Just finished Camelot’s Court by historian Robert Dallek, a pretty interesting look at JFK and his relationships with (and frequent letdowns by) his advisors. The Vietnam War and the Cold War generally get the most attention; the Civil Rights Movement and domestic policy relatively little.
Yesterday I read Conversion by Katherine Howe. It’s about a mystery illness that strikes a group of girls at a school, interspersed with the confession of a girl who helped start the Salem witch panic. This book sucked me right in and I couldn’t put it down! However, in the aftermath, I’m disappointed in how it finished up.
Book 2 of Game of Thrones. Martin sure spends a lot of time describing what people are wearing.
Have you read The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane? If so, how did you like it? I’ve had that book on my to read list for a long time, but I’m hesitant to pick it up because it has some bad reviews on Goodreads.
I finished two books over the weekend. The first was Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes. I enjoyed the book, which was no surprise since I like everything I’ve read by the author. She has this wonderful gift about creating a story out of a very distressing situation, and making that story hilarious, marvelously entertaining, and compulsively readable while still being true to the human condition – showing the full range of difficult emotions that characters are going through and handling tough subjects with sensitivity.
Also read Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential – and Endangered by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz. I have mixed feelings about this one. It had some intriguing insights into how the human brain works, particularly in reference to the concept of mirror neurons and the idea that empathy is actually (in part) instinctual and part of human biology. But I think I went into the book with my expectations set too high. I had recently read Perry’s first book, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, and was impressed at how elegantly the author struck a balance between engaging stories and informative research. Born for Love, in contrast, did not feel as cohesive. There were less stories to show how the research findings presented played out in real life. And you’d think if there were less stories, there would be more solid research in their place, but nope. There was just more repetition. The book felt longer than it needed to be in places, and the concluding chapter was riddled with editorial mistakes. I’m still glad I read the book, just saying it absolutely was not up to par with the quality of his first book.
And eating. The man loves his food.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to get that one yet.
I was pretty surprised at all the bad reviews Goodreads gave Conversion…sometimes it seems like those guys love everything! 
Just began another of Patrick O’Brian’s novels of Napoleonic sea adventure, HMS Surprise. I’d read it before, more than a decade ago, out of order from the rest of the Aubrey-Maturin series, but am now enjoying it anew.
I took a mental health day off work yesterday and spent part of it re-reading John Bellair & Brad Strickland’s The Ghost in the Mirror. [John Astin]I’m feeling much better now.[/JA]
I’m also partway through Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain. Mr. Bryson loves England, as do I. This is making me desperately want to go again. I had forgotten how funny he was, as well. I’ll wait until I’m finished to give this five stars over at Goodreads, but it’s just a formality.
I really need to get caught up with the Strickland books.
Finished Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I thought it was excellent.
Now I’m reading You’re Not Lost if You Can Still See the Truck: The Further Adventures of America’s Everyman Outdoorsman, by Bill Heavey.
I’m in the middle of book 8 of The Expanse series.
Re-reading Laura Resnick’s Esther Diamond series, currently on Unsympathetic Magic
A fun urban fantasy about a minor actress in New York who keeps running into magical problems.
I just finished reading P D Jame’s “Cover Her Face”. A while back, I noted that I’d given up on “An Unsuitable Job for a Woman” and wondered if PD James had ever met a college student or a 20 year old woman.
Reading “Cover Her Face” made me wonder if she’d ever met any humans at all. It sort of reads like what a computer would spit out after having digested all of Agatha Christie’s oeuvre. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh – I did check and this was the first of the Adam Dagleish series, and it was published in 1962 which was a very different era. But it was annoying book, and I think the word that best describes it is “contrived”. (Possible spoilers ahead).
The basic plot is your bog standard drawing room mystery. A beautiful if unsympathetic young woman is murdered. In a manor house. In England. The day of the country fete. After the heir has proposed to her. She’s an unmarried mother, so the marriage would not be a suitable one. The suspects include. well, the usual suspects, a jealous woman, a couple of people who just didn’t like the girl for some reason, a few people with mysterious pasts, and a couple of red herrings thrown in. All very standard stuff, and I guess the clues were all there. But sheesh, the dead girl’s bedroom and environs had more traffic through it that night than a convenience store before a blizzard. And of course everyone lied about it, tried to protect various other people, and generally made a muddle of things. And then the deputy inspector, instead of nabbing the suspect, actually invites everyone into the drawing room and does the whole “let me tell you a story” routine. Which I bet wasn’t standard policing even back in Jolly Olde England in 1962.
But my real problem with the novel wasn’t that it didn’t have a shred of originality, but rather that no one did anything that made sense. People up and proposed to other people for what appeared to be no reason. People lied and schemed and did various silly things that no normal person would do. And I’m sure some of the characters had redeeming qualities, but by the end of the book, I was hoping they’d all end up in the pokey and I didn’t really care who did it. So…meh.
I also started reading the “Weather Warden” series by Rachel Caine after finding the first two books at a book fair. Mildly intriguing premise which is that the weather actually hates us and weather wardens keep it under control. But the main character is a woman and she’s apparently super hot, and although she’s seemingly unaware of it, she’s a super powerful warden and brings all the supernatural boys to the yard. I made it most of the way through the second book before I got tired of the hot supernatural sex and relationship issues getting in the way of the plot. I have a feeling I wasn’t the target audience for this series, but someone who liked Anita Blake or the Southern Vampire mysteries would probably enjoy it.
I’m down to my last two hours or so of Patrick O’Brian’s HMS Surprise, and have been enjoying it quite a bit. The scenes set in colonial Bombay in 1804, and describing an exciting chase on the Indian Ocean among British and French warships, are particularly good.
Next up: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which I tried a few years ago and put aside as tediously didactic. It’s on an important topic, and I’m gonna give it another try.
I read too many books in that series, because I got one of the later books, then had to get all of the ones before that. And I’m one of those people that have a hard time stopping reading a book no matter how stupid it gets.
I think the target audience for those books are people who like cool cars or people who like women’s fashion.
Finished License Renewed by John Gardner and started For Special Services, the second James Bond book in Gardner’s series.
I picked up this particular copy used and from the price stickers on it, it’s been resold at least 4 times (3 different used book stores and a Goodwill), and at least once it made it’s way to Canada. When I finish it, I need to donate it or something so it can continue it’s journey.
I like her Incryptid series a lot. I’m meh on her Toby Daye books.
I’m in the middle of this. I loved the Amazon series, so I thought I would try the book.
Power to your oar sir. I gave up after Book 2.
I started this series, but also DNF. It was an interesting premise, but I got tired of the angst.
I’m reading “The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel” by Jasper Fforde. I’m enjoying it. It’s quirky, but it pulls you right along. I have no real idea how this world is supposed to work, but maybe I’ll figure it out at some point.
I finished “The Third Mrs Durst” by Ann Aguirre. It was a beach read. It’s a revenge novel, with obvious call outs to the Trumps. It reminded me of another revenge book, “Jane Doe” by Victoria Helen Stone. I think that one was much better.
I’ve started “The Merciful Crow” which is an interesting fantasy about a clan of outcasts who prevent the spread of the plague. It’s a different world take then I’ve seen before, and I’m enjoying it. It’s a tad bleak, so don’t read for a pick me up.
Finished it and loved it.
Also zipped through Simple Heraldry by Iain Moncreiffe and Don Pottinger, a short 1953 intro to the essentials of heraldry, with clever, entertaining illustrations.
I finished Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. The stupid blurb writer obviously hadn’t read the book so I went in expecting a romance and all the usual suspect cliches and came out wildly surprised at the humor, depth and lack of cliches. It was thought provoking to see America’s tangled race relations for the viewpoint of an outsider.
Shadow Captain, Alastair Reynolds. Sequel to Revenger - Youngish Adult Sci-fi
The Ness sisters are at it again, sailing around what is left of the solar system. (It’s a bit murky, but it seems that the original eight planets were somehow destroyed, and life now exists on thousands of artificial worlds at varying distances from the sun.) They and their crew spend some time on a decaying space station, deal with mysterious aliens, and search for a hidden treasure. It’s like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly.
Quite enjoyable space opera, recommended. (But read the first one first.)