Reader’s Notebook, 8/15/24
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic – Jason TurbowMy brother in books David V handed me a copy of this on my visit to Kansas City in June. It took me some time to work through my stack of virtual books to crack it open, and once I did, I realized I had read it before, back in 2017. Looking back, I loved…
Reader’s Notebook, 8/8/24
City in Ruins – Don Winslow The final entry in Winslow’s Dan Ryan trilogy. Like the first two, it moves briskly. Also like the first two, that briskness makes it feel only partially formed. It was an interesting writing exercise, especially when compared to his Mexican cartel trilogy, cutting the story to the bone and eliminating anything that didn’t swiftly…
Reader’s Notebook, 6/27/24
Chain Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah I almost stopped reading this book twice, despite the critical acclaim it has received. The opening chapters seemed repetitive as Adjei-Brenyah slowly introduced a series of characters through similar sets of events. They are all convicted felons working to earn their freedom by participating in the Chain Gang All-Stars, a competition where inmates…
Reader’s Notebook, 6/18/24
The Charm School – Nelson DeMille I had never heard of this 1988 book before. I was pleasantly surprised that despite its age, it held up pretty well. In fact, its age was one of the best things about it. The book is split into two halves. In the first, an American student traveling through the Soviet Union in the…
Reader’s Notebook + Thoughts On Cassettes
High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape – Marc Masters A single-book focus for this entry, less because of the book’s quality than what it got me thinking about. The book itself wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. Masters begins by laying out the history of the cassette tape and tape players. Then he dives…
Reader’s Notebook, 5/14/24
Reckless – Chrissie Hynde While doing my research for the recent RFTS post about The Pretenders, I came across several references to Hynde’s memoir. As soon as I completed that post, I checked and, LO!, the ebook was available at the library. I got it onto my Kindle and knocked it out over the next 36 hours. It is a…
Reader’s Notebook, 5/2/24
The Bullet Swallower – Elizabeth Gonzalez James This book has gotten crazy praise in literary circles, landing on numerous Best Of lists already. With good reason. It is a very well-told, fictional story of three generations of Mexicans and their family history. One is a bandit in the late 19th century border territory, who is forced to bargain for his…
Reader’s Notebook, 4/4/24
My reading pace has slackened a bit. I’m actually taking a day or two off between books, which is likely a good thing. Because of that I only finished three books in March. Nettle and Bone – T. Kingfisher I famously don’t read much Fantasy fiction, yet something about the genre always holds an allure. I occasionally search for something…
Reader’s Notebook, 3/6/24
I might be reading too fast. This is the 10th week of the year and I’m about to finish my 14th book of 2024. Because of that they are running together a bit. I apologize, as these summaries aren’t the most detailed of my writing career. The World We Make – N.K. Jemisin Jemisin’s Great Cities series was supposed to…
Reader’s Notebook, 2/13/24
Sing Her Down – Ivy Pochoda I read this book while I was sick. Maybe the infection or virus or whatever was plaguing me combined with a lack of sleep and cold meds kept me from appreciating it. Because I did not get this book at all. It is the story of two women who are released from prison during…