Review: Pick a Color

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was interested in reading this book as my sister-in-law is Vietnamese and her parents had owned a nail salon. So the book has a personal experience that ties into my sister-in-law, her family, and my visits to a salon with her.

This book was about a nail salon told from the point of view of the owner. The book really grabbed me in the beginning. But as the story went on, there were important aspects to her personally that were never revealed. I find it annoyed me, I wanted the backstory but was given only pieces. I don’t like all the ambiguity.

This lack of fully explaining the situation reminds me of a couple other short books I read this year. I’m one who likes more definitiveness. There were other aspects in the book that it wasn’t a total miss for me.

I will say, that hopefully people reading this book don’t feel like it confirms their suspicions about that the nail salon women are talking about you in their language. At least in my experience, that is not what is going on. It did add some humor to this fictional book, however.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was very well narrated. My enjoyment of this book was increased because I listened to the audio.


Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.



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Review: Pick a Color

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

will be posting some notes soon, am so behind...

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Review: The Midwife's Revolt

The Midwife's Revolt by Jodi Daynard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

will be posting some notes soon, am so behind...

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Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Instead of adding some notes about books I’ve read recently I went and read another one. This is a short book, a novella.

I won’t say much about this as so many others have done a great job, better than I could do…but one thing. I generally knew of the story going in, so the mystery of who was Mr. Hyde was already known. Yet I had the thought that this could be viewed as someone who becomes a meth addict, or drug addict of the chemical manufactured type.

Dr. Jekyll mixes up these chemicals, a white powder and some special salts, and he is transformed. In the story he is described as physically changed. There are some drugs where addicts become quite physically changed in appearance as well, thin, smaller, faces disfigured, and their personality changes as well, generally not for the better. Yet they do not usually go back to their old self, or perhaps only once they stop using, more or less. Perhaps not a perfect comparison but a thought of some similarities of today.

Happy to have finally read this classic. It's easily read in a day.

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Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Instead of writing some notes about the books I’ve read recently I went and read another one. Okay, this one is short, a novella, and better read around Halloween perhaps.

I won’t say much about this as so many others have done a great job, better than I could do…but one thing. I generally knew of the story going in, so the mystery of who was Mr. Hyde was already known. Yet I had the thought that this could be viewed as someone who becomes a meth addict, or drug addict of the chemical manufactured type.

Dr. Jekyll mixes up these chemicals, a white powder and some special salts, and he is transformed. In the story he is described as physically changed. There are some drugs where addicts become quite physically changed in appearance as well, thin, smaller, faces disfigured, and their personality changes as well, generally not for the better. Yet they do not usually go back to their old self, or perhaps only once they stop using, more or less. Perhaps not a perfect comparison but a thought of some similarities of today.

Happy to have finally read this classic. It's easily read in a day.


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Review: The Midwife's Revolt

The Midwife's Revolt by Jodi Daynard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds

The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds by John Yow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just a few thoughts for now...This book was okay, but maybe I'm not the target audience. I'm not a birder, nor have the desire to become one. But I am interested in learning about birds, their lives, especially those common ones around us. This book does reveal some of that, but there are so many birds discussed the book seemed more like an encyclopedia or a compendium of birds. Each bird was not given much description and some was about how the author saw the bird, or what it did around his place.

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Review: The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA

The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge L. Contreras
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds

The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds by John Yow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: The Yellow House

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: The Definitions

The Definitions by Matt Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finished this book a week ago and took some time thinking about it, because it’s not your typical short novel. It is reminiscent of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. I started my review of Harpman’s book with “A dystopian book, without a lot of answers.” And that line fits well with this book as well: short and left with ambiguity and more questions in the end. Seems also to be not really my kind of book.

A virus has rendered people amnesiacs. They don’t remember anything, so are at this facility to learn how to behave in society, maybe regain their memories of who they were before. They take new names. The narrator, however is unnamed. They are unsure about the virus, there appears to be a new version that may reinfect or not.

There is a lot of focus on words. The narrator and a friend are focused on the meaning of a few, such as chair and bench. How to define exactly these words and what they represent.

It felt like the students at the center aren’t being told the full truth. Things are going on in the outside world they don’t know about, at least anymore, and are sheltered or given a new story. It’s hard to tell since we as readers never get the full story either.

This will likely work better for some people, while others who don’t like vagueness and obscurity, this may be a pass.

Book rating: 2.75

Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

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Review: The Definitions

The Definitions by Matt Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finished this book a week ago and took some time thinking about it, because it’s not your typical short novel. It is reminiscent of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. I started my review of Harpman’s book with “A dystopian book, without a lot of answers.” And that line fits well with this book as well, short and left with ambiguity and more questions in the end. Seems to also be not really my kind of book.

A virus has rendered people amnesiacs. They don’t remember anything, so are at this facility to learn how to behave in society, maybe regain their memories of who they were before. They take new names. The narrator, however is unnamed. They are unsure about the virus, there appears to be a new version that may reinfect or not.

There is a lot of focus on words. The narrator and a friend are focused on the meaning of a few, such as chair and bench. How to define exactly these words and what they represent.

It felt like the students at the center aren’t being told the full truth. Things are going on in the outside world they don’t know about, at least anymore, and are sheltered or given a new story. It’s hard to tell since we as readers never get the full story either.

This will likely work better for some people, while others who don’t like vagueness and obscurity, this may be a pass.

Book rating: 2.75

Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.


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Review: The Definitions

The Definitions by Matt Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Artemis

Artemis by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like Weir's books, as they can be fun science fiction and high octane. This one is also high octane and off-world located on the moon, a small city called Artemis.

The main character is Jazz Bashara who is a porter, moves things for a living, and on the side is also a smuggler for extra cash. She’s young and maybe mouthy, stands up to just about everyone. When her top client offers a million credits (slugs) for disabling some heavy equipment she says yes, even though that type of job is way outside her norm. And things go sideways, of course it does.

This plot device of things failing to go as planned seems to be Weir’s m.o. in writing. Then goes into how to fix things. And since you’re in a small enclosed area where live is easily endangered things are amped up.

It usually works in his books, but didn’t work as well here. Not sure if it was the character who seemed unbelievable, or just the plot line overall. I did like how there were many women as the main characters and major areas, but they mostly acted like men just with female names.

I listened to the audiobook, which is the best way to read Weir’s books as they do enhance the reading experience.


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Review: Artemis

Artemis by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Anyone: A Novel

Anyone: A Novel by Charles Soule
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



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Review: Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land

Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land by Patrick French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: Whale Fall

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Trust

Trust by Hernan Diaz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Whale Fall

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Fortune's Rocks

Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: What We Can Know

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What started very slow for me, a book I nearly gave up on, ended up being something else.

The book starts about 100 years in the future, after many catastrophic events. Tom Metcalfe, along with his sometimes partner, Robin try to teach literature to college kids who have much better things to do and hardly care about the past, let alone literature. Still for Metcalfe, the poetry of Francis Blundy and his wife Vivien, also a writer, are what he studies to endless pursuit. They lived in our times of today. Metcalfe desperately wants to be the one who finds the missing corona poem, the birthday poem Blundy wrote for Vivien.

Certainly the book bogs down with the minutia of Metcalfe’s life, his character is not very appealing. I nearly bailed on the book, but continued on.

Then we get to part two and have a different point of view – it’s Vivien’s diary from the past. Here we learn of her life first hand. She had a curated past for the future researchers, but this diary was the real Vivien, and different than what we knew before.

This is a book that one could have multiple reads and get more out of on each reading. I don’t have that kind of time, too many other books I’d like to get to. But I can appreciate the quality of writing here, despite not really enjoying the main character.

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.


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Review: What We Can Know

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Ludes

Ludes by Ben Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: The Pretender

The Pretender by Jo Harkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting historical fiction. The book is based on a figure in history for whom not much is known, however he did play an important role during King Henry VII’s reign.

The book begins in 1483 in the country with a small lad, John Collan. Soon enough his days of serenity and certainty of knowing who he is are over. At the age of ten, John discovers that the man who was raising him was not his father and he is Edward, the earl of Warwick. He is removed from the farm and all he knows and loves to be educated to be the future king, the hope of England.

Through the book, at each stage his name changes and who he has to become. He is not safe, the King spies could be anywhere, so he is moved about from time to time while he grows before all is ready for him to challenge the throne.

I really enjoyed the book. The way the story was told, the language and words used, I mostly enjoyed. The one, well two, caveats, it was fairly crude at times and a lot of cussing. The cursing may have been okay, but at times it was so jarring and modern it felt anachronistic. Yet there were often words such as distroubled, annon, and astonied, which made the book feel like it took place centuries ago.

It was a fairly sad book, for what happened to John, turned Edward, turned Simnel. The later part of the book I did not enjoy as much, how things went, but it seemed inevitable.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fantastic job. He managed the various accents and characters in such a way that I was impressed by the ability and quality. I may just have to look for another book by the narrator.


Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.




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Review: The Pretender

The Pretender by Jo Harkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite enjoyed this historical fiction account. More thoughts on this soon.


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Review 627: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book takes place for roughly six weeks while Helene Hanff finally gets over to London. Her previous book just published and the publishers want to do some publicity with her. Shortly before she left, a slight delay, as she had an emergency operation. This does add complications but she handles it well.

This book is her journal of the trip, starting with the airplane ride.

Since this is the 1970s things are different than today, such as booked two hotel rooms in case one didn't hold the reservation. Or at least that's not how I've been doing things. And as I understand it, I would be liable to pay for both if I cancel one at the last minute, or just don't show up. Anyway, Hanff is very trusting with people. She accepts all sort of invitations, many by friends of friends, but also accepts invitations by fans to go to lunch or something. She is economizing and the more she takes these lunches and dinners the longer she can stay in London.

It's a short book, entertaining but I do prefer her previous book better.

Review 626: 84, Charing Cross Road

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-read this short book recently, enjoyed it the second time around as well.

Liked Helene's humor. Felt like the letters included were curated, like some were missing. Made me wish to have a grand correspondence with an overseas bookseller, and get some of those nice books for such a great price. Haha!

Review 625: The Book On the Bookshelf

The Book On the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Earlier this year I read an Object Lessons series book Bookshelf, but it was a bit short for me, left me unsatisfied and curious to know more. Well it happens on my bookshelf for many, many years was sitting this book by Petroski, a book often quoted in the Object Lessons book. I’m glad I finally read it.

Petroski’s book is primarily about the history of the bookshelf, the furniture that holds books. Some history of the book itself is discussed, but that wasn’t the focus and likely there are more detailed books out there.

The furniture for books was varied in centuries past. Early forms were a type of box like a hat boxes when books were scrolls. When the book became closer to today's format there were stored in what we may call a truck but are properly called armaria. They could lock, which was important when books were few.

As books changed, the furniture did too to better hold them. As books became easier to copy, from hands to machines, then more people started to collect books. Libraries started to collect many more, and so the bookshelf came about. Still they were stored differently than today.

While books were still valuable there were chained libraries. The types of furniture and how these books were chained was a chapter or two. Some of the early shelving after the chained libraries had books facing up and at an angle. Often books were stored with the foredge showing, as this was before spines held any information on the book. It took centuries before the standard format of the bookshelf and spine out that we see today.

For most of the history of the book, and shelving, placement of shelving had to account for light. When libraries grew they had to be mindful of how the windows and shelves line up to prove the best lighting for reading. This was particularly important when the books were chained.

I had started to read this via audiobook but quickly realized that was not the best way to read this book. Since I had a print copy, I turned to reading it. Besides with audio I would have missed all of the illustrations that are throughout the book, and they definitely enhance the reading.

This is a quite detailed book, which I did appreciate. Although it is a couple of decades old, the eBook was being developed and is mentioned a few times. What dates the book is more the descriptions of the internet. But these portions are minimal.

The appendix is to be noted as here were listed 25 different ways to shelve a book. Petroski took some fun here, as it was more light hearted, and certainly not exhaustive. I noticed the bibliography at the end contained a long list of books that I could really go down the rabbit hole with this topic, but maybe I will leave it here. This one did satisfy a lot of my curiosity about the history of bookshelves. But it did make me kinda want some ancient book furniture.

Review 624: The Tree Collectors

The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by Amy Stewart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Listened to the audio, which was not the best way to read this book. I have a print copy on hold and will reassess this book once I get a chance to view that copy.

Review 623: Little Alleluias

Little Alleluias: Collected Poetry and Prose by Mary Oliver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would say I’m a fan of Mary Oliver’s poetry, although I have not read much of her work. She is very nature orientated, which I can usually connect with. Poetry is hard to rate, hard to judge, usually I just go by if I connected with the poem or not.

With this collection of poetry and essays, prose poems, I found myself not connecting. I’m not sure why either. Nature was there, throughout the book, with the exception of the essays on the Concord writers Hawthorne and Emerson (perhaps my favorite part of this collection).

Not sure what it was about these works, I just kept reading and hoped for one or two that really spoke to me, but honestly none did. Yet, even here I can see she is a good writer.

Thanks Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 622: A Land So Wide

A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Sometimes I read books a bit outside of my normal range of reading, even though that range is quite wide. This one is described as something I wouldn’t normally tend towards. It was billed as the author’s first adult book, the writing felt like it still falls under the young adult purview.

Without rehashing the plot of the book, I will say there are many things that just doesn’t fit right. The main character, Greer Mackenzie is supposed to be 27, but her character acts like someone much younger. Her best friend growing up is said to be 4 or 5 years younger, which seems a bit of a stretch. Other than the opening scene we really don’t see her again. Also, she comes from the “wrong” family, which seemed to be okay for her father, but her friend’s brother is not someone she should marry? Is the family to be avoided or not?

Also, when did this take place? There were years mentioned, during parts when some history of the town was provided, but left wondering, when is now? It didn’t come together until near the end of the book. There was this forced some type of physical romance into the book that didn’t need to be there. The pacing was a bit off, particularly the last portion of the book. I really disliked how the denouement occurred, and the ending left things open for a possibility of a sequel.

I did get through the book fairly quickly, but mainly because I was listening to it and wanted to get it done, rather than feeling compelled to know what came next. I was worried about this being a “horror” book, but found it was more fairly tale than scary and evil.

Thanks Pantheon and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 621: There Are No Children Here

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America by Alex Kotlowitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was devastating to read how these young children grew up in the Chicago projects. The book is a very close look at the lives of two brothers Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, 9 and 12 at the start of the book. Journalist Kotlowitz was embedded into the Rivers family life for two years, Summer of 1987 to September 1989.

The family lived in the projects in Chicago. LaJoe Rivers had eight children with Paul Rivers and still remained married to her husband, which was somewhat unusual circumstance for their background. The kids father sometimes was around, but didn’t really live with them. The three older kids were nearly adults, Lafeyette and Pharoah were the middle kids, then a set of triplets were their younger siblings. LaJoe was on welfare, had food stamps, and had the constant hope of being able to move out of the projects.

Gun violence, drugs, and gangs dominated their lives, along with poor living conditions. The bathroom tub faucet constantly ran, doors wouldn’t shut properly, the stove oven barely worked, among other problems. And the apartment was overly crowded. Each of the older children had succumbed to either drugs or crime. LaJoe hoped at least one of her children would make it by getting a high school diploma.

Pharoah developed a stutter due to all the trauma he experienced. The summers were the worst, as gang activity picked up, shootings became an almost every day occurrence. The Rivers boys lost several friends due to all the violence, one an accidental police shooting. Their older brother Terrance was picked up an charged with a shooting he had nothing to do with, the charged ended up being dropped after the eye witness admitted he didn’t do it. Later Terrance was again charged with a crime he didn’t commit, but was now 18 so he was in adult court this time. Lafeyette also ended up in juvenile court over a crime he didn’t commit either. Just being black and nearby seemed to make you guilty.

The book was written very well, read like a fiction book. The author’s note explains how he conduced his research, verifying everything with multiple accounts, if he wasn’t there. Since this took place several decades ago, one can hope the environment has improved, although I fear not enough.

I was amazed to find an audiobook at my public library, and that got me to finally read this book. I bought this book back around when it came out, so it’s been lingering very long on my bookshelves unread.

Review 620: The Biographer's Tale

The Biographer's Tale by A.S. Byatt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s been decades since I read an A.S. Byatt book. I was enamored by her writing in the late 90s, and somehow stopped reading her work. This book reminded me why I do like her writing, and why I don’t as well.

The narrator, Phineas G. Nanues, is a young literary fellow who decided to give up literary criticism as he sees no point in it. Instead he wants to interact with things.

A professor, who then becomes his new advisor, gives him a three-volume biography of Sir Edmund Bole written by Scholes Destry-Scholes. Phineas is enthralled and decides that he will do a biography of Destry-Scholes. He also needs to get a job, and finds himself working for a unique travel agency.

This book is his record of this transition and his searching, and of his life. Destry-Scholes is not an easy man to find, although Phineas is a very good researcher he is unable to come up with information. Slowly, a few pieces come to him and he finds that perhaps Destry-Scholes was working on a biography of some sort of three different men. These papers and findings are included verbatim in the book. This is where sometimes it gets a bit tedious and reminds me why I don’t like Byatt. Too much in the weeds!

As Phineas is writing he says he hates autobiographies, he is not going to write one, yet his record does indeed become that. There are layers in Byatt’s writing. Sometimes I feel not adept enough to catch everything. The layers in just the title and the biography here is a bit obvious, that helps.

I have several more of her books still waiting to be read, and will get to them sometime, hopefully before decades pass.

Review 619: Hotshot: A Life on Fire

Hotshot: A Life on Fire by River Selby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the third book I’ve read this year about a hotshot firefighter, the second one about a woman (see: When it All Burns and Wildfire Days). There was also a fourth book about firefighting in general, just called Fire, which is fictional. It is hard for me to not compare this book with these other memoirs.

Here, Selby goes deeper into her own personal life than the other two, while weaving in the specifics of the history of an area of a current active fire. These three memoirs also discuss how damaging the total fire suppression activity is for the environment and health of the forest. Selby’s account seems to take on a more fervent tone of the damage this is doing, despite it being her job.

Not surprisingly, women are not common as hotshots. There are some, but it is a male dominated job. It is also one that tends undermine the women that do show up. Selby dives into this a bit more than Kelly Ramsey, likely due to her experience with men behaving badly. Ramsey had some of that too, but maybe minimized it. The guys on these crews are usually quite young, and are guided by their superiors, it appears this abusive behavior is systemic. Reporting it generally means losing ones job, as it becomes worse for the woman.

Selby spends quite a bit of time discussing her mom, and that relationship. Like Ramsey who also lost a parent while being a firefighter, they had a tough relationship. Selby didn’t have another parent to lean on though, and the result was a messy adolescence. Firefighting was a way out of some of that self-abuse and giving her a tough job that helped her. In some ways this book is much more about Selby than being a hotshot, unlike the other two.


I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author. She did a decent job of it, but honestly, I thought it was too slow and had to speed it more than I usually do to find a decent listening pace. Otherwise, it went well.



Thanks to Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 618: Where the Axe Is Buried

Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I zipped through this book, hard a hard time putting it down. It’s a science-fiction, political, dystopian, techno book, taking place in the future (far?). A bit confusing through the first part of the book, different POVs and different technologies. At first I just wanted to get beyond the confusing part. Then I was sucked in.

This is a future where everything and everyone is watched constantly. In the free west it is for advertising purposes, in the totalitarian states it is to ensure the people are controlled. Many countries are run by A.I. Prime Ministers, and The Federation is run by a president whose consciousness gets transferred to new bodies one the old ones deteriorate. Then there are the dissidents. The book is mostly about the dissidents.

The book is a commentary on totalitarianism and artificial intelligence. Starts out with a very gloomy outlook but ends with hope and possibility.

Review 617: Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I didn't like this one too much. First book in the Red Rising Saga, and I won't be continuing on. Too much of the book was about the war games between the kids at the training school. Felt like hunger games in some major ways, but not as appealing, the main character wasn't as likeable. Maybe it was how masculine this book felt? Not sure this is really a young adult book either.

Review 616: A Gorgeous Excitement

A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe a beach read?

Summer 1986, in New York City. Nina Jacobs, is working various temp jobs before starting college, and hopes to lose her virginity before leaving.

This place of New York City almost becomes a character. Nina meets a new friend in Central Park and they hit it off right away, and she introduces her to cocaine, for a gorgeous excitement. Nina is also dealing with her mentally ill mother, unwanted sexual attention, such as the smarmy hugs the doorman always gives, and yet hoping to snag Gardner as her first. Plus, what's going on with her childhood friends, not feeling so friendly towards her lately.

There is a lot going on in the novel, which kept it interesting.

Short notes here, perhaps more later....

Review 615: I Who Have Never Known Men

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.75 is a better rating than 4.

A dystopian book, without a lot of answers. The narrator doesn't have a name, only called The Child, as she was young when her and 39 other women were put into the bunker. The men guard them closely. She knows nothing other than this bunker, can only learn what the women tell her. As she becomes a teenager she wants to know more.

Interesting and simple book, and yet it isn't.

Review 614: Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Superb writing! The book is composed of essays written over many years, and previously published, yet the come together in one book quite nicely. They were all titled as published essays, but that was not retained in the book, which is a detriment.

The majority of the book covers Nabokov’s years growing up. An amazing amount of detail and description from when he was very young is contained in the first several chapters. He was born in 1899, and a brother soon followed less than a year later. Nabokov had five siblings, after the brother were two sisters and the last another brother. They were a family of the upper class, having a country estate and a house in town. They went abroad quite often.

The book is chronological, with an occasional hint at what is to come, particularly exile. Nabokov doesn’t go into a lot of detail the Russian Revolution, it was a tumultuous time, and his father was in the thick of it. But he does provide some information that I understand slightly better what was happening during the overthrow on the Tsar to the next regime.

Nabokov and his brother were taught by various tutors and learned to read English before he learned Russian. They were of the kind of Russian family that he says is now extinct.

Nabokov loved butterflies, well butterfly collecting, or Lepidoptera as its scientifically known. He started at a young age, and was determined to find a new species while he was still a young school boy. It wasn’t until much later, as an adult, he finally got a named butterfly: Plebejus (Lysandra) cormion Nabokov.

One of the later chapters Nabokov talks briefly about both of his brothers. It was quite moving, as by that point when we was writing both of them had died, and somewhat young. His sisters weren’t discussed. The last chapter ends in 1940 as Nabokov, along with his wife and young son, were granted passage to emigrate to the United States.

I really enjoyed his writing style. I may need to read one of his novels later this year.

Review 613: The Best American Travel Writing 2021

The Best American Travel Writing 2021 by Padma Lakshmi
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

While I haven’t fully read a book yet in the “Best American Travel Writing” series, I was curious to read the final book in the series. The essays are all published during the year prior, so these are from 2020 when the world was not traveling so much. Was it a coincidence? Beginning in 2024 it was merged with another series, so going forward as “Best American Food and Travel Writing”. Both topics go well together and this last contained several essays that seemed more about food than travel.

Happily not all of the essays were lamenting about cancelled travel and pandemic related issues. The editor of the series and editor of this year both were heavily into that topic, as the foreword and introduction. I was ready to move on by that point. Yet the book opened with several more pandemic stories. The first one about being trapped in a cruise ship during the beginning, following several different groups of people. (Inside the Nightmare Voyage of the Diamond Princess by Doug Bock Clark) The story was well written, so I continued reading it.

Several more essays in we finally veer away from pandemic stories. Good Bread by Bill Buford was well done. He is living in Lyon, France looking for work as a cook and not having any luck. But the story is about the baker Bob, he makes the best bread in Lyon according to Buford. Buford spends some time working for him, learning Bob’s secrets and what makes good bread.

Several essays hardly seemed to be about travel at all. As mentioned food was prevalent in some essays, but there were other outliers. One about climate change being seen by a changing landscape of the coast off Louisiana (The Losing Coast by Elizabeth Miller), and another about fires in marijuana growing country in California (California's Weed Country is Lit by Jackie Bryant), among others. Maybe they were considered as travel since the writers of these essays weren’t from that area?

The book seemed short in comparison to other books in the annual “The Best American” series, such as the Science and Nature or the Essays. I’m not that much into food that I'd love reading about it, doubt I will read any of the new series. Instead I will read the prior years, especially the ones I own and have not yet read.

Review 612: Improvement

Improvement by Joan Silber
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

There’s a lot more going on here with this short book than it initially seems. The book revolves around Reyna, a single mom in New York City, visiting her boyfriend currently in jail at Rikers Island. She seems to get along with her aunt Kiki more than her parents, perhaps because they have more in common than either knows.

After Boyd gets out of Rikers his fellow coworkers plan a scheme to make money smuggling cigarettes from Virginia to NYC. They can make a fortune by avoiding the taxes. Rayna’s decisions on how involved she wants to be in this creates a snowball effect (others are calling it a butterfly effect).

Each chapter takes on another point of view, some following the forward moment of the story. Then we step back in time and follow the aunt who lived in Turkey for a long time, who married a failed rug dealer, and got involved with some smugglers of antiquities.

The final chapter comes back around to Reyna, dealing with the aftermath of her decisions.

It was a good enough book, but there are flaws, one of them being that the book is very short. I think it would have been a richer story with more depth. I liked how the Turkish rugs were woven through the book.

I wanted to read this book, as I had heard the author tends to write about how we are all connected, intertwined. This book does indeed follow that pattern.

Review 611: A People’s History of the United States: 1492–Present

A People’s History of the United States: 1492–Present by Howard Zinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A history that needed to be told. A history that about the people who get abused, ignored, discriminated against, and worse. And why we got to where we are today – a dysfunctional political system, dispirited citizens, and blame put in the wrong place.

There is so much that can be said about this book, but I don’t want to write a long essay. Much of the material was not new to me, and maybe won’t be to many others. However, I suspect there is many historical facts that many people do not know. Some of the book was a little confusing, as it generally was linear, but not entirely. For example, while discussing the early 1900s, Zinn would backtrack to a specific incident that took place in the late 1800s. I wish the book was organized better.

Just want to note one specific item mentioned in the book about how few eligible voters actually vote a president. Since the 1900s, generally around 33% of the eligible voters actually vote in the president. While the most recent past two presidential elections turn out has been slightly higher, it hasn’t effectively changed the fact that around a third of the population gets the president they voted for. Which means two-thirds of the country voted for the other candidate or not at all. Dismal.

The version of the book I read ends around 2001, so today it is already over two decades past. There was an earlier version. It appears this book gets updated every couple of years, but usually only with a new introduction or foreword, the overall material isn’t changed.

I listened to the very long audiobook and do not recommended to read the book this way. The author’s son narrated it and he is definitely not a professional narrator. The narration is uneven and awkward in many places. I only got through this by going slowly, and it took me months to get through.

Review 610: Dissolution

Dissolution by Nicholas Binge
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Science fiction book that at the heart is a relationship between two people Maggie and Stanley.

We begin with an elderly Maggie being interviewed by a Hassan. They seem to be an empty pool. She doesn't remember anything at first. Hassan gives her a drug to help her specific memory recall and he wants to know everything, every detail. He claims that this will help Stanley get his memory back. Hassan seems almost not human...

Why, how? She wants to know but he won’t say, except that the memory care facility he has been in, is the cause of it. Hassan urges her to stay focused on what he wants to know. He is in control.

During the interview Maggie recalls how she takes these dives into the past, into Stanley’s memory even. Maggie learns more about her husband than she did while they were married for all those years.

In between these interviews are chapters on Stanley, his youth then later. He was an awkward boy, from a working class family and a brutal father. But Stanley was wicked smart and got himself into a good school with a scholarship. He stands out and a professor takes him under his wing, only the select are welcome, and here Stanley shines. And here his life begins.

Somehow the disconnect of these chapters do come together okay. The book does have some repetition due to the nature of Maggie going into Stanley’s past and her revealing this to Hassan. At times the book felt elongated unnecessarily. There were some really good interesting parts. Yet, it felt compiled from a handful of other stories and books, such as The Time Traveler’s Wife, some of Resident Evil, and a bit of Philip K Dick, etc... Overall, and enjoyable audio book.

Review 609: What Trees Remember

What Trees Remember by Marie Hrušková
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Too bad there isn't a book cover image, as it really is a nice drawing. The cover is pulled from one of the drawings in the book. This seems to be a bit of an obscure book.

This is a short book (easily read in a day, about an hour or so) about 30 important trees across the Czech Republic. Each entry has an illustration drawn by Jaroslav Turek. The associated essay about the particular tree tells the history of why this particular tree is important for the Czech country. Some are fables, but many more are associated with an important person. The trees are mainly oak, linden or pine.

One amazing fact was there were several times when a story mentions how the tree was planted upside down, crown first, and if it continue to grow then it proved something, such as a person’s innocence or where to build a church.

All of the trees discussed are old, ancient trees. Many of them have been helped by the local villagers across the years to continue the tree’s survival, such as banding the trunk, shoring up the branches, and in several cases placing a roof type structure over exposed hollows from broken off branches. And only one mentioned was no longer living by the time of publication, after a very long life.

The last portion of the book has a very short biography of each of the person’s mentioned and of the area where each tree is located. Makes this book feel a bit more of a history book than just a tree survey.

The book came from my continuing a deep dive into my shelves, as I bought in Prague on my second visit there over twenty years ago now. I bought this book as a type of a souvenir for the area. The paper is also very nice and the book is lovely. Not sure why it took me so long to finally read this. Maybe it just mostly got overlooked.

Review 608: Sleep A Bedtime Reader

Sleep A Bedtime Reader by Robert Peacock
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book did not do well to evoke the feeling of sleep or dreams. A few of the stories or poems did, particularly near the end. Generally the entries seemed random.

The imagery was weird. The book is printed in high-gloss full color pages. The images were more dream-like than the text.

Most of the authors I did not recognize but there were a few bigger names, also near the end of the book: Alice Walker, Lou Reed, Jack Kerouac, and the very last, one of my favorite was by Fran Lebowitz: Why I Love to Sleep. It was very funny. Alice Walker’s poem was good too.

The book is so short, I have no idea why it remained unread until now. Perhaps I did pick the book up a time a two (and forgotten) and wasn’t impressed. The book came to me through a mail order book-club I used to belong to, bought over twenty-five years ago. Without seeing it in person explains why I purchased it. Oh, and good cover image. Overall disappointing.

Review 607: French Lessons

French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew by Peter Mayle
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Peter Mayle and his wife are British ex-pats in Southern France and use this Englishman non-French way of poking fun at both the English and French for their differences. In this book Mayle tours a few of the unusual festivals or fairs, sometimes with a companion.

There is the frog in Vittel, the snail in Martigny-les-Bains, blue footed chicken in Bresse, and the most pungent cheese in Livarot, just to name a few. Lots of food and flowing wine, and a lot of light-hearted interactions.

The shortest essay is the one where he got the wrong place and ended up in a muddy field while it’s raining, asking the farmer where to find Monthureux. Which one? The farmer asks. So, he missed the event. Mayle mostly pokes fun at himself.

My favorite essays are the first and last. The first being when he has fine French food for the first time as a young assistant. It opened up another world for him. The last essay being on the history of the Michelin Guide book. Mayle was hoping to do a ride along with one of the tasters. No, that was not going to happen. Secrecy is the most important.

This year I’ve been digging deep into my bookshelves, to those forgotten ones, this is another. The book is overall enjoyable, but I’m not much of a foodie.

Review 606: Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution

Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution by Patrick McGrath
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Found myself disappointed by this book, as it turned out to be something different than I expected. So maybe I should be disappointed in myself for misunderstanding what I was about to read.

Well, it seemed that despite the subtitle stating “A Novel of the Revolution”, that was not the main focus of the book. Instead it focused heavily on Harry Peake, Martha’s father. Oh, yes, Martha was there in the book but not as much as Harry.

Throughout the book, the story telling is overly dramatic. Then, a good way in the book, out of nowhere, this ghost type scenario appears. Strange sounds coming around in this old manor house and being told no one else was there.

After finishing the book I found out the author is known for his gothic tales. Someone more familiar with the author’s writing then would not be surprised. I bought this book a couple of decades ago, but I certainly wouldn't have done so if I knew about that aspect. My interest was in a woman becoming a hero of the revolution, which does come up in the book, but not until the near end.

I kept going with this to the end, mostly to see how it would all turn out. There is a bit of a twist, or surprise at the end. Not sure it was worth it sticking with the book. Certainly this book would work better for people who like gothic horror, or know what the book is about beforehand.

Review 605: Mine Work

Mine Work by Jim Davidson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite enjoyed this one. The main character, Markus Cottin is in search of his father's story, and his grandfather's. He knows nothing about their lives. The book becomes the story of Markus talking to people and finding out the Cottin’s story.

His father, Andrew Cottin left the family when Markus and Lucas were young. They almost never saw him. Lucas, not at all, but Markus found him. Andrew is living like a hermit, in the desert hills at a remote hard to get to location, where he works a small mining claim. Lucas had recently committed suicide which prompts Markus to seek out his father for the questions, who is he.

The father is mean and wants to be left alone. He hardly provides any details, but just enough for Markus to get started. The story involves a mining company, Cable Minerals, in a town called Madero. Andrew was convicted of blowing up two different mines owned by Cable Minerals.

Markus goes to the town of Madero to seek some of the answers. He ends up meeting his grandfather, Tom Cottin, which was a surprise as he grew up being told he died. Tom is hardly any help. He is an angry man as well, wants to be left alone, and can barely speaks in logical sentences. His mind seems to have gone. But the clues Markus gets helps. Another surprise is the death of Tom, suddenly and Markus had just seen him a day or two before, taken his picture even. Now he has to clear out the cabin, which provides a few more clues.

Markus returns to his dad. Andrew is not happy to see him. And when Markus tells of what he learns, he gets more grief. Told to leave it all alone.

This happens several times. Markus finds someone who tells more of the story and when he returns to his dad to reveal what he learns he is told to just give it up. But in not so nice of terms. The story is really about Tom Cottin, but Andrew is there, as a young boy growing up in Madero.

It’s an interesting way to tell the story. Although partway through the POV would switch from the person telling the story to the past, as if it was happening at the current moment. It was a bit jarring at first, as how would the characters know these actions. And that is part of a weakness here, that included in these sections are moments that the person telling this would not know some of it.