Severance

Severance by Ling Ma, 291 pages

When Shen Fever hits, Candace Chen is middle management, serving as the liaison between publishers and book manufacturers in China. She has no relatives in the U.S. (and only distant ones in China), she's just broken up with her boyfriend of five years, she has no place to go. So she keeps going to work. Even when everyone else in New York City leaves (or has become fevered), she keeps going to the office. Eventually, the lifestyle becomes unsustainable and Candace finally leaves town, hooking up with a small band of survivors heading west to "The Facility" where they can live safely in the long-term.

Bouncing back and forth in time from before and after the pandemic, this post-apocalyptic novel is a study in routine, in humanity, in solitude, and in self-sufficiency. This was an odd book, and I'll be musing on it for some time to come. I'd recommend it for fans of Station Eleven and The Dog Stars.

Forever and a day

Forever and a day: a James Bond novel / Anthony Horowitz, read by Matthew Goode, 288 pgs.

007 is dead.  This is the start of the book.  The 00 program is new, in fact, just 3 agents and now one is dead.  This introduces a new agent, just promoted.  His name is James Bond.  He wants to keep the 007 designation because the man who was killed was his friend.  His first assignment is get to the bottom of that murder.  We meet James Bond.  He is debonair but young.  He has confidence but is still figuring things out.  He doesn't have a lot of experience.  This book is a prequel "Casino Royale." Ian Fleming's first Bond book.  Horowitz grabs the mantle and does a good job.  Sure, there are a few things that make no sense for the time...at least twice there are comments about smoking being a dirty habit.  Did anyone say that in the 50's?  In the end, Bond solves the mystery, gets the woman, and kills a few people.  I doubt that can be dubbed a spoiler.  The narration is well done by Matthew Goode.  Great for Bond fans.

David and Goliath

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants / Malcolm Gladwell, read by the author, 305 p.

Could dyslexia be an advantage?  How about childhood trauma? or religious persecution?  David and Goliath is an exploration of the ways in which humans fail to calculate where true power lies, as the Philistines did in the Bible story of the title.  Using the narrative of a preteen girls' basketball team of inexperienced players whose coach, from India, knew nothing about the game, Gladwell explores what really constitutes strength and weakness.  In the case of the basketball team, by analyzing the game and weighing up the skill sets of his players, the coach brought his rag-tag team to the national championships by exploiting the weaknesses of their more skilled opponents through the continuous and energetic use of the full-court press. 

Gladwell goes on tell us about those who succeeded in other arenas not by playing better but by playing harder or differently: a pediatric leukemia specialist whose horrible childhood enabled him to take great risks in pursuit of new treatments, dyslexic men who went on to become successful Hollywood moguls and Wall Street brokers, and a stubborn French Huguenot who fearlessly defied the Nazis.  In each case, Gladwell's unique perspective and narrative gifts keep the listener on the edge of her seat. 

The Immortalists

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin  346 pp.

This book was not what I expected but I enjoyed it. The four Gold siblings, two boys and two girls, sneak out to visit a fortune teller and are told when they will die. Even though they think what they were told is all phony, those revelations go on to affect their lives. Only one was given the prediction of a long life. Simon, the youngest and sister Klara escape to the west coast for the party culture and show business, Daniel, the elder brother, becomes an army doctor, while older sister, Varya, does longevity research. The book explores the question "Are we the victims or the perpetrators of our own fate?" I listened to the downloadable audiobook which is well read by Maggie Hoffman.

Rule of the Bone

Rule of the Bone, Russell Banks, 390 pages

I originally read Russell Banks's Rule of the Bone in high school, and at the time thought the protagonist Chapman, AKA The Bone, was underwhelming and I did not understand why he seemed so blank at the start of the book. Rereading it now, fifteen years and a lot of life experience later, I can understand the "blank" qualities he exhibited, that he just seemed to follow along with the events that were occurring around, and how he never really seemed to understand right from wrong. His lack of world and life experiences that are positive contrast strongly with what he feels should be right, and that is a lot of where his internal conflicts come from. He goes from homeless, drug addled teen and criminal, to a young man who finally understands that life outlooks come from role models and experiences, and even negative experiences can create positive changes in one's life. His sometimes rambling and unreliable nature as a narrator are showcased in the way that Banks writes, in train of thought sentences that expand and contract based upon the actions of Chappie. While an enjoyable read, some of the topics Banks hits upon (child abuse, drug abuse, murder) may be a bit much for some readers.

Artificial Condition

Artificial Condition, Martha Wells, 160 pages

Artificial Condition is the second entry in Martha Wells's Murderbot series, and it is just as wonderful as the first novella. Her prose is quick and snappy, easy to read and enjoy in a sitting or two. Artificial Condition follows Murderbot after it has left the team it was paired with in All Systems Red. Stowing away on a research transport, it hires itself out as a private security agent in order to get to the bottom of the events that led it to hack its governing module, a piece of hardware that should force it to follow human directives and be unaware of the world around it in any capacity beyond that of a security drone. The research transport has an AI that quickly bonds with Murderbot, much to Murderbot's occasional displeasure. The only downside to Wells's work so far has been that I found the ending, much like the first, to come too abruptly. I felt like the novella could use another twenty to thirty pages to wind down. That said, I already have the third one on request from our library.

A Trick of the Light

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (2011) 339 pages

Another author and series new to me are Louise Penny and her 7th installment in the Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series. (Apparently I never start with the first book in a series.) Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team investigate the murder of a woman found in the garden of Clara Morrow, a woman who'd just celebrated her first art show just shy of age 50. Three Pines, a small Canadian village, has a variety of residents and visitors who came to the party at Clara's home after her art show opening, which provides an ample number of suspects. It turns out that the murdered woman, Lillian, had been best friend to Clara in her youth, until Lillian's jealousy over Clara's artistic skills had turned toxic. The murder investigation is in itself fascinating. However, a backstory into a traumatic event in the not-so-long-ago past of Inspector Gamache and his second-in-command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, is also compelling. The character development rings so true. Penny's writing style forced me to slow down just a bit in order to appreciate her craft: those numerous times when a turn-of-phrase makes me wish I had such skills. A perfect read on a cold winter day...

Unleashed

Unleashed by David Rosenfelt (2013) 308 pages

In Rosenfelt's eleventh installment of the Andy Carpenter mystery series, Andy (a criminal defense attorney) finds himself reluctantly taking on Denise Price as a client. She's been accused of poisoning her wealthy husband with botulism shortly before he flew his airplane, causing him to crash after becoming paralyzed by the toxin mid-flight. Meanwhile, a foreign terrorist plot is quietly taking shape as ex-military artillery experts are recruited to bring down prominent targets simultaneously in several cities across the U.S. As Andy's team investigates, looking for evidence that Denise is innocent of murder, some business associates of her husband are found dead. When the team follows the money to see where it leads, they begin to see hints that something big is being planned.

Andy's chapters are written in an engaging first-person narrative, while we're kept informed of the terrorist plot development by a third-person narrator. Unleashed is a fast read, with humor, suspense and some surprising twists.

Clutter Busting

Clutter Busting by Brooks Palmer (2009) 219 pages

Clutter Busting is yet another good book on letting go of all the things that one does not need. Palmer emphasizes enjoying now and not living in the past. He tells us we don't need to have more things to be better. Indeed, it's all the stuff we have that keeps us from being happy. To this point, Palmer shares interactions he has had with several clients.

Palmer delves into the psychological aspects of why we collect stuff as much as he gets into making decisions on what to get rid of. There's a nice five-page "Summary of Clutter-Busting Principles" at the end of the book that sums up his methods nicely.

My Sister, the Serial Killer

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, 226 pages

Korede is the ultimate put-upon sibling. Korede has always taken care of Ayoola, her beautiful and spoiled little sister, even when Ayoola kills her boyfriend and calls her big sister to help clean up. After this happens for the third time, Korede's misgivings about her sister begin to weigh on her, especially when Ayoola sets her sights on Korede's handsome coworker. This darkly funny and haunting debut novel explores the inexplicable bond between sisters, creating a book that almost everyone with a younger sibling can identify with (even if our little sisters aren't murderers). This was an excellent book, and I look forward to reading more of Braithwaite's books in the future.