Treasure State ~ C.J. Box

Posted on January 27, 2023 by beckylindroos

I’ve read all of the books in the Cassie Dewell series by C.J. Box up to now and I’ve read a few in his Joe Pickett series, too. But I enjoy Cassie Dewell more  I probably should read the Pickett books in order.


Treasure State
By C.J. Box 
2022 / 
Read by Christina Delaine 8h 20m
Rating – A++
#6 in the Cassie Dewell Series  

Cassie Delaine has established herself as a Private Detective with a small office in Bozeman, a small town not too far from the Anaconda Range of Montana. There she has set up a small office with flakey Mom as receptionist. One day she gets a phone call from a woman in Florida who says she wants a man found and brought to justice. It would seem this guy wined her and dined her then left along with all her money, millions of dollars.  She already hired another private detective, but he disappeared into Montana several days ago. The narrative begins at 18 days prior to the main chronology, so the backstory thread alternates with the current activity and the two strands catch up about 2/3 of the way through.  

Cassie takes up the chase for the handsome conman as well as for the first private eye. Oh, and by the way, the Sheriff has also been missing now for 3 or 4 days.  

In another thread a very rich but eccentric older man hid a serious treasure and whomever finds it can keep it according to a strange poem he attached to the original notice. He also offers a large reward to Cassie herself IF she can find him, the poet and hider of treasure.

Cassie is smart and funny and doesn’t shirk from dangerous situations. It’s a very good series but the prior three books are quite gritty. Those books are The Highway, Badlands and Paradise Valley.

I wasn’t too crazy about the reader on this one but I got used to her. The accent of a truck driver in Montana is spot if mellowed a wee bit.  

Posted in 2023 Crime and Mysteries | Leave a comment

Fellowship  Point ~ by Alice Elliott Dark

Posted on January 20, 2023 by beckylindroos

My sister, also a reader, recommended this book, so although I’d never heard of either the book or the author, I trusted my sister’s tastes and went with it. She introduced me to several authors and I’ve  kept up with some.

Sad to say I wasn’t so fond of this particular book.  The story concerns two elderly women who have been best friends for about 80 years. That got my interest anyway because I do tend to enjoy books about people my own age- or I used to anyway, they’re becoming rather common now.  (And I could go on about Boomers pushing the markets, but …) 

Fellowship  Point 
by Alice Elliott Dark 
2022 / 
Read by Cassandra Campbell – 9h 32m 
Rating: 8 / lit historical fiction 

They have mostly lived in Philadelphia with their wealthy Quaker families who spend their summertimes  in their nearby cottages.on the coast of Maine.  Agnes Lee is the successful author of many novels including a very popular children’s series which she’s done pseudonymously and anonymously. She lives alone and likes it that way. She is the lead character but not by much, 

Polly Wister, Agnes’s best friend, is married to the love of her life who, until his retirement,  was a professor of philosophy and later retired. Polly is from an elite family in Philadelphia and tries to graciously enjoy the privileges money provides while caring for her husband, their 3 growing boys, and her old friend, Agnes. Polly’s 1st person soliloquies remind me of Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann where a very ill, middle-aged woman is dying and whose stream of consciousness takes up the whole book (!)  

In a series of flashbacks, the novel goes into the past lives of the two women, friends from childhood and Maine, while moving along with the current times in 2001and later when they’re close to 80 and finishing up their lives and death in general are on their minds.  

I didn’t like Maud’s name. She is 27 in 2001 and mentions Jimmy Hendrix as being the same age when he died.  Why would that even spring to mind in someone who was born in  1974?  Hendrix died before she was born.  Why is his death a  part her thought process at all? – I doubt my own children would think of Jimmy Hendrix and they were born in 1967 and 1970.   

I think I understand why Dark used the name Maud – it’s old fashioned and in keeping with the ages of Agnes and Polly. The Maine house is very old antiques and collectables in it.  Maud’s mother is Heidi and of the same age as Agnes and Polly.  There are a lot of changes in the women and their world but also there are things which don’t change.

The women change even if they try not to out of respect for traditions and the old ways and also out of determination that their ways are correct and sometimes because the world catches up to their forward Quaker notions.  And there are plenty of themes in this door-stopper of a book (are books used for that anymore?)

 

Posted in 2023 Historical Fiction | Leave a comment

Shaman – by Kim Stanley Robinson

Posted on January 16, 2023 by beckylindroos

And it’s a beautiful book, possibly one of the most touching I’ve read in ages.  These are the kind of books that make it all the way through the year to my “best of” lists.   

Shaman
Kim Stanley Robinson
2013
read by Graeme Malcom 15h 9m
Rating:10 ? A+ / literary SciFi

Reading Shaman might seem somewhat slow if you’re used to thrillers, but I was totally immersed in that tale of one small tribe at the dawn of civilization

It’s as much about the setting, the characters, and the history (to us) as it is about any one plot.  Of course it reminds us of The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean Ariel; 1980) where II read the 1st book in the series and lost interest. Robinson’s take on prehistoric life his is sooooo much more complete it could well be called “the thinking reader’s” version.  Robinson does his homework and is an expert world-builder, using both the research and imagination to create whole settings.   

Science fiction is almost as much about the whole setting, the world the author created, as it is about the characters. I’d even say it might be as important as the plot.

This is the story of prehistoric humans in the area of Southern France, in the location of one group of cave paintings.  (More below but no spoilers – promise.) 

 I got the book because it looked so good after I’d read a couple others by Kim Stanley Robinson.  A friend mentioned this one and I put it on my Wish List. Now, when I was in the mood for Sci-Fi and recollecting Robinson’s books, I already had it. 

AND!!!  It’a about Earth’s prehistoric peoples like a few in Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World by Philip Matyszak or The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (David  or a couple other books we read in the All-Nonfiction Reading Group.   

This will be the 4th of 22 novels (series and stand-clones) Robinson has published since 1981.  He’s won many (!) awards and today he’s widely regarded as one of the best sci-fi writers alive. An astroid was named for him.  All that is said to emphasize the veracity of Robinson’s work.  He does his research and is probably right in line with what science is saying today.  He tends to be a positive thinker, no doomsday stuff for Robinson, although New York 2140 is no utopia. These days he’s also very active in the field of climate change. 

This book includes medicinal practices, nature, male/female relations, tools, ideas of philosophy, ideas of art and aesthetics and “religion” or spirituality and more. And Robinson describes the natural elements so magnificently.

It’s a beautiful book, possibly one of the most touching I’ve read in ages.  This is the kind of book that make it all the way through the war to my “best of” lists.   

Radiocarbon dating conducted on 80 charcoal samples from the paintings determined that the majority of the works dated back 36,000 years—more than double the age of any comparable cave art yet uncovered. 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/france-chauvet-cave-makes-grand-debut-180954582/
(May have a paywall) 

https://www.npr.org/2013/08/28/214525930/shaman-takes-readers-back-to-the-dawn-of-humankind

https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/shaman

Rock paintings in the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves indicate that the cave hyena had the characteristic patches and mane of the spotted hyena. 

https://www.worldhistory.org/Chauvet_Cave/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_hyena




Posted in 2023 Science Fiction | Leave a comment

Murder on the Red River ~ by Marcie R. Rendon

Posted on January 14, 2023 by beckylindroos

This just popped out at me when I discovered it was set in along the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota especially in Fargo and in Bemidji, near the White Earth Reservation. 

Murder on the Red River
by Marcie  R. Rendon (2020)
Read by Siiri Scott 6h 3m 
Rating: B- / Native American crime 
#1 of The Cash Blackbear Series 

There were parts of this book which were fascinating but other parts which seemed dated and then other things which stretched credibility.  But I see it’s also set in the 1970s and that would make dial phones appropriate. 

Cash Blackbear is a 19-year old Native American woman whose parents are deceased or missing. She’s lived almost her whole life in Fargo and since since she graduated high school and was released from the foster home system she’s done farm work in the highly agricultural area.  She has a friend named Wheaten who is in law enforcement in a tiny town and acts as a kind of guardian.  Cash hangs out at a couple of local bars shooting pool, which earns her a bit more money, and drinking beer. She has her share of resentments about the white caste system and is kind of lost in the world. 

One day another resident of the White Earth reservation is killed in a field near where she works. Cash is hypersensitive to dream-like messages and senses she should go find the man’s wife. She heads up to White Earth Reservation.  

While I wasn’t overwhelmed with the plot I was very drawn to the characters as they’re unfolding in the series. A huge drawback for me is the apparent dependence Cash has on cigarettes and beer. 

Posted in 2023 Crime and Mysteries | Leave a comment

The January 6th Report ~ by the January 6 Committee

Posted on January 12, 2023 by beckylindroos

 I read and listened to the WHOLE thing! It took me about 4 days, I think – maybe a little more.  For the most part it’s riveting.  I only sampled the footnotes which are mostly from transcripts but there are links if you want to see for yourself.  

The January 6th Report
by the January 6 Committee 
2022, 1,285 pages 
Read by a cast – 23h 37m}
Rating: 10 / current events /true crime? 
(both read and listened)

I know I’ve read a lot of the material about Trump from his glory-ride down the golden escalator to the court cases which seem endless. I’m fascinated from some kind of historical angle. I wouldn’t bother with Prince Harry’s new memoir if you paid me, but with the Trump administration from start to finish (which it isn’t yet) the tale is one of narcissism, greed, sexism, racism, fascism, lying, coercion, strange characters and stupidity.  

So when I keep reading these books and articles, it’s because there are more and more details as well as varied perspectives and points of view. There are many good books and this is one of the best because of the details, because of the points of view (not opinions but where were they when this or that was happening?)

And that’s the strongest point of this book, imo. There is so much detail in it. Yes, there are times it gets repetitious, but that’s the way the televised Committee hearings were, too.  It feels like the different sections were, perhaps, written by different people but that’s okay – it’s not one long transcript. The mission of the Committee, however, was to establish some modicum of truth, so repetition is necessary, in large part, to verify what others say.    

There are no real chapters in the Kindle book. But there is a Preface written and read by David Remnick and an Epilogue written and read by Jamie Raskin. Then there are 1,200+ pages between Remnick and Raskin, not “including”).unnumbered pages of Endnotes with excellent material for researchers. There are sections of Endnotes placed between Book 1 and Book 2 and again before Book 3 and then between the different appendices.

The reading is performed by dozen or so very competent narrators. I also read along via the Kindle version but that’s not really necessary if you aren’t picky about the Endnotes.   

I’ve followed the news stories from the golden escalator event through the campaign followed by the hearings while other stories developed and up until toda.  But there is so much more in this volume. Some witnesses didn’t show up and this is included the findings of the Committee’s investigations and evidence.   

I came to very much admire some Republicans, but be sick and saddened by others. 

Posted in 2023 Current Events, 2023 Non-Fiction | 3 Comments

American Predator – by Maureen Callahan

Posted on January 8, 2023 by beckylindroos

I found this book mentioned in a “best books” column this week and looked it up on Audible. Lo and behold it was in the “Platinum account” catalogue.  Yay!  And it got into my Wish List right then, and a few days later downloaded onto my computer (but I listen on my iPad, too).  Yay!  


American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st century
By Maureen Callhian
2019 (299 pages)
Rating: A++ / True Crime

First published in 2019 Maureen Callahan’s novel won some serious praise at the time – like that’s only 3+ years ago and I don’t know how I missed it, but checking for new True Crime books isn’t something I do regularly. I more likely happen to come across the titles at other websites.

Be warned – in spite of the hype, the book, especially the audible version, starts slow and kind of dull and the voice of the narrator seems a bit flat. But after I got perhaps 3 chapters in, it felt to me like the flattish aspect added to the tension in a way – maybe it’s a kind of texture. Fwuw, I really dislike over-dramatization on the part of readers anyway. 

And then, at Chapter 5 or 6,  the narrative becomes riveting so for chapter after chapter and hour after hour I was hooked on that voice, the crime, and the investigation.  

I’d heard nothing in the news media about this crime at all but I expected a good procedural at least  because the author, Maureen  Callaghan, is a reporter for the New York Post, Also, this book was reviewed in the Washington Post and got a lot of rave reviews all over.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/american-predator-reveals-the-chilling-playbook-of-a-serial-killer/2019/07/02/d4f2b5dc-8224-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html

Posted in 2023 True Crime | 1 Comment

The War of the Poor ~ by Eric Vuillard

Posted on January 8, 2023 by beckylindroos

This slim volume made the Booker Prize Short List and that’s whyI read it with the Booker List group – it was on our schedule. I think I would likely never have even heard of it had it not been for that group.

The War of the Poor
by Eric Vuillard
2021 / 75 pages (!)
Kindle version
Rating – 9.25 / historical fiction
Mark Polizzotti (Translator)

With the Booker International Award the translator is also honored. (VERY IMPORTANT!)

And this is excellent reading if you’re interested in the history, but the Booker doesn’t have any rules about length. It would be okay with the Paris Literary Prize though, so I guess it’ll work. (LOL) .

“The English word novella derives from the Italian novella meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella

It fits that very nicely because The War of the Poor is historical fiction and it’s “related to apparently true facts.” Fortunately I was familiar with many of the names which was kind of surprising to me. The setting is Germany and Central Europe whereThomas Munzer became involved with the economic issues and the early Reformation. Munser was a fiery theologian who drew the common people to his ideas and angered the aristocracy. The result was the Great Peasant’s Revolt of 1525. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Peasants%27_War

The book is published as fiction because I believe Vuillard takes liberties with verifiable facts. Oh well, it’s a good book. It’s a kind of fiery book and although there are some reviewers on Amazon who said it took them less than an hour to read, that was not true for me because if you pause to comprehend and think about it there’s a lot of power and complexity in there. Brilliant book.


Posted in 2023 Fiction | 1 Comment

The Fall Girl – by Marsha Clark

Posted on January 5, 2023 by beckylindroos

Not starting out the year on a high note. I’ve read 3 of Marsh Clark’s books now and enjoyed them well enough to finish, but they lack energy or something. The books are legal crime, naturally as Clark’s prior job was prosecuting attorney. And there’s a good who-done-it at the center.


The Fall Girl
by Marsha Clark
2022 /
Read by Marsha Clark and
Cathy Lepard – 10h 52m
Rating: B- / legal crime

Oh well … the last time I read a Marcia Clark I was disappointed, too.  

Lauren Claybourne has burned some bridges Chicago and found a new life working in the DA’s office in Santa Cruz Ca under her new name, Charlie Blair. She’s just looking for safety, but her drinking and partying aren’t going to allow much room for safetyt. Then Shelly Hansen, a local women, is murdered.  

Meanwhile the county’s top-notch prosecutor, Erika Lorman, is investigating the Hanson murder and coming up with information making both herself and Charlie uncomfortable about her old doings. Erika starts having strange physical problems.  This book has the makings of a serial – we’ll see.

I’m glad I finished it. For some reason Clark just isn’t my cup of tea.  I loved the legal aspect but much of it was so realistic as to be borderline boring and there were new characters popping in regularly. The readers (2) were very low key.



Posted in 2023 Crime and Mysteries | Leave a comment

Happy 2023 😁 Happy 2023 😌 Happy 2023!!!!😁

Posted on January 5, 2023 by beckylindroos

Yup – I wonder how I’ll do this year. A year of good books, a year of good tea, a good year of being where I’m supposed to be. No resolutions – I’ll change as I feel the need and as I am able.

One think I’m going to try is see about categorizing some of these reviews by genre –

General Fiction
Mystery
Sci-Fi
General Nonfiction
History
Memoir

And I might write a monthly wrap up mentioning # of books (natch) and favorite books

Posted in books | 2 Comments

Becky’s Best Books of 2022!

Posted on January 3, 2023 by beckylindroos

My rule is that I have to have read the book for the first time in 2022.  It might have been published back in 1922, but I first read it in 2022.  It only counts twice if I read it in different months and then only on the monthly totals. Novellas over 100 pages count as books (There were more novellas this year.) . The lists below are generally ordered by rating.

Mystery and Sci-Fi get rated ratings of A-F wulie ehverything else gets 1-10.  Some books get both ratings. 

GENERAL FICTION

The Books of Jacob ~ by Olga Tokarczuk (10)
The Netanyahus ~ by Joshua Cohen (10)
Trust ~ by Hernan Diaz (9.75)
The Trees – by Percival Everett (9.5)
Small Things Like These ~ by Claire Keegan (9.5)
The Passenger & Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy (book and sequel) (9.75)
The Last White Man ~ by Mohsin Hamid (9)
In Memory of Memory ~ by Maria Stepanova (9)
Companion Piece ~ by Ali Smith (9)
No One Is Talking About This ~ by Patricia Lockwood (9)

MYSTERY or CRIME
The Ink Black Heart ~ by Robert Galbraith  (8.5/A++) 
The Boys from Biloxi~ by John Grisham (A++) 
Silverview: by John Le Carré (9.5/A) 
Bad Actors ~ by Mick Herron (A+/9)
City On Fire ~ by Don Winslow (A++)
The Shadow Murders – by Jussi Adler Olsen (A+) 
Women’s Murder Club (series to now) – James Patterson and Maxine Praeto (A++) 
The Family Chao ~ by Lan Samantha Chang  (9/A) 
The Sentence is Death – by Anthony Horowitz (A+) 
A Song of Comfortable Chairs ~ by Alexander McCall Smith (10 – for the fun)

Sci-Fi
The Sea of Tranquility~ by Emily St John Mandel (9.5/B) 
The Years of Rice and Salt ~ By Kim Stanley Robinson (9/A) 
The Employees:  by Olga Ravn  (9 / A- )
Appleseed ~ by Matt Bell. (9 / A) 
(Just not so many of these – maybe fixing this can be a resolution – )

NONFICTION
Bloodlands ~ by Timothy Snyder #2 (History – WWII Europe) (10)
The Anglo-Saxons: ~ by Marc Morris  (English history) (10)  
The Desperate Hours ~ by Maria Brenner (Covid in New York) 9.75
Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World  by Philip Matyszak (history) 9.5)
Wilmington’s Lie ~ by David Zucchino (US history)  (9.5)
All That She Carried ~ by Tiya Miles (US Black History) (9.25)
The Dawn of Everything – by David Graeber and David Wengrow (anthropology)(9)
Lost Christianities ~  by Bart Ehrman (history of Christianity) (9)
Freezing Order ~ by Bill Browder (political ) (0(
J.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire  by Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman  (biography and California history) (9)

Posted in books | Leave a comment

2022 in Books and Numbers

Posted on January 3, 2023 by beckylindroos

I read 159 books this year making 12.67  the mean per month and 13.5 the median. Thats sounds good – it’s a bit over 3 books a week. The most read was April with 20 and the fewest read was in February at 5 (short month or long books? – LOL) 

I read 36 books of GENERAL FICTION; 77 books in the  CRIME genre,
4 books of SCI-FI, and 42 NONFICTION  

These numbers are slightly higher than last year but “reading more” is no longer my goal.

Next up Best Books (IMO!!!) of the Year – 
Becky 

Posted in books | Leave a comment

The Madness of Crowds ~ by Louises Penny

Posted on December 29, 2022 by beckylindroos

I’m really not big fan of Louise Penny but I keep trying to like her books.  Over some time I read the first 5 in her Detective Ganache series but I usually quit or slipped into blank out mode.  I’ve even tried a couple with the new audio narrator. Robert Bathurst, and those are better but really, no thank you.  I don’t mean to try them over and over but the plots keep sounding good or friends keep recommending them. This one takes place during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and that got me hoping to find another seasonal read.  LOL!   

 
The Madness of Crowds 
Louise Penny
Read by Robert Bathurst 14h 50m
Rating –  7, A-  / cozy detective who-done-it 

There’s something just too precious and idyllic about the setting and it’s characters.  Retired Chief of Police Armand Gamache lives with his wife and near his daughter and her small family in a tiny, quiet, and artsy village somewhere aways south of Quebec but still north of the US. His fellow villagers, artists and writers and intellectuals of all stripes and ages with several ethnicities and sexual orientations get together for little faires and benefits or sometimes just for an evening at the local bistro owned and operated by a gay couple. 

 But various serious crimes happen and the good detective always steps up to the plate. Oh, it gets cloyingly idyllic. So I’d just say it’s very cozy who-done-it type of procedural.  

I’ve read that the setting is deliberately too idyllic and that this promotes a kind of atmosphere many readers thoroughly enjoy. I’m put off by it but I think the books have fine plots –

Here’s a list of characters in the different books: 

https://www.bookcompanion.com/the_madness_of_crowds_character_list.html

I’m not going to bother with a whole plot synopsis but from the blurbs it sounded like it was going to be about free speech and the ultra-conservative crowds these days. That’s not what it is. It’s about a scientist who encourages forced euthanasia for the elderly and infirm. This idea has enemies and the scientist involved has a long and complex history as well. There are dead bodies.

Posted in books | Leave a comment

Murder at an Irish Christmas ~ by Carlene O’Sullivan

Posted on December 26, 2022 by beckylindroos

Some folks indulge in binge watching Christmas movies over the holidays, I binge on Christmas novels – preferably mysteries. I don’t know when this started but it’s been at least 10 years since I picked up Monica Ferris’ Crewel Yule (#6 in the Needlecraft series) and got hooked. But now Ferris hasn’t published in probably 5 years so I’ve been going elsewhere  David Rosenfelt’s Christmas books in the Andy Carpenter series are excellent. I just this year tried Alexandra Benedict and found her books quite fun.

Murder at an Irish Christmas
by Carlene O’Sullivan
2020
Read by Caroline Lennon 9h 19m
Rating: C / a cozy “who done it”
Irish Village Msyteries – #6 

From the publisher: 
The O’Sullivan clan of County Cork, Ireland, are back to investigate another case of murder–this time at Christmas! Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan’s holiday plans hit a sour note when murder rearranges the yuletide carols into unexpected eulogies…

This December in Kilbane, if you’re planning to warm up with a cuppa tea at Naomi’s Bistro, you may have a bit of a wait–the entire O’Sullivan brood has gone off to West Cork to spend the holidays with brother James’s fiancee Elise’s family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. Siobhan is so happy for James and Elise but also quietly disappointed that she must put her own wedding to fellow garda Macdara Flannery on hold. Mac will have to join them later, so he can spend part of the holidays with his mam.

When the O’Sullivans learn everyone will choose a name from a hat to buy a music-related Christmas gift for someone else at the gathering, it seems like their greatest concern–until the cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a ninety-pound harp in a local concert hall.

With the extended family–including Enda’s much-younger new wife Leah, a virtuoso violinist–suspected in his murder, it’s up to Siobhan to ensure the guilty party faces the music. But as a snowstorm strands both families in a lavish farmhouse on a cliff, Siobhan had better pick up the tempo–before the killer orchestrates another untimely demise…  

****************
Reading this book felt like being in a clothes dryer filled with too many characters all appropriately dressed but tumbled around. Also, the situations felt a bit far-fetched and messed with credibility, a very important factor in this genre. I managed to get accustomed to the accent of the reader but … I’m glad I tried a Christmas book and not a regular in the series because the character who acts as the love interest for the protagonist was away at his own parents home for the holidays – no romance scenes. But still, no thanks.

Posted in books | 3 Comments

An Immense World – by Ed Yong

Posted on December 24, 2022 by beckylindroos

An Immense World:
How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us 
by Ed Yong – 
2022 / 481 pages 
read by author 14h 17m
Rating: 8.5 / zoology 

I read very few books about zoology much less the specifics of the animals’ senses.  I don’t watch nature shows. I’m just not an animal person.  Cats are okay and birds are interesting but in general, no. 

But I read the books my reading groups pick – the groups selections often broaden my scope and deepen my awareness. This is a good thing or I might get lazy and read only best-selling thrillers.  (Sorry – I can’t get that font to change!) 

So with the subtitle of “How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us” I would never have picked this book up off the shelf of my local bookstore or clicked on it at Amazon/ Audible.  Nope – But it was nominated and selected as the All-Nonfiction Reading Group’s December discussion book.  Okay fine.  

It is pretty much what that subtitle says – it’s about animal senses and what they see, hear, feel (as in touch), and smell. The animals are varied from insects to whales and it seems that the human brain, as it is, will never know exactly what it feels like to be a bat.  Here’s the original essay by Thomas Nagel published in The Philosophical Review in October 1974 and made available by JSTOR
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/ugmodules/humananimalstudies/lectures/32/nagel_bat.pdf

Yes, Chapter 1 deals with sight, Chapter 2 deals with color, Chapter 3 deals with pain (not a sense but it does spur sensory activity). And so it goes all the way to Chapter 13 which Yong titles “Saving the Quiet, Preserving the Dark and Threatened Sensescapes.”   I’m amazed at how the researchers were able to find all this out. And I’m amazed that Yong could explain it.

I have both the Kindle and the Audible editions.  The Kindle edition seems a bit bland and dry. Yong’s narration brings it alive.I enjoyed both because sometimes I need to reread a sentence or a paragraph,  sometimes I want to do a search for some name or subject. A reader can do that with the Kindle but not with an audio version.  (Also, Yong is an excellent reader of his own work – like Merlin Sheldrake, another British scientist- see https://mybecky.blog/2021/08/17/entangled-life-by-merlin-sheldrake/ )

Anyway,  I got to Chapter 7 and had to take a break which ended up lasting about 2 weeks.  Then I picked the book up again and went slowly for a couple chapters, finally finishing on Christmas Eve. Yes.  The last couple chapters are some of the best parts of the book dealing with the environment we are changing and expect these creatures to live in.  

There’s a lot of info in this book. -enjoy.  

Posted in 2023 Fiction | 3 Comments

The Boys from Biloxi ~ by John Grisham

Posted on December 23, 2022 by beckylindroos

It’s a good thing I haven’t finalized my list of best books of 2022 yet. This one is going on there! 

 John Grisham is BACK!!!  He seemed to be kind of on vacation for a few years  during the 2000s, I read those books with his name on them and enjoyed them, but they were barely above okay. There seemed to be something missing. With The Boys from Biloxi there is nothing missing.  Nothing. It’s all there including his opposition to the death penalty,  


The Boys from Biloxi
by John Grisham
2022 / 
Read by Michael Beck – 17h 22m
Rating A++ / Legal crime thriller –  

It’s a totally fascinating book about two men and their sons from very different families in Biloxi, Mississippi.  These boys, both children of immigrants, grow up as close friends, but then go their separate ways after high school, each following in the steps of his own father. One goes the way of owning strip and gambling clubs along the coast there, while the other very conscientiously peruses the law and becomes the District Attorney in Biloxi Mississippi.  The story plays out from late 1960s and early ’70s through 1984.   

The book seriously fictionalizes the “Dixie Mafia”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Mafia with roots in Biloxi, Mississippi (Grisham’s home turf).  But it’s still steeped in history- just without naming names or places, etc. That said, Grisham has outlined how a group of general bad boys gains power, gets “organized,” and comes up against a good guy lawyer named Jesse Rudy who is determined to clean up the Gulf Coast. The book is more about the sons of Jesse Rudy and Lance Malco than anyone else. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco were very close friends and played football together on the Biloxi high school team back in 1960. But times changed. 

I’ve enjoyed John Grisham’s books since the early 1990s and his were some of the first I listened to but on my old Sony Walkman. With this book it took me awhile to get into it, but then something happened and whoosh!  I was hooked.  There’s not a whole lot of car-chasing or gun-slinging shoot-outs, but after a rather slow and more cerebral build the threads connect and sparks fly into a blaze. And the bad guys are running or laying low while the good guys are getting court cases and witnesses together as quick as they can.  It’s a darned good book!  

Thematically it gets to be about capital punishment, a regular subject in Grisham’s novels from as early as The Chamber. Grisham is a very moral type of guy and is adamantly opposed to the death penalty.  “John Grisham: ‘There are tens of thousands of innocent people in prison and you don’t believe it because you’re white’”

https://sports.yahoo.com/john-grisham-tens-thousands-innocent-022846424.html (great article – May, 2022) 

It’s Jesse Ruby and son Keith versus Lance Malco and his son, Hugh. The tension is pitch perfect as the chapters and sub-chapters alternate between and within “sides.” Each side has a line-up of people lined ready to help him.  I had to take notes to keep the characters straight.  

It’s certainly a thriller with plenty of twists and turns plus high-drama courtroom action.  Grisham is a pro – a good-guy pro – and in my opinion he’s at his peak  

Posted in 2023 Fiction | 2 Comments

Death at La Venice by Donna Leon

Posted on December 20, 2022 by beckylindroos

I’d love to review a really good book right now, but the only fiction I seem to be reading since Cormac McCarthy’s new novels are not in the least little bit inspiring. They’re not even good for escape (except possibly the The Christmas Express – Alexandra Benedict / 2022).  Death at La Venice was boring.  I think it was written so the author could show off her knowledge of Venice, Italy, views, food, art and other cultural elements. Then the protagonist of what became a series, Detective Guido Brunetti, got popular. I think I read one of these several years ago.  (So… checking… checking … yes, I read “Falling In Love” in 2016 and rated it a C+). I should have known better this time.  I hate when this happens, Oh well. –  live and learn. This is one reason for keeping my blog!!!   

Death at La Venice 
by Donna Leon 
Read by David Colacci 9h 33m 
Rating: C- / foreign detective crime
(Commissario Brunetti series – Book 1)

From Audible: 
A conductor succumbs to cyanide at the famed Venice opera house, in the first mystery in the New York Times-bestselling, award-winning series. 

During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, a notoriously difficult and widely disliked German conductor is poisoned—and suspects abound. Guido Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Along the way, he finds the crime may have roots going back decades—and that revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine may play a role. 
***

The series has 31 novels to date. Donna Leon was born American and writes in English but moved to Italy and then to Switzerland becoming a Swiss citizen in 2002. Her works are translated into many languages, except she doesn’t allow Italian translations.  This has always struck me as being very interesting.

Posted in 2023 Fiction | 2 Comments

The Plea – by Steve Cavanagh

Posted on December 18, 2022 by beckylindroos

I thought I’d read something by Steve Cavanagh before but nope, after checking his older books it looks like I was in error. So I ended up reading The Plea which is the second in the Eddie Flynn series.  Okay fine.  

The Plea 
by Steve Cavanagh 
2016 / 
Read by Adam Sims 11h 55m
Rating: C+ / legal thriller 
(#2 in Eddie Flynn series) 

I wasn’t too impressed with it until about Chapter 17 out of 90(?). Then the story clicked in and it took off like thrillers are supposed to.  Adam Sims, the narrator helps a lot with increasing the tension. I don’t think I’ve heard him before and he’s quite good. 

But then, about 2/3 through (page 250?), the plot got kind of crazy with set-ups and double crosses, so it almost becomes a “who really done it,” and a “what did they do,” along with new characters and so on. Eddie Flynn, the protagonist, is a very sharp con man, the son of a con man, so I suppose it fits. (?)

The story is basically what happens when people in big and seriously corrupt corporate law firms decide they have to frame someone to get what they, themselves want, so they set up folks and then play a “plead guilty” game with their clients in order to get away with their own crimes.

It was fun to start out, but became a real disappointment.  

Posted in 2023 Fiction | Leave a comment