Reading

On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle

/ Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

This insightful review by Adam Woods of On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) intrigued me enough to read this puzzling book, the first of a planned seven-volume series. Five books have been published in Balle’s native Danish with just the first two translated into English.

The narrator, Tara Selter, is caught in a time loop, reliving November 28th over and over again. It’s Groundhog’s Day but with an existential slant on the meaning of self, time, mortality, sustainability, and the inevitable progression of love and marriage.

The science fiction involved with being stuck in a time loop takes a back seat to these serious questions, often in a rhythmic, repetitive style. The plot is thin for most of the novel as the narrator explores an existence devoid of change and together yet split apart from the one she loves.

This first book piqued my curiosity enough that I will certainly continue the series with Book II. I hope a few of my lingering questions will be answered in time.

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

/ History, Reading

★★★★☆ | History | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A concise summary of the tactics used by totalitarian governments to suppress freedom and democracy. Clear examples from twentieth-century despots support each of the twenty lessons. Reading this on the heels of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich helped me crystalize the most significant actions taken by Hitler to assume his reign of terror.

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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

/ History, Reading

★★★★☆ | History | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I read this classic to learn about Nazi Germany and the rise of fascism to understand better any parallels we might be seeing in the United States today. The first third of the book revealed many examples of Hitler’s power grab that felt very eerily similar to Trump. So many that you could make the case that Trump used Hitler as a role model for his political ambitions, as scary as that sounds.

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Maximum Bob by Elmore Leonard

/ Mystery-Suspense, Reading

★★★★☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph

A recent New Yorker article by Anthony Lane prompted me to read this one, my first Elmore Leonard book. I enjoyed the pacing and dialogue and colorful cast of characters, all set in languid south Florida. The book ends with a promising turn for Kathy Baker, the main protagonist of the novel, but if I remember correctly, Leonard wasn’t in the habit of writing sequels or carrying characters from book to book. A little sad we never get to see what happens next.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

/ ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

★★★★★ | Literature | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

Ah, Gatsby. It’s been a moment. I last read this book in college, and although I remember the story, I’m fairly sure I missed the point. It has been good for me to go back and reread these perennial classics that I thought I knew.

Here we have a true American tragedy, wrapped in social wit and irony, stewed in alcohol and disillusionment, where wealth, whether old or new, buys not love, but misery, where the strong moral values of the Midwest prove all too corruptible, where the very premise of the American Dream is nothing more than a cheat, a scam.

Other than maybe Gatsby, there isn’t a trustworthy or likeable character in the bunch. Ungrateful, snobbish, and vain, they look at people as novelties to play with and discard. Even Nick, our narrator, is cruel and two-faced. While her husband, Tom, is despicable, Daisy Buchanan is the real villain of this story. Her voice is full of money, Gatsby tells us. Not love, not empathy, not kindness. Money.

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Brightness Falls by Jay McInerney

/ ★★★★★, Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I didn’t like this book at first. I felt claustrophobic, there in the first chapter, squeezed in at the kids’ table surrounded by a large group of strangers at a Manhattan apartment dinner party. These guests were too witty, overly confident, and entirely full of themselves. Who talks like this? And more pressing, who would want to read an entire novel with these assholes?

But I persevered. In fact, it was the Manhattan setting of this book that initially drew me.  I lived in New York in the mid-1990s and recently returned to an apartment on the Upper East Side, where much of the story takes place.  McInerney’s first book, Bright Lights, Big City, helped to convince me to move to New York when I read it in college. The descriptions of the city, its magic, and absurdity were spellbinding. The city itself becomes a character in the story, which we follow over a year, from the bitter cold of winter through the languor of summer to the bracing beauty of fall.

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Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

/ Horror, Reading

★★★★☆ | Horror | Audio/Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

I’m continuing my quest to read every book published by Stephen King. I’m down to short story collections and a few of his less (ahem) popular novels.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes isn’t King’s best short story collection. I think that award goes to You Like It Darker from last year. But any collection of stories by this generation’s master storyteller is still pretty great.

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London Rules by Mick Herron

/ Reading, Spy-Detective

★★★★☆ | Spy-Detective | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

Another brilliant volume in the wonderful Slow Horses saga. Jackson Lamb is as disgusting and brilliant as ever, with the Slow Horses needing to save the day from the arrogance and pervasive politics of the intelligence service leaders.  All of the Slow Horses are fighting some inner demon: an addiction, anger issues, or a past mistake that cannot be undone. Yet, despite the odds, they manage to pull together as a unit and save the day.  Fun, funny, and suspenseful.  I love these Slow Horses!

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Gerald’s Game by Stephen King

/ Horror, Reading

★★★☆☆ | Horror | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Stephen King must have felt he needed a challenge when he started this one. How about a horror novel with just one character handcuffed to a bed with the only way to move the story along is through inner dialogue. Oh, and let that character be a woman, and let that woman be sexually abused by her father as a child. Yep, that would be a challenge.

And, I guess he succeeded? Maybe? I’m torn over this one, because it feels offensive to me that a male author would attempt to put himself in the tortured mind of an abused woman.

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