Trio, William Boyd

 

Trio by William Boyd is a book that was recommended in the readers review of The Guardian.  The reviewer was so passionate that it compelled me to add it to my list.

Started: 2/24/2021
Completed: 2/27/2021
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: A reader of The Guardian

Words for which I sought help:

Battenberg Cake -- a light sponge cake with different sections held together with jam.  The cake is covered in marzipan and, when cut in cross section, displays a distinctive two-by-two checked pattern alternatingly colored pink and yellow.

lubricious -- offensively displaying or intended to arouse sexual desire

vertiginous -- causing vertigo, especially by being extremely high or steep

Review:

The way that the three characters interact and develop over the course of Trio is really good.  Boyd does a great job of finding ways to tell you about the characters through their actions rather than through external monologues.  The characters are compelling and Boyd does not seem obsessed with tying up every loose end.  Some minor plots develop and then disappear, some major plots have several possible "endings" that are not explored in the book.  I enjoyed it and would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in a character based story.

Still Life, Louise Penny

 

Still Life by Louise Penny is the first in a series that my mother enjoyed.  Mysteries are not really my thing.  This is the first book in the Armand Gamash Books.

Started: 2/22/2021
Completed: 2/24/2021
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended by: My mother

Review:

This was a good mystery.  The point was not the mystery.  The point was to introduce you to the inhabitants of Three Pines.  They are an interesting crew and the fact that this is the first in a series of books that leverages the complexity of the characters developed in this first book is pretty good.  I am inclined to read the series.

The Ministry For The Future, Kim Stanley Robinson

 

The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is a book I saw on a Science Fiction list and I enjoy the author.

Started: 2/15/2021
Completed: 2/22/2021
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: A Science Fiction List

Words for which I Sought Help:

farangi -- foreigner

trenchant -- vigorously effective and articulate (I was curious to see if this word was derived from Richard Chenevix Trench, who proposed the creation of the Oxford English dictionary--it is not)

Review:

Robinson does not like capitalism.  This is blatant in this book and I'm not saying that he is wrong, but I wonder if fiction is the way to make an argument.  This is clearly an effort to help normal people understand the stakes of not acting on climate change.  There is an effort to identify how capitalism makes climate change worse (an argument that has a strong basis in fact) and this is coupled with an oddly capitalistic approach to solving that problem.  I guess it boils down to money = power.

He also pretty much hates the banking system.  This book repeatedly addresses banking the same way Seinfeld addresses Newman.  

The perspective of how things might go under serious climate change and the horrors that may be required in order for people to act are fairly well envisaged.  The characters are forgettable in my opinion and deaths of some of the major characters came as a relief in several cases, rather than the disaster experienced by the other characters in the book.

There is a very long section on how each country (it seemed as though it was every UN country) could take steps to mitigate climate change provided as a list of attendees (country and cause) that was remarkably boring and wholly unnecessary.  I happened to be listening to this section when my wife was in the same room and she asked how I could possibly listen to this...I had to skip forward repeatedly to get out of the list.  Perhaps, as a reader, I would have scanned the pages or something.  I find it hard to believe that anyone would read the list with interest.

This Is What America Looks Like, Ilhan Omar

 

This Is What America Looks Like: My journey from refugee to congresswoman by Ilhan Omar is a book about a member of The Squad and I had to pick it up.  Special ordered it from a local brick and mortar book store and it jumped up in my list if things to read because she is so important to America.

Started: 2/13/2021
Completed: 2/20/2021
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Ilhan Omar's campaign which sent me an email about the book becoming available

Review:

I am so glad I read this book.  I really didn't remember who Omar was.  She was a member of The Squad and their forward thinking, progressive policies were enough for me, but I really did not understand who she was.  I'd even forgotten that I'd emailed her and offered to drive her around DC if she needed it in response to her op-ed about the cabbie in DC before she became a representative.

She is far from perfect and it is important to remember that about those who represent us in Congress.  It was good to see that she was more than a policy wonk as well (Elizabeth Warren really benefited in my opinion from her discussion with Colbert--those discussions helped us see her as more than a politician).  I look forward to one day meeting her and thanking her for her role in making government more supportive of the people.  Of course, that will have to wait until after this COVID nonsense is well past over.  And, of course, I'm just another old white guy who thrills to see diversity in congress, so likely nothing special in her book.

Caste, Isabel Wilkerson

 

Caste: The origins of our discontents by Isabel Wilkerson keeps getting reviewed as an excellent book offering insights into systemic racism.

Started: 2/12/2021
Completed: 2/15/2021 (did not finish)
Recommendation: Recommended if you have not read of the horrors of slavery
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

"Race is a social concept, not a scientific one," J. Craig Venter (geneticist who ran Celera Genomics).

Here's the deal, I just cannot stomach the reality again.  I have read several books about slavery forcing myself to pay attention to the graphic detail of the horrors of slavery.  I just cannot do it again.  As it is, my nightmares all too often go in this direction.  It is just more than I can take.  Yes, I realize that merely reading about something awful (likely perpetrated by my own relatives) is nothing even remotely like living through it.  I don't wish slavery on anyone ever.  I have a visceral reaction to its horrors.  I just cannot take any more and had to abandon this book half way through.

America, The Band, Jude Warne

 

America, The Band: An authorized biography by Jude Warne with a forward by Billy Bob Thornton is a book about a band that I like and was planning to go see before COVID got in the way.

Started: 1/16/2021
Completed: 2/13/2021
Recommendation: Recommended for fans
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

diegetic -- occurring within the context of the story and able to be heard by the characters

longevous -- long-lived

Review:

I thought that this would be a biography of the band members.  It is not, really.  It is more a biography of the music of the band.  Of course, there is biographical material for the band members, but you aren't going to learn things like Dewey's favorite colors.  Their birth dates are not mentioned.  The focus is on the music.

The book itself is exceedingly well made.  It has a certain heft, a "book" feel, like I associate with a textbook.  The binding is taught and the paper is heavy weight and relatively high gloss (great for the pictures, but causes a glare when reading under lights).  This book is made to live a long and well used life.  I do not recognize the font as anything special, but I found it easy to read.  The pictures embedded in the book are very well printed.

There is a period of over 10 years (covered in a few paragraphs) when the band becomes a touring band and does not produce a studio album.  To me, this sounds like a rich period for the band and covers a time of divorces and marriages.  We really don't learn much about how the band managed except that it played much smaller venues and spent a lot more time on the road.  It is a loss to not understand this period because the band has not really returned to being a studio band (although there have been more albums).  Gerry has done nine solo albums, but these are glossed over and barely mentioned.  In short, this is a book about America's music and only addresses the people behind the music in order to understand the music itself better.

As for the music, this is an excellent resource.  The explanation behind "A Horse With No Name" (it is not a drug hallucination) and that it was written by a teenager is pretty awesome.  The book is more technical then I can understand, but it isn't really in depth.  There is a lot of talk about bridges (to me, this means kind of a transition piece), but I do not pretend to understand how bridges work, why they are difficult, and what they contribute to the music (it is assumed that all of this is known).  I also have no idea what a "middle eighth" is, but it is clearly a section of a song.  That there are odd tunings for the guitar is discussed (I understand that part), but the actual tunings are not provided--which is fine, but it seems like it would be a good thing to add.  There is also a fair amount of discussion of particular types of chords (like seventh chords) which means nothing to me (I'm guessing it involves something like a G7 to C7 or something like that, which, to me, is simply fingering on the guitar fret).  The actual definition is not helpful ("A seventh chord is the combination of a triad and an interval of a seventh").  This just leads me down a rabbit hole of music theory trying to figure out what a triad, interval, and a seventh are.  The chase is surely not worth the run as all of these concepts are likely wrappers for other concepts that I will never use because I do not play instruments or sing.

Shakespeare In A Divided America, James Shapiro

 

Shakespeare In A Divided America:  What his plays tell us about our past and future by James Shapiro was one of the 10 best books of 2020 according to the New York Times.

Started: 2/9/2021
Completed: 2/12/2021
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: The New York Times

Review:

While I am sure that Shapiro overstates the case for Shakespeare, this is a well presented book.  It is broken into easily digested pieces with a coherent theme.  What I learned about "Kiss Me Kate" is appalling, though I guess I should have thought it of Shakespeare.  I have acted (as an amateur) in a number of his plays and generally found them interesting.  This does bring another scholarly level to the discussion, but it is not beyond me to understand what Shapiro is saying.  Well worth the time.

The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow

 

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow was brought to my attention by my wife and the reviews were quite good.

Started: 2/3/2021
Completed: 2/9/2021
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Good Reads

Review:

This book is a bit of philosophy and it looks a tad at the nature of trust.  "Surely, trust is never broken, but simply lost; and, what is lost that can't be found?" is how the book starts, but, by midway, trust is something given.  It is an interesting idea.

I'm not particularly big on life and death as a motivator for a story.  I'm not really happy about a compelling death.  This book just did not make me happy.  I really, really  like the characters.  I liked the fun of the "Sisters Grimm" or "Little Girl Blue."  The layered love story is nice.  In short, this is a good book.  I just do not like the way that death is a lever to force along what would be an excellent and compelling story without it.  I have to admit, I think it would do fine even without the risk of death being in the offing throughout.  Then again, how many books have I written?

Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey

 

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey is the first book in The Expanse Series.

Started: 1/29/2021
Completed: 2/3/2021
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Rachel

Review:

This is a rip-roaring shoot-em-up with a couple of minor romances to keep interest in the characters alive.  The book takes place over a short period, so it is not reasonable to expect the characters to grow, but they are fairly flat.  Corey overcomes this by changing the point of view frequently so that the characters are richer with their inner stories.  From the start it felt to me like an alien invasion (either Alien or Invasion of the Body Snatchers), but this did not play out until around midway through the book.

Normally a sci-fi book takes some technological innovation and then examines what the innovation would do.  This book takes notes from, say, The Foundation Series, and examines what happens when things get complacent.  What happens when humans have created "enough" tech and "enough" distance from one another that balance seems possible.  The inevitable conclusion is, war.  I do not find war interesting in this sense and in this book war seems like a way to put drama into people's lives.  It is not really an exploration of the worst or best of people.  The characters seem to muddle through (as one might expect during a real war), but the war feels almost like a prop...something that Corey throws around, but never really investigates.  One hears that battles occurred without any real sense of them occurring.  The characters also seem to ignore war in general and treat it as incidental to their own drama.

The alien concept is ill-explained.  It is hard to imagine that a proto-molecule has any form of will.  It is odd to think that it becomes a virus which then starts directing its host.  There is hand-waving that this is incomprehensible as the proto-molecule was created by technological gods, but it is unclear how the proto-molecule could ever develop a will of its own.  Don't get me started on crystal towers on Venus.

It feels to me like the book is a set-up for a movie.  There are chase scenes, death scenes, love scenes, and plenty of background.  One thing that is odd is the discussion of scents, which comes up repeatedly in the novel.  At one point, a person talks about smelling the body of the former owner of a spacesuit, but shortly thereafter, "can only smell himself."  I kind of have the feeling that the discussions of scents were an editor's addition to a book destined for the screen.  This helped make it more of a novel and less of a screen play.  Actual astronauts do not describe a space suit as having a smell at all and the bottled oxygen has to be constantly circulated or the astronaut would just end up with CO2 in the helmet.  Heating and cooling is not done with air, so I dunno.