Review 699: The Christian Watt Papers

The Christian Watt Papers by Christian Watt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Christian Watt grew up and lived in Fraserburgh, located on the eastern side of Scotland, north of Aberdeen. She was born in the 1830s and lived a long life, although about half was in a mental asylum. It seemed like a home that looked carefully after their wards, and Christian was able to leave at times. It was there during her time living there it was suggested she write down her history, which is how the books pages came about.

Christian grew up very poor, the only girl in a large family of brothers, then many died in a boating accident. There were two left, but later those two also died. She had many losses in her life, too many. When she was a little older and married she ended up with having ten children and struggled to get by. At one point she says, if only one of my brothers had lived.

After her husband died in the sea as well was when Christian’s mental troubles started. Trying to manage all on her own became too much. The doctor suggested a rest in the asylum in Aberdeen. After a time she came back home but was shunned by many in the community, they would no longer buy fish from her. Christian said this was when she found out who her true friends were.

Christian had a great memory, remembering all the many people in her family and in the village, and this is all told in the book. It was at times a difficult read due to all these names of people, but to get a sense of what it was like during this time in that place, the book is excellent.

This is an edited autobiography, with the editor adding commentary and explanation to the text. Looking at the included family tree it appears that the editor is a Sir and related to Christian as well.

Review 698: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This would be a great book if you are looking to improve your story writing skills. I’m not. I had hoped it would be useful as a reader, and it was that, but not as much as I hoped. The book is really geared towards fictional writers.

However, I did get to listen to seven, no, eight stories by classic Russian writers. The audiobook included a bonus story. For these stories and the bit extra, it was worth my time. My rating reflects what I expect how it would help writers.

Review 697: The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



If you make it through the first 100 pages, you’re good for the rest. The beginning was purposefully developed to “construct a reader suitable for what comes afterward”. The book was deep into church theology of the era of 1327, while the mystery of why dead monks were turning up took a back seat. Quite a lot going on the book, including a labyrinth library off limits to all but the librarian and assistant.

Have to admit I was disappointed with the ending. But not disappointed with reading the book – a glimpse into the life of monks in the middle ages.

Review 696: The Dark Frontier

The Dark Frontier: Unlocking the Secrets of the Deep Sea by Jeffrey Marlow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This book is full of scientific discoveries and information about the deep ocean. It also is a bit of an autobiography for the author, but mostly not. Several different people and aspects are discussed throughout the book. This is very cursory and not much of a review...

The last portion gets a bit too much in the weeds about treaty negotiations to protect the ocean floor. Unfortunately, too often money influences when instead an ecosystem should be looked at, or science.

I made a mistake in listening to this book via audio. The narrator was not a good fit for the book.
Normally I don't let a narration influence how I feel about a book, but this one is long, and I became annoyed. I really should have switched to print. Perhaps one day I will return and read a print version, but I don't expect that will happen anytime soon (if at all).

Review 695: Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A short book with robots as the main characters. They wake up and the restaurant they work in is no longer in operation, so they start it back up themselves.

In this future a war just ended, California is no longer part of the United States and California has strict rules about robots and what they can do, such as not run a restaurant without a human owner.

There's a lot of stuff thrown in the book, but it's so short it's surface level, skimmed over, just mentioned. Some of it makes you wonder why the author even bothered. Did it improve the story, likely no. Anyway, I found the story okay overall.

Review 694: Mrs. Benedict Arnold

Mrs. Benedict Arnold by Emma Parry
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

Continuing my desire for American history reading this year this book looked interesting, although it is fictionalized history. What I came away with was – I should have stuck with non-fiction.

In this book Peggy Shippen is a teenager wanting new dresses and looking forward to parties and gawking at the men. She is also smart and intelligent but that seems to take a back seat for a good portion of the book. I almost quit the book several times.

I soldiered on and when Peggy meets Benedict Arnold she is taken by him quickly and very soon they are married. The book becomes less fluffy at this point. Yet the modern language and actions started to really annoy me.

According to this book Peggy Arnold had to convince Benedict to become the traitor he become. Throughout the book Peggy laments the war, wanting it to end, and when their son is born her desire for it to end skyrockets. Thus she believed in these actions to end the war sooner than later, although for the British. Peggy didn’t seem to be much of a patriot anyway.

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

Review 693: The Memory Hunters

The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars



I got hooked into this story and had a hard time putting the book down. I kept grabbing for it whenever I could, so despite its page length I read it fairly quickly. However, the last part of the book spoiled some of the story line for me.

The world building was very interesting, loved the concept of people being able to dive into the past and see things that happened before just by using some mushrooms. Our main character, Key, was particularly gifted and had perfect memory.

Kiana Strade, known as Key, came from a famous and rich family. Her grandmother was form head curator and founder of the Institute of Human Memory. Her mother was head resifix (like a priest) for the city of Asheburg and her father a ctiy councillor. Her mother hoped Key would follow her and not her mother. But Key wanted to work for the museum, do field work, and get away from all the demanding public in the city.

All hunters had guardians, and hers was Vale, a fierce stout woman that was quick to anger. Vale came from the south, where the storms were frequent and lived with losing ones home to the waters happened too often. She was poor, her family depended on her to send money home.

The story begins with Key finding something very interesting about the deep past, and perhaps the beginning of the rituals. The memory was also very strong and wouldn’t leave Key’s mind. This could happen to memory hunters, being haunted by a dive. Yet this find of Key’s seemed so important.

This is a start of a series, but I may just leave it there. In any case, I have to wait until the next book, and I'm not too big on series in general.

Review 692: Angelica

Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution by Molly Beer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This year one of my reading goals was to include more history, particularly early American history. I also wouldn’t mind to read about the women involved, and this book fit that category nicely.

Angelica Schuyler Church should be a more well known figure from the revolutionary time particularly coming from a prominent family, except women were expected to be primarily caretakers of the family, mothers and daughters. At a time when the new country was writing a constitution, some women advocated for women to not be overlooked, to be included in having a voice, but that did not happen. Instead women continued to experience the tyranny of the husband and father.

At age 20 Angelica wanted to marry John Barker Church who went by John Carter, but could not get her parents approval. Her father, General Schuyler was busy with war efforts, Carter spent ten weeks with him and still could not gain the approval. Angelica made her own “democratic vote” and eloped. Her parents were embarrassed. Yet, they remained together and the couple ended up having eight children.

Most of the book is about the history of the time, and following the timeline of Angelica’s life until she died in 1814. In 1783 the Church’s went to France as John was the U.S. envoy to France. A few years later John bought property in England and served as a member of the British Parliament until 1796. Meanwhile Angelica went to New York in 1789 to witness the swearing in of the first United States President George Washington. In 1799 they returned to America permanently and founded a town in New York and called it Angelica.

Angelica’s brother-in-law was Alexander Hamilton and she was friends with Thomas Jefferson and other important figures at the time. Without getting much longer in this, the book often veers to the history and other people. There are details of life during these years, such as how the price of butter and other goods were affected by the war. The research done is incredible. The author was born in Angelica, New York and likely was her inspiration for book.

Review 691: Still Needs Work

Still Needs Work: A Novel by Ellen Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I tend towards books on work, fiction or not, but more towards fiction. This book falls in the fictional category. The book opens with Marianne attending a conference in San Francisco, when she gets a heads up her job, and her entire department is being eliminated. She finished up the conference with this new status and heads back home.

Marriane is living back in Kansas City, her old childhood home, which has now turned into not a great neighborhood. She had been working remotely after her house in California burned down, apparently not long after her husband died.

Now she is trying to find a new job and continue fixing up her house, and now being careful with money. Her neighbors and her dog are prominent in the book. As Marriane tries finding a new job she seems to work well with finding work or business ideas for those around her.

The book is told simply, and on a day to day basis. The book grew on me, despite how often it is brought up what a bad neighborhood, being East of Troost. And yet I still liked the character and the neighbors as portrayed.

After finishing the book I found out there are several books about this character, guess it’s a series, but not labeled as such. In any case this book works as a stand-alone.

Review 690: In Trees

In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This book is somewhat hard for me to categorize other than saying it is a non-fiction book about trees and the human life, well mostly. It’s somewhat philosophical, somewhat scientific, while also being partly autobiographic.

Each chapter, which can be lengthy, focus on different topic. The book doesn’t have a thesis or summation and the subtitle is perhaps very apt as it is an exploration of trees in a variety of ways.

It begins with the author and his personal experiences, first with climbing trees then with bonsai trees. One surprising chapter was genealogy based, looking at how family are like trees branching out, although it is more in-depth there than I’m summarizing here.

There was a chapter on the Korowai people who live in tree houses, and are mostly living as their people have done for thousands of years. The author does visit. There is a chapter on chimpanzees, who make nests in trees and of course Moor has to sleep the night in one. From there we move into tree-sitters and saving old growth. Moor volunteers a few stints then becomes quite involved in becoming an activist to save some old big trees in Canada.

I felt like the trees were more the launching pad for Moor’s discussions than be centrally focused. I didn’t mind some of the explorations, but a few of them I wasn’t too excited about.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 689: Five

Five by Ilona Bannister
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A different sort of thriller type book. Takes place in the underground tube of London and the reader is told one of these five main characters are going to die with the next train coming into the station in five minutes.

The five characters are a mother with her uncontrollable child, and a man approaching her, who appears to be shady. Later we find out they do know each other very well. The other two characters are an older lady who ends up having a heart attack and a young man who helps her. There are several other characters in the train station, several others that help out of the catastrophe not just of the woman on the ground, as several people end up on the tracks.

Most of the book is the backstory of each of the five main characters, while in-between is the current moment at the tube station where there is quite a lot of action going on. The book poses morality question for the reader, which of these characters do you want to die? All have flaws that may have the reader rooting for one character to not make it.

With the way it was presented and the author breaking the fourth wall too often, I wasn't much of a fan of the style. It was a quick read.

Review 688: The Madness Pill

The Madness Pill: One Doctor's Quest to Understand Schizophrenia by Justin Garson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Solomon Snyder, or Sol, was on a quest to find a cure of schizophrenia. In order to do that he thought he needed a drug to mimic what the illness does. So he searched in psychedelics for a while, but it wasn't quite right. When speed came about and psychosis from too much speed, well, this drug was closer.

I liked the succinct way the history of psychiatry was explained. Basically two types of approach to mental health, the environmental factors which talk therapy helps; and the biological approach, which is solved with medication. The later helped move the field into a more acceptable scientific field. This book covers many of the medications that were developed.

The book was divided into the two parts: psychedelics then speed, providing a short history and some of the people that were involved in the development. The book did not solely focus on one doctor, Sol, as there was a cadre of people working in this field, but it did keep coming back to Sol’s work. The organizational method of the book made sense, but it also meant that the timeline wasn’t completely linear.

The tail end of the book became a whirlwind of different drugs all with similar sounding names. It was hard to keep that all straight, but otherwise this was a fascinating and informative book.


Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 687: Love Can't Feed You

Love Can't Feed You by Cherry Lou Sy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book opens with Queenie immigrating from the Philippines to New York City with her father and younger brother. They reunite with her mother after 5 years of being apart. Mom has changed and her father has difficulty accepting how she is now. She is more independent.

It's a turbulent family life. Which culminates in the father leaving the small apartment and never returning. Now Mom takes up with a young doctor from the hospital she works at. Meanwhile, Queenie turns 18 and wants to go to college, but her mom makes her work first, earning the money she went into debt to bring them over.

Their live moves quickly along, and many different topics are brought up in the book, and this is where the book flounders. It started off strong, but meandered and went into too many directions and fell flat in the end.