Books we read in 2022

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:09 pm

Books Kyle finished in 2022:
Moon Witch Spider King- Marlon James
The House in the Cerulean Sea- TJ Klune
Interior Chinatown- Charles Yu
Sea of Tranquility- Emily St. John Mandel
Annihilation- Jeff VanderMeer
Lovecraft Country- Matt Ruff
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein- Kiersten White
12 Nights at Rotter House- J.W. Ocker
A Psalm for the Wild-Built- Becky Chambers
The Memory Police- Yōko Ogawa; translated by Stephen Snyder
Fugitive Telemetry- Martha Wells
The Library of the Unwritten- A. J. Hackwith
The Gunslinger- Stephen King
What Moves the Dead- T. Kingfisher
Hide- Kiersten White
Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction- Chuck Klosterman
The Chalk Man- C.J. Tudor
Hell House- Richard Matheson
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda- Becky Albertalli
The Maidens- Alex Michaelides
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home- Joseph Fink and Jeremy Cranor
Remote Control- Nnedi Okorafor
Midwinterblood- Marcus Sedgwick
Project Hail Mary- Andy Weir
Nothing But Blackened Teeth- Cassandra Khaw
The Hazel Wood- Melissa Albert
The Babysitter Lives- Stephen Graham Jones
Vivian Apple at the End of the World- Katie Coyle
Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror- edited by Mark Matthews
Predator: Eyes of the Demon- Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Editor
Miles Morales- Jason Reynolds
Strange in Place: Tales from the Homefront of the New Paranormal- Jonathan Baskin
The Drawing of the Three- Stephen King
Riot Baby- Tochi Onyebuchi
All American Boys- Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
The Wastelands- Stephen King
Cinder- Marissa Meyer
No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality- Michael J Fox
The Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy- Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
The Inheritance Games- Jennifer Lynn Barnes
More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War- Kenneth C. Davis
Later- Stephen King
The Torment of Rachel Ames- Jeff Gunhus
You Should See Me in a Crown- Leah Johnson
Out of the Corner- Jennifer Grey
The Collected Works of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale- Philip K. Dick
Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases- Paul Holes
Laurus- Eugene Vodolazkin; translated by Lisa Hayden
Good Morning, Midnight- Lily Brooks-Dalton
Beautiful You- Chuck Palahniuk
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI- David Grann
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe- Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry
Ghost Boys- Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Shining Girls- Lauren Beukes
The Lighthouse Witches- Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Trejo- Danny Trejo
The Marrow Thieves- Cherie Dimaline
Goblin- Josh Malerman
The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington- Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
The Second Shooter- Nick Mamatas
Wizard and Glass- Stephen King
Amish Cradle Conspiracy- Dana R. Lynn
The Dilemma- B.A. Paris
Dracula- Bram Stoker

We Travel the Spaceways: Victor LaValle*

*Short story- not included in ranking

Mike's lists (alphabetically by author)
The Handmaid's Tale -- Margaret Atwood
The Actual Star -- Monica Byrne
The Girl in the Road -- Monica Byrne
Neptune Crossing -- Jeffrey A. Carver
Strange Attractors -- Jeffrey A. Carver

A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet -- Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built -- Becky Chambers
Recursion -- Blake Crouch
A Visit from the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan
Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism -- Temple Grandin

The Library of the Unwritten -- A. J. Hackwith
The Paradox Hotel -- Rob Hart
Below -- Laurel Hightower
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows -- Balli Kuar Jaswal
The Absolute Book -- Elizabeth Knox

Lift -- Minh Le (words) & Dan Santat (art)
Severence -- Ling Ma
Station Eleven -- Emily St. John Mandel
One Last Stop -- Casey McQuiston
The Song of Achilles -- Madeline Miller

The Memory Police -- Yōko Ogawa; translated by Stephen Snyder
A Touch of Ruckus -- Ash Van Otterloo
The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century -- Olga Ravn
After the Fall -- Dan Santat
We are Legion (We are Bob) – Dennis E. Taylor

For We are Many – Dennis E. Taylor
All These Worlds – Dennis E. Taylor
Heaven's River – Dennis E. Taylor
Children of Time -- Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Memory Theater -- Karin Tidbeck

The Empress of Salt and Fortune -- Nghi Vo
Accidental Nazi -- Ward Wagher
Watchlist: 32 stories by Persons of Interest
The Martian -- Andy Weir
How to Survive in a Science Fictional Universe -- Charles Yu

Interior Chinatown -- Charles Yu
The Only Living Girl on Earth -- Charles Yu

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:10 pm

Okay, I’m not done with it yet, but I’m three quarters of the way through Danny Trejo’s autobiography. He’s the worst narrator I’ve ever heard, but this book is still one of my favorite biographies- maybe better than Oates’s.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:56 am

The Dilemma- B.A. Paris. On the bright side, this is the best book I've read so far this year. On the other hand, it's the only one. And it was terrible. And pointless. And just a drag. The conceit of this "thriller" is that it switches perspective each chapter between a husband and wife, and each chapter is another hour in a single day. That day is the wife's 40th birthday party, which for an inconceivable reason (it explains it in the book, actually, but it's dumb) is The Most Important Day of Her Life™ and is a lavish 200 person formal event. Rich people. BUT... the wife has discovered a terrible secret about the couple's 19 year old daughter, but she's waiting until after her party to tell her husband because when she does, it will Change Everything™. Quite coincidentally, the husband has also discovered a different and completely independent secret about the same daughter, but can't tell his wife until after her party because it will Ruin Everything™. Ugh. This whole novel was a tedious exercise in British people being angsty about communicating and deciding, for nonsensical and contrived reasons, to keep secrets that no one would keep. I only got this because my wife and I wanted something to listen to in the car on our 9 hour drive to New Mexico. It served its purpose, but was pretty excruciating. I can tell already that this is going to be a contender for my least favorite book of 2022.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:32 pm

Well what were these secrets? What could possibly change everything? The daughter is a time traveler who somehow entered the womb or was swapped out with their real baby long ago. And now she's going to have a baby.
And what is going to ruin everything? She is a time traveler from the future when humans have begun mating with aliens post-Sigourney Weaver and the parents are about to get a big surprise that will, in fact, lead to ruin. Did I guess?

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:22 pm

I dont like to give spoilers in my reviews.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Jan 03, 2022 9:42 pm

It's ok, just blink twice when I nod in your direction if I'm correct, once if not!

I have read the Hobbit in the AMAAAZING big green illustrated edition. 10 out of 10 stars; re-reading was worth it.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:38 am

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home- Joseph Fink and Jeremy Cranor. So this is a novel in the Welcome to Night Vale universe. Disclaimer: I've never listened to the podcast or consumed any Night Vale media. I know nothing about it other than it's a popular podcast that takes place in a town where basically all supernatural things exist, and it's funny. This book is apparently an origin story for a character in the Night Vale universe, the titular faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home. I didn't know what to expect, as I got this to listen to in one fell swoop on my drive back from New Mexico. I generally thought it would be a quirky, funny supernatural tale. It wasn't. It was so much better!

So this book is divided into two stories, one set in the present with the title character who is a ghost, but not a ghost (who secretly lives in peoples' houses). The second is her original life story, set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The present-set story is the quirky, kind of funny tale I expected. The origin story, however, was a swashbuckling historical epic that reminded me a lot (in a very good way) of the Gentlemen Bastards series. At first I thought that the author had this idea for a twisty historical heist story that they shoehorned into an existing character in the Night Vale universe. But both stories actually inform each other in very clever and important (to the plot) ways. It was really well done. I also want to add that the book was beautifully written. Literary critics always shout about "show don't tell" but I think that's garbage. It's all about tone. And the tone of this book is someone (the faceless lady) telling a story. And it's done masterfully and in a way that made me a little jealous at points. High recommend.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:51 am

Trejo- Danny Trejo. Important note for the audio version of this book- Look, I got this book because I think Danny Trejo's life story if fascinating and I wanted to hear it from his perspective. But here's the thing, Danny's not the... strongest... of readers. I got 10 minutes into it and thought I'd have to turn it off because of how slowly and stilted his reading is. But then I tried listening to it at 1.25% speed. Better! But not good enough. Eventually I realized that 1.75% speed was the butter zone and I could listen to it fine.

Danny Trejo is mesmerizing. He spent the first 30 years of his life doing hard-time in the some of the toughest prisons. He doesn't sugar coat what he did and describes his upbringing in an unblinking, bold way. He was seriously addicted to drugs and committing seriously vicious crimes. While he looks back on those times and laughs about a lot of it, he doesn't really overly glorify it. Probably because what he's most known for now (other than being an actor) is his sobriety. Around the age of 30 he found religion and rehab and became an evangelist for the sobriety movement. He speaks passionately about the importance of rehab and sobriety while dutifully detailing his rise as an actor and his sordid and scandalous personal/family life. My criticism of the book is there are times where you can tell he's taking shots at people- most notably his numerous ex-wives, which left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. And there's also a weird feeling I got from listening to him discuss helping set up numerous rehab and sobriety centers, where I felt like it might have all been a hustle. I'm not going to accuse him of any wrongdoing or greedy motivations related to his participation in that, but something just didn't strike me right. All of that said, I thought this was a fascinating, if flawed, recount of a fully-lived life.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jan 10, 2022 6:27 pm

We gave Aidan The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home for Christmas. I may have to borrow it now.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jan 10, 2022 6:36 pm

The Memory Theater -- Karin Tidbeck
What a magical way to kick off the year! It is a fairy tale(? or at least is wearing a convincing fairy tale suit) about two children who want to escape from a magical garden where cruel Lords and Ladies live the same "perfect" night on repeat.

It's lovely. It's really really lovely. But it is not a happy fairy tale. If they made it into a movie or six-episode Netflix series, it might get itself labeled as horror. Maybe.

And I don't want to give away anything about it, because there are themes to uncover and unpack and it was just very very satisfying.

I'm so happy to have found this book.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Fri Feb 04, 2022 12:46 pm

Project Hail Mary- Andy Weir. I never read The Martian, but I know a lot of people like it and I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I read his second novel, Artemis, about a heist on a moon colony. While I thought it was okay, I remember being dissatisfied with it because it seemed like it was clearly being written to be optioned as a movie. Now with his third movie- er- novel, Weir is going back to a plot that is very similar to the Martian. Our hero wakes up on a spaceship in an unknown solar system. He has no memory of who he is, why he's there or what he's supposed to do. The other two astronauts in the ship with him clearly died in the long-term sleep during their travel. Over the course of the novel, he slowly gets his memories back and understands that he's on a longshot mission to save humanity and the planet earth. It's very Martian-esque: a lone astronaut is on his own to figure out how to solve his mission gone-wrong. For reasons I don't want to go into because it's too spoilery, this book has some pretty interesting and compelling twists that I enjoyed. Also, the entire book is written (annoyingly in the first person) like a person that's brainstorming and constantly trying to figure out an increasingly complex math problem. While that may sound terrible to a lot of people, I actually enjoyed that aspect it quite a bit. The big drawback to me was that our main character (who is clearly just a stand in for the author) is just annoying. He's smart, smug, but insecure. He's irritatingly candid when dealing with powerful people (in his memories) in ways that took me out of the book and say, "Come on, dude. No one speaks like that." I just didn't like the main character, and that's a real issue because... you know... it's a first person narrative about a person many light years from earth and alone. Even still, I like it. It was interesting, the science was super interesting, and it was extremely well thought out. So even with all the flaws, I still recommend it.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Feb 04, 2022 1:31 pm

I didn't realize this was from the Martian guy. I have it on my list already. Elijah is reading The Martian right now, so I may make that my next one.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Fri Feb 04, 2022 1:37 pm

I liked The Martian and was considering getting Project Hail Mary. Thanks for the review.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:59 pm

Just a note- not adding it to the list or anything. I got two and a half hours into Amy Klobuchar's Antitrust- a history of antitrust litigation. Even though it sings to my socialist soul, it was just too boring for me and I couldn't imagine finishing out the last 12 hours. So I quit.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:30 pm

The Absolute Book -- Elizabeth Knox
This was a huge and ambitious book. A fantasy novel unlike anything I've read before. Just really good. Much of it had me on the edge of my seat, although there was a chunk about 60-70% of the way through that bogged down a bit for me, but it is easily forgiven because the world building is phenomenal.

It starts in London, but it's got fairies and demons and shit and it's done very very well. Recommend.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Feb 11, 2022 10:29 pm

Maus.

Probably should make a habit of reading it every decade or so.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Feb 14, 2022 7:55 pm

One Last Stop -- Casey McQuiston
When this popped up as available from my local library, I was at first baffled as to why I would have put a hold on a lesbian romance novel. Even 15% of the way in, I was enjoying it, but couldn't figure out why I'd requested it. But then it revealed itself and I remembered: I had pulled it from a "best of 2021" list and it is actually a SCI-FI lesbian romance novel. Or more correctly, it is a full-on, very graphic romance that just happens to hang a big chunk of its plot on a sci-fi hook. Okay, I can keep rolling with that.

This is an upbeat, feel-good book filled with an array of quirky and lovable characters populating an idyllic queer community in New York City. The story focuses on a pair of star-crossed lovers who ultimately feel they can't be together for mystery sci-fi reasons.

And it was fun. The sci-fi mystery had me hooked, and I'm a sucker for the will-they-or-wont-they butterflies of a potential new relationship. The only parts I didn't like were the sex scenes. Somewhere in the middle of the book, we lingered for six pages or so around their first kiss (finally), and I was okay with that. But the other, much more graphic scenes were really just a distraction. But I also understand that I am REALLY not the target demographic here, so I'm not hurt if no one cares about my opinion on that part. It's just that this story was really well-plotted and well-written. The author wasted nothing. Everything counted. Everything was justified. Everything paid off. I was really impressed. The only thing that didn't directly move the plot forward was the sex. I was glad they got together, but after the first page of each sex scene, I was like, "okay, I get it... they're fucking... how quick can we get back to solving that mystery? C'mon already!" Again, not written for me.

But it's definitely a recommend from me.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:13 am

I have a couple book reports to post today, but you know what drops today?????

MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING! The sequel to Black Leopard, Red Wolf! I'm so excited!

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Feb 15, 2022 9:56 am

Midwinterblood- Marcus Sedgwick. This book was billed to me as a series of thematically connected short stories that take place in the same location over different times. While this is technically true, this isn't a short story collection- it's a novel, and it's great. There are seven stories that take place on a vaguely Scandinavian island that has mysterious properties. It is clearly very influenced by Norse history and mythology. The first story takes place in the near future, the second in the present, and each story after that goes back further in time. The mystery of the island is unraveled in reverse through the stories. That's about all I can say about it without giving anything away. Very beautifully written and highly recommended.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Feb 15, 2022 10:06 am

Remote Control- Nnedi Okorafor. Wowza. What a beautiful novella this is. Premise: In a near-future world, at the age of seven, a Ghanaian girl discovers she has the power to kill people by sheer willpower. She is the adopted daughter of death and no harm can come to her. Technology eschews her- whenever she touches anything electronic (like modern cars or phones) they stop working. So she walks from village to village, getting food and shelter where she can find it. As she does, her legend grows and people come to fear and/or worship her. As you can imagine, it's told almost like it's a parable or folktale. What the story is really about is the power and oppression of women. No matter where she goes, the different institutions- whether they be Islam, cultural norms, authority- all try to control her. They try to convince her (and she tries to convince herself) to deny her true power. An interesting aside- ALL the female characters, except the protagonist, are highly educated women: doctors, physicists, engineers, robotics expert. And all the men are traditional, more simple characters- laborers, brutes, scoundrels. This story is so wonderfully and carefully told, it's really a delight. My only regret is that I wish I knew more Ghanian culture or history, because I felt like there were a lot of characters/scenes that are more meaningful if I did (in particular there are "three wise farmers" who played a small role, or her fox travelling companion). But that's on me, not the author. Very highly recommended.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:01 am

Moon Witch Spider King- Marlon James. This is the sequel to Red Wolf Black Leopard, which James published a few years ago. I loved the first book and I loved this book even more. Marlon James has said that he envisioned these books (a planned trilogy) as "African Game of Thrones." But I that's not how I see it- it's more an African-centric Lord of the Rings. The first book told the story of Tracker and Leopard as they joined a group of fantastical companions to travel and find an important boy that had been kidnapped. It's set in a high fantasy world based on African mythology and history. Shapeshifters, giants, monsters, magic. It's all there but from a perspective we don't read in typical Western literature that has been smothered by Tolkien's vision. Where the first book told the story of Tracker in a non-linear and sometimes confusing fashion, this story focusses on the Moon Witch (part of the group looking for the child) and tells her story and her version of the story in the first book. It's an interesting way to reframe the "facts" we thought we knew because the story is completely different from a different character's perspective. This novel is also told in a linear fashion, so not only is it easier to track events as they unfold, but it makes it easier to recontextualize the events from the first book. James is a master story teller and beautiful writer. I'm fairly confident that this will be my favorite book of the year. I absolutely loved it. So much that I'm going to take a break with a short pulpy novel and then go back and relisten to the first book. Very high recommend.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed Mar 16, 2022 1:17 pm

The Shining Girls- Lauren Beukes. I read the Washington Post every morning and, once every few weeks, they have an article that is co-written by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, who wrote a great gothic horror novel called Mexican Gothic. In her article she recommends certain books in different genres. The most recent article was, "Hey, you like mind-bending thrillers like Philip K Dick? Read these!" I generally like her reviews so I got many of these books (including a compilation of some of Philip K Dick's works). One of her recommendations was for The Shining Girls, which caught my attention for two reasons: (1) it's going to be released as a series on Apple+ next month starring Elizabeth Moss; and (2) it's about a time traveling serial killer. Perfect. I'm in.

So let me start by saying that this book was a huge disappointment because it was one of those books that, as you're reading it, you can tell that the author wrote it with the intention that it would be made into a movie or TV show. The tell-tale signs of these kinds of books are: (1) an ingenious plot device that can be boiled down into an easily digestible elevator pitch (in this case: time traveling serial killer); (2) fast action that leaves me thinking that the author is rushing through things instead of letting the characters breathe; and (3) two-dimensional characters that will translate into easily identifiable stereotypes when the project gets translated for the screen. The book checked off all three. The idea is brilliant and I loved it (although is it really that different from a time traveling Jack the Ripper?). And the concept and mechanism behind how the killer travels through time is simple, smart and very effective. But here's the issue: these characters suck. Everyone is a paper-thin example of a hollow stereotype: the hippie; the jaded reporter; the sexually-obsessed killer, the homeless black crack addict (seriously). Even the main character trying to solve the mystery of who the serial killer that almost killed her was, is just a two-dimensional vision of what the author thinks a 90s riot grrl was. No one has depth. Which sucks. Because it's actually quite well-written. But it seems obvious to me that, instead of taking her time to do justice by her characters, the author made them into something that she could sell easily to a production studio. That being said, I think this will make an awesome TV show, so even though I've read the book (and didn't like it), I plan on watching the series with my wife. My suggestion- skip the book and watch the show. Hopefully it's better.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Mar 16, 2022 8:13 pm

The Actual Star -- Monica Byrne
Epic. Powerful. Wonderful.

It is a story from a distinctly Mayan viewpoint, written by a woman who has seriously done her research. It is three separate but connected stories. The first is set in 1012, during the decline of the Mayan's city and monument building culture. The second is about a teenage girl in Minnesota in 2012, exploring her Mayan/Belizian heritage. The third is a religion-based technological utopia in 3012, built upon the aspects of the other two tales. And in the audio book, there are three different readers for the three different stories. It's incredibly effective.

This book is ambitious as hell, and it delivers on its promise. I genuinely gave a shit about all three stories and about the main characters in all of them. The narrative is full of tension and mystery, and I was hooked, beginning to end. I was surprised that it all came together to form a conclusion I found satisfying.

I picked this one specifically because the Maya are a culture I know little about, so I wanted to discover something new. I was not disappointed.

Also: I felt like the book never insulted the intelligence of the reader. There is a lot of Spanish that the author doesn't bother to translate. Lots of things that seem like they would be incredibly significant to a stranger in this world (especially in 1012 or 3012), but it is taken for granted by the characters and so is not revealed to us until it becomes important. I worried in the first couple chapters that I would end up being confused throughout, but decided to trust the author, and sure enough, all becomes clear eventually. So good.

A warning that there are parts that may be interpreted as romanticizing cutting. The author I believe gives that same warning (among others) herself in the preface, as well as giving some fascinating insights into her struggle for historical accuracy regarding a culture whose own written records have been almost entirely erased from history.

This is a book that will stick with me.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Mar 19, 2022 9:00 pm

The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century -- Olga Ravn
Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken

A novella (two and a half hours). The story unfolds as a series of interviews with the employees of the Six Thousand Ship after their mission has started to go awry, due to the strange effects of alien artifacts on the human and android crew.

In the audiobook, the reader does not use voices. So while we hear from probably a couple dozen crew members (or more), there is nothing to distinguish them except for the context of their own statements, which is how the book would have read, so even though it was confusing and disorienting at times, I appreciated that as the intended effect.

The story is extremely compelling. Right up to and including the ending, I was left wanting more. I would love to have a conversation with someone else who has read it.

The thing that baffles me is that blurbs and reviews for it keep calling it funny. I don't see it. I liked it, but I didn't find it funny.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Mon Mar 21, 2022 1:51 pm

I finally read a new book! I recently have been going to the library and looking at the new releases. All but once, nothing really hit me as something I'd want to read, or take a day reading or whatever. But then came across...

I like Bob! I like Mr. Show, and the man down by the river, and his appearances and cameos and production work and such. Read it -- pretty good! Especially if you care about these things. This is mostly about what the title says it is, very little about his personal life, mostly about his comedy work parts 1 2 and 3 and his successful transition to dramatic acting.

What's missing? Even though released in 2022, he finished writing in January 2021, so we don't get two stories. One, nothing on Jay Johnston, a Mr. Show cast member who no one talks about anymore and hasn't been seen in over a year, since a person who looks a lot like him attended the insurrection at the Capitol. But since no one talks about him anyways, maybe on advisement from lawyers, the memoir may have shed no light on this guy. What he does say about Jay is nice things at times, but he is no way a major character in this. But reminds me of that General that had an affair with this biographer. They released a book about his life and didn't include the juiciest part, that they were boning! That's just bad writing.

The other thing missing was his heart attack in July. Again, he finished writing before hand, but surprised they weren't like, can you give us another 3 pages or so to address this, maybe an epilogue? No? Ok, fine.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Mar 22, 2022 10:45 am

Paula Broadwell is that journalist who was having the affair, and she's very interesting to me as a complicated sort of seriously flawed person. She was an accomplished rising star in her area when all this went down, and had overcome a lot of barriers and bias against women to get there. She calls herself a feminist and has or had an organization working against media bias. The things she says about how we should educate younger people to prevent bias and in still pride in the right kinds of accomplishments, and how the media should stop skewing presentation of female candidates and public figures, stop using gender biased language like the word mistress and so forth, make perfect sense and are very timely and needed.

At the same time, she's a woman who got where she is precisely by stepping on other women without ever taking (as far as I know) public responsibility for that. She has spoken to interviewers about her own unfair treatment and gaslighting relative to David Petraeus, who retained prestigious university positions and has emerged as a go-to media figure for comment on Afghanistan and Ukraine and all sorts of things. On the other hand, she was never accomplished professionally on anything remotely close to his level, so of course there's not going to be parity in their treatment now as professionals. Of course he's still going to be lecturing at Harvard even if she's not, so it's weird for her to be dismayed about it. They both did wrong relative to sharing information they shouldn't have, yes, but the reason it came to light is because she triggered an FBI investigation by allegedly sending threatening and disparaging emails about a woman she perceived as her rival to both that woman and to US Generals (!) - because supposedly this woman was violating her territory, a man who was married to someone else in the first place.

If anyone has been done dirty by the media, it's Petraeus's wife to whom he is still married. She has her own Wikipedia page because she is an accomplished professional in her own right - far more accomplished than Broadwell, for instance, and having made her own name for herself through her independent work, as opposed to building it on her man's accomplishments. Yet she is reduced to first name only and even introduced on Petraeus's wikipedia as the daughter of her prominent father, rather than as somebody who headed up an agency and has testified multiple times to Congress, etc. We don't see her discussing any of this in public. Nor will we hear Broadwell discussing the impact she caused on this woman and her kids, but she will eagerly tell the public about how the stresses of having two young children and a dual career household caused her to have the affair, as if this is just an understandable development that happens in such situations. Dude, who among us has not dealt with such problems, regardless of gender?!

She also blames other journalists for being "jealous of her access" even though she built that access by meeting her research subject in an academic setting and then developing a personal relationship! Your fellow journalists are not jealous of this - they correctly see it as a breach of professional ethics and exactly the wrong way to earn respect as a legit journalist. Yet she also has prominent defenders in national leadership, who probably are in a position to know more about her situation. There are some life lessons to be had from the situation and I certainly take them to heart.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Mar 22, 2022 10:54 am

Phoebe wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 10:45 am Paula Broadwell is that journalist who was having the affair...

Are you talking about a book? I don't understand why this was posted here.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:00 am

I brought it up!

Plus it's about a book. Wikipedia is a book, right? Who lives who dies who tells your story...

This would make a good book, or a juicy miniseries.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:06 am

poorpete wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:00 am I brought it up!

Plus it's about a book. Wikipedia is a book, right? Who lives who dies who tells your story...

This would make a good book, or a juicy miniseries.

Aha! Okay, that makes sense, and my apologies. I read your posts at different times and didn't put it together. Thus my confusion.

Carry on!

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:52 pm

Ah yes, she wrote the biography of Petraeus that came up a while ago, "All In".

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:30 pm

The Collected Works of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale- Philip K. Dick. This is a collection of 24 stories and novellas by Philip K. Dick. So instead of waiting until I'm done, I want to edit this post and post up as I finish each of the stories, and rank those as I go with a little one or two sentence synopsis. Go to the end of this post for my thoughts on the book as a whole.

Story Ranks:
Faith of Our Fathers
The Little Black Box
Retreat Syndrome
We Can Remember it for You Wholesale
The Electric Ant
A Little Something for Us Tempunauts
A Game of Unchance
Not by Its Cover
Holy Quarrel
Return Match
The Alien Mind
The War With the Fnools
The Story to End All Stories for Harlen Ellison's Anthology "Dangerous Visions"
Precious Artifact
Cadbury, The Beaver Who Lacked
Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday
The Exit Door Leads In
The Eye of the Sybil
Chains of Air, Web of Aether
Strange Memories of Death
The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out of Its Tree
Rautavaara's Case
A Terran Odyssey
The Pre-Persons

Story Summaries:
The Little Black Box- A cool introspective, philosophical look at both the pervasive appeal and hollow substance behind Christianity. I read that Dick was a fervid atheist (don't know if it's true), but this wasn't hostile to Christianity as much as it was plainly demonstrating the logical limitations of it. Very compellingly told.

The War With the Fnools- This was a farcical look at the military's inept response to an alien invasion perpetrated by aliens nearly as inept as the military. While it was funny, there wasn't much substance to it.

A Game of Unchance- This was a charming short story about a community of yokel humans on a farm colony on Mars who try to outcon a spacefaring travelling carnival. Silly but fun.

Precious Artifact- A story about a man from Mars returns to earth after a war with aliens and tries to figure out if it's actually Earth, or a hologram by aliens to fool him into thinking the humans won. Kind of dumb and predictable.

Retreat Syndrome- A cool mind-twist story about a man trying to figure out if the world is real, or if he's in a prison and part of a simulation. Great ending.

A Terran Odyssey- Ugh. What a slog. Ostensibly an examination of post-nuclear war life without most of our technology and rebuilt society. But it just meanders all over the place from one character to the next with no real purpose. So boring and pointless.

Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday- A half-baked story about people that experience time in reverse. Except that they don't really because it's not well thought out. A good idea that was poorly executed.

Holy Quarrel- An interesting examination of the creation of artificial intelligence (is it life?) and how that intersects with faith and fate. Fun story, but with a disappointing end.

We Can Remember it for You Wholesale- The basis for Total Recall. Surprisingly, the lead character never goes to Mars in this story and it's far shorter than I expected. However, it was a great mind twist, like the movie. But I was disappointed there wasn't just... more... to it. I actually think this question of "what is reality and what is fantasy" was done better in Retreat Syndrome.

Not by Its Cover- A crazy and funny examination of religion and the afterlife. But was one of those stories where it's just a bunch of dudes sitting around trying to figure something weird out. I enjoyed this, and it's interesting how hung up on religion Dick was.

Return Match- A weird but entertaining story about a killer pinball machine. Fun, but super dumb.

Faith of Our Fathers- Holy shit. What starts out as a commie-paranoia examination of who you should believe in an authoritarian regime (not an unusual theme for Dick) quickly turns into a nihilistic Lovecraftian exercise in dread and hopelessness. So great.

The Story to End All Stories for Harlan Ellison's Anthology "Dangerous Visions"- A smug, pretentious super short story. Maybe two sentences long. I like to think he submitted this as a fuck you to Harlan Ellison.

The Electric Ant- A compelling story about a man that discovers he is an android and experiments with the perception of reality. Cool story.

Cadbury, The Beaver Who Lacked- A fable told in the style of Mr. Toad’s adventures. But it’s about a beleaguered, hardheaded, hard-working beaver who struggles with how to keep up with the expectations of the women in his lives. Both sexist and critical of toxic masculinity. But mostly stupid. Didn’t work for me.

A Little Something for Us Tempunauts- While I originally didn't like this time loop story because I thought it wasn't thought through enough, I came to realize that it's actually a meditation on crushing depression. It was actually quite moving.

The Pre-Persons- Awful and offensive. In the future women- who are creatures who are selfish, vapid and overly-materialistic- have shaped society to permit "post partum" abortions. In other words, women can decide to kill their children up until 12 if "they just don't want them." This is really a sexist screed about two things: (1) how abortion (as we know it today) is evil and should never be permitted; and (2) how many are "trapped" by women into being nothing but emasculated checkbooks. It was a tough listen and just hateful and terrible. It really made me question if I should continue reading his work.

The Eye of the Sybil- Dumb story about a guy seeing into the future with weird overtones about how Christ is so misunderstood and everything in modern times (the 1970s) is miserable. Aggressively hostile to modernity. Not enjoyable.

The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out of Its Tree- Wow. They're just packing all the bad shit right here towards the middle end, aren't they? This is a story about a disaffected guy (his name is Joe Contemptable-- JC... get it? Get it?) in an automated world where the computer that controls everything goes haywire. A human goddess of immense beauty (she's really described only in terms of a sex object) is woken up to fix the computer because she's so smart. She decides that she will fix the computer if she can live in eternity with JC. A dumb male fantasy with no real point.

The Exit Door Leads In- This was a weird philosophical story about how society should value individual reason versus blind conformity. Not much story to it and seemed like an excuse for Dick to lecture.

Chains of Air, Web of Aether- An interesting story that I thought was actually going to be meaningful, but ends up just being soulless and kind of hateful. It's about an isolated colonizer's relationship with a woman who he thinks has a terminal disease. Disappointing.

Strange Memories of Death- This is a story that wants us to question our reality from our perception of reality, and does it by a neighbor who's trying to figure out how to help (or not help) a mentally ill woman about to get evicted. But the story never amounts to anything and isn't as profound as I think Dick intended.

Rautavaara's Case- Geez. This was bad. A deconstruction of Christiantity from an alien perspective. But so poorly carried out. Again, not much story. It's weird to me that they were ending this anthology on the worst stories.

The Alien Mind- This was another one of Dick's cool stories about what constitutes reality. This one from the perspective of a person who's brain is awake for 10 years while his body in cryogenic sleep and the computer is trying to keep him sane for the trip.

My overall thoughts
A couple of years ago Pdyx and I read Ubik (which is great) and I talked about wanting to read one of these anthologies. He warned me, "You have to read him in doses. Reading too much of him at once is suffocating." He was right. I think one of the main reasons I thought the stories at the end were horrible were because I was getting tired of the self-centered narcissisms. Many of Dick's ideas are brilliant, but all of his characters lack any sense of empathy. Nearly all the stories are from the perspective of an individual man, and that man's thoughts, actions and focus are all centered around him: his feelings, injustices against him, his needs. With few exceptions, the character never feels humanity or emotion for the people or things around him. And almost all of the main characters are basically interchangeable with any of the others. It's not surprising to me that my favorite stories were the ones where Dick got away from this (but not by much). And the sexism is just awful. There's not a fully realized female character in any of these stories. So it's hard to balance what I thought of how brilliant some of the ideas were with these parts of his writing that were just unappealing, if not repugnant. So it goes towards the bottom of the middle of the pack.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:57 pm

The Martian -- Andy Weir
I've never seen the movie. The book was amazing. Gripping. I finished it in three days, because for the first time, I intentionally made time to listen rather than just listening while driving or cooking or whatever

The first few chapters are, hands down, the most exciting math I have ever read.

It's hard science fiction in a way that make me simply accept all the science as basic fact. Weir did his research, and any flaws in in the technical details are beyond my ability to question.

Loved it.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Apr 04, 2022 5:50 pm

The Second Shooter- Nick Mamatas. This book made no sense to me. I'm going to explain why, but it's going to involve spoilers. So if you don't want this book spoiled, stop reading now. Okay, so with that out of the way, let me set the premise for the book. A journalist/author is researching a book he's writing for a pulpy publisher about people obsessed with second shooter conspiracy theories. As he travels the country and talks to different people, he finds himself involved in an increasingly complicated set of tragedies which seem like he's the victim at the center of a conspiracy. The problem for me was that I never understood the characters' motivations, why they didn't just go to the cops, or why the bad people were doing bad things. The main character gets kidnapped and I can't figure out why. His life is threatened on national tv (on the internet watched by millions of people by a stand-in villain for Alex Jones) and there are no consequences- and it made no sense to me. Bad guys do terrible things for indiscernible reasons and good people do bad things for equally obscure reasons. And it just gets more complicated and confusing. And then in the end- and here's the spoilers- it's revealed that a cult was using black magic to manipulate reality. There is nothing to presage this turn of events and it is literally revealed for the first time in the last 10% of the book. It seemed like a cheap betrayal of the reader, but maybe that's just me. Or maybe I missed some bigger message. Either way, I just didn't care for this book.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Apr 05, 2022 9:16 pm

Accidental Nazi -- Ward Wagher
Heinrich Schloss is a history professor in 1984 West Berlin. While at the airport, he suddenly finds himself in 1941 in a Nazi uniform watching as the Fuhrer's plane crashes into the tarmac, killing Hitler. Schloss discovers he is a highly placed Nazi official. Using his knowledge of the future, can he guide Germany to a successful future, while keeping the government from imploding, and most importantly, avoiding the Holocaust?

Great premise! And holy crap, Wagher has done his homework. He gets the historical details right (as far as I can tell) and his alternate history machinations and repercussions feel real. The big picture here is pretty solid, but the book falls down on the interpersonal narrative.

Let me interject here to say that this is the first time I've heard a bad reading in an audiobook. Like right from word one, the studio background hum indicated problems. And I don't want to knock this guy, because he clearly wasn't a professional reader. From what I now know, he's probably a friend of the author who was willing to donate several days to the recording of this 12 hour book. It's the publisher's fault for not checking his work. This is a novel set 100% in Germany, and I have enough high school German to recognize multiple mispronunciations. He isn't an actor, so there's no change of inflection even during heated Nazi screaming matches.

It was difficult. I had to work really hard to judge the work separate from the presentation, so it was quite a while before I figured out the dialogue is truly terrible throughout. Dialogue was either to clumsily present inner thoughts, or it was just banal and pointless. I finally stopped trying to decipher subtext and/or hidden meanings, because there just weren't any. Everyone spoke exactly what they thought, and there was always a clear delineation between good guys and bad guys. And good guys were consistently loyal, uniformly competent, and never had any interpersonal conflict or major disagreements amongst themselves. It was dull.

Then there's the framing device [SPOILERS]: 500 years in the future, a brilliant but careless scientist unleashes an experiment that ripples through the multiverse, knocking millions of individuals from their own worlds into alternate realms. That's the setup, but it is meaningless, because it has zero effect on the rest of the book. We get that explanation, and then the rest of the book is about Schloss in 1940's alternate Germany. We get hints that his housekeeper, Frau Marsden, is also from an alternate future, but it's not until the very end of the book that Marsden, who has been portrayed as preternaturally wise throughout finally reveals the truth to him and let's him know that he is here because God willed it.

Did I mention that Wagher is an author of Christian Science Fiction? I'm not holding that against him--the stated principle of the genre are noble and less constrictive than I would have imagined--but I definitely feel that the execution here was clumsy and felt fake.

Did I also mention this was book 1 of a trilogy? And according to their blurbs, they will continue to follow Schloss as his new world veers farther and farther from the world he came from. I won't be checking them out.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:50 pm

The Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy- Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. This is actually three novellas: Gwendy's Button Box (by King and Chizmar); Gwendy's Magic Feather (by just Chizmar); and Gwendy's Final Task (by both again). The first is set in the 70s when Gwendy, our protagonist, is 12 and given a magic button box. It has magical characteristics, but most importantly, it has buttons on it that, if pressed, cause global calamities. At the end of the first book, Gwendy loses the box. The second novella is in the late 90s when Gwendy is a House representative and the box comes back to her. By the end she loses it again. The third is when Gwendy is 64- in the near future and... well this one goes totally bananas off the rails, and I don't want to spoil it. I liked these books, but very much regret having read them back to back. I actually wish I'd read three or four things between each one because, read contiguously, it all seems absurd-- which it's supposed to! It's a magic button box after all-- but it was a little too much back to back to back. Even taking that into consideration, this is still an interesting examination of what people do with power an responsibility. It's also particularly cool to get to the final novella (even though it's my least favorite) and seeing a 64 year old woman as the protagonist. Why don't we have more books like that? Interestingly, my favorite is the second book that was written just by Chizmar. It was a tight, well told story and I appreciated his excellent writing. I adore Stephen King, but you can see his influence in the first and third story with those over-the-top villains who are basically just cartoon versions of actual people. Still, I recommend all of these, and I'm sure I would have ranked this four or five spots higher if I'd taken a break between each one- they weren't meant to be read that way- but that's on me.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Apr 19, 2022 12:50 pm

Charles Yu is an incredible author. Incredible. Everything he writes is a metaphor, but it's a metaphor that he clubs you over the head with. It's relentless, and it goes on so long you forget the metaphor... until suddenly a new possibility of meaning exposes itself. Jesus, he's so good at this. Everything is either slightly or extremely surrealist, but in a relatable way that tears your heart out. I can't even describe it. None of his stuff is overly long yet. Try it. You'll know after one whether Yu is for you or not.

I stumbled across a short story/novella of his and was so taken that I immediately went out and read his most acclaimed/award winning book, and then I was so in love with THAT that I bought another book of his that same day and powered my way through that one in just a couple days. It's that good.

The Only Living Girl on Earth
This one's the novella. On a post-environmental-catastrophe Earth, there is only one living girl left, just doing her job. And this one goes off the rails, and for me it is the least cohesive of the three works of his I've read, and yet, it was so hypnotic that I couldn't leave his world and instantly wanted more.

How to Survive in a Science Fictional Universe
This is his highly acclaimed, award winning novel. Our hero is a time machine repairman on a journey in his own time machine into himself and his past as he tries to teach himself how to survive through the book How to Survive in a Science Fictional Universe which is also the book you are reading. The metaphor is deep and cyclical then reality is broken. Then it is broken again. Like so much of what Yu writes, none of it is subtle, and yet it is also not obvious either. This one is a philosophical headtrip, and I was in for the ride 100%.

Interior Chinatown
The best so far. Hollywood set? Real life? Actors, plot... reality and fiction are muddled as our protagonist Generic Asian Man aspires to become something more. Yu, the child of Taiwanese immigrants (I'm guessing, based on the clues in both books), uses the Hollywood set of Interior Chinatown to explore the role of Asians in America. Generic Asian Man is an amazing relatable protagonist, and I rooted for him so goddam hard.

I'm not giving any more detail than these, and even then, I worry it's too much. I found these books out of some recommendation algorithm and went into them cold. And I love them. I desperately want to read everything Yu has ever written... he's relatively new, so there's not a ton more... but I'm forcing myself to step away from him for a moment and let all this mellow.

He's so good.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:31 pm

Okay, without reading your review of any of his books, I saw that my library has Interior Chinatown- so I'm downloading that and will read it next week.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:10 pm

You will not be sorry.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sun Apr 24, 2022 4:26 pm

The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe- Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry. One of the problems that I have with medieval histories is that I get all excited to read them, and then as I get into them, I remember that I know all this stuff. I've read a bunch of them. And I took two medieval history courses in college towards my history minor. I'm not saying that most people interested in this wouldn't enjoy this book- I think they would: it's well written, well thought out, and written on a layman's level without being patronizing. But for me personally, I just didn't learn much. They started talking about the rise of the Vikings and I thought, "Oh right. I read a book on the rise of the Vikings." The rise of the Normans? Yup, read one of those too. So look, I can heartily recommend this book- but for me it didn't work- but that's solely because of me. If you think you'd like this, then this is the book to read.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sun Apr 24, 2022 4:36 pm

Interior Chinatown- Charles Yu- Holy shit. Everything Mike said. This was a beautiful and surrealistic journey about an Asian man's struggle to figure out his role in the world (and please note that I use the term "Asian Man" intentionally- if you know, you know). I debated putting this at the top of my list, but for now I'll put it at second and let it simmer with me for a while. My favorite book last year was Severance by Ling Ma- another surrealistic examination of identity for Asian Americans who feel like they don't belong in any accepted world. While weird and highly experimental, this book is so exquisitely and intentionally written. Every word and metaphor is there for a specific reason. It's brilliant. I loved it. Thanks, Mike.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Fri Apr 29, 2022 1:10 pm

The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington- Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. This is a historical retelling of a conspiracy at the beginning of the American Revolution where the royal loyalist governor of New York set in place a scheme to bribe continental soldiers, including some of Washington's personal guards, to flip sides when the war started. It's an interesting conspiracy, but the book really suffers from the fact that there's just not enough story to tell here. The authors insist (and I understand why) on only reciting facts from actual sources and documents. Which is fine, but that's only enough material to fill out 40% of this book. Hell, the first half of the book isn't even about the titular conspiracy, but rather is "setting up the context" in which the conspiracy takes place. Which means you're just hearing a bunch of uninteresting history (which I already knew) about the state of the colonies just prior to the civil war. And once the conspiracy does get started, the book has to pad out its material by repeating information two or three times in different contexts. For example, they'll reveal the overheard conversation of a conspirator in the Continental jail. It will give all the details. Then the next chapter will have the person who overheard it be "examined" by officials, at which point he'll repeat the same information. Then it will skip a few chapters and do a pointless chapter that says, "Imagine what must have been going through Washington's mind while he's at camp with these soldiers and he learns..." and then it repeats the details a third time. It was extremely tedious. My other main problem with the book is the hero worship of the founding fathers. Washington is portrayed as the next incarnation of Christ who does not wrong (while still describing all the wrong moves he made in the war). At one point the authors actually posit that John Jay, who was in charge of the continental committee investigating the conspiracy, actually created "the practice of counter intelligence from scratch." As though this truly was the first conspiracy in history (excuse me, Julius Caesar would like a word). Much less the ignorant view that through the thousands and thousands of years of human civilization and spycraft, no one ever thought about counter intelligence before. This book just wasn't for me. Can't recommend.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue May 03, 2022 7:52 am

No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality- Michael J Fox. His third biography, I enjoyed this short, contemplative book. At 58, having lived with his Parkinson's diagnosis for 30 years, Fox details the physical and mental struggles that have presented themselves late in his life. Obviously he has complications with Parkinson's. Unrelated, a giant tumor was discovered on his spinal cord. And due to complications from both, he fell and suffered a very severe spiral fracture to one of his arms. But Fox is proudly an optimist, and not just a superficial "keep your chin up" kind. He really delves deep into his fears, anger and frustration that arose from these physical challenges, and then- in just as fine detail- described how he processed and adapted to his new physical world. It's also a story about a person figuring out what it means to get older and what we can live in that time, instead of just suffering through. It was very smart and funny. High recommend.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sun May 08, 2022 12:22 pm

Annihilation- Jeff VanderMeer. What a rollercoaster ride this book took me on. I went from hating it to loving it. Premise: Area X has weird things going on in it, located in coastal Carolina (I think). The government is sending in their twelfth team to investigate. The team cannot use their names (they are just the Psychologist, the Biologist, the Anthropologist and the Surveyor) and can only take antiquated technology with them- nothing electronic. Within the "affected zone" of Area X, weird, weird, weird stuff starts to happen. If you've seen the movie (which I had- and you should too because it's freaking amazing), you'll know the weirdness I'm talking about. But where the movie was more of a straight-forward movie exploring the weirdness and the nature of existence, this book was different. At first I hated the main character's voice- the Biologist who is writing the journal that comprises the entire book. I kept thinking, "Holy shit! She's an automaton. When can I get real emotion and insight out of this!" Quickly, though, you come to realize that the entire book is a metaphor for the dissolution (and "annihilation") of the Biologist's marriage. While the team gets sucked into this surreal fever dream of Area X, the metaphor becomes stronger and stronger until it consumes the whole story. So well done. So smartly written. Loved it. Read it.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed May 11, 2022 10:35 am

Out of the Corner- Jennifer Grey. What a fascinating memoir. Honestly, I might be off them for a while. After Michael J Fox and this, I'm kind of spent. As opposed to the Fox book, this one is more of the "tell all" variety of memoir that people are accustomed to. Does she talk about the nose job? Hells to the yeah. Does she talk about filming Dirty Dancing. Even more so and it's great. Does she talk about the fatal car wreck? Absolutely. But this book is more than that. Grey starts with her birth and takes us all the way up to modern day, mostly finishing with her recent stint on Dancing With the Stars (still never seen it). She talks at length about her famous dad (Oscar winning actor Joel Grey), talks trash about her relationships with Matthew Broderick, Johnny Depp and has some great shit talk about Sean Penn (a total shit heel). She talks about her friendships with Tracey Pollen (actor and Michael Fox's wife), Madonna and her the actor that played Janice on Friends. What I found fascinating, however, is also what I found off-putting. Grey is extremely smart and gives in-depth detail to the various aspects of her life. But she's also been raised in a life of privilege, which she acknowledges. And don't get me wrong, she understands that and examines that as well. But that privilege also comes with blinders. It's weird because she describes all these examples in her life where bad things happen, or she was traumatized by various events and/or people. And while she always says, "This was on me," she also spends 30 times more words describing how she "can't believe others let this happen to me." And she's right, it's weird that she was left out alone in bad situations by people that shouldn't have done that, but it really takes away from the personal responsibility when it's discussed so often and in so much detail. I don't know that I really hold it against her because I think we all have our blinders from the way we were raised. We all take things for granted and can't really help it. But it was a weird juxtaposition for me. All the same if you want a sometimes classy, sometimes trashy memoir- this was pretty satisfying.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue May 17, 2022 4:06 pm

12 Nights at Rotter House- J.W. Ocker. One of the reasons I stopped reading so much horror is because it gets stale. Ghost stories. Monsters. Possession. Whatever. I need a fresh spin on it to be interesting to me. So it's great when I happen to unexpectedly find that in this "Haunted House" novel- a book I thought was going to be another run-of-the-mill grist-filled novel. What I got, however, was a very smart deconstruction of the haunted house genre. Ocker's protagonist is a haunted house genre writer who is going to spend two weeks in the haunted Rotter House for his next book. Foreboding is that the book the author is going to write is "13 Nights at Rotter House." Hmmmm! In the story that follows, the author both pays a loving homage to ghost stories and movies, and also tells a great haunted house story. It's almost Scream-like in the way he sets certain things up, knowing what your expectations will be, then immediately dashes those expectations by the character saying something along the lines of "But of course that seems like we're feeding into the haunted house trope of X." I loved all those moments. Look, this novel isn't pulitzer material or anything, nor does it want to be. But it is a very cleverly written, intelligent take on the genre while being a fast-past awesome story in its own right.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sat May 21, 2022 9:39 am

The Gunslinger- Stephen King. I've decided to read my way through the Dark Tower series. I think I originally read this book when I was 14 or 15 in a single weekend. I loved it then, and I love it now (if not as much now). It's a fairy tale, post-apocalyptic western told in a very un-King-like way, by which I mean- brief and not overly descriptive. It's surreal and dreamlike and told in a mystical way that jumps between the Gunslinger's timeless chase of the Man in Black and his past. Added bonus, after watching the movie (which I did not care for) I now picture the Gunslinger looking like Idris Elba, which is fucking awesome. The one complaint is that the end has too much obscure references and set up for the entire story arc, but that's forgiven since he actually did write this giant, epic series of books. Great read.

Post by **Mike** » Sat May 21, 2022 10:38 am

Ugh. I've been stuck on one book for weeks. It's not awful, but it's not thrilling me. I want to give up on it, but I like the author and feel like it might pay off, but I just keep avoiding it.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Sat May 21, 2022 5:53 pm

Dude. Motsignir's Game is not that bad. Just finish it already.

Post by **Mike** » Fri May 27, 2022 10:24 am

I have been trying to read The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne. I read The Actual Star by the same author and really liked it, so I've been trying to power through this one. Cool setting, cool sci-fi near-future tech, speaking to issues and ideas I like and agree with... but it bores me. I got 25% in and finally realized I care about no one in this story. No one. It's just passionless. I still wonder if maybe it would get better, but I can't invest any more of myself into finding out.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Fri May 27, 2022 10:30 am

The Maidens- Alex Michaelides. I really didn't like this book and then BAM loved it all because of the ending. This is one of those "Dan Brown" genre books. You know what I'm talking about. There's a murder, and then the protagonist discovers a conspiracy that seems to have ties to ancient rites and rituals. I'm not really a fan of the genre, but this one was interesting because it was VERY British and involved Greek mythology and classic Greek tragedies. It's well written and moves at a quick pace (I was never bored) but I kept saying to myself, "Yeah, yeah. I get it. You want me to think it's X who did it, but it's Y." And then the end reveals... I was completely wrong. And I didn't feel cheated by that. It felt deserved. It also made me feel like a real asshole for shitting on it in my mind the whole time. Such a great, great ending. The less said the better. Really liked it. High recommend.