Mr. Texas, Lawrence Wright

 

Mr. Texas by Lawrence Wright because I need some comedy.

Started: 10/29/2023
Completed: 11/2/2023
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

A political book about Texas?  How is this not something like eating a bowl of vomit?  It is funny and that helps.  A lot.  The romance is weak and the recovery is weaker.  The political stuff had some merit and the effort to build a buffoon and then make him a real person worked reasonably well.  The lobbyist was, well, greasy, and that is what you expect.  The other personalities were all fairly weak including the protagonist who played the role of Mr. Smith going to Washington.  So, I don't have a lot to recommend it.  It wasn't like eating a bowl of vomit. 

The End of October, Lawrence Wright

The End of October by Lawrence Wright is a pandemic novel recommended by my mother.  I am sort of dreading reading it.

Started: 6/17/2020

Completed: 6/19/2019

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By: my mother

Words for which I sought help:

porte cochere -- a covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through, typically opening into a courtyard.

Review:

This book has a certain echo of the current pandemic, but far more serious.  The chatter on the television seems so real largely because it is a novel that was recently written and so is suffused with the current regime.  That is really scary because the author apparently presumes that there is some Trump form of power that is retained into the near future.

I really disliked this book.  The basic research was good and the impact of the pandemic was reasonable given the constraints.  The characters were generally flat.  After the initial release of the pandemic the arc of the story was highly predictable.  It feels like the assault on the children was simply gratuitous.  I dunno...maybe too close to home, but I really didn't enjoy this book at all.