Orbital, Samantha Harvey

 

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Started: November 29, 2024
Completed: November 30, 2024
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: At the time I added this to my list it was on the short list for the Booker Prize

Review:

Usually the Booker Prize requires something ghastly to happen in the book.  My hopes for this book were dashed when it won.  Nothing particularly ghastly happens.  This is a "day in the life of" kind of book.  I find that very hard to pull off.  Harvey has some truly poetical paragraphs and some of the descriptions are awesome.  This is the artsy-fartsy kind of thing that seems to appeal to judges.  And, yes, there is a death (I don't think this is giving anything away, happens relatively early in this short book).  Oddly the death doesn't seem to affect the plot.  I truly dislike the ending.  Absolutely hate it.  Thus, in my petty way, I do not recommend this book.  So there.

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher

 

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

Started: November 21, 2024
Completed: November 23, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book has some horror mixed in, but was enjoyable nonetheless.  I found the characters compelling and the story developed nicely.  The victim perspective is a little unusual in fantasy magic novels and it was very interesting in this one.

Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen

 

Shameless:  Republicans' deliberate dysfunction and the battle to preserve democracy by Brian Tyler Cohen

Started: November 21, 2024
Completed: November 26, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: BTC

Review:

I have watched BTC on the Meidas Touch Network for a while.  He is an ardent and passionate supporter of democracy, progress, and Democrats.  This book is well written and while it documents the Republican shame, it feels like too little too late given the election outcome.  I definitely wouldn't feel that way if the election had gone against Trump (maybe I would have said it is a repeat of what has been clear to everyone).  So, the list of shameless hypocrisy from the right continues and we are stuck with at least two more years of it.  Worth the read if you need the proof or find the proof comforting.

Who Could Ever Love You, Mary L. Trump

 

Who Could Ever Love You:  A family memoir by Mary L. Trump

Started: November 17, 2024
Completed: November 21, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is a personal look at how Mary was affected by her family's disfunction.  It dwells mostly on her parents and how they struggled to manage in a toxic environment that eventually led to her father's death.  There is a dramatic skip between Mary as a teenager and Mary as an adult with a teenage daughter with few details.  Mary picks up with some of the ways her life parallels her parents' lives and goes on to a hopeful look at her and the country's future which ends prior to Donald's second election success.

Stronger Than the Dark, Cory Reese

 

Stronger Than the Dark:  Exploring the intimate relationship between running and depression by Cory Reese

Started: November 9, 2024
Completed: November 20, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My coworker Catherine

Review:

This is a physical book I am reading and as I started to read it, I noticed that there was a sticker on the spine that caught my hand.  That is both the problem and the promise of a physical book.  It has a tactile quality that an audio book and an ebook lack.  In this case, that sticky area was both annoying and distracting.  I peeled the sticker off and it left goo behind.  I removed the goo with an orange based cleaner (that works great on goo) and it took a little while to get it all gone without ruining the finish on the book at the same time (Apply cleaner, remove cleaner quickly, find that not all the goo is gone and it is now smeared.  Iterate as necessary.)  I picked up the book, when complete from a new angle and noticed more goo on the back (not the spine this time).  Back to the citrus cleaner and removing that goo.  Now I checked the whole book and made sure that I'd gotten the last of it and realized that where I had removed the goo on the back cover, it seems like it was the finish that had become goo, so now there was a spot on the back cover that just felt different then the rest of the book.  So, yes, this is sounding like OCD, but I've had tacky stuff on book covers before and just ignored it.  Maybe, the deal here is the subject matter of the book which is kind of making me uncomfortably aware of how I feel.  Maybe.  It would be nice if that was the explanation and I wasn't just a mess.  So, I'm going with the subject matter and my goo obsession, because, well, otherwise....  

I put a large sticker on the back of my Kobo a few weeks ago (the sticker is an old NASA sticker I had lying around, well, not lying around, it was in a fire proof box--because, that, I guess is where stickers go.  right?) and I am now concerned that this sticker is going to start bugging me when I'm reading the ebook instead of serving its purpose and helping me distinguish an all black Kobo from the surrounding black at night.  Probably not going to be a problem, though, right?  On to page 1.  I did read the introduction, but those are all Roman numerals.  So it is both page 1 and "on to" at the same time.  In case anyone is wondering, this is all Catherine's fault, because, like I said, I've ignored stickiness on the back of books before.  Additionally, that is not displacement.  That is just pointing out a random fact which conveniently shifts responsibility.  It is really just shifty.

Also, I do realize that this review is already longer than most of my other reviews and I haven't started page 1.  Probably the coffee.  Or, am I just being shifty again?  (Yes, I get that pun.)

This book is a relatively quick read.  It is a look at a much larger problem--depression, within the context of a runner's world.  I anticipated that this would use the metaphor of running within the context of running away from one's problems.  That is not what this book does.  Instead, the author talks about freeing himself to look closely at his problems and to ask for help from those around him.  The running metaphor is more one of life being difficult (like a loooong, 340 mile run).  The metaphor sort of breaks down around the finish line, but it generally holds up.  The fundamental concept is that of a "pain cave" where the runner is simply exhausted but opts to continue on and finds resources (other runners, internal strength, and even "road angels") that enable the runner to find a way to continue moving forward.  This carries over into everyday life in the form of family, finding reasons not to succomb to suicide, and professional help.  It is, in many ways an apt metaphor and the author presents the analysis using a conversational manner that makes it much less of a lecture and much more of a journey.

An Academy for Liars, Alexis Henderson

 

An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson

Started: November 11, 2024
Completed: November 17, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: I was not thrilled with The Year of the Witching but there was something there.  It felt like this author should be given another chance.  We shall see...

Words for which I sought help:

rataplan -- a drumming or beating sound

Review:

I enjoyed this book.  I liked the world that Henderson built and though the interactions between some of the characters on occasion seemed stilted. This book felt much more complete and was a much better read than The Year of the Witching.  Sometimes authors seem to fall into a habit which a good editor should be able to help resolve.  In this case, Henderson liked for her characters to pause, "for a beat," repeatedly.  It was so frequent and shared by so many different characters that it started to pass for punctuation for me.  Aside from that this was a quick and easy read which I broadly enjoyed.  The life and death struggles were contrived, but they were within the concept of the book and so, despite feeling artificial from a distance, were consistent with the narrative and helped forward the book.  The way that things were left, it feels like there is a sequel coming which I would welcome though it is not something I would spend my time monitoring.

Children of Memory, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky is the next book in the Children of Time series.

Started: November 7, 2024
Completed: November 11, 2024
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

"Blame is really credit for what has gone wrong."  This quotation epitomizes this book, I think.  Context matters and this book is a look at context in general and context in the scope of what it means to be intelligent.  I have found this series fascinating and this book does not disappoint thought it flies off in a wholly unexpected direction (as though the previous books were not equally novel).  Tchaikovsky keeps me thinking and that is a wonderful and fun thing.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Making the Presidency, Lindsay M. Chervinsky

 

Making the Presidency:  John Adams and the precedents that forged the republic by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

Started: October 27, 2024
Completed: November 3, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody...I am pretty alert to books about John Adams

Review:

I feel like John Adams left us a rich legacy.  I have several books about him on my shelves, several on the wish list at the library, and even  more sitting on my Kobo.  I find his story compelling and I especially like "perspectives" which take a single angle on the man and then dive deeply into that.  This book focuses on Adam's presidency which is nice because it is often dusted off, briefly addressed as though everyone knows the details, and then put down.  Just like Abigail.  This book, however, dives into the intrigue, the decision making, and provides a fresh perspective.  I really appreciated it, particularly in the throws of both Trump and the Broadway show that celebrates "the little general."   This book does not take on the complicated relationship he had with Jefferson in particular detail, but focuses largely on Adams as president.

The Political Brain, Drew Westen

 

The Political Brain:  The role of emotion in deciding the fate of the Nation by Drew Westen

Started: December 29, 2023
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: Dated
Recommended By: I read an article in which this book was referenced.

Review:

I spent a year trying to listen to this book in the car (it is on CD).  It just never worked out.  I was not in the car as often as I have been in the past, but every time I went to turn on the radio I had a reason not to listen to this book.  I had another book that I was trying to finish and I'd plug in my phone.  Somehow the CD had lost its place and I'd spend most of the trip trying to find my spot.  In the end, this book is boring because it is so dated.  It is not wrong and I'm sure that it has relevance, but I just couldn't fight through the Bush and Clinton references to get there.