The Reading List for August 2024

 

In spite of being driven off course by a couple of books I couldn't finish, I still managed to read eight books this month. I had attempted to read books 3 & 4 in Octavia Butler's Patternists series but I found the two books unreadable. I wouldn't attempt book #5.

I've written blog posts on six of the eight I did read

 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
The Little Sparrow Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
A Question of Belief  by Donna Leon
The Silkworm  by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)
Rogue Male  by Geoffrey Household
Patternmaster  by Octavia Butler.

Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler made the list - but no blog post

To get back on track, I finished the month with another by Donna Leon - Drawing Conclusions. Leon is my "go to" when I really need a good book.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)

I've managed to finish reading the 2nd novel in J.K.Rowling's (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) Cormoran Strike series The Silkworm. There were times when I wasn't at all certain I would finish this book - to say nothing of finishing all seven books in the series.

I understand that in this day and time, writers of crime/mystery novels feel the need to write in a more graphic manner. However, the amount of violence and bizarre sexual activities in The Silkworm was a bit much for me. That's not to say that the sex and violence was gratuitous....it was a necessary element to the story, but these were elements I thought were a bit over the top. It remains to be seen if I'll return to the series.

The Reading List for July, 2024

 

July has come to an end so a list of e books read this month is in order.

First on the list is The Case For God by Karen Armstrong. Like all of Ms. Armstrong's books, this one is well researched. The book covers the history of religion - particularly the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, although she does explore the Eastern, non Abrahamic religions to some degree.

It was by reading Ms. Armstrong's book that I was led to read The Mind's Road to God  by Saint Bonaventure. For the most part, Saint Bonaventure's book went over my head.

I've already reviewed The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling) in an earlier blog post. I failed to mention in that review that the protagonist has pretty good taste in music; he listens to Tom Waits and a group called Elbow.

In his translation of Gustav Meyrink's The Golem, Mike Mitchell writes that although Meyrink and Franz Kafka were contemporaries, "In it [The Golem] we have the Castle which is not Kafka's Castle, The Trial which is not Kafka's Trial and a Prague which is not Kafka's Prague". I would add that Meyrink comes across to me as a blend of Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe.

After J.D Vance was chosen as Trump's Vice Presidential running mate, I decided to read Vance's book and watch the movie based on the book. Vance has taken some heat recently, but reading the book has convinced me that Trump made the proper choice in picking J.D. Vance.

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin become the first human to journey into outer space. He became famous, world wide. He was so famous, in fact, that even a nine year old boy living in Atlanta Georgia knew his name. In Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, Jamie Doran & Piers Bizony write not only Gagarin's biography, but they explore the Soviet space program during the 1950s and '60s - it's successes and failures. Originally written in the 1990s, this edition was updated in 2010. I was particularly interested in the controversy surrounding Gagarin's death.

Now, the complete list:

The Case for God             by Karen Armstrong
The Cuckoo's Calling      by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)
The Mind's Road to God   by Saint Bonaventure
The Golem      by Gustav Meyrink
Hillbilly Elegy    by J. D. Vance
Starman     by Jamie Doran & Piers Bizony

The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)

 

I was 45 years old in 1997 when J. K. Rowling first published her fantasy novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published a year later as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S.). Being 45, it was not the sort of book I'd be reading. Now, 27 years later, I can say I've never read any books in the Harry Potter series. I've seen 5 or 10 minutes of one of the films - I can't recall which one - and can say I was justified in not reading any of those children's books. I am not the intended audience.

So, not being a J.K.Rowling fan, it's shouldn't be surprising that I've only recently learned of her series of crime fiction novels (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) Cormoran Strike. Being a big fan of that genre, I downloaded the entire series and set the ebooks aside to be read at a later date.

I've become aware of the controversy surrounding Rowling and her support of women viz a viz the trans issue. After reading of her challenge to Scotland's new hate crime law , "Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls", I decided to show my support for Rowling by reading book one in the Cormoran Strike series - The Cuckoo's Calling.

Naturally, I have to compare this series to a favorite of mine - Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series. After reading this first novel, I have to say that I'm impressed. An excellent work; it stands up to Leon's crime novels. However, I do have one negative comment. I'm not a fan of crime detectives being given strange, unrealistic names. I don't care for the name, Cormoron Strike. Other writers of crime novels have been guilty of the same offense but those writers usually gave the detective either a common Christian name or a not quite so bizarre surname. I'll be reading more in the series and will do my best to overlook my dislike of the main character's name.