Right. I told my husband I don’t think King’s ever going to wow me again. He asked, “Because he’s changed or because you have?” I said, “Yes.”
Excellent!
Huh. I read Stolen Focus a while ago, and don’t remember it the way you do. What I remember is that he identified most of the problems as larger systemic issues ranging from the attention economy to pollution - all largely things nobody has direct control over - and then sort of offers some ideas for a rather pitiful individualized defense.
I think I read this book before I was diagnosed with ADHD, so I don’t think I would have had an opinion about his thoughts there. Now I most certainly would. If he really made that claim, he’s full of it. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition present from early childhood. Plenty of people with ADHD don’t have hyperactivity or behavior problems, what we all have are attention regulation problems. Everyone on the planet has some difficulties with attention regulation sometimes, and today’s society has made it significantly worse. But that’s a separate thing from having your brain wired differently from birth.
I thought Fairy Tale was a good read, albeit a bit lengthy. Don’t know if I was wowed, but I was entertained.
Finished Grendel, by John Gardner. It started out great–Grendel’s “voice” was wonderful. He was a unique character. But he turned into someone who sounded just like a human, and not an interesting one at that. He and the humans sounded like people from the 1970’s. I was disappointed.
Now I’m reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence–Revised Edition, by Betty Edwards.
There was an animated movie adaptation released about 10 years after the book was published. IIRC, it’s interesting, though very uneven - sometimes witty, often not - but there’s at least one good musical number. May not be easy to find…
Finished In a Country with No Name, by Ron Morris. A young American man in Bangkok gets mixed up in politics in a neighboring country. Not out yet, it will be published next year. The author, a personal friend of mine in Bangkok, gave me an advance copy to read. This is a worthy read, but I probably liked his previous novel a little better, There Are Still Unknown Places, because it dealt with Western expats struggling to make a living in 1990s Bangkok, a theme that hits home personally.
Have started If It Bleeds, by Stephen King. A collection of four novellas.
Started They Do it with Mirrors by Agatha Christie.
Holy casual use of the n-word! Yikes.
Kind of jarring to think you could publish something like that in those days. I’m disappointed.
Still making my way through Left for Dead, Bill Weathers’ account of the 1996 Everest Disaster. It’s the least compelling of the three first-hand accounts, IMO.
Here’s a fun one: The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead. It’s a locked room mystery (well, there are multiple locked rooms) deliberately written to remind readers of the so-called “Golden Age” of the mystery novel. If you like John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, early Christie, this might be for you. It’s not terribly well written, but then no one ever accused Ellery Queen of being a master stylist, and it is blessedly free of the casual and not-so-casual racism and sexism of most of these earlier writers. A couple of the things that happen are pretty seriously implausible, but that’s the nature of a locked room mystery I suppose. I enjoyed it; it’s the second in a series, and I ordered the first from the library today.
I started Anya Kamanetz’s The Stolen Year, which is about COVID and children, in particular the effect of the closing of schools on kids. At least at the beginning it reads like a polemic, with the author looking for people to blame. Having taught three different levels of students on zoom during the pandemic I found the subject really interesting, but I was in the mood for something more objective than this. Back to the library it goes.
Interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.
I finished They Do it With Mirrors. I thought it was very good. Second one where I figured out Whodunnit and a little of the How, but I don’t resent that at all, part of the fun for me is putting together the clues and then finding out I was on the right track.
Yesterday I read The Night It Ended, a mystery novel by Katie Garner. Well, no…actually I read about half of it, then skimmed to the end. The main character and the style of writing were getting on my nerves something fierce. There were two storylines, the main mystery and something having to do with the narrator. I didn’t care about the first but wanted to find out about the second. That urge to find out, plus the twist at the end, makes me give it two stars because it might be a good book for someone else although I disliked it.
Started today on The September House, a haunted house novel by Carissa Orlando. The thing about this house is that the haunting really ramps up in September. However, the owner loves the place so much, she’s willing to try and get past it. Also, she can see and communicate with the spirits (it actually reminds me a bit of the TV show Ghosts, although these spirits aren’t as benevolent). Blurbed by the great Grady Hendrix.
Finished Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence–Revised Edition, by Betty Edwards, which was quite interesting.
Now I’m reading There’s No Coming Back from This, by Ann Garvin.
I read John Scalzi’s latest, Starter Villain, over the weekend. I’m a little under the weather and had a crappy week at work last week, so something kind of silly fit the bill.
Ooo, thanks, BetsQ - I didn’t know there was a new John Scalzi book out! Just added it to my list. I love Scalzi. Even his less-than-great stuff is worth a read IMHO.
I read John Gardner’s Grendel in prep school. I don’t remember it very well, other than that I liked it. I never envisioned it as looking anything like that Peter Ustinov cartoon, though!
Just finished Sinkable by Daniel Stone, about shipwrecks in general and the Titanic in particular. Interesting to learn about all the ambitious but cockamamie schemes to raise the sunken liner from the bottom of the ocean before it was discovered in 1985, broken in two and in very bad shape. Stone also writes at length about a British eccentric who claimed ownership of the wreck in the Sixties and was never officially contradicted by the White Star Line, Cunard, Lloyd’s of London, Her Majesty’s Government, etc. Recommended.
I’ve now begun The New Hunger by Isaac Marion, a prequel novella to his book Warm Bodies, which was made into a pretty good zombie romcom a few years ago. So far, so good.
Oh, cool. I really liked Warm Bodies. I love a good unlikely romance.
i have been a reading machine this month.
first a batch of cozy mysteries, handcrafted mysteries by holly quinn.
then riverbank knitting mysteries by allie pleiter.
second a batch of dystopian thrillers, by kyla stone. the first group was an emp survival thriller, the second was a nuclear attack thriller. both sets were page turners.
third was preston childs latest nora kelly book.
and now, enough by cassidy hutchinson. wow! her book is seriously readable. very, very interesting.
I finished listening to All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although McCarthy can get a bit wordy and flowery at times, such as the description of a sunset in the Mexican desert. Also, there was a fair amount of Spanish spoken in the book, some of which was not translated. So there were a couple of important exchanges of which I had to guess at the content. But all in all, it was an entertaining read.
I may attempt the next novel in his trilogy, which is entitled The Crossing.
Finished There’s No Coming Back from This, by Ann Garvin, which I enjoyed.
Now I’m reading Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson.
Finished The September House and just loved it! Highly recommended if you like to read something spooky around this time of year. Funny too!
I was hoping someone would read it and report favorably on it. I shall add it to the stack… er stacks.