Book Lovers SIG: Book Talk Report — September 13th, 2026
One of our biggest groups ever attended the September Book Lovers SIG. 10 members from across the region joined us to talk about the books they have been reading, including newcomer Emily from Ft. Collins, Colorado. She started out in life teaching third graders for 10 years, then decided she had enough of that and spent the rest of her life in computer programming. Needless to say, she loves to read. Emily is also a regular attendee at our monthly Theodore Talk lecture series, so it was great to have her join us.
Michael and Jim were both back! Jim missed last month while on a cruise, and Michael was busy with family visits.
Jim was on Queen Mary 2 with his wife. Very fancy, as they participated in afternoon teas. Queen Mary 2 holds 3,000 passengers, making it one of the largest cruise ships in the world. They were part of 60 people from his church, two of whom are travel agents.
The cruise started in London, with a destination of Norway, with stops in Belgium and Iceland along the way. One of the highlights of the cruise was the opportunity to see the total eclipse on August 12. Unfortunately, it was completely overcast that day. Darn the luck! As part of the trip, they also saw (visited?) the deepest fjord in the world (4,291 feet), located in Norway. Anyway, good to see both of them again.
All the talk of cruises reminded Michael of this story. When he was a young man, he took a freighter from Bangkok to visit a Buddhist temple on a small, nearby island. Somehow this turned into a story about huge rice barges, which businessmen bought and converted into yachts. Along the way Michael was hired to help renovate the interior of one of these barges.
Michael has led such an adventurous life. It seems every month he has another story to share with us. Did you know he is 84 and still teaching a college course?
Christina also rejoined us after a several-month absence, so it was good to see her once again as well. It sounds like she and her husband are getting ready to relocate from Colorado to Ridgeway, a small town in Missouri, where the house is entirely on one level and there are no steps anywhere! There is a large front room she is thinking about converting into a used bookstore. We’ll keep you updated on that.
Since we have a new member in our group, we always introduce ourselves before we discuss the books we have read. Christina has been reading mysteries for 50 years now. I did not know this! Also, she met Sue Grafton several years back at an author event, and it was Grafton that came up with Christina’s pen name. Isn’t that something?
Finally, Joelle let me know that life has become too darned busy for her, so she won’t be able to join us anytime soon. She and her husband just joined our group a few months ago.
Before the Books
Linda shared with us a picture she took from inside her sliding glass door balcony of a bear cub sniffing around her compost barrel. Apparently, this is considered a bad thing!
Jim continues to stay active in his chapter, hosting trivia nights twice a month. He also arranged a tour of the Colorado Railroad Museum.
Speaking of trains, Michael remembers when he was a kid you could cut out and assemble a train boxcar from the back of a cereal box.
Colorado mountain climbing was also discussed. Colorado has 58 named mountain peaks that exceed 14,000 feet in elevation, commonly known as 14ers or fourteeners. A daughter of Jim’s friend has climbed all of them.
Finally, Christina shared the website for Fort Collins Reads, which has a link to purchase tickets for Omar El Akkad’s appearance and book signing on November 8th: https://www.fortcollinsreads.org/. His book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, has been on my to-read list for several months now. Read Cynthia’s review later in this report.
The full list of the 91 books reviewed/discussed can be found here. This is also a new monthly record.
https://www.mamensa.org/category/book-lovers-sig-book-talks/
Book Lovers SIG always meets on the second Sunday of each month; our next get together will be October 11. We meet online using Zoom, so it is easy to join in. Folks generally start checking in around 2 p.m. for a bit of socialization. Book discussions begin around 2:30 p.m., 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
Linda
Things We Never Say, by Elizabeth Strout 2*
A schoolteacher living a quiet life finds out a secret about his family. And is disillusioned by current politics. Kind of all over the place.
Last One Out, by Jane Harper 2*
I have read most of her books, and I give 4* to all the Aaron Falk mysteries, but the others are very uneven. This one was of the category of “finally solving a disappearance of years ago”. It really just dragged on till the last 10%, and the final ending didn’t justify the time spent on the rest.
A Marriage at Sea, by Sophie Elmhirst 4*
A true story of an English couple who set out on a long sea voyage, only to have their boat sunk by a whale. Their ultimate survival over several months was a worldwide news story in the 70s — I must have heard about it then but don’t remember. But fascinating.
I am Not a Robot, by Joanna Stern 3*
The author spends a year using AI for almost every part of her life. This is a survey of the many uses, good and bad, for AI products. Very interesting.
John Sandford
- Judgment Prey 4*
- Toxic Prey 5*
- Lethal Prey 4*
- Revenge Prey 4*
Involving both Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers. Somehow, I got 4 books behind in this series. Toxic Prey was especially compelling, about a plot to reduce the earth’s population in order to save the planet!
RE-READS
Blood Lure, by Nevada Barr 4*
In Glacier National Park, a woman is killed and Nevada’s tent is attacked by a bear. She is in the park helping with a bear DNA study.
Flashback, by Nevada Barr 3*
Set in Dry Tortugas National Park. Mysterious boat explosion, disappearing woman, ghost sightings. Lots of history involving Dr. Mudd and the Lincoln assassins.
Ill Wind, by Nevada Barr 3*
In Mesa Verde National Park. Mysterious illnesses and deaths appear to be related to toxicity in the air.
Slow Horses, by Mick Herron 3*
Re-read this and decided to give up on the series.
Digging to America, by Anne Tyler 4*
A re-read, about 2 families who meet while each adopting a baby from Korea. This turns into a long-term friendship as the two become one. Not a typical Tyler in terms of plot but has her usual facility with characters.
Peggy
Radiant Star, by Ann Leckie. The Temporal Location of the Radiant Star has always been a source of both conflict and hope for the people of Ooioiaa. The Radch see it only as an inconvenience. But local politics is complicated, and the Radch have made a final concession: One last man will be allowed to join the mummified bodies to become a living saint. But this decision will ripple out amidst a slowly worsening food shortage, riots, and a communication blackout from the rest of the Empire, a religious savant will entertain visions of his own sainthood, a socialite will discover her comfortable life upended, and a young man sold into servitude will find he can escape.
The Subtle Pleasures of Indiscretion, by Alexander Mcall Smith. Isabel receives a surprise visit from a friend who has recently discovered the existence of a long-lost brother. Meanwhile, Isabel’s husband Jamie has been offered the gig of his dreams—the opportunity to play in a series of concerts at a prestigious venue in London. But the woman running the series has a huge crush on Jamie. And Professors Lettuce and Dove are up to their normal tricks.
Matcha on Monday, by Michiko Aoyama. The sequel to Hot Chocolate on Thursday covers a year of connected stories. From a disgruntled phone salesman to the son opening a tea shop to a white cat to a maker of Japanese pastries. In all of them, the Maestro is there making connections.
A Murder in Springtime, by Martin Walker. My favorite French policeman is having woman troubles, per usual, and has managed to insert himself into town politics and angered half the market stall owners. On the crime front, a newly arrived nurse is murdered violently and turns out to have been living under a false name. Too much for my tastes about using phone data to track suspects. But Easter dinner is spectacular.
Cynthia
The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny. An interesting detective story set in French Canada with excursions to Europe. The author uses lovely descriptive language to take us on a labyrinthine journey of discovery. I found it quite different from the usual murder mysteries I’ve read and intriguing as a good murder mystery should be.
The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny. The same comments as above on her other book. I find her labyrinthine journeys of discovery intriguing. I experienced it as a commentary on our political situation in America.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad. A searing look at the negative effect of privilege and discrimination on humanity, with hate justified by denigration and the dehumanizing of others. It is a thoughtful indictment of the preservation of power overruling not just ethics and morals but also the laws as exemplified by the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, is a lovely excursion into one man’s attempt and ability to adjust to a dramatically changed life and newly impoverished circumstances facilitated by his unexpected relationship with a nine-year-old child.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens, by Ina Garten. I found this memoir surprisingly interesting. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book mostly because so much of her young life stirred memories of my own young life, especially my travels alone through Europe, and India when that simply wasn’t being done by women. I was not as intrigued by the second half of the book which indulged in a gluttony of name dropping. Sifting through the namedropping, it was interesting to see how she really stayed true to her own vision.
All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny, starts out in my favorite place in Paris, the Rodin Museum and then sorties into consideration of the effects of fragrance on relationships, while pulling us into the main story. The story weaves through complex relations with lots of red herrings, and one early evidential fact that turns out to be a true clue and thus gives us a different outlook from what one might expect is happening. The plot moves through a tangled web of national and international intrigue.
The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, is a woman’s life story told through a series of emails and letters. There’s no other dialogue or explanation. At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to be invested in reading this, but it did capture my attention as she unfolded her life through the correspondences. This is the quote from the book that I found both summarized the book and expressed what so many of us learn as we grow older:
I have found absolutely astounding all the trouble living has turned out to be, all the things no one has ever warned me about. I wish someone had thought to say to me early on, …, Sibyl, serpents will emerge from the sea and grab you by the feet.
I have to admit that I smiled when she talked about hating listening to books on tape because I have struggled to listen to books instead of reading them. This book also offers Sibyl’s anthology of interesting literature throughout the book as she mentions other novels that are currently available, some of the old classics and some new experiences.
A Better Man, by Louise Penny. I find Louise Penny ‘s books delightfully interesting. She has a wonderful grasp of expressive language. I also enjoy that she weaves complex relationships among diverse characters.
As a mystery writer, her gift for red herrings is unparalleled.
Still Life, by Louise Penny, is the first book in the Inspector Gamashe series. Although it is an essential crime novel, it reads like a treatise on loss and loneliness. I also found particularly interesting the discussion of the issues and mistrust between French and English Canadians. This introductory book is also inspector Gamashe‘s first visit to the small village of Three Pines. Penny weaves portraits of all the different characters who will continue to grow in future novels with Gamashe’s developing attraction to Three Pines. Penny demonstrates her usual skill of littering the plot with red herrings.
A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny, is the second book is the Inspector Gammashe series. A good portion of it is dedicated to developing the characters introduced in the first book. What I find charming about Penny ‘s books is the way she introduces important social issues as part of the conversations amongst the characters. In her books, I am not only enjoying a good well-crafted mystery novel but also having the opportunity to meditate on important issues facing society today. Of course, her propensity for red herring hints is there. I also enjoy the way she crafts descriptive phrases, such as: “that rancid wretched little woman…. her short mousey hair was not only disheveled from taking off her toque but also seemed to have been cut by a drunken gardener with tree shears.” She braids observations about differences between Canadian French and English and their heritages throughout her narrative.
Beth
The Last Mandarin, Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung. Someone has gotten control of all the codes and is causing simultaneous outages and stoppages (setting off all alarms, stopping all the elevators, then starting them up again). The race is on to find out who is doing it and stop them before the next catastrophe happens. Everyone is a suspect and it is impossible to know who is on which side. The story centers on a Chinese dissident and her daughter — how they fit into the picture is murky at best. The first half of the book is good; the second half gets unrealistic.
The Hunter, Tana French. The story of revenge and community continues when Trey’s father returns from London with a get-rich-scheme and a rich mate/loan shark/all around bad guy. No one is saying what is really going on, and that is the story. How to figure out what is really going on, who is scamming who (everyone), and the broken hearts and lives left in the lurch. The way she writes and paces the story makes the characters likeable and flawed. There is plenty of detail about what people are thinking without wallowing in indecision. Great read.
The Keeper, Tana French. A young woman goes into the river — suicide or something else. The town of Ardnekelty, a major character in all these stories, starts speculating about every possibility. Accusations fly. Set in contemporary times, the future and the past clash as people decide what methods to use to solve the problem. The cops are in the pocket of the big man in town, so they are a weapon against the town and its denizens instead of neutral. Wonderful.
The Likeness, Tana French. First book of the Dublin Murder Squad books. A murder victim is found in an abandoned house, dead of a stab wound. The detective who responds freaks out because the victim looks exactly like his cop girlfriend and has ID names her as a fictional undercover agent that his girlfriend had used before. It’s not the girlfriend, but someone who looks exactly like her. This sets off an undercover investigation to find out who she is and how she died. Who stabbed her and why? As with other Tana French novels, the town and the culture are as much of a character as any of the players, and everyone is wearing a mask.
The Trespasser, Tana French. This is book 6 in Dublin Murder Squad (because it was the first one available). The team of Antionette and Steve get a last-minute, end of shift, domestic murder case. A woman is dead of head injuries, alone in her home with dinner in the oven and every fancy thing ready for a hot date. The team works the case as one anomaly after another poke into it. Another detective pushing for a slam dunk, solve on circumstantial evidence, squad room animosity, and lots of red herrings. The whole case is running on what is going on in everyone’s head.
Prayer for the Crown Shy, Becky Chambers. Becky is back with the Monk and Robot as they try to explain the world to each other and figure out what matters. It explores money and moving value through a community, the Thucydides problem — if I replace a part of me with something that has never been part of me, how does that change me, how to have community, how to handle change, who deserves to have a claim on your time and energy, how your level of comfort affects what you value and what you are willing to pay for all of it. Outstanding and worth keeping and rereading. (I bought the books so I will always have them available. Probably going to be my go-to Christmas presents to my best friends.)
Theo of Golden, Allen Levi. Theo shows up in a small college town in Georgia. He finds a coffee shop full of portraits of people and makes it his mission to purchase them and gift them to the subject of each portrait. On the way we meet residents of this town and learn their stories. Eventually, get to know more about Theo. A sweet and bittersweet look at how to live life, with all its choices.
The Black Orchid, Loreth Ann White. A whole bunch of people end up on the same maiden voyage of a luxury cruise liner. “As the voyage unfolds, virtually every guest appears to have secrets, hidden identities, motives, or connections to past crimes, making nearly everyone a suspect.” [Editor’s note: References were provided by the author’s summary found online.]
Mildly interesting, it’s not until the last quarter of the book that characters become sympathetic or even vaguely interesting.
Where do Camels Belong, Ken Thompson. This was not what I thought. Written by an ecologist, this looks at invasive species: manuported and got there on their own. It looks at the difference between what is reported in the popular press vs. what the good studies say. Basically, invasions happen, and when they are not carefully done, they can get totally out of control. Once a species is established in a new environment, it can be almost impossible to get rid of it. Lots of food for thought and will have you looking at these reports with a more critical eye.
The Spider Silk Scarf, Aya Reyes. This is novella about a woman with some serious OCD and kleptomania and what it took to jolt her back to reality.
Michael
Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks.
The year of wonders referred to is 1666 and the place is England and this is the year the Black Death, the bubonic plague, wiped out half the population. The story is about a village that voluntarily quarantined itself to avoid spreading the plague to its neighboring villages. This story is based on rumors that may be true. Anna, the main character, makes herself useful by nursing the sick, helping to bury the dead, and providing whatever support is needed. The book is very well-written but a bit repetitive as one-by-one various characters succumb to the disease. Eventually, because so many people have died, the plague itself dies out, and things go back to a much reduced normal. I thought the horror of the disease was better described in Connie Willis’s sci-fi work, DoomDay Book.
March, by Geraldine Brooks.
March is the story of Mr. March, the father of Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March, the little women of Louise May Alcott’s famous book, and the year he spent as a conscientious objector, chaplain and teacher with Union troops in the early days of the US Civil War. The book was very well researched and based largely on the life of Bronson Alcott, Louise May Alcott’s own father. Bronson was vegan and pacifist and strong anti-slavery advocate, who was also friends with Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who are referred to in the book. There are harrowing descriptions of amputations in army field hospitals, a possible affair with a high yellow nurse, and much else all interspersed with heartfelt letters to and from Marmee and her girls. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006.
Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold, by Margaret Atwood.
Recommended by the Folger Virtual Book Club which specializes in works related to W. Shakespeare. An especially good read for a theatre person such as myself. A theatre group’s artistic director is cheated out of his job by ambitious underlings and his final production, The Tempest, is cancelled. Twelve years later, the director, who has been running a theatre group in a prison, casting prisoners in all the roles, finds himself in the position of being able to put on his much-delayed production for these same underlings. It is an excellent opportunity for revenge.
The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey.
A wounded British detective is hospitalized for a lengthy period of recuperation. To fill the many boring hours he must spend in bed, he decides to apply his detection skills to solve a 400-year-old mystery; was Richard III really the evil monster as depicted in Shakespeare’s play, or was he the well-loved and respected monarch as described in contemporary writings of the time? The supposed murders of his two young nephews as mentioned in the play are at the crux of this problem. Contemporary writing culled from the British Library contain no mention whatsoever of these supposed murders, which would have been widely reported and scandalous if they had indeed happened. There are many other events and dozens of royal and court figures mentioned and investigated and the final conclusion is that Shakespeare’s play was based on fabricated information. The book is fascinating but not an easy read. It’s like reading a very thorough but dry police report. The title is from the saying, “Truth is the daughter of time” means that eventually the truth about anything is revealed in time. Thus, after Trump is no longer an active participant in American politics and it is no longer profitable for the many people covering for him to do that, the truth will come out.
Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood.
The first book of her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy. In a world that has been depopulated by an as yet unidentified pathogen, humanity has devolved into various tribes, one a revisionist Christian group of rabid ecological survivalists, one a dark and powerful group of scientists specializing in genetic mutations and pathogen development, and another in underground hedonistic behavior. Crake and Oryx are symbolic Adam and Eve figures in the evolving creation mythology. A book as prescient as The Handmaid’s Tale (a novel by Margaret Atwood).
The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood.
The second book of her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy. The world has been almost depopulated by an as yet not clearly described Waterless Flood a global pandemic, and the book follows two friends from differing groups described in the previous book as they try to survive in a worsening world. The book picks up where the previous book ends and the final book will do the same thing.
MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood.
The final book of her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy. There’s much fill-in of who-was-doing-what when this other thing you knew about was going on. Brings the whole story to a satisfactory end. As stated before, a prescient series because much of what is featured in this book: for example, DNA tampering, gene-splicing, attempts to create better humans, powerful secret government departments, etc.
A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety, by Donald Hall.
A memoir from America’s Poet Laureate of 2006-2007. It follows his earlier book Essays After Eighty and is filled with autobiographical episodes from his life including meeting up with many famous people, mostly other poets and writers.
Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks.
A fictionalization of the story of the first Native-American to graduate from the newly established Harvard University. Caleb willingly adapts to white culture and, despite prejudice, sheds his Native American persona and succeeds in becoming what we would now call white. An interesting story but with a disquieting undertone regarding he treatment of Native Americans later in American history. Very well written as all of Brooks’ books are.
The Last Time I Lied, by Riley Sager.
Fifteen years ago, three girls disappeared from a cabin at an all-girls summer camp. They were never found and the camp closed down. Now, 15 years later, the camp has re-opened and three more girls have disappeared from the same cabin! The story is told from the point of view of the fourth girl who was an occupant of the cabin both times the girls disappeared. A very well-written mystery.
Contact, by Carl Sagan.
The book the movie was based on. I once co-taught a course called Film and Fiction in which we read six novels and then saw the films made from those novels. If I were to teach that course again, I would include this book/movie as it is an excellent example of how books must be adapted in order to work as a film. The story is about a radio message that is received all over Earth from a source near the star Vega. The message contains plans for building a huge machine, which seems to be a transportation device. Sagan fills the book with scientific details and theories and believable international government and religious intrigue. The book is well-written, but deep and readers can find many ideas that Sagan treats at length in his later non-fiction book, The Demon-Haunted World. Sagan wrote an original treatment of the story in 1980-81 and published the book in 1982, from which the 1997 film with Jodie Foster was made.
Housekeeping, by Marilyn Robinson.
The lives of two orphans, Ruthie and Lucille, raised after their mother’s suicide, first by their grandmother, then by a couple of great aunts and finally by an aunt, who was basically a hobo, addicted to staying in motion and never at home.
Python’s Kiss, by Louise Erdrich.
A collection of her short stories, most of which appeared initially in The New Yorker magazine. The stories include Domain and Asphodel, science-fiction stories about corporate controlled afterlives, Assassin and December 26, stories about the teen-age real-life public participation game, and also Python’s Kiss, The Hollow Children, Love of My Days, Borsalino, The Feral Troubadour, Big Cat, Amelia and The Stone.
Thinking in Pictures, by Temple Grandin.
An amazing and very informative book. In fact, a scholarly paper, complete with bibliography, covering the different types of autism, its causes and treatment, the author’s own specific type and her very important relationship with animals and their ethical and humane treatment. She makes strong arguments for animals’ ability to think and show emotion in many species. Almost a third of the animal slaughtering facilities in the US are now run following her humane theories. On reading the book, you would not believe that the author is autistic, if she did not tell you and explain it at length.
Land, by Maggie O’Farrell.
Well-written history of an Irish family in the 1800s. The father works as an assistant to British army cartographers who are mapping areas of Ireland and tries to include mystical and mythical places on the maps. One son assists him and eventually replaces him. A daughter disguises herself as a boy for safety and immigrates to America. The wife tries to hold the family together and eventually returns to the family’s traditional rustic home.
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver.
A masterpiece. The story of a family headed by a rabid fundamentalist Baptist preacher in the Belgian Congo before and during and after that country’s independence struggle in the 1930’s. The preacher is blind to everything except his self-appointed mission to convert the Congolese to full-submersion baptism which the locals are unwilling to undergo because of the crocodiles in the water. His eldest daughter constantly dreams of being back home in Georgia so she can marry a bush pilot who smuggles her out of the county. His twin daughters, one of whom is handicapped, learn the local languages and befriend the locals as the youngest daughter does. One of the daughters is killed and the family walks to freedom through the civil war following the murder of Patrice Lamumba. The story continues with the lives of these now separated daughters.
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by V.E. Schwab.
Basically, a three hundred-year-long Stockholm syndrome romance. Addie doesn’t want to be forced to marry in the tiny wretched medieval village she was born in, so she makes a deal with a demon for complete freedom to last until she doesn’t want it anymore. The cost she soon finds out about is that nobody can remember her after first meeting her. If she leaves a room and then comes back, nobody can remember who she is. She is visited by the dealmaker demon occasionally and starts an affair with him which lasts for several centuries. She then falls in love with a young man who is the victim of a different curse… he can remember her, but he’s going to die in one year. Addie cuts a new deal with her demon which results in…
The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver.
During an emergency stop a woman drops an infant baby into the passenger seat of Taylor’s car, tells her the child is from her sister who just committed suicide and then the woman runs away. Taylor decides to keep the child, naming it Turtle, and moves to Arizona where she meets another single mom with a child about the same age as Turtle. Legal complications ensue when it is discovered that Turtle is a Cherokee and that native lawyers want to return her to tribal custody.
Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver.
The story of Taylor and Turtle continues, and Turtle’s real parents and relatives are discovered, and she ends up in a shared custody arrangement that makes everybody happy.
Plainsong, by Kent Haruf.
The intersecting lives of some of the residents of a small Colorado town, including a teacher named Guthrie who is trying to build a relationship with another teacher named Maggie Jones, two pre-teen brothers named Ike and Bobby, two aging lifelong bachelor farmer brothers named the McPherons and a teenage junior named Victoria Roubideaux who gets pregnant and depends on all of the others.
Brooklyn, by Colm Tòibìn.
Part 1 covers and an Irish girl’s life in Ireland and her decision to immigrate to America with the help of a Catholic priest. Part II covers her getting a job in the ladies’ wear section of a department store and her dealing with American prejudice against black people. Part III covers her developing a love affair with a man named Tony and a secret last-minute marriage to him and the death of her beloved sister Rose back in Ireland; and Part IV covers her return to her family home in Ireland and her decision to stay there instead of returning to her husband in America.
Clock Dance, by Ann Tyler.
A slap-dash thrown-together novel about a woman who agrees to babysit for a woman in a distant state that she believes is her son’s partner. Nothing really happens in the novel except for the baby’s mother is accidentally shot in the leg. I was reminded of popular author Michael Crichton’s essay on how to write a best-seller, which suggested including a famous person, a doctor, a young kid and a dog. This novel has all three of these and none of them is of any importance whatsoever in the plot of the book. Crichton said a sure-fire best-seller would be entitled, “Lincoln’s Doctor’s Son’s Dog.”
The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat.
Supposedly, the most important work of Persian (Iranian) literature published in the 20th century. This book is really the story told from the perspective of a man who has just murdered his wife and is waiting for the police to arrive.
I Hear Voices, by Paul Ableman.
The stream-of-consciousness internal monologue of a schizophrenic man trying to eat his morning egg. Unnerving in its accurate description of schizophrenia.
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card.
A sci-fi story about young children trained as soldiers to take advantage of their naturally impulsive decision-making. The book is used on US Marine training.
Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol.
Dead Souls is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adventures of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov and the people whom he encounters. These people typify the Russian middle aristocracy of the time. Chichikov is running a scam. In pre-revolution Russia serfs were slaves that were attached to the land. If the land was sold, the serfs went with it. Legally, the serfs are called souls and owners had to pay a yearly tax on each one. Chichikov is buying souls who are dead, saving their owners from paying the yearly taxes. When he has accumulated enough souls, which the government thinks are still alive, he is entitled to free land. After he gets the land, he will declare the souls dead so he won’t have to pay the taxes. Thee humor of the book is based on the outrageous excuses and rationalizations his customers come up with to cover up his scheme. The book is very funny.
The Godfather, by Mario Puzo.
Puzo’s masterful story of one family in the American/Italian Mafia community. The film adheres to the book very closely most of the time, with some actual lines making it into the screenplay, although a couple of chapters are left out completely.
The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium, by Harry Mathews.
An epistolary novel with letters from a young researcher and his Southeast-Asian wife who are searching for a lost Florentine Medici trunk containing silk bolts wrapped around hidden gold. The man is a Miami librarian and does literary research while his new wife, living in Italy, does the field work. Almost the entire book is made up of letters between the two of them. And one of the delights of the book is seeing the wife’s very rudimentary English gradually improve over the months until she actually discovers the treasure.
Gilead, by Marilyn Robinson.
2004 Epistolary novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. It’s actually a single, long memoir of an abolitionist preacher about his work and preaching. Christianity or the Bible is mentioned on almost every page and the US Civil War, the abolitionist John Brown, Harper’s Ferry and the Underground Railway are covered. The Guardian listed the book as number two of the top 100 best books of the 20th century.
The Children’s Book, by A.S. Byatt.
The interconnected relationships between the various members of the Wellwood clan, one group located in a country estate and another in London, as well as other friends and relatives from 1895 until the end of WW1. Some of the lives were based on real people and also this story involved the Victoria & Albert Museum (in London), then under construction, and Cambridge University. The main character is writing separate books on each of the several children involved. 675 pages.
The Witch, by Marie Ndaiye.
Translated from the French and short-listed for the Booker Prize in 2026. A modern-day witch with weak powers teaches her two daughters how to use their powers and they turn out to be more powerful than she is. Short and quite funny in places.
A House with Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher.
A ghost story about a family with a few witches, lady bug infestations, vultures, etc.
Possession, by A.S. Byatt.
One of my favorite books. Two modern British scholars are researching possible connections between a famous 19th century male poet and a less famous female poet who knew him. Their search is complicated by others desperately hunting for the same evidence for a private museum and the British museum. Vividly conflicting personalities and surprises abound. The examples of each poet’s poetry and letters, as articulated by the author A.S. Byatt, are very authentic sounding and convincing. 511 pages. It won the Booker Prize in 1990. A weak film version of this story was made in 2002.
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey.
The International Space Station makes 16 trips around the earth every day. On board, four astronauts, other space explorers from Japan, Italy and the UK, and two cosmonauts perform their daily functions, reminisce about where they all came from and their families expounding on the beauty of the planet spinning beneath them. Lyrically beautiful.
TBR:
Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger, by Kazuo Ishiguro.
London, 1938. After attending a music hall matinee, Richard Hadley has an unexpected encounter with the mysterious Miss Lambert. Determined to defend her from the apparently hostile forces closing in, he pursues her to a grand hotel deep in the English countryside, then onto a train bound for Scotland. From one of the great storytellers of our time, Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger is exquisite entertainment in which nothing is quite as it seems.
The Witches of Cambridge, by Alice Hoffman.
First of a new series: The Pirate Queen, by Ariel Lawhon.
A wife takes over her husband’s pirate fleet after his death.
Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet.
By an autistic savant, detailing his experiences with Asperger syndrome and synesthesia. The book provides insights into his extraordinary mind and unique perceptions of the world, making it a compelling read for those interested in autism and cognitive differences.
We Were Forbidden, by Jaqueline Harpman.
Three novellas about female defiance.
The Lost Soldiers, by Andrey Kurkov.
A mystery by Ukraine’s most celebrated writer.
Why I Am Not an Atheist, by Christopher Beha.
National Book Award-longlisted author explores his journey from atheism back to faith, examining scientific materialism and romantic idealism …
The Barman of the Ritz, by Phillipe Collin.
A celebrated bartender at the Ritz Hotel during the Nazi occupation of Paris, keeps a dangerous secret in this international bestseller based on a true story.
Jim
Mindset, by Carol S. Dweck.
This psychology book examines life through the lens of two different mindsets:
- Your basic self is set and cannot change.
- Your basic self is not set and can always change.
It then goes on at length as to how to improve your life by changing to mindset #2.
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach.
Imagine that Jesus comes back to Earth, but gets disillusioned with all the adulation and has given it all up to be a pilot who’s giving cheap rides at airshows? Further imagine that another pilot befriends him and learns his secret? They would have interesting conversations about life and balance.
This was a good re-read! It gets into philosophical territory without getting all high and mighty.
25 Icelandic Folk and Fairy Tales, by Jon R. Hjalmarsson.
I bought this book in Iceland this summer while on vacation. The Icelandic people have lots of stories of Trolls battling the Christians. Trolls, it seems cannot stand the sound of bells ringing, so the safest place to escape from a Troll is in a church and ring the bells. This collection of folk and fairy tales is delightful. They often start off like: “my old friend Gudmundurson’s uncle’s wife told him this tale…” It shines a bright light on a culture that I was not familiar with.
Thomas More, John Guy.
This is a biography of Thomas More, who up till the end was King Henry VIII’s right hand man, but who, in the end refused to acknowledge Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. This was an act of treason by the Treason and Supremacy Acts. He said that this was repugnant to the laws of God and the Catholic Church. More was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually would be executed. The Catholic Church made him into a Saint.
Doug
I reread two books by Winston Churchill — The Boer War and The River War. I have always enjoyed his writing, and his thoroughly British use of words. Both books are about his early years and activities, probably both as an adventurer and as a seeker of public notice in search of a political career. Whatever his motives, he was an astute observer of the British Empire.
His eyewitness account of the Boer war, as a war correspondent for The Morning Post, was compiled from his despatches (British for “dispatches”) during his eight months of reporting from South Africa. He describes his travels, his capture by the Boers, and his escape to Durban. Later his reporting of the conduct of the war by the British army documents the problems of an army that was inactive for years prior to the war. (Churchill had served with the 4th Hussars prior to seeking fame and fortune in South Africa.) He is also descriptive of the resistance of the Boers during the war.
This is a well written view of a war and an era (Victorian) studied little in the U.S. and is worth the read.
The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (published in 1899) was Churchill’s second book. It was based on 15 articles for The Morning Post and describes the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of the Sudan (1896–1899) against the Mahdist forces (remember Dune?). Unlike the Boer War, Churchill was attached to the 21st Lancers for the Sudan campaign in 1898 during at least part of the River War, in addition to having correspondent’s duties. Churchill’s comments on new technology used by the military – the telegraph, the railroad, and weaponry (e.g. the Maxim machine gun) as well as trenchant comments on British attitudes toward war and on what Churchill perceived as the dangers of Islam.
This book was published in several editions, as one or two volumes, and the edits dealt more with removing material (to make it more readable to British military and political leaders, as Churchill would become an MP in 1902). Nevertheless, the writing style and content are superior to most other documents of the period, and this is one of the books that eventually led to the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for, according to the Swedish Academy, “… his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values …”.
I picked up a copy of Narrative War: The Philosophy of Social Conflict, by Brian Steed, published May 26, 2025, after watching the Theodore Talk lecture in January 2026, but was unable to find time to read it until this past month. The book is somewhat difficult to evaluate and deserves more space and comment than I am able to give in this review. The book is a combination of the thoughts of some brilliant military thinkers, and an extension of military strategies to accommodate more cultural and social awareness, and their impact, together with political and military considerations on the rationale and conduct of war. I suspect many people would reject reading the book because of their (willful) misunderstanding of the use of the military in the accomplishment of political objectives. Mr. Steed’s views on the contribution of culture — the narrative of social learning, experience, and memory — to the understanding of the intertribal or intercultural (where religion is part of culture) communications, and the rationale for actions by groups in which the observer is not a participant. His thoughts resonated with some of my limited experience, and I think would probably do so with most people who learned about people and civilizations by traveling and interacting, rather than merely reading about them. The Narrative War gives context for the Department of State’s Country Information Pages and the CIA’s World Factbook.
The book is, unsurprisingly, substantially different from the Theodore Talk lecture in that it includes much more detail in supporting the rationale behind considering the decades or centuries of the stories of civilizations (at war). It can be difficult to read because its lexicon reuses “ordinary” words for new concepts, and sometimes it takes more than one or two re-readings of a paragraph to grasp the point being discussed. Mr. Steed does, however, offer many examples to illustrate his thesis. While I did not expect encyclopedic treatment of the subject, considering the date of publication, I was a little surprised that there were no mentions of artificial intelligence as a source of research information in support of understanding alien, foreign, or at least unfamiliar, civilizations.
I found the book quite interesting and it expanded my mental horizons. I would hesitate to recommend it to a general audience, as there is not a lot of white space in the book, and there is a lot of information that requires the reader to think outside of the box. I would give it 4 stars.
Emily
Pressed to Kill, by Tom Marquart.
This one is the story of a mass murder that took place in a local newspaper office. It is non-fiction, and it took place in Annapolis, Maryland. It is important to me because I subscribed to that newspaper for years. It took place in the town that was my playground for over 30 years. It probably isn’t a work of art, but I knew some of the victims, but wasn’t aware of some aspects of the situation. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Terns of Endearment, by Donna Andrews.
One of a series of at least 24 books, all of which are mysteries, and the title of each one makes reference to some sort of bird. I read this author when I’m in the mood for a mystery but not a gory one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Brad (85/29150)
Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn ***** 359 p.
Follow-up to Killers of a Certain Age. After narrowly escaping assassination by their own agency, the four retired assassins resurface to find out who the mole was that betrayed them.
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer ** 738 p.
Published in 1948, this was the first novel after the war about fighting in the Pacific. A complete work of fiction. I thought it was terrible and would not recommend it. Read instead William Manchester’s personal story, Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War.
IQ by Joe Ide ***** 337 p.
I was drawn to this book by the title, which actually refers to the initials of the main character, Isaiah Quintabe, a young Black kid with extraordinary intelligence. Isaiah was taught by his older brother to use his gift to serve others, so that’s what he does, often for free. But occasionally he needs to pay the rent, so he is always receptive to taking on a wealthy client. And sure enough, one comes along, a wealthy rapper who is convinced someone is trying to kill him. In spite of all doubters, Isaiah figures out who is behind the conspiracy.
Reminds me a bit of Monk and his powers of observation.
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan **** 496 p.
Much of this has already been reported in the New York Times, but this book expands on President Trump’s thought process.
The Hunter (Cal Hooper #2) by Tana French ***** 474 p.
Trey’s conman father returns after a long absence, bringing with him a scheme to get rich. His plan is to convince a dandy from London that there is gold in them thar hills. But is he running a con or being conned? Hooper knows a rat when he sees one, but is conflicted as to how much he should involve himself in the goings on of the small town he lives in. Great ending and more great writing by French.
All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle *** 385 p.
Hubert is an old dude. His wife died several years back, and his daughter lives in Australia. He has gradually withdrawn from his small circle of friends. Pretty much a typical story for many elderly people. But then he talks to his daughter on the phone, and there’s stories he tells of the hijinks he’s into with his group of fabricated friends. An imaginary life.
One day a young woman with a young child comes a knockin’ on his door to introduce herself to her new neighbor. One thing leads to another, and soon Hubert is gradually being drawn out of shell.
I really enjoyed this book, up until the author pulled a Roseanne, at which I said screw you. I don’t like authors that cheat. It isn’t clever – it’s lazy.
Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space by H. Peter Alesso *** 264 p.
Henry Gallant graduated from the academy as a pilot, which is no big deal. Except he is an unaugmented hm, a natural, which is pretty much unheard of in the days of genetic enhancements. Shunned by the augments, he keeps his head down and goes about his duties. But it turns out there is something special about Gallant. He has an ability to organize and see things in 3-D in his mind that the augments cannot. This comes into play when aliens invade his sector and his squadron is sent out to engage them. On his own initiative he boards a damaged destroyer and lifts out the AI device that controls both the ship and the aliens themselves. Then it is just a matter of getting the device back to Mars where it can be analyzed and turned against the invaders.
So. A really good story, just not particularly well written. Hard for me to believe this was the first of eight novels in the series, so clearly there is an audience for this. This was a free ebook, listed in my daily BookBub email.
Open Season (Alex Delaware #40) by Jonathan Kellerman ***** 312 p.
I really enjoyed this book but was a little disgusted to learn that this was the 40th book in the series! And apparently two more have already come out. Do I really have time to start a new series?
Alex Delaware is a psychologist that works with Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis, much like the series Cracker which appeared on the BBC some years ago, which starred Robbie Coltrane. So, if you know Cracker, you pretty much know these characters.
I won’t go into the details, but what initially appears to be a simple murder turns out to be a serial killer, except there are no ties to any of the victims. Except Delaware finally makes a connection.
Really well written, and can be read as a stand-alone novel, without having to read the first 39.
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie ***** 364 p.
Took me a while to come up to speed on this, as it had been a while since I had read any of Leckie’s Radch novels.
Like so many planets, the Radch have taken over the planet Ooioiaa and rule over the population. At its core this book is about organized religion and its goal of maximizing profits. The rest is just good story telling.
The Keeper (Cal Hooper #3) by Tana French ***** 496 p.
You know, I had been trying to space these books out to just one per month, because I enjoy reading them so much, but couldn’t wait and had to read the third in this series.
Hooper is now pretty much accepted as one of the locals. Which is a good thing, as now a young girl has been found dead and of course Hooper is unofficially expected to investigate her death. But boy oh boy do things get murky in a hurry, as she was engaged to the son of a wealthy local big shot who pretty much unofficially runs the town and has pretty much everyone in his pockets, even the local police.
Be prepared for a couple of shock endings. Another great novel by French.
Recursion by Blake Crouch ***** 324 p.
Time travel story with a twist. One doesn’t actually travel through time, but memories are manipulated so that alternate realities exist, with catastrophic consequences. Great book.
Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction (2019) and Book of the Month Book of the Year Award Nominee (2019).
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