I don’t know how I found this book, but somehow while freezing on the train platform in Tokyo on New Year’s morning, I located this little gem. I started to read it on my phone, as I stood huddled in a train car trying to not get elbowed by too many hungover locals on their way to see family. I’m told by a coworker that it’s a tradition in Japan. First you get hammered on New Year’s Eve and then travel to see your family […]
Awesome Info but Attitude goes Bad
I was at a conference in Cincinnati a while back, and there was an independent bookstore with a café a few doors down from the hotel. I felt something of an obligation to buy something there, even though I needed to be mindful of being able to zip my carry-on bag closed. I had no idea what I was going to buy, but I saw a display table of recommended reads, and picked the most interesting looking book off it. After reading it, I’m in […]
We’ll always be troubled by how things are—that’s how it stands with the difficult gift of consciousness.
By the time this came off the wait-list at the library, I had completely forgotten why my friend had recommended it to me, other than the obvious, which is that I love me some Ian McEwan. And what’s interesting to report now that I’ve read Nutshell is that I may have grown out of my McEwan faze, because this checked a LOT of my boxes but ultimately didn’t blow me out of the water. Which is not to say that this isn’t a beautiful book, […]
Elvis is the best
Shop owner Sarah is cleaning out a hoarder house for appraisal and sale when she (well, her cat, Elvis) finds a body in the kitchen. The rest of the story details how Sarah and her friends try to solve the murder. Does that sound like I’m bored? I was bored and I don’t know why. It’s a perfectly capable cozy mystery, but I just didn’t care about the mystery. I guess because I figured out the who and why during the first few chapters, so […]