Jan 2023
Bluebird, Bluebird – Attica Locke
A murder mystery with racial undertones set in Texas. A black Texas Ranger investigates the death of a black lawyer from Chicago in a small town in Texas. Lots of twists and turns and a wonderful set of characters to keep you interested.
February 2023
Artemis – Andy Weir
A mystery set in the first city on the moon, Artemis, follows the adventures of Jazz Bashara, a porter and part time smuggler, as she gets entangled in a high stakes conspiracy to control power on the moon. Not quite as good as the Martian or Project Hail Mary, but still entertaining.
March 2023
Dark Matter – Blake Crouch
Another SciFi book which explores the multi universe theory in which a physicist with a mundane life is kidnapped and transported to a parallel universe where he lives a much more exciting life. The book uses the premise to explore whether the forks we take in our lives and regrets we may have would actually lead to a more meaningful life. The book is an easy read and very engaging while subtly asking philosophical questions that are interesting to ponder over.
April 2023
The Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan
An excellent book written from the perspective of the Silk Roads that the author argues have been fundamental in defining human history. The book covers the time line from the time of the early Mesopotamian civilizations to the Persian, Byzantine and Islamic empires that controlled the Silk Roads all the way up to the current turbulence in the Middle East. Some interesting things I learned : Russia comes from rus or red, that reflected the red hair that many of the Nordic Vikings who invaded and controlled the region. The gold stolen from the Americas by the Spaniards and Portuguese was used to buy spices from the Indian continent, which led to the tremendous wealth of the Moguls that allowed them to build magnificent monuments like the Taj Mahal. The reason spices were so sought after in Europe was for their perceived medicinal and aphrodisiacs. Definitely worth reading, not only for the interesting history but also to get a abetter understanding of the many conflicts that persist today.
June 2022
The Time Has Come – Will Leitch
This seems to have been a book that was conceived from a climax and then worked backwards. It is about a mass shooting at a local drug store and the ensemble of characters that happen to be there during the incident, how they ended up being there and what circumstances in their lives help them deal with the situation.
July 2023
Device Free Weekend – Sean Doolittle
Imagine Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page or Steve Jobs calling their best friends from before they were successful to their private Island and then providing them with the collective choice to either erase everything on the social media networks or if they don’t a number of bombs wired to the company’s headquarters will kill hundreds of people. An interesting, if flimsy premise, resulting in an irritating read.
August 2023
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor – Donald J. Robertson
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote The Meditations, an auto biography as well as a guide book for Stoic Philosophy. I find it very difficult to read the actual philosophical works, so these dumbed down interpretations are perfect to understand what they are trying to say. Worth reading if you want to know more about stoicism which essentially proposes that we should focus on positive emotions and be resilient during adverse situations.
September 2023
Resonance Surge – Nalini Singh
Could not finish this book. I have a hard time with fantasy books with mystical characters that are half human half bear and others who are able to weave themselves into the thoughts and minds of others.
October 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann
A true life mystery about how a huge number of Osage Indians were murdered over several years by opportunistic men working through a racist system. It’s always a bit hard to read how Native Americans were treated and continue to be treated. Truly tragic. A heavy read.
December 2023
It Ends with Us – Colleen Hoover
To change the mood I decided to give romance a chance when I picked this book which has been one of the top books on the NYT best sellers list for much of 2023. This was a very uncomfortable read. I usually read books on my commute in reasonably crowded trains, and this book, which has hot steamy scenes in graphic detail in every other chapter, resulted in several awkward moments. All I can says is, glad it was winter and I had a heavy coat on. Just to be sure I wasn’t being a middle aged prude, I asked my wife to read some of the chapters. She was horrified that I was reading this book in public. I think I’ll wait for the movie.
Wool – Hugh Howey
Back to my comfort zone of reading SciFi novels I picked up this book based on the recommendation of a colleague. Humanity has destroyed the planet and there are about ten thousand who end up in am underground Silo. The class structure within the different layers of the Silo, the secrecy maintained by its administrators, the mysteries about why it was created and when and if it is safe to venture back out, all form an interesting premise and the book doesn’t dissapoint. This is the first book of a trilogy and hopefully I’ll get to the rest next year. I also watched the Apple TV series based on the book, which is also worth watching. Although it follows the outline laid out in the book, the details in the series are different enough to make it a worth seeing.