I would have sworn Asimovian would grow to hate me (because I’m super annoying) but he seems to still like me quite a bit. Obviously, that means this trope is dumb.
Recent reads (cozy mystery ahoy!)
Foul Play at the PTA, by Laura Alden. Cozy mystery. Decent writing and characters but a lousy-ass plot/mystery.
Death Below Stairs, by Jennifer Ashley. Historical mystery. The plot is completely unrealistic, but I was apparently feeling mellow when I read it. Okay characterizations, at least.
Murder on Black Swan Lane, by Andrea Penrose. Historical mystery. Reads like a bad Regency romance transformed partially into a bad mystery. DNF.
A Most Extraordinary Pursuit, by Juliana Gray. A very odd sf-fantasy historical mystery ish thingie. It made me laugh, though I’m not sure the conceit will hold up to sequels. (And of course there are sequels.)
I finished reading Tales from “Blackwood”, Vol I, a collection of short stories from “Blackwood’s Magazine” (which featured short stories and miscellany, including the original serialisation of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”).
It had a good assortment of comedy (“The Glenmutchkin Railway”, “A Legend of Gibraltar”), historical adventure (“Colonna the Painter”), and the macabre (“Vanderdecken’s Message Home”, “The Floating Beacon”, “The Iron Shroud”). They all kept me engaged, and I got a few good chuckles out of the funny stories.
I pretty much felt the same as you, although I didn’t get that sense of inevitability that you had about his inherent recapture. I thought I read somewhere in the book that he was escaping to Europe. Perhaps this false recollection is guiding my thoughts.
Finished Hello, Universe, by Erin Entrada Kelly. I didn’t hate it (and there have been Newbery winners I have hated; I’m looking at you, Crispin: Cross of Lead), but I didn’t think it was that great, either. I could sense the author’s presence too much, maybe because I’m one myself. “Okay, now this would be a nice ironic touch, and now this needs to happen to that character, and let’s throw in another coincidence…”
There were a few good lines, though, and one folktale I thought would have made a good picture book.
Just started Wild Thing, by Josh Bazell. It’s the sequel to Beat the Reaper, which I thought was great.
I am working my way thru Unknown London, which is a series of essays on various historical artifacts in the city - the shrine of Edward the Confessor, old bits of the Roman wall, etc. It was written in 1920, so who knows if any of the artifacts are still around. Too soon to make my mind up about it, but I am spring-loaded to like history.
Before that was Unknown Worlds: A Tale of Alien Abduction by Ray Cummings, an old pulp sci-fi writer. It was OK, but just barely. He introduced themes but didn’t do much with them, and he didn’t seem to make any attempt to make the science plausible or use it in the plot.
CalMeacham, what did you think of Thongor? I read some of them way back when, and never went back to finish the rest. OK, they are derivative of Conan, but I tried not to hold that against them. And Gods of Mars was OK but a tiny bit too heavy-handed - Burroughs does better IMO with the standard pulp themes and structure. For me, telepathic raptors work for some reason, and Gods of Mars didn’t. I would have liked if Burroughs could explore it more like the hydraulic civilizations of Egypt, and show how the religion worked to keep the society running by exploiting the peasants, but maybe that is more than can be expected from a pulp writer.
Conclave is pretty good, although far-fetched, I thought. You might also like this 1963 novel, later made into a so-so movie with Anthony Quinn: The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel) - Wikipedia
Well, all along
we’re meant to think that he’s making his escape through Finland to the West, but it’s just misdirection to cover his escape to the Russian hinterlands in the east. Even after Stalin, I just don’t know how long he’d be able to stay under the radar of the Soviet police state, especially if he remained near his family’s lost country estate.
Last night I started the book Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp. I can’t remember where I heard about it. If you like reading about alcoholics and alcoholism, this is the book for you. Both my brothers were alcoholics and this book is giving me a bit of insight into their brains. They are both dead as a result of drinking. On a lighter note, I’m reading Bill Bryson’s Road to Little Dribbing and laughing out loud.
I added this to my to-read list! I live for these sorts of books: the ones where there’s a mystery in the past that someone in the present is trying to solve.
I’m in the middle of The Rose Garden with Susanna Kearsley, which is similar in that it takes place in two different time periods. The difference is that in this book, rather than the character in the present reading about events that happened in the past, the main character can actually travel back in time to the past, so it’s the same protagonist in both time periods. I’m really enjoying the book, which surprises me because I tried two other books by the author but decided from the free sample that I didn’t want to forge ahead and read the entire book. I don’t know what inspired me to try a third time with a third book of hers, but I’m very glad I did.
I’m almost done with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s What Happened, and I’m impressed at how readable it is. I don’t see any mention of a ghostwriter in the opening pages, so if this really is all written by her, I had no idea she was such a good writer. She touches upon a lot of feminist issues, talks about some of what she would have said and done if she had been elected, and talks about some of the forces she was up against in trying to become elected (such as Russian interference and her emails). I think my favorite chapter is where she talks about a day in the life of a presidential candidate.
Finished Conclave, by Robert Harris. About the modern-day election of a new pope. A big meh. My least-favorite Harris. I kept waiting for it to pick up, and several times it seemed like it was going to, then it just fizzled. It did sort of pick up in the last 10 pages or so, but this is not worth going out of your way for. I suspect it may be mildly more interesting if you’re Catholic, or even a Christian. And I suppose it was necessary to go into the esoterica of electing a pope, but without a strong plot it only bogged down the story.
Next up is The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by my favorite historian, David McCullough.
I read that shortly after we walked across the bridge twice, once in each direction, six years ago. By his own admission, it does get bogged down a little in technical details, but I think it an admirable work regardless.
I finished Stormhaven by Jordan L Hawk this morning. I had a hard time starting it due to her taking on the treatment of mentally ill people in the late 1800s and the rejection of gay persons by their families. To her credit she didn’t wallow in either topic and stuck to the apocalyptic premise of waking “Cthulhu”. (She doesn’t call the underwater god by that name but we know ) The book is a decent page turner and does a good job of handling the conflict between families and a disliked lover.
I loved Beat the Reaper as well. Such an innovative concept, and DOESN’T Bazell just make you flinch. I wish he were still actively writing (or perhaps I should say publishing), but when you make $350-400 per hour as a psychologist, well, I don’t expect your writing revenues can compete.
I’m savoring Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird for my nonfiction read. A friend recommended the PBS series, so I’m mad for all things Victoria at the moment. This has lots of satisfying detail thus far without bogging down the reader.
I just finished the second book in the Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor, Binti: Home. Okorafor really knows how to take some known tropes / concepts and work with them in the freshest ways. I love that these books are short as well, instead of the bloat that seems to be EVERYWHERE in publishing nowadays. In Binti’s world, it is truly impossible to step outside the Himba culture, but she has done so in multiple ways and is now paying the price. Can’t wait to get my hands on the next one, Night Masquerade.
For book club, I’m reading The Vampyre by John Polidori. Ground-breaking and quick - we’ll have lots to discuss with this proto-horror.
Also, don’t you just HATE it when you can’t lay hands on a book by hook or crook? (Okay, I didn’t mean to triple-down on the assonance there… though it works). I’ve been waiting ages for Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner to come out - I got to read a snippet ages ago - and by heaven, nobody has it. Well, I assume I could buy it somewhere, but I’d go broke (MORE broke) if I did. Worse yet, my local public library is closed for a ‘refresh’ through May; they would normally get it for me, but not right now. I hate to buy a book if I don’t get the sense I’ll re-read it or want it for reference, and in this case, I doubt it. Nuts!
So far I’ve read 2.5 of the 4 short stories in Joe Hill’s collection, Strange Weather. Great, great stuff.
Oh, that sounds interesting! I just had a sample sent to my Kindle (though when I finish Strange Weather I have a new David Baldacci to read). Thank you.
I’m taking a break from McCullough’s The Great Bridge, and am now reading First They Killed My Father by Cambodian author Loung Ung. It’s a pretty grim memoir about surviving Pol Pot’s murderous regime.
If you can, please help a guy out with his next book purchase:
The Godfather
Like everybody else, I think that The Godfather is one of the best movies ever. I have often thought that the novel by Mario Puzo would make a fantastic read. When I mentioned this to one of my friends who has read it, she told me that it wasn’t a very good book. Was she right?
Annihilation
This book by Jeff VanderMeer won the Nebula Award, and now has been made into a movie. I haven’t bought it yet because I read “Finch” by the same author and thought it was a morose and tedious read. Should I give Jeff another chance?
If any of you have read either of these books, please let me know what you thought.
) The book is a decent page turner and does a good job of handling the conflict between families and a disliked lover.