Olivier - check
Gabri - check
OK, I finished State of Terror. No Clara. The book was OK. I think it didnāt have the feel of having been written by Penny, so Iām guessing HRC wrote most of it. Although I donāt think Iāve read anything by Penny other than the Gamache books. I donāt know if sheās written anything other than the Gamache books, now that I think of it. She/they did a reasonably good job of trying to throw in some surprises and misdirection, although some of the misdirection seemed obvious. Oh, and there were a few times when obvious clues were unable to be decoded by the SOS. (Example, theyāre trying to find the location of a bomb and the clue includes ā1600ā and she couldnāt figure out that that might be a reference to the White Houseās address. duh). The book also seemed dragged out just a bit.
OK, one thing youāre probably wondering is does she go on and on about how stupid the character that is obviously supposed to be Trump-like is, how he cared more for himself than the US, etc, etc? Yes, and that is mentioned throughout the book. I think it mentioned a few particulars that are definitely things Trump did. The ones most relevant to the book are the policy changes that Trump had toward Iran. Are the bad guys the Republicans? Lol, there are good people on both sides. Does she spend time defending Benghazi? Not exactly, but there were a couple times where 1) she talked a lot about tough choices having to be made 2) she talked about those choices ending up in the deaths of considerably more than 4 people. Those seemed to me almost hinting on Benghazi. She didnāt refer to the opposition Congress having investigation after investigation that all turned up nothing. One of the better aspects was that the (at least initial) main conflict was between her and the Democratic president (who doesnāt seem at all to be Biden-like, fwiw), so it wasnāt all just āRepublicans are the bad guys in the USā. It did bring up freedom a few times, but that was defined as gay rights, abortions, etc, but these are only mentions and it didnāt linger on any of these.
Oh, one more even stupider clue she couldnāt figure out.
The dying words of a character are āwhite houseā and she couldnāt figure out that that was a reference to The White House. Hmm.
I have no interest in this one. OTOH I had no interest in the James Patterson/Bill Clinton book and I ended up being entertained by it when my book club chose it.
I started reading I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and I am tired of books with sisters dying. (You find out on the very first page, or maybe in the book blurb. I should probably start reading those.)
I have now finished all of these (and Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - this was excellent but the last 50 pages should have been 150 pages I think), except Perdido Street Station, which has been going at ~1 chapter every 2-3 days. Now that itās my only outstanding book, and the plot FINALLY became evident halfway through, I intend to finish it up the next few days.
Reading Designing the Mind: the Principles of Psychitecture. Itās the least self-help-y self-help book Iāve ever read. Very much about ādo the workā to reframe beliefs, emotions, and reactions, as opposed to ātrick your brain into successā. My daughter gave it to me for Christmas. One interesting point: author talks about deciding what goals to work on not by what the goals are or what you think good goals would be, but based on what your values are. I donāt think Iāve ever heard anyone put it like that before.
It just dawns on me that Penny must have written the Gamache part and Clinton the rest. That makes sense.
Reading The Last Graduate by Naomi Novak right now, with a series by Becky Chambers up next. I still have to read the 5th book of the Red Rising series (Dark Age), but the 4th book was a bit of a slog so I wanted a break.
Finally updated my to-read spreadsheet. At 150 pages a day, I have enough books in the house to entertain me for 3 years. I have another 6 months worth of books I want to buy (books in series Iām currently reading; e.g. I have books 1-3 of a 10 book series and will eventually buy books 4-10).
Of course, 150 may be optimistic. Thatās the pace I maintained from December 2019-December 2020, but I averaged 60 a day for January 2021-January 2022 (bottoming out at 34 a day during baseball season).
I bought 22 books (8000 total pages, 2.0M words) in January despite reading just 6 books (2500 pages, 730k words). I REALLY need to have a moratorium on purchases for the year (other than my 10 outstanding preorders).
Fun with data, my reading by month from January 2019 through January 2022. I read some Greek mythology books in 2017 (finished FSA exams) and eight 1000 page books in 2018 before kicking things up a bit in 2019. [Iām excluding chess and go books I āreadā in 2021 as they throw off the word counts immensely]
I would say you need a hobby, but it looks like youāve already got it!
Also, started reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, by Oliver Sacks. Inspired by the āthings you find fascinatingā thread. I geek out on Sacksā writing. Iāll probably also read work he mentions from his mentor, A.R. Luria as well. The brain is a weird, wonderful place.
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I have way too many hobbies, lol.
I loved this book when I read it; it was the first time I ever read a book that described someone with Tourettes. Iām much milder than the one he illustrates, but it was still eye opening to see.
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I finished Perdido last night, 2.5 months after starting it. It was good (?) but the pacing of the book as a whole is really strange.
Iāve started James Baldwinās Going to Meet the Man and Toni Morrisonās Tar Baby. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany is next afterwards.
Finished Atomic Habits read through but bow I will go back and figure out something I want to try using his method.
Will get back to I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter tonight and then Mustard Seed.
Recently listened to this since I saw it here. It was okay.
Starting āThe Great Gatsbyā .
it wasnāt the best of his , but it was good. if you just like his voice and take on things, read his compiled articles about what heās been reading 10 years in the tub. I found a lot of books from what he read, bought, and referred to.
Iāll keep that in mind. Iāve been almost exclusively been listening to audiobooks from the library, so books that have been out for awhile are easier to get.