Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

In the San Francisco of the future, robots and humans live together in a not-quite peaceable manner. Many things, such as owning a restaurant, are reserved for humans. Some robots have been working at a restaurant when the owner disappears. They decide they would like to run the restaurant themselves. They manage to work through some technicalities to get "authentic noodle" set up. They rely on a review site to help customers find them. However, they are dependent on good ratings. Somebody later tries to review-bomb them to bring them down. This person is part of the anti-robot group. Eventually, they find them and restore their reputation. However, in the process they learn that they do not depend on the service and take pride in the "automatic noodle" name they have been given by their detractors. The book has a lighthearted approach to working together even with differences.

Let's Not Do That Again: A Novel

Let's Not Do That Again: A Novel by Grant Ginder

The son of a liberal politician is glad to be a university professor that no longer has to work on his mother's campaign. However, his mother still asks him to fix things. In this case, his sister is off in France participating in far-right protests. He ends up in France to bring her home. She finally agrees. However, this ends up being part of a plot from her far-right boyfriend. They want to record her mother saying something offensive to ruin her campaign. The daughter finally gets mom to do it. Then later, she comes to respect her mother and decides to ditch the boyfriend. The boyfriend had dreams of Fox News fame, so he doesn't take no for an answer, and tries to take her phone. With no other options, she impales him with a sword instantly killing him. They then go through the process of hiding the body, and the mom goes on to win the election. Five years later they have still not been caught. The politician in this novel has a real skeleton in her closet (or in this case, the trash chute.) How much else are our politicians hiding today?

Crossing to Safety

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

I enjoyed the first part of the book, but gradually lost interest as it progressed. It is a semi-autobiographical tale of a writer. It starts with experience during the great depression. He is a struggling academic, trying to get any work he can. He takes a yearlong appointment in Madison. To make ends meet, he takes any writing gig he can find. He also befriends another member of the faculty and they and their wives become lifelong friends. We learn the background of the friend - he is a trust-fund boy who shunned his trust to live as a poor academic. He eventually marries the girl he loves. (The family first rejected him on monetary means, but with knowledge his wealth, that argument fell apart.) 

The lives just become more boring as they get older. There are struggles with childbirths, health and other issues. They also experience the war and the "boom" afterwards. The couples look out for and support each other.  Often the friendship is just nudging somebody in the right direction when they want to give up. (e.g. jobs were wide open to teach the boomers after world war 2.)  The ends with death of one of the women from cancer.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

I know I have read this fairly recently, but I couldn't find any record. I checked out the shortest audiobook I could find. I just noticed it was abridged. That does explain why it was so short. (Otherwise, the narrator must be reading really fast.)

In the story, Stephen Dedalus grows up. We see his interactions with his family and his peers. He struggles with his faith and education. Some parts all come together as a classmate encourages him to remain a faithful Catholic for his mother. In his journey, Stephen goes to a carnal extreme, and then back to a religious awakening, before finally going to self imposed exile to pursue his artistic desires.

It feels to be a collection of tightly related autobiographical short stories. I wonder how much Joyce used the fictional construct to explore how he "would have acted" rather than what he actually did. The work is very accessible (as opposed to some of Joyce's other works.)

Yellowface: A Novel

Yellowface: A Novel by R. F. Kuang

The novel is told from the view of a white female (June Hayward) writer who has not had much success. She did get one novel published, but it quickly fade. Meanwhile, her Asian college friend, Athena Liu, has had immense success with her novels. The two of them still keep in touch, meeting just a few times a year. Neither of them has many other close friends. One day the two get together and drink to celebrate selling film rights. They go to the apartment to make pancakes. The Asian friend chokes on the pancake. Despite attempts at the heimlich and calling 911, she dies. At this point, I had thought the novel would turn into a black comedy. However, it made other turns. 

The survivor finds an unpublished manuscript that her friend had been working on. She decides it needs to be published. Then she starts going down the "bad" path. After she makes a number of edits, she feels it is best to publish it under her name, and not as a work by her deceased friend. She makes extensive edits and does a great deal of research. She feels that she has put so much work in that it is effectively her own novel. (We later learn that the Athena had won acclaim for publishing a story based on one of June's experiences, so this may have been a form of payback.)

There are a number of other choices that send things further down the path. She uses her middle name "Song" as her new pen name, thus being a more Asian sounding June Song. She has a picture taken that makes her look more Asian. She refuses to have an Asian diversity reader look at the book, and causes an Asian employee of the publishing house to be fired. She goes through efforts to make sure Athena's early draft notebooks are not published. 

She has a few opportunities to come clean. She could fictionalize her life in a way to confess without confessing. She could admit to the degree she collaborated with Athena and split the royalties. Alas, she chooses to stay the course and live with the lie of sole authorship. She finds herself haunted by the "ghost" of Athena. She ends up confessing to this "ghost" - the fired publishing intern. Now the intern has the big book offer, and she is on the way to the soup kitchen. But, there are other dirty secrets. 

You can't help but feel for June. She had so many opportunities that could have led to better outcomes, but just continued to live the lie. You also realize from her backstory that things are not as clear. June had an unsupportive family. Athena seems to be a better writer, however, she is typecast as an Asian. She can't expand well into other areas. Publishing is very cutthroat and relies a lot on luck. Once successful, it is easy to continue; but success, is the luck of the draw. There is plenty of backstabbing and lying in the seemingly upscale media. After all, isn't fiction just the telling of one big lie?

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs centers around the experience of Gil. He is a humble, likeable man. His parents died in a car crash when he was young. He was raised in humble circumstances by his grandmother. He was then exposed to his great wealth. He never had to work in his life. Instead, he has spent his time volunteering. He was in one fairly long term relationship. However, she left him suddenly for another guy. At one time he wanted to get rid of all his money, but he was talked out of it.

This is all his backstory. The book starts with his. He decided to walk from New York to Arizona. He bought a house there to live. Shortly after, a family moved in next door to the "glass house". After some time, they brought a pie over. They became friends and he became involved in their lives.

The story continues on his experiences with love, friendship and challenges. He really does try to help others to be their best selves. He has few friends, but becomes helpful in their lives. He becomes a secondary father figure to their neighbor boy (even while being friends with the parents). He learns of the bullying that the boy is suffering from and helps end it. Later he even reaches out to the bully when he sees he may be being abused by his father.

One day the drunk driver that killed his parents reaches out. He apologizes and asks for money. Later he passes on details of how the incident occurred. This became too much for Gil. However, Gil did (against the lawyer's advice) give money to the money. This didn't last long as the man soon succumbed to his illness.

Gil has other experiences. He speaks at the funeral from a friend (who died donating a kidney to his wife). He enters into a relationship with a doctor. He helps out a young birder that he has volunteered with. He is just an overall good guy that has some challenges, but doesn't let them get him down.

I do find it interesting I ended up with two "car crash" books in a row. I wonder if I had some references from a book about cars. (Or was it just pure chance.)

Confidence: A Novel

Orson and Ezra meet at a camp for troubled teens. They build up a relationship there, and also run the underground smuggling operation. They are both "scholarship" students who also have a knack for non-violent crime. The engage in schemes to treat a store clerk out of money or return things they have not bought. They do move on to more legitimate jobs (such as working at a hotel), but continue to master the art of parting people from their money.

Orson is the master smooth talker, while Ezra is more of a "brains". They eventually pass themselves off as Stanford students and tech innovators. Their device really does nothing, but they tell people it helps them feel happy. This in turn does make people feel happy. They market it (complete with patents and piggybacking off research.) The company grows and then includes a "retreat" in upstate New York where the rich and famous come for New Age enlightenment. They also expand to other countries and become fabulously rich. Some people do find benefit from the work, even though it is essentially a giant pyramid scheme build on psuedo-science.

Things eventually unravel. They are in the middle of a third-world coup that goes badly. There are accounting irregularities. An early friend who signed away patent rights when he was drunk starts to stalk them. He eventually falls to his death from a flying device as they are taking him away. They end up in prison.

The characters are just grounded enough to not be too over the top. Both Silicon Valley Hollywood are gullible to a well-placed charlatan. Ezra is a bizarre character. He is in love with Orson, yet doesn't seem to be very phased when he goes off with a woman. He is super trusting of his assistant of others, which eventually leads to his downfall. He also fails to pay attention to his eyesight and he ends up practically blind. In spite of all this, he continues to be optimistic and ready for his next scam. How many rich executives are just scam artists in a suit?

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy: A Novel

A Chinese woman came to America as an performer. The world lots interest in her when she stopped performing. However, she continued to live with the trauma of her life. Her descendents also had their own personal trauma. Even when things seemed to be going well, something would arise to cause them to spin into mental distress. 

This novel intersperses the stories of the lives of women across multiple generation in the past and future. There is the performer that met Andrew Jackson, the girl that escaped a San Francisco cholera epidemic, a 1920s boarding school student, a 1940s nurse, a 2014 computer programmer and a woman in the future undergoing an epigenetic therapy. Each had their own degree of joy and sorrow. In the end, the woman of the future is able to envision the small changes that could turn the sorrows into joy. This also helps her to find the joy in life and end the downward spiral that occurs after bed events.

We Spread

A widow artist has a fall. She moves into a small assisted rural living facility. She befriends the other residents. She dies.

The novel delves into her brain in the last part of her life. She has some dementia. She seems to think time is passing in a linear fashion. However, her experiences are jumping around. An injury is "miraculously" healed. A friend is suddenly much older. Suddenly a bunch of paintings have been created.  

The novel is deeply disturbing. Is this how aging happens? Or is this interpreted to be a supernatural book? Getting old and losing memory is very scary. Is it even worth it enduring this "half life" in the old age?

The Swimmers: A Novel

I had initially thought The Swimmers was an essay collection. It had the feel of a writer extolling the virtues of swimming together. Then it pivoted to the story of a woman losing her memory and moving into a home. Only afterwards did I notice the "A Novel" section of it.

The novel starts with the story of swimmers. These are a group of casual swimmers that go at their swimming time each day. They are not accomplished like the fast masters swimmers at another time. They have their unspoken rules and each have their own lap goals. One day a mysterious crack appears in the pool. This leads to fear and eventually a pool shutdown period.

The pivot is then to the life of an older women who is moved to a memory care home. She no longer has her freedom. The stipulations are called out in detail. The family makes sacrifices to put her there. She doesn't want to be there. It feels like a poor way to live out one's life.

China Room: A Novel

China Room explores the culture of India from a century ago together with that of modern India. The China Room is where the wives hang out and try to piece together bits of their arranged marriage husbands as well as the events that are leading to the revolution. Love and sex are both separate things to understand. The past room ties to together those of this day with those of the past as they seek different, yet similar knowledge.

Mother Night: A Novel

Mother Night tells the fictional story of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a "spy" during World War II who spread Nazi propaganda. He was born in America, but lived in Germany. He took advantage of situations given him and ended up aligning with the Nazis. Afterwards, he left and tried to pass himself off as just a regular America. However, Israel wanted to try him as a war criminal. He was able to receive assistance from various neo-Nazi type groups to help escape when things got tough. He didn't seem to like those groups or really sympathize with Nazis. He did feel guilt for what he did and eventually tried to turn himself in. The book presents some interesting challenges in differentiating between right and wrong.

A Children's Bible

A bunch of kids are on vacation with their parents. The parents are distracted with their "things" (like technology, sex, booze, etc.) This leaves the kids to engage on their own. A big storm goes through the area, making things interesting and helping with their adventure.

The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II

A woman takes a job at an off-the-beaten-path bookshop to help get a recommendation for the department store job she really wants. Initially, the owner is reluctant to have her. However, the grow together and the shop begins to succeed. She also becomes enamored with a patron who helps her to gain a love for books. Alas, World War II has broken out and he goes off to war.

There are struggles as she competes with other book shops in the "trendy" part of town as well as the various challenges of war. She helps to endear herself to the community by recommending books to pass the time during the blitz as well as performing public readings. She inherits the shop when the owner died. When the other shops are bombed, she helps them out by selling their books. When her shop is bombed, the community helps her. In spite of the war, the book ends on a happy note. It all makes for a quick, entertaining read.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump the book is quite different from the movie, yet still leaves you with the same feeling. In the book, Forrest constantly describes himself as an idiot. He has a kind heart and stumbles through life. There are many adventures from the book that are missing in the movie. (There are also things such as running and Apple stock that are in the movie, but not the book.)

Gump manages to participate in many parts of US history. He plays fights in Vietnam, befriends President Johnson, protests the war, meets Nixon right after Watergate, goes to China and saves Mao's life. All these things happen more or less by accident. He also flies into space, films a movie scene with Raquel Welch, plays chess with a Yale-educated cannibal in New Guinea, and wrestles professionally. He meets up with Lt. Dan and Jenny multiple times, before they part ways. He starts up a shrimp business and makes a lot of money and even runs for senate before giving it all up to panhandle.

Through the novel, he has a genuine personality. He wants to help his friends. He even becomes could friends with the male ape named Sue. He tells things like it is. He also has to pee. He is willing to be friends with people that have been mean to him. He has a politically incorrect innocence with plenty of language in his thoughts and descriptions that would be offensive to someone. The large number of experiences almost strain believability. However, they are just held together well enough to make them plausible. He is just as likely to stumble into greatness as he is to stumble out of it.

Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel

I admit that I missed the "A novel" portion of the title. I thought this was an oral history of a famous 70s band. I was going to go check Spotify to see if I could find the song. How could I have not known about their hits? I guess 70s era pop could easily have slipped through without me realizing it. Then as I went to Google, I discovered that it was really just a work of fiction. D'oh!

The novel provides an oral history of the Los Angeles band that went on to become Daisy Jones and the Six. Daisy Jones was a starlet born into an artistic family. She was addicted to everything and managed to eventually get a recording contract. The Six were a slightly more established band. They had gradually grown to some local acclaim. Eventually the two would record a song together and then go on toe merge their bands. They produced grammy award winning, chart topping songs. However, things fell apart. Substances and relationships took their toll. There were challenges of marriages while being on the road. There was also the inevitable conflict among two "leaders". The whole story was very much in the vein of other rock oral histories and done well enough to make it appear real.

The Age of Innocence

The well to do in New York run together in narrow social circles. Marriage is important. A lawyer works with people that they know. In this background, some people are getting engaged. However, another woman appears that appears more willing to go against the norms. There is also work on divorce. Feels like a Jane Austen book, set in New York in the early 1900s.

Family Trust

Family Trust seemed so familiar, yet so different. Taiwanese families in Silicon Valley have their unique culture. This is very well portrayed and familiar in the book. The book does take things to a soap opera extreme. I guess that is needed to make a good story. 

A family is in a messy situation. Grandpa is nearing the end of his life. He has been divorced and married to a younger "gold digger" wife. The family thinks he has a few millions and want to make sure they get their share. Meanwhile, other marriages are breaking apart with affairs. Work is unfulfilling. Many of the family members have well paid jobs, but feel like they have not managed to come close to the fortune that they were expecting. 

The characters are well developed. Just when you are ready to toss out one as pure evil, you get their side of the story. Suddenly, you discover that they have good motives and are in fact protecting people from others. The portrayal of the South Bay is spot on. There is a lot of money sloshing around. It often ends up with those that are lucky (or corrupt) rather than those that most deserve it.

Actress

The narrator has a mother who was an actress. The book begins with the death of the actress. Then the narrator flashes around to different times in her life as she explores her life, her sexuality and her family. Then the novel ends.

The Schwa Was Here

The Schwa was here is a "mostly" realistic story of a kid that is never noticed. However, there are a few "magical" bits that go just enough beyond the natural world. "Schwa" got his last name form a relative who died right as he was saying "Schwartz" to the immigration agent. He is often not noticed by most people. (Though some do have greater ability to notice him.) One boy befriends him. They do a number of experiments to test the strength of "not noticing". They find he can do well at basketball because nobody thinks to guard him. He can do all sorts of other "hidden" tricks. However, they try to sneak in to a grumpy old man and steal a dog dish. This is the undoing, as he gets caught. He and his friends are forced to do service of walking a dog. They also are asked to help the man's blind grand daughter. There is some youthful crushes and hurt fields. We find about the curious case of Schwa being abandoned by his mother in a grocery store cart. Schwa also blows the family fortune on a failed attempt to be noticed. Eventually, he disappears to try to find his mom. There is also a surprising way to get an Italian restaurant chef and a family that struggles with cooking skills.
The "extreme" unrealistic elements in the book are obviously over the top, and often played for the humor. The story is just grounded enough to make the characters easily relatable, yet weird enough to keep it interesting.