Reading Q2 2022

Reading for me has continued in 2022; I have read 13 more books in the last four months, so really the post's title should be Q2 plus 1 month. No new Shakespeare plays were read. I do keep track of my reading list in a spreadsheet and also in Goodreads.com. There I can add books I want to read and also make reviews of books I have read. On Goodreads, I have set a goal of 30 books in 2022, and I have read 20 already, putting me ahead of my goal.

Here is what I have been reading.

Chronicles of Narnia

There are a total of seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia, published in the period 1950-1956. In Goodreads, I am keeping track as individual books. In my Bucket List of about 200 books I wish to read, this anthology is considered just one of the books. It was #46 in my list.

I am not going to give a review on each of the four books I read to finish off the Chronicles. They are all very similar and have a continuity between books, covering a long period of time in Narnia. All were written by C.S. Lewis. I have included the year it was originally published and the score I gave it.

• 1951 Prince Caspian   2.5 (Good to Great)
• 1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3.0 (Great)
• 1953 The Silver Chair 2.5 (Good to Great)
• 1956 The Last Battle 2.0 (Good)

On average, they all were good reads, but the audience is really children. But I did like them.

Occasionally, I head to Barnes & Noble to peruse what new books are out, and what might be on sale to add to my own library. On one trip, I bought two books from authors that were new to me, Emily St John Mandel and Kendra Elliot.

Emily St. John Mandel

First thing, if you visit the public library to look for Emily, you have to realize that Mandel is her last name and not St. John Mandel. Head to the M section, not S, else you won't find any of her books. The book I bought at B&N was her newest and her sixth novel.

Sea of Tranquility

Published in 2022, it took me less than 24 hours to read this novel. I can be honest, I don't do that very often. I have a tendency to read for about an hour per day. But this novel caught my attention and I just wanted to see how it ended. I give it a score of 4.5 (Excellent to Memorable).

Wikipedia classifies the book as a Speculative Fiction. What is that you may ask: "Speculative fiction is a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nature, or the present universe." Well now you know, but that may be some speculative fiction on my part.

Because it was such a great novel, I looked for more by her at Melbourne Library and found this one.

Station Eleven

Being her fourth novel, Station Eleven was published in 2014. I give the book a score of 4.0 (Excellent)

Station Eleven  takes place in the Great Lakes region before and after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the population. The book won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2015. The novel was well received by critics, with the understated nature of Mandel's writing receiving particular praise. It appeared on several best-of-year lists.

A ten-part television adaptation of the same name premiered on HBO Max in December 2021, but I missed it since I had not heard about the novel. I did watch one episode that was on HBO On-Demand. From my understanding, some major changes were made from the book to the mini-series.

Having now read her 4th and 6th books, I had to read #5.

The Glass Hotel

This novel was published in 2020. I give it a 3.0 (Great).

Not as good as the other two stories, it still is a great read. I like how Mandel intersperses the characters and time line into a mixed up piece (or parts) that comes together in the end. I like that.

Mandel's first three novels were titled Last Night in Montreal (2009), The Singer's Gun (2009), and The Lola Quartet (2012) . Someday, I may read these too.

Kendra Elliot

The second author that I bought at B&N was Kendra Elliot. Again, this book, The Last Sister, was a member's discount item. So I jumped at the challenge. Not normally my style, I have seen her described as a Romantic Suspense writer.

The Last Sister

This novel was published in 2020.     I give it a score of 4.0 (Excellent). Not as fast as the Mandel book, but I finished this one in two days. I loved the story and come to find out, Elliot likes to write books in series. This was book #5 of the Callahan & McClane series. Mason Callahan is an Oregon State Police detective and Ava McClane is an FBI agent. Sometimes, they work cases together. The crimes are very interesting and so are the novels.

Vanished

This was the First book in the Callahan & McClane series. Published in 2014, I give it a score of 3.0 (Great). A child is abducted in Oregon and the FBI are called in. It is where the two main characters first meet. 

Bridged

This was the Second book in the Callahan & McClane series. Published in 2015, I give it a 2.5 (Good to Great). When a US Rep is found dead and naked hanging from a bridge in Portland Oregon, the FBI are called in to help solve the crime. More people are found hanging from other bridges so they think they may have a serial killer. Truly a suspense with some romantic moments.

From my understanding, Elliot writes two books a year. She has 18 at this time. I am not sure how many more I will read. Probably if I find others at the Library, I am not interested in adding to my personal library.

Moonglow

The book Moonglow was written by Michael Chabon and published in 2016. I saw a great review by a friend on Goodreads and I then saw it at B&N on sale. I decided to give it a try and I was glad I did. 

From Wikipedia, "The book chronicles the life of Chabon's grandfather, a WW2 soldier, engineer and rocket enthusiast who marries a troubled Jewish survivor from France and lives a challenging, wandering life in postwar America. Chabon tells the story using a mixture of strict memoir and creative fiction writing."

What was interesting to me were some connections to my life. The story starts out in Pikesville Maryland which happened to be the hometown of my college girlfriend Wendy. I spent a few days there while still in college on my way back to UVM. I enjoyed a party at the local Country Club and then Wendy's dad flew us in his plane from Baltimore to Burlington. Another connection is his grandpa visits Cocoa Beach and drives down to Melbourne, the place I have lived for the last 40 or so years. 

I give the book a score of 3.5 (Great to Excellent).

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

I was a big fan of the series Dexter when it was on Showtime. I found my connection was that the author, born in Miami, graduated from Middlebury College in 1975, the same year I graduated from Middlebury Union High School. I hope Dexter isn't suppose to be based on anyone from my hometown. This first novel on Dexter was published in 2004. I already knew the story and the characters, being a fan of the TV series. I give the book a score of 2.5 (Good to Great). There are seven more books in the series. Not sure if I will read them...

Middlemarch

Finally, a book from my original list, it was #20 in the 100 books I should read. Middlemarch was written by George Eliot in eight volumes in 1871 and 1872. It is a long novel, over 800 pages, and I made it through it all. It presents a wonderful view of provincial life in 1830 England. The real author was Mary Anne Evans, but she had to pen the book as a man.

The book covers many issues including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, medicine, and education. I did not realize that there was a time when medical Doctors were low in the hierarchy of working people. Your pedigree was more important to people in the 1830s. A very interesting story and I give it a 3.5 (Great to Excellent).

This book was #48 of books I have read from my bucket list. I should mention that #47 was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the books within the Chronicles of Narnia.

A review of the first 48 books....the first number is the original list rank, second number is my order of reading plus a thousand...