Yes, I was aware that there were TV adaptations. I’m a bit skeptical about adaptations of works where a lot of the humour comes from parenthetical comments by the narrator, though.
I recently read The Skripal Files by Mark Urban. About the case of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who were poisoned earlier this year in the UK by agents from Russian intelligence. Also includes background information about Skripal. A fascinating read, though unfortunately it was written before the revelations about the culprits surfaced. That would have improved the book, and Urban is probably kicking himself that he rushed into print before the end of the story was known.
Also just finished Crudo by Olivia Laing. A novel that has received a lot of attention, but I wasn’t overly impressed. The use of pastiche was passably interesting, and I appreciate the attempt to write a novel of the moment. But my reaction was essentially “meh.”
Now I’m reading a new novel by Kate Morton, The Clockmaker’s Daughter. Too early to say what I think of it yet. Her earlier works were hit and miss for me.
I’m reading Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria quartet and have just finished Balthazar the second of the four. Oh the decadence! And wow, the writing.
Just finished Amity Shlaes’s Coolidge, about the POTUS who followed Harding and preceded Hoover (thus avoiding being blamed for the stock market crash and Great Depression). Shlaes tries to humanize the Vermont-born Calvin Coolidge but he really was a pretty laconic, bland, sometimes snappish person. She’s a conservative historian and goes on at some length - often with a noticeable libertarian slant - about his tax-cutting and budgetary policies. I think I understand Coolidge better now, but I can’t say I like or respect him any better.
I’m now about halfway through James Church’s A Corpse in the Koryo, about a North Korean police detective investigating the possible murder of a foreigner in a Pyongyang hotel. The detective wants to be a good cop and good man but finds it very hard to be either as he navigates the potentially-lethal NK police, security, military and intelligence bureaucracies. An interesting setting but only a so-so mystery thus far.
Also on the homestretch of Robert Heinlein’s Friday. A bit too preachy at times, but a pretty good globe-trotting story.
Finished High Hurdles, by Janet Lambert. Not recommended.
Also finished Return of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov, plus a couple of stories written by other authors as tributes. A few of these stories (including one of the tributes) I really enjoyed, but the others were kind of meh.
Next up: Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty.
Finished Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson. A biography of the Renaissance genius. Very good. He did get a couple of numbers wrong such as saying Leonardo turned 67 in 1518 when it was actually in 1519, but just a couple, and this was a very good accounting of his life. Recommended.
Next up is The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron.
Yup, although this book was more like a low-rent Dune. Did not finish.
Instead I read Ball Lightning, by Cixin Liu, author of The Three-Body Problem. Basically the author approached the unanswered question, “What exactly is ball lightning?” and came up with the most bonkers answer that he could imagine that could be considered hard science fiction. If a novel that consists of little more than military scientists investigating and discovering the secrets of ball lightning sounds dreadful to you, don’t read it. But if you can see yourself having fun with that scenario, this book won’t disappoint. The nature of ball lightning (according to this book) is balls-out-ridiculous, but also awesome. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
The Perfect Master speaks on ball lightning: Does ball lightning really exist? - The Straight Dope
Lots of cool book-related swag here: https://outofprint.com/
Whoa, neato.
I am finishing up Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. I find it written like a child’s book. Those Norse gods were all assholes, every one of them.
Finished Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. I liked it. It sort of reminded me of an Agatha Christie mystery, if it were set in space.
Now I’m reading Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack, by Robert Knott. It features Parker’s characters Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch.
Just finished Robert Heinlein’s Friday, which had its moments but was far from his best.
Also finished James Church’s A Corpse in the Koryo, a murder mystery set in contemporary North Korea. Great setting and atmosphere but not all that great a mystery, I’d say. The ending was kind of a muddle. Not sure if I’ll go on to others in the series.
I’ve begun Philip Kerr’s March Violets, about a private eye in 1936 Berlin, investigating the death of a steel magnate’s hard-drinking daughter and her SS-officer husband. So far, so good.
I’ve also started Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, about the 1986 fire which devastated the L.A. Public Library. I’ve never read an Orlean book before, and it’s great. It’s as a much a love letter to libraries as a true-crime tale of epic arson and its aftermath.
I will get the new thread for December up tomorrow, so don’t anyone panic.
I have to finsh National Novel Writing Month and have a couple other things to do today.