The City of Brass, S. A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty is a book that I got from a list of science fiction books to read.  I cannot remember which list.  It is the first in a trilogy.

Started: 10/23/2019

Completed: 10/27/2019

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  A list of books somewhere

Review:

This story takes place in an Arabic mythology.  It is sweeping and it is extremely interesting.  Catching up on the mythology itself is a challenge, but worth doing while reading through.  The end has a twist that it is reasonable to expect, but that still surprised me and made me smile.  Wait for the twist and enjoy it when it happens.  This book really lays the foundation for the rest of the trilogy, but it is worth reading on its own as well.

Amity and Prosperity, Eliza Griswold

Amity and Prosperity:  One family and the fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that I heard about on the NYT Review of Books pod cast.

Started: 10/19/2019

Completed: 10/23/2019

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By: The New York Times

Review:

This book will not make you happy.  It will embarrass you as an American.  Nobody will read this book and think that the United States is great or even functional.  I found the book frustrating and the dark message arrived at the same time as some personal dark times so it was a double whammy.

This is similar to Love Canal.  The start is equally horrifying.  The woman at the center matches.  This is not the same story.

I can recommend it, but I'm not happy about it.

The Rook, Daniel O'Malley

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley was on a list of fantasy books being made into shows/movies.  The plot looked interesting.

Started: 10/15/2019

Completed: 10/19/2019

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  A book list

Review:

I love that the author was comfortable throwing in political commentary:  "Nobody pays any attention to protesters.  Even environmentalists are routinely ignored and their arguments make sense."

The premise of the book (that the protagonist has amnesia) is a little reminiscent of the Jason Bourne books, but, in my opinion, is done much better.  The twist of adding in the supernatural also helps.  This was a good read stand-alone, but there is also a sequel and it is clear how the hooks were built in the book to allow for that.

Educated, Tara Westover

Educated: A memoir by Tara Westover is a must read book for 2019.  In addition this book was on Barack Obama's summer reading list for 2018.

Started: 10/12/2019

Completed: 10/15/2019

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  The New York Times

Words for which I sought help:

fictive -- creating or created by imagination.

polyphony -- the style of simultaneously combining a number of parts, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other.

shibboleth -- a custom, principal, or belief distinguishing a particular call or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important.

Review:

I was interested in the Illuminati for a little while, but it never took over my life.  Ms. Westover was dominated by this kind of conspiracy theory for her childhood.  It was amazing to hear how completely indoctrination can dominate a child's life.  Of course, it makes sense, that this would happen to a child, but it is hard to hear about.

Preparing for Y2K, Tara's father says, "When the hour of need arises, the time of preparation has past."  I really like this quotation (though it is oddly displaced in the imagined dystopia that surrounds the Westover clan).

I love this description:  "terms...were dotted around the page like black holes sucking all of the other words into them."  There were several more clever descriptions that revolved around reading and math that I enjoyed.

The story of how Ms. Westover overcomes the machinations and twisted rewritten histories of her family is compelling.  It seems to me, however, that she wrote her story too early.  There is so much more to tell.  I think that the subtitle should be, "an introduction."

The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemison

The Fifth Season: Every age must come to an end by N. K. Jemisin was recommended on a list of good books.  This is the first book in the Broken Earth series and have enjoyed other books by Jemisin.

Started: 10/7/2019
Completed: 10/12/2019
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

redolent -- fragrant or sweet-smelling

spavined -- suffering from or affected by spavin.  Being of or marked by a decrepit or being broken-down condition.

Review:

Jemisin builds worlds that are starkly different from our current world, but introduces them so gradually with a pinch of this odd thing or a snippet of that alien concept that one does not even realize how unfamiliar this should all be.  Through this gradual introduction Jemisin has the reader buying into the world and its constructs without even having to think about how odd it is.  This ability to create a consistent and coherent world and then introduce it as though it were a familiar environment is an incredible execution of craft.

A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin is the first book in the Song of Fire and Ice Series.  I was told about this book many years ago, long before the HBO series was shot, but had never gotten around to reading it.  This is the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Started: 9/28/2019

Completed: 10/6/2019

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  Aaron

Review:

The rumors of the series on HBO suggest that this series is awash in blood.  It occurred to me that the series could only capture a portion of the series and that, therefore, it would capture the most "exciting" portions.  This is often life and death.  My suspicions bore true and the book was much more than simply a swim through gore.

That is not to say that the gore is not rampant, but it does not seem like it is purely for its own sake.  There is a certain amount of blood and gore to be expected in a medieval fantasy.

The scope of the book is fantastic and this book was clearly not written to stand on its own.  Too many things simply get started.  Be careful, it is addictive.