'Ready Player Two' by Ernest Cline, 'Fourth Wing' by Rebecca Yarros, and 'Is a River Alive' by Robert MacFarlane

 Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline (3.5)

Enjoyable – but completely derivative of ‘Ready Player One’. Really not much newly creative, which made the first book so unique. I did appreciate that he was able to do a round two using the same characters but with a new plot. Unfortunately, the main character had to go through a very unlikeable stage as part of his arc in order to make this book work. Cline predictably lies heavily on 80’s trivia, which works for many of his fans. There is a feeling of inclusion similar to finding Easter eggs in games. The ending seemed a bit abrupt and set things up for a possible third book, though given it’s Sci-Fi bent, he’s going to have to drop the 80’s schtick. 

 

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (4.5)

I enjoyed so many things about this book – but particularly the interactions between dragons and their riders. The author has taken the classic plot of a seemingly weak protagonist who is put in a precarious situation and has to continually battle the system and bad guys, and made it feel fresh with twists (some more obvious than others), interesting characters and dragons! My biggest concern with the book is that it seems to be written for YA (many accurately call it a blend of Harry Potter and Hunger Games), but it comes across as an R-rated book for language, violence and sex. There is a bit of a warning in the front, but that will just urge many YA readers on! 

 

Is a River Alive?, Robert MacFarlane (4.0)

The author has a nice way of going to places and writing as ‘doing, not telling’, which I appreciate. I also liked how he started with the small creak near his home that he has known all his life and returned to it after each journey. I loved the author’s young son’s comment to the subject of this book: ‘Of course a river is alive, this will be a short book’. Rather than arguing this point, MacFarlane journeys to three very different rivers and describes how some special people are working hard to protect and/or revitalize them. I was worried that it would be a sad tale of how we are ruining our environment, but he manages to highlight the positive work being done. My only complaint is that the poetic words sometimes were a bit over the top for me and made it feel fictional at times. 

'The Mad Crush' by Sean C. Weir

The Mad Crush, Sean C. Weir (3.0)

This book was interesting to me as it describes the history of a winery and area we very much enjoy in our area of the Central Coast of California. The author spent a couple of crush seasons in the 1990’s working at Saucelito Canyon Winery, a family run winery known for their delicious Zinfandels. It is a simple story that walks through the harvest season illustrating the random nature of growing grapes and making good wine told from the point of view of a somewhat rootless young man. I particularly enjoyed hearing about people I’ve met and places that haven’t changed much in all this time. The winery out in the canyon is still very rural and lovely.

'The Rose Code' by Kate Quinn

The Rose Code, Kate Quinn (4.0)

Once again Ms. Quinn has brought to life female protagonists fighting in obscurity during a war. This time the three women (two based on real women) worked at Bletchley House, the famous English location that housed many men and women who worked to break the German and Italian codes during WWII, Enigma being the most famous. As with her other novels, she throws in a few real people (e.g. Alan Turing, Dilly Knox, Prince Philip) but the story revolves around 3 very different women who found themselves doing important work during the war. Much of the intrigue of the story has to do with not being able to discuss their work and the small and large impacts that has on their lives. Even though we know what happened with Enigma and the war, the drama she deals with here was more individualistic and riveting. A few character arcs were predictable, but that didn’t take away from the enjoyment of reading a good, fast paced story.

'Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow' by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin (3.5)

While I generally enjoyed this book, I give it a 3.5 as I found the ending underwhelming. The plot and protagonists were interesting and unique. We follow two people who meet as children in a hospital (one visiting a sister with cancer, the other having multiple surgeries to repair a bad foot). They bond playing video games. As they grow up, they meet again and start developing games together. The personal dynamic is well written, and I found the descriptions of the games fascinating and not too technical – for those less interested in such things. I don’t need a Hollywood ending, but I thought it petered out towards the end.

'Dawn' by Octavia Butler

 Dawn (Xenogenesis #1), Octavia Butler (3.5)

I enjoyed this book as something very different, which is hard to do in Sci-fi while not breaking the laws of physics. A woman wakes up to find out humans have managed to ruin the earth and annihilate almost everyone. She is on an apparent spacecraft where unseen, presumable benevolent aliens have saved her. As she learns more, the aliens are ‘traders’ and she tries to find out what they want in return for her safety. Most of the book is a page turner as we -along with the main character- are introduced to the aliens and learn more about them and what her future entails. My main disappointment is with the last 25%. The author shows some inconsistencies in character treatment (don’t rape a woman, but you can a man?) and some parts just seem purposefully suggestive, which was distracting. I do plan to read the other two books in the series and hope there are more unique ideas and less salaciousness.

'Fire in the Canyon' by Daniel Gumbiner

 Fire in the Canyon, Daniel Gumbiner (2.5)

While this book spoke to me as a person in California familiar with the scare of wildfires, the writing was a bit off for me to fully enjoy it. I liked the descriptions of the animals and farm life of a small grape grower in the foothills. I love that area and life. I was distracted by details that didn’t seem necessary and brought me out of the story. Words should be intentional or not included – I often thought ‘why is he telling me this?’ and expected things to happen that didn’t. Many of these side stories go nowhere.  I also found inconsistencies such as the main character mentions several times that he can’t afford to take his wife out to dinner but eats lunch out all the time.  The descriptions of living in an area of drought that is threatened by fire are good and realistic, though maybe not something most of us need to read. The writing is not good enough for me to recommend this to those who have not experienced it. 

'The Honourable Schoolboy' by John Le Carre

 The Honourable Schoolboy, John Le Carre (4)

This book begins with George Smiley and his crew in the dog-house after it’s been discovered that the famous Soviet agent, Karla (yes, love that), had a high placed mole in their midst. As most Smiley stories, it’s more about the suspense than action and difficult to follow due to British spy jargon and an extremely complicated story. Information comes to Smiley’s group that there is a Chinese mole in Hong Kong working with the Soviets. Obviously written pre-reintegration with China, Hong Kong is still a British colony and China and USSR are not ‘friends’. Smiley cautiously investigates hoping that a discovery would thwart Karla and bring glory back to the group. While I enjoyed the detail, this is not a spy novel for everyone. Major plot points can come across as an aside, so one must pay close attention. Also, for such a long book, it oddly ended very abruptly.  I believe this book is lesser known as it is a bit less approachable.

'The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings' by John Haywood and 'Intermezzo' by Sally Rooney

 The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, John Haywood (4.0)

This book discusses the Viking Age (roughly 800-1100 AD) with photos and maps. Each of the 7 chapters in this book start with a few pages of an overview of history covering a certain time followed by detailed maps of the Viking adventures. Reading this, I realized how woefully inadequate my knowledge of the Vikings really was! For example, I had not known that they eventually sailed and sacked towns in the Mediterranean, that they fought the Moors in Spain and that they sat a king on the throne in England (though not Scotland). I also found it fascinating that it is felt Vikings have a bad reputation as mainly pillagers as they were the first peoples who sacked monasteries. They were after plunder and the monks had the gold! Not being Christian, they didn’t care or worry. Since monks were the main writers of history, you can only imagine what they thought of the Vikings. I found this type of book to be thorough, albeit a little dry. Given our plans to visit Skye, Orkney, Shetland (which to this day have mostly Nordic based town names) and 3 towns in Norway this summer, this was the perfect introduction to the relics we will be seeing.

Intermezzo, Sally Rooney (3.0)

This story is told in the two protagonists (brothers) voices in alternating chapters. The author did a good job of writing in their very different voices, but unfortunately one of the brothers was quite unlikable and his characteristic disjointed thoughts were difficult to read. The other brother was almost too likable, so I found myself skimming the bad brother’s chapters to get to the good brother’s voice. Maybe I’m getting old, but I also found the sex gratuitous at times and the ‘love’ triangle’s inclusion hard to fathom (dare I say ‘cringe’ and sound a little younger?).  The author did do a good job illustrating a family’s dynamics of dealing with death and tragedy.

'How the World Ran Out of Everything' by Peter S. Gorman; 'Iron Lake' by William Kent Krueger; and 'A Corpse in the Koryo' by James Church

 How the World Ran Out of Everything, Peter S. Godman (3.0)

This is a good book for someone to read who is not already familiar with the pandemic supply chain issues. Given my career and background in Operations and Supply Chain I found myself saying ‘he’s not wrong, but he is biased’. I quickly tired of his rants – yes, many businesses only worry about shareholder value to the detriment of their employees. But he couldn’t find happiness in any solution. Dock workers weren’t paid enough given the dangers they faced, but if the ports added robots to automate the dangerous jobs they were again in the wrong. I do think that any job that is not considered ‘skilled’ will be taken advantage of by businesses and not be given living wages. We can try to legislate this, but there are always so many loopholes and unintended consequences. I believe the solution has more to do with education – the more valuable an employee is, sidelining them is harder. I did like his last chapter where he tried to find a way forward. Sadly, our new administration is not likely to implement any of his suggestions.

 

Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger (3.0)

I appreciated the setting of this novel – northern Minnesota in the winter- as it is very similar to where my parents live. It was written quite a few years ago and some of it didn’t work as well for me these days. The main character is a disgraced sheriff, Cork O’Connor, who is going through a divorce in a small town when a judge is murdered and a boy, who may have been with him, goes missing. Cork is singularly capable of helping find out what happened as he is part Anishinaabe Indian and part Irish. His Indian connections give him access to part of their community. The complications of small-town government, the new Indian casinos and the old issues between both are a bit stereotypical. I also didn’t like the personal aspects (i.e. he could cheat on his wife, but it was a very different story when he found she cheated on him). The reader was supposed to like his story better, but I found it annoying.

 

A Corpse in the Koryo, James Church (3.5)

I found it refreshing to read a book set in North Korea. We have little chance to experience life in a secretive society and this book was both interesting and slightly harder to picture for that reason. The author purports to be a retired agent who is very familiar with the workings of North Korean military and government. The story is the first in a series that follows an investigator in the capital city whose job is to investigate crimes, including murder. His job is always made more complicated by the insertion of the ubiquitous and varied military branches in all he does. While I found it fascinating and plan to read more with this protagonist, for someone brought up in the west and unfamiliar with an extremely strict authoritarian regime some of the happenings were hard to believe. It was due to the combination of seemingly all knowing (one character had moles literally everywhere the protagonist went) and yet lacking resources and downright bumbling (never having enough batteries for their equipment to work).  Overall I found it quite interesting and nice to read a mystery set in a very different environment.

'Good Material' by Dolly Alderton

Good Material, Dolly Alderton (3.0)

While I didn’t dislike this book, I found it a predictable, whiney, long-winded journey through a rather typical break-up that would have been greatly improved with some humor. Given the main character is a stand-up comic, I don’t think I’m asking for something outrageous. I feel this topic has been done better (e.g. ‘High Fidelity’ by Nick Hornby) in the past. This was like a Millennial update with post break-up social media stalking added to make it timely.

'The Women' by Kristin Hannah and 'I heard There Was a Secret Chord' by Daniel J. Levitin

The Women, Kristin Hannah (4.0)

This was a very poignant book of a young woman who signs up to serve as a nurse during the Viet Nam War. She naively follows her brother, an Annapolis graduate, thinking that she could be of help, and not be in harm’s way. Her experiences during war, in the first half of the book, are riveting and horrible. Her experiences once she returns to the US are sad and disappointing. Ms. Hannah does a great job highlighting the struggles of the unsung heroes (women, mostly nurses) of that war. I was appalled the number of times people, even vets, would say ‘there were no women in the war’. Since the author did extensive research and interviews, I can only assume this was a frequent event for these courageous women. If even a small portion of the events described happened, these nurses definitely survived ‘combat’. This book is a nice tribute to them.

 

I heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, Daniel J. Levitin (3.0)

I wanted to like this book and found various interesting passages, but similar to his last book, I felt it rambled on and lost my interest. Maybe due to the fact that the author often went deep into the woods on such things as how to read sheet music (I can’t imagine anyone picking up this book who wouldn’t know the basics of how notes are on a staff and read left to right) and how our ears detect sounds. The passages that described how music helped people heal (such as Joni Mitchell) or how music appears to affect those with various neurological differences were interesting. I’m not sure who would be the target audience for this book, but it wasn’t me.

'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens and 'After Annie' by Anna Quindlen

 A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (5.0)

Always lovely to return to this world of Mr. Dickens. His usual comedic characters are understandably subdued in this tale, given the setting of the French Revolution. I’ve always appreciated how he balances the London/Paris rich/poor to show the complications when these intermingle. While the prose is often hard to read and forces me to re-read and go slowly, many of the lines are the most quoted of literature. It’s worth taking the time to catch the intricacies of the story. Many of the ‘aha’ moments are revealed in a few words. This remains one of the only books whose last few pages consistently bring a tear to my eye.   

 

After Annie, Anna Quindlen (4.0)

When a book starts with the assumed protagonist’s death, you tend to wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into. Luckily in this author’s hands, it is sad, but redeemed by excellent writing. The story unfolds from the eyes of the daughter, husband and best friend of unlucky Annie. She is fleshed out by their memories and grieving. The characters are realistic and varied. I particularly enjoyed the poignancy of the daughter trying to hold a young family together while getting through her own grief. The sad subject made the book tough to read, but a worthwhile journey.

'Skinny Dip' by Carl Hiaasen

 Skinny Dip, Carl Hiaasen (4.0)

Another fun Hiaasen adventure! The usual crazy characters: smart loner ex-cop, obnoxious guy ruining the environment, idiot who kills for no good reason, etc. In this case a very horrible guy throws his wife overboard on an anniversary cruise – seemingly forgetting that she was a college swimmer and could possible survive – all because she may have found out about his bad work practices. While we always know the bad guys will not get away with their shenanigans, Hiaasen always makes it fun to figure out what will happen.