are fixated on MONEY and FAMILY PRIDE in a way that is kind of alien to me but in the end all too believable.
There are some user-friendly people in the book, too. Fortunately.
It’s probably too long, and it probably has too many characters, and I might argue that it moves a little too rapidly from the very-funny-and-almost-over-the-top to the really-quite-serious toward the end. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Some time ago I ghostwrote a number of volumes in a young adult series, and the behavior of the characters in Crazy Rich Asians was uncomfortably similar to the behavior of the characters I was given to write about–only my characters were middle schoolers, so they had an excuse!
Starting Laura Lippman’s newest novel, Prom Mom. Good so far.
I finished All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers. It’s a decent murder mystery about the homicides of two young girls in neighboring small towns 25 years apart. It’s well-written with a couple of interesting plot twists, although I did figure out the murderer before the protagonist did. But it had a wholly unsatisfying ending that didn’t completely resolve the main storyline. Nonetheless, I would recommend it if you like this genre.
Started today on 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann.
I’m not sure if this author and I are going to see eye to eye. She admits at one point to having never read Lovecraft. How can such a person call themselves a horror expert? On the other hand, she reveres King enough to dedicate the book to him (and to leave all of his books off the list because they are already known). At any rate, it’s a fun book to read and when I’m done I’ll go to the library website and add several more levels to Mount TBR.
Started listening to Dark Angel by John Sandford. It’s the second book featuring Letty Davenport, daughter of Lucas Davenport, hero of many Sandford novels. It’s good thus far, just as every Sandford book I’ve read.
I recently finished The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson, about the West Point Class of 1966’s ordeal as young Army officers in the jungles of Vietnam, and what happened to them after they returned home. It got great reviews but I found it meh.
Just started The Passengers by John Marrs, a near-future British thriller about multiple autonomous cars being hacked one day by an as-yet-undetermined bad guy. Each of the people in the hijacked cars - a cop, an aging movie star, an Indian woman escaping an abusive husband, etc. - seems to have a secret. It’s OK so far.
Also started JFK, Oswald and Ruby: Politics, Prejudice and Truth by Burt W. Griffin, nonfiction by a retired judge who was a Warren Commission staff lawyer. His primary responsibility was determining whether Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy. It’s also OK so far.
I’ve returned to Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 by D.M. Giangreco, which as I wrote before has an argumentative tone that I don’t really appreciate, but it’s a relatively good supplement to Richard B. Frank’s much, much better Downfall.
Finished Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift June 1948-May 1949, by Richard Reeves, which I enjoyed a lot. Strongly recommended, with wonderful anecdotes. For example, to find out if they had to sand the landing strip (which took time and resources) in bad weather, someone would drive a jeep at top speed (55 mph) on the strip and then hit the brakes, hard. By counting the number of landing lights he passed, he would determine if sand needed to be used. (No, the author didn’t say what the magic number was.)
Now I’m reading Year Zero, a science fiction novel by Rob Reid.
Started this morning on Stephen King’s newest, Holly. It stars recurring character Holly Gibney, solving a murder mystery. At about 50 pages in, I’m wishing he wouldn’t mention Trump so much. It’s set in the early days of the pandemic, so he can’t avoid it entirely, but I’d rather read about creepy serial killers than that whole unpleasantness.
Just zipped through 9 Magic Wishes by Shirley Jackson, a cute little kids’ book from an author you wouldn’t expect had a cute little bone in her body. It’s nicely illustrated by her grandson, Miles Hyman, a talented artist whose work I’ve seen elsewhere.
I recently read Thornhedge on a flight. Perfect airplane reading. On the flight home, I read Jenny Colgan’s 500 Miles from You, a nice fluffy rom-com that made me want to go to Scotland. (Not that Scotland is a hard sell.)
I’m still working my way through The Idiot by Elif Batuman. It’s engaging while I read, but I don’t feel very compelled to pick it up again when I put it down.
I’m also listening to Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller as an audiobook. His anecdotes are a great accompaniment to a long walk with the dog. I have to keep pausing the book to go listen to a song or band he references. It’s fun.
Seriously though, I’m ready for it to not be 70F/21C at 6 am when I’m starting work.