Daughters of the Sun and Moon, Lisa See

 

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See

Started: September 11, 2026
Completed: September 20, 2026
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Words for which I sought help:

perspicacity -- the mental ability to see through confusion, understand situations quickly, and make very accurate judgements

Review:

The mental and physical abuse described in this novel are constant.  While I see the value in terms of understanding the suffering of the Chinese women of this time in early California, the violence in this book was something that I really disliked.  It just is not for me.  Torture scenes that simply make things worth rather than forwarding the plot seem unnecessary unless the point is to talk about torture.  I wish I had known that this book focused on a massacre and the unbelievable suffering of these women before I picked it up.

Angel Down, Daniel Kraus

 

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus

Started: June 15, 2026
Completed: June 18, 2026
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: My niece thought that this would be a book I would enjoy (and she gifted it to me!)
Media: Trade Paperback

Review:

My niece would like to have an honest review, which is kind of where I live.  

I did not enjoy this book.  The format is unusual (it is a stream of consciousness book) and the subject matter (in the World War I trenches) was pretty tough.  Moreover, I am trying not to read depressing books.  So, this book, just by virtue of the subject matter was tough for me.  Of course, I have read and enjoyed books that have all of those qualities.

*SPOILERS BELOW*

This book did not reward good behavior (for the most part).  The pair who jump over the trench wall (go over the top) and go to rescue (put out of his misery) the screamer are not particularly good people.  In fact, nobody in the novel is a decent person.  Everyone is busy pursuing his own thing and trying to grind down everyone else.  When push comes to shove, they each show their true colors and the angel is the worst of them all.  I just could not find a redeeming quality in any of the characters, the story line, or the theme.  Of course, war is horrible and each of the characters showed a characteristic of humanity that leads to war.  I just did not enjoy reading about how awful we are.

A Marriage at Sea, Sophie Elmhirst

 

A Marriage At Sea: A true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst

Started: March 12, 2026
Completed: March 16, 2026
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Review:

This is an odd book about an odd couple who had an odd experience.  How English.  The title is mildly misleading.  The couple spent their marriage at sea, they were not married on the high seas.  The only reason that they are known at all, I think, is that they were shipwrecked and eventually found in a raft near death.  Then, as one does, they built another boat and went sailing some more.  Their tale is mildly interesting.  It is not a swashbuckling tale, but more one of grueling survival.  Had I understood what it was when I picked it up, I think it is unlikely that I would have read it.  My mild recommendation is due mostly to there being no romanticization of their experience.  It is forthright, rugged, and rather unpleasant.

Theo of Golden, Allen Levi

 

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Started: March 4, 2026
Completed: March 13, 2026
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: The older of my sisters
Media: Audio

Review:

This book molds and retains an air of hopefulness.  Throughout, there is a sense of forgiveness and kindness to others.  There are rather distinct Christian religious overtones and, frankly, that is not overwhelming or particularly unwelcome.  It feels like any religion could have reasonably been substituted for Christianity insofar as this was not a book that espoused a particular doctrine, but rather the gentleness and respect for others that is espoused by almost all religions today (certain warrior gods clearly excepted).  As such, this book is both a study in humanity (humanness; benevolence) and in seeing people not simply as they are, but as they might be.  In that sense, this book is a beacon for how to treat one-another.

The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon

 

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Started: 11/5/2025
Completed: 11/11/2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is an interesting book.  It is easy to think of the past as a pure time, but evidence always speaks to reality.  This book, based on some historical fact, detailed murder and rape not long after the founding of the United States.  The story is engaging and well told and I enjoyed Lawhon's effort to fill in the blanks.  The protagonist is surely more modern than the times would have allowed, yet still, somehow, fits within the period.  The protagonist is also not perfect and Lawhon does a good job of showing that cleanly and without having to invoke surprising twists or artless descriptions.  The use of the fox as a way to show shifts of fortune is clever and pleasurable.

Blood Over Bright Haven, M. L. Wang

 

Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang  I cannot remember how I came across this book.  The author is more of a YA author and generally self published, so I'm not really clear in my own head how I came across it.

Started: May 22, 2025
Completed: May 25, 2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

What a wonderful book!  The creation of the world is detailed.  The characters are rich.  The plot and sub-plots are complicated, consistent, and believable (within context).  It is very important that this book is not a feel good book.  It is much more a realistic book.  It is not a story of a super hero coming of age.  In a way it is a book about holding true to your principals.  It also feels like this book is an exploration of philosophy and, perhaps, ethics.  I just cannot recommend it highly enough.

White Rage, Carol Anderson

 

White Rage:  The unspoken truth of our racial divide by Carol Anderson

Started: November 26, 2024
Completed: December 7, 2024
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: A reading list of books addressing white racial prejudice

Review:

The material in this book is well collected.  I have read it across many other sources, but this book collects together all of that material and methodically walks through it with a welcome set of end notes for virtually each passage.  As such, for me, where the references were sometimes books that I had already read, this did not bring particularly new information, but, rather brought many thoughts together as one compelling thought.

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.

The Bookshop, Evan Friss

 

The Bookshop:  A history of the American bookstore by Evan Friss

Started: October 14, 2024
Completed: October 17, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is an easy read with multiple venues (book shops and former book shops, apparently bookstore is not preferred) described.  Friss has visited these places and provides a certain sense of the space.  When that is not possible he has looked for reviews, reminiscences, and interviews to provide a feeling for the place.  Friss also tracks the development of book stores (ironically both real and fictional--Parnassus is both) and book sellers (not always collocated).  Not exactly interesting, but worth reviewing and remembering.

Tinkers, Paul Harding

 

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Started: July 3, 2024
Completed: July 11, 2024
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: I think I found this on the Pulitzer list

Words for which I sought help:

Claptrap — absurd or nonsense talk or ideas

Clepsydra — an ancient time-measuring device worked by a flow of water

Craquelure — a network of fine cracks in the paint or varnish of a painting

Creel — a wicker basket for carrying fish

Vesation — a renewal or purification through the burning away or destruction of evil attributes

Review:

This is a very odd book.  The closest I can come to some sort of analogy is Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, yet this is much more approachable (it is in plain English).  All the same, it is a series of vignettes that are disjoint with intermittent sort of poetry definitions.  Very odd.  The descriptive writing is very good, but the narrative is so broken up that it requires concentration to follow.  I still cannot decide what I fully think of this book and I think it will haunt me.

Good Material, Dolly Alderton

 

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Started: May 12, 2024
Completed: May 16, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is rife with humor.  That is what kept me reading because the subject matter (basically one long recovery from a break-up) is brutal.  "35 is the youth of middle age" states the protagonist who has an oddly Pollyanna view in the moment.  This shows the cleverness, the humor, and the bleak inability to face reality of the protagonist and it helps explain the long break-up (which his partner also endures in her own way).  I truly enjoyed the book and it makes me wonder if I have held back my wife in some of the casually uncaring ways that men are portrayed.  I hope not.  This book also suggests how people can see one another in a light which is not truly objective reality, but is an effort to see the real person and appreciate that person for who they are.  What a great book.

A Man Called Ove, Frederik Backman

 

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman

Started: 5/28/2023
Completed: 5/31/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My wife

Review:

This book is not about character development.  It isn't really about a particular plot or plot line.  I would think of it as more of a character study.  So, what happens when a man of characters faces X, Y, or Z issue/problem?  As one might expect, Backman shows that a man does his best to stay true to his principles.  That Ove is OCD, anti-social, and is clearly confused about the objective value of a Saab are truly incidentals.  I have a feeling that this book will stick with me and while I cannot imagine saying, "What would Ove do?"  I can imagine that I will spend time thinking about Ove when it is quiet, when I am considering one approach or another for carpentry, and when I think about my wife.  That isn't so bad.

All The Devils Are Here, Louise Penny

 

All The Devils Are Here by Louise Penny is the next book in the Armand Gamash series.

Started: 12/5/2022
Completed: 12/11/2022
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: My Parents

Review:

Once again, Penny delivers.  This book had a little more action then I like.  It also plucked at heart strings which I kind of realized from the start.  Putting Gamash in Paris can only be for some deeper look at Daniel's character.  Yes, Annie is having a baby, but that immediately felt like a pretense.  Penny did pull at heart strings and she plucked rather unendingly leaving me emotionally wrung out by the end.  That isn't all bad.

A Better Man, Louise Penny

 

A Better Man by Louise Penny is the next Armand Gamash book.

Started: 10/31/2022
Completed: 11/5/2022
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

Gamash is no longer crushing corruption, but that doesn't mean all is well in the ranks.  Somehow Penny has brought these characters to life and the shocking number of deaths in Three Pines continues to demonstrate it is "the murder capital of Canada" (as my father says).  Fortunately Gamash is on hand and those who commit the dastardly deed will not hide for long.  I have long ago given up trying to figure out the mystery (in my opinion it is simply impossible in this book).  This lets me enjoy the book as a story rather than constantly trying to distinguish between red herrings (plentiful) and actual clues (few and so well disguised as to be indistinguishable).  I also don't obsess over missing details (like, what was the phone number?).  This lets me enjoy the book itself and relish in character development.

Glass Houses, Louise Penny

 

Glass Houses by Louise Penny is the next book in the Armand Gamash series.

Started: 10/19/2022
Completed: 10/23/2022
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

This book fits well in the series and once more takes us to Three Pines which, despite being a tiny town, is a hub for unlawful activity.  Ruth was fleshed out some more and the comforting presence of many of the other denizens of Three Pines made itself known.  I really like that Gamash lives in Three Pines now and I really like the idea of a "conscience."  The concept of conscience, responsibility, guilt, and punishment are all examined in this book and there is no doubt about the fundamental components of the characters which shine through in new and surprising ways in this book.  Gamash seems so very real to me at times, that I have to remind myself that this is a work of fiction.

An Immense World, Ed Yong

 

An Immense World:  How animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us by Ed Yong

Started: 8/24/2022
Completed: 8/30/2022
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  I cannot remember, but I think it was an article in Philosophy Now!  It is equally likely that I saw something in The Atlantic.

Review:

This is an adventure book.  It is an adventure into the world of animals through their senses.  It is intriguing to think about how each different animal uses its senses and how senses that we would not normally consider (e.g. touch-taste) are fundamental to the way that certain animals view the world.  This information and the deep dive into it is, itself, interesting.  The further considerations of things like how we are polluting the world through senses that we either do not have, do not consider important, or have to a much smaller extent (e.g. echo location is possible for humans, but it is nothing like a bat's form of echo location) is draw dropping.  It seems like the human impact on the world is brutal any way you look (touch, taste, feel, etc.) at it.  I enjoyed the perspective and hope that the concepts of viewing the world literally through another creature's eyes is a concept that stays with me.

Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid

 

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Started: 8/11/2022
Completed: 8/14/2022
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: New York Time Best Seller

Review:

I had trouble relating to the characters in this book.  The vague loss of direction, sort of finding one's self, is not something I really understand and it is not explained in this book.  It is expected, however, that one understands these characters as they search for themselves without really looking.  Maybe the story is that the characters were just shallow.  Anyway, I did not enjoy this book.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Fredrik Backman

 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

Started: 7/26/2022
Completed: 7/29/2022
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book requires one to completely abandon reality in any sense.  Though it appears rooted in reality, the precocious 7 year-old is simply brilliant.  She has read the 8 Harry Potter books in excess of 20 times and reads at a pace that is beyond her very literate father.  Her abilities (she claims to have driven a car) are far outside the ability of a 7 year-old and that makes the book difficult for me.  What's more, everything hinges on the genius of this child, so it is critical to the book that you believe she is this way.  She has also learned a second "secret" language from her grandmother in which she can speak fluently.

Viewing the world through the lens of a fairy tale, however, seems like a good twist.  It just requires this genius child due to the circumstances and a wealth of fairy tells that the child has somehow memorized (while reading all that Harry Potter, and that is not the only book she has read well above her reading level) is just very difficult to believe.  It is necessary to the story, but it keeps dragging me out.  So, I enjoyed the premise of viewing the world through a fairy tale.  I also liked how the child interacts only with adults which makes it much easier to read through the dialog (though that is somewhat stilted on occasion).  The child is the narrator, but the author also describes things the child could not, so there are times when the child-as-narrator slips away.  So there are some big lapses, but this book does get a mild recommendation from me on the basis of the premise.

A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny

 

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny is the next Armand Gamache novel.

Started: 7/19/2022
Completed: 7/26/2022
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My Parents

Review:

This book returns to Three Pines and provides the explanation for the three trees that gave the village it's name.  That part is pretty wonderful.  The rest, well, I dunno.  I would not really call this book a mystery (though it is), it is more an examination of loss and abuse.  This sounds more unpleasant then it actually is, but be prepared--the road is bumpy.  I can only barely recommend this book as it was hard for me to enjoy significant portions of it.  I truly hope that this is the end of Gamache trying to deal with the corruption he is constantly trying to root out of everywhere he goes.  Unlikely.

The Beautiful Mystery, Louise Penny

 

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny is the next book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series.

Started: 6/11/2022
Completed: 6/15/2022
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

I am consistently annoyed by how Penny goes after her characters.  The endless attack on Gamache seems stale and the latest feint is nothing less than annoying.  The step off into the monastery gives time for Peter to spend his penance  away from Three Pines, but it feels a bit like I have spent a similar (likely needless) penance as well.  Since Penny has decided that it would be "unrealistic" for a group of people to just like each other and work together, she has found ways to undermine and attack the group through the last couple of books.  I hope this is the end of it.  This book did not leave me upbeat.  The information about Gregorian chants was far more interesting then I would have expected.