What are you reading the week of December 30, 2023?

It's difficult to believe that it's the end of the year, but here we are.

I finished Babi Yar, and the last hundred pages were intense as Anatoly Kuznetsov and his mother endure the fighting to retake Kyiv from the Germans. When Anatoly asks a German soldier living in their home what the fighting was like, he thumbs through a phrase book lost for words and finally replies, "Horror."

After that, I read Isaac Asimov's Robots and Empire. It was a decent yarn that managed to stitch together several separate series (The Galactic Empire, Foundation, and Robot series) into one almost consistent whole. The novel ends with a cliffhanger question that is never answered due to Asimov's death.

Now, I'm about a quarter of the way through Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works. It's a slim volume that I will complete before the end of the year. So far, he hasn't had anything new or interesting to say on the subject.

Working to finish up Eyes of the Void before the close of business tomorrow; not a chore as I like this novel better than the first book in the trilogy. Also working on The Fall and Rise of French Sea Power. I also expect to get to Season of Skulls and The International Brigades; the second I expect will take me awhile.

By reading Bite Me by Christopher Moore I can complete a series and a challenge if I finish by midnight tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year and Happy Reading in 2024!

I just finished Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey. You can find a review, etc., on my 50-Book Challenge thread. Here I'll just say that I enjoyed the reading.

I've moved on to what looks like a fun memoir, An Old Guy Who Feels Good by Worden McDonald, who was the father of Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish fame.

Somehow I only managed to read 46 books this year but do nonetheless consider it a good reading year. I finished the year with Still Me, basically escapist literature but very effectively so. I found myself fully engaged with the characters and the plot although one might well have guessed the ending. Definitely a feel good book.

Ubik
Philip K. Dick
3/5 stars
This is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. It surrounds Glen Runciter, businessman who has people who work for him that are preventing psychic spies accessing data from his clients. However, Runciter is injured, and now time is moving backwards. His groups are trying to reverse his condition and how the product Ubik is involved. Very interesting!

I read 83 books this year. Months of unemployment gives you lots of reading time! I'm actually starting a new job on January 2, thank goodness.

This past week I terrified myself by reading The Woman in Black, enjoyed the soothing Tom Lake, and finished off the year as I began by reading another of Susan Hill's Simon Serailler detective series.

My reading plans for 2024 include reading some of the large books on my shelf, like 2666, a biography of Mao, and the large Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy books I've never read. I'm also going to read some difficult books that I've not managed previously. Included in that list are Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, The Three-Body Problem, and Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The Last Ride of the Pony Express – Will Grant
4****

Subtitle: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West

Journalist (and cowboy) Will Grant states that he is a product of the USA West. Raised on a ranch just south of Denver, Colorado, he began riding horses when just a toddler. On a horse is where he wanted to be … always. But he also went to journalism school and began writing articles related to horses for various magazines. One fateful December, a magazine editor asked him what he knew about the Pony Express. “Fast horses and young men, I told him. He encouraged me to look further. So I did.”

I think most of us (or at least most residents of the USA) have heard of the Pony Express – a fast-paced horseback ride to carry the mail in the era before railroads had been completed linking the East and the West coasts. Grant decided to ride the same trail from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California (or as close an approximation of it as he could do in modern day) to better understand the challenges and joys encountered by the pony express riders.

While those Western heroes of the 19th century made the nearly 2,000-mile journey in an extremely fast-paced ten days (!), Grant wasn’t trying to set any speed records. He took his two horses, Badger and Chicken Fry, on a walk; they took 142 days to cover the trail. He fills this memoir with his thoughts on the current-day West, sketches of the many people he met along the way, encounters with wildlife, distressing signs of human littering, expansive vistas, the extremes of weather, and much history of the 1860s American West.

I was completely fascinated by his account. And I learned a few things about the history … and myth … of the Pony Express.

The book includes some wonderful photographs of Grant and his horses on the journey.

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Book on CD narrated by Simon Vance
3.5***

Decades ago, I read a children’s classic abridged version; I’ve also seen at least one of the film adaptations, and read multiple books that reference Miss Havisham and her wedding attire. (My favorite references being in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series; the scene where Miss Havisham reads Heathcliff the riot act – book 3 in the series - is priceless!) And a couple of years ago I read Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs which was inspired by Dickens’s classic. So, I figured it was time to get to the original.

It’s typical Dickens in that there are many characters and many hidden relationships between them, which will eventually be revealed and explain the seemingly “random” encounters.

I enjoyed watching Pip mature from a child to a young man finding his way to some measure of success. I absolutely loved Joe Gargery, Pip’s brother-in-law and an all-around good guy. He was so steady and caring, the epitome of a good father, IMHO. Magwich was a very interesting character, starting out as a dangerous criminal and later showing more humanity and caring.

On the other hand, I thought Dickens gave too little attention to the women. Miss Havisham and Estella would be ideal main characters but were relegated to supporting roles. I haven’t researched this, but I hope that some talented author has taken up the task of fleshing out their story.

The edition I read included a bonus epilogue, indicating the first ending Dickens wrote (originally published in weekly installments). I’m glad he revised it, for I prefer the ending as it was later written.

Simon Vance does a marvelous job of performing the audio book. He has a wide range of characters to deal with and his skill as a voice artist was up to the task . (Though I did read the text for about a third of it.)

The Case of the Missing Servant – Tarquin Hall
Digital audiobook performed by Sam Dastor
3.5***

From the book jacket: Meet Vish Puri, India’s most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India’s swindlers, cheats, and murderers. In hot and usty Delhi, Puri’s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri’s resources to investigate.

My reactions:
This debut novel was just delightful! Puri is a marvelous character, and I want to follow the series just to get to know him better. But the supporting cast is also wonderful. From “Mummy-ji” (his mother, who insists on playing sleuth when “everyone” knows mummies are not detectives), to his undercover operatives: Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream.

While the main storyline focuses on the missing Mary, there are other issues Puri and his team must deal with – WHO is taking potshots at Puri and his chili plants? As the team travels from the swanky Gymkhana Club to the slums of Dehli, and from a desert oasis to a distant mine, the reader gets a view of modern-day India that is colorfully vivid.

I’ll definitely read more from this author.

Sam Dastor does a very good job of narrating the audiobook. I love the accents he used for Puri, Mummy-ji and the other characters.

From the library: The Sunset Crowd by Karin Tanabe
Novel about Hollywood in the 1970s

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Book on CD performed by Ray Porter
5***** and a ❤

Earth is threatened with an extinction-level event. Ryland Grace is one of three astronauts selected to go on a mission to solve the problem and save earth. But when Grace awakens from the medically induced coma he and his crewmates have been put into to begin the trip, he discovers that he is alone. He also has amnesia and it takes him a while to figure out where he is and why he is there. Now it’s up to Grace, alone, to save Earth. Or is it?

Damn, but Weir can write a compelling story! I absolutely loved this. Yes, there is a lot of science and math, and my 60+-year-old memory of some of these subjects was sorely tested. But I didn’t care. I loved this book. And I absolutely loved Rocky! What a marvelous character! And I thought the ending was just perfect.

The book jacket promises “an irresistible interstellar adventure” and that is exactly what Weir delivers.

Ray Porter does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. But he gets significant help from the producer who added marvelous sound effects (something that usually irritates me, but which were absolutely necessary for this book).

The new thread is up over here.

>12 BookConcierge: That was my favorite of 2023! I'm glad you loved it too!

I also finished Kill Joy by Holly Jackson this week.