I’ve only finished 7 books so far this year. There seem to be three things going on; first, I’ve got three or four non-fiction books about half finished and while they are interesting enough, they’re not compelling enough for me to make finishing them a priority. The second issue seems to be that there doesn’t seem to be as many “must read” books out there as there have in the past. Perhaps that’s just me. Finally, in late January, I ran into a family issue, that has consumed a fair amount of time and even more of my thoughts.
Anyway, here is the list to date:
Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman is an interesting look at FCI Danbury written by an intelligent and articulate woman who got involved in the periphery of the drug trade in her youth (she helped launder some cash for her much more connected girl-friend), only to have to it come back to bite her on the assalmost a decade later. It was good but not great.
Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross is an excellent science fiction book, set in the far, far, future when biological human beings are nearly extinct having been replaced by very sophisticated, sentient, androids. The story involves one such android, trying to find her “sister”, who has disappeared while on a research trip. The plot revolves around the mystery of a lost colony and is largely driven by the economics of non-FTL interstellar flight and colony establishment. It was very entertaining and I enjoyed it immensely. A tip of the hat to Paul Krugman, who turned me on to it in one of his columns.
The Martian by Andy Weir was another outstanding science fiction work. In fact, this is the best book I’ve read in the last couple of years. I read all 384 pages of it within one 24 hour period. This is the story of NASA astronaut Mark Watney a botanist/engineer who is accidentally left behind by his crew-mates (they thought he was dead) when a weather emergency arose and they had to quickly evacuate the Martian surface. Watney wakes up a couple hours later, alone on Mars with no way to get home, or even communicate with NASA. The book recounts how he copes with the issues of Martian survival and returning to Earth. The book is very well written, and the character of Watney is actually pretty well drawn, but the most notable thing about the book is the attention to scientific detail. The author has clearly thought his way through this situation and carefully plotted his story. There are no cheats, short-cuts, or “deus ex machina” moments in this book. Watney will not be able to return home by “re-caliberating the main sensor array” or any other Star Trek-like nonsense. This is hard science all the way. I can’t recommend this highly enough.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro was an excellent book about one (fictional) man’s life of service in Britain from the 1920s through the 1950s. “Stevens”, the butler of Darlington Hall, has devoted his life to the service of the Hall as an institution, to Lord Darlington as a person, and to the concepts of duty and responsibility. The book traces Stevens’ journey across 1950s Britain to reconnect with Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper of Darlington Hall, whom he hopes to rehire. During the course of the journey, Stevens reflects on his past and through this reflection, readers are gradually introduced to his character, and perhaps learn more about him than he understands himself. It was simply, extraordinary. I can’t recommend it highly enough, even if you’ve seen the similarly outstanding film featuring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson as Stevens and Miss Kenton.
Void Moon by Michael Connelly is a pretty standard heist story and mystery set in LA and Las Vegas. Pretty good way to kill a couple of hours, but not something I’ll return to.
Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home by James Carville and Mary Matalin was a lot of fun but kind of disjointed and erratic because it lacked a cohesive narrative and theme. The book covers a smattering of issues from Carville and Matalin’s marriage, to their service with a couple of presidential administrations, to their decision to move to New Orleans post-Katrina, all in the distinctive voices of the authors. One interesting feature of the book was typesetting the contributions of the two authors in different typefaces, so it is easy to tell who is “speaking”. Anyway, like I say, it was a fun read, but ultimately, nothing more.
Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings is an attempt to prove that the Germans and Austrians bear ultimate responsibility for initiating WWI, and a description of the first 4-5 months of the war. Let me say, that Sir Max convinced me, but I was leaning that way to start with, so am perhaps not the best judge. Whether or not you agree with the premise, you’ll find the book very engaging and accessible. Hastings’ usual excellent writing and eye for just the right anecdote are all on display here and make for a fine book. I guess I need to read one or two of the opposing views on German war guilt to balance this.
Anyway, that’s it. Sorry it took so long to write up and I hope to be more attentive to the blog going forward.
7 for the year!
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