What have you read lately?

[ab_grp]

I haven't read any books with my eyes lately, but I have listened to quite a few since last post.  Given the long list, I'll just categorize as excellent and highly recommended, okay, and didn't finish and won't do longer reviews of each.  These are actually only the ones I've listened to since March.  I have been determined to work my way through my library, since I keep adding to it when there are new sales.  I've sort of been alternating between fiction based on length (shortest to longest), trying to dabble in some classics, and non-fiction based on interest.

Title   Author(s)   Narrator(s)

Excellent and highly recommended:
The Metamorphosis: A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky   (Kafka, Franz;; Ballerini, Eduardo; Bevine, Victor; Lewis, Christa)- never read this before and was surprised at how moving it was.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum, L. Frank; Hathaway, Anne)- not an Anne fan, but this was really well narrated, and interesting to see the differences from the movie
Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen (Chance, Zoe;   Chance, Zoe)- I really enjoyed this and felt inspired by it.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (Epstein, David; Damron, Will)- starts off slowly and includes a bunch of research I'd heard or read before, but I still learned a good amount from this book.
Leave it to Psmith (Wodehouse, P.G.; Cecil, Jonathan)- loved reading this 2x before, and loved this narration
The Emperor's Soul (Sanderson, Brandon; Lin, Angela)- read previously and think this has some pretty interesting ideas about identity
When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery   (Vertosick Jr., Frank T; Heyborne, Kirby)- totally fascinating, and very exciting and touching stories, but not for the faint of heart
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr; Muller, Frank)- I've wanted to read this one for a while, and it didn't disappoint.  A lot can happen in one day in a Siberian labor camp.  Harrowing.
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (Christian, Brian; Griffiths, Tom;; Christian, Brian)- can get a little technical at times or hard to follow, but I think they draw some successful analogies between how computers do things and how humans do or could do things (e.g., caching, scheduling, networking).
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, F. Scott; Gyllenhaal, Jake)- never read it but felt I should due to all the references to it in pop culture.  I had a totally different impression of it for some reason, but like Metamorphosis it was a surprisingly moving story with very good narration.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Obama, Barrack; Obama, Barrack)- I believe this was written while he was a US Senator, so I appreciated his perspective on federal gov't at that time.  I also appreciated his candor about his relationship with Michelle and the girls and his takes on various gov't policies.  His narration is almost uncanny, as if he were born to narrate.  I guess it is his book, but he just sounds very comfortable reading it, and the time passes quickly (maybe not so quickly during some of the historical parts).

Good/okay:
Unexpected Stories: Two Novellas (Butler, Octavia; Miles, Robin): I liked the first story more than the second, but it still took me a bit to get into.
The Book of Five Rings (Musashi, Miyamoto; Brick, Scott)- can't really complain, because it's probably good for what it is (wisdom about the martial arts from the 17th century).  I thought his trying to get away with saying things like "this is oral tradition and does not need to be written down" was a little hand-wavey, and "you should practice this thoroughly" got a bit on my nerves.
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories   (Thammavongsa, Souvankham;; Tang, James; Vilaysack, Kulap)- some interesting stories from a fairly new author
The Five Elements of Effective Thinking (Burger, Edward B.;; Starbird, Michael; Troxell, Brian)- some good info, but nothing mind-blowing
Child of God (McCarthy, Cormac; Stechschulte, Tom)- highly, highly disturbing.  Beware!

Didn't finish:
Climate Crisis and Natural Disasters: A Complete Guide to Understand Causes and Effects of Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Disasters (Davariem, Sam; Prost, Jeremy)- possibly informative, but incredibly boring.  The weird page-turning (or something?) sound effects at the start of each new section was the most interesting part.
The Prince   (Machiavelli, Niccolo; Gardner, Grover)- I started reading this as a "fiction" entry, and I just haven't gotten past the first few chapters yet.  Reminds me a lot of The Book of Five Rings or The Art of War.
Orion Colony: An Intergalactic Space Opera Adventure (Yanez, Jonathan; Chaney, J. N.;; Porter, Ray)- just started this and am somewhat dubious about finishing.  I guess I probably picked it up because it was on sale, and Ray Porter is a favorite, but it is already a bit much.  We'll see.

[FishProf]

Smolt and I just finished The Silver Chair (Narnia Book 4 or perhaps 6, depending on your numbering scheme).   It was, meh.  While all the Narnia Books are some sort of Christian allegory,  that usually doesn't bubble-up in an obvious way affecting the story (Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve notwithstanding).  But there is a scene which basically articulates Pascal's wager and it was so blatant that it broke the suspension of disbelief for me.  Even Smolt noticed and commented on it.

I don't think she'll be interested in the rest of the stories after this.

[apl68]

Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton.  The story of an ill-starred rural New Englander, trapped in a marriage to an unspeakably awful wife, who falls in love with an attractive hired girl, tries to escape with her, and meets a most unhappy fate.  This edition boasts an introduction by Bernard De Voto.  He describes the story as a fine work of literary craft.  And also finds it highly contrived and not true-to-life, full of rural stereotypes drawn from an only superficial acquaintance with actual rural New Englanders.

I must say that I agree with De Voto's assessment.  I've often found "serious" novels like this as contrived and melodramatic, in their own way, as most popular fiction.  Especially distracting is the portrayal of Frome's wife as the most egregiously unsympathetic character I've seen in a literary novel since the evil husband in Elizabeth Spencer's The Light in the Piazza.  They're both not so much characters as walking collections of traits calculated to turn off the sort of well-educated, consciously enlightened reader the stories were presumably written for (Spencer's evil husband is domineering, a cultural Philistine, voices unprogressive opinions, and, most heinous of all for a character in a work written around 1960, has a lucrative career in advertising!).  They could hardly have looked worse to readers if they had practiced torturing puppies and drowning kittens.

It is a very well-crafted story, no doubt about it.  It's just a shame that all that craft couldn't have been in the service of a better story with more believable characters.

[apl68]

I've also been reading, or at least skimming, a jumbo collection of Wordsworth's collected works.  I salvaged it the other day from a big collection of discards that the local high school librarian has recently weeded.  It was published in 1932, and has obviously been much-read over the years.  But high school students just don't read poetry much anymore, apparently, judging by how much poetry of all vintages was in the weeded item piles.

Not being the world's biggest Wordsworth fan myself, I had planned to give the book a quick going-over before final disposal.  I found I just didn't have the heart to toss a battered volume that has a record of 90 years of service behind it.  Guess it will go up on my home shelf beside my nicer-looking illustrated volumes of Longfellow and Tennyson.  Maybe someday I'll get around to tackling Wordsworth's Prelude.

[Puget]

Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

[ab_grp]

Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him. 

[Puget]

Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

[ab_grp]

Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

Thanks! I picked it up.  I got lucky because I already own the Kindle version, so it was half price.

Have you read any of Mieville's other books? There is a 2 for 1 credit sale, so I was thinking about picking up Perdido Street Station (which my husband started but could not get through) and The Scar, the first two books of what appears to be a trilogy.  Those were listed by some of the reviewers of The City & The City as being even better, although they have a different narrator.

[Puget]

Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

Thanks! I picked it up.  I got lucky because I already own the Kindle version, so it was half price.

Have you read any of Mieville's other books? There is a 2 for 1 credit sale, so I was thinking about picking up Perdido Street Station (which my husband started but could not get through) and The Scar, the first two books of what appears to be a trilogy.  Those were listed by some of the reviewers of The City & The City as being even better, although they have a different narrator.

I haven't, but now I want to. I always just check out audiobooks (and kindle books) from the library in the Libby app. I just placed a hold on Perdido Street Station which sounds really intriguing, though the audio book is a whopping 24 hours long! Maybe it will encourage longer runs and walks, as that is when I do most of my listening.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I'm almost through with Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Which seeks to review the totality of human history in 400 pages or so. Most of the information it provides is not new to me, but the compact yet comprehensive way that it covers things is impressive. It is a fun and engaging read.

[FishProf]

I just finished Mythos by Stephen Fry (who narrated it).  It's a retelling of Greek Mythology in a chronological sequence, with the links and connections between stories made explicit.  He also covers the etymological descendants of the stories (although I had a few quibbles along the way).  It was the most cogent reading of Greek myths I've read.  Fry improvises some of the dialogue in the stories in amusing ways and it makes the gods feel more human (i.e. petty, condescending, vain, and arrogant).

The sequels are Heroes and Troy.  I will be reading Mythos to MrsFishProf and Smolt starting tonight.

[ergative]

Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

Thanks! I picked it up.  I got lucky because I already own the Kindle version, so it was half price.

Have you read any of Mieville's other books? There is a 2 for 1 credit sale, so I was thinking about picking up Perdido Street Station (which my husband started but could not get through) and The Scar, the first two books of what appears to be a trilogy.  Those were listed by some of the reviewers of The City & The City as being even better, although they have a different narrator.

I haven't, but now I want to. I always just check out audiobooks (and kindle books) from the library in the Libby app. I just placed a hold on Perdido Street Station which sounds really intriguing, though the audio book is a whopping 24 hours long! Maybe it will encourage longer runs and walks, as that is when I do most of my listening.

I liked a lot about Perdido Street Station, but the ending annoyed me in ways that will become clear if you read it. In general, Mieville strikes me as a very, very clever writer, who unfortunately knows he's clever while he's doing it. I might read The City and the City, but it's not the top of my list.

[ab_grp]

Puget, thanks for mentioning the Libby app! I downloaded it and actually do not have a library card here but just applied for one online.  I think I had heard of Overdrive as a resource for e-books, but I kept having trouble trying to access it through my previous library's website (years ago), so hopefully the updated system will be more user friendly (for me).  I'm really glad to hear about the app!

[Parasaurolophus]

I liked a lot about Perdido Street Station, but the ending annoyed me in ways that will become clear if you read it. In general, Mieville strikes me as a very, very clever writer, who unfortunately knows he's clever while he's doing it. I might read The City and the City, but it's not the top of my list.

100% agreement on all counts. Perdido's ending came sort of out of nowhere and felt rather unearned.

I've read a few other Miévilles but, frankly, I find him pretty annoying, and his work kind of dull overall. I have a copy of The City & The City taking up space on the bookshelf; I found it on a free shelf, and I should really read it to make room for other stuff, but I can't bring myself around to it.

[apl68]

Puget, thanks for mentioning the Libby app! I downloaded it and actually do not have a library card here but just applied for one online.  I think I had heard of Overdrive as a resource for e-books, but I kept having trouble trying to access it through my previous library's website (years ago), so hopefully the updated system will be more user friendly (for me).  I'm really glad to hear about the app!

It's a mature enough software that it usually works in a pretty trouble-free manner.  If you do have glitches trying to use it on your device, your library staff will be glad to help you sort it out.  Our staff can usually clear up patron Libby issues pretty quickly.