Christina, Beth, and Jim made up the core of our group this month. Sheila joined us for a bit from Florida; she has now settled in from her recent move from Kansas City to Jacksonville. And John was on for maybe a minute (?), but we never did hear from him.
Peggy is on her cruise, but did send in her reading list. We’ll look forward to hearing about her adventures in December. Linda was also unable to make it but provided her reading as well.
The big news is that Caroline, who attended Book Lovers SIG in person for many years at Darryl’s house, let me know she is getting married next year! So, congratulations, Caroline.
In all, 51 books were read/discussed/reviewed. The full list can be found here:
https://www.mamensa.org/category/book-lovers-sig-book-talks/
Book Lovers SIG always meets on the second Sunday of each month; in this case December 8. We meet online using Zoom, so it is easy to join in.
Folks generally start checking in around 2 pm for a bit of socialization. Book discussions begin around 2:30 pm, more or less, or when Peggy says, “OK, Let’s talk about books!”.
To join us on Zoom, simply click on the link shown below:
https://tinyurl.com/BookLoversSIG
You can also open your Zoom app and use these parameters:
Meeting ID: 946 0436 4344
Passcode: 844358
Remember, Book Lovers is yet another way for members who do not live in large metropolitan areas or who can’t make it to local events to get more out of their Mensa membership. We don’t assign books; we just talk about what we’ve been reading lately. Even if you haven’t had time to read this month, join us anyway. Maybe you’ll hear about something that interests you; it happens to me all the time!
*****
Beth
A Theory of Everyone by Michael Muthukrishna.
A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe. A look at the history of migration in Europe after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. Using DNA from specimens across Europe and Eurasia, the authors show how infectious disease, specifically the plague, left spaces open and how pastoralists took over the space “vacated?” by farmers in Europe decimated by the plague. The DNA shows a different picture that is different from the interpretation of archaeology but does not contradict it. Infectious diseases went back and forth across the Atlantic. This clarifies some of the migration patterns, and the important role that DNA has to play in deciphering our past.
The London Underground by Chris Angus. An archaeology dig under London turns strange when higherups close the dig, confiscate papers and specimens, and then skeletons are discovered and confiscated. Attempts by our protagonists to solve the problem add jewels, and some ferocious beast to the mix. Then there is a World War II tie in. Turns out there is biological warfare in the mix. High body count and serious threats as control of the power of the British government is in play.
The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness. Diana and Matthew are in New Haven, happily living their lives with 2 bright-born children, a griffin, and a dog. Then the requests arrive, from the Congregation, a long-lost Proctor relative, and an unkindness of crows. It seems that there are many more mysteries to uncover now that we’ve taken care of the book of life. To say nothing of Daddy’s branch of the family. Wonderful mix of witches, vampires, genetics, dark magic, and family.
Court of Daggers by Alexander Dumas (translation Lawrence Ellsworth). The three (4, or 5) musketeers continue their adventures in 17th century France. Politics, Power, Sex, Money, and conniving all wrapped up in funny clothes with lots of horses.
The Ministry of Time by Aliane Bradley. A British Ministry (of Time) has “rescued” some people from the past with a time machine. We follow the story through the eyes of one of the “bridges”, the people assigned to teach the refugees/immigrants about the 21st century. The pieces don’t line up, as is usual with time travel, and as the book goes on, we watch the pieces shift and morph. In the end, there appears to be a different road, one that leads to redemption, if you can have faith and follow your heart.
The Prague Golem: Stories of the Jewish Ghetto by Harald Salfellner, Ed. Collected stories from the Jewish ghetto of Prague. This is a step on my journey to understand Jews, their history and their place in the world.
Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare. On a world populated by small competing kingdoms with medieval technology, the only magic left is small charms and magic used by only one group. This group is sequestered in walled sections of the city (think Jews in medieval Europe) and has all the physicians, who are all men except for our protagonist. The city kingdom that is the setting for the story has another strange custom: the sword catcher. The prince and heir must have a doppelganger/bodyguard to stand in for him if there is danger, but the prince still must be seen, such as at official functions. When the prince was young (10), an orphan who looked like him was taken from the orphanage and trained to be this doppelganger. To those in the know, he is the sword catcher (not many people know). To everyone else, this is his cousin from a neighboring kingdom. Royal marriages are all arranged with the neighboring states for political purposes. There is magic (strictly controlled), royalty, criminal underworld, cartels, and essential resources are tightly controlled and viciously fought over. The people at the center of the story don’t like following the rules, and their rule breaking leads to problems, which lead to rule breaking, and mayhem ensues. I liked this one, but the real action doesn’t start till the last 50 pages (out of 600) and the next book comes out in March 2025. The characters are well drawn and engaging, but this was the set-up book.
Jim
Imaginary Languages: Myths, Utopias, Fantasies, Illusions, and Linguistic Fictions by Marina Yaguello, Translated by Erik Butler. Originally published in French in 2006.
The author explores the history and practice of invented languages. She starts back in the early 1600s. I was fascinated to learn that the rate of new language creation is increasing, and that it is mostly men that do it.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, people tried to find the perfect language to unite all humanity, or short of that, to find the one language at the root of all of the world’s languages.
Hint: there is no ‘original language’.
On the way, I learned about:
‘glosalalia’ — Fabricated and nonmeaningful speech, especially such speech associated with a trance state or certain schizophrenic syndromes (gift of tongues); and,
‘xenoglosalia’ — The supposed ability to speak, read, write, or understand a foreign language without having acquired it through natural means.
Fully half of the book contains excerpts from some of the author’s source material!
What an amazing history!
I didn’t read this book, but I learned about it in the Denver Post (November 10, 2024).
Riding Like the Wind – The Life of Sanora Babb by Iris Jamahl Dunkle. Sanora Babb worked in the migrant camps in California during the Dust Bowl years. She was writing a book about her experiences. It appears that John Steinbeck stole lots of material from her and then published The Grapes of Wrath before she could publish… and then nobody would publish her book. I have to read this book!
Again, in the Denver Post (Nov. 10), I learned about ‘Blind Date with a Book’. Bookstores wrap a book in plain paper and write a very short blurb about it. You buy the book without knowing much about it… like a blind date.
This reminded Beth of a book she read some time ago about language and migration, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony.
Jim also told us about Read a Book Day, which occurs on September 11th each year.
Many countries in the world today are on the Read a Book Day program… today is the day.
This is how it works: take a book you really like, feel something about and leave it somewhere; in a coffee shop, store, on a bench, anywhere, a book you want to give out to someone somewhere that says something. Pretty simple and if you want you can write a dedication in it.
So, think about it. Please give someone somewhere a book that changed your life, made you think, made you laugh or cry.
Which reminded Christina of BookCrossing.com, https://www.bookcrossing.com/, which actually began in Kansas City. I’ve been a member for 20+ years and have attended several of the international conventions. I’m not as active as I used to be, but I try to at least make an occasional Little Free Library release.
BookCrossing is the act of giving a book a unique identity, so as the book is passed from reader to reader, it can be tracked and thus connecting its readers. Breathe new life into books instead of letting your old favorites collect dust — pass them along to another reader. Their online archival and tracking system allows members to connect with other readers, journal and review literature, and trade and follow their books as lives are changed through “reading and releasing”. Users are able to tag and track their individual books by marking them with BCIDs (BookCrossing Identity Numbers). Each BCID is unique to each book – once it’s registered on our site, the book can then be followed and journaled forever.
Kind of a cool idea.
Christina
Spooky Season Reads
Spirit of a Nation by M.N. Jolley. A short story in the Kansas City Warlock Weekly series. Contains some interesting historical bits and a different take on ghost-busting.
Captured by M.N. Jolley. The second novel in the Kansas City Warlock Weekly picks up about where the first one left off. Levi’s best friend has disappeared from a heavily warded safe house and he has to find her before the PTBs do. Read for Neurovember.
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. My second read from this author, and even better than the first. It’s YA, but it doesn’t actually read all that young. It’s sort of a medieval French-ish fantasy setting, long after a demon apocalypse. Somehow another demon apocalypse is set off, and when a convent is attacked, it’s up to one of the novices–and the demon possessing her–to save the world. Read for Strange Worlds Book Club.
The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra by Marc Tyler Nobleman. I need to quit listening to audio-only versions of picture books. The story is about some goats trying to distract the monster from eating them. I’m still waiting on the physical copy from the library.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. A wildly imaginative tale of a princess who leaves her convent refuge to save her remaining sister from an evil prince in the next kingdom. The story opens with her in a pit of bones, trying to fashion a dog out of bones and wire. (Bone Dog is the bestest boy.) Kingfisher is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
In the Event of Murder by Cynthia Kuhn. The second novel in a cozy mystery series set in and around a bookstore in a fictional Denver suburb. Emma does the event planning for her family’s bookstore, and when the woman planning the library’s big gala is murdered, Emma is pressed into service to finish the job–and find the murderer. Read for the Sisters in Crime-Colorado Book Club.
Blood Rites by Jim Butcher. Sixth book in the Harry Dresden series. I hadn’t read any of these since my divorce, and I am now disenchanted with Butcher’s writing and interminable male gaze. For Midwestern wizardry, read M.N. Jolley instead.
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury’s signature nostalgia reigns in this story of a group of boys whose leader doesn’t show for trick-or-treating. Instead, a spooky guy appears and offers to help find the missing boy, and he whisks them off on a time travel adventure to explore harvest and death rituals throughout human history.
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. The second Holmes novel is probably best known for being the one where Watson meets his first wife. Despite the ridiculously complicated plot, it’s a fun Victorian romp and tons better than A Study in Scarlet. Read for Victober.
Bites, Frights, and Other Delights: A Spook-tacular Cookbook by Drew and Dallyn Maresco. A cute collection of Halloween-themed treats. Most of them look easy enough for kids to make, or at least help with.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. A very different mermaid story. Lots of reviewers complain about Khaw’s pretentious vocabulary, but I quite enjoyed the poetic flow of the language. It helped me deal with all the carnage on the page. Read for the F***ed-Up Book Club.
The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel. The owner of a Hitchcock-themed hotel invites his college film club friends (sure, we’ll call them friends) for a special weekend. As you might expect, not everybody survives it. I didn’t love the writing style and some of the construction and pacing felt off to me, but overall I enjoyed the story. I especially liked that it highlighted what a not-great person Hitch was. If you do decide to read this, I recommend watching Rope first. Read for the Sleep When I’m Dead Book Club.
Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud. A woman suffering from depression in the 1920s is admitted to a special asylum on the moon, where they do interesting things with silk from the long-dead Moon Spider. Much wackiness ensues. Just kidding. There is zero wackiness. This is intensely creepy and violent and disturbing and not for the arachnophobic. Read for Gothtober.
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer. Eve’s girlfriend isn’t home when a family shows up and the father asks to let him show them around his childhood home. And she lets them in. That was a bad decision. I hope for your sake that they’ve done another printing of this, because you can’t get the full effect from the audiobook. I’d actually recommend full immersion. Read the hard copy while listening to the audiobook. This is easily the creepiest thing I have read all year. Even creepier than the cosmic spider cult. Read for the Book Troop Book Club.
Zombie Bake-Off by Stephen Graham Jones. Wrestlers and zombies crash the same baking competition. Much wackiness ensues. Jones is hit-or-miss for me, and this one was kind of a miss. It wasn’t bad, really; just not my cuppa.
Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer. A private investigator returns to her island home for her grandmother’s funeral. She learns that her grandmother was murdered and is urged to investigate by her childhood bestie (who has been a ghost since they were teenagers). Much wackiness ensues.
The Reunion Dinner by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Short story about a Chinese New Year’s dinner that ends badly. Or not, depending on your perspective. Amusing and wacky but not nearly as fun as the Vera Wong novel.
This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau. So, if your estranged, abusive mother stalks you and invites you on a weekend getaway in an undisclosed location, um, maybe don’t go? But then this book would have no plot. It’s an interesting look at the abuse dynamic, but I’m not sure that explains the sheer stupidity on display here. Read for the Literally Dead Book Club.
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells. Book 6 of the Murderbot Diaries. This novella was released between #5 (a novel) and #7 (another novella), which is odd because I’m told they are a duology. So I guess I should re-read #5 before reading #7. If you haven’t read any of them, start at the beginning with All Systems Red. They are delightful. I <3 Murderbot. Read for Gothtober.
Romance
Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma. A desi retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, set in New Jersey. It did some interesting script-flipping, but it remained almost as problematic as the original. It opens with the protagonist’s 30th birthday, but everybody (including her grandmother) acted like they were 12. I also just plain didn’t like Dr. Dil, and this was way too much smut for me. Read for the Folger Shakespeare Library’s virtual book club: https://www.folger.edu/whats-on/programs/book-club/.
Nonfiction
Your Brain’s Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD by Tamara Rosier. I listened to the audiobook and it seemed useful. If there was a PDF supplement available, though, I couldn’t find it, so I will have to track down a hard copy to be able to tell for sure.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Fascinating but overwhelming. It’s like the TARDIS–bigger on the inside. Read for the LHR Society.
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis. This book had lots of details I had never heard about before and made a lot of important connections. I listened to the audiobook, but I also have an ebook copy and expect I will re-read it. Read for Nonfiction November.
Editor’s note: Christina’s book reviews (comments) were not edited at her request to this editor.
Brad (66/24847)
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (Translation by Michael Hofmann). A story I didn’t care about, written in a style that annoys me, with characters I did not like. If you like books where a single paragraph lasts for several pages, this one is for.
Set in East Germany before the wall fell, this is a story of a 19-year-old young woman who sees a 54-year-old man on a subway, exchanges a glance with him, then follows him home to sleep with him, and falls deeply in love with him. Yeah, right. He emotionally abuses her, she accepts it. On and on the story drags, month by month, year by year. I really didn’t like any part of this book. **
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Several members of the book club have been on me to read this book. Finally came up on my reading list. I identified with the main character, a woman who is very good in what she does (chemistry) and simply wants to do her job without idiots like her boss getting in her way. Pretty much the story of my life. Good writing made this a pleasure to read.
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Historical Fiction (2022) & Winner for Readers’ Favorite Debut Novel (2022). *****
Copper River (Cork O’Connor #6) by William Kent Krueger. So, when this story last left off, Cork was on the run, with a contract put on his head by a rich old dude who blamed Cork for the death of his two sons. Hiding out in cabin owned by his cousin, somehow death finds a way to intrude on him anyway. Cork solves that mystery (of course) and manages to put an end to the contract as well. Another satisfying read by Krueger. ****
The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science by Dava Sobel. Very interesting story about Curie and her effect on women entering science, especially in Europe. To be honest, I was completely ignorant of Curie beyond what I heard about her death from radiation poisoning. For example, I didn’t know she grew up in Russia-occupied Poland, and that her name before marriage was Maria Sklodowska. I also didn’t know she won TWO Nobel prizes, one in Chemistry with her husband Pierre Curie, and one in Physics by herself. She was the first person to win two Nobel prizes, and still the only person to do so in two different fields. Just amazing. ****
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney. I tried reading this book once, and just couldn’t get into it, but it cycled back onto my list, so I dove in again. It did not get any better. I was halfway through before I could figure out what was going on, and 2/3 through before it started getting even remotely interesting. Not recommended.
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2021) ***
The Waiting (Renée Ballard #6) by Michael Connelly. Renée Ballard leads LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit. Actually, she is the only badged member of the unit; all others are volunteers, some retired cops, a retired D.A., a retired FBI agent and a housewife who has taken up internet detective work after both her daughters left home for college. Oh, and also Maddie Bosch, Harry’s now 26-year-old daughter, who hopes that her work in the unit will help get her off the street and land a detective badge.
There are a couple of different story lines, both cold cases. One is a serial rapist from over 20 years ago, and the other is the infamous Black Dahlia case.
What I like about Connelly’s procedurals is that these aren’t super cops who immediately figure out what’s going on. They make mistakes, they have to work hard, they follow all the leads.
This has turned into a franchise for Connelly, first with Bosch on Amazon, then The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix, and now the as-yet untitled Ballard series for Amazon as well. All these books are well worth reading. *****
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Hard to believe, but I’ve never read a book by Vonnegut. I’d never heard of Mother Night, until maybe a year ago, but somehow, I added it to my to-read list.
Originally published in 1961, this is the story of a man who is writing his life’s story while in prison in Israel, awaiting his trial for war-crimes, for you see, he was the voice of English-speaking German propaganda during the war (much like Tokyo Rose). But what only three other people of the world know is that he was also a double agent for the Americans, passing along coded information during his broadcasts.
This is a terrific story, well written. Highly recommended. *****
Peggy
Polostan by Neal Stephenson. Part 1 of a trilogy, Bomb Light Cycle. Dawn/Aurora was born in 1916 to an American radical and a Russian revolutionary. She bounces between a Montana dude ranch, the Chicago World’s Fair, the DC Bonus Army camp and remote Siberia. She meets George Patton, Richard Feynman, Lavrentiy Beria, and some yet to be identified characters. Lots of science and some spy tradecraft.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. These 3 essays cover trips Coates made which left him grappling with questions about how stories expose and distort realities. The first takes him on his first trip to Senegal, where the modern city meets the haunted country of his imagination. The second takes him to Columbia, SC, where one of his books has been banned. Finally, in Palestine, the tragedy grows in the clash between the stories he has been told and the reality on the ground.
Linda
Think Twice, by Harlan Coben. A Myron Bolitar book. ****
Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson. ****
Camino Ghost, by John Grisham. ****
Ghost Town Living, by Brent Underwood. A man buys and struggles to rebuild a ghost town in Southern California. ***
The Concrete Blonde, by Michael Connelly. A Harry Bosch novel. ****
Burn, by Peter Heller. A dystopian future resulting from secessionists in the U.S. ****
Village in the Dark, by Iris Yamashita. A sequel to City Under One Roof. Murder mystery set in a fictional town in Alaska where everyone lives in a huge apartment building. (There is such a real setting in Valdez, Alaska.) ****
James, by Percival Everett. A re-imagining of the Huck Finn story through the eyes of Jim the slave. Excellent. Short-listed for the Pulitzer. *****
The Sunday Philosophy Club, by Alexander McCall Smith. ***
The Secret, by Lee Child. Jake Reacher #28. *****
