January, 2021 Reading List

 

YTD: Books Read 20   Hours Spent 206

Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours

MTD: Books Read 20   Hours Spent 206

 

What an interesting January this has been. Towards the end of 2020, I started stockpiling new purchases from the various end of year sales.  I saved them all for 2021 and now I am working my way through the pile with bookish glee. I have a smattering of everything on my list -- cooking, microbiology, history, science fiction, Agatha Christie, biography, cozy mysteries, behavioral sciences --and I have been to so many interesting places -- Appalachia, Damascus, Botswana, South Africa, the Outback, all over England, ancient Greece and even outerspace.

The Curse of Braeburn Castle  -- NEW1 

Salt,Fat,Acid, Heat  -- NEW2

Rocket Boys -- Re-read

The Man in the Brown Suit  -- NEW3  ACCC

I Contain Multitudes -- NEW4  Science1

The Mote in God's Eye  -- NEW5 20 in '21

A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder -- NEW6

Death in Damascus -- NEW7

Broken Homes --  NEW8

The Mysterious Mr. Quin  -- NEW9

The Great Courses: Churchill -- NEW10 History1

Heroes-- NEW11

Washington's End -- NEW12 History2

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness-- NEW13

To the Land of Long Lost Friends-- NEW14

The Map That Changed the World -- NEW15 History3

Foundryside-- NEW16  DNF

The Lost Man-- NEW17

The Medici -- NEW18 History4

The Trials of Rumpole -- NEW19

The Lost Man

 

by Jane Harper (read by Stephen Shanahan)

 

 

Oh, my goodness. Well done, Jane Harper. What a story.

My sister recommended this one and when the title turned up in an Audible 2 for 1 sale, I decided the price was right. I don't usually do dysfunctional family stories but this one was so well done. No sentimentality about it. Harper just slowly reveals layer after layer of the saga of one Outback family as they come to grips with the death of a son/brother/husband/father.

Just short of four stars.

Foundryside

 

by Robert Jackson Bennett (read by Tara Sands)

 

Life's too short. This book is DNF barely a third of the way in. I am tired of waiting for it to get better. I am tired of wading through the violence while I wait for it to get better.

To the Land of Long Lost Friends

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 20

by Alexander McCall Smith (read by Lisette Lecat)

 

 

I so enjoy this series. Maybe it is because I listen to it rather than reading it and instead of having a panoply of characters who all speak with a distinct US accent (because that is how all characters sound in my head),  I have a cast of characters who sound as if they might actually be from Botswana.  Narrator Lisette Lecat was born in South Africa. Not only is her accent spot on but her reading pace matches that of the book, slow and deliberate. Her voice brings these books to life; she is the perfect narrator. I love the peace and tranquility, a book filled with kind, giving people. I love the slow, meandering pace that eventually brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. 

 

The Map That Changed the World

 

William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

by Simon Winchester (read by the author)

 

Simon Winchester is another one of my go-to authors. I have learned so much about so many things in reading his books.

This book is about a map that was created over 200 years ago, in the very early 1800s. William Smith wandered all over England mapping the geological strata and then recorded his findings on a single full color map. Winchester gives not only the story of the map but a biography of Smith and insight into what was going on in England at the time -- at least as it pertained to what Smith was doing.

 

I like the way Winchester gives us history that goes beyond what we learned in the classroom. There is so much more to the history of mankind than the wars and politics and the biographies of the rich and the powerful -- and Winchester is doing his part to bring these lesser known but still important stories to the forefront.

Four stars.

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

 

by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (read by Sean Pratt) 

 

 

 

Behavioral Economics welds the fields of Psychology and Economics -- and it is about time we got beyond guns and butter and talked more about how human beings and their decisions effect how microeconomics works in the real world. Thaler and Sunstein are down to earth guys talking about ideas in a down to earth way. They talk about how we make decisions and how we are influenced and motivated by how propositions are framed. They use a lot of real word examples to make things clear to a non-academic audience. Then they get down to brass-tacks and start talking about how their ideas apply to decisions that are made regarding finances, healthcare and our general happiness. They look at decision-making from a consumer point of view and from that of the governments and corporations that are trying to influence decisions. All in all, a very easy introduction to the subject.

Three and a half stars because there are lists of things that I would have skimmed over if I had been eyeballing the text and not listening to it.

Washington's End

 

by Jonathan Horn (read by Arthur Morey)

 

 

There are not a lot of books out there that focus just on George Washington former president. But I like reading about the presidents and when I saw this one as the Audible daily deal, I added it to my library. I actually learned something new about Washington and about the the state of our democracy.

I never gave much thought to military matters and I don't think I was cognizant of the fact that at this point in time, the United States had no standing army. We were just going to depend on the same system we had used to fight the War for Independence: state militias. President John Adams realized that we needed a standing army and asked GW to be its commander-in-chief. GW died before they were able to get it organized but I found it interesting that in this point in the time the titles 'president' and 'commander-in-chief' were to be held by two different people.

Sadly, George Washington's post presidency was all too short; he died some 21 months after he stepped down. Nonetheless, our nation was in its infancy and we had just experienced our first orderly transfer of power from one president to the next, from a beloved hero elected by unanimous acclamation to a not so beloved curmudgeon from Boston in a somewhat contested election. To a certain extent this book is not just about Washington but about rivalries among the founders of our nation and particular among Washington, Adams and Jefferson.

All in all, three and a half stars.

Heroes

 

by Steven Fry (read by the author)

 

 

I just finished reading Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined| and thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked his take on the stories and I like how he blended the stories with their provenance through the ancient Greek authors and dramas.  I even liked his embellishments to the stories as well, the kind of details that were not available in the various anthologies of Greek mythology that I devoured in my early teens. All in all, I found his take refreshing; he has breathed new life into old tales and made them interesting and readable. No slogging through olde tyme language and sentence construction -- but plenty of $5 words.

A couple of times he brought me to a halt with his use of vocabulary.  I thought he misused a word and was stunned. Turns out he was right. Where I thought that the more logical choice was A, he took Q, the road less frequently traveled but still correct.

I read it all in one go but it probably the kind of thing that you could break into pieces, reading one heroes tales and then take a break.

 

Four stars -- for creativity, for research and for readability 

P.S. I love the cover.

Quote of the Day

 Shared on Facebook, source unknown. A Civil Contract is one of my favorites and this one line from the book, sums up what it is all about.

 

Words to Live By

 

Quote of the Day

 

As We Celebrate M.L. King, Jr. Day, 2021

 

 

Shared on Facebook by Trinity Repertory, Providence, RI.

The Great Courses: Churchill

 

Professor J. Rufus Fears

 

 

A very well done series of lectures.

If you want the whole story in minute detail, you can read one of the many biographies written about him. If you want just the precis, this lecture series is what you are looking for. Professor Fears has done an excellent job of culling all the important bits, the turning points and even the missteps.

For me, the most interesting part came at the beginning, where Fears labels Churchill a statesman not a politician and then goes on to define what makes a statesman:

We distinguish a statesman from a politician by four criteria: 1. A bedrock of principles. 2. A moral compass. 3. A vision. 4. The ability to build a consensus to achieve that vision.

Fears goes on to shows us how he thinks that Churchill meets the criteria and why he thinks Churchill was the greatest statesman of the twentieth century.

Four stars.

The Mysterious Mr. Quin

 

By Agatha Christie (read by Hugh Fraser)

 

Between 1924 and 1930, Agatha Christie wrote a series of short stories that revolve around two recurring characters, Mr. Satterthwaite and the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin. Satterthwaite has been described as both a dilettante and a busybody. I would describe him more as the idle rich, with more than enough money not to have to work, thus having plenty of time spend developing friendships and acquaintances. Mr. Quin is a bit more difficult to describe, especially since the words "supernatural" and "mystic" are involved. In 1930, twelve Mr. Quin stories were published as The Mysterious Mr. Quin. These are stories she wrote for her own amusement and satisfaction, stories that did not have to follow the demands of her publisher or public-- and it shows. These are stories with a twist. Personally, I think that in the 1920s Christie had a better command over the short story than she did the novel, but we all know that changed.

The audiobook production is well thought out. It is read by Hugh Fraser, familiar voice in the Christie-verse. But equally important is that each story is a "chapter." Too many audiobooks, don't pay attention to this minor detail -- and it drives users crazy.

Four and half stars

Broken Homes

 

By Ben Aaronovitch (read by Kobna Holdbook-Smith)

 

Book Four: Rivers of London

I don't remember how I got hooked on this series but hooked  I am.  Some of it had to do with the narrator,  Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, who is amazing. He moves seamlessly from regional British accent to regional British accent  to patois to American accent to German. He has one of the best American accents I have heard. He is definitely on my list of "you can read me the phonebook" audio performers.

But, it is not just the reader, it is the story and the writing, too. The stores are complicated and deep without being heavy. The characters are complicated and believable. Well, not entirely believable because this is fantasy, after all.

Four stars.

Bookish Pandemic Humor

 compliments of my sister-in-law

Death in Damascus

 

By Karen Baugh Menuhin (read by Sam Dewhurst-Phillips)

 

This is book 4 in the Heathcliff Lennox series.

Wow, I enjoyed this so much better than I did book three -- but you can't really skip book three because it sets up book four. Fun story, fast paced and Lennox is back in character -- a 30-year old prude, shy/clumsy around women and very much an introvert who is much happier at home but oh so good at getting murders to reveal themselves in the "round up all of the suspects in the lounge for the denouement" scene.

Which brings me to my problem with the narrator: Sam Dewhurst-Phillips has a deep gravelly voice; he makes Lennox sound 60, not 30. How many 30 year olds have gravelly voices?

So, solid three stars for this one. 

 

P.S. I love the cover art.

 

The Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder

 

by Dianne Freeman (read by Sarah Zimmerman)

 

A cozy mystery, first in a series.

I picked this one up in an Audible sale. One of my bookish buddies had read it and so I grabbed it.

There are somethings that are driving me crazy.  A narrator who doesn't know how to pronounce Haverhill--it is two syllables and not three - hay-vrill. An MC who is supposedly smart but makes stupid choices -- like agreeing to send her daughter to visit the in-laws who are suing her. But I am trying to ignore the stupidities and focus on the mystery.

In spite of the stupidities, this turned out to be an enjoyable, cozy read. When the murderer was revealed, I never saw it coming. If more in the series end up in the sale pile, I may well buy more of them.

A solid 3 stars.

The Mote in God's Eye

 

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (read by LJ Ganser) (1974)

 

 

A sci-fi classic. Published in 1974, right between Star Trek and Star Wars.

I wonder if Steve Jobs got some of his ideas from this book. Hand held computers that you can scribble on. Seemingly unlimited storage capacity. Cloud storage. Video clips that can be called up almost instantly. Interesting that what the authors thought of as future tech, ideas that they pulled from other books (?) or from their own imagination, and that gave the book its 1974 wow, is today so commonplace that it barely registers as we read along.

How come the aliens are always the bad guys? How come they are always coming to destroy our world? Doesn't anyone have a positive take on first contact? Can't strangers agree to disagree and live and let live?

Four star read.

Quote of the Day