Note To Self

Note to Self:  Do not read zombie book before going to sleep.  Two nights of disturbed sleep is enough.  I have been reading "The Creepers" by Norman Dixon.  It has a good premise and reasonable post-apocalyptic situation.  However, it is too disturbing and I realized why.  It is too horribly realistic.  I cannot denigrate Mr. Dixon's writing ability but I am not going to finish this book.  

On the other hand, I just finished W. Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge".  I loved it.  It is an older book, and the copy I had was falling apart.  I literally had to hold it together to read it.  Maugham relates the story of a man who was disillusioned by war and sought the meaning of life.  You feel as though Maugham is sitting at a table with you telling the story.  You feel as though you know the people he talks about. He writes in an unhurried way, which I find refreshing.  I wish I had discovered this author earlier.  I thought it was interesting to read about his life.  It helps to see where he is coming from in his writing.  I am going to search for more of his books.

Out of Character

I enjoy reading "The Destroyer" series.  I have been told this is totally out of character for me. In delving into my book horde, I found the "#103 Engines of Destruction".  I love the tongue-in-cheek humor as well as the not always so subtle social commentary.  The premise is that an American is trained by an ancient Korean master to be an assassin.  It is less believable than a science fiction book, but I don't care.  In a subtle way, they make you think.  

Desperate For Something to Read

     On a recent trip to a third world country, we rented a house.  Wi-fi service and electricity were not a constant.  In searching the house for books to read, I found that most of the ones there were written before the 60's.  Okay, there were authors that I had wanted to read so was not destitute.  I read "A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemmingway.  The book was about when he lived in Paris.  Only he was writing it 20 to 30 years later.  It makes you wonder how accurate his memories were.  His descriptions of some of the famous people he knew then-could the intervening years have changed his opinion of them?  Hard to draw the line at what you think of someone 25 years ago.  I enjoyed the book.  His deceptively simple method of writing hit on some things that made me think.  That is a good thing. 
     Another book I have always been curious about was "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen.  The tone of the book struck me as a very rose-colored view of Africa and its people.  She did have a marvelous way of creating pictures with words.  Shame on me, but I did not finish that book.  It was not something I could read a lot of at once and ran out of time.
     There were 4 other books I read but only one of them really stayed in my memory.  That was "Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal" by Conor Grennan. The desperate straits of children during war is heart-rending.  He did an admirable job of describing his frivolous reasons for volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal and the painful journey to the point where he had lost his heart to the orphans and was compelled to help them.  Hmmm-this was about a third world country.  I wonder how often our current circumstances effect what we are drawn to read.

Revenge

"Innocent Little Crimes" by C. S. Lakin was depressing a good deal of the time, but resonated with its message that we all create ourselves by lots of little acts.  Revenge was looked at under a microscope and the fact that once you attain it, what is left?  I did like the preceding situations of the main characters and the after situations.  I hate being left to wonder too much.  You knew some one was going to die but not who or why.  I would recommend it.  I would be curious as to whom the main character reminded you of.

The Plague

Frank Herbert's book "The Plague" left me with "Wow!".  It was very thought-provoking and rather scary in that it could happen.  This was written in the 80's-a time before a lot of the technology he mentions was a reality.  A scientist gets revenge when his wife and children were killed in a bomb set by the IRA in England.  He creates a virus that only kills women.  There are lengthy descriptions of the methods of altering dna.  I could have just taken his word, but true science fiction fans would appreciate the details.  Toward the end I was skipping over that.  For Shame!  And his ongoing explanations of the Irish angst was a little much.  However, the scary part is you could totally see the world's reactions in the way he explained.  And right now there is a meningitis fungal killer caused by contaminated medicine.  I have got to stop reading apocalyptic novels.  It is just too scary.  Oh, did I mention I am reading the book "The Island-Fallen Earth" by Michael Stark?  They do it in parts, doggone it, but the second part is when I really got spooked.  

A Place of Rest

Just finished a Kindle/Amazon book called "A Place of Rest" by Luke Spychalla.  It was a good book that held my interest but seemed to jump from one genera to another.  It started out very futuristic sci-fi then evolved into spiritual/mythical.  The author fluctuated between the future date and past dates.  That was done smoothly, I thought, even though it did not say when it was each time.  The descriptive pictures painted by the author were lovely and you felt a part of them, although sometimes it was over-done and carried on too long.  Those seemed to slow down the narrative and bring you back from being engrossed by the story.  I thought the science descriptions were done well without going into too much detail.  All in all, would I recommend it?  Yes.  I had to read it all to find out the ending.  Was I satisfied with the ending?  Not quite but it did not leave you hanging.