![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Forgot to post my books at the end of April, so here's two month's worth. Mysteries, spec-fic, a few oddities, and some really good reads:
Ian McEwan, Solar: A deadly satire of a self-indulgent Nobel Prize winner who cheats on wives and colleagues remorselessly.
Elizabeth Peters, A River in the Sky: Amanda Peabody in fine form, taking on German spies and British fools and knaves in 1910 Palestine. Ramses is kidnapped! Emerson is heroic! Amanda wields the umbrella of doom!
Michael Jecks, The Last Templar: Not the one the TV show was based on, this is a fairly boring mystery set in Devon, England in the 13th century. It's a place and time I really like but Jecks doesn't bring place or people or even plot to life. I should go back and study to see how and where it fails, but it doesn't interest me enough to do that.
Elizabeth George, This Body of Death: George just keeps getting better. Killing off the lovely Helen was definitely a good move, because Lynley has become a little less insufferable, and Havers a lot stronger. Another woman, this time a potential boss for Lynley, is introduced in this book. I've always thought George did better with the one-off characters involved in the grim events of each book than with the regulars, and this one definitely does well with a thatcher in New Forest, boys long ago convicted of murdering another child, a woman who loves too much and another who loves too little, and a plot that doesn't give itself away too soon, though by the end makes excellent sense.
David Richo, How to Be an Adult in Relationships: I don't usually go for self-help books, but this one looks at relationships from a Buddhist angle, and I'm finding that interesting. How mindfulness works to make you aware of your own issues and your partner's, without a three-easy-steps solution.
Kate Mosse, The Labyrinth: A modern day woman is linked to a 13th century mystic search for the Grail...still, it's better written and better researched than DaVinci Code. The Grail part is the weakest and least interesting, but the historical part, the crusade against the Cathars in medieval Langue D'Oc, is fascinating. The main character is only a little bit of a Mary Sue. Not as good as The Historian, though much better than Dan Brown's books.
William Kreml, Relativity and the Natural Left: How different cognitive styles approach law, politics and philosophy.
Josephine Tey, Daughter of Time (reread): The first time I read this, I was mostly interested in the argument against Richard III as the murderer of the little princes in the tower (set as inverstigation by a 1940's Scotland Yard investigator). This time, I was struck by her ignoring the lack of evidence on some key points (why Richard didn't produce the princes or investigate their non-appearance--brought up in the mock trial of RIII by Supremes Ginsberg, Rehnquist, and Breyer) and most of all by her tone, which at this point has become irritatingly self-congratulatory.
Kim Stanley Robinison, Galileo's Dream: A great portrait of Galileo and his unfortunate daughters (now I'll have to read Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel), and a typical well-imagined idea of future life on the moons of Jupiter, which turn out to have some great sentient life-form in the oceans and possibly on the planet--linked by time-travel, which is not quite so clearly explained. But both past and future are used to point up a current problem: the antagonism between science and religion. Like all the Robinson books I've read, fascinating, with a great central character, and the development of a great plot that....just sort of dissolves in the end. Not sure why he doesn't carry through to nice ending.
Laura Gould, Cats Are Not Peas: A Calico History of Genetics--Gould adopts a male calico cat and sets out to understand the genetics that produced him, leading us through a mini-history of the science of genetics, interspersed with charming cat stories. She explains difficult science clearly, and makes me appreciate my tortie all the more.
Marcia Muller, Locked In--Muller's Sharon McCone is my second favorite female PI (next to VI Warshawshi), partly because she lives and works in the SF Bay Area, one of my part-time homes, and partly because she's not a lone wolf, but continues to accumulate a rich and loving family through blood, adoption, marriage, friendship, and work. In this book, McCone lies speechless and paralyzed while the family cooperate to find her killer and heal her.
Tony Hays, The Killing Way-- A mystery set in an Arthurian Britain, much like the historically believable one created by Bernard Cornwell. Very agreeable, but not as gripping as Cornwell himself (though thankfully not as gory, either).
Jody Picoult, The Tenth Circle--even though it includes parts of a well-drawn graphic novel about Dante's Inferno and is partly set among the Inuit, I still couldn't remember that I'd read this until I was a quarter of the way into it, and then didn't really want to read more.
A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book--One of the best books I've read in a long time, but I am a great Byatt fan. This covers my favorite time in history, the early 20th century, with Fabian Socialism, Art Nouveau and Jugendstil, anarchism, feminism, etc., etc. alive and vibrant. Many, many characters from several interlocked families--no real central figure, unless it's the mother and writer Olive, but insights into many varied lives and much of the art, politics, and cultural change, and the War that destroyed so many of them.
HH Dalai Lama, An Open Heart--In process. A discussion of some of the basic beliefs of Buddhism, and of the practice of meditation.
Bessie Swann Britton, Remembering Kingstree--Photographs and memories of my grandmother's hometown, including many of my family, especially my grandfather's livery stable and his exploits as a horseman.
Scott Warnock, Teaching Writing Online--Just started, but looks promising. Good points about how to teach, as well as technology.
Ian McEwan, Solar: A deadly satire of a self-indulgent Nobel Prize winner who cheats on wives and colleagues remorselessly.
Elizabeth Peters, A River in the Sky: Amanda Peabody in fine form, taking on German spies and British fools and knaves in 1910 Palestine. Ramses is kidnapped! Emerson is heroic! Amanda wields the umbrella of doom!
Michael Jecks, The Last Templar: Not the one the TV show was based on, this is a fairly boring mystery set in Devon, England in the 13th century. It's a place and time I really like but Jecks doesn't bring place or people or even plot to life. I should go back and study to see how and where it fails, but it doesn't interest me enough to do that.
Elizabeth George, This Body of Death: George just keeps getting better. Killing off the lovely Helen was definitely a good move, because Lynley has become a little less insufferable, and Havers a lot stronger. Another woman, this time a potential boss for Lynley, is introduced in this book. I've always thought George did better with the one-off characters involved in the grim events of each book than with the regulars, and this one definitely does well with a thatcher in New Forest, boys long ago convicted of murdering another child, a woman who loves too much and another who loves too little, and a plot that doesn't give itself away too soon, though by the end makes excellent sense.
David Richo, How to Be an Adult in Relationships: I don't usually go for self-help books, but this one looks at relationships from a Buddhist angle, and I'm finding that interesting. How mindfulness works to make you aware of your own issues and your partner's, without a three-easy-steps solution.
Kate Mosse, The Labyrinth: A modern day woman is linked to a 13th century mystic search for the Grail...still, it's better written and better researched than DaVinci Code. The Grail part is the weakest and least interesting, but the historical part, the crusade against the Cathars in medieval Langue D'Oc, is fascinating. The main character is only a little bit of a Mary Sue. Not as good as The Historian, though much better than Dan Brown's books.
William Kreml, Relativity and the Natural Left: How different cognitive styles approach law, politics and philosophy.
Josephine Tey, Daughter of Time (reread): The first time I read this, I was mostly interested in the argument against Richard III as the murderer of the little princes in the tower (set as inverstigation by a 1940's Scotland Yard investigator). This time, I was struck by her ignoring the lack of evidence on some key points (why Richard didn't produce the princes or investigate their non-appearance--brought up in the mock trial of RIII by Supremes Ginsberg, Rehnquist, and Breyer) and most of all by her tone, which at this point has become irritatingly self-congratulatory.
Kim Stanley Robinison, Galileo's Dream: A great portrait of Galileo and his unfortunate daughters (now I'll have to read Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel), and a typical well-imagined idea of future life on the moons of Jupiter, which turn out to have some great sentient life-form in the oceans and possibly on the planet--linked by time-travel, which is not quite so clearly explained. But both past and future are used to point up a current problem: the antagonism between science and religion. Like all the Robinson books I've read, fascinating, with a great central character, and the development of a great plot that....just sort of dissolves in the end. Not sure why he doesn't carry through to nice ending.
Laura Gould, Cats Are Not Peas: A Calico History of Genetics--Gould adopts a male calico cat and sets out to understand the genetics that produced him, leading us through a mini-history of the science of genetics, interspersed with charming cat stories. She explains difficult science clearly, and makes me appreciate my tortie all the more.
Marcia Muller, Locked In--Muller's Sharon McCone is my second favorite female PI (next to VI Warshawshi), partly because she lives and works in the SF Bay Area, one of my part-time homes, and partly because she's not a lone wolf, but continues to accumulate a rich and loving family through blood, adoption, marriage, friendship, and work. In this book, McCone lies speechless and paralyzed while the family cooperate to find her killer and heal her.
Tony Hays, The Killing Way-- A mystery set in an Arthurian Britain, much like the historically believable one created by Bernard Cornwell. Very agreeable, but not as gripping as Cornwell himself (though thankfully not as gory, either).
Jody Picoult, The Tenth Circle--even though it includes parts of a well-drawn graphic novel about Dante's Inferno and is partly set among the Inuit, I still couldn't remember that I'd read this until I was a quarter of the way into it, and then didn't really want to read more.
A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book--One of the best books I've read in a long time, but I am a great Byatt fan. This covers my favorite time in history, the early 20th century, with Fabian Socialism, Art Nouveau and Jugendstil, anarchism, feminism, etc., etc. alive and vibrant. Many, many characters from several interlocked families--no real central figure, unless it's the mother and writer Olive, but insights into many varied lives and much of the art, politics, and cultural change, and the War that destroyed so many of them.
HH Dalai Lama, An Open Heart--In process. A discussion of some of the basic beliefs of Buddhism, and of the practice of meditation.
Bessie Swann Britton, Remembering Kingstree--Photographs and memories of my grandmother's hometown, including many of my family, especially my grandfather's livery stable and his exploits as a horseman.
Scott Warnock, Teaching Writing Online--Just started, but looks promising. Good points about how to teach, as well as technology.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
[hugs]
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Also that Teaching Writing Online looks interesting... thx.
From:
no subject
I actually like George better with less of the upper-class twits and more Havers, but this does spend some time on Lynley--not too much, though.
From:
no subject
I have the Byatt on my TBR pile; I'll have upgrade it to active status after your review.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Laura Gould, Cats Are Not Peas: A Calico History of Genetics--Gould adopts a male calico cat and sets out to understand the genetics that produced him, leading us through a mini-history of the science of genetics, interspersed with charming cat stories. She explains difficult science clearly, and makes me appreciate my tortie all the more.
so funny to see this after the link i just put up at my page for you to look at. this sounds like a super fun book!
i would also be interested in any other good books you find on teaching online. i'm definitely going to let the college teach me how to set a class up.
From:
no subject
The Warnock book is the first good online teaching book I've read, but he cites some others. I'll definitely let you know what I find out. A lot of what he says applies to all online teaching, not just writing.
I thought the Mars books were great, and also Years of Rice and Salt, but found the endings of both of those kind of unsatisfying, too. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing?
From:
no subject
If you find any books less focused on teaching online writing, I'd love to get a title from you!
eesh. that sounds TERRIBLE. like he did not have the energy to finish well. how odd!!!!
From:
no subject
YRS was a really good book in spite of that, but he also used two speculative premises, not just one, and weaving them together made it all very difficult to manage, I'm sure.