That is one of my very favorite novels ever. Wharton is subtle, so thoughtful, so intelligent, such a skilled observer of her society. I could read it again and again.
I just finished “Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine” by the wonderful Dr. Paul Offit. The book is a quick, fun, fast look at the history and contemporary assertions of the alternative medicine field. He rightfully takes good and effective aim at several past and current targets including acupuncture, Lyme disease, Suzanne Somers and her empire of bullshit and various other people who deserve to be called out.
In leaving a concert or play, I often quote Wharton from The Age of Innocence: “Americans like nothing about culture so much as their speedy departure from it.”
I’m past the halfway mark in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and am still digging it. Might have to see the movie again, in fact.
I’m also reading Asimov short stories (“Galley Slave” and “The Last Question” most recently), off and on, and haven’t gotten far into the giant child-development tome Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon. So far it’s slow going.
Under the Duvet by Marian Keyes. It’s light, funny essays by a writer of chick lit. After reading some heavier stuff, I was in the mood for something like this. I love it.
Mind you, it’s not all light. Her story of her alcoholism is very real, very scary. We are lucky she is still here.
The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers, which was awesome. Fairly long novel, combines music, math, and the experience of being of mixed race heritage in the US. I thought this was terrific, powerful writing.
I also finished a YA novel, The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines. It was okay, I guess? I feel like I should have liked it a lot, it’s a new take on the Cinderella story featuring strong, positive female characters who take action for themselves and rescue the prince instead of the other way around … but despite its good qualities, it just didn’t suck me into the story at all.
Finished The Litigators, by John Grisham. Very good. A two-bit, ambulance-chasing law firm in Chicago thinks they’ve struck gold with a possible mass tort case against a large pharmaceutical company. It seems too good to be true … and maybe it is. This one contains more humor than the other Grisham books I’ve read. The readers could be forgiven for thinking he was reading a Carl Hiaasen novel despite the Chicago setting. Recommended.
Just started Conspirata, by Robert Harris. A sequel of sorts to his Imperium, although Harris insists it’s not necessary to have read the earlier book first, that this one stands on its own. In ancient Rome, the statesman Cicero becomes involved in a bizarre murder on the eve of his consulship.
I finished “Dust” by Hugh Howey. It was a good ending to the Silo series, but I found myself with a lot of questions at the end. I gave up on “Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century,” which was interesting at first but got really dull after the murder took place. I felt like I didn’t really need to know the entire history of the two girls’ parents. I’m now reading “The Museum of Extraordinary Things” by Alice Hoffman, and “Fallout” by Todd Strasser. They’re both good, but “Fallout” has really captured my attention.
I looked into it and it must be referring to so-called “chronic Lyme disease”, which isn’t recognized in the medical literature.
I never heard of that before - we get all sorts of warnings to watch out for ticks because of “Lyme Disease”, which is why I was surprised to see it listed as fraudulent. Seems “Lyme Disease” is real, but “Chronic Lyme Disease” most likely isn’t.
All right, I finished Origin in Death by JD Robb and now I can saw I know why romance and mystery are different genres. Other than the first half of this book reads like a gay porno with half the characters switched to female, the thing is just wannabee soft core porn.
I think there needs to be a drinking game for every cliche hit:
tough female cop with bad background- check
tough female cop has no concept of dressing up - check
tough female cop doesn’t like pampering - check
tough female cop can’t deal with husband’s family - check
tough female cop cringes at the though of holding a baby - check
I finished reading The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. I thought it was entertaining enough with some funny bits, although I skimmed through some of the philosophizing in the last half.
Beautiful spring weather here over the weekend, and I took a break after mowing our yard to sit in the sun and continue enjoying Cloud Atlas. Very good stuff.
I finished The Devil’s Gentleman about a poisoning case in New York in the late 1890s. If you like Erik Larson’s books, I’d highly recommend this. Schechter goes through the crime, the investigation (hampered by the yellow journalism of the time), the inquest, and both trials before giving an actual motive for the crimes in the very last chapter.
Yeah. Chronic Lyme Disease is what he makes a case against.
I bought The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell from Amazon. The actual book is great so far. The Mitford sisters are fascinating people although I’m going to ring the author’s neck if she doesn’t dump on Diana the goddamned Nazi at some point later on. The problem is that seller sent me a book with a section in it that is literally falling out. I had to plead with them to refund my four bucks which they did.
I started The Murder Book by Jonathon Kellerman Monday. I’ve read it once before but I didn’t grasp the concept of what a “murder book” was, consequently it felt very contrived and deus ex machina to me. So after reading so much Michael Connelly and a few other police mysteries, I thought I should go back and reread it to see if I’d been unfair.
The narrative style is arsy though, too many words and too detached.
I don’t understand. Isn’t this a real illness?