Oh. I forgot a couple other annoying things. They’re following the bad guys easily because one of them stepped in something smelly. Holmes remarks that they would have gotten them even without this convenient trail - that he had like four other ideas or something like that, but when they lose the smelly trail, Holmes’ ideas never appear and he appears to be stuck. Where did the other ideas go? The story is worse for mentioning them and then having them not be used. Although I understand why SACD would want to point out that Holmes’ solution was not entirely due to chance.
And there was another similar hole, but I forget that one now.
The history of the HUGE marketplace in buying and selling zero-day expolits was fascinating. Very good explanation of why / how the USA is no longer the “top dog” in this arena. And why we are in the current sorry state re: ransomware attacks.
Alternating between Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny. And still doing about a chapter a week of Caro’s The Passage of Power. Some of those chapters are long!
Just finished The Sittaford Mystery, a Christie novel I had “missed” for many years… and then I realized why I had “missed” it.
It’s not very good.
That said, it’s not as embarrassing as The Big Four.
I am in the middle of Christie’s Crooked House right now (yes, I’ve read that one before), and I like the Amazon adaptation they did of it. They’ve been doing multiple Christie adaptations, and I thought that was the best one so far.
About 40% of the way through An American Sickness, and starting The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias.
I need to add a “fun/easy” book, but the other books on my next to read list are from the actuarial books thread, so probably more learning books before “fun/easy”.
Someone dropped off “The Agenda” by Woodward (about Clinton Presidency) at my wife’s place of business. So, I might start that. Might also reread “A Numerate Life” by Paulos.
Still looking for a copy of “All The President’s Men.”
Just ordered “The Last of the President’s Men” by Woodward. Short (215 pages), good for a trip, if I be taking one.
I was cleaning out my old desk and found $125 of Barnes and Noble gift cards. Debating whether I should buy books (I read almost everything on my phone now, since it’s always with me and weighs next to nothing) or spend it on overpriced games…
I finished Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson. If you read her previous book, you’ll know more or less what to expect. It is about 2/3 hilarious stories and 1/3 about her issues with depression, anxiety, and more. In this one, the parts about depression and anxiety are more distributed throughout the book.
I listened to the audiobook and it was interesting in that there was an extra chapter at the end because she finished writing the book pre-covid, but only started recording the audiobook during the lockdown and she talks about that.
The Library of the Unwritten was OK. Apparently it’s now a trilogy; not sure I’ll continue.
The Invisible Library was also OK, and book 1 of 7. Similarly, not sure I’ll continue.
Finally read Kings of the Wyld; it was a fun ride. I picked up book 2 (Bloody Rose) which should arrive today and I’ll try to read it within the next two years.
Finally read The Poppy War; excellent but rushes through some of the plot at times. It felt like three different books and doesn’t flow well between parts.
I read A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking as a palate cleanser, and started The Dragon Republic last night.
I finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, these short stories are much better than the first two books.
I’ve read enough to fulfill the requirements of the summer reading program, so me length restriction is removed. I’ll read the Anthony Horowitz Sherlock Holmes next.
I read The House of Silk, a Sherlock Holmes story by Anthony Horowitz. It’s pretty good. It’s written from the standpoint of an old Watson decades after the other Sherlock Holmes stories, where he thinks back on an untold Holmes mystery. It works very well.
Currently listening to Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson. It’s a new release (July 1 but I got the kindle version free last month as my “first reads” pick) and it’s the first book I’ve read that mentions THE pandemic (as opposed to any pandemic). So that’s been interesting. It’s not a huge part of the story but it’s there.
I finished Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill. I’d read a bunch of his Dr Siri Paiboun mysteries (an old doctor/coroner in post-war communist Laos). This is the first of his Jimm Juree mysteries. Jimm Juree is a woman reporter who has recently moved to rural southern Thailand when her mother sells their property and buys a very small unprofitable run-down motel. He created a good character - she’s smart and humorous and seems fairly real, but the book is a bit uneven. There are some jumps that seem too jarring for some reason and there are a few sections where nothing much seems to happens. It’s also humorous in that each chapter begins with a quote from George W Bush (and that’s where the title comes from).