The Savage Detectives

The Savage Detectives: A Novel by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer

This long novel covers a group of bohemian pseudo-intellectuals that refer to themselves as "visceral realists". There is a character that has a name very similar to the author that is mostly him in real life. We hear about this character, but not much from him directly. We go into detail about the other characters. At first it is a fairly straightforward narrative about the visceral realists in Mexico. Then it turns in to a few first-person vignettes by individual people from periods spanning most of the 20th century across much of the world from Latin America and the United States to Europe, Israel and Africa. The stories somewhat tie together, but are not much of narrative. The end returns to a narrative and a journey to escape a pimp and find a long lost poet, with an ending of them finally finding her, but losing her as she dies in a shootout. The characters are generally artsy miscreants. They do what they want regardless of how it fits in the world. Sex and drugs abound. They dislike the literature "establishment". I don't feel a whole lot of sympathy towards them.

The Bee Sting: A Novel

The Bee Sting: A Novel by Paul Murray

A "small town elite" Irish family is having money problems. They ran the car business in town and were among the wealthy. However, the business is doing poorly and everyone's life is falling apart in different ways. The father, Dickie, never really had his heart in cars. It was his father's business and his brother was supposed to take it over. However, the brother in a car accident, and Dickie ended up coming back from University to marry his brother's girlfriend and run the business. The daughter, Cass,  is ready to go off to college, but is struggling with family's less wealthy state and is not doing well. The son ponders running away and selling videogames. Eventually grandpa comes back and he thinks that will help things. Alas, it is never quite so simple. The book goes on for a long time and explores the history and disfunction the family. Both the daughter and Dickie have environmental concerns. Dickie decides to build a giant bunker with a friend to help survive the apocalypse. Dickie also had a tryst with a former employee who recorded the encounter and is trying to blackmail him. There is plenty going on - perhaps too much. I could almost care for the characters.

La Sombra del Viento

La Sombra del Viento (El cementerio de los libros olvidados nº 1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

In English this is known as The Shadow of the Wind. I tried to listen to it all in Spanish. At 3x speed, I wasn't grasping much. When I moved it down to 1.5x, I could hear and understand most of it. It felt I was understanding most of the words, but not quite grasping the meaning. I have trouble with gothic novels in English and trying a long one in Spanish was too much. A lot dealt with Penelope and her story along with many books and the writers that were discussed. If it were shorter, I would have slowed it down more to try to grasp it better. But with something this long, even 1.5x speed felt much too slow.

Murder at University Park

Murder at University Park: A Novel by Cheryl Miller Dellasega

The protagonist is on the tenure track in a college town. If she does not get tenure, she is toast. Her husband has a nice accounting job in town and there are no other prospects for her locally. Alas, her department head is a jerk and a womanizer. A specific study is his claim to faim. She receives some data which indicates that the study may be flawed. She enlists an IT friend to help trce it down. Then the friend ends up dead. The friend had almost no family and little standing in town. The police seemed to think that she committed suicide by consuming some drugs. The protagonist really wanted to find out more, but she was mostly on her own in the investigation.

Sometime later, she is at a party with the department head and another high-ranking guy in the department. They are among the last to leave. As they are leaving, the very drunk department head sexually assaults her. She and the high-ranking guy push back and the head falls down. He seems injured but implores them not to call ambulance. High-ranking guy encourages them to comply and they leave. The next day, department head shows up dead in the snow and high ranking guy becomes interim department head.

Later, interim head drives with protagonist out to a remote vet. On the way back, he confesses to having killed IT girl by sneaking some of the medications his psychiatrist wife has access to (and replacing them with look-alike pills so nobody would notice.) He was the one that planted the fake data and just wanted protagonist to report it rather than going to IT girl. The dead department head had stolen his work and he had plotted this revenge. Just in time, the dog in the back lunged, the guy swerved and crashed into an oncoming vehicle and he died instantly, with her coming to many days later in the hospital.

After all the events, a woman is taken from another department to head up the department. The protagonist's husband gets a job in Seattle. The kids are nervous, but the boy sees that there is a space museum there. (What? Museum of Flight has an exhibit, but that is pushing it.) She interview for a position at University of Washington. It seems that good has won out.

Then there is a final bit that the woman who ended up heading the department at the end had whacked the original department head with a terra-cotta warrior to kill him. This makes this seemingly "good person" the one that had actually committed murder in cold blood. So much for the good ending. So the moral is university people are vicious killers, especially the women? The protagonist had also witnessed this killing and never spoke up about it. Even in the 1990s, this is extremely heartless. This all seemed to bring down the story a notch.

The Romans: A 2,000-Year History

The Romans: A 2,000-Year History by Edward J. Watts

The author Roman empire had a start date around 800 BC to the fourth crusade in the 1200s AD. He argues that Rome had a continues political system for the 2000 years, even as it moved the base from Rome to Constantinople. The "Byzantines" considered themselves to be Romans, with only us in the future retroactively adding different names. However, he sacking of Constantinople put an end to this continuous government. Despite going through many different rulers and types of government, a common history could be traced. The changes were incremental rather than revolutionary. 

The book is not poorly written, but it is too long. The coverage is focussed on the times that we have the most data. It rockets through the early history, then slows down as it goes through more popular events. IT would be better served by shortening the narrative to have a large scale overview.

The Last September

The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen

Things are violently changing in Ireland. There is a revolution going on. However, the English aristocracy still has their social activities to attend to. They ponder going elsewhere, but like where they are. In the end, things turn violent, with death and the final official end. It has a "Jane Austen in the time of war" feel.

The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020

The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner

The author grew up in San Francisco and went to see concerts and things there. She rode around in a motorcycle. She was involved with labor and other figures. It was not super interesting.

Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI

Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI by Anil Ananthaswamy

This book explores the math behind AI. It is rather straightforward, with a lot of vectors. However, it requires some close attention to grok. It seemed to be an interesting topic, bur I didn't feel I came out better understanding it after completing the book.

Land Between the Rivers: A 5,000-Year History of Iraq

Land Between the Rivers: A 5,000-Year History of Iraq by Bartle Bull

This long history of Iraq spent too much time drifting off to wider events in the area. There is a huge description of major religious movements, such as Islam. While that may be nice for context, Iraq was not really involved until it was conquered by Islamic groups. I would have rather read a more concise book of history as it impacted Iraq. 

What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready

What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready by Frederik Pferdt

The author worked as an innovation specialist for Google. The book explores ways we can have a growth mindset and innovate. We should not reject ideas immediately. We should be willing to change our activities and experiences. Instead of looking immediately to "how we can fix this problem", we can instead look at "how can we make this worse". When we disagree try to find a way to agree and explore that. It is fairly normal discussion. The tone makes it feel like it should be read while barefoot in a dark room with incense burning.

The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization

The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization by Paul Strathern

Florence played a key role in the Renaissance. It was democratic. The Medici's were able to find religious loopholes to lead a banking empire. Artists, scientists and inventors were present. The book catalogs all in a time series, but is little too long and rambly.

Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men

Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft

The book focuses on husbands that abuse their wives. The author takes a line-in-the-sand approach that only men can be abusers. However, he then says that with gays and lesbians it can be different. This is quite a bit of waffling. It is likely in response to some past psychological believes that abused women "asked for it." In reality, many of the systems of abuse described could happen to anyone. There are reasons that people can abuse and reasons while they are susceptible to abuse. Historically, the males were the aggressors. As society has changed, the patterns have also changed. The strict line given in this book weakens the argument.

The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Dennis Washburn and short version translated by Sumatsu Kencho

The short translation was one of the first, made over a century ago. The Washburn translation was more recent and much longer. I finished the short one and started the Washburn one, but never finished. Washburn had a lot of "about this text" at the start. The story is of a woman that hangs out with the rulers. It did not keep my interest.

The Rainbow: A Novel

The Rainbow: A Novel by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Haydn Trowell

People are living in post-war Japan. A family comes to terms with different relationships and a father with multiple mothers. A train and rainbow play an important role. The book p=pretty much happens, with out much to draw me in.

Old School Indian

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis

I originally thought this book would be about Asian Indians. It didn't take long to realize it was about Native American Indians. The main character has some rare disease. He has had various life struggles and goes back to the reservation to meet with his ancestral identity. There were various anecdotes about Indian life and identity. It rambled on a until it reached some sort of conclusion.

Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians

Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians by Tara Isabella Burton

People have been famous for being famous. "Social identity" is something carefully crafted to appeal to the others. Why do we care? Alas, I'm not sure. The book spends a while talking about "dandys" and people that have some particular public persona. People do seem to care a lot about about the Kardashians, so there is a market there somewhere, just not for me.

Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile

Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile by Fiona Maddocks

Rachmaninoff left Russia for the US. He didn't have much interaction with fellow Russian musician Leonard Bernstein. Russians wanted to claim him back later. He did stuff and had family. Honestly, his life in the US did not seem very interesting. 

Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies

Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

Fathers play some role in nurturing their young. This book explores that by grabbing facts from all across humanity and the animal kingdom. It appears to be reaching for any example it can find, rather than having a coherent narrative. There is still debate over the physical vs. social reasons for men and woman's role in caring for children. There doesn't seem to be any strong conclusion here.

New Deal Law and Order: How the War on Crime Built the Modern Liberal State

New Deal Law and Order: How the War on Crime Built the Modern Liberal State by Anthony Gregory

Crime was really bad in the United States before World War II. Kidnappings, shoot outs and other incidents were common. Part of the New Deal helped encourage law and order. Policies could be somewhat contradictory and reflected the interests of those in charge. Alcohol was legalized to reduce crime. Marijuana was criminalized to reduce crime. Kidnapping penalties were increased. White collar crime was also attacked. Crime fighting also had to deal with political coalitions. Blacks wanted lynching to stop, while white southerners wanted to continue to lynch. The FBI and national crime fighting grew in importance, while states still maintained their jurisdictions. The book covered a lot of crime fighting, but struggled to have a common thesis.

Deep River

Deep River: A Novel by Karl Marlantes

This book explores the history of a few related Finnish people who came to the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the 20th century. They were primarily attracted by the logging industry. It was a tough industry with hard work and serious chances of injury and death. Men were attracted to the income with some looking at the chance of going on their own. One woman was attracted with the possibility of organizing a large union to help the loggers. The book slowly goes through their experiences and struggles with the local impacts of widespread events like wards, union activities and prohibition. At times it has interludes describing events instead of having the characters live through them. Even so, the book is quite long and it can be difficult to tell the characters apart. The historical settings can almost be identified, but even parts of that have been fictionalized. The female union organizer gets a bit too much coverage, while I would like to see more coverage of the evolution of the society from rough-and-tumble to legitimate towns.